Gnosticism

====Elkesaites====
{{Main|Elcesaites}}
The Elkesaites were a Judeo-Christian baptismal sect that originated in the Transjordan and were active between 100 and 400 AD.<ref name=ElkJI>{{cite web|last1=Kohler|first1=Kaufmann|last2=Ginzberg|first2=Louis|title=Elcesaites|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5513-elcesaites|website=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=14 February 2022}}</ref> The members of this sect performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic disposition.<ref name=ElkJI/><ref name="auto2"/>{{rp|123}} The sect is named after its leader ''Elkesai''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Elkesaites|website=Britannica|access-date=14 February 2022|title=Elkesaite &#124; Jewish sect}}</ref>

According to [[Joseph Lightfoot]], the Church Father [[Epiphanius of Salamis|Epiphanius]] (writing in the 4th century AD) seems to make a distinction between two main groups within the [[Essenes]]:<ref name=lightfoot1875>{{Cite book|first=Joseph Barber |last=Lightfoot |author-link=Joseph Barber Lightfoot |chapter=On Some Points Connected with the Essenes |title=St. Paul's epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes, and dissertations |year=1875 |url=https://archive.org/details/stpaulsepistles00lighgoog |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |oclc=6150927 }}</ref> "Of those that came before his [Elxai (Elkesai), an Ossaean prophet] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the [[Nazarene (sect)#Nasoraean Mandaeans|Nasaraeans]]."<ref name="panarion1-19">{{Cite web |date=2015-09-06 |title=Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1 |url=http://www.masseiana.org/panarion_bk1.htm#18 |access-date=2023-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906041916/http://www.masseiana.org/panarion_bk1.htm#18 |archive-date=2015-09-06 }}</ref>