Cainite | Gnostic sect
www.britannica.com
Cainite, member of a Gnostic sect mentioned by Irenaeus and other early Christian writers as flourishing in the 2nd century ad, probably in the eastern area of the Roman Empire. The Christian theologian Origen declared that the Cainites had “entirely abandoned Jesus.” Their reinterpretation of Old Testament texts reflected the view that Yahweh (the God of the Jews) was not merely an inferior demiurge, as many Gnostics believed, but that he was positively evil because his creation of the world was perversely designed to prevent the reunion of the divine element in man with the unknown perfect God. The Cainites
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/NerdSlayer4253 on 2023-07-04 22:47:05+00:00.

Original Title: TIL that a Gnostic Sect believed that Cain was the first victim of the evil creator deity from the Old Testament. With this, they sided with those believed to be persecuted such as the Sodomites and believed in breaking the laws held within the Old Testament to find escape from the material world.

  • Contextual IdiotEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    This was a really cool hole to dive into, I had no idea this even existed.