The Nicolaitans

2024-07-25

The Nicolaitans were a heretical cult mentioned in the Bible twice. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6). “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate” (Revelation 2:15). From here, we see the cult had a doctrine that led to evil deeds. Some link this group to those who were like the prophet Balaam, as we shall see from some of the ancient commentators below. The conclusion is from this pair of verses: “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate” (Revelation 2:14-15).

According to Irenaeus, we read “The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles. They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character of these men is very plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse of John, [when they are represented] as teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practise adultery, and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (Adversus haereses, I. 26, 3). Irenaeus shows these things to originate from the Nicolas, one of the seven: “And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch” (Acts 6:5). The Nicolaitans lived in open sin.

Clement of Alexandria says, “Such also are those (who say that they follow Nicolaus, quoting an adage of the man, which they pervert, ‘that the flesh must be abused.’ But the worthy man showed that it was necessary to check pleasures and lusts, and by such training to waste away the impulses and propensities of the flesh. But they, abandoning themselves to pleasure like goats, as if insulting the body, lead a life of self-indulgence; not knowing that the body is wasted, being by nature subject to dissolution; while their soul is buffed in the mire of vice; following as they do the teaching of pleasure itself, not of the apostolic man” (Stromata II:20). Clement says that though the group was falsely attributed to Nicolas, the Nicolaitans sinned to the extent of abusing their bodies.

Clement says further, “But when we spoke about the saying of Nicolaus we omitted to say this. Nicolaus, they say, had a lovely wife. When after the Saviour's ascension he was accused before the apostles of jealousy, he brought his wife into the concourse and allowed anyone who so desired to marry her. For, they say, this action was appropriate to the saying: "One must abuse the flesh." Those who share his heresy follow both his action and his words simply and without qualification by indulging in the gravest enormity” (Stromata III:4).

Tertullian says, “John, however, in the Apocalypse is charged to chastise those ‘who eat things sacrificed to idols,’ and ‘who commit fornication.’ There are even now another sort of Nicolaitans. Theirs is called the Gaian heresy. But in his epistle he especially designates those as "Antichrists" who ‘denied that Christ was come in the flesh,’ and who refused to think that Jesus was the Son of God. The one dogma Marcion maintained; the other, Hebion. The doctrine, however, of Simon’s sorcery, which inculcated the worship of angels, was itself actually reckoned amongst idolatries and condemned by the Apostle Peter in Simon’s own person” (The Prescription Against Heretics 33). He connects these to idol worship and fornication, also connecting them with John’s usage of the term “antichrists.” He attributes their origin to Simon the Sorcerer rather than Nicolas.

Hippolytus of Rome says, “There are, however, among the Gnostics diversities of opinion; but we have decided that it would not be worth while to enumerate the silly doctrines of these (heretics), inasmuch as they are (too) numerous and devoid of reason, and full of blasphemy. Now, even those (of the heretics) who are of a more serious turn in regard of the Divinity, and have derived their systems of speculation from the Greeks, must stand convicted (of these charges). But Nicolaus has been a cause of the wide-spread combination of these wicked men. He, as one of the seven (that were chosen) for the diaconate, was appointed by the Apostles. (But Nicolaus) departed from correct doctrine, and was in the habit of inculcating indifferency of both life and food. And when the disciples (of Nicolaus) continued to offer insult to the Holy Spirit, John reproved them in the Apocalypse as fornicators and eaters of things offered unto idols.” (Refutation of All Heresies, Book VII).

In Epiphanius’ Panarion, he confirms Nicolas’ apostasy and tells of some of his lewd actions. He also associated the Nicolaitans with Gnostics. “For as bodies contract infection from other bodies through inoculation, a malignant itch, or leprosy, so the so-called Gnostics are partly united with the Nicolaitans, since they took their cues from Nicolaus himself and his predecessors—I mean Simon and the others. They are called ‘knowledgeable,’ but they are32 known all too well for the wickedness and obscenity in the transactions of their unclean trade.”

From these, we can see the Nicolaitans had bad doctrine that led to evil deeds. Sexual immorality and eating meat sacrificed to idols were included in their sins. They abused their own flesh. They were Gnostics. They denied Jesus as coming in the flesh and being the Son of God.

But the Scriptures tell us that what we do in the flesh does matter. Sexual immorality and idolatry are sins. Jesus really did come in the flesh and rose from the dead bodily. Any group that teaches the contrary is to be avoided.