Cerinthus

[1][2] In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ descended upon Jesus at baptism and guided him in ministry and the performing of miracles, but left him at the crucifixion.

[3][4] Similarly to the Ebionites, he maintained that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was a mere man, the biological son of Mary and Joseph.

He denied the supernatural virgin birth of Jesus, making him the biological son of Joseph and Mary, and taught that the Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler at baptism (see also Adoptionism) and left him again at his crucifixion—never to embody the flesh.

[25] In portraying Christ as a spirit that came from heaven, undertook its divine task in the material world, and then returned, he anticipates the fully developed Christian Gnosticism in later decades.

[26] Cerinthus instructed his followers to maintain strict adherence to both Written and Oral Torah Mosaic law for the attainment of salvation.

This view contradicts the soteriology conveyed at the Council of Jerusalem (c. 50 AD), which gave the understanding that Christians are not required to be circumcised to attain salvation.

Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Ecclesiastical History, relates how, according to Caius of Rome, Cerinthus,...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; and he says that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be set up on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in Jerusalem will again be subject to desires and pleasures.

And being an enemy of the Scriptures of God, he asserts, with the purpose of deceiving men, that there is to be a period of a thousand years for marriage festivals.

Caius of Rome is identified with those whom Epiphanius of Salamis styles the Alogi, who, "refusing to accept an 'apocryphon' because of the deep and difficult sayings in the Revelation .

[10] Cerinthus may be the alleged recipient of the Apocryphon of James (codex I, text 2 of the Nag Hammadi library), although the name written is largely illegible.

A late second century Christian sect (later dubbed the Alogi) headed by Caius of Rome alleged Cerinthus was the true author of the Gospel of John and Book of Revelation.

[32] Cerinthus is featured in John's Story: The Last Eyewitness, part of Christian writer Tim LaHaye's The Jesus Chronicles.