Bardesanes

Bardesanes (properly, Bar-Daisan), a Syrian, the 'last of the Gnostics,' was born at Edessa in 154, and died in 222. He diffused his opinions through the medium of hymns, of which he is reckoned the earliest writer in Syria. These hymns, fragments of which are still extant, exhibit a rich and pure fancy. His Gnosis was not purely dualistic. He did not consider evil the eternal coefficient of good, but merely the result of a temporary reaction of matter on spirit. Yet, inexplicably enough, he maintained the devil to be a self-existent, independent being. He denied the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and in conformity with such a conviction, asserted that Christ's body was not real, but only an illusive image brought down from heaven. See Hilgenfeld's Bardesanes (1864).