Nicolaitans
late 1st – 2nd century
disputed. The faction is attested in Revelation. All further content is hostile inference.
Hostile sources only. No writing from inside this group is known. Teachings and morals here are the opponents' account unless another source confirms them.
Leaders
- Nicolaus of Antioch (alleged by Irenaeus)
Beliefs
Revelation implies that they accepted eating food offered to idols and sexual immorality, possibly meaning compromise with pagan civic religion. Later writers give contradictory pictures of them as either libertines or ascetics.
Home bases
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Ephesus and Pergamum (Nicolaitans in Revelation)
Selçuk / Bergama, Turkey · 1st–2nd
The book of Revelation (2:6, 2:15) praises the church at Ephesus for hating 'the works of the Nicolaitans' and rebukes Pergamum for tolerating them. This is the earliest named Christian faction in any text. Irenaeus later linked them to Nicolaus, the Antiochene deacon of Acts 6.
Spread
Asia Minor (Ephesus, Pergamum, and possibly Thyatira's 'Jezebel' party).
Books
None linked.
What happened to it
Vanished early. Later writers knew them only from Revelation.
Hostile sources
John of Patmos. Revelation 2:6, 2:14–15 c. 90–95
Hostile; earliest.
Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies I.26.3; III.11.1 c. 180
Hostile; earliest systematic heresiology; ANF translation (public domain).
Clement of Alexandria. Stromata II.20; III.4 c. 200
Defends Nicolaus himself.
Their own words
No insider source is known.
Sources
- Nicolaism
Wikipedia. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- GnosticismConfessional source
Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (confessional). Accessed 2026-11-11.