Editing Gnosticism (section)

==== Samaritan Baptist sects ====
According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects trace back to [[John the Baptist]].{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3515}} One offshoot was in turn headed by [[Dositheos (Samaritan)|Dositheus]], [[Simon Magus]], and [[Menander (gnostic)|Menander]]. It was in this milieu that the idea emerged that the world was created by ignorant angels. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome.{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3515}} The Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer and revealer of 'true knowledge{{' "}}.{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3515}}

The [[Simonians]] were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books. Justin Martyr identifies Menander of Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil. According to Hippolytus, Simonianism is an earlier form of the [[Valentinianism|Valentinian doctrine]].<ref>Hippolytus, ''[[Philosophumena]]'', iv. 51, vi. 20.</ref>

The [[Quqites]] were a group who followed a [[Samaritan]], [[Iranian religions|Iranian]] type of Gnosticism in 2nd-century AD [[Erbil]] and in the vicinity of what is today northern [[Iraq]]. The sect was named after their founder Quq, known as "the potter". The Quqite ideology arose in [[Edessa]], [[Syria]], in the 2nd century. The Quqites stressed the [[Hebrew Bible]], made changes in the New Testament, associated twelve prophets with twelve apostles, and held that the latter corresponded to the same number of [[gospels]]. Their beliefs seem to have been eclectic, with elements of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, astrology, and Gnosticism.