adoptionism

adoptionism Christian heresy taught in Spain after 782 by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel (Seo de Urgel). They held that Jesus at the time of his birth was purely human and only became the divine Son of God by adoption when he was baptized. Variations of this doctrine had been held as early as the 3d cent. by the Theodotians , Paul of Samosata , and by the Nestorians. It reappeared in the neo-adoptionist heresy among the followers of Peter Abelard. Elipandus and Felix were condemned at Frankfurt (794). The vigorous refutation of Alcuin had much to do with the sect's disappearance in the early 9th cent. See also monarchianism .

adoptionism A theory about the Person of Christ associated with the heretic Nestorius (d. 451 CE) that Jesus was a man gifted with divine powers. It was a view held by the Ebionites and it has sometimes been suggested that the quotation of Ps. 2: 7 and Isa. 42: 1 (‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’) in Mark 1: 11 is a coronation or adoption formula: Jesus is at that moment being ‘adopted’ as the divine Son. However, there seems to be no implication here at all about Jesus' status before his baptism; the words simply affirm God's act in Jesus; the beginning of the gospel is now and not at the end (the Resurrection).

Adoptianism. A Christian heresy in 8th-cent. Spain: the Logos, as true Son of God, must be distinguished from Christ, who is Son in a different sense, as a consequence of the Word ‘adopting’ humanity.

More generally, the term, usually spelt adoptionism, refers to the view that Jesus was a man whom God adopted as his son.