About 20 years ago I wrote that Epiphanius' Panarion was the most important patristic text not yet (not then) fully translated into a modern European language (unless you count Russian); Prof. Elizabeth A. Clark (known as president of AAR, NAPS, etc. etc.) agreed.
His account of torah-observing Jewish Ossaioi/Osshnoi is important. "As examples of valuable information already recognized in Panarion, consider that it includes: extracts of the gospel of Marcion (Heresy 42.11); the letter of Ptolemy the gnostic (Heresy 33.3-8); Montanist oracles (Heresy 48); writings by Marcellus and his opponent Basil (Heresy 72); long quotations of Methodius writing on resurrection against Origen (Heresy 64); titles of many gnostic books (e.g., Heresy 26.8.1). This list could easily be extended, and further examples will be discussed in the course of this study (p. 16)"--that is, my 1990 Duke dissertation. Of course he needs to be read critically, but he is an important source on so- called heresies and minut, certainly relevant to history of Essenes at Qumran and elsewhere. best, Stephen Goranson Quoting Dierk van den Berg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Epiphanius - important for what? [....] _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot
