CERINTHUS Matti Myllykoski As Many Other So-Called Heretics,1

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CERINTHUS

Matti Myllykoski

As many other so-called heretics,1 Cerinthus is known to us only through the writings of those mainstream Christian teachers who had nothing good to say about him. Furthermore, none of these critics were contemporary with this disputed ﬁgure of early second- century Christianity in Asia Minor. In the hindsight of later cen- turies, Simon Magus and Nicolaus were considered the earliest enemies of orthodox Christianity since they were known by name from writings that were claimed to be apostolic (Acts 8:5–25; Acts 6:5; Rev 2:6, 14, 20–24). After them, together with Simon’s disciple Menander, Cerinthus is the earliest heretic mentioned in sources outside the New Testament. Only a few decades after his death he was imag- ined to belong to the earliest period of the church. In the opening lines of the Epistula Apostolorum, which was written in the middle of the second century, Simon Magus and Cerinthus are mentioned as the main opponents of the apostles.2 However, in Ep. Apos. there are no explicit references to the disputed teachings of Cerinthus.3 We

1 Here and elsewhere, I have left out the quotation marks that this term would deserve. 2 Charles E. Hill has strengthened the case for locating the Epistula Apostolorum in Asia Minor (Hill, “The Epistula Apostolorum: An Asian Tract from the Time of Polycarp,” JECS 7 (1993): 1–53). The reference to Cerinthus together with the arch-heretic Simon Magus is just one of arguments that favor such an assumption. The author of the Epistula relies strongly on the Gospel of John, bears witness to the Quartodeciman Easter (Ep. Apos. 15) and shows notable affinities with other contemporary Christian texts from Asia Minor. Furthermore, Hill demonstrates that the discourse that tells about earthquakes and plagues (Ep. Apos. 34–37) is much easier to locate in this geographical context than in Egypt or Syria. On the basis of references to these natural disasters, Hill assumes that Ep. Apos. was written “in the wake of one or more earthquakes of the 140’s, any of which could have been attended by drought and followed by an outbreak of disease” (p. 49). 3 There are some possible implicit references to Christological heresies that might include the Cerinthian type, notably the emphasis on the incarnation (Ep. Apos. 14), the idea that it was Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate (ch. 9; cf. ch. 8), and on the identity of the risen Jesus with the Savior (ch. 10). However, there is no indication of criticism against a separation between the highest God and the Creator God. The teaching on the resurrection of the flesh 213-246 6/11/08 12:52 PM Page 214

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can therefore assume that the storm around his heresy already belonged to a relatively distant past. In our earliest sources, there are two different images of Cerinthus. In the west, Irenaeus, Hippoytus and Pseudo-Tertullian portrayed him as a heterodox teacher that proclaimed “knowledge falsely so called.” The key passage of Irenaeus runs as follows (Haer. 1.26.1): A certain Cerinthus, then in Asia taught that the world was not made by the Supreme God, but by a certain Power highly separated and far removed from that Principality who transcended the universe, and which is ignorant of the one who is above all, God. He suggested that Jesus was not born of a virgin (because that seemed to him impossi- ble), but that he was the son of Joseph and Mary, in the same way as all other men but he was more versed in righteousness, prudence and wisdom than other men. And after his baptism, Christ descended upon him from that Principality that is above all in the form of a dove. And then he proclaimed the unknown Father and performed miracles. But at last Christ flew again from Jesus; Jesus suffered and rose again while Christ remained impassible, being a spiritual being.4 In the east, Eusebius of Caesarea also placed Cerinthus in the apostolic times. He drew upon two earlier texts of the Roman Gaius and the Alexandrian bishop Dionysius, who vehemently opposed chiliastic expectations of Montanists and others in the first half of the third century. They both mocked Cerinthus as a man who cherished earthy chiliastic expectations. The passage of Gaius runs as follows (Hist. eccl. 3.28.2): But Cerinthus also, by means of revelations, said to be written by a great apostle, brings before us miraculous things in a deceitful way, saying that they were revealed to him by angels. And he says that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be set up on earth, and that in Jerusalem the body will again serve as the instrument of desires and pleasures. And since he is an enemy of the divine Scriptures and sets out to deceive, he says that there will be a marriage feast lasting a thousand years.5 To begin with, this passage demonstrates that some Roman Christians at the beginning of the third century knew Cerinthus as a chiliast

with the soul, the healing of the ﬂesh, and the eternal rest of the true believers (ch. 25–26) may be read as criticism directed against chiliasm. For a survey, see also Cristoph Markschies, “Kerinth: Wer war er und was lehrte er?” JAC (1998), 68–69. 4 Translation by Klijn and Reinink, Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects. (NovTSup 36; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973), 103, 105. 5 Translation by Klijn and Reinink, Patristic Evidence, 141.