HERMOGENES. - Christian teacher (ca. 180-205) who, after living in Syria where he was opposed by THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH (Eusebius, Hist. ecc., IV, 24), moved to Carthage and worked as a painter. Against his ideas TERTULLIAN wrote his book *Adversus Hermogenem*, certainly drawing on an earlier work by THEOPHILUS (cf. R. M. Grant, in *Journal of biblical literature*, 68 [1949], p. XV sqq.).
H. taught that matter (ἀρχή) was eternal, the origin of evil, yet formed by God. The soul belongs to it and is devoid of free will unless illuminated by the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is not Greek but corresponds to the speculations of the Syrian Gnostics and owes much to the influence of TATIAN; in fact Hippolytus treats the two heretics one after the other (*Refutatio* VIII, chaps. 16 and 17). According to H., during his ascension Jesus left his body in the sun (*Refutatio* VIII, chap. 17, 3 sq.), a doctrine also known to Clement of Alexandria (*Eclog. proph.*, 56, 2) and presupposing H.’s view of Christ as a luminous being, in line with TATIAN’s teaching.