[f. the name Theodot-us: see -IAN.] A follower of Theodotus (‘the Tanner’) of Byzantium, who (c. 200 A.D.) taught the antitrinitarian doctrine of the MONARCHIANS; also, a follower of Theodotus (‘the Banker’) who promulgated a similar heresy in the 3rd c. A.D. Hence Theodotianism.
1853. W. E. Taylor, Hippolytus, II. iv. 102. Disputes occurring among the Theodotians, he became the head of a new sect.
1874. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, Heresies, etc. (1886), s.v., Epiphanius writes that the Theodotians held Christ to be a mere man, and begotten of the seed of man…. Hippolytus and Theodoret state that they had their beginning from Theodotus the Banker.
1876. A. Plummer, trans. Döllinger’s Hippolytus & Callistus, iv. 287, note. A full denial of the divinity of Christ or Theodotianism.
