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Early Christianity is the Christianity of the three centuries between the death of Jesus (c. 30) and the First Council of Nicaea (325). The term is sometimes used in a narrower sense of just the very first followers (disciples) of Jesus of Nazareth and the faith as preached and practiced by the Twelve Apostles, their contemporaries, and their immediate successors, also called the Apostolic Age.
Early Christianity, which began within Judaism, became clearly distinct from Rabbinic Judaism. It continued to revere the Jewish Bible, generally using the Septuagint translation that was in general use among Greek-speaking Jews and Gentile Godfearers, and added to it the writings that would become the New Testament, thus developing the first Christian Biblical canons. It defended Christian beliefs against criticism by non-Christian Jews and followers of other Roman religions, survived various persecutions, consisted of divisions that accused each other of heresy, and developed church hierarchy. Christianity synthesized Jewish morals, Greek theology, and Roman administration.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 What started as a religious movement within Second Temple Judaism became, by the end of this period, the favored religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine the Great (leading later to the rise of Christendom), and a significant religion also outside of the empire. The church prevailed over pagans and heretics because it offered an attractive doctrine and because the church leaders addressed human needs better than their rivals.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 The First Council of Nicaea marks the end of this era and the beginning of the period of the first Seven Ecumenical Councils (325 - 787).
By the end of the 1st century, Roman law recognized Christians as distinct from Jews, exempting them from a special tax on the Jews and denying them Jewish religious freedoms.
Jesus and all his original followers were Jews or Jewish proselytes. The followers of Jesus composed a sect of Judaism marked by their belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah (Acts 2:22-36), and that the Kingdom of God had come or would soon come, in fulfilment of expectation (Acts 19:8). The apostles, especially St. Paul, also gained converts among the gentiles (non-Jews). Practice among the groups that followed Jesus included those who were strictly Jewish, or those strongly attracted to Jewish practice, including the church leaders in Jerusalem. Paul\'s epistles founded Christian theology, marking a distinction from Judaism. He also persuaded the leaders of the Jerusalem Church to allow Gentile converts exemption from full Jewish law (see Council of Jerusalem). Luke, writing near the end of the first century, identified the Roman Centurion Cornelius as the first Gentile (non-Jewish) convert.Catholic Encyclopedia: Cornelius: "The baptism of Cornelius is an important event in the history of the Early Church. The gates of the Church, within which thus far only those who were circumcised and observed the Law of Moses had been admitted, were now thrown open to the uncircumcised Gentiles without the obligation of submitting to the Jewish ceremonial laws." Jews who did not convert to Christianity and the growing Christian community gradually became more hostile toward each other. After the Destruction of the Second Temple in 70, Jerusalem ceased to be the center of Jewish religious life, and probably Christian religious life as well. Rabbinic Judaism developed as mainstream Jewish practice, first in Yavne, where the Great Sanhedrin was first reconstituted.Jewish Encyclopedia: Academies in Palestine: Jabneh, Temporary Center of the Jewish Nation: "The destruction of Jerusalem put as abrupt an end to the disputes of the schools as it did to the contests between political parties [ Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots ]. It was then that a disciple of Hillel, the venerable Johanan ben Zakkai, founded a new home for Jewish Law in Jabneh (Jamnia), and thus evoked a new intellectual life from the ruins of a fallen political existence. The college at Jabneh, which at once constituted itself the successor of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem by putting into practise the ordinances of that body as far as was necessary and practicable, attracted all those who had escaped the national catastrophe and who had become prominent by their character and their learning." Rabbinical Jews rejected the recent works of the Septuagint, such as 2 Maccabees, which Christians retained. Early in the second century, Christians began to accept early Christian texts as scripture. Christianity established itself as a predominantly Gentile religion that spanned the Roman Empire and beyond. Scholar James D. G. Dunn has proposed that Peter was the bridge-man (i.e. the pontifex maximus) between the two other "prominent leading figures": Paul and James the Just.The Canon Debate, McDonald & Sanders editors, 2002, chapter 32, page 577, by James D. G. Dunn: "For Peter was probably in fact and effect the bridge-man (pontifex maximus!) who did more than any other to hold together the diversity of first-century Christianity. James the brother of Jesus and Paul, the two other most prominent leading figures in first-century Christianity, were too much identified with their respective "brands" of Christianity, at least in the eyes of Christians at the opposite ends of this particular spectrum. But Peter, as shown particularly by the Antioch episode in Gal 2, had both a care to hold firm to his Jewish heritage, which Paul lacked, and an openness to the demands of developing Christianity, which James lacked. John might have served as such a figure of the center holding together the extremes, but if the writings linked with his name are at all indicative of his own stance he was too much of an individualist to provide such a rallying point. Others could link the developing new religion more firmly to its founding events and to Jesus himself. But none of them, including the rest of the twelve, seem to have played any role of continuing significance for the whole sweep of Christianity—though James the brother of John might have proved an exception had he been spared." [Italics original]
The gospels that eventually became synoptic gospels of the Christian Bible identify Jesus as establishing a New Covenant with his flesh and blood,Technically, the term New Covenant only appears in the Synoptic Gospels in Luke 22:20 and even then not in all versions, see Bruce M. Metzger\'s Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament for details. the bread and wine of the Eucharist. The previous covenant was that of Moses, called the Mosaic Covenant.
Christian groups such as Ebionites that insisted on circumcision and other aspects of Jewish law were disparaged as Judaizers, especially after the 3rd century.
Early Christian beliefs were based on the apostolic preaching (kerygma), considered to be preserved in tradition and, according as was produced, in New Testament scripture.In recent centuries some have posited for parts of the New Testament dates as late as the third century, early Christians attributed it to the Apostles themselves and their contemporaries (such as Mark and Luke).
Most Christians identified Jesus as divine from a very early period, although holding a variety of competing views as to what exactly this implied.Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, (Eerdmans, 2005), page 650. Early Christian views tended to see Jesus as a unique agent of God;Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, (Eerdmans, 2005), page 204. by the Council of Nicaea in 325 he was identified as God in the fullest sense.
The first and second-century texts that would later be canonized as the New Testament repeatedly refer to Jesus\' divinity, though there is scholarly debate as to whether or not they call him GodSee Raymond E. Brown\'s "Does the New Testament call Jesus God?" in Theological Studies, #26, 1965, p. 545-73 for a good summary of the debate.. Within 20-30 years of the death of Jesus, Paul, who developed the first Christian theology,Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 refers to Jesus as the resurrected Son of God, the savior who would return from heaven and save his faithful, dead and living, from the imminent destruction of the world. The Synoptic Gospels describe him as the Son of God, born of the Holy Spirit, who will return to judge the nations. The Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the human incarnation of the divine word or "Logos" (see Jesus the Logos) and True Vine. The Book of Revelation depicts Jesus as the "the first and the last", who died and now lives for ever and who holds the keys of death and Hades,Template:Biblereference and as the Alpha and Omega who is to come soon.Revelation 22:12The book has many other images, in particular that of a fearsome beast whose worshippers and those who receive its mark "will drink the wine of God\'s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:9-11), an effect not attributed to the Lamb itself. The book speaks of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God as reigning with him for a thousand yearsRevelation 20:4-6 before the final defeat of SatanRevelation 20:7-10 and the Judgement at the Great White Throne.Revelation 20:11-14
The term "Logos" was used in Greek philosophy and in Jewish religious writing (see Philo) to mean the ultimate ordering principle of the universe. Those who rejected the identification of Jesus with the Logos, rejecting also the Gospel of John, were called Alogi (see also Monarchianism)."Alogi or Alogoi", Early Church.org.uk. "Alogi", Francis P. Havey, The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume I, 1907.
Adoptionists, such as the Ebionites, considered him as a man who became the Son of God at his baptism or resurrection.
The Trinity is a post-New Testament doctrine.Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. However, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are associated in various New Testament passages.Encyclopædia Britannica, "Trinity". The Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 possibly reflects the baptismal practice at Matthew\'s time. Baptism has been in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost since the end of the first century."Baptism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 Acts 2:38 speaks of baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ", which some interpret as another method of baptism, while others do not, since "in the name of" is used elsewhere in Acts to mean not a form of words but "by the authority of", "for the sake of".Acts 2:38, 3:6, 4:18, 5:40, 9:27-28, 16:18; cf. "The phrase \'baptized in the name of Jesus\' is simply Luke\'s way to distinguish Christian baptism from other baptisms of the period, such as John\'s baptism (which Luke mentions in Acts 1:5, 22, 10:37, 11:16, 13:24, 18:25, 19:4), Jewish proselyte baptism, and the baptisms of pagan cults (such as Mithraism)" (Trinitarian Baptism); "baptism is differentiated elsewhere in narratives by being described as \'in the name of Jesus,\' as opposed to the \'baptism of John\' and so forth" (Jesus Name Baptism?). Aside from this verse, Matthew does not equate Jesus with God nor does he specify inequality either, though he indicates a special relationship between them.The Oxford Companion of the Bible, "Trinity". One of the elements virtually universal among diverse early Christians was the understanding that Jesus the Son was uniquely united with God the Father.History of Dogma II.III.2, Adolf von Harnack. \'Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour. . . sent by God "in these last days," and who stands with God himself in a union special and unique.\'
According to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Trinity was revealed to the disciples by revelation and in religious visions called theoria"[http://www.orthodoxfaith.com/spirituality_difference.html The Difference Between Orthodox Spirituality and Other Confessions]", Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, OrthodoxFaith.com 2003. "Thus the disciples of Christ acquired the knowledge of the Triune God in theoria (vision of God) and by revelation. It was revealed to them that God is one essence in three hypostases." during the Theophany and the Transfiguration of Jesus called the Tabor Light or uncreated light.
The close of the early Christian era is defined as the First Council of Nicea, which gave the trinity its dogmatic form. But the term trinity (coined by Tertullian) and concepts related to the trinity existed earlier in the church. The phrase "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" became common, especially at baptism. Another trinitarian formula, "Glory to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit," was common even before the Arian controversy. However, this earlier formula does not express the co-equality of the three persons."The Blessed Trinity", G.H.Joyce, The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume XV, 1912.
The Council used the Greek term homousios (literally "of the same substance, essence or being") to express its view of the relation of the Son to the Father. However, it also appears in the early Christian eraThe first two writers listed are mentioned in Catholic Encyclopedia: Homoousion as applying the word precisely to the relation between Christ and the Father. as used by Origen, Paul of Samosata, and Alexander of Alexandria though not without controversy, see for example Synods of Antioch . Various Christian writings refer to Jesus as a man and as God, but it was this Council that gave official sanction to the common Trinity formulation using this term.
Many, including Oneness Pentecostals and some Restorationists, styling themselves as restoring early Christian practice, reject the trinitarian concepts of the early church, and generally place no importance in the post-apostolic writings of the Church Fathers on the subject. (See below in the discussion on the Church Fathers.)
The apostles apparently believed that Jesus would soon return to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 The general term for this set of beliefs is parousia (or Second Coming).
Early Christians commonly believed that Christ would rule a thousand-year kingdom prior to the general resurrection, (a belief known as chiliasm or premillenialism).History of the Christian Church Vol. 2 p.381, Philip Schaff, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, n.d.). "The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millenarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgement. It was indeed not the doctrine of the church embodied in any creed or form of devotion, but a widely current opinion of distinguished teachers, such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, and Lactantius, while Caius, Origen, Dionysius the Great, Eusebius (as afterwards Jerome and Augustin) opposed it."
Early Christians followed the Pharisaic precedentNot all Jews believed in resurrection. The Sadducees rejected all scripture but the Torah and denied the resurrection as an innovation. of believing in a physical resurrection of the dead. They believed that the saved received various divine rewards corresponding to their holiness. While all the saved would gain eternal life in Christ, not all of the saved would live in heaven.[citation needed]
Apologists defended the resurrection of the dead against pagan philosophers, who considered the soul worthy of perfection but not the body. Origen, however, promoted a Platonic viewpoint and denied the physical resurrection.[citation needed]
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The ancient Jewish picture was of the sky as a firmament, a dome covering the earth. But the prevailing picture in early Christian times was that of the earth as a sphere with one or more other spheres, containing the stars, rotating around it. They sometimes described the souls of the dead waiting underground for the general resurrection. They described gehenna (roughly, hell) as a subterranean fire, see also Lake of Fire. In some Hellenic traditions, influential in the Alexandrian church, souls escaped the material world of the earth and returned to the spirit realm above.
That early Christians prayed for the dead, believing that the dead were thereby benefitted, is attested from at least the second century, and celebration of the Eucharist for the dead is attested since at least the third century.Gerald O\' Collins and Mario Farrugia, Catholicism: the story of Catholic Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 36; George Cross, "The Differentiation of the Roman and Greek Catholic Views of the Future Life", in The Biblical World (1912) p. 106; cf. Pastor I, iii. 7, also Ambrose, De Excessu fratris Satyri 80 Specific examples of belief in the communion of the living with the dead through prayer are found in many of the Church FathersGerald O\'Collins and Edward G. Farrugia, A Concise Dictionary of Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000) p. 27. The Encyclopædia Britannica says that: "The well-attested early Christian practice of prayer for the dead ... was encouraged by the episode (rejected by Protestants as apocryphal) in which Judas Maccabeus (Jewish leader of the revolt against the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes) makes atonement for the idolatry of his fallen soldiers by providing prayers and a monetary sin offering on their behalf (2 Maccabees 12:41–46); by the apostle Paul\'s prayer for Onesiphorus (2 Timothy 1:18); and by the implication in Matthew 12:32 that there may be forgiveness of sins in the world to come."Encyclopædia Britannica Online: Purgatory
The Greek word "Hades", which, like the Hebrew word "sheol", is generally used of the abode where the dead are reckoned to be, appears several times in the New Testament.Henry Clarence Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, Eerdmans (1979), page 381. In the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the dead rich man "in Hades" (16:23), speaks of being "tormented in this flame" (16:24), and is said to be separated by a "great gulf" from Abraham (16:26), in whose bosom Lazarus is said to be placed (16:22). The word "Hades" was used in Acts 2:27-31 (as in the Septuagint) to translate the word "sheol" of the Hebrew text of the Psalm there quoted.
Early Church Fathers who wrote in Greek, such as Hippolytus of Rome in his book on Hades, continued to use the term "Hades".Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe. Early Christian writers in Latin also used either the Greek word "Hades" itselfFor instance, Tertullian in De anima, chapter 7. or employed as its equivalent the Latin word "infernus", the Roman word for the underworld,For instance, the Latin translation of Origen\'s De Principiis by Rufinus [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.v.v.i.html Book IV, chapter I as Jerome did in his translation of the New Testament."In Latin, St Jerome translated Hades as infernus, the Roman name for the underworld and thus an exact cognate" (Christian History
Early Christians understood angels to be active in supporting the church and Satan to be actively opposed to it. Hippolytus, for example, recounts angels physically scourging the first antipope to force him to repent.Church History 5.28.7-12, Eusebius. "Monarchians", John Chapman, The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume X, 1911. Christian writers commonly saw Satan (or Beelzebub, see Mark 3) as the author of heresies. In John 8:44, Satan, rather than Abraham, is named as the father of those Jews who rejected Jesus. See also Rejection of Jesus.
The word "angel" is derived from Greek ἄγγελος, the basic meaning of which is "messenger". Visitations from the "angel of the LORD" in the Old Testament are taken by many to be pre-Incarnation manifestations of Christ."Who is the angel of the Lord?", gotQuestions?.org. "An Angel You Ought to Know", Loren Jacobs, Jews for Jesus. "The Angel of the Lord: Who Is He?", Biblical Artefacts And Studies. Accordingly, Justin Martyr spoke of Christ as "King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting kingdom".Dialogue with Trypho 34, Justin Martyr. He interpreted as Christ the Angel who spoke with Abraham in Genesis 18, and argued for the divinity of Christ.For a detailed study of the significance Justin saw in the title of "Angel" given to the Messiah in the Septuagint version of Isaiah 9:6, the then most widely known version of that text, see "Christ As Angel: The Reclamation Of A Primitive Title", Günther Juncker, Trinity Journal 15:2 (Fall 1994): 221–250.
Traditionally, orthodoxy and heresy have been viewed in relation to the "orthodoxy" as an authentic lineage of tradition. Other forms of Christianity were viewed as deviant streams of thought and therefore "heterodox", or heretical. This view was dominant until the publication of Walter Bauer\'s Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum ("Orthodoxy and heresy in ancient Christianity") in 1934. Bauer endeavored to rethink early Christianity historically, independent from the views of the church. He stated that the early church was very diverse and included many "heretical" groups that had an equal claim to apostolic tradition. Bauer interpreted the struggle between the orthodox and heterodox to be the "mainstream" Roman church struggling to attain dominance. He presented Edessa and Egypt as places where the "orthodoxy" of Rome had little influence during the second century. As he saw it, the theological thought of the Orient at the time would later be labeled "heresy". The response by modern scholars has been mixed. Some scholars clearly support Bauer\'s conclusions and others express concerns about his possible bias. More moderate responses have become prominent and Bauer\'s theory is generally accepted. However, modern scholars have critiqued and updated Bauer\'s model.Hunt (2003). Pp 10-11.
Perhaps one of the most important discussions among scholars of early Christianity in the past century is to what extent it is appropriate to speak of "orthodoxy" and "heresy". Higher criticism drastically altered the previous perception that heresy was a very rare exception to the orthodoxy. Bauer was particularly influential in the reconsideration of the historical model. During the 1970s, increasing focus on the effect of social, political and economic circumstances on the formation of early Christianity occurred as Bauer\'s work found a wider audience. Some scholars argue against the increasing focus on heresies. A movement away from presuming the correctness or dominance of the orthodoxy is seen as understandable, in light of modern approaches. However, they feel that instead of an even and neutral approach to historical analysis that the heterodox sects are given an assumption of superiority over the orthodox movement. The current debate is vigorous and broad. While it is difficult to summarize all current views, general statements may be made, remembering that such broad strokes will have exceptions in specific cases.Esler (2004). Pp 893-894.
Many second century Christians believed that Jesus had been a man whom God had adopted as the Son.History of Dogma II.III.3, Adolf von Harnack. "Jesus was either regarded as the man whom God hath chosen, in whom the Deity or the Spirit of God dwelt, and who, after being tested, was adopted by God and invested with dominion, (Adoptian Christology); or Jesus was regarded as a heavenly spiritual being (the highest after God) who took flesh, and again returned to heaven after the completion of his work on earth (pneumatic Christology)." Adoptionists believed that Jesus had achieved divinity through moral perfection. This outlook was appears in The Shepherd of Hermas and, according to some scholars, in the epistles of Paul. The Ebionites and Paul of Samosata (200 to 275) held similar views. Adoptionism conflicted with the tradition that Jesus embodied the eternal Logos, as in the Gospel of John.
Adoptionist heresies would recur in Antioch (5th century), Spain (8th century), and France (12th century).
Arianism was the most challenging heresy in the history of the Church. The initial version of the Nicene Creed, which largely defines orthodox Christianity, was drawn up in response to Arius\'s challenge.
In 318, an Alexandrian priest named Arius (c 280-336) began challenging his bishop, Alexander, regarding the nature of Christ. Arius taught that the Son was not co-eternal with the Father but had proceeded from Him, and that the Holy Spirit had proceeded from the Son. Arius\'s beliefs spread quickly among the clergy. Alexander called a council of Egyptian bishops and unfrocked Arius and his followers, but some other bishops sympathized with Arius. The controversy spread through the Greek East. Constantine, seeking political stability, played down differences between Arius and Alexander. He could not, however, get them to settle their differences quietly. Finally, Constantine called a universal Christian council to settle the controversy. Athanasius, representing Alexander, argued that if Father and Son were not one substance, polytheism would triumph. The creed of 325 was acceptable to Arius except for the phrase "same substance," referring to the Son and the Father; Arius would have accepted "similar substance." Arianism led to controversy centuries later with the filioque. Arian Visigoths refused to accept the Nicene Creed until it was changed to say that the Holy Spirit proceeds not just from the Father but also from the Son.
Ebionites ("poor ones") practiced Jewish Christianity, followed the Law, and believed Jesus to have been adopted as God\'s Son.Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 They flourished in the early centuries of Christianity, especially east of the Jordan.Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 They seem to have been ascetics, to have rejected Paul\'s epistles, and to have used one gospel of uncertain identity. In the second century, the Church denounced them as heretics.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 They waned but survived for five centuries as Syriac Christians.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
Early in the common era, several distinct religious sects, some of them Christian, adhered to an array of beliefs that would later be termed Gnostic. The most successful Christian Gnostic was the priest Valentinus (c. 100 - c. 160), who founded a Gnostic church and developed an elaborate cosmology. Gnostics considered the material world to be a prison created by a fallen or evil spirit, the god of the material world (called the demiurge). Gnostics identified the God of the Hebrew Bible as this demiurge. Secret knowledge (gnosis) was said to liberate one\'s soul to return to the true God in the realm of light. Valentinus and other Christian gnostics identified Jesus as the Savior, a spirit sent from the true God into the material world to liberate the souls trapped there.
While some elements that appear to be Gnostic are found in early Christian writing, orthodox Christianity labeled Gnosticism a heresy and rejected its dualistic cosmology and its vilification of the material world and the creator of the material. Gnosticism\'s stance was that the God of the Old Testament was not the true God. It was considered to be the demiurge and either fallen, as taught by Valentinus (c. 100 - c. 160) or evil, as taught by the Sethians and Ophites.
The Gospel of John, according to Stephen L Harris, both includes Gnostic elements and refutes Gnostic beliefs, presenting a dualistic universe of light and dark, spirit and matter, good and evil, much like the Gnostic accounts, but instead of escaping the material world, Jesus bridges the spiritual and physical worlds.Understanding the Bible, Stephen L Harris. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. Raymond E. Brown wrote that even though gnostics interpreted John to support their doctrines, the author didn\'t intend that. The epistles were written (whether by the author of the Gospel or someone in his circle) to argue against gnostic doctrines.The Community of the Beloved Disciple, Raymond E. Brown, Paulist Press. (French translation: La communauté du disciple bien-aimé Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris 1983 ISBN 2-204-02000-1), pp. 117-134
The Gospel of Thomas has some Gnostic elements but lacks the full Gnostic cosmology. The scene in John in which "doubting Thomas" ascertains that the resurrected Jesus is physical refutes the Gnostic idea that Jesus returned to spirit form after death. The written gospel draws on an earlier oral tradition associated with Thomas. Some scholars argue that the Gospel of John was meant to oppose the beliefs of that community.Beyond Belief,Elaine Pagels, 2003.
Some believe[citation needed] that there were at least three distinct divisions within the Christian movement of the 1st century: the Jewish Christians (led by the Apostle James the Just, with Jesus\'s disciples, and their followers), Pauline Christians (followers of Paul of Tarsus) and Gnostic Christians.[citation needed] Others believe that Gnostic Christianity was a later development, some time around the middle or late second century, around the time of Valentinus.No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins, Carl B. Smith, Hendrickson Publishers (September 2004). ISBN-13: 978-1565639447 Gnosticism was in turn made up of many smaller groups, some of which did not claim any connection to Jesus Christ. In Mandaeist Gnosticism, Mandaeans maintain that Jesus was a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist. The word k(a)daba, however, derives from two roots in Mandaic: the first root, meaning "to lie," is the one traditionally ascribed to Jesus; the second, meaning "to write," might provide a second meaning, that of "book;" hence some Mandaeans, motivated perhaps by an ecumenical spirit, maintain that Jesus was not a "lying Messiah" but a "Book Messiah", the "book" in question presumably being the Christian Gospels. This however seems to be a folk etymology without support in the Mandaean texts.Macuch, Rudolf (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. Berlin: De Gruyter & Co., 61 fn. 105. A modern view has argued that Marcionism is mistakenly reckoned among the Gnostics, and really represents a fourth interpretation of the significance of Jesus."MARCION", Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 ed., Volume VI7, p. 693. Gnostics freely exchanged concepts and texts. It is considered likely that Valentinius was influenced by previous concepts such as Sophia, as much as he influenced others.
In 144, the Church in Rome expelled Marcion of Sinope. He thereupon set up his own separate ecclesiastical organization, later called Marcionism. Like the Gnostics, he promoted dualism. Unlike the Gnostics, however, he founded his beliefs not on secret knowledge (gnosis) but on the vast difference between what he saw as the "evil" deity of the Old Testament and the God of love of the New, on which he expounded in his Antithesis. Consequently, Marcionists were vehemently anti-Judaism in their beliefs. They rejected The Hebrew Gospel (see also Gospel of the Hebrews) and all the other Gospels with the exception of a short version of the Gospel of Luke, often called the Gospel of Marcion.
From the perspectives of Tertullian and Epiphanius (when the four gospels had largely canonical status, perhaps in reaction to the challenge created by Marcion), it appeared that Marcion rejected the non-Lukan gospels, however, in Marcion\'s time, it may be that the only gospel he was familiar with from Pontus was the gospel that would later be called Luke. It is also possible that Marcion\'s gospel was actually modified by his critics to become the gospel we know today as Luke, rather than the story from his critics that he changed a canonical gospel to get his version. For example: compare Luke 5:39 to 5:36-38; did Marcion delete 5:39 from his Gospel or was it added later to counteract a Marcionist interpretation of 5:36-38? See also New Wine into Old Wineskins. One must keep in mind that we only know of Marcion through his critics and they considered him a major threat to the form of Christianity that they knew. John Knox (the modern writer, not to be confused with John Knox the Protestant Reformer) in Marcion and the New Testament: An Essay in the Early History of the Canon (ISBN 0-404-16183-9) was the first to propose that Marcion\'s Gospel may have preceded Luke\'s Gospel and Acts."Marcion and Marcionite Gnosticism", Cky J. Carrigan, Ph.D., On Truth, November 1996.
Marcion argued that Christianity should be solely based on Christian Love. He went so far as to say that Jesus’ mission was to overthrow Demiurge -- the fickle, cruel, despotic God of the Old Testament -- and replace Him with the Supreme God of Love whom Jesus came to reveal. Marcion was labeled a gnostic by Irenaeus. Irenaeus\' labeled Marcion this because of Marcion expressing this core gnostic belief, that the creator God of the Jews and the Old Testament was the devil. This position, he said, was supported by the ten Epistles of Paul that Marcion also accepted. His writing had a profound effect upon the development of Christianity and the canon.Metzger, Bruce. Canon of the NT ISBN 978-0-19-826180-3; The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 characterized Marcion as "perhaps the most dangerous foe Christianity has ever known."; Harnack\'s Origin of the New Testament: "Marcion, on the contrary, treats the Catholic Church as one that “follows the Testament of the Creator-God,” and directs the full force of his attack against this Testament and against the falsification of the Gospel and of the Pauline Epistles by the original Apostles and the writers of the Gospels. He would necessarily have dealt with the two Testaments of the Catholic Church if the Church had already possessed a New Testament. His polemic would necessarily have been much less simple if he had been opposed to a Church which, by possessing a New Testament side by side with the Old Testament, had ipso facto placed the latter under the shelter of the former. In fact Marcion’s position towards the Catholic Church is intelligible, in the full force of its simplicity, only under the supposition that the Church had not yet in her hand any “litera scripta Novi Testamenti.”"
About 156, Montanus launched a ministry of prophecy, criticizing Christians as increasingly worldly and bishops as increasingly autocratic.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 Traveling in his native Anatolia, he and two women preached a return to primitive Christian simplicity, prophecy, celibacy, and asceticism. Tertullian, having grown puritanical with age, embraced Montanism as a more outright application of Christ\'s teaching. Montanus\'s followers revered him as the Paraclete that Christ had promised, and he led his sect out into a field to meet the New Jerusalem. His sect spread across the Roman Empire, survived persecution, and relished martyrdom. The Church banned them as a heresy, and in the 6th century Justinian ordered the sect\'s extinction.
The sect\'s ecstasy, speaking in tongues, and other details are similar to those found in Pentecostalism.
Early Christians wrote many religious works, some of which were later canonized as the New Testament of today.
Christian testimony was entirely oral for roughly twenty years after Jesus\' death. People such as the Apostle Peter who, according to those letters of Paul, knew Jesus directly established oral traditions in various places, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Caesarea, and Ephesus, each place gradually developing distinct characteristics. When they began to die off, Christians recorded the sayings in writing. If the hypothetical Q document existed, it was perhaps the first such record, written circa 50.
At about the same time, Paul of Tarsus also began writing (or dictatingIt may be that he employed an amanuensis, only occasionally writing himself, for example see Galatians 6:11, Romans 16:22, 1Corinthians 16:21, Colossians 4:18, 2Thessalonians 3:17, Philemon 1:19. Joseph Barber Lightfoot in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians writes: "At this point the apostle takes the pen from his amanuensis, and the concluding paragraph is written with his own hand. From the time when letters began to be forged in his name (2 Thess 2:2; 3:17) it seems to have been his practice to close with a few words in his own handwriting, as a precaution against such forgeries… In the present case he writes a whole paragraph, summing up the main lessons of the epistle in terse, eager, disjointed sentences. He writes it, too, in large, bold characters (Gr. pelikois grammasin), that his handwriting may reflect the energy and determination of his soul.") letters ("epistles") to various churches that would later be considered scripture. Paul articulated the first Christian theology, that all people inherit Adam\'s guilt and can only be saved from death by the atoning death of the Son of God,Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972 Jesus\' crucifixion.
The gospel of Mark was written c. 65-70, possibly motivated by the First Jewish-Roman War. The gospel of Matthew was written c. 80-85 to convince a Jewish audience that Jesus was the expected Messiah (Christ) and a greater Moses. The gospel of Luke, together with Acts (see Luke-Acts), was written c.85-90, considered the most literate and artistic of the gospels. Finally, the gospel of John was written, portraying Jesus as an incarnation of the divine Word (Logos), who primarily taught about himself as a savior. All four gospels originally circulated anonymously, and they were attributed to Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John in the 2nd century. Various authors wrote further epistles and the Apocalypse of Saint John.Harris (1985). Pp 263-268.
Epistles by other hands than Paul\'s circulated in the early church. Many of them, including one written as late as c 150,Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. were eventually included in the New Testament canon. Many later epistles concern issues of church leadership, discipline, and disputes.
Several apocalypses circulated in the early church, and one of them, the Revelation of John, was later included in the New Testament.
Debates about scripture were underway in the mid-second century, concurrent with a drastic increase of new scriptures, both Jewish and Christian. Debates regarding practice and belief gradually became reliant on the use of scripture. Similarly, in the third century a shift away from direct revelation as a source of authority occurred. "Scripture" still had a broad meaning and usually referred to the Septuagint. Beyond the Torah (the Law) and some of the earliest prophetic works (the Prophets), there was no universal agreement to a canon, but it was not debated much at first. By the mid-second century, tensions arose with the growing rift between Christianity and Judaism, leading eventually to the determination of a Jewish canon by the emerging rabbinic movement,White (2004). Pp 446-447. though, even as of today, there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set, see Development of the Jewish Bible canon for details.
Regardless, throughout the Jewish diaspora newer writings were still collected and the fluid Septuagint collection was the primary source of scripture for Christians. Many works under the names of known apostles, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were accorded scriptural status in at least some Christian circles. Apostolic writings, such as I Clement and the Epistle of Barnabas, were considered scripture even within the orthodoxy through the fifth century. A problem for scholars is that there is a lack of direct evidence on when Christians began accepting their own scriptures alongside the Septuagint. Well into the second century Christians held onto a strong preference for oral tradition as clearly demonstrated by writers of the time, such as Papias.White (2004). Pp 446-447.
The acceptance of the Septuagint was generally uncontested. Later Jerome would express his preference for adhering strictly to the Jewish canon, but his view held little currency even in his own day. It was not until the Protestant Reformation that substantial numbers of Christians began to reject those books of the Septuagint which are not found in the Jewish canon.
Greek and Latin fathers of the early church defined and defended Christian doctrine. The term was originally used for bishops and, after the early church period, was applied to holy, orthodox writers whose opinions were given special weight.Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
St. Clement I was an apostolic father.
The earliest Christian writings after the New Testament are a group of letters credited to the Apostolic Fathers. These include the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistles of Clement, as well as the Didache. Taken as a whole, the collection is notable for its literary simplicity, religious zeal and lack of Hellenistic philosophy or rhetoric.
Post-apostolic fathers defined and defended Christian doctrine. The Apologists became prominent in the second century. This includes such notable figures as Justin Martyr (d. 165), Tatian (d. c. 185), and Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-211/216). They debated with prevalent philosophers of their day, defending and arguing for Christianity. They focused mainly on monotheism and their harshest words were used for ancient mythologies.Richardson (1953). Pp 16-17. Fathers such as Irenaeus affirmed the authority of the apostolic episcopacy (bishops).
The church fathers themselves were conscious of being a part of an ongoing tradition, and frequently appealed to earlier writers to defend their opinions. As the centuries passed, the result was a growing body of religious literature which was customarily used for devotional purposes and theological argumentation. It is these church fathers who form our most important sources for understanding the development of early Christianity, and their importance to their immediate successors explains their ongoing importance today. At the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers frequently appealed to the church fathers in defense of their propositions, though they also showed a willingness to disagree with them. By contrast, the Restorationists later viewed the church fathers as entirely suspect, and appealed in support of their views either to supposed new revelations or else to the New Testament directly without reference to later Christianity.
In the 2nd century, Christians circulated formulas outlining essential Christian belief, called the Rule of Faith. They guided the understanding of scripture, and differentiated orthodox belief from heresy. While the rule, unlike a creed, appeared in various forms, Christians held that these forms were essentially the same, descended unchanged from the apostles.
Originally, candidates for baptism accepted a short formula of belief, with formulas varying in detail from one place to another. Starting at least in the 3rd century, three-part credal statements were part of some baptism formulas. These formulas became more uniform and nearly always three-part by the 4th century. The rule of faith and baptismal confessions influenced the Old Roman Creed, an earlier and shorter version of the Apostle\'s Creed.
The early Christian era ends with Emperor Constantine convening the Council of Nicaea, where the original version of the Nicene Creed was formulated.
From the writings of early Christians, historians have tried to piece together an understanding of various early Christian practices including worship services, customs and observances. Early Christian writers such as Justin Martyr (100 - 165) described these practices.
Rituals that would later be defined as sacraments existed in the early church.
Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism were variable.Bowker, John (ed.). The Oxford dictionary of world religions. New York: Oxford University Press. 1997 In the most usual form of early Christian baptism, the candidate stood in water and water was poured over the upper body.Bowker, John (ed.). The Oxford dictionary of world religions. New York: Oxford University Press. 1997 It is difficult to say when infant baptism became common in the early church.Bowker, John (ed.). The Oxford dictionary of world religions. New York: Oxford University Press. 1997 The theology of baptism attained precision in the 3rd and 4th centuries.Bowker, John (ed.). The Oxford dictionary of world religions. New York: Oxford University Press. 1997 Interpretation of the baptismal practices of the early church is important to those who, such as Baptists and Anabaptists, believe that infant baptism was a later development. Their belief that infant baptism was not practiced in the apostolic and immediate post-apostolic church, combined with the clear evidence of widespread infant baptism by the 3rd and 4th centuries, produces pressure to believe some sort of Great Apostasy happened. As a result, such groups find the later practice to be inadequate evidence of the practice of the earliest Christians, about which little clear historical evidence can be found on the question.
Early Christians blessed bread and wine as part of the Lord\'s supper. Where pagans would sacrifice animals for religious reasons, Christians would perform the eucharist, or unbloody sacrifice.
The early church featured two or three levels of clergy, overseers (bishops), elders (presbyters, sometimes interchangeable with bishops), and deacons (assistants). By the year 200, only bishops had the authority to ordain priests.
After baptism, the officiating apostle or priest would lay hands on the subject\'s head to introduce the Holy Spirit into the believer.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
By the 3rd century, a system of public penance served as a "second baptism."Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 The penitent Christian, either voluntarily or under threat of excommunication, would undergo penance of less or greater length, depending on the severity of the sin. Penance consisted of a rigorous course of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, during which the penitent was excluded from the eucharist.
Fresco of a mealThe word "Agape" in the inscription has led some to interpret the scene as that of an Agape feast. However, the phrase within which the word appears is "Agape misce nobis" (Agape, mix for us, i.e. prepare the wine for us), making it more likely that Agape is the name of the woman holding the cup. A very similar fresco and inscription elsewhere in the same catacomb has, in exactly the same position within the fresco, the words "Misce mi Irene" (Mix for me, Irene). A reproduction of this other fresco can be seen at Catacombe dei Ss. Marcellino e Pietro, where it is accompanied by the explanation (in Italian) "One of the most frequently recurring scenes in the paintings is that of the banquet, generally interpreted as a symbolic representation of the joys of the afterlife, but in which it may be possible to discern a realistic presentation of the agapae, the funeral banquets held to commemorate the dead person." Agape, like Irene, may thus be the name of the person buried where the fresco was painted. at a tomb in the Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Via Labicana, Rome
The first worship services were informal gatherings in homes of church members. Christians considered each other to be brothers and sisters, each contributing their respective gifts to the community. Gatherings featured readings, such as from Paul\'s epistles and later the gospels and other texts. The Lord\'s Supper comprised a communal meal with prayers in memory of Jesus. Services were known as agape feasts or love feasts.
Second century sources, such as the Didache, specify that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are for the baptized only. In his First Apology, a letter of defense written to Roman emperor, Antonius Pius, 161-180, Justin described a newly baptized member of the community sharing in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, which was restricted to the baptized....after we have thus washed him who has been convinced (converted to Christianity) and has assented to our teaching, we bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized person, ...so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation. Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. ... And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion....And this food is called among us Eucharistia or [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. ... we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to them alone. The First Apology of Justin.
Despite Ignatius\' rejection of Judaizing, see above, Christianity continued many of the patterns of Judaism, adapting to Christian use synagogue liturgical worship, prayer, use of Sacred Scripture, a priesthood, a religious calendar commemorating on certain days each year certain events and/or beliefs, use of music in worship, giving material support to the religious leadership, and practices such as fasting and almsgiving and baptism.
Christians adopted as their Bible the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures known as the Septuagint and later also canonized the books of the New Testament. There are however many phrases which appear to be quotations and other statements of fact, in the early church fathers, which cannot be found in the Bible as we know it. For example in Clement\'s First Letter he states that Paul "reached the limits of the West", and also appears to quote a variant form of Ezek 33.
At worship, early Christians greeted each other with a holy kiss. Church leaders restricted the practice to keep the worshipers from taking pleasure in it, such as specifying that the lips be closed.Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
Many practices which later became characteristic of Christian worship had not yet developed. Singing was generally without instrumentation and was normally in unison. Many Christians had lost their lives rather than offer a mere pinch of incense to the emperor as to a god, and so the use of incense was strongly frowned upon even in Christian worship. These practices and others, such as the use of elaborate vestments and grand buildings, became popular only once the Peace of the Church changed the political situation and the growing properity of worshippers made them possible.
Christians proclaimed a God of love who enjoined them to share a higher love with one another. Some interpreted the Old Testament as revealing primarily a God of justice, whereas the New Testament, particularly the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John, revealed a more loving God. Parallels are found in Pharisaic and Rabbinic Judaism. Paul of Tarsus is represented in Acts 17:22-33 as equating the Unknown God of the Greeks as revealed in the Christian God. Early Christian communities welcomed everyone, including slaves and women, who were generally shunned in Greco-Roman culture, but there were other exceptions, such as Epicurianism.
Christian groups were first organized loosely. In Paul\'s time, there were no precisely delineated functions for bishops, elders, and deacons. A Church hierarchy, however, seems to have developed by the early second century (see Pastoral Epistles, c 90 - 140
