About a hundred heresies in brief. Where did they start and what did they come from?

There are four heresies of mothers and prototypes, namely: 1) barbarism, 2) Scythianism, 3) Hellenism, 4) Judaism. All other heresies descended from them.

1. Barbarism: a heresy which in itself lasted from the days of Adam to the tenth generation, [until the time of] Noah. It is called barbarism because the people of that time did not have any leader or one consent, but what each established for himself in preference to his own will, became a law for him.

2. Scythianism: from the days of Noah and in subsequent times, until the building of the pillar of Babylon, and after the pandemonium for a few years, i.e. to Peleg and Ragau, who, having departed to the country of Europe, settled in the Scythian region and joined the tribes there from the time of Terah, from whom the Thracians were descended, and later.

3. Hellenism: it began in the time of Seruga with idolatry; and since at that time everyone lived by some kind of superstition, the tribes of men, passing to a more civil structure, customs and laws, began to establish idols for themselves and those who were then followed were deified. At first, they painted with paints and depicted the likenesses of either the people they revered at that time, or sorcerers, or those who had done something in life that seemed worthy of memory because of their strength and bodily strength. Then, from the time of Terah, the father of Abraham, they introduced idolatry also through statues, honoring their forefathers with images and sculpting the dead before them, first with the help of pottery, and then making imitations with all kinds of art: builders of houses - cutting stones, silversmiths and goldsmiths - making from their own material, so also carpenters, and so on. The Egyptians, together with the Babylonians, Phrygians and Phoenicians, were the first founders of this religion, the making of statues and the performance of the sacraments. From them it was transferred to the Hellenes in the time of Cecrops and after it. Later, and much later, Cronus and Rhea, Zeus and Apollo, and others were proclaimed gods. The Hellenes are so called from a certain Helen, one of those who lived in Hellas, and as others say, from an olive tree that grew in Athens. Their ancestors, as accurate history shows, were the Ionians, descended from Job (Gen. 10:2), one of the builders of the pillar when the languages of all were divided. For this reason, from the divided speech, all are named. Later, in later times, Hellenism passed into heresies, I mean the heresies of the Pythagoreans, the Stoics, the Platonists, and the Epicureans. And from that time on, the image of piety, and at the same time the natural law of life, having departed from these peoples, from the creation of the world, and to this day existed among barbarism, Scythianism, and Hellenism, until they were united with the godliness of Abraham.

4. And then Judaism from the time of Abraham received the sign of circumcision, and by Moses, the seventh after Abraham, by means of the law given by God, it was written; and from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, who was called Israel, through David, the first king of the tribe of Judah, he finally inherited the name of Judah. The Apostle expressed himself clearly about these four heresies when he said: "In Christ Jesus there is no barbarian or Scythian, neither Greek nor Jew" (Col. 3:11), but a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

Various heresies among the Hellenes.

5. Pythagoreans and Peripatetics. Pythagoras taught about the monad and providence, taught to prevent sacrifices to supposedly gods, not to eat animate beings, and to abstain from wine. He introduced a division, saying that on the moon and above it everything is immortal, and below everything is mortal, and allowed the transmigration of souls from one body to another, even into the bodies of animals and wild beasts. At the same time, he taught to practice silence for five years. Finally, he called himself God.

6. The Platonists believed that there is God, matter, form, and the world, originated and corporeal, and that the soul did not arise, is immortal and divine, that it has three parts: rational, irritable, and lustful. Plato taught that all wives should be common and no one should have a spouse of his own, but those who wished should live with those who wished. He also allowed the transmigration of souls into bodies even to beasts. At the same time, he taught about many gods descended from one.