Early Heresies in Christianity: Gnosticism to Nestorianism
First Heresies of Christianity
What is Heresy?
The term “heresy” comes from the Greek heresis (choice), which appears in Sacred Scripture in the sense of a group, faction, or even division. In this sense, it already acquired a negative character and conviction in the early days of the Church.
The Code of Canon Law states that “Heresy is the obstinate denial, after receiving baptism, of some truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or an obstinate doubt concerning the same.”
Do not confuse heresy, which we defined earlier as “obstinate post-baptismal denial of a truth that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or an obstinate doubt concerning the same,” with apostasy, which is “the total rejection of the Christian faith,” or with schism, which is “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”
Why Does Heresy Arise?
Heresy arises from a misjudgment of intelligence. If the misjudgment does not refer to truths of faith defined as such, but to elements of it on which there is no regulation or official pronunciation, the error becomes heresy.
Already in the Second Letter of Peter, it was prophesied with great success about the nature and effects of heresies: “There will be false teachers among you, who will introduce pernicious heresies, denying the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”
Some Highlights of the First Heresies
Gnosticism
Prevailed especially between the 1st and 3rd centuries.
The name comes from the Greek gnosis (knowledge). The members of this movement claimed the existence of a special kind of knowledge, superior to that of ordinary believers and, in a sense, to that of the faith itself. This knowledge supposedly led to salvation.
The Gnostic systems of thought were erected by linking Jewish and pagan doctrines with revelation and Christian dogmas.
They professed a dualism in which evil was identified with matter, meat, or passions, and good with a pneumatic substance or spirit.
Artotyritas
They were characterized, among other things, by using bread and cheese in the sacrament of the Eucharist. They assumed that this was what the first men offered to God, as Genesis says, the fruits of the earth and animals: bread, the fruit of the earth, and cheese made from sheep’s milk.
They admitted women to the priesthood and the episcopate. Epiphanius describes ceremonies during which seven women dressed in white entered the temple grounds with torches in hand.
Abelians or Abelites
A 4th-century sect that spread through North Africa.
They imitated Abel, taking him as a symbol of innocence and chastity. They married but did not consummate the marriage.
To maintain the continuity of their movement, they resorted to the adoption of children, whom they bequeathed, placing a condition that they further work in the sect.
Cainites
They taught that there is a supreme being superior to the Creator of this world, whom they called the Demiurge. Cain, the son of a higher God, would be superior to Abel, the son of a lower God. Therefore, they revered Cain.
They said that Judas had been endowed with prescience and that Christ was betrayed because he had volunteered as a victim of eternal punishment for everyone to be saved.
They followed the “Gospel of Judas.”
Ebionites
Followers of Epiphanius of Ebion.
A Judaizing movement, attached to the Mosaic law, observant of the Sabbath, and practicing circumcision.
They did not recognize the New Testament, other than the Gospel of Matthew, and not all of it.
To them, Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary. By his virtue alone, he had risen to be the son of God and perhaps a prophet; he was the expected Messiah.
The orthodox were accused of surrendering to polygamy.
Macedonians
A Christian sect named after the Macedonian bishop of Constantinople, deposed in 360. They denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit and admitted only two persons in the Trinity.
Nestorians
A heresy that arose in the 5th century by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople.
They denied the union of the divine and human natures of Christ; therefore, they claimed that Mary was only the mother of Jesus and not of God.
They did not recognize the authority of the Bishop of Rome and preached the simple life of the apostles.
Also known as “Assyrian Christians.” It was found that Muhammad encountered them on his travels.
They survived in India after the Portuguese occupation (16th century). The majority embraced the Catholic faith and adopted the name Chaldeans.
Aquatics
Influenced by Thales, they argued that water was initially co-eternal with God, and He had taken all beings from it.