Cerinthus

Cerinthus (c. 100 CE) is a gnostic and to some, an early Christian, who was, in the view of the early Church Fathers, prominent as a "heresiarch".

Contrary to proto-orthodox Christianity, Cerinthus's school follows the Jewish law, uses the Gospel according to the Hebrews, denies that the Supreme God had made the physical world, and denies the divinity of Jesus.

In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ came to Jesus at baptism, guided him in his ministry, but left him at the crucifixion.

He teachesthat Jesus will establish a thousand-year reign of sensuous pleasure after the Second Coming but before the General Resurrection, a view that was declared heretical by the 4th-century Council of Nicaea.

Cerinthus uses a version of the gospel of Matthew as scripture.

Cerinthus teaches at a time when Christianity's relation to Judaism and to Greek philosophy has not yet been clearly defined.

In his association with the Jewish law and his modest assessment of Jesus, he is similar to the Ebionites and to other Jewish Christians.

In defining the world's creator as the demiurge, he matches Greek dualism philosophy and anticipates the Gnostics.

Early Christian tradition describes Cerinthus as a contemporary to and opponent of John the Evangelist, who wrote the First Epistle of John and the Second Epistle of John to warn the less mature in faith and doctrine about the changes he was making to the original gospel.

All that is known about Cerinthus comes from the writing of his theological opponents.