The Elkesaites

Then too another perversion began, the heresy called that of the Elkesaites, which was snuffed out as soon as it began. Origen mentions it in a public sermon on the eighty-second Psalm, speaking roughly as follows: “A certain man has come just now who is very proud of himself for being able to champion a godless and most impious opinion, called that of the Elkesaites, which has recently risen up against the churches. I will set out for you what evils that opinion teaches, so that you will not be carried away by it. It rejects some things from every Scripture; yet it uses passages from every part of the Old Testament and the Gospel. It rejects the apostle altogether. It says that to deny is a matter of indifference, and that the one who understands will deny with his mouth when under compulsion, but not in his heart. And they produce a certain book that they say fell from heaven, and they say that whoever has heard it and believes will receive forgiveness of sins, a different forgiveness from the one Christ Jesus gave.” [a]