Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Secret Alias wrote:I notice that one internet blogger connects the report in Clement about 'Epiphanes' with a surviving 'semi-pagan' practice on Cephalonia. I wouldn't have even paid any attention to the report if it wasn't for the fact that the village is named 'son of Mark' Μαρκόπουλος:

I recently became aware of a tradition in action Greece that takes place around the octave of this curious solemnity. Near the 15th of August in the Greek village of Markopoulo on the island Cephaloniaat the Church of the Panagia, one can see snakes slither towards a particular church, the island has many churches but the snakes only go to this church, on the actual day, the 15th they slither on the icon of the Virgin Mary as the church becomes filled with people. In spite of the priest, clergy and people holding the service the snakes show no sign of fear.

According to pious legend, as the island was under the assault of pirates, the nuns at this particular church begged to the Virgin Mary to be saved from what presumably evil fate would befall them at which she turned them all into serpents. Conversely, one thing I may suggest, is that this tradition may also be reflective of an earlier tradition pre-dating the formation of what would become orthodoxy: https://youtu.be/F5Za9-uX4b8

“This fellow Epiphanes, whose writings I have at hand, was a son of Carpocrates and his mother was named Alexandria. On his father’s side he was an Alexandrine, on his mother’s a Cephallenian. He lived in all only seventeen years, and at Same in Cephallonia was honoured as a god. There a temple of vast blocks of stone was erected and dedicated to him, with altars, sacred precincts, and a museon, The Cephallenians gather at the temple every new moon and celebrate with sacrifices the day when Epiphanes became a god as his birthday; they pour libations to him, feast in his honour, and sing his praises. He was educated by his father in the general education and in Platonism, and he was instructed in the knowledge of the Monad, which is the root-origin of the Carpocratians’ heresy.” Clement, Stromata.

“And thus, if ungodly, unlawful, and forbidden actions are committed among them, I can no longer find ground for believing them to be such. And in their writings we read as follows, the interpretation which they give [of their views], declaring that Jesus spoke in a mystery to His disciples and apostles privately, and that they requested and obtained permission to hand down the things thus taught them, to others who should be worthy and believing. We are saved, indeed, by means of faith and love; but all other things, while in their nature indifferent, are reckoned by the opinion of men–some good and some evil, there being nothing really evil by nature.” Iranaeus. Ad. Haer.

The cult of the snake as a familiar spirit would have been very common in ancient Greece as in Rome, interestingly, there also appears to have been some continuation of this in other Gnostic sects, most notably the Ophites and Nassene gnostic communities. While we know very little from the Carpocration literature beyond the Mar Saba letter and Clement’s Stromata, it is known that the Carpocrations were a dominant force on this very island in the Second Century of the Common Era and it may be possible that even to this day some element of their presence may remain on the island.

More on this - https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Snakes

The appearance of the Holy Snakes of the Panagia has reportedly occurred for hundreds of years during the celebrations to the Theotokos between August 5 and August 15 in the village of Markopoulo on the island of Kefalonia, Greece. The small black snakes appear at the church of Panagia of Langouvarda on the site of a monastery, established as a nunnery and dedicated to Our Lady of Langouvarda.

The myth about these snakes is attached to the year the monastery was attacked by pirates in 1705. The nuns prayed fervently to the Virgin Mary for protection and were then transformed into the snakes to avoid being taken as prisoners.

The snakes have a small cross on their head and their tongues are also in the shape of a cross. They are known to belong to the Telescopus fallax species, also known as the European Cat Snake, and they appear in and around the courtyard of the church, on the walls and on the bell tower. The snakes show no fear while the services are held and are harmless during the festivities. As soon as the Liturgy concludes on the 15th of August, they become hostile and aggressive and disappear back into the wilderness of the area. The snakes cannot be found until the following year.

The people of the villages consider them to be holy, collecting them and setting them on the silver icon of the Virgin of the Snakes (Panagia Fidoussa). It has been recorded by the locals that during World War II and the year of the island's destructive 1953 earthquake in August, the snakes failed to appear. The locals now use this as a sign that if the snakes do not show just before the 15th of August that something bad is imminent.

What I find particularly interesting is the connection with the 'fourteenth' or 'fifteenth' of the month. In lunar calendars this the number of days between the 'new moon' (i.e. first of the month) to 'full moon.' In Clement's report though 'Epiphanes' dies after seventeen. But seventeen days is also the number of days it takes to begin to see the moon 'shrink' in the sky (from the 'full moon' on the fifteenth') - https://books.google.com/books?id=GOMRm ... 22&f=false

The idea here is very similar to why December 25th was chosen as the 'birth of the sun' rather than the equinox. Volkmar has worked this out in detail, showing that the festival at Samē was in honour of the moon-god, and accompanied with licentious rites. It was called the Epiphany (τὰ Ἐπιφάνια) in honour of Epiphanes (ὁ Ἐπιφανής), the "newly-appearing one," the new moon. This moon lasted some seventeen days.

But the fact that the village is called 'son of Mark' is particularly interesting - http://anunfamiliarsky.com/2012/08/16/h ... ad-people/

-opoulos (-όπουλος): this suffix, meaning "descendant of", originated from the Peloponnese in the 10th century, but has become very widespread throughout the whole Greece, and due to diaspora in the whole world.
Examples may include: "Stamatelopoulos", "Papadopoulos", "Gianopoulos" and "Anagnostopoulos" among many others.

All I've been concerned with thus far is the idea that Irenaeus got or amended a list of Roman bishops from Hegesippus, because that is the subject of this thread and something that I'm familiar with. And I said that this idea seems unlikely to me because the lack of explicit references to Hegesippus in Irenaeus