Little is known about the Nicolaitans. Their teachings (Revelation 2:15) suggest they ate food offered to idols and engaged in sexual immorality. The council in Jerusalem prohibited this behavior (see Acts 15:20, 29). The early church father Irenaeus, writing around AD 180, said that the Nicolaitans followed the teaching of Nicolas (Acts 6:3–5). He believed John's writings opposed the Nicolaitan false teachings linked to Cerinthus (see 1 John Book Introduction, “Setting”).