Editing Basilides (section)

===Biblical canon===
The canon of Basilides had its own [[Gospel of Basilides|Gospel]] alongside the [[Gospel of John]],<ref>{{cite wikisource | wslink = Ante-Nicene Fathers / Volume V / Hippolytus / The Refutation of All Heresies / Book VII / Part 11 | The Refutation of All Heresies, Book VII | author = Hippolytus | translator = John Henry MacMahon}}</ref> rejected the [[Epistle of Titus]]<ref>{{cite wikisource | wslink = Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/Prefaces/Prefaces to Commentaries/Titus|Commentaries to Titus| author = Jerome | translator = Philip Schaff}}</ref> and selectively included only specific writings from the [[Pauline epistles]]. This canon also contained other unique texts, which are believed to have been penned by Basilides himself or his immediate followers, including the ''Interpretations of the Gospels'' and the ''Exegetica''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Layton |first1=Bentley |title=The Gnostic Scriptures |last2=Brakke |first2=David |author-link2=David Brakke|publisher=Yale University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-20854-2 |edition=2nd |location=New Haven (Conn.) London |language=English}}</ref> Unlike the standard Christian canon, it did not include the [[Synoptic Gospels]]—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—as these were considered inconsistent with the Gnostic perspective.<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=Karen L. |title=What is gnosticism? |publisher=Belknap Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-674-01762-7 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref> Basilides further eschewed mainstream Christian works he perceived as failing to reflect his Gnostic interpretation of Christianity, viewing such texts as distorting the true nature of the divine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brakke |first=David |author-link=David Brakke |title=The Gnostics: myth, ritual, and diversity in early Christianity |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-674-04684-9 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref> As such, the canon of Basilides provides a distinct example of early Christian diversity and the varied textual traditions that existed within the nascent Christian community.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart D. |title=Lost christianities: the battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-518249-1 |edition=Oxford Univ. Press paperback |location=Oxford}}</ref>