Who Said That?

"Wherefore [Jesus] did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them."

Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow with the next post.

Update on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 09:33AM by Kim Riddlebarger

Irenaeus is describing the Gnostic heresies of Saturninus and Basilides, in his famous Against Heresies, I.XXIV.4

Comments

[Fred S]

Isn't this pretty much what the Muslims teach? (that Jesus really wasn't crucified-- after all, how could a mighty prophet succumb to such a shameful fate?-- and that instead, someone else was made to hang on the cross in his place)

[Paul L.]

I'll guess Marcion.

Either that or it is from an old translation ("Wherefore") of one of the Gnostic gospels.

[Si]

This is more Greek/Gnostic 'cross is foolish - God become flesh and die - what a joke!' than the Jewish/Islamic stumbling block of 'the messiah can't die'.

Plus Muslims tend to go with Judas, not Simon of Cyrene, getting crucified, as Simon of Cyrene isn't well known. The 'Gospel of Barnabas' (14th century) has it that Judas is crucified as it was a fake gospel promoting Islamic views. That said, I'm sure some Muslims use this text as proof that Jesus didn't die.

[Keith Conley]

Valentinus

["lee n. field"]

laughing Jesus? Gospel of Thomas, I think.

[Keith]

The Koran

["lee n. field"]

"Gospel of Thomas, I think. "

Or, gospel of Judas. It's a gnostic thing.

[Karen]

Some strains of Islam do teach this, but I think they got it from the Gospel of Thomas, so I'm going with that.

[Sean]

Qu'arn

[Andrew]

Derek Jeter.