Marcellina (Gnostic)
Marcellina was an
Historical context
Women played prominent roles in many early Christian sects as prophets, teachers, healers, missionaries, and presbyters.[3] Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany were female followers of Jesus who are mentioned in the gospels and were believed to know the "mysteries" of the kingdom of God.[2] Women like Mary and Martha were the explicit role models for Marcellina and her fellow female preachers.[2] A creed that may have been recited at Christian initiation ceremonies is quoted by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."[4] In the late first century, Marcion of Sinope (c. 85 – c. 160) appointed women as presbyters on an equal basis as men.[3]
In the second century, the
Life and teachings
Carpocratian teachings
As a Carpocratian, Marcellina taught the doctrine of
Adversus Haereses
The Church Father Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202) records in his apologetic treatise Adversus Haereses:
Others of them [i.e., the Carpocratians] employ outward marks, branding their disciples inside the lobe of the right ear. From among these also arose Marcellina, who came to Rome under [the episcopate of] Anicetus, and, holding these doctrines, she led multitudes astray. They style themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles.[11]
Marcellina is the only woman associated with early Gnostic Christianity who is recorded to have been an active religious leader in her own right.
Marcellina's use of images of Jesus and Greek philosophers would not have been unusual in Roman society at the time, because busts and images of philosophers were common objects of adoration in second-century Roman society.
According to David Brakke, the reason why Marcellina and the members of her school identified themselves as "Gnostics" was not as a sectarian identification with the branch of early Christianity known as "Gnosticism",[19] but rather as an epithet for "the ideal or true Christian, the one whose acquaintance with God has been perfected".[20] He notes that Irenaeus himself identifies Marcellina and her sect with the Carpocratians, not with the "Gnostic school of thought".[20] Also, Hippolytus of Rome, who relied on Irenaeus as a source, references that another sect known as the Naassenes "call themselves 'gnostics' in their own way, as if they alone have drunk from the amazing acquaintance of the Perfect and Good."[19] In the late fourth century, the ascetic monk Evagrius Ponticus described the most advanced stage of Christian asceticism as "the Gnostic",[20] indicating that, despite the association of the word "Gnostic" with Gnosticism, it still retained its original positive meaning in the sense with which Marcellina and her disciples identified.[20] Bentley Layton does not classify Marcellina and her followers as members of the Gnostic sect either.[21]
Contra Celsum
Legacy
It is unclear how Marcellina and her followers were regarded by proto-orthodox Christians living in Rome during the 150s and 160s.[23] Irenaeus states that, among members of his own congregation in Gaul in the 180s, "we have no fellowship with them either in doctrine or in morals or in our daily social life",[23] but this statement should not be taken to apply to Christians living in Rome over twenty years prior.[23] Irenaeus also states, "Satan had set forth these people [i.e. Marcellina and her followers] to blaspheme the holy name of the church, so that the [pagan] people turn their ears from the preaching of truth when they hear their different way of teaching and think we Christians are all like them. Indeed, when they see their religiosity, they dishonor us all."[23] He adds that: "They misuse the name [Christian] as a mask."[23] This indicates that Marcellina and her Carpocratian followers called themselves "Christians"[23] and, at least to outsiders, her sect appeared to be connected to other branches of Christianity.[23]
Peter Lampe states that it is possible that members of the proto-orthodox community in Rome simply allowed Marcellina and her sect to coëxist,[23] but that it is also possible that they may have actively condemned them.[23] Robert M. Grant identifies the anti-Gnostic writings of Polycarp and Justin Martyr as partially an indirect reaction against Marcellina and her permissive moral teachings.[24] Marcellina and other female prophets like her were consistently portrayed negatively in the histories and canons written by proponents of proto-orthodoxy.[2] According to William H. Brackney, sources indicate that the Carpocratians may have continued to exist as late as the fourth century.[6]
References
- ^ Haskins 2005, pp. 58–59.
- ^ a b c d e Streete 1999, p. 352.
- ^ a b c d e f Pagels 1989, p. 60.
- ^ Pagels 1989, p. 61.
- ^ a b c d e Rudolph 1983, p. 299.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Brackney 2012, p. 75.
- ^ a b Taylor 2018, pp. 214–215.
- ^ a b Lampe 2003, p. 319.
- ^ a b c McGuire 1999, p. 260.
- ^ a b c Williams 1996, pp. 107–108, 127.
- ^ Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses Book I, Chapter 25, section 6, translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut
- ^ a b c d McGuire 1999, p. 261.
- ^ McGuire 1999, pp. 260–261.
- ^ a b Williams 1996, p. 108.
- ^ a b c d e f g Taylor 2018, p. 215.
- ^ Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.5.3
- ^ a b Lampe 2003, p. 320.
- ^ a b c Williams 1996, p. 127.
- ^ a b Brakke 2010, pp. 48–49.
- ^ a b c d Brakke 2010, p. 49.
- ^ Williams 1996, p. 42.
- ^ a b c d Williams 1996, p. 41.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lampe 2003, p. 392.
- ^ Grant 1990, pp. 59–61.
Bibliography
- Brackney, William H. (2012), Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity, Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Ontario, and Plymouth, England: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 978-0-8108-7365-0
- Brakke, David (2010), The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-04684-9
- ISBN 0-664-22188-2
- Haskins, Susan (2005) [1993], Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, New York City, New York: Pimplico, ISBN 1-8459-5004-6
- ISBN 0567-080501
- McGuire, Anne (1999), "Women, Gender, and Gnosis in Gnostic Texts and Traditions", in Kraemer, Ross Shepard; D'Angelo, Mary Rose (eds.), Women and Christian Origins, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 257–299, ISBN 0-19-510396-3
- ISBN 0-679-72453-2
- ISBN 0-567-08640-2
- Streete, Gail Corrington (1999), "Women as Sources of Redemption and Knowledge in Early Christian Traditions", in Kraemer, Ross Shepard; D'Angelo, Mary Rose (eds.), Women and Christian Origins, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 330–355, ISBN 0-19-510396-3
- ISBN 978-0-5676-7151-6
- ISBN 1-4008-0852-9