Note 652 — Chapter VI · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: SIMON MAGUS

It was of course quite different from the Cabalistic methods, ridiculous as those were, of the Essenes and other Jews, from the acrostics of the Orphics, and from the allegories of Philo. With a touching belief in the verbal inspiration of the Pentateuch, Simon and his followers claimed that every word of it must be true and a revelation even when transferred into another context. Thus they claimed to teach obstetrics from geographical phrases. The only modern parallel is to be found among the Puritans of our own Civil War, who, as Sir Walter Scott wrote, were accustomed to pervert the language of Scripture by adapting it to modern events, and kept a Bible lying on the Table of the House for reference as to the better conduct of its business.