CERINTHUS, one of the first heresiarchs who, according to Saint Irenzus in his work, (Against Heresies,) was contemporary with the evangelist Saint John; but Tertullian and Epi phanius refer him to the time of Hadrian. In Irenmus' work, as also in the (Philosophumena,) attributed variously to Origen and Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, Cerinthus is represented as an alumnus of the pagan philosophical schools of Alexandria; but he broached his heretical doc trines in Asia Minor, and there had a numer ous following. The universe, he taught, is not the work of the First God, but was created by some angelic power far inferior to the supreme power. Jesus he held to be the son of Joseph and Mary, born as other men are born, but excelling all in righteousness, wisdom and understanding. Cerinthus taught also that upon Jesus, after his baptism of John, de scended the Christos from the power which is supreme over all, in the form of a dove, and that then Jesus proclaimed the unknown Father and wrought miracles; but that at the end of the passion the Christos flew away out of Jesus, and Jesus suffered, but that the Christos remained impassible, being the spirit (or breath) of God. Angels play a con
spicuous part in the system of Cennthus. Thus it was an angel, he says, that gave the law to Moses; and the Yahve of Israel was an angel. Gerinthus and his followers entertained a special animosity against Saint Paul and Saint John, and the heresiarch is credited with writ ing an apocalyptic book in rivalry with Saint John. He is said to have been a believer in the millennial reign of the Christ upon the earth. Modern critics consider Cerinthus a Gnostic who, in common with the Jewish Ebionites, held the belief that the Christ was a thing apart, which was with Jesus only during his life and left him at death.