Elcesaites
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Elcesaites
The Elcesaites, Elkasaites, Elkesaites or Elchasaites were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia, then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire that was active between 100 and 400 CE. The members of this sect, which originated in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic orientation. The name of the sect derives from the alleged founder, Elkhasaí ( in Hippolytus), Elksai ( in Epiphanius), or Elkesai ( in Eusebius, and Theodoret). Patristic testimony The sect is directly mentioned only in the commentaries on "heresies" by Early Church Fathers. Hippolytus () Hippolytus of Rome ('' Refutation of All Heresies'', IX, 8–13) records that in the time of Pope Callixtus I (217–222 AD), a Jewish Christian called Alcibiades of Apamea came to Rome, bringing a book which he said had been received in Parthia by a just man named Elchasai. According to Alcibiades, the book had been revealed by an angel high (337,920 cubit ...
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Jewish Christian
Jewish Christians were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Roman Judea during the late Second Temple period, under the Herodian tetrarchy (1st century AD). These Jews believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and they continued their adherence to Jewish law. Jewish Christianity is the historical foundation of Early Christianity, which later developed into Nicene Christianity (which comprises the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant traditions) and other Christian denominations. Christianity started with Jewish eschatological expectations, and it developed into the worship of Jesus as the result of his earthly ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem, his crucifixion, and the post-resurrection experiences of his followers. Jewish Christians drifted apart from Second Temple Judaism, and their form of Judaism eventually became a minority strand within mainstream Judaism, as it had almost disappeared by the 5th centur ...
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Gnostic
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge ('' gnosis'') above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the Monad is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, Sophia, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment. Gnosticism likely originated in the late first and early second centuries around Alex ...
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Alcibiades Of Apamea
Alcibiades of Apamea (fl. 230) was a Jewish Christian member of, or possibly even founder of, the Elcesaites. Of the several cities called Apamea it is Apamea in Syria which is intended. He is known only from the accounts of Hippolytus of Rome in his ''Refutations''''Refutatio omnium haeresium'', Book 10 ch. 9–13,Antti Marjanen, Petri Luomanen ''A companion to second-century Christian "heretics"'' 2008, p. 336 where he follows on from Hippolytus' attacks on Pope Callixtus I: References 3rd-century Christians Early Jewish Christians Alcibiades {{Christianity-bio-stub Alcibiades Alcibiades (; 450–404 BC) was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently ...
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Refutation Of All Heresies
The ''Refutation of All Heresies'' (; ), also called the ''Elenchus'' or ''Philosophumena'', is a compendious Christian polemical work of the early third century, whose attribution to Hippolytus of Rome or an unknown " Pseudo-Hippolytus" is disputed. It catalogues both pagan beliefs and 33 gnostic Christian systems deemed heretical by the author/s and/or compiler/s, making it a major source of information on contemporary opponents of Christian orthodoxy as understood today. The first book, a synopsis of Greek philosophy, circulated separately in several manuscripts and was known as the ''Philosophoumena'' ( "philosophical teachings"), a title which some extend to the whole work. Books IV-X were recovered in 1842 in a manuscript at Mount Athos, while books II and III remain lost. The work was long attributed to the early Christian theologian Origen. Contents This work is divided into ten books, 8 of which have survived more or less intact. Books II and III, however, have not been ...
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Elkasai
Elkesai (also known as Elkasai, Elksai, Elchasai and Elxai) was a religious leader and prophet who is believed to have lived in the late 1st century CE and early 2nd century CE. He is primarily known through references in Christian, Manichaean, and other religious texts. Elkesai is associated with a religious movement known as the Elkesaites or Elkesaians, generally considered the founder of Elkesaism, which had significant influence on early Christian Gnostic and heterodox communities. Life and teachings Little is known about the life of Elkesai, and much of what is known comes from secondary sources that mention him and his teachings. His religion (Elkesaism) appears to have emerged in the region of Mesopotamia. The primary source of information about Elkesai is the account of Hippolytus of Rome, a 3rd-century Christian theologian, who describes Elkesai as a prophet who claimed to have received a new revelation from an angel, argued to be Jesus Christ. This revelation was con ...
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Adam Kadmon
In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (, ''ʾāḏām qaḏmōn'', "Primordial Man") also called Adam Elyon (, ''ʾāḏām ʿelyōn'', "Most High Man"), or Adam Ila'ah (, ''ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā'' "Most High Adam" in Aramaic), sometimes abbreviated as A"K (, ''ʾA.Q.''), is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light. ''Adam Kadmon'' is not the same as the physical ''Adam Ha-Rishon'' (אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן). In Lurianic Kabbalah, the description of ''Adam Kadmon'' is anthropomorphic. Nonetheless, ''Adam Kadmon'' is divine light without vessels, i.e., pure potential. In the human psyche, ''Adam Kadmon'' corresponds to the yechidah, the collective essence of the soul. In Judaism Philo The first to use the expression "original man," or "heavenly man," was Philo, in whose view this or , "as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose ...
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Cult Image
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a Cultural artifact, human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit or Daimon, daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Greece and Rome, and Hinduism, cult images in a temple may undergo a daily routine of being washed, dressed, and having food left for them. Processions outside the temple on special feast days are often a feature. Religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts "cult image" specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple. The term idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship, while idolatry is the worship of an "idol" as though it were God. Ancient Near East and E ...
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Essenes
The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''ʾĪssīyīm''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') or Essenians were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. The Essene movement likely originated as a distinct group among Jews during Jonathan Apphus's time, driven by disputes over Jewish law and the belief that Jonathan's high priesthood was illegitimate. Most scholars think the Essenes seceded from the Zadokite priests. They attributed their interpretation of the Torah to their early leader, the Teacher of Righteousness, possibly a legitimate high priest. Embracing a conservative approach to Jewish law, they observed a strict hierarchy favoring priests (the Sons of Zadok) over laypeople, emphasized ritual purity, and held a dualistic worldview. According to Jewish writers Josephus and Philo, the Essenes numbered around four thousand, and resided in various ...
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Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and is considered Holy city, holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, while Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely Status of Jerusalem, recognized internationally. Throughout History of Jerusalem, its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, Siege of Jerusalem (other), besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. According to Eric H. Cline's tally in Jerusalem Besieged. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David (historic), City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th ...
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Trajan
Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier-emperor who presided over one of the greatest military expansions in Roman history, during which, by the time of his death, the Roman Empire reached its maximum territorial extent. He was given the title of ('the best') by the Roman Senate. Trajan was born in the of Italica in the present-day Andalusian province of province of Seville, Seville in southern Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his came from the town of Todi, Tuder in the Regio VI Umbria, Umbria region of central Italy. His namesake father, Marcus Ulpius Traianus (father of Trajan), Marcus Ulpius Traianus, was a general and distinguished senator. Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of Domitian; in AD 89, serving as a in , he supported t ...
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Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. Together with Pamphilus, Eusebius was a scholar of the biblical canon and is regarded as one of the most learned Christians during late antiquity. He wrote the ''Demonstrations of the Gospel'', '' Preparations for the Gospel'' and ''On Discrepancies between the Gospels'', studies of the biblical text. His work '' Onomasticon'' is an early geographical lexicon of places in the Holy Land mentioned in the Bible. As "Father of Church History" (not to be confused with the title of Church Father), he produced the ''Ecclesiastical History'', ''On the Life of Pamphilus'', the ''Chronicle'' and ''On the Martyrs''. He also produced a biographical work on Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, who was ''Augustus'' between A ...
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Adolf Bernhard Christoph Hilgenfeld
Adolf Bernhard Christoph Hilgenfeld (2 June 182312 January 1907) was a German Protestant theologian. Biography He was born at Stappenbeck near Salzwedel in the Province of Saxony. He studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and the University of Halle, and in 1890 became ''professor ordinarius'' of theology at the University of Jena. He belonged to the Tübingen school. Fond of emphasizing his independence of Ferdinand Christian Baur Ferdinand Christian Baur (; 21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hege ..., he still, in all important points, followed in the footsteps of his master; his method, which he is wont to contrast as ''Literarkritik'' with Baur's ''Tendenzkritik'', "is nevertheless essentially the same as Baur's."Otto Pfleiderer, ''The Development of Theology in Germany Since K ...
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