Dialogues — Source paragraphs and footnotes

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

ἔρανος}}—a meal to which every one contributes a share; a club feast, or pic-nic, and ἐρανιστὴς is in classical Greek a contributor to such a feast. But ἐρανίζω = (α) “contribute,” and (β) “beg for contributions.” So ἐρανιστὴς is by some rendered “beggar.” The idea of Theodoretus seems rather that his worse character is a picker up of various scraps of heresy from different quarters, and this explanation of the name is borne out by his use of the cognate verb ἐρανιζομαι in reference to the selection by Audæus of some of the doctrines of Manes in Hist. iv. 9.

Editorial footnote · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Cerdo, the gnostic teacher of the middle of the 2nd c., and placed by Theodoretus (Hær. Fab. i. 24) in the reign of Antoninus, a.d. 138–161, is described by the Ps. Tertullian as denying that Christ came in the substance of the flesh, but in appearance only. According to Marcion the greater follower of Cerdo, Christ was not born at all, but came down from heaven to Capernaum a.d. 29, his body being an appearance and his death an illusion. Simon Magus, the “father of all heretics” of Irenæus (adv. Hær. pr. in lib. iii.) is apparently quoted rather as the supposed originator of Gnosticism, than from any definite knowledge of his tenets.

Editorial footnote · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, editorial note cite_note-5 · Original source

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Valentinus (taught at Rome c. 140) the arch-gnostic is identified with the doctrine of emanation. Bardesanes (Bar Daisan), who lived some thirty years later at Edessa, was a great leader of the Syrian school of oriental dualism. For mention of his son Harmonius vide Hist. p. 129.

Editorial footnote · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Polymorphus = Multiform.

Editorial footnote · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source

1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Condemned at Constantinople in 381.

Editorial footnote · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, editorial note cite_note-7 · Original source

Date uncertain | Theodoret of Cyrus

I call my work “Eranistes, or Polymorphus,” for, after getting together from many unhappy sources their baleful doctrines, they produce their patchwork and incongruous conceit. For to call our Lord Christ God only is the way of Simon, of Cerdo, of Marcion, and of others who share this abominable opinion.

Complete source paragraph · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, source paragraph 10 · Original source

Date uncertain | Theodoret of Cyrus

The acknowledgment of His birth from a Virgin, but coupled with the assertion that this birth was merely a process of transition, and that God the Word took nothing of the Virgin’s nature, is stolen from Valentinus and Bardesanes and the adherents of their fables.

Complete source paragraph · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, source paragraph 11 · Original source

Date uncertain | Theodoret of Cyrus

To call the godhead and the manhood of the Lord Christ one nature is the error filched from the follies of Apollinarius.

Complete source paragraph · Dialogues, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Prologue, source paragraph 12 · Original source