Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes

M. David Litwa is Research Fellow in Biblical and Early Christian Studies at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. Litwa is the author of many books, most recently Posthuman Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Thought, The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early Christian Idea, and Found Christianities: Remaking the World of the Second Century.

• Introduction, 1. Text, translation, and commentary on Epiphanes, On Justice, 2. Commentary on the earliest Carpocrates reports, 3. Carpocratianism in the Epistle to Theodore, Conclusion: Contextualizing Carpocrates, Epiphanes, and Marcellina: An Attempt at a Profile.

"'Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes: three early Christian teachers of Alexandria and Rome' impressively documents the diversity of Christian schools in the 2nd century… Reconstructing the characters and their theology and thinking from heresiological treatises written many years after the events is a difficult matter. I would at least argue that various interpretations are possible – Litwa has presented a quite convincing one." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review