Gnostic revelations. The
Gospel of Basilides may therefore, as Dr. Westcott suggests,
reasonably enough, have had a philosophical rather than a historical
character. The author of 'Supernatural Religion' censures Dr. Westcott
for this suggestion [Endnote 189:4], but a few pages further on
he seems to adopt it himself, though he applies it strangely to
the language of Eusebius or Agrippa Castor and not to Basilides'
own work.

In any case Hippolytus expressly says that, after the generation
of Jesus, the Basilidians held 'the other events in the life of
the Saviour followed as they are written in the Gospels' [Endnote
190:1]. There is no reason at all to suppose that there was a
breach of continuity in this respect between Basilides and his
school. And if his Gospel really contained substantially the same
events as ours, it is a question of comparatively secondary
importance whether he actually made use of those Gospels or no.

It is rather remarkable that Hippolytus and Epiphanius, who
furnish the fullest accounts of the tenets of Basilides (and his
followers), say nothing about his Gospel: neither does Irenaeus or
Clement of Alexandria; the first mention of it is in Origen's
Homily on St. Luke. This shows how unwarranted is the assumption
made in 'Supernatural Religion' [Endnote 190:2] that because
Hippolytus says that Basilides appealed to a secret tradition he
professed to have received from Matthias, and Eusebius that he set
up certain imaginary prophets, 'Barcabbas and Barcoph,' he
therefore had no other authorities. The statement that he
'absolutely ignores the canonical Gospels altogether' and does not
'recognise any such works as of authority,' is much in excess of
the evidence. All that this really amounts to is that neither
Hippolytus nor Eusebius say in so many words that Basilides did
use our Gospels. It would be a fairer inference to argue from
their silence, and still more from that of the 'malleus
haereticorum' Epiphanius, that he did not in this depart from the
orthodox custom; otherwise the Fathers would have been sure to
charge him with it, as they did Marcion. It is really I believe a
not very unsafe conclusion, for heretical as well as orthodox
writers, that where the Fathers do not say to the contrary, they
accepted the same documents as themselves.

The main questions that arise in regard to Basilides are two:
(1) Are the quotations supposed to be made by him really his?
(2) Are they quotatio