ns from our Gospels?

The doubt as to the authorship of the quotations applies chiefly
to those which occur in the 'Refutation of the Heresies' by
Hippolytus. This writer begins his account of the Basilidian
tenets by saying, 'Let us see here how Basilides along with
Isidore and his crew belie Matthias,' [Endnote 191:1] &c. He goes
on using for the most part the singular [Greek: phaesin], but
sometimes inserting the plural [Greek: kat' autous]. Accordingly,
it has been urged that quotations which are referred to the head
of the school really belong to his later followers, and the
attempt has further been made to prove that the doctrines
described in this section of the work of Hippolytus are later in
their general character than those attributed to Basilides
himself. This latter argument is very fine drawn, and will not
bear any substantial weight. It is, however, probably true that a
confusion is sometimes found between the 'eponymus,' as it were,
of a school and his followers. Whether that has been the case here
is a question that we have not sufficient data for deciding
positively. The presumption is against it, but it must be admitted
to be possible. It seems a forced and unnatural position to
suppose that the disciples would go to one set of authorities and
the master to another, and equally unnatural to think that a later
critic, like Hippolytus, would confine himself to the works of
these disciples and that in none of the passages in which
quotations are introduced he has gone to the fountain head. We may
decline to dogmatise; but probability is in favour of the
supposition that some at least of the quotations given by
Hippolytus come directly from Basilides.

Some of the quotations discussed in 'Supernatural Religion' are
expressly assigned to the school of Basilides. Thus Clement of
Alexandria, in stating the opinion which this school held on the
subject of marriage, says that they referred to our Lord's saying,
'All men cannot receive this,' &c.

_Strom._ iii. I. 1.

[Greek: Ou pantes chorousi ton logon touton, eisi gar eunouchoi oi
men ek genetaes oi de ex anankaes.]

_Matt._ xix. 11, 12.

[Greek: Ou pantes chorousi ton logon touton, all' ois dedotai,
eisin gar eunouchoi oitines ek kiolias maetros egennaethaesan
outos, kai eisin eunouchoi oitines eunouchisthaesan hupo ton
anthropon, k.t.l.]

The reference of this to St. Matthew is far from being so
'preposterous' [Endnote 192:1] as the critic imag