Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Prodicus, a Gnostic teacher
Prodicus, a Gnostic teacher of 2nd cent., concerning whom trustworthy
information is very scanty. He is not mentioned by the principal writers on
heresies, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, or Philaster. Tertullian twice mentions
him (Scorpiace 15; adv. Prax. 3), both times in company with Valentinus,
in such a way as to suggest that he regarded the two heretics as of the same
school. In the first passage Prodicus and Valentinus are spoken of as teaching
that Christ did not wish His disciples to confess Him publicly if that would
expose their lives to danger; in the second they are described as introducing
in opposition to the Creator, not a single rival god like Marcion, but a multiplicity
of gods. Our only other trustworthy information about Prodicus is in three notices
by Clement of Alexandria. The first (Strom. i. 15, p. 359) states that
those who followed the heresy of Prodicus boasted of possessing secret books
of Zoroaster. Apparently in Clement's time Prodicus was dead, but a sect founded
by him still in existence. Strom.. vii. 7, p. 854 states that his followers
objected to the practice of prayer. Clement does not state their grounds of
objection. The most characteristic notice of the sect is (ib. iii. 4,
p. 525) that his followers who claim to be Gnostics (falsely so called) declare
that they are by nature children of the first god, and privileged by their noble
birth
to live as they choose, being "lords of the Sabbath," and "as king's children above the law"; and living "as they chose" meant living very licentiously.
For further information we have to come down to the 5th cent. to Theodoret (Haer. Fab. i. 6), who seems to have no knowledge of Prodicus except from Clement, whom he quotes, mixing up, however, some of the things which Clement says about other licentious Gnostic sects; e.g. it seems an unauthorized combination of Theodoret's to connect Prodicus with Carpocrates, and we may reject as equally arbitrary Theodoret's assertion that he founded the sect of the Adamites, of which Theodoret would have read in Epiphanius (Haer. 52).
[G.S.]