Note 24 — Chapter VII · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS

Hegesippus, who probably wrote about 150 A.D., speaks of Thebuthis, Dositheus, and others as leaders of early sects. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. Bk IV. c. 22, and Origen (cont. Cels. Bk VI. c. 11) make this last a contemporary of Simon Magus. The Clementine Homilies (Bk II. c. 24), from whom both authors may have derived their information, have a long story about Dositheus being with Simon a follower of John the Baptist, and disputing with Simon the headship of the sect. From presumably other sources, Hegesippus speaks of the Essenes, the Masbothoeans and the Hemero-baptists, for which last see Chapter XIII, infra, as pre-Christian sects.