For the town in ancient Euboea, see Cerinthus (Euboea).
Cerinthus (Greek: Κήρινθος, romanized: Kērinthos; fl. c. 50-100 CE) was an early Gnostic, who was prominent as a heresiarch in the view of the early Church Fathers.[1] Contrary to the Church Fathers, he used the Gospel of Cerinthus, and denied that the Supreme God made the physical world.[1][2] In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ descended upon Jesus at baptism and guided him in ministry and the performing of miracles, but left him at the crucifixion.[3][4] Similarly to the Ebionites, he maintained that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was a mere man, the biological son of Mary and Joseph.[5]
Early Christian tradition describes Cerinthus as a contemporary to and opponent of John the Evangelist, who may have written the First Epistle of John[6] and the Second Epistle of John to warn the less mature in faith and doctrine about the changes Cerinthus was making to the original gospel. According to early Christian sources, the Apostle John wrote his gospel specifically to refute the teachings of Cerinthus.[7][8]
All that is known about Cerinthus comes from the writing of his theological opponents.
^ abSee, in particular, Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, Book I, III and relative External links
^Hill, Charles E. (2006). From the Lost Teachings of Polycarp: Identifying Irenaeus' Apostolic Presbyter and the Author of As Diognetum. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 28–30. ISBN 3-16-148699-4.
^Gundry, Robert (2012). A Survey of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. pp. 536, 539. ISBN 978-0-310-49474-4.
^Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.26.1
^Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.26.2
^1 John 2:18, 19; 4:3
^Hill (2006), pp. 29, 30 citing Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.11.1
^Baukham, Richard (2007). The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History, and Theology in the Gospel of John. Baker Publishing Group. p. 67.
Church Fathers, he used the Gospel of Cerinthus, and denied that the Supreme God made the physical world. In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ descended...
The Gospel of Cerinthus is a lost gospel used by Cerinthus and by Carpocrates. According to Epiphanius, this is a Jewish Gospel or Gnostic Gospel identical...
addressed to Cerinthus. Cerinthus was most likely a pseudonym, in the style of the day (like Catullus's Lesbia and Propertius's Cynthia). Cerinthus has sometimes...
genuine account". Fabricius supposes that Merinthus and Cerinthus are the same person and that Cerinthus was changed into Merinthus by the way of banter or...
conceptions". Epiphanius argues that Cerinthus could not have written the Gospel of John because whereas Cerinthus denied the deity of Christ, the Gospel...
holds that the Gospel of John was written to counter the teachings of Cerinthus, which he holds was influenced by the Nicolaitans. Later, Augustine of...
love, Venus, to make sure that Cerinthus is never unfaithful but loves her with mutual love. She begs that Cerinthus himself may pray for the same thing...
According to Epiphanius of Salamis, writing between 374 and 377, the gnostic Cerinthus (1st-2nd centuries) believed that Jesus Christ "ha[d] not yet risen but...
a role in their ceremonies. Cerinthus (c. 100), the founder of a school with gnostic elements. Like a Gnostic, Cerinthus depicted Christ as a heavenly...
because they absolutely denied our Lord's divinity at the instigation of Cerinthus. Of these Luke [recte 1 John] said, They went out from us, but they were...
perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the...
confirmed by Hippolytus of Rome, makes Irenaeus state that according to Cerinthus (who shows Ebionite influence), creation was made by a power quite separate...
of Revelation could have been written by Cerinthus although he himself did not adopt the view that Cerinthus was the writer. He regarded the Apocalypse...
Thomas Marcion Nicodemus Peter Barnabas Lost gospels Bartholomew Matthias Cerinthus Basilides Mani Gospel of the Hebrews Apocalypses Paul Peter Pseudo-Methodius...
void and unreality of mere phenomena (kenoma, Iren. I. iv. 1). Thus in Cerinthus it expressed the fulness of the Divine Life out of which the Divine Christ...
doctrine, refuting Gnosticism and docetism. The teachings of the Gnostics Cerinthus and Simon Magus are denounced as false. In the debate on the nature of...
Thomas Marcion Nicodemus Peter Barnabas Lost gospels Bartholomew Matthias Cerinthus Basilides Mani Gospel of the Hebrews Apocalypses Paul Peter Pseudo-Methodius...
Winker quoted Ron Rhodes that Steiner's Christology is very similar to Cerinthus. Steiner did perceive "a distinction between the human person Jesus, and...
Thomas Marcion Nicodemus Peter Barnabas Lost gospels Bartholomew Matthias Cerinthus Basilides Mani Gospel of the Hebrews Apocalypses Paul Peter Pseudo-Methodius...
concerning the love of Sulpicia for a certain Cerinthus. These are often known as the Garland of Sulpicia or the Cerinthus-Sulpicia cycle. Three of them (3.8, 3...
K. Winker quoted Ron Rhodes that Steiner had the same Christology as Cerinthus. Indeed, Steiner thought that Jesus and Christ were two separated beings...
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