The Archontics , or Archontici , were a Gnostic sect that existed in Palestine , Syria and Armenia , who arose towards the mid 4th century CE . They were thus called from the Greek word ἄρχοντες , "principalities", or "rulers", by reason that they held the world to have been created and ruled by malevolent Archons .
34-464: Epiphanius of Salamis seems to be the earliest Christian writer who speaks of this sect. He relates that a young priest in Palestine named Peter had been charged with heresy, deposed from the office of the priesthood and expelled by Bishop Aëtius . He fled into a part of Arabia , where there was a center of Ebionitism . In his old age, he returned to Palestine, where he lived the life of an anchorite in
68-600: A monk in Egypt, where he was educated and came into contact with Valentinian groups . He returned to Roman Palestine around 333, when he was still a young man, and he founded a monastery at Ad nearby, which is often mentioned in the polemics of Jerome with Rufinus and John, Bishop of Jerusalem . He was ordained a priest, and lived and studied as superior of the monastery in Ad that he founded for thirty years and gained much skill and knowledge in that position. In that position he gained
102-399: A cave near Jerusalem and attracted followers by the austerity of his life and the practice of extreme poverty . Shortly before the death of Constantius II (337–361), Eutactus , coming from Egypt , visited the anchorite Peter and was imbued by him with the doctrines of the sect and carried them into Greater and Lesser Armenia. The Archontics held that there were Seven Heavens , ruled by
136-541: A jewelry store, a dental clinic and a public swimming pool. The kibbutz is surrounded by antiquities from the 1st century BC – 2nd-century CE town of Beit Guvrin. the Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park is a popular tourist destination which includes Hellenistic -period caves with wall paintings, columbaria , a Roman city and ruins of a Crusader castle. The area is surrounded by many Islamic shrines ( maqam ) like Nabi Jibrin, Sheikh Mahmoud, etc., but
170-602: A quarrel about their sister, whom both loved. "They say," records Epiphanius, "that the soul is the food of the Archons and Powers without which they cannot live, because she is of the dew from above and gives them strength. When she has become imbued with knowledge ... she ascends to heaven and gives a defence before each Power and thus mounts beyond them to the upper Mother and Father of the All whence she came down into this world." "Some of them", continues Epiphanius, "pretend to fast after
204-554: A result of this persecution, four of these monks, the so-called Tall Brothers, fled to Palestine, and then travelled to Constantinople, seeking support and spreading the controversy. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople , gave the monks shelter. Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria saw his chance to use this event to bring down his enemy Chrysostom : in 402 he summoned a council in Constantinople, and invited those supportive of his anti-Origenist views. Epiphanius, by this time nearly 80,
238-524: Is found in Shatberd ms 1141 along with Physiologus and De Gemmis ). The first section discusses the canon of the Old Testament and its versions, the second of measures and weights, and the third, the geography of Palestine . The texts appear not to have been given a polish but consist of rough notes and sketches, as Allen A. Shaw, a modern commentator, concluded; nevertheless Epiphanius' work on metrology
272-545: Is the Ancoratus (the well anchored man), which includes arguments against Arianism and the teachings of Origen . Aside from the polemics by which he is known, Epiphanius wrote a work of biblical antiquarianism , called, for one of its sections, On Weights and Measures (περὶ μέτρων καὶ στάθμων). It was composed in Constantinople for a Persian priest, in 392, and survives in Syriac, Armenian, and Georgian translations (this last
306-467: Is the Panarion (from Latin panarium , "bread basket" < panis , "bread"), also known as Adversus Haereses , "Against Heresies", presented as a book of antidotes for those bitten by the serpent of heresy. Written between 374 and 377, it forms a handbook for dealing with the arguments of heretics. It lists, and refutes, 80 heresies , some of which are not described in any other surviving documents from
340-525: The 4th century . He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches . He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy . He is best known for composing the Panarion , a compendium of eighty heresies , which included also pagan religions and philosophical systems. There has been much controversy over how many of the quotations attributed to him by
374-525: The Byzantine Iconoclasts were actually by him. Regardless of this, he was clearly strongly against some contemporary uses of images in the church. Epiphanius was either born into a Romaniote Christian family or became a Christian in his youth. Either way, he was a Romaniote Jew who was born in the small settlement of Besanduk, near Eleutheropolis (modern-day Beit Guvrin in Israel), and lived as
SECTION 10
#1732852824016408-552: The Demiurge surrounded by Archons begotten by him, who are the jailers of the souls . In the eighth heaven dwells the supreme Mother of light. The king or tyrant of the seventh heaven is Sabaoth , the god of the Jews , who is the father of the Devil . The Devil, dwelling upon earth, rebelled against his father, and opposed him in all things, and by Eve begot Cain and Abel . Cain slew Abel in
442-523: The ancient city of Beit Guvrin , for which it is named. Located 14 kilometres east of Kiryat Gat , it falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council . In 2022 it had a population of 450. Kibbutz Beit Guvrin was founded in 1949, on the eve of Shavuot , by former Palmach members after the Palestinian Arab residents of Bayt Jibrin fled the military assault by Jewish forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The first residents were members of
476-568: The "Yetzivim" youth group, which emigrated from Turkey in 1945, and the "Bnei Horin" youth group, which emigrated from Romania in 1946. The kibbutz was established on the fields to the north of the Arab village of Beit Jibrin , which sat atop what was once a Hebrew town known as Beit Guvrin that was later renamed Eleutheropolis, "the city of free men" by the Romans in 200 CE. After the Arab Muslim conquest of
510-583: The 60 Christian heresies, from assorted gnostics to the various trinitarian heresies of the fourth century, closing with the Collyridians and Messalians . While Epiphanius often let his zeal come before facts – he admits on one occasion that he writes against the Origenists-based only on hearsay ( Panarion , Epiphanius 71) – the Panarion is a valuable source of information on the Christian Church of
544-471: The Bishop of Jerusalem , John II , to condemn his writings. He urged John to be careful of the "offence" of images in the churches. He noted that when travelling in Palestine he went into a church to pray and saw a curtain with an image of Christ or a saint which he tore down. He told Bishop John that such images were "opposed ... to our religion" (see below). This event sowed the seeds of conflict which erupted in
578-516: The Church of Christ and of those Christians who are committed to your charge. Beware of Palladius of Galatia —a man once dear to me, but who now sorely needs God's pity—for he preaches and teaches the heresy of Origen; and see to it that he does not seduce any of those who are intrusted to your keeping into the perverse ways of his erroneous doctrine. I pray that you may fare well in the Lord. His best-known book
612-604: The ability to speak in several languages, including Hebrew , Syriac , Egyptian , Greek , and Latin , and was called by Jerome on that account Pentaglossos ("Five tongued"). His reputation for learning prompted his nomination and consecration as Bishop of Salamis, Cyprus , in 365 or 367, a post which he held until his death. He was also the Metropolitan of the Church of Cyprus . He served as bishop for nearly forty years, as well as travelled widely to combat differing beliefs. He
646-519: The animal's characteristics, how it produces its poison, and how to protect oneself from the animal's bite or poison. For example, he describes his enemy Origen as "a toad noisy from too much moisture which keeps croaking louder and louder." He compares the Gnostics to a particularly dreaded snake "with no fangs." The Ebionites , a Christian sect that followed Jewish law, were described by Epiphanius as "a monstrosity with many shapes, who practically formed
680-528: The dispute between Rufinus and John against Jerome and Epiphanius. Epiphanius fuelled this conflict by ordaining a priest for Jerome's monastery at Bethlehem, thus trespassing on John's jurisdiction. This dispute continued during the 390s, in particular in the literary works by Rufinus and Jerome attacking one another. In 399, the dispute took on another dimension, when the Bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus , who had initially supported John , changed his views and started persecuting Origenist monks in Egypt. As
714-626: The fact that I have been seeking a curtain of the best quality to give to them instead of the former one, and thought it right to send to Cyprus for one. I have now sent the best that I could find, and I beg that you will order the presbyter of the place to take the curtain which I have sent from the hands of the Reader, and that you will afterwards give directions that curtains of the other sort—opposed as they are to our religion—shall not be hung up in any church of Christ. A man of your uprightness should be careful to remove an occasion of offence unworthy alike of
SECTION 20
#1732852824016748-610: The fourth century. It is also an important source regarding the early Jewish gospels such as the Gospel according to the Hebrews circulating among the Ebionites and the Nazarenes , as well as the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus. One unique feature of the Panarion is in the way that Epiphanius compares the various heretics to different poisonous beasts, going so far as to describe in detail
782-574: The late fifth or sixth century and are not connected with Epiphanius of Salamis by modern scholars. Such was Epiphanius's reputation for learning that the Physiologus , the principal source of medieval bestiaries, came to be widely falsely attributed to him. Beit Guvrin, Israel Beit Guvrin ( Hebrew : בֵּית גֻּבְרִין , 'lit. 'House of Men' in Aramaic ) is a kibbutz in the Lakhish region , west of
816-524: The manner of the monks, deceiving the simple, and boast of having renounced all property." Theodoret reports that it was the practice of some to pour oil and water on the heads of the dead , thereby rendering them invisible to the Archons and withdrawing them from their power. However, Epiphanius states that "they condemn baptism and reject the participation of the Holy Mysteries as something introduced by
850-533: The often quoted incident of the curtain, which unlike other passages attributed to Epiphanius and quoted by the Iconoclasts, is accepted as authentic by modern scholars: 9. Moreover, I have heard that certain persons have this grievance against me: When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I
884-510: The region , it became known in Arabic as Beit Jibrin. It was later the site of a Frankish (Crusader) colony, Bethgibelin, before being reconquered by the Muslims and returning to its Arabic moniker, Beit Jibrin. The economy was formerly based on chicken coops, cowsheds and field crops. BG Technologies is located on the kibbutz. Other kibbutz-run businesses are a banquet hall, a clothing and gift store,
918-532: The snake-like shape of the mythical many-headed Hydra in himself." In all, Epiphanius describes fifty animals, usually one per sect. Another feature of the Panarion is the access its earlier sections provide to lost works, notably Justin Martyr's work on heresies, the Greek of Irenaeus' Against Heresies , and Hippolytus' Syntagma . The Panarion was first translated into English in 1987 and 1990. His earliest known work
952-486: The teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person. They, however, murmured, and said that if I made up my mind to tear it, it was only fair that I should give them another curtain in its place. As soon as I heard this, I promised that I would give one, and said that I would send it at once. Since then there has been some little delay, due to
986-529: The time. Epiphanius begins with the 'four mothers' of pre-Christian heresy – 'barbarism', 'Scythism', 'Hellenism' and 'Judaism' – and then addresses the 16 pre-Christian heresies that have flowed from them: four philosophical schools (Stoics, Platonists, Pythagoreans and Epicureans), and 12 Jewish sects. There then follows an interlude, telling of the Incarnation of the Word. After this, Epiphanius embarks on his account of
1020-560: The tyrant Sabaoth, and teach other fables full of impiety." Their apocryphal books included: Gelbert (2023) suggests that in the Ginza Rabba ( Right Ginza 9.1), the Mandaic term nakriṭia is actually a reference to the Archontics. Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( Ancient Greek : Ἐπιφάνιος ; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus , at the end of
1054-561: Was important in the history of measurement . Another work, On the Twelve Gems ( De Gemmis ), survives in a number of fragments, the most complete of which is the Georgian. The letter written by Epiphanius to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, in 394 and preserved in Jerome's translation, is discussed above. The collection of homilies traditionally ascribed to a "Saint Epiphanius, bishop" are dated in
Archontics - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-664: Was one of those summoned, and began the journey to Constantinople. However, when he realised he was being used as a tool by Theophilus against Chrysostom, who had given refuge to the monks persecuted by Theophilus and who were appealing to the emperor, Epiphanius started back to Salamis, only to die on the way home in 403. Letter LI in Jerome's letters gives Jerome's Latin translation, made at Epiphanius' request, of his letter, originally in Greek from c. 394, "From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem" (see previous section for wider context). The final section covers
1122-461: Was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ’s church contrary to
1156-749: Was present at a synod in Antioch (376) where the Trinitarian questions were debated against the heresy of Apollinarianism . He upheld the position of Bishop Paulinus , who had the support of Rome, over that of Meletius of Antioch , who was supported by the Eastern Churches. In 382 he was present at the Council of Rome , again upholding the cause of Paulinus. During a visit to Palestine in 394 or 395, while preaching in Jerusalem, he attacked Origen 's followers and urged
#15984