The philosophical system of the Gnostics also led them to adopt false views respecting the body of Christ.  As, according to their theory, the Messiah appeared to deliver men from the bondage of evil matter, they could not consistently acknowledge that He himself inhabited an earthly tabernacle.  They refused to admit that our Lord was born of a human parent; and, as they asserted that He had a body only in appearance, or that His visible form as man was in reality a phantom, they were at length known by the title of Docetae. [204:1] The Apostle John repeatedly attests the folly and the danger of such speculations.  “The Word,” says he, “was made flesh and dwelt among us. [204:2] ...  Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. [204:3] ...  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life ... declare we unto you. [204:4] ... Many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” [204:5]

Reasoning from the principle that evil is inherent in matter, the Gnostics believed the union of the soul and the body to be a calamity.  According to their views the spiritual being can never attain the perfection of which he is susceptible so long as he remains connected with his present corporeal organization.  Hence they rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.  When Paul asks the Corinthians—­“How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” [204:6]—­he alludes to the Gnostic denial of this article of the Christian theology.  He also refers to the same circumstance when he denounces the “profane and vain babblings” of those who “concerning the truth” had erred, “saying that the resurrection is past already.” [204:7] These heretics, it would appear, maintained that an introduction to their Gnosis, or knowledge, was the only genuine deliverance from the dominion of death; and argued accordingly that, in the case of those who had been initiated into the mysteries of their system, the resurrection was “past already.”

The ancient Christian writers concur in stating that Simon, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, [205:1] and commonly called Simon Magus, was the father of the sects of the Gnostics. [205:2] He was a Samaritan by birth, and after the rebuke he received from Peter, [205:3] he is reported to have withdrawn from the Church, and to have concocted a theology of his own, into which he imported some elements borrowed from Christianity.  At a subsequent period he travelled to Rome, where he attracted attention by the novelty of his creed, and the boldness of his pretensions.  We are told that, prior to his baptism by Philip, he “had used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one;” [205:4] and subsequently he seems to have