Nikolait

The term Nicolaitans originally referred to the followers of a heretical group of early Christianity that had a reputation for promoting sexual permissiveness and tolerating participation in idol sacrifices and the imperial cult . In the time of the medieval investiture controversy, a cleric who did not keep celibacy was derogatory called Nikolait .

New Testament

In the New Testament the Nicolaitans are mentioned in Rev 2,6 EU and Rev 2,15 EU . The originator of the movement is assumed to be Nicholas, who, according to some authors, was a proselyte from Antioch , who was one of the first seven deacons , Nicholas , mentioned in Acts 6.5 EU . The French author Emmanuel Carrère suspects that the Nicolaitans refer to the followers of the apostle Paul, who, from the point of view of the author of the Revelation of John, with their teachings are ruining the emerging Christian faith movement.

Church writer

Some of the early church writers, including the church father Irenaeus and Theodoret , mention the Nicolaitans. Irenaeus describes briefly that they led a licentious life and that adultery and participation in pagan sacrifices meant nothing to them. Also Victorinus of Poetovio reported that they ate meat sacrificed to idols.

Hippolytus of Rome , who relied on Irenaeus, believed that the deacon Nicholas mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles was the author of the heresy. Clement of Alexandria exonerated the deacon Nicholas of the accusation of being an advocate of the promiscuity which the group is supposed to have adopted from him as an ideal, and presented the claim as a malicious distortion. Eusebius wrote that the sect only existed for a short time. The Doctor of the Church Thomas Aquinas later stated that the Nicolaitans had either supported polygamy or concubinage .

Nicolaitism

In the Middle Ages, non- celibate priests were called Nicolaitans . Humbert von Silva Candida enforced this polemical term for married clerics . Pope Leo IX in particular led the fight against Nicolaitism . and Pope Alexander II.

literature

H. Kraft: The Revelation of John ; New Testament Handbook, Vol. 16a; Tübingen: Mohr (Siebeck), 1974; there: Excursus: Nikolaos and the Nicolaitans , p. 72 ff.

Web links

Wiktionary: Nikolait - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ Carrère, Emmanuel .: The Kingdom of God . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95757-226-4 , pp. 413 .
↑ Against the Heresies , Chapter 26: Cerinth, the Ebionites and the Nicolaitans
↑ St. Victorinus von Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse 2. I.
↑ Refutation of All Heresies or Philosophumena VII, xxvi.
↑ Stromata, III, iv.
^ HE, III, xxix.
↑ SCG III.124
↑ Meyers Enz. Lexikon, Vol. 17, p. 273, 1976
↑ "Young husbands, just exhausted from carnal lust, serve at the altar. And immediately afterwards they embrace their wives again with their hands, which have been sanctified by the immaculate body. That is ... an invention of Satan." Humbert von Silva Candida in the year 1054, quoted from K. Jäckel, p. 95, s. u.
↑ Herder's Lexicon of the Popes, p. 24 u. 121, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-06200-1

[1] Carrère, Emmanuel .: The Kingdom of God . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95757-226-4 , pp. 413 .

[2] Against the Heresies , Chapter 26: Cerinth, the Ebionites and the Nicolaitans

[3] St. Victorinus von Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse 2. I.

[4] Refutation of All Heresies or Philosophumena VII, xxvi.

[5] Stromata, III, iv.

[6] HE, III, xxix.

[7] SCG III.124

[8] Meyers Enz. Lexikon, Vol. 17, p. 273, 1976

[9] "Young husbands, just exhausted from carnal lust, serve at the altar. And immediately afterwards they embrace their wives again with their hands, which have been sanctified by the immaculate body. That is ... an invention of Satan." Humbert von Silva Candida in the year 1054, quoted from K. Jäckel, p. 95, s. u.

[10] Herder's Lexicon of the Popes, p. 24 u. 121, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-06200-1