The Nicloatians
Author: Steve Amato
Description: An early Christian cult
Keywords: Nicolaus, Revelations, heresy

# The Nicolaitans

From The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible

A term appearining in Rev 2:6,15 describing members of Christians congregations who held a doctrine that the Lord hated. Irenaeus said that they were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch, a proselyte who was among the seven men chose to serve the Jerusalem congregation (Acts 6:5), who had forsaken true Christian doctrine; he said they lived in unrestrained indulgence (Against Heresies I; 26:3). Hippolytus confirmed this by noting that Nicolaus left correct doctrine and had the habit of indifference as to what a man ate and as to how he lived (Refutations of Heresies 7:24). The Apostolic Constitutions (6:8) described them as "shameless in uncleanness." Although Clemet of Alexandria defended Nicolaus by insisting that his followers had misunderstood him, he observed that the Nicolaitans abandoned themselves to pleasures like goats in a life of shameless self-indulgence (The Miscellianes 2:20).

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