Isidore the Gnostic

ISIDORE THE GNOSTIC. - Son and disciple of Basilides.

He wrote the following books: On the Growing Soul (Περὶ προφανῶς ψυχῆς; cf. Clement of Alexandria, Strom., II, 20, 113); Ethics (Ἡθικὰ; ibid., III, 1, 2); Exegesis of the Prophet Parchor (Ἐξηγητικὰ τοῦ πρεσβυτοῦ Πάργου, ibid., VI, 6, 53). I. distinguished between the rational soul and the animal soul, which had grown through the migration of souls through the world of stones, plants and animals. The rational soul must dominate the lower soul. I. relied on traditions of Matthias (Clement of Alexandria, VII, 108; Hippolytus, Ref., VII, 20) and on the authority of the prophets Barkabba and Barkopli (identical with Parchor; v. Agrippa Castor in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 7, 7). Epiphanius (Haer., 32, 3) knows a work, the Parenesis of I., which is perhaps identical with his Ethics. Strange is the prophecy of Cham, which I. cites and which would have been the source of the philosophy of Pherecydes (Clement of Alexandria, Strom., VI, 6, 53), just as Parchor would have been the source of the philosophy of Aristotle. This is perhaps an expression of Egyptian nationalism asserting the dependence of Greek philosophy on supposed Egyptian authors (for other manifestations of Egyptian nationalism see recently G. Bardy, in Revue d'histoire ecclés., 45 [1950], p. 5 ff.).

Erik Peterson