and teach the right, strict, and godly ways by which they were to live. Of particular concern was the rise of the incipient/early tentacles of Gnosticsm which taught that spirit was good and matter evil and that salvation could only be attained by special knowledge (Greek, gnosis). The Cerinthiun heresy also taught that Christ had not come in a real human body (1 John 4:2–3), that the Divine Christ came on Jesus at his baptism and left him before his death on the cross. See introductory notes on