PASSOVER PREPARATION.... Fleeing From LEAVEN

or... the time The Apostle John fled from the Heretic Cerinthus .... 

Agnus Dei-- The LAMB+ of GOD
by Giulio Romano
Drawing: ink on paper c. 1540

Courtesy of www.angelfire.com

Fleeing from LEAVEN...

Hippolytus, AD 170-236, 

a Bishop of Portus, 

disciple of Irenaeus

… who was the disciple of Polycarp

… who was the disciple of John. 

from Irenaeus Against Heresies, ANF Vol. 1...

There are also those who heard from him [ i.e., Polycarp / Sr.JH ] that John, 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.” 

And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?”

“I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.”

Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth; 

as Paul also says, 

“A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”

[ ***  ANF vol. 1, Irenaeus Against Heresies , BOOK 3, Chapter 3, section 4, page 416 (hard copy) [ pages 826-827, Master Christian Library , Version 8, CD-Rom, 2000 Ages Software, Rio, WI / www.ageslibrary.com. See the additional information at the end of the post for references in the Ante-Nicene writers and the context for this excerpt./ Sr. JH ]

Now, WHO was this abominable heretic Cerinthus of AD 100, 

... and what did he teach?  

Here is what the Early Church writers recorded about this man who was considered a fore-runner of some gnostics.  

Unfortunately, the teachings of Cerinthus have made their way into the "golden, best, and historic" version of the Netzarim edition of their New Covenant. 

 CERINTHUS

ANF vol. 5, Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies  Book X, Chapter 17, page 147 hard copy, [Master Christian Library , Version 8, CD-Rom, 2000 Ages Software, Rio, WI / www.ageslibrary.com , page 303-304. ]

Cerinthus, however, himself having been trained in Egypt,determined that the world was not made by the first God, but by a certain angelic power. And this power was far separated and distant from that sovereignty which is above the entire circle of existence, and it knows not the God (that is) above all things.

And he says that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but that He sprang from Joseph and Mary as their son, similar to the rest of men; and that He excelled in justice, and prudence, and understanding above all the rest of mankind.

And Cerinthus maintains that, after Jesus’ baptism, Christ came down in the form of a dove upon Him from the sovereignty that is above the whole circle of existence, and that then He proceeded to preach the unknown Father, and to work miracles.

And he asserts that, at the conclusion of the passion, Christ flew away from Jesus, but that Jesus suffered, and that Christ remained incapable of suffering, being a spirit of the Lord.

 Now, here is the LEAVEN of the Ebionite heresy, which has also made its way into the "golden, best, and historic" Netzarim volume. 

THE EBIONAEANS

ANF vol. 5, Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies  Book X, Chapter 18, page 147 hard copy, [Master Christian Library , Version 8, CD-Rom, 2000 Ages Software, Rio, WI / www.ageslibrary.com , page 303-304. ]

But the Ebionaeans assert that the world is made by the true God, and they speak of Christ in a similar manner with Cerinthus.

They live, however, in all respects according to the law of Moses, alleging that they are thus justified.

  

The item below is from ANF Vol. 5, Hippolytus Refutaion of All Heresies, BOOK 7, page 114, Chapter 22 [  [Master Christian Library , Version 8, CD-Rom, 2000 Ages Software, Rio, WI / www.ageslibrary.com , page 235.]

CHAPTER 22

DOCTRINE OF THE EBIONAEANS

The Ebionaeans, however, acknowledge that the world was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates.

They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they are justified. according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified by fulfilling the law.

And therefore it was, (according to the Ebionaeans,) that (the Savior) was named (the) Christ of God and Jesus, since not one of the rest (of mankind) had observed completely the law.

For if even any other had fulfilled the commandments (contained) in the law, he would have been that Christ.

And the (Ebionaeans allege) that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfill (the law), are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all (the rest of the human family).

 +  +  +

Purge out 

therefore 

the old leaven, 

that ye may be a new lump,

as ye are UNLEAVENED.

For even 

CHRIST our PASSOVER

is sacrificed

for us. 

Therefore let us keep the feast,

not with old leaven,

neither with the leaven of 

malice and wickedness,

but with 

the UNLEAVENED BREAD+

of purity and Truth.

I Corinthians 5:7, 8 

+  +  +

 This is the section about POLYCARP AND JOHN in its fullness. 

*** FROM ANF vol. 1, Irenaeus Against Heresies , BOOK 3, Chapter 3, section 4, page 416 (hard copy) [ pages 826-827, Master Christian Library , Version 8, CD-Rom, 2000 Ages Software, Rio, WI / www.ageslibrary.com ]

4. But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true.

To these things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time, — a man who was of much greater weight, and a more steadfast witness of truth, than Valentinus, and Marcion, and the rest of the heretics. He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus caused many to turn away from the aforesaid heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles, — that, namely, which is handed down by the Church.

There are also those who heard from him that John, 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.”

And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?”

“I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.”

Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth; as Paul also says, “A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”