Stephen Waers: Isaiah 44-45 and Competing Conceptions of Monotheism in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries

Scholars have variously assessed what, if any, relationship there was between Monarchianism and Gnosticism in the late second and early third centuries. In his translation of Adversus Praxean, Earnest Evans concludes that there was no connection between the two, although he offers little evidence to substantiate his assertion. Reinhard M. Hübner, Adolf von Harnack, and others have argued that Monarchianism was at least partially directed against Gnosticism. To date, Hübner's work on the relationship between Monarchianism and Gnosticism has been the most thorough. This paper addresses the relationship between Monarchianism and Gnosticism by analyzing competing interpretations of passages from Isaiah 44-45.
"I am the LORD, and there is no other" is the constant refrain in the polemic against idolatry in Isaiah 44-45. This refrain became an integral piece in debates about monotheism in the late second century. The Apocryphon of John ironically puts these words on the lips of Ialdabaoth, who is unaware that there is in fact another God who is higher than he. Both Contra Noetum and Tertullian's Adversus Praxean attest to the fact that the Monarchians were using these verses in order to support their rigid understanding of monotheism. They deployed this refrain from Isa. 44-45 in order to deny any distinction within the Godhead. By assessing uses of this refrain from Isaiah, I argue that the Monarchians were opposing certain types of Gnostic teaching as well as more mainstream articulations of distinction between the Father and Son.