Chapter V.—The
Naasseni.
But since it so appears expedient, let us begin
first from the public worshippers of the serpent. The Naasseni
call the first principle of the universe a Man, and that the same also
is a Son of Man; and they divide this
man
into three
portions. For they say one part of him is rational, and another
psychical, but a third earthly. And they style him Adamas, and
suppose that the knowledge
appertaining
to him is
the
originating cause of the capacity of knowing God. And
the
Naassene asserts
that all these rational, and
psychical, and earthly qualities have
retired into Jesus, and that through Him these three substances
simultaneously have spoken unto the three genera of the universe.
These allege that there are three kinds
of
existence
—angelic, psychical,
and
earthly; and that
there are three churches—angelic, psychical,
and
earthly;
and that the names for these
are
—chosen, called,
and
captive. These are the heads of doctrine advanced by
them, as far as one may briefly comprehend them. They affirm that
James, the brother of the Lord, delivered these tenets to Mariamne,
by such a statement
belying both.