in an inferior sense.

Heracleon, commenting on St. John i. 3, insists that 'all things' can
but signify this perishable world and the things that are therein: not
essences of a loftier nature. Accordingly, after the words 'and without
Him was not anything made,' he ventures to interpolate this clause,--'of
the things that are in the world and in the creation[462].' True, that
the Evangelist had declared with unmistakable emphasis, 'and without Him
was not anything' (literally, 'was not even one thing') 'made that was
made.' But instead of 'not even one thing,' the Valentinian Gnostics
appear to have written 'nothing[463]'; and the concluding clause 'that
was made,' because he found it simply unmanageable, Valentinus boldly
severed from its context, making it the beginning of a fresh sentence.
With the Gnostics, ver. 4 is found to have begun thus,--'What was made
in Him was life.'

Of the change of [Greek: oude hen] into [Greek: ouden][464] traces
survive in many of the Fathers[465]: but [Symbol: Aleph] and D are the
only Uncial MSS. which are known to retain that corrupt reading.--The
uncouth sentence which follows ([Greek: ho gegonen en auto zoe en]),
singular to relate, was generally tolerated, became established in many
quarters, and meets us still at every step. It was evidently put forward
so perseveringly by the Gnostics, with whom it was a kind of article of
the faith, that the orthodox at last became too familiar with it.
Epiphanius, though he condemns it, once employs it[466]. Occurring first
in a fragment of Valentinus[467]: next, in the Commentary of
Heracleon[468]: after that, in the pages of Theodotus the Gnostic (A.D.
192)[469]: then, in an exposure by Hippolytus of the tenets of the
Naaeseni[470], (a subsection of the same school);--the baseness of its
origin at least is undeniable. But inasmuch as the words may be made to
bear a loyal interpretation, the heretical construction of St. John i. 3
was endured by the Church for full 200 years. Clemens Alex, is observed
thrice to adopt it[471]: Origen[472] and Eusebius[473] fall into it
repeatedly. It is found in Codd. [Symbol: Aleph]CD: apparently in Cod.
A, where it fills one line exactly. Cyril comments largely on it[474].
But as fresh heresies arose which the depraved text seemed to favour,
the Church bestirred herself and remonstrated. It suited the Arians and
the Macedonians[475], who insisted that the Holy Ghost is a creature.
The former were refuted