'Let us see,' Hippolytus says, 'how flagrantly Basilides as well as (B.[Greek: homou kai]) Isidore and all their crew contradict not only Matthias but the Saviour himself.' Stress is laid upon the name of Basilides, as if to say, 'It is not merely a new-fangled heresy, but dates back to the head and founder of the school.' When in the very next sentence Hippolytus begins with [Greek: phaesi], the natural construction certainly seems to be that he is quoting some work of Basilides which he takes as typical of the doctrine of the whole school.

A later work would not suit his purpose or prove his point.

Basilides includes Isidore, but Isidore does not include Basilides.
We conclude then that there is a probability--not an overwhelming, but quite a substantial, probability--that Basilides himself used the fourth Gospel, and used it as an authoritative record of the life of Christ.

But Basilides began to teach in 125 A.D., so that his evidence, supposing it to be valid, dates from a very early period indeed: and it should be remembered that this is the only uncertainty to which it is subject.

That the quotation is really from St.John cannot be doubted.
The account which Hippolytus gives of the Valentinians also contains an allusion to the fourth Gospel; 'All who came before Me are thieves and robbers' (cf.