Cainites

The Cainites, or Cainians (Greek: Καϊνοί Kainoi, Καϊανοί Kaianoi), were a Gnostic and Antinomian sect who were known to venerate Cain as the first victim of the Demiurge, the deity of the Tanakh, who was identified by many groups of Gnostics as evil. The sect following was relatively small. They were mentioned by Tertullian and Irenaeus as existing in the eastern Roman Empire during the 2nd century. One of their purported religious texts was the Gospel of Judas.

The oldest source is to be found in Irenaeus, .

He tells us that the Cainites regarded Cain as derived from the higher principle. They claimed fellowship with Esau, Korah, the men of Sodom, and all such people, and regarded themselves as on that account persecuted by the Creator. But they escaped injury from him, for Sophia used to carry away from them to herself that which belonged to her.

Epiphanius (Haer. 38) characteristically gives a much longer account, in substantial harmony with what Irenaeus says. He appears to have had some source of information independent of Irenaeus. He speaks of Abel as derived from the weaker principle—a statement which bears the marks of authenticity.

The account given by Irenaeus is unduly curt and the text not quite secure, but it is not difficult to form a general estimate of the sect from it, especially with the assistance of our other sources. Like other Gnostics, the Cainites drew a distinction between the Creator and the Supreme God. They identified the Creator with the God of the Jews. They viewed him and those whom he favoured with undisguised hostility; redemption had for its end the dissolution of his work. They claimed kinship with those to whom he showed antagonism in his book, the Old Testament, and shared themselves in the same hostility. Nevertheless, he was the weaker power, who could do them no permanent harm, for Sophia, the Heavenly Wisdom, drew back to herself those elements in their nature which they had derived from her.

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