Basilides, one of the foremost Gnostic teachers, lived in Alexandria during the first half of the second century.
Basilides again, that he may appear to have discovered something more sublime and plausible, gives an immense development to his doctrines. He sets forth that Nous was the First-Born of the Unborn Father. Then he says that from him was born Logos; from Logos, Phronesis; from Phronesis, Sophia and Dynamis. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.349.
[THE TEACHING OF BASILIDES:] The chief of the angels is he who is thought to be the God of the Jews. And inasmuch as he desired to render the other nations subject to his own people, that is, the Jews, all the other princes resisted and opposed him. Therefore, all other nations were at enmity with his nation. The Father without birth and without name, perceiving that they would be destroyed, sent his own First-Begotten Nous (He it is who is called Christ) to bestow deliverance on those who believe in Him, from the power of those who made the world. Christ appeared, then, on earth as a man, to the nations of these powers, and He worked miracles. For that reason, He did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being forced, carried the cross in his place. Christ changed the appearance of this Simon, so that Simon might be thought to be Jesus. Therefore, Simon was crucified, through ignorance and error. In the meanwhile, Jesus himself took on the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.349.
The hypothesis of Basilides says that the soul, having sinned previously in another life, endures punishment in this life. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.424.
It was later, in the time of Hadrian the king, that there arose those who invented the heresies. And they extended to the age of Antoninus the elder. One example is Basilides—although he claims Glaucias, the interpreter of Peter, was his master. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.555.
. . . contending with Marcion and Basilides that [the body of Christ] possessed no reality. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.546.
[Basilides says] the light . . . descended from the hebdomad upon Jesus, the son of Mary, and He had radiance imparted to Him by being illuminated with the light that shone upon Him. Hippolytus (c. 225, W), 5.108; see also 2.355, 2.371–2.372, 2.423; extended discussion: