Montanists

In Phrygia on the late second century, Montanus taught that the Holy Spirit has not completed its revelations. Montanus claimed to have received prophecies that many found credible, but he said that prophesy was a gift that not everyone possessed. Two female followers, Prisca and Maximilla, claimed to have inherited the gift from the daughters of Philip the Evangelist. They left their husbands and became full-time prophetic oracles. When they fasted and prayed, they became ecstatic, danced erotically, and the Holy Spirit entered their bodies and spoke prophesies through them. Otherwise, Montanists maintained ethical standards and tried to fill in the gaps to complete the orthodox interpretation of the gospels and the book of Revelations. Montanism spread in Phrygia and elsewhere, and even received some support in Rome. The official church wasn’t sure that the Montanists weren’t right. Montanus said that Pepuza was the new Jerusalem, meaning that prior to the second coming the heavenly Jerusalem would descend upon Pepuza the nearby town of Tymion. Today, however, Pepuza and Tymion are lost cities, although archeologists have discovered and documented the best candidates for their ruins.