Another peculiarity was that, whilst professing to receive portions of the New Testament, such as the Gospel of St. Luke and the Epistles of St. Paul, he rejected every portion of them which he imagined to militate against his hypothesis(602).
Marcion, who, having been originally a Christian, and the son of a Bishop, had been excommunicated for seduction(603), appears to have harmonized with Saturninus in professing extraordinary strictness of habits(604). Hence some of the followers of both formed themselves into a separate sect, called by a name ({ ~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}) of which perhaps PURITANS is the best English Translation. TATIAN, who had been a sincere Christian, was formerly a disciple of Justin, and had written a treatise to set forth the folly of the heathen religion(605), became a leading man amongst them: for they adopted an opinion of his that Adam was not saved. Their most distinguishing characteristics however were, their abstinence from marriage, and from animal food(606).
Marcion taught that Cain and the Sodomites, &c. were saved by believing in Jesus(607). Others went further, and declared that they were agents of the Supreme Power, to oppose the God of this world. They likewise took Judas under their patronage, and declare that he betrayed Jesus, not from treachery or a love of gain, but because, being better instructed than the rest, he was aware that the death of Jesus would be the means of dissolving and breaking up the whole work of the Creator, whom they regarded as in rebellion against the Great Original(608).
Section V. The Barbeliots, Ophites, And Sethites.
Those of whom I have hitherto spoken have been acknowledged disciples, more or less directly, of Simon Magus. But there were others, who owned no connexion with him, and yet taught a system more or less like his. The BARBELIOTS, for instance, imagined one Supreme Being, and with him another Being of the female sex, but remaining always a virgin, and never growing old, whom they call Barbelo, Ennoea (Thought), &c.