XI - CERINTHUS, ‘BARNABAS,’ JUSTIN MARTYR

Summary

Cerinthus.

If we were to include under Judaistic Christianity every ancient scheme of doctrine which comprised both Christian and Jewish elements, we should have to examine what can be known of Samaritan systems associated with the names of Simon Magus, Dositheus, Cleobius, and Menander. They are however of too eclectic a nature to fall properly under our subject. In another shape, as reflected in late fiction, Simon will come before us presently in connexion with the Clementine literature: but that is quite another matter. On the other hand we can hardly pass over Cerinthus, in spite of the difficulty of gaining a clear conception of his position; for he stands, to say the least, in closer relations to forms of belief strictly Judaistic.

His date

His age, to start with, is curiously involved in contradictions. According to the well known saying of Polycarp reported by Irenæus, twice quoted by Eusebius, he must have lived in St John's time, for St John was said to have fled out of the bath where he was. This early date would be supported or made earlier by the story which Epiphanius repeats, apparently from Hippolytus, that Cerinthus was the ringleader of St Paul's Judaizing antagonists at Jerusalem, if there were the slightest probability of its truth. On the other hand he stands by no means at the beginning in those lists of heretics which contain his name; and he is not mentioned at all by the earlier writers on heresies, Justin or Hegesippus (as far as we know), though the force of their silence is somewhat weakened by the equal silence of Clement and Tertullian later on.