Cerinthus

Jewish Gnostic heretic, born in Alexandria. He is said to have lived in Ephesus contemporaneously with the aged apostle John.

Cerinthus was the leader of a late first-century or early 2nd century sect, an offshoot of the Ebionites yet similar to Gnosticism in some respects, interesting in that it demonstrates the wide range of conclusions that could be drawn from the life and teachings of Jesus. Cerinthus is noted in the early history of the Christian church as being a heresiarch or leader of a heretical sect ('arch-heretic' is a common but mistaken translation). By the time we have the most detailed accounting of Cerinthus' teachings, from Epiphanius in the 4th century, the accounts are all second- and third-hand hearsay and not reliable, as the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) notes.

The earliest surviving account of Cerinthus is that in Irenæus' refutation of Gnosticism, Adversus haereses (I: xxvi; According to Irenæus, Cerinthus, a man educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians, claimed angelic inspiration.

Cerinthus distinguished between the man Jesus and the Christ. Cerinthus is also said to have taught that Jesus will be raised from the dead at the Last Day, when all men will rise with Him.

Cerinthus believed in a happy millennium which would be realized here on earth previous to the resurrection and the spiritual kingdom of God in heaven.

According to Irenaeus, Polycarp told the story that St. John the Divine, in particular, is said to have so feared Cerinthus that he once fled a bathhouse when he found out Cerinthus was inside, yelling "Let us flee, lest the building fall down; for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside!"

Among the teachings of Cerinthus that were in opposition to the apostles and other early church fathers:

A lesser deity created the physical world Jesus the man and "Christ" the godly spirit were not one in the same Justification by works, in particular the ceremonial observances of Judaism.

Cerinthus may be the alleged recipient of the Apocryphon of James (codex I, text 2 of the Nag Hammadi library), although the name written is largely illegible. A second- or third-century heretical Christian sect (later dubbed the "Alogi") alleged Cerinthus was the true author of the the Gospel of John and Book of Revelation. from these it seems clear that Caius maintained that the Apocalypse of John was a work of the Gnostic Cerinthus."