The term Antidicomarianites (ἀντιδικοµαριανῖται) literally means "opponents of Mary", from ἀντίδικ-ος adversary + Μαρία Mary.

The Antidicomarianites were an ancient Eastern Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 sect

Sect

A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...

 which flourished in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries. The Ebionites

Ebionites

Ebionites, or Ebionaioi, , is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites...

 were the first who maintained that Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 was the son of Joseph

Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....

 and Mary, not of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. This doctrine was controversial even to the sect's own adherents, and it was later modified so as to teach that; although Jesus was born of Mary through the Holy Ghost, afterwards Joseph and Mary lived in wedlock

Wedlock

Wedlock may refer to:* Marriage* Wedlock , an album by Sunburned Hand of the Man* Wedlock , directed by Lewis Teague* Billy Wedlock, an English footballer* Fred Wedlock, an English folk singer...

 and had many other children. The sect denied the formula "ever-Virgin Mary" used in the Greek and Roman Liturgies

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

. The earliest reference to this sect appears in Tertullian

Tertullian

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...

, and the doctrines taught by them are expressly mentioned by Origen

Origen

Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...

 (Homilia in Lucam, III, 940).
The opinion is grounded in some expressions of Jesus quoted in the gospels, wherein he mentioned his brothers and sisters

Desposyni

The term Desposyni refers to alleged blood relatives of Jesus. The term was coined by Sextus Julius Africanus, a writer of the early 3rd century. Some scholars argue that Jesus' relatives held positions of special honor in the Early Christian Church...

. Today most Protestants share the conviction of the Antidocomarianites that Mary and Joseph had children of their own after the birth of Jesus.

Certain Arians

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

, Eudoxius

Eudoxius of Antioch

Eudoxius was the eighth bishop of Constantinople from January 27, 360 to 370, previously bishop of Germanicia and of Antioch, and was one of the most influential Arians.-Biography:...

 and Eunomius

Eunomius of Cyzicus

Eunomius , one of the leaders of the extreme or "anomoean" Arians, who are sometimes accordingly called Eunomians, was born at Dacora in Cappadocia early in the 4th century....

, were great supporters of the teaching. The sect attained its greatest development in Arabia towards the end of the fourth century. The name Antidicomarianites was specifically applied to it by St. Epiphanius

Epiphanius of Salamis

Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...

, who wrote against them in an interesting letter giving the history of the doctrine and claiming proofs of its falsity (St. Epiphanius, Contra Hæres., lxxviii, 1033 sqq.).