The Cainites or Cainians (Ancient Greek: Καϊνοί, Kainoi, and Καϊανοί, Kaianoi) [1] were a fictitious heresy allegedly venerating Cain and celebrating him for his sins, described by Irenaeus.

Cainite, member of a Gnostic sect mentioned by Irenaeus and other early Christian writers as flourishing in the 2nd century ad, probably in the eastern area of the Roman Empire. The …

Cainites, a name used for (I) the descendants of Cain, (2) a sect of Gnostics and Antinomians. Read more from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

The Cainites, on the contrary, cared for none of these things; they flung off the restraints of religion; they were the secularists and materialists of the antediluvian world. Whether there …

A Gnostic sect of the second century was called Cainites or Caianites. They regarded all characters held up to reprobation in the Old Testament as worthy of veneration , as having …

Cainites, a sect of Gnostics that sprung up about the year 130 and is classed with the Ophites (q. v) or Serpentinians. They held that Sophia (Wisdom) found means to preserve in every age in …

Cainites — The Cainites, or Cainians, were a Gnostic and Antinomian sect who were known to worship Cain as the first victim of the Demiurge Jehovah, the Old Testament God, who was …

A Gnostic Sect of the second century was called Cainites or Caianites. They regarded all characters held up to reprobation in the Old Testament as worthy of veneration, as having …

The two races of mankind that existed during the Ante-diluvian civilization were the Cainites and Sethites. The Cainites represented the unsaved seed of Satan (Gen.3:15; 4:14-26; Rom.5:12; …

If we can rely on this title, for which Epiphanius alone is responsible, the school of the Cainites is consequently post-Pauline. But the strangest and, from one point of view, the most interesting …