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Encratites
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On Church History |
Encratites
Titian wrote a harmony of the gospels called the Diatessaron. Later he became very violent and apostatized from the church and
founded the Gnostic sect of the Encratites. He then
started removing passages from the Diatessaron that refer to Jesus divinity and
other non-Gnostic thoughts. Copies of the original and the perverted are still existent.
The eastern church used the Diatessaron for years before going back to the
four gospels. The basic teachings of the Encratites are:
- Belief in the aeons (Valentinus style)
- Some held dualistic views
- Condemned marriage.
- All sex and reproduction is evil.
- Christ did not have a physical body.
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- Adam is not saved.
- Vegetarian and do not drink wine.
- They are self-controlled and are masters of themselves, no longer
sinning.
- Reject the epistles of Paul, calling him apostate.
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- Irenaeus 178 AD
- Against Heresies 3.11 - The Encratitae who, on account of such as come in hypocrisy,
hold themselves aloof from the communion of the brethren.
- Against Heresies 3.23 - Adam was saved, contrary to Tatian. There was
no way possible for Adam to become a god.
- Clement of Alexandria 192-202
- Instructor 2.2 - We use water mixed with wine for communion, and
the wine is just a symbol of the blood of Jesus, but it does sanctify both
body and soul to those who take it in faith. We are to be careful of drunkenness,
but avoid any, who like the Encratites, teach drinking wine is a sin.
- Hippolytus 170-236 AD
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Refutation of all Heresies 8.13 Encratites are very prideful and violent,
abstaining from animal food, (and) being water-drinkers [used water instead of
wine for communion], and forbidding to
marry, and devoting themselves to asceticism.
Tatian 166AD
Tatian started off orthodox. By the time he wrote his book To the Greeks
he was beginning to go Gnostic. We see he was orthodox in the following:
- Greeks 4 - There is only one God
- Greeks 5 - God and the Logos created the world, not the angels. Matter is
not self-existent.
- Greeks 6 - We did not exist before we were born and do not reincarnate. There will be a physical resurrection.
- Greeks 7 - Jesus created men and angels with free will. Jesus had foreknowledge
of what free agents would do. There is no such thing as fate.
- Greeks 9 - Demons invented the concept of fate with astrology to enslave
man into worshiping them.
- Greeks 11 - Our free will enslaved us to sin. (Rom 7) but we can choose to
follow righteousness now.
- Greeks 17 - Demons use numbers, letters, roots, and amulets to ensnare
people.
- Greeks 21 - Jesus was God born in the form of man.
- Greeks 25 - God the Father does not have a physical body.
- Greeks 26 - Christians do not eat human flesh (as it has been rumored)
- Greeks 32 - Women and children of any age who want to hear are allowed to
attend church.
- Greeks 38 - Moses is named in Egyptian history.
- But also taught the following Gnostic ideas:
- Greeks 13 - The soul is not eternal, it dissolves with the body, but will
be brought back at the resurrection.
- Greeks 18 - Demons use medicine also (He does not believe in taking medicine. We should rely on God alone.)
After this Tatian becomes very violent and he secedes from the church forming
the Gnostic Encratites. The name in Greek means self-perfected ones. In the 12th
century the name of Encratites was applied to the
Bogomils.
References:
- Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.28
- Hippolytus Against Heresies 8.13
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- Origen Cel. 5.65
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