The Roman author Tertullian seems to have obtained much pleasure from decrying Marcion, after he became involved with a woman named Philumena, notorious for her claim that she had been possessed by an angel, and that this angel used her as a conduit for revelations which Apelles then made public.
After leaving Rome he went to Alexandria, where he continued to deny the Canonical Gospel versions of Christ's nativity, insisting, in a modified form of Marcionism, that Christ was born in the normal mortal manner, and was a man of flesh; a heresy to Christians, but then a heresy to all human beings when it is known what Apelles thought of human flesh: he regarded it as something that had been created specifically for the use of those souls in the power of the "fiery prince of evil".
Apelles also wrote a book which he entitled "Syllogisms" - the word means "reasonings" - which was probably intended as a response to, or an argument with, Marcion's "Antitheses", a dialectical debate in which the protagonists were the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament" (you will enjoy my link on this occasion, both for what it says, but especially for the fact that it comes in the form of a dialectical debate of its own. The harmony of form and content!).
Little is known of his later years, except that he died in Rome towards the end of the 2nd century CE. His followers, known as the "Apelliacos" or "Apelleasts", also disappeared from history around that time, though they remain in memory thanks to the man most dedicated to their oblivion, Tertullian, who published an angry tract against them which has sadly not survived.
Ambrose of Milan, writing in the 4th century CE, also directed much acerbic bile towards them in his "De Paradiso" ("On the Garden of Eden"), but whether he was simply quoting Tertullian for a useful example of heresy, or whether the sect was still in existence, is not knowable.
Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment