Editing Basilides (section)

==Isidorus==
Hippolytus<ref name=Matthias/> couples with Basilides "his true child and disciple" Isidore. He is there referring to the use which they made of the ''Traditions of Matthias''; but in the next sentence he treats them as jointly responsible for the doctrines which he recites. Our only other authority respecting Isidore is Clement (copied by Theodoret), who calls him in like manner "at once son and disciple" of Basilides.<ref>{{harvnb|Hort|1911}} cites ''Strom.'' vi. 767.</ref>

===''Expositions of the Prophet Parchor''===
Isidore's ''Expositions of the Prophet Parchor'' taught the higher thoughts of heathen philosophers and mythologers were derived from Jewish sources.{{sfn|Hort|1911}} So, by quoting the philosopher [[Pherecydes of Syros|Pherecydes]], who had probably a peculiar interest for Isidore as the earliest promulgator of the doctrine of metempsychosis known to tradition,<ref>{{harvnb|Hort|1911}} cites Cf. Zeller, ''Philos. d. Griechen'', i. 55 f. ed. 3.</ref> Isidore was proving his validity as a descendant of the prophets.{{sfn|Hort|1911}}

Isidore's allegation that Pherecydes followed "the prophecy of [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]]" was also used to claim that the apocryphal Zoroastrian books had quasi-biblical sanctity as proceeding from Zoroaster, a son of Noah; so Isidore gladly accepted the theory as evidence for his argument.{{sfn|Hort|1911}}

===''On an Adherent Soul''===
In his book ''On an Adherent Soul'', Isidore appears to have argued against his father's teaching on "Appendages".<ref>{{harvnb|Hort|1911}} cites ''Strom.'' ii. 488.</ref> He insists on the unity of the soul, and maintains that bad men will find "no common excuse" in the violence of the "appendages" for pleading that their evil acts were involuntary: "our duty is", he says, "by overcoming the inferior creation within us through the reasoning faculty, to show ourselves to have the mastery".{{sfn|Hort|1911}}

===''Ethics''===
A passage from Isidore's ''Ethics'' says: "Abstain, then, from a quarrelsome woman lest you are distracted from the grace of God. But when you have rejected the fire of the seed, then pray with an undisturbed conscience. And when your prayer of thanksgiving," he says, "descends to a prayer of request, and your request is not that in future you may do right, but that you may do no wrong, then marry."<ref>{{harvnb|Hort|1911}} cites ''Strom.'' iii. 510.</ref>