The Apologists · AD 130–180 · External witness
Monoimus the Arab
fl. later 2nd century (death unrecorded) · Gnostic speculator of the Monad · Arabia / Syria
External witness
Who Monoimus the Arab was
A Gnostic arithmetician known only from Hippolytus: all reality unfolds from the 'Son of Man,' the one iota, the single tittle — man himself the universe in small. His advice to a disciple, to seek God by studying one's own inner movements, is the most quoted sentence of any heresiarch in the Refutation.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses and heretics & schismatics.
Common questions
When was Monoimus active?
Monoimus the Arab is dated fl. later 2nd century (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Monoimus in the Apologists (AD 130–180).
Which early sources mention Monoimus?
Monoimus the Arab is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Hippolytus of Rome and Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Monoimus from?
The archive associates Monoimus the Arab with Arabia / Syria.
Who were Monoimus’ contemporaries?
The archive links Monoimus the Arab to 1 other figure, including Hippolytus of Rome. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Refutation of All Heresies VIII.12–15
c. AD 225Man is the universe, and the Son of Man the one tittle — the iota, the one jot… Seek him from out of thyself, and learn who it is that appropriates all things in thee to himself.Hippolytus of Rome · VIII.12 · source text
Compendium of Heretical Fables I.18 (the notice drawn from Hippolytus's lost Syntagma)
c. AD 453Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144
- AD 156 · The New Prophecy erupts, AD 156
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Monoimus, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.