Elcesaites
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The Elcesaites, Elkasaites, Elkesaites or Elchasaites were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia, then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire that was active between the early second century and the fifth century CE. The members of this sect, which originated in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic orientation.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Christian denomination
Show 4 more facts
- inception
- 0250-00-00
- facet of
- Jewish Christian
- influenced by
- Ebionites
- described by source
- Panarion
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- Patristic testimony
- Hippolytus ({{c.|170|236}})
- Eusebius ({{c.|263–339}})
- Epiphanius ({{c.|310/20 – 403}})
- Other sources
- Possible common source of Mandaean and Manichaean texts
- See also
- Notes
- External links
The Elcesaites, Elkasaites, Elkesaites or Elchasaites were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia, then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire that was active between the early second century and the fifth century CE. The members of this sect, which originated in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic orientation.
The movement blended elements of Second Temple Judaism, early Jewish Christianity, Gnosticism, and apocalyptic mysticism, and it is primarily known through the writings of early Church Fathers such as Hippolytus of Rome, Origen, and Epiphanius of Salamis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Elcesaites” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.