Chapter XX.—The apocryphal and spurious Scriptures of the Marcosians, with
passages of the Gospels which they pervert.
1. Besides the above [misrepresentations], they adduce an unspeakable number of apo-
cryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds
of foolish men, and of such as are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth. Among other things,
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they bring forward that false and wicked story263 which relates that our Lord, when He was
a boy learning His letters, on the teacher saying to Him, as is usual, “Pronounce Alpha,”
replied [as He was bid], “Alpha.” But when, again, the teacher bade Him say, “Beta,” the
Lord replied, “Do thou first tell me what Alpha is, and then I will tell thee what Beta is.”
This they expound as meaning that He alone knew the Unknown, which He revealed under
its type Alpha.
2. Some passages, also, which occur in the Gospels, receive from them a colouring of
the same kind, such as the answer which He gave His mother when He was twelve years of
age: “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?”264 Thus, they say, He an-
nounced to them the Father of whom they were ignorant. On this account, also, He sent
forth the disciples to the twelve tribes, that they might proclaim to them the unknown God.
And to the person who said to Him, “Good Master,”265 He confessed that God who is truly
good, saying, “Why callest thou Me good: there is One who is good, the Father in the heav-
ens;”266 and they assert that in this passage the Æons receive the name of heavens. Moreover,
by His not replying to those who said to Him, “By what power doest Thou this?”267 but by
a question on His own side, put them to utter confusion; by His thus not replying, according
to their interpretation, He showed the unutterable nature of the Father. Moreover, when
He said, “I have often desired to hear one of these words, and I had no one who could utter
it,”268 they maintain, that by this expression “one” He set forth the one true God whom
they knew not. Further, when, as He drew nigh to Jerusalem, He wept over it and said, “If
thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace, but
they are hidden from thee,”269 by this word “hidden” He showed the abstruse nature of
Bythus. And again, when He said, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
263 [From the Protevangel of Thomas. Compare the curious work of Dominic Deodati, De Christo Græce lo-
quente, p. 95. London, 1843.]
264 Luke ii. 49.
265 Mark x. 17.
266 Luke xviii. 18.
267 Matt. xxi. 23.
268 Taken from some apocryphal writing.
269 Luke xix. 42, loosely quoted.
Chapter XX.—The apocryphal and spurious Scriptures of the Marcosians, with passages of the Gospels which they pervert.
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Chapter XX.—The apocryphal and spurious Scriptures of the Marcosians, with…