1st century AD Samaritan religious leader and founder of a gnostic Samaritan sect
Dositheos (occasionally also known as Nathanael,[1] both meaning "gift of God") was a Samaritan religious leader. He was the founder of a Samaritan sect often assumed to be Gnostic in nature, and is reputed to have known John the Baptist, and been either a teacher or a rival of Simon Magus.[2]
- ^ William Benjamin Smith, "The Meaning of the Epithet Nazorean", Monist XV:27, 1904.
- ^ "The Dead Sea Scrolls and Primitive Christianity", Jean Danielou, p. 95-96, 1958, Mentor edition 1962