a heresiarch, contemporary with the apostles, ascribed the creation not to God, but to angels. He taught that Jesus Christ was the son of Joseph, and that circumcision ought to be retained under the gospel. He is looked upon as the head of the converted Jews, who raised in the church of Antioch the tumult of which St Luke has given the history in the 15th chapter of the Acts. Some authors ascribe the book of the Apocalypse to Cerinthus; adding, that he put it off under the name of St John, the better to authorize his reveries touching Christ's reign upon earth: and it is even certain that he published some works of this kind under the title of Apocalypse. See APOCALYPSE.