The Marcosians were a

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

sect founded by

Marcus Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl ...

Lyon, France Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, and active in southern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

from the second to the fourth century. Women held special status in the Marcosian communities; they were regarded as

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

esses and participated in administering the

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

ic rites.

Irenaeus Irenaeus ( or ; ; ) was a Greeks, Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christianity, Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by oppos ...

accused Marcus of seducing his followers and scornfully writes (''

Adversus Haereses ''Adversus Haereses'' is the commonly used Latin title for a book by the Church Father Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in Gaul (now France). It is also often cited as ''Against Heresies'' or ''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis''. I ...

'' I. 13, 4) that the whole sect was an affair of "silly women". The Marcosian system was a variation of

Valentinus Valentinus is a Roman masculine given name derived from the Latin word "valens" meaning "healthy, strong". It may refer to: People Churchmen *Pope Valentine (died 827) *Saint Valentine, 3rd century Christian saint *Valentinus (Gnostic) (died c. 1 ...

's: it retained the 30

Aeon The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...

s, but it called them "Greatnesses" and gave them numerical values. It kept the myth of the fall of Sophia but called it a "Divine Deficiency". Unique to it was the adaptation of the

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

number theory (

isopsephy In numerology, isopsephy (stressed on the ''I'' and the ''E''; , ) or isopsephism is the practice of adding up the Greek numerals, number values of the letters in a word to form a single number. The total number is then used as a metaphorical brid ...

) to Gnosticism.

System

Marcus held his knowledge to be the product of a divine revelation of the body of the Anthropos:

Episemon

In the account of his system given by Irenaeus (I. xiv.), copied by Hippolytus (''Ref''. vi. 45) and by Epiphanius (''Haer''. 34), τὸ ἐπίσημον is repeatedly used to denote the numerical character for six; the number 6 is ὁ ἐπίσημος ἀριθμός; the six-lettered name Ἰησοῦς is τὸ ἐπίσημον ὄνομα, etc., language perplexing to the old Latin translator, who renders the word by "insignis."

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

(''Quaest. ad Marin''. Mai, ''Nov. Pat. Bib''. iv. 299), copied by

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

or Pseudo-Jerome (''Brev. in Psal''. 77, vii. 198, ed. Vallars.), suggested, as a way of reconciling the difference between the evangelists as to whether the Lord suffered at the third or the sixth hour, that a transcriber's error may have arisen from the likeness of Gamma and the Episemon, ''i.e.'' apparently Γ and Ϝ. The source whence all modern writers have learned their use of the word ''episemon'' is

Joseph Justus Scaliger Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a Franco-Italian Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Je ...

's essay on the origin of the Ionic letters. He quoted from

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

, ''de Indigitatione'', a statement of an old grammarian, who mentioned that the Greeks denote numbers by letters and for this purpose join to the letters of their alphabet three other characters:

''Prima est ς quae dicitur Episimon et est nota numeri VI.; secunda est G quae vocatur kophe et valet in numero XC.; tertia est ϡ quae dicitur enneacosia quia valent DCCCC.''

The true account of these three characters seems to be that though the Phoenicians themselves did not use the letters of their alphabet for purposes of numeration, the Greeks, who derived their alphabet from them, did so in the 5th century BC; that their alphabet then still contained two of the Phoenician letters which in the next century were disused, viz., βαῦ in the sixth place, and κόππα, the Roman Q, coming after π; that these letters then took their natural place in the system of numeration, which was afterwards made complete by the addition, at the end of the letters of the alphabet, of another character to denote 900, which from its shape was at a considerably later period called σανπῖ.

Six

With regard to the properties of the number six, Marcus and Clement were in part indebted to

Philo of Alexandria Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian Je ...

, who explained (''De Op. Mund''. 3) that it is the first perfect number, ''i.e.'', according to

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

's definition, one equal to the sum of the numbers 1, 2, 3, which divide it without remainder (

Aug Aug or AUG may refer to: *Agricultural University of Georgia, Tbilisi * Applicative Universal Grammar, a linguistic theory * Aug., the abbreviation of August, the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar *Aug, the IMA symbol for the pyro ...

. '' de Civ. Dei'', xi. 30), the second such number being 28, which is the sum of its divisors 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 (''Orig. t.'' 28 in ''S. Joann''.); that being 2 × 3 it arises from the marriage of a male and female, ''i.e.'', odd and even number; that there are six directions of motion, forward, backward, right, left, up, down; etc. Marcus observed that * the world was made in ''six'' days * in the new dispensation Jesus after ''six'' days went up to the Mount of Transfiguration * by the appearance of

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

and

Elijah Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...

, the number of His company became ''six'' * he suffered at the ''sixth'' hour of the ''sixth'' day of the week and concludes that this number has the power not only of production, but of regeneration. As seven is the number of the heavens, and eight is the supercelestial ogdoad, so six denotes the material creation (see also

Heracleon Heracleon was a Gnostic who flourished about AD 175, probably in the south of Italy. He is the author of the earliest known commentary on a book that would eventually be included in the Christian New Testament with his commentary on the Gosp ...

); and, in particular, the material body through which the Saviour revealed Himself to men's senses, and conveyed to them that enlightenment of their ignorance in which redemption consisted. Clement, if not Marcus, finds the Saviour's higher nature represented by the episemon, which is not taken into account by one who looks merely at the order of the letters in the alphabet, but reveals itself in the system of numeration. Irenaeus points out that the mysteries of Marcus all depend on the employment of the modern form of the Greek alphabet, and that they disappear when a

Semitic alphabet Alphabetic writingwhere letters generally correspond to individual sounds in a language (phonemes), as opposed to having symbols for syllables or wordswas likely invented once in human history. The Proto-Sinaitic script emerged during the 2nd m ...

is used. He shows also (ii. 24) that it is possible to say as fine things about the properties of the number 5 as about those of the numbers which are glorified by Marcus.

Practices

The Marcosians had formulae and sacraments of redemption. Others held that these applications could not procure spiritual redemption—only by knowledge (''gnosis'') could such redemption be effected.

Baptism and Trinitarian Baptismal Formula

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

wrote that the Marcosians baptised people " to the name of the unknown father of the universe, into truth, the mother of all things, into the one that descended upon Jesus." This may show that the Trinitarian baptismal formula existed at least at that time, and probably earlier.St. Justin Martyr, ''1st Apology'' lxi.

References

;Attribution * *{{Catholic, wstitle=Marcosians

External links

Counting with 2 numbers, more gnostic counting
Antinomian Gnostic sects Early Gnostic sects Gnostic religions and sects