CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Ok, doing a Pastoral Epistle paper...I need information on heretical Teachings in the 1st century church, pertaining to the ministry of Paul...ASAP!


*waits for Technomancer to rescue him*

I would think Gnosticism would be on that list. Are you looking for ideas on directing your research or are you looking for hard facts?

Paul mentions/warns against heretical teachings in several of his letters to churches, but I don't think the scripture goes into detail about the who's and what's of the heresy.

Perhaps it is better to await the help of one of seminarians.

perhaps...I thought Gnosticism was second century...Well Good, now I have more to say on that dumb report! I do need specific...people, though. Like those who posed some of these heresies?

I'm not really sure why I should need to rescue you, CDL might know the subject better than I. In any case, the material that I am most familiar with is later than 1st century (we have a paucity of information from this period in any case). However, gnosticism was definately around, and in some of its variants predates Christianity. "Christian" gnosticism simply subsumed many of these ideas along with those of other faiths. Paul does seem to make reference to it (I forget the epistle) in the form of an all to brief statement of "gnosis falsely so-called". The term 'gnosis' may be rendered as 'knowledge' or even 'science' in some translations.

The material that I can give (and which you are likely to have access to) are best encapsulated by the following articles:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09591a.htm

These sources are likely to be a bit dated, although they should serve as a decent starting point. Jaroslav Pelikan's book on the early church may also have some useful material (although it has been some time since I have read it).

Sadly, I could not do much more than point you in the same direction that others have. I know of several heresies and there teachings, but not about their history and timeframe.

Um, The Gospel of Thomas is a gnostic gospel... thats all i know!