Archon
Archontiker refers to a Gnostic group in the Palestine of the 4th century. The main source of tradition is a Christian polemic against heretical groups from the 4th century, the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis .
In this case, the presentation is based at least in part on the author's personal experience. Epiphanius namely reported initially by a presbyter named Peter, originally at Eleutheropolis and in Jerusalem lived and by Bishop Aetios with the spell had been occupied. After that he disappeared for some time, then returned and was now accused by Epiphanius and put under the banishing curse again. This Peter was to a certain extent the arch heresiarch from whom a certain Eutactus had contracted heresy like a contagion. After Aëtios had been condemned as an Arian in 359 and Epiphanius was no longer in Eleutheropolis after 367, the contact between Epiphanius and the Archons can be dated to the period between 359 and 367.
Epiphanius says of the archonists that they abhor baptism . It is so that the archons , the Gnostic rulers of the planets and their head, the Sabaoth enthroned in the 8th heaven , who was identified with the God of the Old Testament, are hostile to the soul aspiring to the true deity. Not only that, the soul serves the archons to a certain extent as food and can only escape this metaphysical “being eaten” through Gnostic knowledge. With baptism, however, the soul is subject to the Sabaoth and can no longer ascend.
According to Epiphanius, several apocryphal writings were in circulation among archonists or were written by archonists. He names a “Great Harmony” and a “Small Harmony” as central works, as well as other writings that are based in particular on the likewise apocryphal ascension of Isaiah . In it the doctrine of the archons, their spheres and the angels subordinate to them is given as Ogdoade (eighth) or as Hebdomad (sevenhood) corresponding to the planets. None of this has survived (at least not under the titles mentioned).
As far as the overall importance of the archonists is concerned, it seems to have been a relatively small group that was only widespread in Palestine and perhaps also (as Epiphanius presumed) in Syria , and of whose writings nothing has survived. On the other hand, it is one of the few cases in which the antignostic polemics of a Christian author is based not only on hearsay and traditional scriptures, but on personal experience and contact.
swell
- Epiphanius of Salamis Panarion 40, 45.2, 78.3; Anacoratus 40
- Theodoret haereticarum fabularum compendium 1.11
- John of Damascus de haeresibus 40
literature
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Panarion 40:
- Text: Karl Holl, Jürgen Dummer: Epiphanius: Panarion haer. 34-64. Academy Vlg., Berlin 1980
- English translation: Panarion. Translated by Frank Williams. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies Vol. 63. Brill, Leiden 2009, ISBN 90-04-17017-0 , pp. 283-291
- Klaus Koschorke: The polemics of the Gnostics against church Christianity. Nag Hammadi studies 12. Brill, Leiden 1978, ISBN 90-04-05709-9 , p. 146
- Allen Paul Wikgren, David Edward Aune: Studies in New Testament and early Christian literature: essays in honor of Allen P. Wikgren. Supplements to Novum Testamentum Vol. 33. Brill, Leiden 1972, ISBN 90-04-03504-4
Web links
- Archontics - Article by Benedict Guldner in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907)