Abstract
The Book of Elchasai in Eastern Christianity — The Book of Elchasai and the baptist sect that used it was much better known in eastern Christianity than in the West. Origen describes the influence of the Elcahasaites in mid-3th century Palestine. Epiphanius, by contrast, discusses Jewish and Christian movements in Palestine and Transjordania in his extensive heresiology, including the adherents of Elchasai. The Elchasaites had a curious kind of Christology, and their adherence to law, astrological practices and ritual baptisms in particular were an interesting and unusual trend among eastern Christian sects.