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Dositheos (occasionally also known as Nathanael,〔William Benjamin Smith, "The Meaning of the Epithet Nazorean", ''Monist'' XV:27, 1904.〕 both meaning "gift of God") was a Samaritan religious leader, founder of a Samaritan sect, often assumed to be a gnostic. He is reputed to have known John the Baptist, and been the teacher of Simon Magus.〔"The Dead Sea Scrolls and Prmitive Christianity", Jean Danielou, p. 95-96, 1958, Mentor edition 1962〕 He therefore counts as one of the supposed founders of Mandaeanism. ==Christian and Jewish sources== He lived probably in the first century of the common era. According to Pseudo-Tertullian,〔"Adversus Omnes Hæreses," i.〕 he was the first to deny the Prophets — a heresy that gave rise to the party of the Sadducees. Jerome gives the same account.〔"Contra Luciferianos," xxiii.〕 Hippolytus I begins his enumeration of the thirty-two heresies by mentioning Dositheos; hence this sect is made to appear older than the Sadducees,〔Compare Clement of Rome, "Recognitiones," i. 54.〕 and on this heresy is based the system of Philaster.〔"De Hæresibus," §§ 4, 5.〕 He was not mentioned by the two early patristic authors Justin Martyr or Irenaeus. The Samaritan chronicler Abu al-Fatḥ of the fourteenth century, who used reliable native sources, places the origin of the Dosithean sect in the time before Alexander the Great.〔Abu al-Fath," Annales," ed. Eduard Vilmar, 1865, p. 82.〕 The rabbinical sources also〔Tan., Wayesheb, 2; Pirḳe R. El. xxxviii.〕 contain obscure references to Dositheos and Sabbæus as the two founders respectively of the Samaritan sects of the Dositheans and Sabuæans.〔Compare Epiphanius, "Hæres." 11, 12, 13 ().〕 These have been identified with the Samaritans Sabbæeus and Theodosius, of whom Josephus relates〔"Ant." xiii. 3, § 4; compare "Chronicon Paschale," in Migne, ''Patrologia Graeca'', xcii. 441.〕 that they defended before the Egyptian king Ptolemæus Philometor, against Andronicus, the advocate of the Jews, the sanctity of Mt. Gerizim.〔Grätz, "Gesch." 4th ed., iii. 45.〕 The Samaritan chronicles (the ''Book of Joshua'' and Abu al-Fath's ''Annales'') recount a similar discussion between Zerubbabel and Sanballat. As Josephus says that the Samaritans had two advocates, he doubtless meant the two apostles Dositheus and Sabbæus, whose doctrine—including the sanctity of Mt. Gerizim, rejection of the prophetical books of the Old Testament, and denial of the resurrection—was on the whole identical with that of the Samaritans. According to Hegesippus,〔Eusebius, ''Ecclesiastical History'', iv. 22, § 5.〕 Dositheus lived later than Simon Magus, the first heresiarch of the Church; other authors speak of him as the teacher of Simon,〔Clement of Rome, l.c. ii. 8; several passages in Origen; Epiphanius, l.c.〕 at the same time confounding him with Simon Magus, connecting his name with Helena, and stating that he was the "being".〔ἑστώς = "stans".〕 Origen says that Dositheus pretended to be the Christ (Messiah), applying to himself, and he compares him with Theudas and Judas the Galilean.〔See "Contra Celsum," i. 57, vi. 11; in Matth. Comm. ser. xxxiii.; "Homil." xxv. in Lucam; "De Principiis," iv. 17.〕 Origen also says that Dositheus' disciples pretended to possess books by him, and related concerning him that he never suffered death, but was still alive.〔"In Joann." xiii. 27.〕 To this must be compared the story of Epiphanius〔"Hæres." 13.〕 regarding his death by starvation in a cave. Epiphanius adds that while some of the Dositheans lead loose lives, others preserve a rigid morality, refrain from the use of meat, observe the rite of circumcision, and are very strict in keeping the Sabbath and in observing the laws of Levitical purity. These statements may, however, refer to another Dositheus, who belonged to the Encratites.〔Harnack, "Gesch. der Altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius," i. 152, Leipsic, 1893.〕 Origen says〔"Contra Celsum," vi. 11.〕 that the Dositheans were never in a flourishing state, and that in his time they had almost entirely disappeared, scarcely thirty of them being left. The Midrash, however, speaks of Dositheans, with whom Rabbi Meïr had dealings,〔Pesiḳ., ed. Buber, 59b. Pesiḳ. R. 16; Midr. Mishle xiii. 25, Yalḳuṭ § 950.〕 and two names, "Dosion and Dosthion," are also mentioned,〔Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, p. 37; compare "Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ," ed. Buber, p. 266.〕 which either refer to two Dosithean sectarians or form a double designation for the heretic Dositheus. Yet the fact that the patriarch Eulogius of Alexandria (who probably lived 582-603) disputed successfully against the Samaritan followers of Dostan (Δοσϑήν) or Dositheus, and wrote a work expressly against them (Photius, "Bibliotheca," cod. 230), shows that the Dositheans existed and even exercised a certain power in the sixth century. Origen possibly refers to a Christian sect of the Dositheans, who in fact left no traces, while the Samaritan sect certainly continued to exist. In Egypt especially, this sect was probably numerous enough to induce the Christian patriarch of Alexandria to engage in polemics against it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dositheos (Samaritan)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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