CERINTHIANS

Followers of Cerinthus, a heretic of the first or second century, who embraced certain gnostical views respecting the natures and relations of God the Father and Son. He conceived the supreme God to be the father or originator both of the Deity from whom proceeded the O. Test, and of Christ; that the God of the Jews was also the creator of this world; and that his dominion over it was superseded by the mi ion of Christ, who was a son of the supreme Deity residing in a human body. See Gnostics. [s. 223]