The Rise of Heresy in the 2nd Century (Part 2)

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

Last week, we summarized the false teachings that infiltrated Christianity in the mid-second century (click HERE to read part 1). In this article, we will discuss specific teachers and their doctrines. Some of their teachings have lasted down to our present time in some form.

Among the first false teachers to arise in the second century were Saturninus and Basilides, who began to spread heresy during the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) and continued to do so into the reign of Antonius (138-161 AD). A Christian witness of this time, Irenaeus, wrote about their errors:

“Arising among these men, Saturninus (who was of that Antioch which is near Daphne) and Basilides laid hold of some favourable opportunities, and promulgated different systems of doctrine — the one in Syria, the other at Alexandria…He has also laid it down as a truth, that the Saviour was without birth, without body, and without figure, but was, by supposition, a visible man; and he maintained that the God of the Jews was one of the angels; and, on this account, because all the powers wished to annihilate his father, Christ came to destroy the God of the Jews, but to save such as believe in him…This heretic was the first to affirm that two kinds of men were formed by the angels — the one wicked, and the other good. And since the demons assist the most wicked, the Saviour came for the destruction of evil men and of the demons, but for the salvation of the good” (Against Heresies, 1.24.1-2; emphasis mine throughout).

Because Saturninus was a Gnostic, he taught that marriage was prohibited, clean animal meat was forbidden, and that some prophetic words in the Old Testament were from angels and others were from satan. He considered himself to be an angel. He denied that Christ had come in the flesh and that He only appeared as an apparition (ibid, sec. 2). He thought marriage and procreation were from satan (Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 7.16). Moreover, he promoted the idea that Christ was sent to destroy the God of the Jews.

Basilides was another false teacher of this time. His beliefs are summarized below:

“Basilides again, that he may appear to have discovered something more sublime and plausible, gives an immense development to his doctrines…Those angels who occupy the lowest heaven, that, namely, which is visible to us, formed all the things which are in the world, and made allotments among themselves of the earth and of those nations which are upon it. The chief of them is he who is thought to be the God of the Jews; and inasmuch as he desired to render the other nations subject to his own people, that is, the Jews, all the other princes resisted and opposed him. Wherefore all other nations were at enmity with his nation. But the father without birth and without name, perceiving that they would be destroyed, sent his own first-begotten Nous (he it is who is called Christ) to bestow deliverance on those who believe in him, from the power of those who made the world. He appeared, then, on earth as a man, to the nations of these powers, and wrought miracles. Wherefore he did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead…” (Irenaeus, Against Heresy, 1.24.3-4; emphasis mine throughout).

Basilides had viewpoints similar to Saturninus. He taught that Christ was sent to save the world from the God of the Jews. He also denied Christ’s suffering in the flesh and affirmed that salvation came to the soul alone (ibid, 1.24.4). His followers engaged in idolatry, magic, and sorcery, yet claimed it was part of his worship of the true god.

The attack of these heretics was clear: they sought to portray the God of the Old Testament as a separate God than that of the New Testament. They went so far as to say that Jesus came to destroy the God of the Jews! How could anyone read the New Testament and come to such conclusions? When we read the New Testament, we learn that through Christ all things were created (John 1:1-3, Col. 1:15-17). Saturninus operated out of Syria and Basilides in Alexandria.

Heresy in Rome

The most popular and dangerous of the gnostic teachers were Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion. They greatly influenced people in the city of Rome. We will review their beliefs below. Irenaeus is also one of our chief sources about them.

“For Valentinus came to Rome in the time of Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus. Cerdon, too, Marcion’s predecessor, himself arrived in the time of Hyginus…Marcion, then, succeeding him, flourished under Anicetus, who held the tenth place of the episcopate” (ibid, 3.4.3; emphasis mine throughout).

Irenaeus listed the bishops of Rome under which these false teachers proposed. To give you an idea of the period we are discussing, we will list the years that these bishops served:

– Hyginus (136-140 AD)

– Pius (140-154 AD)

– Anicetus (155-166 AD)

It is interesting to note that Anicetus’ time as the bishop of Rome was fruitful for these heretics. As reviewed in another article, Anicetus was the first bishop of Rome to defect from the observance of Passover (CLICK HERE to read more). This event initiated the Quartodeciman Controversy.

Many of these Gnostic teachers claimed to have derived their doctrine from Simon Magus. If you recall from Act chapter 8, he was the man who tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. Irenaeus wrote: “…declaring at the same time the doctrine of Simon Magus of Samaria, their progenitor, and of all those who succeeded him. I mentioned, too, the multitude of those Gnostics who are sprung from him…” (Against Heresies, 2.Preface).

We will start with the Valentinians. They blended Bible verses with other common sayings from their day to present what they portrayed as a more perfect truth. They were known for creating fables in the moment to justify whatever belief was convenient (Tertullian, Against the Valentinians, 1). The Valentinians were very numerous and influential. Below, we have quotes from Tertullian and Irenaeus about this group.

“The Valentinians, who are no doubt a very large body of heretics–comprising as they do so many apostates from the truth, who have a propensity for fables…” (Tertullian, Against the Valentinians, 1).

“They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavour to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.8.1).

“…he did not invent Scriptures to square with his own subject-matter, but adapted his matter to the Scriptures; and yet he took away more, and added more, by removing the proper meaning of every particular word, and adding fantastic arrangements of things which have no real existence…” (Tertullian, Prescription Against Heretics, 38).

“But those who are from Valentinus, being, on the other hand, altogether reckless, while they put forth their own compositions, boast that they possess more Gospels than there really are. Indeed, they have arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as to entitle their comparatively recent writing ‘the Gospel of Truth,’ though it agrees in nothing with the Gospels of the Apostles, so that they have really no Gospel which is not full of blasphemy. For if what they have published is the Gospel of truth, and yet is totally unlike those which have been handed down to us from the apostles…” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.11.9).

The Valentinians melded Christianity with pagan festivals and encouraged breaking the commandments of God. They believed it was necessary to satisfy the lusts of the flesh in addition to satisfying their spiritual needs (ibid, 1.6.3). They accused God of creating a defective earth and that mankind was not made from the earth as described in Genesis (ibid, 4.33.3, 5.15.4). Moreover, they declared birth as an evil event, which subsequently led them to deny the bodily birth, suffering and resurrection of Christ (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 3.17.102).

Archaeology Confirms Irenaeus

In the mid-twentieth century, several ancient works were found compiled in a codex, which has been called the Nag Hammadi Library. Within this codex are a spectrum of works, some of which are non-gnostic, some are semi-gnostic, and others are certainly gnostic. Even some of Plato’s writings were found in it. Among these works are several books titled as ‘gospels’, including one titled ‘the gospel of truth.’ The Codex Tchacos, which contains similar content, was found later in the same century.

These archaeological findings confirm Irenaeus’ statement that there were more gospels in circulation than originally composed in the first century, especially the ‘the gospel of truth.’ Some of these other gospels propose to have sayings of Jesus and contain some quotes which are found in the original gospels, but they also contain much content which is not found there. This also corroborates with the description of them given by Irenaeus and Tertullian.

Cerdo and Marcion

The last heretics we will discuss are Cero or Cerdon and his apprentice Marcion. Cerdon taught that there were two gods: one of the Old Testament and one of the New Testament. He taught Jesus was the son of an entirely different deity than the Father discussed in the Old Testament. He came to Rome during the time of Hyginus (which was the same time Valentinus arrived). Initially, he professed loyalty to the Roman church and spread his false teachings secretly. As time passed, he taught these things publicly.

Marcion succeeded him and deepened the heresy even further. In about 144 AD, Marcion came to Rome. His teachings diffused throughout the Christian world. Justin the Martyr remarked that his heretical doctrine had influenced people of every nation (First Apology, Chapter 26). We will briefly look at the primary sources from this time which discuss his work.

“Cerdon was one who took his system from the followers of Simon…He taught that the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… Marcion of Pontus succeeded him, and developed his doctrine. In so doing, he advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, declaring Him to be the author of evils, to take delight in war, to be infirm of purpose, and even to be contrary to Himself” (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., 1:27:1-2; emphasis mine).

Marcion developed Cerdon’s doctrine even further, which we will briefly discuss. He taught that Christ’s statements in Matthew chapter 5 forbidding adultery, murder, and swearing were an indication that they had been overturned and no longer applied (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4.13.1). He prohibited marriage (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 5.7). He taught that Christ’s actual body was not crucified – but a phantom body (ibid, 4.40). He did not believe that the resurrection of the flesh was possible, but only the salvation of the soul (ibid, 5.10).

Among the doctrines more specific to his teaching was a hatred for the Law of God. Tertullian related the following about him:

“Marcion’s special and principal work is the separation of the law and the gospel… [his works] aim at committing the gospel to a variance with the law, in order that from the diversity of the two documents which contain them, they may contend for a diversity of gods also. Since, therefore, it is this very opposition between the law and the gospel which has suggested that the God of the gospel is different from the God of the law…Marcion, the author of the breach of peace between the gospel and the law. Now this peace, which had remained unhurt and unshaken from Christ’s appearance to the time of Marcion’s audacious doctrine, was no doubt maintained by that way of thinking, which firmly held that the God of both law and gospel was none other than the Creator, against whom after so long a time a separation has been introduced by the heretic of Pontus” (ibid, 1.19).

Tertullian contended that before Marcion, the law and the gospel were taught in harmony with each other. Marcion caused this breach, which unfortunately has continued down to our present day. He had a much greater influence than the other heretics in dividing the two testaments, which are truly one.

The Sabbath

Marcion and other Gnostics had a special hatred for the Sabbath. He claimed that Christ broke the Sabbath and rescinded it (ibid, 4.12). Consider the following quote attributed to Marcion:

“Since that day is the rest of the God of the Jews, who made the world and rested the seventh day, we therefore fast on that day, that we may not do anything in compliance with the God of the Jews” (Epiphinaus, Panarion, 42; english translation from Bingham, p 52).

Why did they have such a disdain for the Sabbath? One chief feature of the seventh day is that it is a memorial of creation. Since they viewed the material world as being created by an evil god, it led to their rejection of the Sabbath.

Marcion was also known to take verses out of the Bible that were inconvenient to his doctrine. For instance, He removed statements that refer to Christ as an Israelite so that Christ would not have any connection to Israel (Tertullian, Against Marcion, 4.7). He removed Matthew 5:17 from the gospel (ibid). He also removed the section from Ephesians 6:2 that explained honoring one’s father and mother was the first one with a promise (ibid, 5.18). He rejected the book of Revelation (ibid, 4.5). He attempted to compile a canon of the New Testament, which included one gospel (Luke), but it was greatly edited (ibid, 4.7). He admitted only 10 of Paul’s letters.

Conclusion

Over a twenty-year period, these heretics flooded Christian communities with false doctrine. They mixed the teachings of the first Apostles with their own ideas and Greek philosophy. Valentinus, Cerdon, and Marcion had their greatest impact in the city of Rome. Among the scarier parts of these heretical teachers is that they all viewed themselves as Christians! “…All who take their opinions from these men, are, as we before said, called Christians…”  (Justin, First Apology, Chapter 26). People who lived in the ancient world had to be very confused concerning the definition of a Christian.

These heretical teachers tried to diminish the Old Testament. They decried Biblical practices, including the Sabbath, and laid the foundation for anti-Sabbatarian doctrine. They sought to edit the New Testament to remove anything that was contrary to their doctrine and then mixed the remaining text with common sayings to create a mutilated text.

With these events going on in the city of Rome, who would intervene? Who would stand up to this rising tide of heresy in Christendom? God preserved a man to stand against them all. His name was Polycarp – we will discuss him more next week.

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) – http://www.biblesabbath.org

Bibliography

To view the Bibliography, see pp 84-87 from the book The Life of Polycarp. It can be downloaded for free – just CLICK HERE.