Adoptionism
What if Jesus became God's Son rather than always being so
Adoptionism taught that Jesus was a human being whom God adopted as his Son, perhaps at his baptism, rather than being eternally divine. It is associated with Theodotus of Byzantium and a later Spanish form, and is classed as a type of dynamic monarchianism. The major Christian traditions condemned it, insisting instead that the Son shares the Father's eternal divinity rather than acquiring sonship at a point in time.
How it traveled
- Malchion.— · 220challenges
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · 386challenges
- The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All HeresiesLérins · 445challenges
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · 1564challenges
Key passages(20)
Malchion. · Anatolius and Minor Writers
I.—The Epistle Written by Malchion, In Name of the Synod of Antioch, Against Paul of Samosata. ———————————— To Dionysius and Maximus, and to all our fellows in the ministry throughout the world, bo
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXVIII.—Those who first advanced the Heresy of Artemon; their Manner of Life, and how they dared to corrupt the Sacred Scriptures. 1. In a laborious work by one of these writers against the h
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
A few years later another attempt was made in Rome to revive the old adoptionist Christology (essentially the same as that represented by Hermas early in the second century), by a certain Artemon, aga
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XXVII.—Paul of Samosata, and the Heresy introduced by him at Antioch. 1. After Xystus had presided over the church of Rome for eleven years, Xystus II. was bishop only eleven months, not ele
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
To others also the Scripture says, Ye are the sons of the Lord your GodI have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all sons of the Most HighI have said, not, “I have begotten.” They, when God so said, receiv
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Fragments of Caius. · Caius
II.—Against the Heresy of Artemon. I. (In Eusebius’ Eccl. Hist., v. 28.) For they say that all those of the first age, and the apostles themselves, both received and taught those things which these
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The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great · Pope Leo the Great
Under the second head is displayed their foolish and empty fancy about the issue of certain virtues from God which he began to possess, and which were posterior to God Himself in His own essence. In t
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Chapter XI. And since, as you dare not deny that these deities of yours once were men, you have taken it on you to assert that they were made gods after their decease, let us consider what necessity
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Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the Gospel · John Calvin
8. But although Servetus heaped together a number of horrid dogmas, to which, perhaps, others would not subscribe, you will find, that all who refuse to acknowledge the Son of God except in the flesh,
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On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
45. Thus the Bishop. If then any one finds fault with those who met at Nicæa, as if they contradicted the decisions of their predecessors, he might reasonably find fault also with the seventy, because
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The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies · Vincent of Lérins
Examples from Church History, confirming the words of Moses,—Nestorius, Photinus, Apollinaris. [29.] Here, perhaps, some one will require us to illustrate the words of holy Moses by examples from Chu
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Exposition of the Christian Faith · Ambrose of Milan
Solomon’s words, “The Lord created Me,” etc., mean that Christ’s Incarnation was done for the redemption of the Father’s creation, as is shown by the Son’s own words. That He is the “beginning” may be
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A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed · Rufinus of Aquileia
39. We come next in the order of belief to the Holy Church. We have mentioned above why the Creed does not say here, as in the preceding article, “In the Holy Church.” They, therefore, who were taught
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Against Heresies: Book III · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. But again, those who assert that He was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph, remaining in the bondage of the old disobedience, are in a state of death having been not as yet joined to the Word of
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Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the Gospel · John Calvin
6. But if his filiation (if I may so express it) had a beginning at the time when he was manifested in the flesh, it follows that he was a Son in respect of human nature also. Servetus, and others sim
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Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
Book XXIII. Faustus recurs to the genealogical difficulty and insists that even according to Matthew Jesus was not Son of God until His baptism. Augustin sets forth the Catholic view of the relation
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Lecture X. On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; yet to us th
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Origen (De Principiis, I. ii. 10) had argued that “even God cannot be called omnipotent, unless there exist those over whom He may exercise His power,” and therefore creation must have been eternal, o
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The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies · Vincent of Lérins
Recapitulation of what was said of the Catholic Faith and of divers Heresies, Chapters xi–xv. [41.] But now that we may refresh our remembrance of what has been briefly said concerning either the afo
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The Dialogue Against the Luciferians · Jerome
The Ophites, whose name is derived from ὄφις, a serpent, were a sect which lasted from the second century to the sixth. Some of them believed that the serpent of Gen. iii. was either the Divine Wisdom
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