The Apostolic Fathers · AD 70–130 · External witness
Cerinthus
fl. c. 90–100 · Heresiarch of Asia · Asia (Ephesus)
External witness
Who Cerinthus was
The first opponent the church remembered by anecdote as well as doctrine. He taught, Irenaeus reports, that the world was made by a lesser power, that Jesus was Joseph’s son on whom “the Christ” descended at baptism and from whom it departed before the cross — the earliest separationist christology, against which the Johannine insistence that “Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh” reads like a direct answer. Polycarp told the story Irenaeus loved to repeat: John, seeing Cerinthus in the Ephesus bath-house, fled crying, “lest the building fall, for Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” Gaius of Rome even tried to hang Revelation on him — heresy and counter-attribution already entangled by 200.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses and heretics & schismatics.
Common questions
When was Cerinthus active?
Cerinthus is dated fl. c. 90–100 in the archive, which places Cerinthus in the Apostolic Fathers (AD 70–130). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Cerinthus?
Cerinthus is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Irenaeus of Lyon, Gaius of Rome and Epiphanius of Salamis. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Cerinthus from?
The archive associates Cerinthus with Asia (Ephesus).
Who were Cerinthus’ contemporaries?
The archive links Cerinthus to 3 other figures, including John the Apostle, Polycarp of Smyrna and Menander of Samaria. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Against Heresies III.3.4
c. AD 180John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.”Irenaeus of Lyon · III.3.4 · source text
Gaius of Rome, via Ecclesiastical History III.28 (the revelations 'of a great apostle' denounced)
c. AD 200But Cerinthus also, by means of revelations which he pretends were written by a great apostle, brings before us marvelous things which he falsely claims were shown him by angels.Gaius of Rome · Ecclesiastical History III.28 · source text
Panarion 28
c. AD 375Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 30 · Crucifixion, Resurrection and Pentecost, AD 30–33
- AD 44 · Persecution under Herod Agrippa I, AD 44
- AD 49 · The Council of Jerusalem, AD 49
- AD 57 · Paul writes Romans, AD 57
- AD 62 · James the Just stoned, AD 62
- AD 64 · The Great Fire and Nero’s persecution, AD 64
- AD 70 · The fall of Jerusalem, AD 70
- AD 95 · Domitian’s reprisals, AD 95
- AD 96 · Rome writes to Corinth: 1 Clement, AD 96
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Cerinthus.
- 1Asiaprovince only