The Fragmentary Remains of Rival Heresy Catalogues

Abstract

Chapter 3 explores the implications of the argument in the previous chapter. If Justin did not compose the Syntagma but in fact felt compelled to advertise it as the authoritative heresy catalogue, then other catalogues containing alternative approaches to heresy likely circulated alongside the Syntagma. This chapter surveys texts that may reflect some of the competing approaches to heresy current at the time of Justin by analyzing catalogues that appear in the writings of Hegesippus, elsewhere in Justin, the Tripartite Tractate, and the Testimony of Truth. The chapter argues that the approach to heresy in the Syntagma was just one of many available early Christian models. In the second and early third centuries many Christians considered the Syntagma model, that is, the task of distinguishing “true” Christians from “false” Christians, to be less urgent than that of distancing Christianity from Judaism. Others wanted to ensure that outsiders would not mistake followers of Jesus for pagan philosophers. Thus for many the real heretics were not other Christians, but Jews and pagans. In this formative period of self-definition, there would have been nothing obvious or commonplace about the approach to heresy found within the Syntagma against All the Heresies.