noun

• A person holding the view that Jesus is the Son of God by adoption only.

  ‘What made Jesus special, the Adoptionists believed, was that Jesus was more righteous than everyone else.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The Gnostics were another losing faction and the exact opposite, Christologically, of the Adoptionists.’
  • ‘Lastly, Nestorianism once more showed itself in the Adoptionists of Spain, and gave occasion to the great Council of Frankfort.’
  • ‘In more recent times the Jesuit Vasquez, and the Lutheran divines G. Calixtus and Walch, have defended the Adoptionists as essentially orthodox.’
  • ‘While Adoptionists believed Jesus to be totally human and not divine, Marcionites believed him to be totally divine and not human.’