Heresies in the Early Church

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    What is heresy?

    The word "heresy" only appears once in the KJV but is translated as "sect" in most modern biblical translations.

    “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers...[1]


    Major heresies in the early church

    Gnosticism

    Quartodecimanism

    This wasn't a true "heresy" but the amount of division that it caused in the early church was significant.

    The dispute among churches relating to the fixing of the day of Easter was referred to as Quartodecimanism (Easter should be observed on the fourteenth Nisan, irrespective of the day of the week that may happen to be). This was the belief that was primarily held by eastern churches.

    Anti-Quartodecimanism held that the crucifixion should be commemorated on the Friday of the week, whether or not it fell on the fourteenth, and the resurrection on the following Lord’s day. This was the view primarily held by the western church (and was officially adopted at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325)).[2]

    We have devoted a separate article to the discussion of the Controversy over the Date of Easter.

    Montanism

    Monarchianism

    Dynamic Monarchianism (aka Adoptionism)

    Modalistic Monarchianism (aka Sabellianism, Modalism, Patripassianism, Oneness, Jesus Only)

    Donatism

    Arianism

    Monophysitism

    Pelagianism

    Adoptionism

    Nestorianism

    Footnotes

    1. New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ac 24:14.
    2. Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms (Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), 358.


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