Concise Bible Dictionary:
An early system of philosophy professedly Christian. One of their theories was that the Lord was an Æon and not really a man. Apparently to refute this, the apostle insists on Christ having come “in flesh” (1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7). The same may be alluded to in Colossians 2:9, “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” in opposition to their mysticism. See GENEALOGIES.