ON JUSTICE

Justice is Fellowship

1:1 Stromata3.2.6.1 The justice of the Father is, at its root, a fellowship grounded in equality. Consider the heavens: stretched equally in every direction, the sky encircles the whole earth in one unbroken arc.

1:2 Stromata3.2.6.1 Night reveals its stars to all without distinction. Day by day, the sun pours the Father's light from above upon the earth equally, for every creature capable of sight.

1:3 Stromata3.2.6.2 The light does not discriminate. It does not sort the rich from the poor, the ruler from the ruled, the foolish from the wise, female from male, free person from slave.

1:4 Stromata3.2.6.2 Nor does the light withhold itself from creatures without reason.

1:5 Stromata3.2.6.3 For the good and the wicked alike, the Father upholds this justice — no one can hold more light than another, or steal light from a neighbor in order to hoard more light for themselves.

The Common Provision of Nature

1:6 Stromata3.2.6.3 The sun rises providing nourishment for all living creatures in common. Each species reproduces after its own kind: cattle as cattle, pigs as pigs, sheep as sheep, and so with everything else.

1:7 Stromata3.2.6.4 Commonality and equality are justice made manifest.

1:8 Stromata3.2.6.4 All things are sown equally according to their kind. Common food is made available to all without restraint — held under no law, distributed in harmony through the provision of the Father. Justice simply attends all alike.

1:9 Stromata3.2.7.2 The laws of procreation have never been inscribed on any tablet — and so they cannot be repealed. All creatures sow and reproduce equally, possessing a fellowship that is not legislated but innate, born of justice itself.

The Birth of the Thief

1:10 Stromata3.2.7.2 Human laws, however, incapable of correcting human error, have instead taught them transgression. The particularity of these laws—the insistence on the specific, the exclusive, the proprietary—has cut apart and gradually eroded the fellowship that the Father has established.

1:11 Stromata3.2.7.3-4 The notions of "mine" and "yours" crept into the world through these laws, so that what was held in common is no longer enjoyed in common: neither land nor possessions.

1:12 Stromata3.2.7.4 Once this fellowship was violated, once equality was broken, the world acquired something new: the thief.

Desire is a Decree of God

1:13 Stromata3.2.8.1 The Father, through His Wisdom, made all things with commonality in mind, joining female and male and uniting all living creatures alike. In doing so, He revealed justice as fellowship with equality.

1:14 Stromata3.2.8.3 And still, this justice is denied in the very act that brings new life into the world. They say, 'Let the man who marries one woman have her', even though all are capable of sharing in common, as the rest of the animals plainly demonstrate.

1:15 Stromata3.2.8.3 The Father, through His Wisdom, made desire intense and vigorous in humanity—in males and females alike—for the continuation of the species. There is no law; no custom; no thing that can extinguish desire, for desire is a decree of God!

1:16 Stromata3.2.9.2 Therefore the commandment against coveting is the most absurd of them all: “You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife.” What a joke!

1:17 Stromata3.2.9.2 Who was it that gave us desire to sustain us in the first place? Who is it now that commands it to be taken away? Why have they not taken it away from any other living creature? Who would force the logic of private property onto a person that, by nature, belongs to no one? A thief, no doubt.

"On Justice" (Literal)

by Epiphanes son of Carpocrates
(130 – 150 C.E.)

What follows is a close, literal translation of Epiphanes’ surviving *On Justice*, preserving its original syntax, repetitions, and phrasing as faithfully as English permits. Preserved within the *Stromata* of Clement of Alexandria, the text has reached us through a hostile account and centuries of manuscript transmission. Passages that are fragmentary, corrupt, or uncertain are indicated by ellipses or brackets, allowing readers to distinguish the surviving testimony from editorial intervention.

Stromata3.2.6.1
ἡ δικαιοσύνη τοῦ θεοῦ κοινωνία τις ἐστίν μετ᾿ ἰσότητος. ὅσος γέ τοι πανταχούθεν ἐκταθείς οὐρανὸς κύκλω τὴν γῆν, περιέχει πᾶσαν, καὶ πάντας ἡ νὺξ ἐπ᾿ ἴσης ἐπιδείκνυται τοὺς ἀστέρας, τόν τε τῆς ἡμέρας αἴτιον καὶ πατέρα τοῦ φωτὸς ἦλιον ὁ θεὸς ἐξέχεεν ἄνωθεν ἴσον ἐπὶ πάντας τοῖς βλέπειν δυναμένοις, οἱ δὲ κοινῇ πάντες βλέπουσιν The justice of God is a kind of sharing-in-common together with equality. For as great as the heaven is, stretched out on every side in a circle around the earth, it encompasses all things; and the night displays all the stars equally; and the sun—cause of day and father of light—God poured it out from above equally upon all who have the power to see, and they all see it in common,

Stromata3.2.6.2
ἐπεὶ μὴ διακρίνει πλούσιον ἢ πένητα, δῆμον ἢ ἄρχοντα, ἄφρονάς τε καὶ τοὺς φρονοῦντας, θηλείας ἄρσενας, ἐλευθέρους δούλους· ἀλλ᾿ οὐδὲ τῶν ἀλόγων παραιτεῖται τι, πᾶσι δὲ ἐπ᾿ ἴσης … ἀγαθοῖς τε καὶ κακοῖς τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἐμπεδοῖ μηδενὸς δυναμένου πλεῖον ἔχειν, μηδὲ ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὸν πλησίον, ἵν᾿ αὐτὸς κἀκείνου τὸ φῶς διπλασιάσας ἔχῃ.since it does not distinguish rich or poor, people or ruler, fools and the wise, female or male, free or slave. Nor does it reject any of the irrational animals, but upon all equally … it confirms its justice for both good and bad alike, since no one is able to have more, nor to deprive his neighbor, so that he himself might have double that one's share of light.

Stromata3.2.6.3
ἥλιος κοινὰς τροφὰς ζῴοις ἅπασιν ἀνατέλλει, δικαιοσύνης [τε] τῆς κοινῆς ἅπασιν ἐπ᾿ ἴσης δοθείσης, καὶ εἰς τὰ τοιαῦτα βοῶν γένος ὁμοίως γίνεται ὡς αἱ βόες καὶ συῶν ὡς οἱ σύες καὶ προβάτων ὡς τὰ πρόβατα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα· The sun rises, producing common nourishment for all living things—since common justice has been given to all equally—and for such purposes the race of cattle comes into being alike as cattle, and of swine as swine, and of sheep as sheep, and all the rest likewise.

Stromata3.2.6.4
δικαιοσύνη γὰρ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀναφαίνεται ἡ κοινότης. ἔπειτα κατὰ κοινότητα πάντα ὁμοίως κατὰ γένος σπείρεται, τροφή τε κοινὴ χαμαὶ νεμομένοις ἀνεῖται πᾶσι τοῖς κτήνεσι καὶ πᾶσιν ἐπ᾿ ἴσης, οὐδενὶ νόμῳ κρατουμένη, τῆς δὲ παρὰ τοῦ διδόντος κελεύσαντος χορηγίᾳ συμφώνως ἅπασι δικαιοσύνῃ παροῦσα.For justice manifests itself among them as community. Then all things are sown alike according to kind by virtue of community, and common nourishment is released for all the grazing animals equally, governed by no law, but provided by the command of the one who gave and ordered it—present to all in harmony as justice.

Stromata3.2.7.1
ἀλλ᾿ οὐδὲ τὰ τῆς γενέσεως νόμον ἔχει γεγραμμένον, μετεγράφη γὰρ ἄν· σπείρουσι δὲ καὶ γεννῶσιν ἐπ᾿ ἴσης, κοινωνίαν ὑπὸ δικαιοσύνης ἔμφυτον ἔχοντες. κοινῇ πᾶσιν ἐπ᾿ ἴσης ὀφθαλμοὺς εἰς τὸ βλέπειν ὁ ποιητὴς καὶ πατὴρ πάντων δικαιοσύνῃ νομοθετήσας τῇ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ παρέσχεν, οὐ διακρίνας θήλειαν ἄρρενος, οὐ λογικὸν ἀλόγου, καὶ καθάπαξ οὐδενὸς οὐδέν, ἰσότητι δὲ καὶ κοινότητι μερίσας τὸ βλέπειν ὁμοίως ἑνὶ κελεύσματι πᾶσιν ἐχαρίσατο.But not even the things of generation have a written law—for it would have been transcribed. Rather they sow and beget equally, possessing a community inborn by justice. The maker and father of all things, having legislated by his own justice, provided eyes in common to all equally for seeing—not distinguishing female from male, nor rational from irrational, and absolutely nothing from anything—but by equality and community he apportioned sight alike, and bestowed it upon all by a single command.

Stromata3.2.7.2
οἱ νόμοι δὲ ἀνθρώπων ἀμαθίαν κολάζειν μὴ δυνάμενοι παρανομεῖν ἐδίδαξαν· ἡ γὰρ ἰδιότης τῶν νόμων τὴν κοινωνίαν τοῦ θείου νόμου κατέτεμεν … 'διὰ νόμου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἔγνων'·But the laws of human beings, being unable to punish ignorance, taught people to transgress. For the private-property principle of the laws cut up the community of the divine law … "I would not have known sin except through the law."

Stromata3.2.7.3
τό τε ἐμὸν καὶ τὸ σόν, διὰ τῶν νόμων παρεισελθεῖν, μηκέτι εἰς κοινότητα … κοινά τε γάρ, καρπονομένων μήτε γῆν μήτε κτήματα. κοινῇ γὰρ ἅπασιν ἐποίησε τὰς ἀμπέλους, αἳ μήτε στρουθὸν μήτε κλέπτην ἀπαρνοῦνται, καὶ τὸν σῖτον οὕτως καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους καρποὺς. ἡ δὲ κοινωνία παραφθεῖσα καὶ τὰ τῆς ἰσότητος, ἐγέννησε θρεμμάτων καὶ καρπῶν κλέπτην. "Mine" and "yours" crept in through the laws, so that there was no longer community … For things are common—neither the earth nor possessions are to be apportioned. For in common for all he made the vines, which refuse neither sparrow nor thief, and likewise the grain and the other fruits. But when community and equality were corrupted, they gave birth to the thief of livestock and fruits.

Stromata3.2.8.1
κοινῇ τοίνυν, ὁ θεὸς ἅπαντα ἀνθρώπῳ ποιήσας καὶ τὰ κοινῇ συναγαγὼν καὶ πάνθ᾿ ὁμοίως τὰ ζῷα κολλήσας ἀνέφηνεν κοινωνίαν μετ᾿ ἰσότητος. οἱ δὲ γεγονόσαν κοινωνίαν τὴν … αὐτῶν ἀπηρνήσαντο καὶ φασίν· ὁ μίαν ἀγόμενος ἐχέτω, δυναμένων κοινωνεῖν ἁπάντων, ὥσπερ … τέφηνε τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ζῴων.In common, then, God made all things for humanity, and brought them together in common, and joined all living things alike, and thus revealed community together with equality. But those who were born into community denied it and say: "Let the one who has taken one wife keep her"—when all could share in common, just as the rest of the animals show.

Stromata3.2.8.3
τὴν γὰρ ἐπιθυμίαν εὔτονον καὶ σφοδροτέραν ἐνεποίησε τοῖς ἄρρεσιν εἰς τὴν τῶν γενῶν παραμονήν, ἥν οὔτε νόμος οὔτε ἔθος οὔτε ἄλλο τι τῶν ὄντων ἀφανίσαι δύναται· θεοῦ γάρ ἐστι δόγμα.For he implanted desire—vigorous and intense—in males for the continuation of the races, which neither law nor custom nor anything else that exists can abolish. For it is the decree of God.

Stromata3.2.9.2
ἔνθεν ὡς γελοῖον εἰρηκότος τοῦ νομοθέτου ῥῆμα τοῦτο ἀκουστέον «οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις», πρὸς τὸ γελοιότερον εἰπεῖν «τῶν τοῦ πλησίον» … αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν δοὺς ὡς συνέχουσαν τὰ τῆς γενέσεως ταύτην ἀφαιρεῖσθαι κελεύει μηδενὸς αὐτὴν ἀφελῶν ζῴου· τὸ δὲ, τῆς τοῦ πλησίον, κοινωνίαν ἀναγκάζον ἔτι γελοιότερον εἶπεν.Hence one must hear this saying of the lawgiver as laughable: "You shall not covet"—and to say something even more laughable—"your neighbor's things." For the one who gave desire as that which holds together the things of generation commands that it be taken away, though he takes it from no living creature. And the phrase "your neighbor's" is even more laughable, since it forces community.

Thematic Clusters

The following analysis groups the vocabulary of the fragment by morphological root and semantic field. The frequency with which certain word-families recur is itself an argument: Epiphanes wrote not by accumulating topics but by hammering a small number of key concepts from every available angle. Click-counts reflect the surviving Greek text only.

κοινός / κοινωνία / κοινότης — Community / Common

The κοιν- root dominates the fragment. Forms attested include κοινωνία, κοινωνίαν, κοινότητα, κοινότητι, κοινότης, κοινῇ, κοινή, κοινὰς, κοινῆς, κοινά, κοινωνεῖν, κοινὸν. Epiphanes builds his entire theology on the idea that God's justice is community—cosmic, material, and sexual. No other surviving ancient author concentrates this root so densely in a comparable span of text.

ἰσότης / ἴσος — Equality / Equal

Forms attested: ἰσότητος, ἰσότητι, ἴσης, ἴσον. Always paired with κοινωνία. For Epiphanes, justice requires not just sharing but equal sharing—a mathematical, cosmic principle visible in the uniform distribution of sunlight.

δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος — Justice / Righteousness

Forms attested: δικαιοσύνη, δικαιοσύνην, δικαιοσύνης, δικαιοσύνῃ. Radically redefined: justice is not reward or punishment but equal distribution. A fusion of Stoic natural law with Platonic cosmic order, deployed against the Mosaic legal tradition.

νόμος / νομοθέτης — Law / Lawgiver

Forms attested: νόμος, νόμου, νόμων, νόμῳ, νόμον, νομοθετήσας, νομοθέτου. Law is treated with deep ambivalence: divine law is equality; human law is corruption. The Mosaic lawgiver is openly mocked as γελοῖος ("laughable").

θεός / πατήρ / ποιητής — God / Father / Maker

Forms attested: θεὸς, θεοῦ, θείου, πατέρα, πατὴρ, ποιητὴς. God as cosmic craftsman-father. The language is strongly Platonic—echoing the Timaeus—depicting a Demiurge who legislates through nature rather than through scripture.

ἐπιθυμία / σφοδρός — Desire / Intensity

Forms attested: ἐπιθυμίαν, ἐπιθυμήσεις, σφοδροτέραν, εὔτονον, ἔμφυτον. Desire is divine decree, not sin. The most provocative claim in the fragment: sexual desire is θεοῦ δόγμα—"God's decree"—and no law can override it.

πᾶς / ἅπας / ὅμοιος — All / Alike

Forms attested: πᾶσι, πᾶσιν, πάντες, πάντα, πάντων, πάντας, ἅπασιν, ἅπαντα, ἁπάντων, ὁμοίως. Universalist vocabulary deployed with unusual force for a second-century author. Epiphanes insists on total inclusivity—animals, slaves, women—and repeats these forms relentlessly to drive the point home.

Author Profile

These fragments constitute the only surviving writings attributed to Epiphanes, son of Carpocrates, and offer a rare glimpse into the philosophical and religious thought of the early Carpocratians. Beginning with the biographical testimony of Clement of Alexandria (*Stromata* 3.2.5), this profile examines the vocabulary, rhetorical sophistication, and intellectual influences evident in *On Justice*. Particular attention is given to its philosophical foundations in Platonism and Stoicism, its recurring emphasis on commonality and equality, its radical critique of human and Mosaic law, and its theological defense of natural desire. Through linguistic analysis and comparison with contemporary philosophical and Christian traditions, the profile seeks to illuminate Epiphanes' education, intellectual environment, and distinctive conception of divine justice. Because the surviving text is preserved through Clement's polemical account, conclusions concerning its author and historical context remain necessarily provisional.

Epiphanes of Alexandria — An Imagined Portrait

Clement of Alexandria's Biography

Stromata3.2.5.2
Ἐπιφάνης οὗτος, οὗ καὶ τὰ συγγράμματα κομίζεται, υἱὸς ἦν Καρποκράτους καὶ μητρὸς Ἀλεξανδρ<ε>ίας τοὔνομα, τὰ μὲν πρὸς πατρὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς, ἀπὸ δὲ μητρὸς Κεφαλληνεύς, ἔζησε δὲ τὰ πάντα ἔτη ἑπτακαίδεκα."This Epiphanes, whose writings are also in circulation, was the son of Carpocrates and a mother named Alexandria. On his father's side he was Alexandrian, and on his mother's side Cephallenian. He lived a total of seventeen years."

Stromata3.2.5.3
ἐπαιδεύθη μὲν οὖν παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ τήν τε ἐγκύκλιον παιδείαν καὶ τὰ Πλάτωνος, καθηγήσατο δὲ τῆς μοναδικῆς γνώσεως, ἀφ’ οὗ καὶ ἡ τῶν Καρποκρατιανῶν αἵρεσις."He was educated by his father in both the liberal arts and the teachings of Plato, and became a teacher of knowledge concerning the Monad, from whom the Carpocratian school of thought also arose."

Stromata3.2.5.2
καὶ θεὸς ἐν Σάμῃ τῆς Κεφαλληνίας τετίμηται, ἔνθα αὐτῷ ἱερὸν ῥυτῶν λίθων, βωμοί, τεμένη, μουσεῖον ᾠκοδόμηταί τε καὶ καθιέρωται, καὶ συνιόντες εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν οἱ Κεφαλλῆνες κατὰ νουμηνίαν γενέθλιον ἀποθέωσιν θύουσιν Ἐπιφάνει, σπενδουσί τε καὶ εὐωχοῦνται καὶ ὕμνοι λέγονται."Epiphanes is also honored as a god in Sami on Cephalonia, where a sanctuary of hewn stone, altars, sacred grounds, and a Mouseion (sanctuary of the Muses) have been built and consecrated in his honor. The Cephallenians gather at the sanctuary every new moon to offer sacrifices to Epiphanes in celebration of his birthday and deification. They pour libations, feast, and recite hymns."

Philosophical Education

The vocabulary in On Justice is saturated with Platonic and Stoic terminology. The phrase "maker and father of all things" (ποιητὴς καὶ πατὴρ πάντων) echoes Plato's Timaeus 28c. The argument from cosmic order—sun, stars, earth—follows the Stoic tradition of deriving ethics from physics. Epiphanes was clearly trained in mainstream Greek philosophy despite his Gnostic affiliations.

Rhetorical Sophistication

The text employs sophisticated rhetorical devices: a progressive analogy (heaven → sun → animals → plants → humans), parallelism in the paired negations (not rich/poor, not male/female, not free/slave), and deliberate provocation through the word γελοῖον ("laughable") applied to Moses. This is not folk religion—it is a philosophical treatise written for an educated audience.

The κοιν- / ἰσ- Obsession

These two root families account for an extraordinary share of the text's content vocabulary. The κοιν- root (community, common, sharing) appears with almost every argument. ἰσότης (equality) is its constant companion. This pairing is the author's signature: justice = community + equality. The formula is unusual even among communitarian thinkers of antiquity—most Stoics argued for cosmic sympathy without insisting on material egalitarianism.

Anti-Legal Polemic

Νόμος is the key adversarial term. Epiphanes distinguishes sharply between divine or natural law (which distributes equally) and human or Mosaic law (which creates private property and thereby sin). The quotation of Romans 7:7—"through law I came to know sin"—shows engagement with Pauline Christianity, but radicalized far beyond Paul's intent: Epiphanes uses it to attack the Torah itself.

Sexual Radicalism

The vocabulary of desire (ἐπιθυμία, σφοδροτέρα, εὔτονος) is deployed with theological authority: desire is θεοῦ δόγμα—"God's decree." The attack on "you shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17) specifically targets sexual exclusivity. This is among the most radical sexual ethics attested in any ancient text—and the vocabulary shows it was argued philosophically, not merely asserted.

Dating and Milieu

The combination of Platonic cosmology, Stoic natural law, Pauline citations, and anti-Mosaic polemic points firmly to a second-century Alexandrian milieu. The sophisticated Greek and philosophical vocabulary suggest an author of high social standing—consistent with Clement's report that Epiphanes was the son of Carpocrates and an Alexandrian woman named Alexandria, and that he died at age seventeen, already having written this treatise. If true, the text is a remarkable testament to the intellectual ambitions of Gnostic communities.

Cross-References

Epiphanes did not write in a vacuum. The fragments weave together threads from Platonic cosmology, Stoic natural law, Cynic social radicalism, Pauline theology, Hebrew scripture, and the Greek poetic tradition. What follows maps these connections passage by passage. Where the parallel is verbal — a shared phrase or formula — the debt is likely direct. Where it is structural — a shared argument or image — the relationship may be indirect, mediated by school tradition or by sources now lost. In either case, the cross-references reveal an author operating at the intersection of multiple intellectual worlds, synthesizing them into something none of his predecessors quite said.

Justice as Commonality and Equality

Plato Timaeus 28cEpiphanes calls God "the maker and father of all things" (ὁ ποιητὴς καὶ πατὴρ πάντων) at 3.2.7.1. This is a near-verbatim echo of Plato's designation of the Demiurge. The phrase signals that Epiphanes's theology is rooted in Middle Platonism, not in the Genesis creation narrative alone.

PlatoRepublic 462b–cPlato argues that the best-governed city is one where citizens say "mine" about the same things, and that private property among the guardians tears the city apart by introducing "mine" and "not mine." Epiphanes radicalizes this: the abolition of private ownership applies not just to a guardian class but to all beings. The verbal echo is especially close at 3.2.7.3, where Epiphanes uses the phrase τὸ ἐμὸν καὶ τὸ σόν ("mine and yours") — matching Plato's language almost exactly.

ZenoRepublic (DL 7.33, 7.131)Zeno's lost Republic, preserved in fragments through Diogenes Laertius, advocated community of wives, abolition of temples and currency, and equality of dress between men and women. Epiphanes's argument tracks Zeno's positions remarkably closely, suggesting direct knowledge of the Stoic tradition. The Cynic–Stoic–Carpocratian line of transmission is one of the clearest intellectual genealogies visible in the fragment.

The Sun Poured Out Equally

Matthew5:45Jesus said, "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." This is the closest New Testament parallel to Epiphanes's core image. The argument is structurally identical: God's indiscriminate generosity is the model for human justice.

HomerIliad 3.277The sun "who sees all things and hears all things" (Ἠέλιος, ὃς πάντ᾿ ἐφορᾷ καὶ πάντ᾿ ἐπακούει). The sun as cosmic witness and impartial judge is Homeric before it is Stoic. Epiphanes inherits this image through the long Greek tradition of solar theology.

HesiodWorks and Days 256–262The personification of Justice (Δίκη) as a cosmic force watching over human affairs, daughter of Zeus. Epiphanes's fusion of justice with solar imagery draws on this archaic Greek tradition, in which justice is not a human institution but a divine presence woven into the fabric of the cosmos.

SenecaDe Beneficiis 4.28"The sun shines even upon the wicked." A Stoic commonplace that Epiphanes likely inherited through the school tradition rather than from Seneca directly. The idea circulated widely enough that both a Roman Stoic and a Carpocratian Gnostic could arrive at the same formulation independently.

Not Rich or Poor, Female or Male, Free or Slave

Galatians3:28"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The structural parallel is striking — the same paired negations, the same categories. Whether Epiphanes knew the Pauline letter directly or both drew on a shared baptismal formula is debated among scholars, but the resonance is unmistakable.

1 Corinthians12:13"For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free." Another Pauline formulation. The pattern is consistent: early Christianity possessed a formula of radical equality that Epiphanes pushed to its logical extreme.

Nor Does It Reject the Irrational Animals

Psalm36:6 (LXX 35:7)"You save humans and animals alike." The extension of divine care to animals has a biblical precedent, though Epiphanes pushes it further into an argument for interspecies moral equality that the psalmist would not have recognized.

Each Species After Its Own Kind (Stromata 3.2.6.3)

Genesis1:11–12, 1:21, 1:24–25"Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds." Epiphanes is working with the Genesis creation account, but reading it as a text about natural equality rather than hierarchy or dominion. Where Genesis grants humanity rule over the animals, Epiphanes finds in the same text a principle of equal distribution.

Common Nourishment, Governed by No Law

HesiodWorks and Days 109–120The original Golden Age passage in Greek literature, where humans lived without toil and the earth bore fruit of its own accord. Epiphanes's description of animals grazing in common "governed by no law" reads like a philosophical distillation of this myth — nature as it was before human institutions corrupted it.

OvidMetamorphoses 1.89–112The Latin Golden Age: the earth gave its fruits freely without agriculture and there was no private property. Though Epiphanes is unlikely to have read Ovid, both are drawing on a shared Mediterranean tradition of primordial communalism that runs from Hesiod through the Stoics.

The Maker and Father of All Things

PlatoTimaeus 41a–dThe Demiurge's single creative act, distributing souls equally. Epiphanes's phrase "by a single command" (ἑνὶ κελεύσματι) echoes the Timaeus scene in which the creator addresses the lesser gods with one speech that sets the whole order in motion.

PhiloDe Opificio Mundi 13–25Philo's Platonizing reading of Genesis, where God creates through a single act of cosmic ordering. As a fellow Alexandrian who fused Platonic philosophy with scriptural exegesis, Philo is the most likely intellectual context for Epiphanes's method — even if Epiphanes arrives at conclusions Philo would have found abhorrent.

The Laws Taught People to Transgress

Romans7:7"I would not have known sin except through the law" (διὰ νόμου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἔγνων). Epiphanes quotes this directly. But he radicalizes Paul: for Paul, the law reveals pre-existing sin; for Epiphanes, the law creates sin by introducing private property. The same verse is put to a fundamentally different theological purpose.

Romans5:20"The law came in to increase the trespass." Another Pauline text that Epiphanes could draw on, though he pushes it in an anti-Mosaic direction Paul would never have endorsed.

Romans4:15"Where there is no law there is no transgression." The logical backbone of Epiphanes's entire argument: without the laws that created "mine" and "yours," there could be no theft.

"Mine" and "Yours" Crept In

Acts2:44–45"All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need." The most direct New Testament parallel to Epiphanes's ideal of κοινωνία.

Acts4:32"No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had." The Jerusalem community as a realized κοινωνία — precisely the state Epiphanes says human law destroyed.

Didache4.8"Share all things with your brother, and do not say that they are your own." An early Christian community rule that resonates with Epiphanes but stops short of his cosmic universalism.

Barnabas19.8"You shall share all things with your neighbor and shall not call things your own." Same tradition as the Didache, likely drawing on a shared source. The early church possessed a strong communalist strand that Epiphanes represents in its most extreme form.

PlatoLaws 739c"The first and highest form of the state is that in which the old saying is realized, that 'friends have all things in common.'" Epiphanes is closer to this passage in the Laws than to the Republic's guardian-limited version, since he extends communalism to all beings without exception.

Pythagoras(DL 8.10)The tradition that Pythagoras taught "friends hold all things in common" (κοινὰ τὰ φίλων). This proverb, attributed to the Pythagoreans, circulated widely in the ancient world and is the ultimate ancestor of the communalist tradition that runs through Plato, the Stoics, the early church, and Epiphanes.

The Vines Refuse Neither Sparrow Nor Thief

Matthew10:29Jesus said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care." The sparrow as an image of God's indiscriminate provision — and, for Epiphanes, of a nature that gives without distinguishing worthy from unworthy recipients.

Sharing Together with Equality

2 Corinthians8:13–14"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality." Paul uses ἰσότης here in the context of communal sharing — though limited to economic aid among churches rather than Epiphanes's universal cosmic principle.

"Let the One Who Has Taken One Wife Keep Her"

1 Corinthians7:2"Each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband." This appears to be what Epiphanes is quoting or paraphrasing — and rejecting. Paul's advice on marriage becomes, for Epiphanes, evidence of the corruption that human law introduces into divine communality.

Diogenes of Sinope(DL 6.72)Marriage is merely "the state of man persuading a woman to cohabit with him." The Cynic background to the Carpocratian position: if marriage is a social convention rather than a natural institution, then its exclusive claims have no cosmic authority.

Desire Is the Decree of God

Genesis1:28"Be fruitful and multiply." Epiphanes reads the divine command to reproduce as grounding desire itself in the divine will — making any restriction on it a violation of God's order. The Mosaic lawgiver who says "you shall not covet" contradicts the creator who said "be fruitful."

StoicSVF 3.473The term εὔτονον ("well-tensed, vigorous") used of desire at 3.2.8.3 is specifically Stoic vocabulary, referring to the tonos (tension) that holds the cosmos together. By using this word for sexual desire, Epiphanes equates erotic impulse with the force that sustains the universe.

"You Shall Not Covet"

Exodus20:17The Tenth Commandment, which Epiphanes attacks directly and by name. His target is specifically the possessive framing: "your neighbor's" wife implies that a person can be owned. The commandment against coveting, in Epiphanes's reading, presupposes and reinforces the regime of private property that divine justice was meant to abolish.

Romans7:7–8"I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" Epiphanes returns to the same Pauline text he quoted at 3.2.7.2, now applied specifically to the Tenth Commandment. For Paul, the law provokes the sin it names; for Epiphanes, the law invents the sin by inventing the category of "your neighbor's" — a possessive relation that nature does not recognize.