MENANDER (Menandros). - One of the most ancient Gnostics, a disciple of Simon Magus. Born at Kapparataia (St. Justin, Apol., I, 26), in the 1st century AD, he carried on his doctrinal activity at Antioch in Syria.

According to St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., I, 17-23) he claimed to be sent by the invisible aeons for the salvation of men. He taught that the world had been made by the angels, emanations of the eternal reason (Evroux). He distinguished himself from his master Simon Magus by teaching that his baptism made men immortal and by rejecting the latter's libertinism. He was the teacher of Saturninus or Saturnilus and of Basilides, of whom the first taught at Antioch, the second in Alexandria. It seems that the doctrine of Saturninus came very close to that of M. (Irenaeus, I, 18; Hippolytus, VII, 28; Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 7; Epiphanius, Haer., 23; Theodoret, Haer. fab., I, 3). M. probably brought about the transition from Oriental to Hellenic Gnosis.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums, Leipzig 1884, pp. 187-90; G. Uhlhorn, Menander, in Realenc. für prot. Theol. und Kirche, XII, p. 574 ff.; F. Schulthess, Die Sprüche des Menander aus dem Syrischen übersetzt, in Zeitschrift für alttestam. Wissenschaft., 32 (1912), pp. 199-224; F. P. Steffes, Das Wesen des Gnostizismus, Münster 1922.

Lucchesio Spätling

@incollection{ec8_menandro_menandros, author = {Spätling, Lucchesio}, title = {Menandro (Menandros)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {669--670}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/menandro-menandros} }

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Menander (Menandros)

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