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Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
religious history, the Colarbasians (from Gk. Colarbasus, Hippol., Ps. Tert.; Colorbasus, Iren., Epiph., Theodoret, Philast. cod., Aug.; ''C. Bassus'' Philast. codd.) were a supposed
sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...
of the 2nd century, deemed
heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
, so called from their leader Colarbasus, a disciple of
Valentinius Valentinus (also spelled Valentinius;  – ) was the best known and, for a time, most successful early Christian Gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. According to Tertullian, Valentinus was a candidate for bishop but started hi ...
. Colarbasus, along with Marcus, another disciple of
Valentinius Valentinus (also spelled Valentinius;  – ) was the best known and, for a time, most successful early Christian Gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. According to Tertullian, Valentinus was a candidate for bishop but started hi ...
, was said to maintain the whole plenitude, and perfection of
truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...
and
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
, to be contained in the
Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as we ...
; and that it was for this reason that
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
was called the ''
Alpha and Omega Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi-rh ...
''.


Analysis

The name occurs first, and that only incidentally, in a solitary passage of
Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...

i. 14, 1
which has been the subject of much discussion. Marcus, Irenaeus seems to say, boasted that he alone was allowed to become the womb and receptacle of the Sigé (''Silence'') of Colarbasus; the offspring to which he gave birth being the statement and revelation recorded afterwards. There is no previous mention of Colarbasus. Irenaeus has for six pages been speaking of Marcus alone. Eleven pages back he refers briefly to "a certain other ''Illustrious'' teacher of theirs" he_Valentinians.html" ;"title="Valentinians.html" ;"title="he Valentinians">he Valentinians">Valentinians.html" ;"title="he Valentinians">he Valentinians but there is no coincidence of doctrine, and nothing to suggest that the nameless, or obscurely named [Epiphanes], heretic was himself Colarbasus, as some have supposed.


Sources

According to Philastrius, Philaster (''Haer''. 43) Colarbasus taught after Marcus and "in like manner:" his two lines of description are merely a vague echo of Marcosian doctrine. Pseudo-Tertullian (15) combines the two names indistinguishably in one article. Their common source, the lost Compendium of Hippolytus, can have contained no special information about Colarbasus. When Hippolytus wrote the great later treatise '' Against all Heresies'', he was evidently not better instructed. At the beginning of the sixth book he promises to describe "the doctrines held by Marcus and Colarbasus;" he devotes in due course twenty-three pages to a repetition of Irenaeus's account of Marcus; and at the end he considers he has sufficiently shown who iz.,_Pythagoreans_and_astrology.html" "title="Pythagoreans.html" ;"title="iz., Pythagoreans">iz., Pythagoreans and astrology">astrologers Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...
] were the masters of Marcus and Colarbasus, "the successors in the school of Valentinus:" yet not a word is given to Colarbasus separately. Once elsewhere (iv. 13) Colarbasus is said to have "endeavoured to expound theology by measures and numbers;" but this is simply the Marcosian method. The proceeding of
Epiphanius of Salamis Epiphanius of Salamis ( grc-gre, Ἐπιφάνιος; c. 310–320 – 403) was the bishop of Salamis, Cyprus, at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gai ...
is more audacious. He has a separate article (''
Haer Haer may refer to: * Haer, Senegal, a village in the Bignona Department of Senegal *Haer, Punjab, a village in Punjab, India *Haier, a Chinese electronics firm *HAER, the Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) ...
'', xxxv. 258–262) on Colarbasus, the composition of which has been fully laid bare by R. A. Lipsius (''Zur Quellengesch. d. Epiph''. 167 f.). The long account of Marcus in Irenaeus is preceded by a series of short notices (mostly without names) of the chief doctrines maintained by different branches of the great Valentinian sect. The passage relating to one group distinguished as "those who are reputed to be the wiser among them," is transferred bodily by Epiphanius to Colarbasus, and with it, stranger still, the next paragraph down to the end of the chapter, though it sets forth in single sentences the doctrines of no less than five sets of Valentinians about the Saviour. The passage about the "wise" group immediately follows one on
Ptolemaeus Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
; and accordingly Epiphanius makes Colarbasus to spring from "the root of Ptolemaeus," as well as to borrow from Marcus, and attributes to him a purpose of devising a greater and more ingenious scheme than his predecessors.
Theodoret Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus ( grc-gre, Θεοδώρητος Κύρρου; AD 393 –  458/466) was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus (423–457). He played a pivo ...
(''Haer. Fab''. i. 12) merely abbreviates Epiphanius, changing at the same time "Colorbasus" into "the Colorbasians." A doubtful conjecture has brought Colarbasus into a single sentence of
Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...
(''adv. Val.'' 4), where at most no more is said than that a road was marked out for him by Valentinus; Ptolemaeus is named next, then
Heracleon Heracleon was a Gnostic who flourished about AD 175, probably in the south of Italy. He is described by Clement of Alexandria ('' Strom.'' iv. 9) as the most esteemed (δοκιμώτατος) of the school of Valentinus; and, according to Orige ...
, Secundus, and Marcus. All these various writers against heresies are known to have learned, directly or indirectly, from Irenaeus; and every statement of theirs about Colarbasus can be at once traced, through transcription or immediate inference, to something in the text of Irenaeus not far distant from the place where the name of Colarbasus occurs. On the other hand, the reports of doctrine have little or nothing in common, Hippolytus and his followers make Colarbasus to have taught only what Marcus taught: Epiphanius and his copyist fathers upon him the discordant views of a miscellaneous cluster of Valentinians.


The Voice of Four

The credit of detecting the cause of the confusion belongs to C. A. Heumann (''Hamburgische Vermischte Bibliothek'', 1743, i. 145). He got rid of the mysterious double of Marcus by pointing out that ''Chol-arba'' (כלארבע) means "''All-Four''" i.e. the divine Tetrad, which in the scheme of Marcus stood at the head of the Pleroma. He was less successful in dealing with the details of the text: and
F. C. Baur Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...
(''K.G. d.'' 3 ''erst. Jahrh''. i. 204) has rightly substituted ''Col'' (קול) for ''Chol'' (''The Voice of Four'' for ''All-Four''). Volkmar explains the appearance of ''s'' by the Aramaic commutation of ע with צ, and the ''o'' of several authorities by Theodoret's ''Kossianos'' for ''Kassianos'': ''Colassae'' and ''Colossae'' afford a still better illustration.


Sigé

Both the Tetrad and Sigé appear in the context as if they made revelations to Marcus, but (what has not been sufficiently observed) in different ways. When Irenaeus is simply recording what he found in his Marcosian authority, he speaks of the Tetrad or Tetractys. Thus (66–69):— Sigé on the other hand, is mentioned only when Irenaeus speaks in his own person, and always with a touch of sarcasm. Thus (68–78): It may therefore be questioned whether Marcus ever represented Sigé as herself visiting him. Two passages indeed suggest pretty clearly that he held her to be faithful to her name. Speaking of "Truth," virtually the alphabet, also called Man, he says (69) that she "is the fountain of every speech, and the beginning of every voice, and the utterance of everything unutterable, and the mouth of the unspoken Sigé (''tês siôpômenês Sigês''). Again we hear (64) that Marcosians were taught to offer a prayer for deliverance from "the Judge" to a female divinity addressed as "thou that sittest beside God and the mystic Sigé before the aeons" (or ages: ''ô paredre theou k. t. l.''). This address supplies the required clue, for the divinity is called "the Mother," in a passage almost immediately preceding the occurrence of the name Colarbasus; and elsewhere (75: cf. 84) "the Mother of the Universe" is identified with "the first Tetrad." Sigé herself then doubtless remains hidden above; but her mysteries are made known to Marcus by the Tetrad, the ''Colarbas'' or ''Voice of Four'', who must be the (nameless) "most mighty power from the invisible and innominable places," to whom he boasted that he owed his "knowledge," as we read in Irenaeus's first paragraph about him (60). The difficulty of the primary phrase ''tês Kolarbasou Sigês'' remains. In the absence of a second article, it can only mean "the Sigé of Colarbas" (or Colarbasus) instead of "the Colarbas (or Colarba) of Sigé," as the sense above elicited requires. The difficulty would be lightened, and the perplexing termination of ''Kolarbasou'' at the same time removed, by reading ''tês Kolarbas ek Sigês'', "the Colarba (Voice of Four) proceeding out of Sigé (Silence)." In round continuous uncials the change would be easy, EK and OY having much resemblance when written. The two names would thus stand in the right relation to each other. The phrase however would still be briefer than we should expect. The sudden appearance of the Hebrew term remains likewise unaccounted for. The obscurity evidently lies in the original text of Irenaeus, if not of the authority whom he followed; and it was found as embarrassing in the 3rd and 4th centuries as now. It was only disguised, not removed, by supposing a heretic named Colarbasus.


Bibliography

* ''This article uses text from ''A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines, Being a Continuation of "The Dictionary of the Bible"'' by William Smith and Henry Wace.'' *{{1728 Gnosticism