Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Number of quotes: 18
Book ID: 213 Page: 17
Section: 2B1,2D3B
Then there is a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is still teaching his converts that there is another God greater than the Fashioner. By the help of the demons he has made many in every race of men to blaspheme and to deny God the Marker of the universe, professing that there is another who is greater and has done greater things than he.. . . .
Whether they commit the shameful deeds about which stories are told – the upsetting of the lamp, promiscuous intercourse, and the meals of human flesh, we do not know; but we are sure that they are neither prosecuted nor killed by you, on account of their teachings anyway.
Quote ID: 5232
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 213 Page: 34/35
Section: 5D
4.1. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.1. Lyons, ca. A.D. 190.. . . .
Jesus, he suggested, was not born of a virgin, for that seemed to him impossible, but was the son of Joseph and Mary, just like all the rest of men but far beyond them in justice and prudence and wisdom.
Quote ID: 5233
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 213 Page: 35
Section: 5D
4.2. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.21. Rome, ca. A.D. 230.. . . .
And he supposed that Jesus was not generated from a virgin, but that he was born son of Joseph and Mary, just in a manner similar with the rest of men,
Quote ID: 5234
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 213 Page: 35
Section: 2D3B
And Cerinthus alleges that, after the baptism of our Lord, Christ in form of a dove came down upon him, from that absolute sovereignty which is above all things. And then, according to this heretic, Jesus proceeded to preach the unknown Father, and in attestation of his mission to work miracles.
Quote ID: 5235
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 51/52
Section: 5D
6.2. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 3.2.5, 10. Alexandria, ca. A.D.200.. . . .
After they have sated their appetites (“on repletion Cypris, the goddess of love, enters,” as it is said), then they overturn the lamps and so extinguish the light that the shame of their adulterous “righteousness” is hidden, and they have intercourse where they will and with whom they will.
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Clement
Quote ID: 5236
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 213 Page: 52
Section: 2B1,2D3B
Hippolytus gives essentially the same information about the Carpocratians as Irenaeus. He makes additional claims, however, on the Carpocration teaching concerning Christ, who came down upon Jesus from the superior God,PJ: non-Trinitarian
Quote ID: 5237
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 213 Page: 56
Section: 2B1,2D3B
7.1. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.24.1-2. Lyons, ca. A.D. 190.. . . .
According to Irenaeus, the highest God for Saturninus is “unknown to all” and can be known only by revelation through Christ to believers – persons who have “the spark of life in them.”
Quote ID: 5238
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 213 Page: 101
Section: 2D3B
When Justin wrote his First Apology (ca. A.D. 155), he said that Marcion’s followers could be found in every nation (1.26).
Quote ID: 5239
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 106
Section: 3D1
1.1.6 Marcion’s followers cannot deny that his faith at first agreed with ours, for his own letter proves it: so that without further ado that man can be marked down as a heretic, or “chooser,” who, forsaking what had once been, has chosen for himself that which previously was not. For that which is of later importation must needs be reckoned heresy, precisely because that has to be considered truth which was delivered of old and from the beginning.
Quote ID: 5240
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 213 Page: 117
Section: 2D3B
13.1. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 47. Rome, ca. A.D. 155-60. Source: Saint Justin Martyr, trans. T. B. Falls, 218-19.. . . .
“But,” Trypho again objected, “if a man knows that what you say is true, and, professing Jesus to be the Christ, believes in and obeys Him, yet desires also to observe the commandments of the Mosaic Law, shall he be saved?”
“In my opinion,” I replied, “I say such a man will be saved, unless he exerts every effort to influence other men (I have in mind the Gentiles whom Christ circumcised from all error) to practice the same rites as himself, informing them that they cannot be saved unless they do so. You yourself did this at the opening of our discussion, when you said that I would not be saved unless I kept the Mosaic precepts.”
Quote ID: 5241
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 127
Section: 2D3A
The Montanist movement arose in an environment where a decline in the intensity of Christian charismatic experience corresponded with an increasing turn toward a structured episcopate.. . . .
He and his two principal followers (both women) were reported to speak in strange sounds with angels and sometimes with Jesus himself.
Quote ID: 5242
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 136
Section: 2B1,2D3B
Dynamic Monarchianism holds the view that Jesus was a mere man, who was indeed born of Mary and the Holy Spirit, but to whom a great power (dynamis) was given at his baptism.
Quote ID: 5245
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 213 Page: 139/140
Section: 3A1B
Nor need we judge the way this charlatan juggles with church assemblies, courting popularity and putting on a show to win the admiration of simple souls, as he sits on the dais and lofty throne he has had constructed for him (how unlike a disciple of Christ!) or in the secretum, as he calls it, which he occupies in imitation of the rulers of the world.. . . .
When Paul had lost both the orthodoxy of his faith and his bishopric, Domnus, as already stated, took over the ministry of the Antioch church. But Paul absolutely refused to hand over the church building; so the Emperor Aurelian was appealed to, and he gave a perfectly just decision on the course to be followed: he ordered the building to be assigned to those to whom the bishops of the religion in Italy and Rome addressed a letter. In this way the man in question was thrown out of the church in the most ignominious way by the secular authority.
Quote ID: 5247
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 213 Page: 152
Section: 2E4
“Quartodecimans” (or “Fourteenthers”) is a designation for a group of Christians, primarily in Asia Minor in the second century A.D., who celebrated a Christian Passover-including a commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection-on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month called Nisan. In so doing, they followed the chronology of the Gospel of John regarding the day of Jesus’ death (14 Nisan). Their fasting ended on that day and was followed by an Easter vigil in the evening. This practice resulted in the celebration of Easter on any day of the week (on whatever day 14 Nisan occurred). Meanwhile, the custom had emerged in Rome of always celebrating Easter on a Sunday in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection on a Sunday. The discrepancy gave rise to what has been called the “Easter Controversy.”. . . .
it is the first recognizable illustration of the rise of the power of the Roman episcopate.
Quote ID: 5248
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 153
Section: 2E4
18.1. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 8.11. Rome, ca. A.D. 230.. . . .
[But in this] they only regard what has been written in the law, that he will be accursed who does not so keep [the commandment] as it is enjoined. They do not, however, attend to this [fact], that the legal enactment was made for Jews, who in times to come should kill the real Passover. And this [paschal sacrifice, in its efficacy,] has spread unto the Gentiles, and is discerned by faith, and not now observed in letter [merely]. They attend to this one commandment, and do not look unto what has been spoken by the apostle: “For I testify to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to keep the whole law” [[Gal. 5:3]]. In other respects, however, these consent to all the traditions delivered to the Church by the Apostles.
Quote ID: 5249
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 213 Page: 153/154
Section: 2E4
18.2. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.23-25. Caesarea, ca. A.D. 325.. . . .
24. The Asian bishops who insisted that they must observe the custom transmitted to them long ago were headed by Polycrates, who in the letter which he wrote to Victor and the Roman church set out in the following terms the tradition that he had received:
We for our part keep the day scrupulously, without addition or subtraction. For in Asia great luminaries sleep who shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s advent, when He is coming with glory from heaven and shall search out all His saints-such as Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis with two of his daughters, who remained unmarried to the end of their days, while his other daughter lived in the Holy Spirit and rests in Ephesus. Again there is John, who leant back on the Lord’s breast, and who became a sacrificing priest wearing the mitre, a martyr, and a teacher; he too sleeps in Ephesus.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: What?!
Quote ID: 5250
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
Thereupon Victor, head of the Roman church, attempted at one stroke to cut off from the common unity all the Asian dioceses, together with the neighbouring churches,. . . .
We still possess the words of these men, who very sternly rebuked Victor. Among them was Irenaeus, who wrote on behalf of the Christians for whom he was responsible in Gaul. While supporting the view that only on the Lord’s Day might the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection be celebrated, he gave Victor a great deal of excellent advice, in particular that he should not cut off entire churches of God because they observed the unbroken tradition of their predecessors. This is how he goes on:
The dispute is not only about the day, but also about the actual character of the fast. Some think that they ought to fast for one day, some for two, others for still more; some make their “day” last forty hours on end. Such variation in the observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers,
Quote ID: 5251
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 213 Page: 157/158
Section: 2E4
18.3. Epiphanius, Panarion 50.1.1-8; 50.3.2-4. Salamis, Cyprus, A.D. 375-78.. . . .
[1.4] But their great failure is that they hold to the statement in the law: “Cursed is he who does not keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.” [1.5]
. . . .
[3.2] …But God’s holy church observes not only the fourteenth day, but also the seventh day which recurs cyclically [in the] order of the seven days of the week, so that the feast of the Resurrection may occur [as] it did originally, according to the things accomplished by the Lord.
Quote ID: 5252
Time Periods: 34
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