Cerdo (Gnostic)
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Cerdo (
as a prominent member of the Church until his forced expulsion therefrom.He taught that there were two gods, one that demanded obedience while the other was good and merciful. According to Cerdo, the former was the God of the
Doctrine
According to the account of Irenaeus (i. 27 and iii. 4), Cerdo had not the intention of founding a sect apart from the church. He describes him as more than once coming to the church and making public confession, and so going on, now teaching his doctrine in secret, now again making public confession, now convicted in respect of his evil teaching, and removed from the communion of the brethren (aphistamenos tes ton adelphon synodias). Some understand this to mean that Cerdo voluntarily withdrew himself from communion, but it is preferred to understand the word passively, with the old translator of Irenaeus, "abstentus est a religiosorum hominum conventu."
The account given by Irenaeus of the doctrine of Cerdo is that he taught that the
Ps.-Tertullian goes on to say that Cerdo rejected the law and the prophets, and renounced the Creator, teaching that Christ was the son of the higher good deity, and that he came not in the substance of flesh but in appearance only, and had not really died or really been born of a virgin. He adds that Cerdo only acknowledged a resurrection of the soul, denying that of the body. Ps.-Tertullian adds, but without support from the other authorities, that Cerdo received only the
Marcion
It does not appear that Cerdo left any writings, nor is there evidence that those who report to us his doctrine had any knowledge of it independent of the form it took in the teaching of his Marcionite successors. Consequently, it is not possible now to determine with any certainty how much of the teaching of Marcion had been anticipated by Cerdo, or to say what points of disagreement there were between the teaching of the two. Hippolytus, in his Refutation, makes no attempt to discriminate the doctrines of Cerdo and Marcion. Tertullian, in his work against Marcion, mentions Cerdo four times, but each time only as Marcion's predecessor.
Cerdonians
Epiphanius gives a heading to a sect of Cerdonians. Preceding writers speak only of Cerdo, but not of Cerdonians; and it is probable that his followers were early merged in the school of Marcion, who is said to have joined himself to Cerdo soon after his arrival in Rome.
Date
Epiphanius and Philaster assert him to have been a native of
In the place already cited from the first book of Irenaeus, in which he speaks of the coming of Cerdo to Rome, all the MSS. agree in describing Hyginus as the ninth bishop from the apostles; and this reading is confirmed by Eusebius (
References
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the Wace, Henry(eds.). A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines. Vol. I. London: John Murray. pp. 445–6.
