any direct extracts from his writings, but solely upon passages
in an epitome by Hippolytus of the views of the school of Basilides,
not ascribed directly to Basilides himself, but introduced by a
mere indefinite [Greek: phêsi]. [17:2] Why, I might enquire in the
vein of Dr. Lightfoot, is not a syllable said of all this, or of
the fact, which completes the separation of these passages from
Basilides, that the Gnosticism described by Hippolytus is not that
of Basilides, but clearly of a later type; and that writers of that
period, and notably Hippolytus himself, were in the habit of putting,
as it might seem, by the use of an indefinite "he says," sentiments
into the mouth of the founder of a sect which were only expressed
by his later followers? As Dr. Lightfoot evidently highly values
the testimony of Luthardt, I will quote the words of that staunch
apologist to show that, in this, I do not merely represent the views of
a heterodox school. In discussing the supposed quotations from the
fourth Gospel, which Dr. Westcott represents as "certain references"
to it by Basilides himself, Luthardt says: "But to this is opposed
the consideration that, as we know from Irenaeus, &c., the original
system of Basilides had a dualistic character, whilst that of the
'Philosophumena' is pantheistic. We must recognise that Hippolytus,
in the 'Philosophumena,' not unfrequently makes the founder of a sect
responsible for that which in the first place concerns his disciples,
so that from these quotations only the use of the Johannine Gospel
in the school of Basilides is undoubtedly proved, but not on the
part of the founder himself." [18:1]

It is difficult to recognise in this fancy portrait the Basilides
regarding whom a large body of eminent critics conclude that he did
not know our Gospels at all, but made use of an uncanonical work,
supplemented by traditions from Glaucias and Matthias; but, as if the