The Book of Elchesai

[marduk]

Elchesaites

Hippolytus of Rome (c.230) reports that a Jewish Christian, Alcibiades of Apamea, appeared in Rome teaching from a book which he claimed to be the revelation which a righteous man, Elchesai, had received from an angel. Though Hippolytus suspected that Alcibiades was himself the author.[112] Shortly afterwards Origen records a group, the Elchesaites, with the same beliefs.[113] Epiphanius claimed the Ebionites also used this book as a source for some of their beliefs and practices (Panarion 30.17).[26][114][115] Epiphanius explains the origin of the name Elchesai to be Aramaic Hayil Kesai, meaning "Hidden Power" (Panarion 19.2.2). Scholar Petri Luomanen believes the book to have been written originally in Aramaic as a Jewish apocalypse, probably in Babylonia, in 116-117.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites

The angel was said to be of giant stature, much like the description by Aisha of Gabriel in the hadith in which she says that he filled the whole horizon. So it appears that Muhammad modeled himself on the Seal of the Prophets Mani, and then modeled his book the Quran on the Book of Elchesai. I really don't think Muhammad had an original idea in his whole body.

Hippolytus 10.9

— The doctrine of this Callistus having been noised abroad throughout the entire world, a cunning man, and full of desperation, one called Alcibiades, dwelling in Apamea, a city of Syria, examined carefully into this business. And considering himself a more formidable character, and more ingenious in such tricks, than Callistus, he repaired to Rome; and he brought some book, alleging that a certain just man, Elchasai, had received this from Serae, a town of Parthia, and that he gave it to one called Sobiai. And the contents of this volume, he alleged, had been revealed by an angel whose height was 24 schoenoi, which make 96 miles, and whose breadth is 4 schoenoi, and from shoulder to shoulder 6 schoenoi; and the tracks of his feet extend to the length of three and a half schoenoi, which are equal to fourteen miles, while the breadth is one schoenos and a half, and the height half a schoenos. And he alleges that also there is a female with him, whose measurement, he says, is according to the standards already mentioned. And he asserts that the male (angel) is Son of God, but that the female is called Holy Spirit. By detailing these prodigies he imagines that he confounds fools, while at the same time he utters the following sentence: "that there was preached unto men a new remission of sins in the third year of Trajan's reign."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades_of_Apamea

Narrated Aisha: "Whoever claimed that (the Prophet) Muhammad saw his Lord, is committing a great fault, for he only saw Gabriel in his genuine shape in which he was created covering the whole horizon. (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Beginning of Creation, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 457)"

Narrated Masruq: "I asked Aisha 'What about His Statement:-- 'Then he (Gabriel) approached And came closer, And was at a distance Of but two bow-lengths Or (even) nearer?' (53.8-9) She replied, 'It was Gabriel who used to come to the Prophet in the figure of a man, but on that occasion, he came in his actual and real figure and (he was so huge) that he covered the whole horizon.' (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Beginning of Creation, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 458)"

http://www.angelfire.com/bug/answering/holy_spirit.htm

How many more of these kind of discoveries do Muslims need before they will accept the truth? Nobody had ever described Gabriel, or any other angel, as being of giant size. Now we find this instance of ANOTHER angel being described in exactly that way several centuries before Muhammad. Only two known instances in all of history of an angel being described as giant, the Book of Elchasai, brought to mankind by the giant angel, and the Islamic hadith, Muhammad's own wife describing just such a giant angel as the being who brought the Quran to mankind. Is anybody naive enough to actually believe that there was no connection?

The quote below sounds a lot like Muhammad.

The book of Elchesai—who is said to have “preached unto men a new remission of sins, in the
third year (101 AD) of Trajan’s reign”—or The Hidden power was written about 100 AD and
brought to Rome about 217 AD by Alcibiades of Apamea (Syria). Hippolytus (H 9:8,12)
denounced his teaching of Elchasai, from the book, as that of “a wolf risen up in our own day
against many wandering sheep, whom Callistus had scattered abroad”, and said many “became
victims of the delusion”. Less than two centuries after Jesus, Roman Christians had forgotten
their origins, or pretended to do so, as too embarrassing. The book was said to have been in
imitation of Callistus. It was the book of the Elchesaites, or Symmachiani in the west, those who
accepted a new baptism. Little is known about them. Their influence might be traceable amongst
the Mandeans.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13402716/3-Jewish-Nationalism

This Alcibiades, who made a new religion based on the Book of Elchasai, had his followers engage in circumcision and his religion was a mix of Judaism, Christianity and paganism. Sound familiar? These guys were popping up like mushrooms. Muhammad was just the most successful at it. He was more cunning and devious than the rest. They hadn't thought of buying followers with promises of booty and child sex slaves, apparently very effective on Arab and Pak men. Aside from that, same story.

The claim by Muslims that Islam is the greatest religion ever is pretty funny now. After reading about Mani, Callistus and Alcibiades, we now can only pity the Arabs and Paks for the embarrassment of actually basing their entire lives on this "Islam" thing, which is now known to be just the last in a long line of such schemes, Zarathustra probably being the first. The difference is that the Arabs and Paks were the only ones to actually KEEP falling for the scam for any great length of time.