Cérinthe (heretic)

Cérinthe (in Greek Κήρινθος/ Kerinthos ) is the name of a gnostic Master (or famous such) which would have been contemporary of holy Jean. As for the majority of gnostic, it is very difficult to allot precise doctrines to him, the more so as, in its case, the notes of the heresiologists are particularly confused.

Its origins according to Épiphane

According to Épiphane it would have been born in Alexandria, probably of Jewish parents since it says to us that it was circoncis. It would have received a good education, at the same time philosophical and religious, in its birthplace, then - at the time of apostolic preaching - it would have traversed Palestine before going to Syria and minor Asia.

Cérinthe according to Irenee

The oldest information is in Irenee of Lyon which in fact gnostic in rather general terms, opposing a transcendent and unknowable god to a lower demiurge: “It is not the first god who made the world, but a Power separated by a considerable distance from the Supreme Power which is above all things and ignoring God who is above all”. But Cérinthe distinguishes also Jesus from Christ. Jesus is the son of Joseph and Marie “by a generation similar to that of all the other men”. Simply, by its direction of justice, its prudence and its wisdom, it carries out an exemplary life. To her baptism, Christ, come from the Supreme Power, goes down on him in the form of a dove and it is this Christ who announces the unknown Father and acccomplit miracles. At the end, Christ separates again from Jesus. It is Jesus who suffers, dies and ressuscite; Christ, “owing to the fact that it was pneumatic” impassive remainder.

Cérinthe and Apocalypse

According to Caïus, an obscure Roman author who wrote at the time of the pope Zéphyrin (199-217), Cérinthe would have been chiliaste and believed that during the thousand years of the terrestrial reign of Christ in Jerusalem, the elected officials will live in perpetual “a bridal festival”. Denys of Alexandria specifies until Cérinthe waited of millénium: “He dreamed that this kingdom would consist in the things which it wished, satisfactions of the belly and of what is below the belly… ”.
Denys also reports that, among those which rejected the Apocalypse, some thought that this book could not be of Jean saint, but who it was the work of Cérinthe. Hippolyte affirmed already that such was the opinion of Caïus. Épiphane forges the term of “Alogi” to indicate a current heretic which, by aversion for the Théologie of the Logos, rejects at least the prolog of Jean saint by allotting it to Cérinthe.
It is curious to notice that one finds today, by a complete inversion of the values, amateurs of gnosticism who believe “historically shown” that the Apocalypse, annexed and “bidouillée” by the Christians, is actually the work of gnostic Cérinthe! (an example in the files of this forum).

Other mentions

Contrary to its compatriot and contemporary Caïus, Hippolyte does not know anything Cérinthe, which appears to indicate that nobody claimed himself some in Rome of his time and that it did not find any hétérodoxe to be hung up again there. It is thus satisfied, like it makes in such a case, to summarize the note of Irenee. At most he adds that Cérinthe was formed in Egypt. It was supposed admittedly that Hippolyte would have spoken about it in the lost Syntagma and that Épiphane as Philastre would have been inspired some: but it is only one assumption little probale.
The catalog of pseudo-Tertullien does not know any more. There still, between the mentions of Carpocrate and of Ébionites, the author intercalates only one sentence of summary of Irenee. If Épiphane still knows Ébionites and their descendants, Cérinthiens seem well, of its time, to belong to the past. Later, holy Augustin has only one banal knowledge of it and Théodoret de Cyr depends entirely on the bishop of Salamine.
One came from there to wonder whether Cérinthe did not owe its celebrity with the short note of Irenee and the mania of collector of heresies of Épiphane more than to its doctrines and its real influence. Gennade of Marseilles quotes Cérinthiens well among those which must receive the baptism before being allowed with the Church, but it would be quite imprudent to conclude from it that at the end of the 5th century, they still existed apart from the libraries.

Cérinthe and Apostles

The legend quickly seized the character. One very early embroidered much on his relations with the apostles, in particular with Jean saint.

Irenee himself reports that one day, holy Jean going to the baths to Éphèse, finds Cérinthe there. At once holy Jean leaps out of the thermal baths while exclaiming: “We Save, for fear the thermal baths do not collapse, because inside is Cérinthe, the enemy of the truth! ” This historiette which wants to illustrate the distance that the apostles advise to put between the orthodoxe ones and the heretics, knew an extraordinary fortune. Thanks to Irenee, all Christian Antiquity knows it; Épiphane tells it, but in substituent with Cérinthe legendary the Ébion (Hær. XXX. 24); it even passes, at the 13th century, in the gilded Légende and is thus repeated until the modern time.

Saint Jerome is made the echo of a belief which seems to have been widespread. The bishops of Asia, confronted with the preaching of Cérinthe and its disciples, beg holy Jean to make a development authorized on the divinity of Jesus. Jean orders to request and to fast, then, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it writes the prolog of its Gospel which affirms the Incarnation Verb without ambiguity. For Épiphane, it is all the fourth Gospel which would have been composed to answer Cérinthiens. For others still, it is Apocalyse which holy Jean would have written to rectify their scandalous millenarism.

Philastre de Brescia which writes at the extreme end of the 4th century claims that Cérinthe was condemned by the apostles and was driven out Church. The history of our heretic here is probably contaminated by that of Simon the Magician. But it is apparently same Philastre which discovers as the anathema of the Épître to Gallates (I, 8) is addressed to Cérinthe and its sectateurs. There is the echo at the same time of Épiphane which makes to Galatie the general headquarter of propaganda heretic and that of Caïus for which Cérinthe affirmed to hold its knowledge eschatologic of the revelation of the angels.

At all events, the modern scholars continue to explore this way. For Reicke, Cérinthiens would be rather aimed by the Épîtres to the Corinthians. Others would return more readily to Jean saint and would see the shade of Cérinthe behind the admonitions of the johannic epistles.

A more recent theory would like than Cérinthe is the recipient of the Épître apocryphal book of Jacques of codex I of Nag Hammadi.

Interpretations of Cérinthe

It is seen that our data on Cérinthe are passably confused.

Judeo-Christian…

Épiphane, late witness but informed generally well of the Palestinian traditions, the anchor deeply in the Judeo-Christianity. Cérinthiens are circoncis, respect the Sabbath and the prescritions of Lévitique, recognize only the Gospel of Mathieu… Jewish legalism remains for them a requirement.

Gnostic and docète…

Their gnosticism such as described the Irenee, rather rudimentary, contradicted there not. God of the Jews is not degraded there in lower power; he would be identified rather with the supreme Power. For Épiphane, more explicit, creation is the work of the angels there, authors of the world and the law. There rather than of the pure gnosticism, one could see the demonstration of a Jewish dualism hétérodoxe feeling reluctant to interfere the transcendence God with material creation. Christianity according to Cérinthe goes in the same direction: its Docétisme saves the mission of Jesus all while maintaining the Christ pure of any contact with humanity.

Millenarist…

Its millenarism finally, whose heresiologists perhaps exaggerate the scandalous contents, would rather attach it to the Asian medium. Irenee, itself Asian and chiliaste, do not speak about it, undoubtedly because Cérinthe does not appear heretic from this point of view to him. Among the modern ones, one wanted to distinguish the millenarism “sprirituel” from Irenee of the “carnal” millenarism of Cérinthe. Bo Reicke (quoted by Daniélou) believed to recognize this one in the judgments of Paul against the banquets orgiaques which would have been, in Corinthe and elsewhere, of the demonstrations of “Messianic festivity”, anticipations of the millénium.
A passage of Épiphane seems to indicate that Cérinthiens awaited also the restoration of the Temple and the resumption of the sacrifices. Jean Daniélou then saw Cérinthe like the representative of a Judéo-christianisme “Messianic Zealot” and , beside a Judeo-Christianity ébionite and “essénien”.

Doubts…

But neither Irenee nor Épiphane are here sources above any suspicion. The first, as a theologist anxious to show the unicity of the “gnosis to the lying name”, places Cérinthe between Carpocrate and Ébionites, as link of a chain which goes from primitive and obscene Simon to Valentine, its last representative and the only one where the heresy is spread in all its width. The second is made readily prolix and not very critical compiler when it deals with already old heretics of this East that, in addition, it knows well. It is possible that one distorts our prospect per too much for systematism and that the other distorts it by an excess of Palestinian traditionalism.

Among the modern ones, the ones followed Épiphane until making of Cérinthe an erudite Jew trained at the school of Philon, others went until denying its Judaism. The ones, with the manner of Irenee, make “pre-gnostic”; others seek to supplement the data of Irenee to make gnostic accomplished. In spite of the reinforcement of Denys of Alexandria, one generally hardly makes credit with Caïus which puts the Apocalypse between the hands of a contemporary heretic and privileged adversary of Jean saint. But one also regarded his millenarism even as a pure legend.

Cérinthe can thus take very diverse features. It is seen ultimately that the interpretation which one in fact depends largely on the choice that one makes or not regard it as true gnostic. It thus depends as on the idea as one has origins of the gnosticism. If it is believed that the gnosticism develops in the Judeo-Christianity while feeding with the Jewish heterodoxy, Cérinthe can seem a historically fragile species of synthesis between the sights of Irenee and those of Épiphane. If not, it is nothing any more but one badly definite link between Judeo-Christianity and gnosticism. Can one say some more? The question remains open.

Sources and bibliography

Irenee, Adversus Haereses, I, 26,1 (general note) - III, 3,4 (Jean Saint with the baths) - III, 11,1 (the Gospel of Jean against Cérinthe and the Nicolaïtes) - to also see: III, 16,4-5;
Hippolyte, " Philosophumena, VII, 33;

Jerome, Of viris illustribus" , 9;
Eusèbe, ecclesiastical History , III, 28 (fragm. De Caïus and of Denys);
Épiphane, Panarion , XXVIII - LI, 3 (Alogi);
Théodoret, Hereticorum fabularum compendium, II, 3;
Augustin, De Haeresibus , VIII;
Philastre, Diuersarum hæreson liber , edict. F. Marx, CSEL XXXVIII, Vienna, 1898; or edict. and transl. G. Banterle, Milano-Roma, 1991;
Gennade, De Eccles. Dogmatibus, 22;

Bardy, Gustave. - Cérinthe, in: Biblical review, 30,1921, pp. 344-373;

Bareille, G. - Cérinthe , in: Catholic dictionary of Theology, divides into volumes II/2, 1932;

Daniélou, Jean. - Theology of the Judeo-Christianity . - Paris…, Desclée, 1958 - coll Library of Theology, 1 - (Judeo-Christian chiliaste);

Schwartz, Eduard. - Johannes und Kerinthos , in: Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 5,1962 - (reprod. of an article of 1914);

Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans Martin. - Der Jakobusbrief aus dem Jung Codex, in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 66,1971, pp. 117-130;

Klijn/, A.F.J. and Reinink, G.J. - Patristic Obviousness for Jewish-Christian Sects - Cambridge, 1973 - coll New will Studies, 36;

Pratscher, Wilhelm. - Kerinth , in: Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, Volume III. - Herzberg, 1992 - ISBN 3-88309-035-2 - online version

Hill, Charles E., Cerinthus, Gnostic gold Chiliast?: In New Solution to year Old Problem , in: Newspaper off Early Christian Studies, VIII/2, 2000 - (nonjudaïque)

Cerenthus article of the dictionary of Wace.

----

Random links: