Book summary

The Fragments of Basilidesのあらすじ

著者： Attributed to Basilides

読了8分
7 key ideas
音声は近日公開

A teacher in Alexandria starts the universe from a nothing so total that even the One is absent.

無料で始めます Read key idea 1 free, no sign-in

3 months free · unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost

Nothing to pay today · お支払いの前にメールでお知らせします · オンラインで二回クリックするだけで解約できます

The Fragments of Basilidesの概要

要約：読むのに8 minかかります

読書時間: 約3 min2 min fast, 3 min slow
所要時間: 681語4 chapters
ページ数: 22ページ30 in large print
ライブラリ内の難易度: 読み応えがあります long sentences, a rich vocabulary
初版刊行年: 西暦130年頃by Attributed to Basilides

Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日 22 October 2026

3か月間無料でご利用いただけます

The Fragments of Basilidesの要約を最後まで無料で読めます

200,000+の古典を電子書籍、オーディオブック、15分で読める要約で楽しめます。紙の本と大活字本は印刷費のみで購入できます。
ひとつのプランで、ご家庭の最大5人までご利用いただけます

無料で始めます本日のお支払いはありません。初年度は一日あたりUSD 0.14、その後は一日あたりUSD 0.27です。

The Fragments of Basilides in short

The Fragments of Basilides is a small set of surviving passages from an Alexandrian teacher of the age of Hadrian. His own books are lost, so his words come through opponents such as Hippolytus, Clement and Irenaeus. Every passage reaches the reader through layers of summary, copying and editing.

What The Fragments of Basilides is about

What existed before the universe began? Most answers name a god, a force or an empty space. Basilides of Alexandria says there was nothing, and then he takes back even the word was, because that word suggests that something existed.

The Fragments of Basilides gathers the surviving words of this teacher, who worked in Alexandria in the time of the emperor Hadrian, roughly between 117 and 138. His own books are lost, so what remains is quoted or summarized by writers who opposed him, principally Hippolytus, Clement and Irenaeus. You meet four fragments on God, suffering and the soul. You also learn how to read a voice that reaches you through its opponents.

対象読者. You will love this if you enjoy early Christian thought, Platonic philosophy, mystical theology, or the puzzle of voices rescued from lost books.

The 7 key ideas

Key idea 1 · free to read
Basilides teaches in the crossroads city of Alexandria
Basilides is active in Alexandria, Egypt, in the years of the emperor Hadrian, roughly between 117 and 138. The record of his life is thin, and scholars handle most details with care. What lasts is a pattern of ideas that shows how many traditions met in his city.
Alexandria is a place where Greek philosophy, Jewish scripture, Egyptian religion, Persian ideas and the young Christian movement all sit side by side. Schools, synagogues, temples and house churches fill the streets. Educated residents have inherited several accounts of ultimate reality, and some of them clash.
The Middle Platonists picture a ladder of being. At the top stands an ineffable One, beyond all description. Philo of Alexandria reads the Hebrew Bible through this lens and treats the God of Genesis as that One. Basilides inherits this climate of bold blending.
His thought mixes Middle Platonism, the early chapters of Genesis, ideas about light and darkness from Persia, and fresh readings of the gospels. His questions grow from a city where slavery, disease and sudden death make the problem of evil a daily fact. Basilides is a creative Alexandrian who blends philosophy, scripture and Jesus tradition into one daring vision.
2
His words survive only through his critics
The words of Basilides reach the reader by an odd road.
無料で読書を始めます
3
Before everything there is nothing, not even the One
The first fragment opens with a bold claim.
無料で読書を始めます
4
Suffering may be a hidden path of correction
The second fragment turns from the beginning of things to the pain of daily life.
無料で読書を始めます
5
The newborn baby shows why providence stays good
The same fragment goes on with an argument that uses a newborn baby.
無料で読書を始めます
6
The will of God has three parts
The third fragment is the shortest and perhaps the most surprising.
無料で読書を始めます
7
The soul may live before this body, and the voice lasts
The last fragment deals with the soul.
無料で読書を始めます

Read all 7 key ideas now

3 months free, then USD 0.14 a day: unlimited eBooks, audiobooks and summaries, and print and large print at cost.

Nothing to pay today
お支払いの前にメールでお知らせします
オンラインで二回クリックするだけで解約できます

無料で始めます

The whole book is coming to your plan

The full text of The Fragments of Basilides opens soon. Keep this summary as a file today.

Tell me when the book opens

Paperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way. Email me when it is printed

『The Fragments of Basilides』についての質問

Who was Basilides of Alexandria?

Basilides was a Christian teacher active in Alexandria in the time of the emperor Hadrian, roughly 117 to 138. He wrote a large gospel commentary and odes, now lost. His ideas survive in quotations by other early writers.

What does the Gnostic teacher Basilides say about God?

The first fragment pictures a time before anything, with no matter, no angel and not even the One. Later tradition links him with the phrase the non-existent God, meaning a source beyond every name and category of being.

Why do the fragments say people suffer?

One fragment holds that suffering purifies the soul, which may have sinned in a former life. It adds that even an apparently innocent person carries the impulse toward sin, like a newborn baby, so that providence stays good.

Why do we only have fragments of Basilides?

His own books, including the twenty-four-book Exegetica, are lost. His words survive as quotations in works by writers who opposed him, such as Hippolytus, Clement and Irenaeus, so scholars read them with care about who preserved them.

What is the main message of the fragments of Basilides?

The divine lies beyond all names, the will of God loves all and hates nothing, and suffering can serve the soul's purification across more than one life. The passages defend providence while taking human pain seriously.

この版を引用します

Basilides. The Fragments of Basilides. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-basilides-fragments.

Basilides. (2026). The fragments of Basilides. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-basilides-fragments (Original work published ca. 130)

Basilides. The Fragments of Basilides. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-basilides-fragments.

@book{basilides2026fragments,
  author = {Basilides},
  title = {The Fragments of Basilides},
  publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-basilides-fragments},
  note = {First published ca. 130}
}