DeConick A.D

157
JOHN AND THE DARK COSMOS
authorship to put an end to the old Gnostic understanding of the fourth
Gospel. If the Gospel were given Apostolic Catholic credentials and an
anti-Gnostic purpose, Irenaeus must have hoped, the old and persistent
Gnostic understanding of the fourth Gospel would be undermined once
and for all.
When we step back and weigh all the evidence, it is obvious that Cerinthus’s
views about the fourth Gospel are in line with the views of the Children
of Light who were the opponents of the elder in 1 John. Cerinthus’s
interpretation of the fourth Gospel matches theirs point by point. In fact,
it represents the oldest reading of the fourth Gospel and aligns perfectly
with the Gnostic predisposition of the Gospel.
All of this makes me curious whether the early Christian references to
Cerinthian authorship of the fourth Gospel, which most scholars today
have dismissed outright, may have some merit after all. Could Cerinthus
have been involved at some point in the actual composition of parts of
the Gospel?
The oldest information we have about Cerinthus attaches him to the
Samaritan Simon Magus. The reference occurs in the Letter of the Apostles,
which was written around 150 CE. The authorship is pseudonymous,
but the claim to have been written by the twelve apostles is important
because it represents the letter’s Apostolic Catholic orientation.
The Apostolic Catholic author claims to be writing the book against
“the false apostles Simon and Cerinthus,” whom he considers to be “enemies
of our Lord Jesus Christ” because they alienate believers from the
true word and deeds of Jesus Christ (Letter of the Apostles 1, 7). This
association of Simon with Cerinthus has long perplexed historians. But
now that we know that Simonian converts were foundational members of
the Children of Light and that Cerinthus’s theology reflects the earliest
readings of their Gospel, the association is not coincidental. The author of
the Letter of the Apostles is writing against the old Gnostic interpretation
of the fourth Gospel, which was developed by the Simonian converts and
then maintained by Cerinthus.
In fact, when the Letter of the Apostles is studied in more detail we
discover that the points of controversy it tries to resolve revolve around
refuting the Gnostic interpretation of the fourth Gospel. The letter insists
that Jesus’ Father is the “lord of the (whole) world” and the “maker and