:Hanifians (certain desert-dwelling Devotees of Bina in Late Antiquity who under Maslama bin Habib embraced the term Hanifa as a name for Abraham to remind that even a man of such renowned righteousness as Abraham descended from such a corrupt Hanif as Serug. Thus no one should lose hope. They called themselves the Banu Hanifa meaning Children of Abraham.)
These sects regarded Jesus not as a human being but as an Angelic visitor of purely divine nature from the world of Bina who decided it would be best to be born to enter this world rather than enter the world by other means. Such sects regarded Jesus as the "Mahamadim" Bridegroom, a spiritual trinity of Luminous Spirit, Crucified Word and Messianic Messenger who in combination only appeared to be human but in reality was not a human being.
Some of these sects such as the Elchassites respected Judaism and Jews as guides, but others such as the Mandaeans rejected them. The Mandaeans also rejected the Christian Jesus as a literary invention.
Gnostic Baptists can be distinguished from Christians by their use of the name Yahia instead of Iuhana to refer to John the Baptist and the use of the word Ieso instead of Yeshua to refer to Jesus.
