A strange phenomenon of early Christianity flourished for a while in some eastern areas of the Romanempire, notably Thrace and Arabia.
We might call this phenomenon a sect, for its chief characteristic was that its adherents sacrificed bread to Mary and in their worship services only women took part. Attention was called to the existence of this group by the pious monk Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis (315^03) whose book Panarion, the Medicine Chest, discusses eighty heresies, among them this one.
Epiphanius’ work was composed between 374-77 and although the book is a verbose, intolerant, impatient, and often uncritical work, it is still valuable because it preserves for us much basic information from the life of the early Christians.Our study begins with a translation of selected passages from the 79th chapter of the Panarion.' Our analysis of the text begins with a discussion of cereal and bread offerings in the ancient world. We will explore the idea of the ‘‘divine bread” in Greco- Roman and Jewish Christian traditions. We will then turn to a discussion of Jewish sacrifices to the “queen of heaven” as related in the Old Testament. This will lead us to a comparison of such
1 This translation, originally prepared in 1968, was revised by Professor Glenn A. Koch from Eastern Baptist Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa. The translation is based on the Greek text of K. Holl in Die Griechischen- Christlichen Schriflsleller der ersten Jahrhunderte. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1933, vol. 37, pp. 475-484. The numbers before the paragraphs correspond to the numbers found in this edition. Prior to this thorough rebuttal, Epiphanius briefly mentioned this sect in his Panarion 13.23 and in his Ancoratus 13.8. If the Anakephalaiosis is his work, which is doubtful, then a brief reference here should also be counted. I omitted the complete text because while I wrote this book EJ. Brill announced the publication of an English translation of the complete Panarion, by F. Williams, as part of the Nag Hammadi Studies Series. The first volume appeared under the following title: Frank Williams, The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book I (Sects. 1-46). Nag Hammadi Studies 35. Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1987. There is also a translation in Ross S. Kraemer (ed), Meanads, Martyrs, Matrons Monastics: A Source book on Women's Religions in the Greco Roman World. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988, pp. 51-58.
sacrifice with the practices of the Kollyridians, the women who offered sacrifice to the Virgin Mary.