Primary source · Greek
Theodoret, Compendium of Heretical Fables
Theodoret of Cyrrhus · c. AD 452–453
What this text is
The last great ancient heresiology: five books from Simon Magus down to Nestorius and Eutyches, closed by a book of orthodox doctrine. Valuable precisely where it leans on Hippolytus's lost Syntagma — notices of Monoimus, Epigonus, and the Syrian schools (Bardaisan, Tatian's Encratites) that survive nowhere else so connectedly.
Profile of Theodoret of Cyrus →
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Greek, PG 83)
Simon the magician, the first inventor of the heresies, took his occasion from the faith itself... [I.22:] Bardesanes, a Syrian by race, flourished under Marcus, adorned with both languages, and left works against Marcion in the Syriac tongue which his disciples translated.
Manuscript witnesses
Byzantine minuscule tradition
11th–14th c.The Compendium travels with Theodoret's dogmatic corpus in medieval Greek copies; no ancient manuscript survives.
Sirmond's Opera Theodoreti (Paris)
1642The edition behind Migne, PG 83 — the column numbers still cited.
Provenance
Cyrrhus, Syria; dedicated to the consular Sporacius after Chalcedon
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Theodoret of Cyrus (The Early Church Fathers)István Pásztori-Kupán, 2006Modern study and translations situating the Compendium in Theodoret's late career.
- A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics'Antti Marjanen & Petri Luomanen (eds.), 2005Secular-critical control on the catalogue's second-century notices.