the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Cerinthus
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Probably Cerinthus was educated in Egypt (Hippol., vii. 7, 33; x. 21 [ed. Duncker]); certainly he taught in proconsular Asia contemporaneously with John, the writer of the Gospel and Epistles, i.e. in the last quarter of the 1st cent. a.d. (Polycarp, quoted in Iren., adv. Haer. iii. iii. 4). Cerinthus is one of the earliest of the Gnostics. The world, he taught, was made not by the Supreme God, but by a Power inferior to, and ignorant of, Him. He denied the virgin birth of Jesus, who was, however, pre-eminent for righteousness, prudence, and wisdom. Ho separated Jesus and Christ. Christ descended on Jesus after baptism and left Him before the crucifixion. Jesus suffered and rose again, but Christ, a pure spirit, was impassible (Iren., adv. Haer. i. xxvi. 1; cf. iii. xi. 1; Hippol., vii. 33, x. 21; Pseudo-Tertullian, adv. omn. Haer. x.).
It is not incredible that Cerinthus judaized to the extent of teaching the obligation of circumcision and the Sabbath (Epiph., Haer. chs. i. and ii., and Philaster). Though Judaizing and Gnosticism afterwards became inconsistent with each other, at Cerinthus’ stage such a limited alliance is not unthinkable. It is, however, his christology that is most important, and it is an interesting query-Is it this that is attacked in 1 John? Beyond doubt St. John has an actual heresy in view; he gives no mere general warning against errors that may arise. The crucial passage is 1 John 4:2-3 a, which, literally translated from the critical texts, reads: ‘Hereby know ye the spirit of God; every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which confesses not Jesus is not of God.’ The use of ‘Jesus’ alone in 1 John 4:3 a makes it almost certain that 1 John 4:2 should be taken to mean ‘confesses Jesus as Christ come in the flesh.’ Thus it is not Docetism that is opposed, but a separation such as Cerinthus made between Jesus and Christ. Further, according to Socrates (HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] vii. 32), ‘confesses not’ in 1 John 4:3 was substituted for an original ‘dissolves’ or ‘disrupts’ (λύει, so Vulgate solvit). If we accept this, the case may be said to be proved. It is exactly the christology of Cerinthus that is attacked. So in 1 John 2:22, the denial that Jesus is Christ can scarcely be the old Jewish denial, but a refusal like that of Cerinthus to identify Jesus with Christ. Again, in 1 John 5:6 ‘blood’ probably refers either to the birth or to the death of Christ, both of which Cerinthus denied. Quite possibly other errors are in St. John’s mind as well as Cerinthianism. Docetism, no doubt, was a real danger, and passages like 1 John 1:1 f. seem to have it in view. But it is probable in the highest degree that it is mainly Cerinthus who is to St. John the enemy of the truth.
The errors dealt with in 1 John had antinomian consequences. According to Gaius of Rome (quoted by Euseb., HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] iii. 28), Cerinthus taught the coming of a millennium of sensual delights. Too much credence, however, is not to be attached to such statements. In early days, as always heretics were readily and rashly painted as moral delinquents, and, as noted above, John may have others besides Cerinthus in view.
Other views have been attributed to Cerinthus, but the evidence is so scanty, confused, and contradictory, that it is not worth while to state them.
Literature.-J. B. Lightfoot, Colossians and Philemon 1:3, London, 1879; H. L. Mansel, The Gnostic Heresies, do. 1875; A. Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte, Leipzig, 1884, p. 411ff.; D. R. A. Lipsius, Zur Quellenkritik d. Epiphanios, Vienna, 1865, p. 328f.; R. Law, The Tests of Life, Edinburgh, 1909, chs. ii. and xiii.; article ‘Cerinthus,’ by A. S. Peake, in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics iii. 318.
W. D. Niven.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Cerinthus'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/c/cerinthus.html. 1906-1918.
