Section 2
ABSTRACT OF PRELIMINARY
OBSERVATIONS.
Gnosticism, a recurrence to ancient principles, i.
Primitive religious belief, ii.—v. ; Chaldsea, vi. vii. ; ancient Persia, viii. —x.
Zoroastrian modification, xi. ; not essentially Dualistic, xii. xiii. ; Zoroastrian Word, xiii. xiv.; evil relative, and absolute, xiv. xv. ; certain analogies with a truer theology accounted for, xvi. ; Persian system neither Polytheistic nor idolatrous, x vii.
Egyptian system, soon degenerated into Polytheism, xviii. xix. ; Platonic analo- . gies, xx.—xxiii. ; Valentin ian analogies, xxiii. —xxvi. ; Egypt the source of Greek mythology and of Greek civilization, xxvi. —xxviii.
Greek philosophy eclectic in its principle, xxviii. ; Pythagoras, Plato, Thales, Democritus, reverted to Egypt, xxx.—xxxiv.
Greek physical philosophy, xxxv.—xl. ; supplied certain elements of Gnostic terminology, xl.
Philosophical yvwerit, xl. xli. ; Alexandrian eclecticism as involving Pythagorean views, and Prse-Platonic notions, xiii. —xiv. ; variously modified by Platouiciam, xlvi. —lii. ; also the incorporation of Oriental modes of thought,
Hi. ; principal eclectic innovators, liii.
Jewish Cabbala, compared with the Zend Avesta, liv. lv.
* Philo Judaeus, lv. ; religious element added to philosophy, lvi.
Recapitulation, lvii. —lix. yyuait, philosophical, oriental, and mystical, lx.—lxii. ; all combined in Philo, lxiii. ; and to be dealt with as a complex idea, lxiv.
Simon Magus, the first Gnostic teacher who adopted a Christology in his Cabbalistico-Zoroastrian theosophy, lxv. lxvi. ; his own exponent, lxvii. ; Valentinian rationale indicated, lxviii.
Menander, of the same Samaritan school, lxix.
Nicolaitans taught the same theory of creation, lxx.
As did Cerinthus ; it may be traced through Philo to Zoroaster, lxxi. ; rationale of Docetic theory, lxxii. ; other notions of Cerinthus, ibid.
Ebionites, neither Jews nor Christians, lxxiii. lxxiv.
Carpocrates, widely syncretic, lxxv. ; denied that there was any moral quality in human actions, lxxvi. ; his peculiar metensomatosis of the soul, lxxvii. ; Epiphanes, ibid.