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The Alogi (Greek: ἄλογοι, romanized: alogoi), also called Alogoi or Alogians, were a group of heterodox Christians in Asia Minor that flourished c. 200 CE, and taught that the Gospel of John and the Apocalypse of John were not the work of the Apostle, but his adversary Cerinthus. What we know of them is derived from their doctrinal opponents, whose literature is extant, particularly Epiphanius of Salamis. It was Epiphanius who coined the name "Alogi" as a word play suggesting that they were both illogical and they were against the Christian doctrine of the Logos.[1] While Epiphanius does not specifically indicate the name of its founder, Dionysius Bar-Salibi, citing a lost work of Hippolytus (Capita Adversus Caium), writes in his commentary on the Apocalypse,
Hippolytus of Rome says: A man appeared, named Caius, saying that the Gospel is not by John, nor the Apocalypse but that it is by Cerinthus the heretic.[2][3]
According to fourth century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Caius was a churchman of Rome who wrote during the time of Pope Zephyrinus, and had published a disputation with Proclus, a Montanist leader in Rome.[4]
- ^ “Alogi,” ODCC, 45.
- ^ Klijn, Albertus F.J.; Reinink, G.J. (1973). Patristic Evidence for Jewish Christian Sects. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 273. ISBN 90-04-03763-2.
- ^ Cf. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 3.28.2
- ^ Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2.25.6