Note 597 — Chapter VI · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: SIMON MAGUS

“The visible and generated Gods.” So Alcmaeon of Crotona and Xenocrates both call stars and planets gods. See Clem. Alex. Protrept. c. VI.; Plato, Timaeus, c. XV. The prophets of the Jews, indeed, blamed their co-religionists for “worshipping the sun towards the east” as Ezekiel saw them doing in the Temple, or for “serving all the host of heaven” as Jeremiah says the inhabitants of Jerusalem did; but their reproaches make it plain that the bulk of the nation were in this respect like their Gentile neighbours.