Note 319 — Chapter IX · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: VALENTINUS
Reading edition
Tu enim, aiunt, omnes cognosce, te autem nemo cognoscat.... Non autem multos scire posse haec, sed unum a mille, et duo a myriadibus. Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 19, § 3, p. 202, Harvey. Epiphanius, Haer. XXIV. c. 5, p. 152, Oehler, while copying Irenaeus’ account puts it rather differently, Ὑμεῖς πάντα γινώσκετε, ὑμᾶς δὲ μηδεὶς γινωσκέτω, which probably represents Irenaeus’ own expression. One of the authors of the Pistis Sophia had evidently heard of Basilides’ remark about 1 in 1000. Cf. Pistis Sophia, p. 354, Copt.