i', X7,2.Z.
^ iFrttm tiy? ICtbrarg of
I^yqUbbov Sfttjamttt Sr^rkittrt^g^ KarMJi
l^qupa^b bg ijtm tn
tlyf Htbrary nf
JJrtnrfton Eh^niaaimi ^pttifttarn
BR 145 .G93 1870 v.l Guericke, Heinrich Ernst
Ferdinand, 1803-1878. A manual of church history
. /Sc^OUO^^u^K^
^MIl^ A^«c^ / <f cS^/siL^./
MANUAL OF CHURCH HISTORY
HENRY E. F. GUERICKE,
DOCrrOB AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN HALLE, /
Svanslateli from tte ffiecm«Tn \
WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD,
BBOWB FB07E8B0B ITS ANDOVEB THEOLOQIOAL SBUINABT.
ANCIENT CHURCH HISTORY,
COMPRISING THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES.
Warrejt f. draper.
BOSTON: WILLIAM H. HALLIDAY AND COMPANY.
NOS. 68 AND 60 CORNHILL.
PHILADELPHIA: SMITH, ENGLISH, & CO. 1872.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
WARREN F. DRAPER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT W . F . DRAPER.
PREFACE.
BY THE TRANSLATOR
Guericke's Manual of Church History, of which the first division is now presented to the public in an English version, has passed through eight editions in Germany. The work was first published in 1833, and the last volume of the eighth edition appeared in 1855. The demand for so many re-issues of this hand-book, within the space of a little more than twenty years, in a country distinguished for the fecundity of its authorship, and the fastidiousness of its scholarship, affords strong presumptive evidence of its intrinsic merits. During the last twenty-five years, the German mind has been remarkably active in the department of Ecclesiastical His- tory, and the growth of German literature in this direction has been luxuriant; and yet the manual of GuericUe con- tinues to hold B pKce certainly among the very first, as a book for students and lecture-rooms.
A brief specification of the leadmg characteristics of this work may appropriately accompany its first introduction to the American and English public.
1. The author is in hearty sympathy with the truths of revelation as they have been enunciated in the symbols, and
wrought into the experience of the Christian church from the beginning. Belonging to the High Lutheran branch of the German church, and abo sharing to some extent, it must be conceded, in it's recent narrowness whenever he approaches the points at issue between the Lutherans and Calvinists, he cordially adopts all the cardinal doctrines of the Protestant Reformation as they throbbed in the heart of Luther, and were organized into the oldest and in some respects the warmest of the Reformed Symbols. — the Augsburg con- fession. Such a living interest in the evangelical substance of Christianity, and such an intelligent and thorough recep- tion of it into his own personal experience, it is needless to say, can alone prepare the historian of the Christian Church to enter vividly into its whole varied career. A writer's con- ception of the Christian religion and church must be inevi- tably moulded by his conception of the Person and Work of its Founder. "What think ye of Christ?" is a question whose answer locates the historian not less than the dog- matist. The writer of this history beholds in Jesus Christ the incarnation of Deity itself for the redemption of the world, and stands upon the high ground of Supernaturalism in reference to the origin, establishment, and perpetuity of t^he Christian religion. There is no equivocation or ambiguity in his use of these terms, or in his explanation of these and their cognate doctrines. The student of this manual, what- ever else he inay or may not find, will certainly find himself, so far as he follows the leadings of this investigator, in the very heart of the decided and frank orthodoxy of all unam- biguous periods, and of all thoroughly sincere minds.
2. As a consequence of this interest in the evangelical doctrines, this historian places the highest estimate upon the internal history of the Church. The reader will, indeed, find the work a repository of information upon all points and
subjects that belong to Ecclesiastical History, — paclsed densely, and full, with names and dates and all the indis- pensable citation of the department, — but he will feel at every step that the causes and principles, the dogmatic ideas and moral forces, are ever foremost in the writer's mind. Hence this manual, to a degree, certainly, not exceeded by any other text-book, conducts the student into the course of doctrinal development with remarkable distinctness, fulness, and discrimination. Guericke does not regard the great polemic ages of the church as barren of interest, filled with controversies respecting merely speculative and unessential points, and displaying only the envies and jealousies of am- bitious minds, or the hair-splitting subtilties of mere dialec- ticians. On the contrary, he has a warm sympathy with those deep and earnest spirits whom the Head of the Church has ever raised up, in order to make a fuller statement of the scripture truth when the advancing intelligence of the church has outgrown its past science, or to eliminate the needed antagonistic element in the revealed doctrine, when a defec- tive, or a positively heretical position is being laid down as the faith once delivered to the saints. Believing that the Scriptures contain inspired truth, and that this truth, like all truth, is one and homogeneous, the writer of this work be- lieves that it is possible for the human mind to reach it, and to make a definite statement thereof. He believes that the effort of the church to understand the written word has been measurably successful, and that its theological literature and its symbolism contain a plainly announced system, of which the distinctness is evinced by the loud and earnest opposition which it has ever called forth from the worldly and unbeliev- ing mind, and whose inherent power is betokened by the triumphant calmness with which it maintains itself, even as an intellectual system, among all the mutations and declen-
sions of systems reared outside of the Christian Church, and independent of the Christian Revelation.
Acting in accordance with this faith, this historian devotes particular attention to doctrinal history, and the student, it is believed, will find this section by no means the least interest- ing portion of the work, — a section, it may be added, which is most liable to suffer from imperfect treatment, or entire neglect, in a manual.
3. This manual will be found to be characterized by accu- racy and learning. It has been a slow and gradual forma- tion, by a German student and professor, during a period of thirty years. The first edition, compared with the last, is instructive as exhibiting the influx of materials, and their more powerful combination, and compression. Not a little of the difficulty of translating such a work arises from this gradual manner of its construction. The sentence in the first draught of the first edition was a simple proposition ; in the last it has been separated into members, and interpolated with further matter, in the form of new facts, or qualifications, or expansion, until its bulk has become huge and unwieldy, though exceedingly comprehensive and exhaustively descrip- tive. Formed thus slowly by accretion, this work contains the results of the investigations and studies of German scholars during the last quarter of a century. For it is evi- dent that a manual of history cannot be an original work to any very great extent. Its individual author may indeed make some new contributions of his own to the stock of facts, but his chief power must be shown in the industry and comprehensiveness with which he collects, the skill with which he methodizes and combines, and the energy with which he condenses and vivifies the historical materials given to his hand. Guericke, in Ancient and Mediaeval Church History, follows very closely, particularly in the merely nar-
rative parts, in the footsteps of Neander; differing from him, however, in having a higher estimate than this great historian possessed of scientific theology, and siding with more earnest- ness and firmness with the determinate results of doctrinal speculation as embodied in the symbols.
The interest which this historian takes in the internal his- tory is seen, also, in the fulness with which he analyzes and exhibits the. contents of the writings of the leading minds in Church History. It will be difficult to find within the same space such a complete sketch of the works of men like Ter- tullian, Origen, Athanasius, Jerome, and Chrysostom, — of their topics, and their mode of treating them, — as is given in this manual. The whole history of an individual mind, as seen in the tracts and treatises which it produces, is often exhibited upon a single page.^
4. Guericke's work, if we are not mistaken, hits the mean between the full and flowing narration of history proper, and the mere meagre synopsis or epitome. It cannot be expected that a manual should be characterized by the expansion and illustration of a voluminous work, in which the lights and shadows, and all the varied and picturesque coloring of his- torical narrative, have room and right to appear. The pur- pose of a hand-book for the lecture-room would be defeated, if the writer should yield to the temptatidi to pass beyond terse, rapid, and close sketching. But, on the other hand, in order to the highest success it is required in the manualist, that he indicate and exhibit the line of continuous connection which meanders through all the items, phenomena, and detail of his department. His outlining must be sufficiently filled up to show the reader that History is a process of development, and .lot a mere table of contents.
* Compare pp. 219 eq., 229 sq., 329, 337, 374 sq.
This difficult task seems to have been measurably pei formed by the writer of this work ; so that even the student who has perused no other history of the Christian Church will find his mind led along with interest, because he per- ceives that there is a connection and fusion of the individual parts ; and, on the other hand, he who passes from the perusal of a larger work like that of Neander or Milman to this one, will be aided and interested by finding the great stream of history flowing within narrower channels, and the whole great expanse reduced to a bird's-eye view. It is confidently be- lieved, that one of the values of this manual will be found in that it groups and generalizes for the student of history a vast mass of information which without some after-study of this sort is apt to roll over the mind in one wide and obliter- ating deluge. Whether the woi-k be regarded as a repository of information in reference to the entire sum-total of facts and phenomena, and able to stand by itself upon the historic shelf, or whether it be used as a supplementary aid to the general reader and student, in marshalling and memorizing materials which he has obtained from other sources, it will be found to be of the first value.
Whoever shall compare the version with the original will not find it an ad verbum translation. To have merely con- strued this German author, would have been to have produced an unintelligible book. The work from beginning to end has been recast, so that while the author furnishes the substance, the translator hopes that the form, style, and diction exhibit in some degree the traits and qualities of the English mind.
This volume includes an entire historic division in the auihor's plan, — that, namely, of the Ancient Church.^ The
' The second volume comprises the history of the Mediaeval Church, and thfl third volume that of the Modern.
first six centuries in Ecclesiastical History are a whole by themselves which it is profitable to study and contemplate by itself. The Ancient, as distinguished from the Mediaeval Church, is the Apostolic and Patristic Church, as distinguished from the Papal. For although the commencement of the cor- ruption and apostasy is traceable in the last half of these six centuries, yet the influence of the Pentecostal effusion, of the first great missionary effort, of the great polemic contest for ti»e scriptural faith, and of the great scriptural doctrines which were embodied in the first symbols, was by no means entirely spent, and it is not until the second stadium of the nine cen- turies that succeed the first six, that Anti-Christ actually seats himself in the temple of God.
Tt is this first grand division of Church History, — the morning prime of the Church Universal and Undivided, — which is now presented in this volume in an English dress. The translator may, with the Divine permission, at some future day endeavor to make the other divisions of this manual accessible to the English reader. Whether this be done or not, the present volume has an independent unity and worth by itself, and will serve, it is believed, to put the modern student into actual and quickening communication with by far the most interesting and valuable portion of Church History back of the Reformation.
W. G. T. Shedd.
Theological Seminary, Andover, March, 1857.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.
Page
§ 1, The Church 1
2. Church History : its problem and method .... 3
3. Sources of Church History 5
4. Auxiliary Sciences *>
5. Coordinate, and subordinate branches of Church History . 7
6. Critical survey of the literature in Church History . . 10
FIRST PERIOD: TO A. D. 311. PART FIRST.
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. CHAPTER FIRST.
BELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD AT THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.
§ 7. Paganism 2J
8. Judaism 2S
9. Relations of Heathenism and Judaism to Christianity . . 28
CHAPTER SECOND.
JESUS CHRIST.
§ 10. The New Testament view of the person and work of Christ 30
1 1. Sketch of the earthly life of Christ 34
Appendix: 1. Chronological Data. 2. Pretended writings of Christ 3. Contemporaneous notices of Christ by profane writers. 4. Pretended contemporaneous accounts of the life of Christ 39
XU CONTENTS.
CHAPTER THIRD.
FIRST APPEARING OF THE CHRISTL-LN CHURCH.
Page.
§ 12 Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit .... 43
Appendix: Speaking with Tongues 44
CHAPTER FOURTH.
THE APOSTTES: AND THEIR MISSIONARY LABORS.
§ 13. The college of Apostles 46
^/<y5enfZ/x; Theory of the Tubingen School ... 48
14. Peter , 49
15. Paul 54
16. James . ^ . . . . . . . . , , 64
17. John 67
PART SECOND.
CAREER OF THE CHURCH DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES.
SECTION FIRST.
THE SPREAD AND LIMITATION OF CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER FIRST.
THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.
§ 18. Spread of Christianity in particular countries ... 70
19. Causes and furtherances of the spread of Christianity . . 74
CHAPTER SECOND.
OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY.
§ 20. Jewish Persecution . 77
21 — 27. Pagan Persecution 79—98
21. Causes of persecution within the Roman Empire ... 79
22. Persecutions to the reign of Nerva 81
23. Persecutions under Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius . 84
24. Persecution under Marcus Aurelius 86
25. Persecutions from Commodus to Philip the Arabian . . 89
26. Persecutions from Decius to Diocletian .... 91
27. The Diocletian persecution 94
28. Pagan Writers against Christianity 99
Appendix: Jewish Anti-Christian Writings .... 102
29. Christian Apologists 102
CONTENTS.
SECTION SECOND.
CHURCH POLITY.
30 : 1. Constitution of the church in the Apostolic Age. 2. Con stitution of the church after the Apostolic Age .
31. Relation of the churches to each other
32. The one catholic church, and its representative .
33. Church discipline
34. Schisms: 1. Felicissimus. 2. Novatian. 3. Meletian
Pag*
106 116 118 121 123
132 134
SECTION THIRD.
CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORSHIP.
§ 35. Christian life 127
36. Public religious assemblies and services .... 131
37. Places of worship
38. Religious days and festivals
39. Celebration of the sacraments : 1. Baptism. 2. The Lord's
Supper 139
SECTION FOURTH.
HISTORY OF DOCTRINE.
§ 40. General survey • 1^6
CHAPTER FIRST.
HERESIES AND SECTS.
§41. Classification of heretical sects: 1. Judaistic. 2. Oriental-
Theosophic. 3. Fanatic- Ascetical. 4. Rationalistic . 151
42. Arch-heretics (so-called) 152
43. Judaistic Sects : 1. Ebionites. 2. Nazarenes. 3. Elcesaites 154
44 — 54. Oriental-TheosopMc Sects 157 — 191
44: 1. Nature and characteristics of Gnosticism. 2. Species of
Gnosticism. 3. The problems of Gnosticism. 4. The Gnostic idea of redemption. 5. Gnostic ethics, 6. Ex- tent of Gnosticism 157
45. Cerinthus 165
46. Basilides 166
47. Valentinus, and his school 169
48. Ophites 1''^
49. Saturninus 1''^
50. Tatian, and the Encratites 1''?
IV CONTENTS.
Page.
51. Eclectic- An tinomian Gnostics .... .178
52. Marcion, and his school 180
53. Hermogenes 183
J^jGi;)en(/tx ; Church doctrine of creation from nothing . 183
64. Manichaeism and the Manichaeans 185
55. Fanatic-Asceiical Sects : 1. Montanists. 2. Chiliasts . . 191 66. Rationalistic Sects : 1. Patripassiaus ; Praxeas, Noetus, Beryl.
2. Nominal Trinitarians; Paul of Samosata, Sabellius.
3. Humanitarians; Ebionites, Theodotians, Alogi . . 197 Appendix: Catholic doctrine of the Trinity . . . 202
CHAPTER SECOND.
PKINCIPAL CHURCH TEACHERS, AND THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS.
57. The Apostolical Fathers, and Justin Martyr . . . 210
58. Asia-Minor, and North- African Fathers; Irenaeue, Hippoly-
tus, Julius Africanus, Tertullian, Cyprian . . . 216
69. The Alexandrine and Origenistic School .... 222
60. The Antiochian School 237
SECOND PERIOD: A. D. 311-590.
SECTION FIRST.
THE SPREAD AND LIMITATION OF CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER FIRST.
CHRISTIANITY WITHIN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
§ 61. The church under Constantine and Coustantius . . . 238
62. The church under Julian the Apostate .... 243
63. The church under the Emperors after Julian . . . 246
64. Pagan polemical writers, and Christian Apologists . . 247
CHAPTER SECOND.
CHRISTIANITY BEYOND THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
<^ 65. Instrumentalities to the spread of Christianity ... 251
66. Christianity in Asia 252
67. Christianity in Africa 257
68. Christianity in Europe 258
CONTENTS.
XV
SECTION SECOND
CHURCH POLITY.
§ 69. Relation of the Church to the State
70. The Clergy
71. The Episcopate and Patriarchate T2. The Donatist Schism .
PagB. 263
268 271 278
SECTION THIRD.
CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORSHIP.
CHAPTER FIRST
CHRISTIAN LIFE.
73. Antagonistic tendencies ...
74. Monachism : 1. In the East. 2. In the West
75. Opposition to the Ascetic spirit .
285 292
76.
77. 78. 79.
CHAPTER SECOND.
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.
Assemblages for worship 294
Church Edifices 295
Christian Festivals 297
Celebration of the Sacraments : 1. Baptism. 2. The Lord's
Supper 3^1
Veneration of Saints, of Martyrs, of Mary ; Pilgrimages . 303
SECTION FOURTH
HISTORY OP DOCTRINE.
CHAPTER FIRST.
THEOLOGY AND CONTROVERSIES
81. Different theological tendencies
82 85. Arian and connected controversies
82. Views prevalent at the beginning of this period
83. History of the controversy to the year 325 .
84. History of the controversy from 325 — 356 .
85. History of the controversy after the year 356
86. The Origenistic and connected controversies 87—90. Controversies relating to the Person of Christ
310—335 310 313 316 323 336
345—370
CONTENTS.
Page,
87. Till the Nestorian controversy 345
88. The Nestorian controversy 35O
89. Eutychian controversy 359
90. Monophysite and connected controversies . , , . 360 91 — 93. Pelagian and connected controversies , , , 371 393
91. Augustine and Pelagius 371
92. The Pelagian controversy 384
93. The Semi-Pelagian controversy ....,, 390
CHAPTER SECOND.
SECTS.
94. Audians, Priscillianists, Hypsistarians, etc.
Chronological Table 405
General Index . . . , 418
INTRODUCTION.
§1.
THE CHURCH.
After the original and pure consciousness of God, im- planted by the Creator himself in human nature, had be- come corrupted by the apostasy of man, and, instead of fast- ening upon the true God alone, had confounded God with nature, the Creator with creation (Comp. 1 Cor. x. 20), and thus had produced pantheism and polytheism in their mani- fold forms, and with their manifold enormities, there still remained a single people, among whom, according to a par- ticular decree of God and through a wonderful divine insti- tute, the belief in the one true God, and his worship, had been preserved from the beginning.
To this people God, by. Moses his servant, gave a holy law, in order to produce in them a deep knowledge and feel- ing of sin and guilt, and announced by his prophets, with gradually increasing distinctness, the joyful message — the consolation of fallen humanity from the beginning (Gen. iii. 15) — that from them the Redeemer should go forth, the Light of the world, who should take away sin and guilt from the human race by his holy obedience and expiatory :leaih. and by his exaltation should Impart a new and bless- ed life to all of every nation, Jews first and afterwards the Heathen, who by joining themselves to Him in living faith should become his possession. 1
2 INTRODUCTION.
Jesus Christ, this Redeemer, appeared at the appointed time, completed his redemptive work by his death, sealed it by his resurrection, and blessed it, after his return to the Father, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; through which effusion the Christian Church on earth came into existence.
The Christian Church is the union of all who are called and chosen (an iKK\r]a-ia internally, as well as externally), through the Word and Spirit of God, to be the possession of the Lord {KvpcaKov, kirk, church) ; who are united together by the public confession of a common faith in the Redeemer; and whose destination it is to promote each other's edifica- tion, and cooperate towards the spread of this faith, for the illumination sanctification and blessedness of humanity, and the ever widening manifestation of the kingdom of God in it. From the beginning of its existence, engaged in constant internal and external conflict with all that is un- godly in the world, but destined to a final and eternal tri- umph, the Christian Church is in its essence an invisible society held together by the invisible bond of the Holy Spirit ; but visible in its manifestation {eKKXrjai'a in the com- mon acceptation), having an outward organization and poli- ty, corresponding so far as is possible with such an animat- ing spirit, and distinguished by the ministration of the word and the sacraments.
The connection of Church History with Universal History, may be thug represented. The history of the Universe comprises two eras. The Jirst embraces the production of the creature by the almighty power of the Crea- tor. This, inasmuch as it occurs in time, is by gradations, and therefore has a history ; but inasmuch as it is the work of Deity, it has a uniformly normal history. The second era embraces the creature's own free and personal deTelopment. But since the creature is self-determined, this history may be either normal or abnormal — an evolution or a revolution — according as freedom is used or abused. Two such revolutions occur in this second era in the history of the Universe. First, the fall of a portion of the angelic host, succeeded by no restitution. Secondly, the fall of the human race, succeed- ed by the restitution of a portion of it. The general history of mankind, consequently, becomes divided into natural or secular, and supernatural or sacred. This latter, or the history of Redemption, is the history of the re- storation of the true development of humanity, as this was originally intend- ed in the Creator's idea and act, and is supernatural in its principle and
§ 2. PROBLEM, AND METHOD, OF CHURCH HISTORY. 3
cause?. In its entire extent it includes the following x/arfia. The first ex- tends from the apostasy to the (leluije, and is the period of the Antediluvian church. The second stadium reaches from the deluge to the calling of Abraham, comprising the age of the Patriarchal church. The third stadium is the era of the Jewish church, and includes the period of immediate pre- paration for the advent and work of the Redeemer. The fourth stadium beginning with the incarnation and ending with the last judgment, com- prises the history of the militant Christian Church, which ushers in the ffth and last stadium, — the eternal state, 6 woif ^ueAAaij/. See Kurtz Abhand- fung in Zeitschrift fiir luth. Tbeologie, 1843.
§2.
CHURCH HISTORY: ITS PROBLEM AND METHOD.
The fitting representation of the continuous and connected career of this blended internal and external association, is Church History. Where, and how, the Christian Church has extended itself in conflict with its opposite, the world ; what has been the relation which its visible body, in the midst of human infirmity, has at all times sustained to the invisible spirit animating it; what it has accomplished in the various periods of time, in the conflict with error and evil in its own membership, and in humanity at large; and, finally, how it has fulfilled its own ideal destination : to develop all this in a historical sequence, is the problem of Church History. To meet this problem, a mere chronological ar- rangement of the facts is by no means sufficient. The phe- nomena must be unfolded genetically, from their causes ; and this too, not from the cooperation of merely external causes — a method which would entirely degrade and distort all the grander phenomena, — but primarily and chiefly from the inmost principle lying under all ecclesiastical pheno- mena, whether it be Christian and eternal, or human and temporal in its nature. In this way the true relation of the external history to the internal appears, and the positive or negative influence of the former upon the latter is delineated.
In respect to the method of Church History : the most suit- able mode of treatment combines the chronolosrical with the
1 INTRODUCTION.
causal connection of events. Consequently, Church History divides into certain ages and periods corresponding with cer« tain great sections in the historical development itself, and, in each period, follows a natural distribution of the mate- rials, made with constant reference to the general problem of the science itself. Thus, Church History divides into three principal divisions, corresponding to the three principal modi- fications of the Christian life. The first six centuries, em- bracing the time during which Christianity was in its bloom upon the old classic soil, constitute the foundation of eccle- siastical history in its entire scope, both external and in- ternal. The nine centuries following, exhibit, in an equally connected sequence, the erection upon this foundation of a superstructure of totally different character and proportions. The remaining three centuries, include the history of the purifying and purified, the rejuvenating and rejuvenated, church. Hence the denominations of the eras of the church, having reference to time merely, would be the Ancient, the Mediaeval, and the Modern ; or denominating with reference to nationalities, the Graeco-Roman, the Romano-German, and the Germano-European. The subdivision of these three principal divisions., into smaller periods., by events that form natural epochal points, is of less importance i^o far as con- cerns the general view of the whole field, and allows more room for individual judgment. We find seven of such periods.
The first period extends to the time of Constantine ; when Christianity had become the religion of the Roman Empire. A D. 311.
The second extends from Constantine to Gregory the Great ; when the supremacy of the Roman bishop had be- come established in the Western Chvirch. A. D. 311-590.
The third period extends from Gregory the Great to the death of Charlemagne. A. D. 590-814.
The fourth period extends from the death of Charlemagne to the accession of Gregory VII. A. D. 814-1073.
The fiftii period extends from Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. A. D. 1073-1294.
SOURCES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
The sixth period extends from Boniface VITI. to tlie Re- formation. A. D. 1294-1517.
The seventh period extends from the Reformation to the present time. A. D. 1517-1850.
In each single period, the subject matter divides into stx- tinns relating to : 1. The spread and limitation of Christian- ity ; 2. Ecclesiastical polity ; 3. Christian life and worship ; 4. History of doctrine.
§3.
SOURCES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
All materials that serve to establish facts upon a credible foundation, and to throw light upon them, are sources. They are partly direct or immediate, partly indirect or mediate.
Immediate sources, are : 1. Monuments of art and inscriptions;^ both of them, sources of secondary value: 2. Original documents. Of the latter, there is a variety. For almost all portions of Church history, and especially for the history of polity and morals, the letters of the more influ- ential minds in the church are important; for Church polity, the civil statutes that relate to the affairs of the Church are particularly valuable; 2 for Church polity, worship, and the history of doctrine, — the acts of councils^ as well as the official icritings of the popes ; * for Christian life and morals, — the rules of monastic orders;^ for life and doctrine, — the sermons of leading theologians ; for worship and doctrine, — the liturgnes ;^ for the history of doctrine, — the apologies^
' Ciampini Vett. monumenta. Miinter Sitinbilder.
' Codex Theodosianus and CodexJustinianeus contain those of the Roman Emperors. CoUectio Baluzii contains those of the French Kings, and Collectio H a i m i n s f e 1 d i i those of the German Emperors.
' Conciliorum Collectio Re gi a, 47 vols. M an s i Collectio, 31 vols Har- d u i n Collectio, 22 vols.
* Coquelines Collectio Bnllarum, 28 vols.
' n o 1 s t e n i i Codex Regularum, 4 vols ; anctus aBrockie,6 vols.
• Asseniani Codex liturgiciK eccles. universae, 13 vols.
6 INTRODUCTION.
and confessional writings^ and, generally, the strictly dog' medic and polemic writings of theologians.
Mediate sources, are Church histories: for these furnish, not an immediate impress and constituent part of history, but as it were a commentary upon the direct sources. The historian narrates only according to his own knowledge and view, from which narrative, the pure facts, freed from sub- jective modifications, are to be eliminated in accordance with the rules of historical criticism.
§4.
AUXILIARY SCIENCES.
Since the Church is that highest and holiest union among men, to which all other historical processes are subservient, either positively or negatively, it is evident that Church his- tory both requires, and promotes, all other historical investi- gations.
The g-eneral auxiliary sciences are the following. 1. For the history of the outward extension, and the constitution, of the Church, of special value, are first, the general liistory of the world, together v/ith the political history of single na- tions ; secondly, the history of civil law, and particularly, a knowledge of the constitvtions of those countries in which the Church was established. 2. For the history of the inter- nal life of the Church, and of Christian doctrine, of value, are the history of culture, and particularly a knowledge of the religions of the countries into which Christianity extend- ed itself. 3. For the history of doctrine, the history of philo- sophy and of literature is of the first importance.
Besides these, there are special sciences auxiliary to Chm ch liistory, according as philological, critical, geographical, or chronological elements are required. There are four of these.
Walch BiMiotheca synibolica vetus (contains the earlier). Winer Com- nirative DarstC'ilunt;. S t re i t wo 1 f Collectio (Papal). H as e Libri sjmbolici Liiilieran). Niemeyer Collectio (Reformed).
§ 5. COORDINATE BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 7
1. Ecclesiastical Pldlology ; an aid to the understanding of the earlier sources of Church history.^
2. Ecclesiastical Diplomatics ; an aid to the critical exam- ination of the genuineness, integrity, and credibility of the sources of Ecclesiastical history ; a branch not yet much cul- tivated.2
3. Ecclesiastical Geography ; an aid to the knowledge of the place in which events occur.*
4. Ecclesiastical Chronology; an aid to the knowledge of the time in which events occur.*
§5.
COORDINATE, AND SUBORDINATE, BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
The particular parts of the subject of Church history (see § 2) cannot, it is evident, receive a detailed and full treat- ment in a general history of the Christian Church. Hence single parts, when of sufficient weight and importance to justify such a treatment, have been detached and investi- gated by themselves, thus forming coordinate and subordi- nate branches of Church history. In this manner the fol- lowing departments of inquiry have been formed :
1. The History of Missions; springing from the general history of the spread and limitation of the Church.^
2. Christian Archaeology ; springing from the general his-
1 For the later Latin, D u F r e s n e (Dom. D u C a n g e ) Glossariiim, 6 vols. For the later Greek, Du Fresne Glossarium, 7 vols; and especially Suicer Thesaurus. 2 vols.
* M a b i 1 1 o n De re diplomatica.
3 Spanhemii Geographia sacra et eccl. Wilts ch Handbuch d. kirch. Geographic; Atlas sacer. Robinson Biblical Researches. Ritter Erd- kunde. M o 1 1 e r Hierographie.
■» Piper Kirchenrechnung.
» F a b r i c i i Salutaris lux evangelii toti orbi exoriens. B 1 u m h a r d t Missions-Geschichte (incomplete.) Schmidt Missions-Geschichta. Brown History of Missions since the Reformation. Tracy History of American Mis- sions. Neander Church History, Section 1. throughout the work. For the history of Modern Missions, rich materials are to be found in the journals of the American, English, and Continental Missionary Societies.
8 INTRODUCTION.
tory of polity and worship. Arciiaeology is an exhibition of the formal aspects of the Church. The first six centuries, constituting as they do the antiquity of the Church, are of great importance ; but it is an error to confine archaeological investigations to this age. Besides this period, in which the foundations of forms and polities were laid, there is a dege- nerating mediaeval, and a reformatory modern, period, each of which must be examined in order to a complete archaeo- logy of the Christian Church.^
3. The History of Christian Life, as seen in the generaJ Church, and in the historic individual.^
4. From the general subject of Doctrine spring the follow- ing coordinate branches.
a. The History of Christian Doctrines. In the gift of the gospel, and at the first establishment of the Church, the en- tire sum and substance of Christian truth was given. But
1 B i n {r h a m Antiquities of the Ciiristian Church, 10 vols. A ii jr u s t i Denk- Wiirdigkeiten, 12 parts. (Abridgment, 3 vols). Rheinwald Archaeologie. Bohmer Christ. Alterthumswissenschaft. Coleman Christian Antiquities. Including all periods, early, mediaeval, and modem, are the following : P e 11 i - cia Politia; edited by Ritter Jind Braun. Binterim Denkwiiidigkeiten, 12 vols. Upon special topics, are the following: Martene De antiqnis ecclesiae ritibus. Planck Geschichte der kirchlichen Gescllschaftsverfassung, .5 vols. Stand en maier Geschichte der Bischofswahlcn. Rot he Aniangeder Kirche. B a u r Ursprung des Episcopats. A u g u s t i Beitiage zur Kunstgescliichte und Liturgik.
2 R u i n a r t Acta primorum martyrum. B o 1 1 a n d i Acta sanctorum, 5.3 vols. Arnold Abbildung der ersten Christen. M u 1 1 e r Reliqnien. Neandei Denkwiirdigkeiten, and especially Section III. of his General Church History. Du Pin Bibliotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques, 47 vols. Du Pin Bililio- theque des auteurs separes de la communion de I'eglisse Rom du 16 et 17 sieele. Cave Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria. T i 1 1 e m o n t Memoires pour servir a I'histoire eccl. des six premiers siecles. Fabricii Bibliotheca Graeca. M 6 h 1 e r Patrologie. Lumper Historia theol. crit. de vita, scriptis, et doctrina patrum. Bohringer Kirchengeschichte in Biographieen. — The following are the principal collections of the writings of the Fathers. Magna Bibliotheca vett. patrtm. 17 parts fol. M a x i m a B i b 1 . vett. patrum, 27 parts fol. G a 11 a n d i B i b 1 . vett. patrum, 14 parts fol. The following are supplementary collections. C a n i s i u s Lectiones antiq., 6 vols. fol. Combe- f i s i u « Patrum bibliothecae novum auctarium, 4 vols. fol. D ' A c h e ry Spici- leginm. 13 vols. fol. P e z Thesaurus anecdotorum, 6 vols. fol. Martene and Purand Amplissima Collectio, 9 vols. fol. Mai Collectio e Vatican, codd. Fragmentary remains are found in G r a b e Spicilegium ; and R o u t h Reliquiae Sacrae.
§ O, COORDINATE BRANCFIES OF CHURCH HISTORY. 9
this botly of dogma was by no m(>ans fully understood by the human mind, in the outset. The clear apprehension of this in itself finished and final revelation of God, by the mind of the Church, and a systematic statement of it in all its elements, together with their mutual relations, is a g-ra- dual process, becoming more and more self-consistent and all-comprehending, but even now not complete. The ac- count of this development of the intelligence of the Church, constitutes the History of Opinions^
b. The History of S//mbols, is the scientific exhibition of this course of doctrinal development, as it becomes embodied in public creeds and confessions of faith. Symbolism is con- sequently the proper completion of the History of Doctrines. It exhibits the origin of the definitive and authoritative form of that truth which, in the course of controversy with infidel- ity without, and heresy within, the Church, has been in con- tinual flux, because gradually clarifying itself from foreign elements, and flowing into purer and clearer forms of con- ception and statement.^
c. The History of Christian Tlieology, and of the theologi- cal sciences.^
1 General treatises. Petavius De theolosricis dogmatibiis, 5 vols. Miin- B c h e r Dof,'menf^eschichte, edited by Von Colin. Baumgarten-Cru- sius Doginenf;eschiehte. Hagenbach Dogme:igesehiclite, translated by B u c h . G i e s e 1 e r Doirmensreseliichte, edited by II e d e p c n n i n {j . N e a n - der Churoh History, Section IV., throughout the work. Kliefoth Einleitung. B a u r Lehrbuch der Dogmengesohichte.
Special treatises. Walch Historie der Ketzereien. II vols. Banr Vcrsoh- nungslehre, 1 vol.; Dreieinigkeitslehre, 3 vols. Dorner Person Christ!, 2 vols. Meier Trinitatslehrc. I vol. Pearson On the Creed, I vol. Waterland History of the Athanasian Creed. H o r s 1 e y Traets. Bull ])(f<-n-io Fidei Ni- caenae. Harvey The Three Creeds. The Theohgia polemica ot tlie 17th ccn- tiB-y, furnishes valuable materials for doctrinal history : e g. C h e m n i t z Exa- men Concilii Tridentini. Gerhard Loci Theologici. Q u e n s t e d t Tiicolo- gia Dogmatieo-polemica.
* Planck Darstellung der dogmatischen Systeme. :M a r li e I u e k e Syni- bolik. Th. 1. (Catholicism), 3 vols. W i n e r Comparative Darstellung. Moh- ler Symbolik, translated l)y Robertson (Catholic view). Hanr Gci^ensata des Katholicismus und Protestantismus. Nitzsch Benntwortung der ]\Iohler'a Symbolik. G u e r i c k e Allgemeine Christliei)e Symbolik.
^ F 1 iig ge Geschichte der theol Wissenschaften. S t " -• d 1 i n Gescbicl'te der theoL Wissenschaften
2
IC
INTRODUCTION.
§ 6.
CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE IN CHURCH HISTORY.
1. The New Testament writings furnish the only reliable account of the Christian Church in the first ages of its exist- ence. The Acts of the Apostles written by Luke, in particu- lar, contain a full history of its first establishment among both the Jews and Heathen. The Church was soon com- pelled to enter upon apologetic and dogmatic labors, and hence we find no historical composition until we reach the time of Hcg-esippus, of Asia Minor, in the middle of the 2nd century, of whose five books, entitled vTrofivrjixara rwv eKK\r}' (TLaaTtKcbv Tvpd^ewv, only a few fragments have been pre- served by Eusebius. The learned, and generally fair mind- ed Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in the first half of the 4th century, is regarded as the father of Church history. Of his writings there are extant, a Chronicle ^ extending from the creation to the Nicene Council, atid a Church History^ in 10 books (to the year 324), particularly valuable for the many documents and fragments of earlier writers whose works have been lost which it contains. As a continuation of this latter work, he wrote a treatise in four books, De vita Con- stantini, highly panegyrical in its character, and in addition to this an Oratio de laudibus Constantini. In the 5th cen- tury, four other Greeks followed the example set by Euse- bius, and wrote a continuation of his history : two jurists of Constantinople ; one, the candid and sincere Socrates, who composed a history in seven books, extending from 306 to 439 ; the other, the elegant and ascetic Hernnas Sozo- menus, who wrote a history in nine books, comprising the time from 323 to 423 : a learned theologian, the Syrian bishop Tiieodoret, whose work in five books includes the pe- riod from 325 to 427 ; and the Arian Pliilostorgius, of whose
1 Chrnnicon, liitfly discovered in an Armenian version, and edited in Armo ni:\n and Lutiii l)y A u c li e r. 2 vols.
2 Edited by Burton. Oxford, 1838. 2 vols ; translated by C ru s e .
§ 6. LITEPwATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 11
latitudinarian Church history in twelve boolcs, extending from 300 to 425, only some extracts have been preserved by Photius. In the 6th century, Theodorus, a lector of a church in Constantinople, made a compilation from the writings of Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoret, and wrote a contiima- tion from 439 to 518, which the Syrian jurist Evagrius brought down to 594.1
The Latin historians drew their materials principally from Greek sources. The presbyter Riifintis of Aquilea, about the close of the 4th century, translated the history of Euso- bius into Latin, and continued it down to 395.^^ This trans- lation is valuable as an aid to the critical emendation of the text of the original. A little later, the Gallic presbyter Sul' picius Severus composed his Historia Sacra, commencing with the creation of the world, and ending A. D., 400.* In the 6th century Mag-nus Aurelius Cassiodurus, once a consul, but afterwards a retired monk, compiled, in the retirement of his cloister, and assisted by Epiphanws Scholasticus, his Historia Tripartita, from the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, This was the manual of the middle ages.''
2. In the Middle Ages, and in the Western Church, we find for the most part mere epitomists and chroniclers. The works of the latter, though needing to be used with great discrimination, are rich in materials for the history of life and morals during this period.^ Besides these there were a few writers of talents and reputation. Greg'ori/, bishop of Tours (f 595), wrote the history of the French church down to the year 591.^ The English presbyter Bede (f 735), com- posed a chronicle coming down to 721, and a history of the English Church ending with the year 731. In the 9th cen-
1 Eiisebii Pamphili, Socratis Scholnstici, Hermiae Sozomeiii. TlK'nclMicii et Evagrii, item Philostorgii et Tlieodori Lectoris, quae exstant historiae ecclesias- licae, graece et latine, ed. Henricus V a 1 e s i u s , Paris. 1659. and Amster- dam. 1G95. Re-edited Cambridge. 1720, l)y Reading. Translations of t'u first five have been piiblislied I)y B a g s t e r , 6 vols.
* Edidit C a c c i a ri a Bononia, Rome 1740. ' Ed. Hofme ister, Tig. 170S.
* Ed. G a r e t i u s , Rotbom. 1G79. Ven. 1729,
* Chronica medii aevr. R o e s 1 e r , Tubingen 1798.
, • III Bouquet's Reruin Gallic, et Franc, script. Vol. IL
12
INTRODUCTION.
tury, Hujjmo, bishop of Halberstadt (f 853), compiled a church history principally from Rufinus's translation of Enssebius ; as did also the Romish presbyter and librarian Anastasius from three Greek chroniclers ; hence named Chronographia Tripartita,! In the 11th century, the canon Adam of Bre- men acquired distinction as a church historian. His work, comprising the period from Charlemagne to Henry IV., is of much value in reference to the history of the archbishop- ric of Hamburg-Bremen, and of the Danish and Swedish churches.*^ The revival of learning, immediately preceding the Reformation, though it produced no eminejit church his- torians, led to a more thorough criticism of past efforts and results ; as the example of the Romish canon Laurentius Valla (t 1546) evinces.^
In the East, owing to the stronger historical spirit and the closer connection between the Church and the State, the secular historians, the so-called Scriptores Bi/zantini, are va- luable sources for Ecclesiastical history. Besides these, the Egyptian Euti/chius, catholic, bishop of Alexandria (f 940), composed in Arabic a chronicle of church history extending from the creation to the year 937 "*; and in the 14th century Nicephoriis Callisti wrote the history of the church to the year 911, of which nothing is extant after the year 6 10.
3. The Reformation awakened a new interest in Church history. The Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, ac- complished most in general church history ; the Reformed and Roman Catholic, in special departinents of the subject.
Lutheran Historians. In the middle of the 16th cen- tury, an association of Lutheran theologians, of whom Mat- thias Flacius lllyricus was the principal, composed a great w^orlc which contains the history of the Church down to the 13th century, drawn from the original sources, and enriched
' Editcfi l)y B c r k e r , in the Scriptores Byzantini.
2 F a I) r i c i u s Scriptores rer. Germanic. Asmussen De fonti!)us Adami BrcnuMisi^. •* His iiact, Yia false crcdita et ementita Constantini donationc. is espejialiy
* In P o c o c k e's Annales Patnim Alex., Oxford 1658. « Ed. D u c a e u s , Paris 1630.
§ 6. LITEnATUnE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 73
with copiuut^ extracts and documents taken from them. This work, entitled Ctnliiriae 3Iag-dchurg-enses, was constructed chiefly for the purpose of exposing the Roman Catliolic fal- sifications of the history of the Church.^ The interest in church history slumbered among the Lutherans for more than a century after the production of this work, until, in the middle of the 17th century, Georg-e Calixt revived it by his researches conducted in a critical and scientific spirit, mostly however upon the foundation laid by the Centuriators. To- wards the close of the 17th century, historical studies re- ceived an impulse from the investigations of Guttfried Af' nod;^ a man whose mind had been stimulated to a freer historical feeling by the pietistic controversies of his time, but who, in opposing the narrow strictness of the predomi- nant party in the Lutheran Church, sometimes fell into the opposite extreme, and formed a too favorable and undiscri- minating estimate of fanatical and heretical sectaries. In the beginning of the ISrh century. Christian Eberhard Weis- mann^ a man of mild and truth-loving spirit, while cultivat- ing the whole field, paid special attention to modern Ecclesi- astical history ; but his reputation was soon eclipsed by the productions of John Lawrence Moslieim,^ who was the first to impart a classic form to the materials of Church history. Of Mosheim's contemporaries, Sig-ismiind Jac. Baumg-arten^ deserves mention as an industrious investigator, who was however much surpassed by his pupil, John Salomon Sender,'
' Ecflesiastira Plistoria * * ronp;estii per aliquot pios et stutliosos viros in urhe MHirili^^'Hii'gii'a. Basil 1557-1574, 13 vols. The first six volumes edited by S e m 1 e r, Nuvemhurg 1757-65. 0 s i a n d e r epitomized it, and continued it to the 16th century : Epitomes Hist. Eeil. Centnriae XVI. Tub. 1592.
* Unpartbeiisclie Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie (to 1688). Frankfort. 1699.
' Introduptio in memorabilia hist. cccl. Tubingen 1718 and Halle 1745. Con- temporary historical writers with \V e i s m a n n in the Lutheran Church, were Buddeus, Fabricius, Liischer, and P fa f f .
* His priiifipal work is: Iiistiiutionnm historiae ecclcsiae antiqune et rccen- tioris libri IV. HelmstaiU 1755 (translated into English by M a c 1 a i n e and M u rd o c k ). Of much value are Institutiones historiae ecclcsiae majorcs sec. I.; Commentarii de rebus Chrisfianorum ante Constantinum (translated by Vi- d a 1 and M u r d o c k ) ; and Dissertationes ad hist. eccl. pertincntcs.
* Ansziig dcr Kircliengeschiclite ; continued by S e m 1 e r to the 10th century
* Historiae ecclesiae selecta capita. Halle 1767. Commentarii historici dean
14 INTRODUCTION.
whose merits in historical criticism would have been greater and more permanent, had he yielded less to his sceptical and neological bias. The close of the I8th and beginning of the 19ih century was marked by the labors of a disciple of Mo- sheim, Julin Matthias Schrockh} These cover the entire field ; are most industrious and exhaustive, but exceedingly prolix and languid. Semler applies the knife of hypercriticism to the very heart of the Church and its history ; Schrockh col- lects and uses all materials indiscriminately .2
The Lutheran Church in the 19th century has been con- vulsed by two great conflicts ; one between rationalism and supernaturalism, and the other between pantheism and the- ism ; which have left their impress upon ecclesiastical his- tory, as well as upon all other departments of intellectual effort. The opening of the century Mntnessed a construction of the history of the Christian religion, even more crude and prejudiced than that of Semler, in the works of Henke ;^ in which the rationalizing spirit reached its height. Church history was now a Polyphemus with his eye put out, to use the figure of Herder. A reaction however commenced, that has continued to the present time, and has resulted in a mass of historical literature possessing a warm and profound sympathy with the doctrines and spirit of Christianity, and founded upon a learned and scientific study of the sources. The labors of Neander^ have contributed to this result, more
tiqiiornm Cliristinnornm statu. Halle 1771. Versuch eines fruclitbarcn Auszugs der Kircliengpscliichte. Halle 1772. "Versuch christlicher Jahrhucher. Halle 1783. Observationes novae Cprevioiis to Constantlne). Halle 1784. Neiur "Versuch ,e«nfin('(l to first century) Leipsic 1788
' Christiiche Kirchengcschichte. Leipsic 1 768-1810. In 45 volumes; the last two a continuation hy T z s c h i r n e r .
2 The more important works contemporary with that of S ch rock h are: Cra- mer's Co)itinnation of Boss net's Universal History; valuable for its investi- gation of Scholasticism. Walch's History of Heresies; a work characterized by the industry and tediousness of Schrockh. G.J.Planck's Histories of the Protestant doctrine and polity.
^ Allgemcine Gesch. dcr Cliristl. Kirche: edited and continued by "Vater. Brunswick 1806-^.3.
* Allgenicine Gesch, der Cbristl. Rfli;:ion und Kirche; the last volume edited bySchneider. Hamburph 182.5-18.51. Translated by T o r re y. Ofthcwoiks in general chinch history that follow Ncander most closely are: Guericke
§ 6. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. lo
than those of any other writer, and make the second epoch in the modern history of the deparlment, those of INIosheim constituting the first. The remains of the old rationalism are seen in the history of Gieseler;^ a work of great value for the fulness and pertinency of its citations from the origi' nal sources, but characterized by a feeble power of combina- tion, and a dull indiflferent tone in regard to the entire inter- nal history. In the writings of Baur, which are confined chiefly to the department of doctrinal history, the pantheistic speculation overmasters a remarkably clear and powerful understanding, and, by the use of an arbitrary criticism, eventually misshapes the materials (which have been col- lected with great affluence of learning, and combined with symmetry and energy) into an artificial scheme, rather than an organic system.
Reformed Historians. Historical investigations in the Reformed churches were directed more to particular parts of the subject, than to the department as a whole. In the 16th and especially in the 17th century, the French Protestants produced a series of works distinguished by learning, acute- ness, and discrimination, together with an earnest and sharp polemic temper towards the papacy.^ During the same pe- riod the Eng-Iish Church was unusually occupied with his torical inquiries, and gave origin to a body of literature of solid worth, chiefly in reference however to the external his-
Handhuch dcr Kirchenp;ef5cbichte, 8th edition, 1854. Kurtz Ilandbuch der allgemfinen KirchenReschiciite (unfinished).
1 Lehrliuch der Kirchengeseliichte, f translated by Cunningham; also by Davidson and others.) H a s e ' s Kirchengeseliichte, 7tb edition, 1854. (trans- lated by B 1 u m e n t h a 1 and W i n g ) is a tasteful liut very brief sketch, from the position of a moderate and serious rationalism. Nicdner's Geschichte der Christl. Kirche. Leipsic 1846. The method and nomencbiture are cum- brous, but this manual is not surpassed by any in copiousness and density of ma- terials.
2 The more prominent ^Titers are: Du Plessis Mornay, Pierre du Moulin, Jean Daille(DallaeusJ, David Blondel,Saumaise (Salmasius); somewhat later, James and Samuel Basnage, Isaac Beausobre. The IloUand Ciiurch produced a few writers of substantial merits : Spanheim,Vossius the elder, V i t r i n g a , and "V e n e m a . The Swiss historical writers, Hospinian,Hottinger, and IT e i d e g g c r , are also worthy of mention.
16 INTRODUCTION.
tory, and with few exceptions characterized by a strong pa- tristic and prelatical bias.^ The 18th century witnessed a revival of secular history, in the works of Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, and a decline in ecclesiastical history. The principal English productions in church history during this century, are : the writings of Lardner the most learned in- vestigator of the century, relating chiefly to the history ot the New Testament canon ; the " Remarks " of Jortin, frag- mentary but reliable investigations upon particular points ; Neale's History of the Puritans, a most sincere and weighty piece of historical composition ; the devout but undiscrimi- nating work of Milne r ; and lastly the voluminous and su- perficial treatises of Priestley, thoroughly refuted by the vigorous and terse tracts of Horsley. In the 19th century, the histories of Wadding-ton and Blilman exhibit a decided advance upon the method and spirit of the preceding period ; the latter writer, particularly in his interesting History of Latin Christianity, evincing the influence of the Neandrian school.
Roman Catholic Historians. As an answer to the Magdeburg Centuries, Ccesar Baronius composed his An- nales Ecclcsiastici ;2 a voluminous work, and chiefly valua- ble as a collection of materials. Baronius himself brought down the history of the Church to 1198. His work found several continuators^ among Roman Catholic theologians,
' Hooker EiTlesiastical Polity. Usher Britannicarum ecclcsiarum aiUi- quitates, Annales veteris Testamcnti, Dissertt. de epistolis I^matii et Polyoarpi, Historia Gottesihalci, Historia do^inaticff, Religion of the Ancient Irish. S ti 1- lingfl ee t Oiij^ines Brittannicae. Bull Defensio fidei Nicaeiiae. Bingham Origines Ecdisiasticae. Cave Lives of the Primitive Fathers, Lives of the Apostles, Scriptonini Eeclesiasticorum Historia Litcraria. Prideaux Con- nection of Old and New Testaments. Pearson Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Vindiciae Epistolarum Ignatii. S try pe Annals. Burnet History of thp Reformation. Bower History of the Popes.
• Annales Eeelesiastiei. Rome 15SS-1607. 12 vols., fol.
' Of these, the most distinguished is Raynaldus Annal eccl. T. XHL- XXL Rome 1646 sqq., to A. D. 156.5. DeLaderchius continued this to A. D. 1571. Ann. eccl. T. XXII.-XXIV. Rome 1728. Other continuations are: that of B z o V i u s Rome 1G16., to A. D. 1564 ; and that of S p o n d a n u s Paris 1640., to A. D. 1640. A complete edition of Baronius, Raynaldus, etc., together with Pagi's review, is that of M a n s i Lucca 1738-59. 38 vols., fol.
§ 6. LITERATURE OF CHURCH HISTORY. 17
and also some strict critics, both Protestant,' and Roman Catholic.-^ In particular departments of Church history se- veral Italian writers have produced works of great merit/ 1'he excellent Paul Sarpi,'^ in the 17th century, composed a history of the Council of Trent, that is of standard value, and causes regret that the author did not labor upon the general history of the Church. In the latter part of the ISth century, some Italian theologians revived the interest in Ec- clesiastical history, which had slumbered among them for nearly a hundred years, by the production of voluminous works in general Church history.* Among Roman Catholic writers, however, the merits of the French ^ historians are the greatest, many of whom, as e. g. Da Pin, are distinguished equally with Sarpi for independence and boldness : traits that characterized the Galilean church from the beginning. Among the productions of the French ecclesiastical histori- ans, tliose of the learned Dominican Natalis^ (Alexander Noil), the conscientious Jansenist Sebastian le Naiti de Til- lemotU,^ the versatile and devout Claude Fleury^ confessor to Louis XV., possess permanent value. The eloquent Dis- cours sur lliistoire universelle of Bossuet,^^ maintaining the position that Church history is the soul of Universal history,
* Casauboni Exercitatioiies XVII.de rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis. Lond 1614; continued l)y S a m . B a s n ag e ExercitaU. cat. Ultraj. 1692.
* A n t. Pagi Ciiiica hist, clironologica in annales Baronii, ed. Franc. Pagi Antv. 1705.
^T.M.Mamachius,J.D.Mansi,L.A.Muratori,Rob.Bellarmin.
* Translated l)_v Brent London, 1620. fol.
* O r s i Storia ecclesiastica Rome 1748. 20 vols., folio, containing the history of the first six centuries; continued by Becchctti Rome 1770. 17 vols, (to 1378), and 1788. 9 vols, (to 1550). Sacharelli Hist. Eccles Rome 1772. 25 vols, (to 1185.)
" Pe ta vi u s De theologii'is dopmatibus, 5 vols. Venice 1724: a very valua- ble work in doctrinal iiistory. Baluzius,Thomassin,Mabillon,Mont- faucon, Ceillier, Martene, and others.
"> Nat. Alexander Historia Ecclesiastica Vet. et. Nov. Test. ed. M a n s i Lucca. 1748. 9 vols, fol., (to the end of the 16th century).
* T i 1 1 e m o n t Memoires etc. (see p. 8).
* CI. Fleury Histoire Ecclesiastiquc, Paris 1691. 20 vols, (to 1414); conti- nued by Fabre Paris 1726. 6 vols, (to 1595), and by La Croix 1776. 6 vols.
'" Paris 1681. (from the creation to Charlemagne).
3
18
INTRODUCTION.
in also worthy of mention. Within the present century a revived interest in Ecclesiastical history arose in the Ger- man^ Catholic Church, which the recent controversies with Protestantism, however, seem to have checked.
' Mohler (t 1838) Symbolik. Von S t ol be rg Geschichte der Religion Jesus Christus. Hamburg 1806. 15 vols.; continued by VonKertz Mainz 1825-44. Vols. 16-40. Katerkamp Kirchengeschichte Miinstcr 1819-34. 5 vols, (to 1150). Hortig Handhuch der Kirchengeschichte, with Dollin- ger's continuation. Gangauf Metaphysische Psychologic Jes Augustinus, Augsburg 1852., is a note-worthy production in dogmatic history.
ANCIENT CHURCH HISTORY:
INCLUDING THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES.
FIRST PERIOD: TO A. D., 311.
PART FIRST.
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
CHAPTER FIRST.
RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD, AT THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.
§7.
PAGANISM.
Compare Neander Church History, Vol. I. pp. 1-68; Mosheira Com mentaries, Vol. I. pp. 9-81 ; T h o 1 u c k Nature and Moral Influence of Heath- enism, in Biblical Repository for 1832. . . Creuzer Symbolik. Constant Du polytheism Remain. Hegel Philosophie der Geschichte. M ii 1 1 e r Prole- gomena zu einer wiss. Mythologie. Brouwer Histoire de la civilization des Grecs. H e e r e n Researches on Ancient Greece.
1. The religious ideas that lie at the bottom of all pagan religionsj sprang originally from divine revelation, either in- ternal or external. Having been darkened by human apos- tasy, they could not, however, in the distorted form which they now assumed in heathenism, avail to check even the grossest manifestations of unbelief and superstition. Rest- ing upon myths and the vague intimations and feelings of the human soul, the ancient popiilar religion of the Greeks and Romans, in particular, naturally came in conflict with the increasing education and refinement of these highly civilized nations, but could not vanquish the scepticism that was engendered thereby. Hence, notwithstanding the ef- forts of the government and the patriotic citizen to prop up the declining state-religion, an utter disbelief in everything religious and divine gradually spread among the cultivated and noble classes, and passed over from them into the mass
21
22 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD.
of society, bringing with it a dreadful corruption of morals and manners. A species of philosophy that set up pleasure as the highest good, and wholly denied the reality of any objective truth, became the prevalent mode of thinking, and if here ".nd there a man of more earnest religious temper felt constrained to resist the godless spirit of his age, in its extreme forms, yet religion even for him lost its vitality, and God himself became the product of the human understand- ing. But on the other hand, this very unbelief, groping about in vain for a satisfying object, carried the germ of a reaction. Many, with a sense of inward emptiness and a dim intimation of a higher world, despairing of any satisfac- tion from the various conflicting philosophical systems, yearn- ed after the old religion of their fathers, and boldly grasped it again with glowing zeal. But this was now no longer sufli- cient, by itself. The barbaric religions of Asia and Egypt must be brought in, to impart a new decoration and interest to the effete ancestral system, and amulets, talismans, and magicians, found a welcome reception. Such was the gene- ral state of the religion of the Greeks and Romans, at the time of the advent of the Redeemer. Reckless infidelity and horrible superstition, both alike fostered by the reigning dissoluteness of morals, contended for the mastery, and the great mass of the people lay sunk in absolute godlessness.
2. A deeper religious need was wakened in some few minds, and these sought satisfaction in the two better philo- sophical systems of the time ; neither of which however w^s fitted to meet this immortal longing of the heart. The Stoic philosophy, through its ideal of a perfect virtue, could indeed flare a clearer light over the prevailing corruption of morals, but could give no disclosures respecting the unseen world and man's future relations to God. Stoicism, moreover, left its disciples to the isolated strain of their own wills, and bade them find their elysium in this tension. Blindly and coldly they subjected themselves, for life or for death, to the unalterable law of the universe, and sought to find their heaven in this their passionless mood.
The principles of Platonism did not, indeed, minister to
§ 8. JUDAISM. 23
the self-reliant pride of human nature. On the other hand they tended to produce the sense of dependence ujion a hio^her Power, and to lead men to seek communion there- with, as the only source of enlightenment and moral excel- lence. But they could only teach them to seek, not to find. This consummation could be effected, only by a mediator who " was come from God and went to God." Platonism, in thus hinting at a perfect religion that was itself the sub- stance, while all others were the shadows, and in spirituali- zing the popular religions of the time, dimly looked towards Christianity ; yet the mass of the people, in whose minds the positive statutes and enforcements of the g'overnment were associated with the very idea of a religion, could not regard this free intellectual system as a religion at all, and did not understand its speculations ; while the select class, whose Platonic eclecticism sought to cull and combine the better elements from all religions, were continually vacillat- ing in their opinions, and finally fell into fanaticism, losing altoo-ether that religious longing which Platonism had awak ened but could not still.
§8.
JUDAISM.
1. The relig-ion of the Jeivs, originally a pure revelation from heaven, was altogether ditTerent from that of the heath- en. Divine in its origin and nature, resting upon a series of facts that betokened a constantly miraculous divine guid- ance, in its law revealing both the holiness of God and the sin of man, by its Messianic promises and its sanctifying in- fluence affording a tranquillizing ground of hope for the rest- less heart, — Judaism had been given to man as a reddening dawn to the bright day of Christianity; and yet, wheji at length HE appeared, whom the entire national hisory of the Jew had prefigured and preannounced — nay, with whose advent the Jewish nationality itself stood not merely in a
24 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD.
prophetic but a causal and organic connection, and for whose visible kingdom the Israelitish Church itself had been de- signed as the basis and foundation,^ — this corner stone waa rejected by the builders. Misapprehending the spirit of the Old Testament religion, vain-gloriously boasting themselves to be the people of God, utterly blinded as to the cause of the terrible national judgments they were suffering, desiring nothing but deliverance from temporal distresses, hoping greedily for the advent of a Messiah who should free them from the Roman yoke by supernatural power, give them the supreme dominion on earth, and dispense all kinds of earth- ly enjoyment, — the mass of the Jewish nation had converted the divine blessing into a curse, and were rejecting the true Messiah who came in the form of a servant to die for the sir of the world, yet lending a willing ear to the fanatical dem<i- gogue,2 and running blindly to their own destruction, after their deceiving, and half insane, false prophets and Mes- siahs.'*
2. The theology of the Jews, corresponded with the cor- rupt condition of their religion. Split into three sects, the pseudo-orthodoxy of the Pharisees, the illuminism of the
1 Compare 1) e 1 i t z s c h Die biblisch-prophetische Theologie, Loipsic 1815. S. 131.
' Judas of Gamala or Judas Galilaeus, sometimes called Judas Gaulonites, ■jV^sn ri-ii-% 14 years after the birth of Christ: See Acts v., 37; Eusebius, Hi'-^t'. Ecclcs. l! .5.
^ The foUowins summary contains the history of the political rulers o*' Judca at the time of the advent of Christ. Herod the Idumean ruled over the Jewish land, in dependence upon the Romans, from 40-4. b. c. His three sons succeeded him : Archdaas as ethnarch in Jiidea, Samaria, and Jdumea; Philip as tetrarch in Ba- tanea, Ituraea, and Traclionilis ; and Herod Antipas as tetrarch in Galilee, and Peraea. After the banishment of Archelaus, A. ]) 6.. his territories became a IlomaM province wliicli was jcoverned, under the procurator of Syria, by a pro- consul: I'ontius Pilate, the fifth in the series, ruling from 28-37. A. 1). After Philip's death, which occurred A. D. 34, his territory, after remaiiiiiif; a Poman province three years, was then consigned to Herod Agrippa I. This prince united it with the tetrarcliy of Herod Antipas, who was banished A. D. 39, aid was made king of all I'alestine, A D. 41, by the emperor Claudius. After his death, A. D. 44, his entire kingdom again became a Roman province, and was governed by procurators. On the death of his son, Agrippa II., who in the year 52 had olitaiiied the tetrarchy of Philip, the whole line of Herod became extinct, A. D. 100. See J o s t's Geschiehte der Israeliten seit der Zeit ler Maccabaer.
§ 8. JUDAISM. 25
Saddneees, and the mysticism of the Essenes, represented three equally false modes of thought, and evinced the utter decay of all true religious science in the nation. The Phar- isees^^ the most distinguished and influejitial class of Jewish theologians, held a speculative system that was compounded of Jewish, Oriental, and especially Persian doctrines, and which by an allegorizing interpretation they pretended to find in the Old Testament. With this they connected a complicated ceremonial, by the exact observance of which, together with petty ascetic practices and mortifications, they supposed they more than merited the favor of God ; espe- cially in case this observance was accompanied with moral earnestness, and was not as with the majority a mere pre- tence. The bitter opponents of the Pharisees, were the Sad- ducees^ a smaller body, composed chiefly of men living in the easy enjoyment of wealth, whose aspirations went no farther than an earthly good, and whose highest moral aim was the upright life of the citizen. Their religious creed was confined to the mere letter of the Pentateuch, and con- tained only such tenets as they deemed to be explicitly taught in it; and hence they rejected, though with something of caution, the doctrines of the soul's immortality, the resurrec- tion of the body, the existence of an angelic world, and a particular providence. The Essaenes, or Essenes,^ were a
1 From i"ns , to separate; on the jjround of superior sanctity. The Talmud so explains the nunc Q-rn3,and the lexicographers and commentators coin- cide with this explanation. See Talmud. Babylon. Chagiga f. 18, 6; and Na- than in his Lex. Aruch.
* Epiphanius derives the name of Miis sect from the appellative ""■^'4. It is more probable however that it took its name from Zadock, the fellow disciple of Boetho- (tnr-^12), both of whom were disciples of Antigonus of Socho. The Sadducecs are denominated in the Talmud 0"j;i-u or Vj^ii:: , sometimes also VCi^""i2 , ^iIu•c both Zadock and Boethus, conjointly, founded the new sect. See S i e V e r t de Sadducaeis. Grossmann de philosophia Sadducaeorum ; (Ic, frajrmentis .Sadducaeorum excgcticis ; de statu eorum, literario, morali, et po- litico.
•* Some would derive the name from the Syrian [^j to heal, or from the Chal-
il<au 'cs. a pht/fician. It has, however, been satisfactorily proved to he a modi- (ication of n'TiOr; (Strtoi), the name given to the Essenes in the Talmud. The Conjecture is not undeserving of notice which connects the Essenes with the later
20 REHGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD.
society of men who had withdrawn into solitude from this conflict of parties, in order to lead a religious life in silent contemplation. The place of their first retreat was probabl}' the Avest coast of the Dead Sea, but proceeding from this re- gion they afterwards established themselves at many other points in Palestine, devoting themselves chiefly to agricul- ture and medicine, and being generally esteemed for their inoffensive manner of life. Their distinguishing characteris- tic was a decided aversion to the externals of religion, and a tendency towards its inward life, united with an endeavor not to live for themselves alone ; yet the trustworthy account of this sect given by Josephus,' proves plainly that their reli- gious striving was by no means a purely spiritual one, and that their subjective mysticism was, as usual, mixed more or less with selfishness and pride. The superstitious estimate which they placed upon many outward usages, the oath, taken by the neophyte after a three years' novitiate, to keep secret the name of their guardian angel, the entire rejection of the oath except in this instance^ and the precise minutiae of their code of regulations, all evince how slight was their religious earnestness, and how little they hungered and thirst- ed after the righteousness that is valid before God.'^
Sohan'tes. See Pleszner Jiirlisch-Mosaischer Eeligionsunterriclit S. 47. XX. D e 1 i t z s c h Gesdiiclite der Juili<chen Poesie S. 25.
' F/avius Josejihus, born 37. died 93. A. D., the Jewish general in Galilee, taken captive in the Jewish War in Vespasian's reign, the author of a history in 20 books of the Jewish Nation and Antiquities, of an account of the Jewi.^h War in Vespasian's reiirn in 7 books, of a defence of Judaism against Apion in 2 books, together with a sketch of his own life, is a more trustworthy witness respecting the Esscnes,' than Philo, who gives an ideal sketch of them in his work : Quod omnis prohus liber. Josephus was the more unbiassed mind of the two, and had moreover as a native inliabitant of the Palestine lived a long time among the Es- senes.
* In the rrj_non about Alexandria, by Lake Moeris, dwelt the Tl.crnjwnUie (from ^fpaTTfveiv, to (Ifiiotc uncommon devotion to God); a sect similar to the Essenes, and which most probably originated in that same tendency towards thcosophy and mysticism, which had now united itself with Judaism. Siuit up in their cells (ixova(TTr\pwis and ffe^veiois), and assembling only on each sabbath at a single meal and on every seventh sabbath for certain mystic solemnities, they led a mere contemplative, less practical, and more strictly ascetic, life than the E»- senes. See S a u e r de Essenis et Therapeutis disquisitio.
^ 8. JUBAISM. 27
3. The Jews of Alexandria, in which city very many had settled under the protection of the Ptolemies, were charac- terized by a peculiar spirit and bent that distinguished them from the mass of their countrymen. In order to defend their religion in this flourishing seat of Grecian literature, from the sneers of the cultivated, they deemed it necessary to occupy the same point of view with the educated Grecian. Forming a strong predilection for the reigning Platonic phi- losophy, and becoming too much estranged from their own national modes of thought, under pretence of a deeper pene- tration into the meaning of Scripture they carried over Pla- tonic ideas into the Old Testament, by an allegorizing method of interpretation that found favor also with the Greeks. Thus there were formed among the learned Jews at Alexandria two classes of idealists, who, under the pretence of taking a more profound and spiritual view of the Old Testament, in reality emptied the great divine facts of Biblical history of their meaning. The first were the moderate class, who con- sidered both ''the historical facts, and the letter of Scripture, to be only the symbolical envelope of universal philosophical truths, the scientific knowledge of which, was the 7i^wa-t? to which the "perfect" were called to aspire, while at the same time they endeavored to hold both the historical facts and the letter of religion as much as possible in respect. The second class were the extreme idealists, who arrayed their esoteric ^vSi(n<i in the strongest possible opposition to the popular Jewish religion, and gave themselves no concern about either the letter, the history, or the externals. All these Alexandrine Jews were, in one respect, better prepared to receive the spiritual system of the gospel, than were the Palestine Jews, whose expectations of a political Messiah they did not share; but, on the other hand, llieir haughty idealism easily produced a mental self-sufficiency and self- satisfaction that closed their hearts against the gospel, espe- cially when taken in connection with the sluggishness of their Messianic feeling. The spirit of the Alexandrine .Tew=< is clearly reflected in Philo}
1 The numerous and generally very brief tracts of the learned (thoudi not in
28 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THK WORLD.
RELATIONS OF HEATHENISM AND JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY.
It is evident from this survey, that Christianity could not originate in any of the intellectual or moral tendencies of either Judaism or Paganism. Neither the idolatrous and godless religions of Heathenism, nor a self-ignorant, dead, and formal, Judaism ; neither Stoicism gendering only pride and self-reliance, nor Platonism awakening but not satisfying aspirations ; neither the rigid and formal pseudo-orthodoxy of the Pharisees, nor the sensual and worldly unbelief of the Sadducees ; neither the sectarian mysticism of the Essenes and Therapeutae, nor the wisdom-seeking idealism of the Alexandrine Jews ; neither one nor all of these, could give origin to a principle of religious life, which, like the Chris- tian, should satisfy all the moral and religious wants of men, and knit them together in love. And yet this hopeless reli- gious condition of the Pagan and Jewish world, was a nega- tive preparation for the appearance and spread of Christianity. This manifest conflict between the different intellectual and religious tendencies of the age, together with the unsatisfying nature of all then existing religious systems, had wakened in many minds a vivid yearning after a peace-giving religion. And when such a religion was revealed, in the person and work of the Son of God, its easy and rapid spread was facili- tated by the vast unity of the Roman empire, combining in one whole the most diverse and distant nations ; and more
Jewish lore) Alexandrine Jew Pliilo, who died about 40 A. D., have been best edited by Mangey. London 1742; (translated in Bohn's Library.) Also see, Djiline Bcmerkungen iibcr die Schriften dcs Jiiden Philo, Studien und Kritiken 1833; Gross mann De Philonis Judei operum continua serie ex ordine chronologica. Respecting Philo's system compare Neander Church History I. 44 et seq ; Gfrorer Philo und die Alexajidrinische Theosophie^ particularly Part I ; D o r n e r Person Ciiristi Tlieil I. Ahth. 1; Grossmann Quaestiones Pliilonae. Upon this Alexandrine tendency generally, sec Dahn« Geschichtliche Darstellung der Jiid.-Alexandrin. Religionsphilosophie.
§ 9. RELATIONS OF JUDAISM TO CH RISTI ANMTY. 29
particularly by the great number of Jewish colonists, by whom the knowledge of the new doctrine was carried from Jerusalem into all the countries of the known world. In addition to these favoring circumstances, Judaism itself, be- coming missionary in its spirit, had introduced into its com- munion great numbers of proselytes from heathenism. Of these, the completely initiated prosehjtes of righleousness {1^'ri "ina) were the worst ener lies of the gospel, being even more malignant than the native Jew. But on the other hand, the proselytes of the gate (-?■;? "'';]?)? styled in the New Testament (po^ovfjuevoL and ae^ofxevoi rov ^eoy, uninfected with the ceremonial formalism and political fanaticism of the Jewish people, acknowledging with heart-felt conviction the one God of the Old Testament, resting upon his consolatory promises in this earlier revelation, and humbly seeking a yet clearer ill imination, readily received the Gospel, and became the most efficient instruments of its diffusion among the heathen.
CHAPTER SECOND.
JESUS CHRIST.
Gerhard De vita et resurrectione Christi. 1652. Vossius De vita et morte Cluisti. Reinhardt Versuch iiber den Plan Jesu ; translated by T a y • lor. Neander Leben Jesu; translated byMcClintock. Tholuck Glaubwiirdigkeit der evangelische Geschichte. U 1 1 m a n n Die Sundlosigkeit Jesu; translated by Park. Stier Die Reden Jesu; translated by Pope. Trench The Parables and Miracles of Our Lord. Edwards History of Eedeniption. Period II. Parts I. If. Olshausen Commentary in locis. Paulus Leben Jesu. 1828. (rationalistic). Strausz Leben Jesu. (mythical theory). Gfrorer Geschichte des Urcliristenthum. 11 a s e Leben Jesu. 3d e". 1840; valuable as a collection of materials.
10.
THE NEW TESTAMENT VIEW OF THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST.
The Scriptures recognize in man a nature originally kin- dred to the Divine. Since the disobedience of the first pair, this image of God no longer exists in its primitive power and purity, but in accordance with that law of development under which the human race was created, the principle of self-will and sin unfolds and reigns responsibly in all men, notwithstanding the resistance of conscience, and the faint aspirations of an immortal spirit not yet reprobated. The consciousness of this internal schism, is the ground and sub- stance of human misery. Inward sin and guilt testify to man of his estrangement from God, and of the holy wrath abiding upon him, and he has now neither the disposition
I
§ 10. NEW TESTAMExNT VIEW OF CHRIST. 31
nor the power to tear away from himself and turn to God alone. The utmost to which he is competent, under the natural workings of his own mind and the common influ- ences of the Divine Spirit, is a sense of wretchedness, and a desire for peace. This is the deeply seated consciousness of the need of redemption, becoming clearer and louder in every man, the more he strives to satisfy and obey that righteous law which requires instantaneous and absolute perfection, but imparts no power to fulfil the requisition. Upon thisf sense of the need of redemption, dim and dark in the pagan world, rests that vague expectation of a Deliverer which runs through the better heathen theologies ; and upon this same consciousness, made painfully vivid and distinct by the fuller revelation and application of law, rests the clear and great Old Testament idea of the Messiah.
Jesus Christ distinctly declared himself to be this Messiah,' promised to the Jews in the Old Testament, and vaguely hoped for in the Pagan consciousness as the "desire of all nations." 2 In so doing, he announced himself to be that central Personage in human history, to whom all the past had looked forward, and all the future would look backward. At the same time, he both contradicted and corrected the prevalent Jewish idea of the Messiah. The Jews, grossly misapprehending the prophetic descriptions of the Old Tes- tament, were expecting in this Personage only an eminently wise and good man, who was to be suddenly and unexpect- edly consecrated to his Messianic office by the prophet Elias, and endued with divine power, in order to deliver the Jews from a foreign yoke, inflict judgments upon the heathen, and establish a triumphant earthly kingdom, whose members, the worshippers of the national Jehovah, should enjoy every spe- cies of earthly felicity. From this misapprehension, even many of the first Christian believers were not entirely free ; the political national feeling being somewhat mingled with their sense of religious need, and incipient faith. The idea of the Messiah was however grasped in its pure spirituality
' See Matthew, chapter xxi ; xvi, 16. 17; xxvi, 64; xxvii, U. ' Haggai, ii, 7.
32 JESUS CHRIST.
by a few of the contemporaries of Christ ; such as a Zacharias and a Simeon, who were also favored with moments of spe- cial divine illumination ;•' and in still greater purity and power by John the Baptist, the immediate forerunner of the Messiah, and the connecting link between the old and new economies. But the idea obtained its full and complete enunciation only in the teachings of Christ himself, who dis- tinctly announced that his kingdom is not of this world, and, in the face of Jewish opposition and charges of blasphemy, gave plain and unambiguous testimony to his own divine nature and dignity, as the only-begotten Son of the eternal God.
He in whom dwelt the entire fulness of the divine essence, out of love to the fallen human race became and was truly man. As such he lived among men ; sinless, though tempt- able, and actually tempted by Satan ; in possession of all human feelings and sympathies, though these were perfectly sanctified by the constant and inmost blending of the divine with the human in his Person. His ivhole earthly life was a continuous manifestation of that ineffable u7iion of Deity and humanity, which was indicated by his miraculous birth, an- nounced at his baptism, and made visible on the mount of transfiguration. In relation to this one gi-eat continual mira- cle of his existence, all his single and particular acts of mira- culous power appear both homogeneous and natural ; being never exerted with magical abruptness, for their own sake, but always in closest connection with wisdom and love, and for the attainment of moral and spiritual ends.
The earthly and visible activity of Christ was terminated by his death, the deepest and most stupendous wonder in the hi&tory of the Son of God and man. This event was followed by his resurrection from the dead, the consequences of which prove its reality, and the accompanying circum- stances its supernatural character. The resurrection of Christ, in connection with his ascension, constituted the point of transition, from his earthly life of humiliation, to a higher state, in which his divinity, no longer held in abeyance, ' Luke, chapters i. ii.
§ 10. NEW TESTAMENT VIEW OF CHKIST. 'S'S
manife;sts itself in its infinite fulness of power in his human nature still forever united with it, and becomes the pledge to his people of their eternal redemption from sin, death, and the dominion of Satan, and to all mankind of his Jinal ad- vent, in majesty, as their judge.
This exalted Personage delineated in his doctrine the ab- solute ideal of holiness, as no other teacher has done, and he alone, of all, perfectly realized it in life. But the contem- plation of this ideal, alone and by itself, serves only to pro- duce a clearer knowledge of personal sinfulness, and a more poignant sense of guilt, and consequently can never work out a deliverance from either. Hence Christ was not mere- ly or mainly a teacher and exemplar. He was primarily a Redeemer. His whole appearance on earth, was the sub- stance and accomplishment of a redemptive plan, that in- volved the revelation and conciliation of both the justice and the mercy of God. That which Christ did and suffered, was not for himself but for humanity; in their stead and for their salvation. His sufferings and death, in particular, are the objective fact upon which the forgiveness of man's sin rests. Such an objective ground of pardon was necessary : on the side of God, that the immanent attribute of justice in the divine nature might be satisfied ; on the part of man, that the conscience might be pacified, and the despairing spirit have a sure pledge that there is mercy in the heavens. The sinless God-Man voluntarily endured a passion that was an absolute satisfaction of eternal justice for the sin of the world. In this fact, the infinite love and compassion of the Triune God towards the ill-deserving creature are mani- fested in their most wonderful and moving aspect ; being seen in the form of a se/Z-sacrifice for his salvation.
The person and work of Christ are thus the source and centre of a new life for humanity, and not merely of a new truth. For this objective fact of Redemption, is a living and life-giving one. When, through the inward influences of the Holi/ Ghost, dispensed in connection with the work of the Son, repentance and faith are WTOught in the soul, the plen- ary satisfaction of the divine attribute by the divine substi-
34 JKSUS CHRIST.
tute becomes the appropriated and vital possession of the human criminal, and the ideal of holiness, realized in the life of Christ, progressively becomes the inward character of the regenerated spirit.
11.
SKETCH OF THE EARTHLY LIFE OF CHRIST.
The attempt has been made, in modern times, to convert the entire human history of Jesus Christ into an insignifi- cant and unimportant myth. This mythical mode of expla- nation rests, however, solely upon subjective hypotheses : such, for example, as that of an idealizing tendency in the apostolic churches ; of the spuriousness of the four gospels ; of their essential discrepancy ; of the extravagance of orien- tal fancy ; of the self-deception or dishonesty of Christ him- self; and of the inconceivability of the Supernatural. The only basis of an unbiassed and objective view of the life of Jesus, is the historical one given in the four canonical gos- pels ; of which the genuineness is both critically and histori- cally demonstrable, while their contents themselves, taken in connection and comparison with those of the apocryphal gospels, furnish strong evidence of their truthfulness as state- ments of actual occurrences.
After the promise of the Messiah had been announced with ever increasing distinctness in the Old Testament reve- lation, it found its fulfilment, preceded and accompanied by circumstances of the most remarkably supernatural charac- ter, at Bethlehem, a place long before indicated in prophecy in connection with this event. Jesus Christ was born of the Israelite Virgin Mary, who belonged to the family of David ; ' as did also Joseph, who, having been betrothed to her prc-
1 Luke gives the genealogy of Mary, the natural mother of Jesus; Matthew ihf.t of Joseph, the legal and reputed father. See W i e s el e r Siudien u Kritiken 1845. Heft. 2, S. 361. Also see Delitzsch Die biblisch. proph. Theologie 8.36
§ 11. EARTHLY LIFE OF CHRIST. 35
virtis to her miracnlons conception, afterwards become her legal husband for her protection from reproach. By a mira- cle, necessarily above that ordinary course of development throngh which fhe individuals of the human race are born, the Redeemer of humanity was really, but immaculately, born into the world of human beings, and the angelic world — for there is no dead mechanism in the living universe of God, — solemnized the birth. Led by the providence of God, which condescended to the need of the age and the information of individuals, and following those Messianic hopes and intimations which were current even in the pagan world, Magi from the East offered their worship to the new- born Messiah : the first announcement that Christ is also the Redeemer of the Gentiles. The infancy of Jesus was not spent in the parental home, but in a flight to Egypt, to escape from that bloody cruelty of Herod of which the whole after history of this tyrant gives such abundant testimony. On the return from Egypt, Joseph, with Mary, took up his abode in Nazareth his former residence, and within the terri- tory of the more humane Herod Antipas. The human indi- viduality of Jesus now unfolded within a family circle that consisted, besides his mother and his foster-father whose trade he seems to have followed, of a number of dSeXcpol and dSeXcfjal of Jesus : in all probability, either cousins of Jesus on the side of Mary, or children of Joseph by a former mar- riage.^ Only a single feature from the history of the youth of Christ has been preserved, by Luke, in the account of the conversation of the child of twelve years with the doctors in the temple : a lineament full of meaning, and throwing a characteristic light upon his human mental development. The reading of the Old Testament unfolded the Messianic consciousness, in Christ, in a natural and spontaneous man- ner, while yet the higher illumination, which proceeded from the union of Deity with humanity in his Person, resulted in
' If hy " l.rethren " and. " sisters" are denoteo children of Mary herself, it if flifBcult to at-count for Christ's commending Mary to the care of John. The epi- thet "first l)orn"is not decisive, for among the Jews it would have its emphatic force even when there was but one son.
-7
36 JESUS CHRIST.
a religious knowledge beyond that of a mere teacher of the Jewish law, or even of an inspired prophet of the old eco- nomy, and incapable of being referred to any of the particu- lar theological schools of the nation. At length, in the thir- tieth year of his age, Jesus Christ appeared publicly as the Messiah. John the Baptist, standing upon the threshold of the new dispensation and at the close of the Old Testament economy, announced his advent.^ In the desert country of Tudea near the Jordan, practising the rigid austerity of the Nazarite, John appeared as a public teacher in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, and called upon his country- men to prepare themselves, by repentance for sin and recep- tion of baptism as a symbol of a changed mood, to enter into the Messianic kingdom, now on the point of being estab- lished. The whole moral life of the people was deeply stir- red. Jesus also came to be baptized ; not indeed with the penitent feeling of the people, or to obtain something of which he was himself destitute, but to receive a formal con- secration to his Messianic office and work, from him who had been called to announce the near approach of the Messi- anic kingdom, and, more particularly, to be solemnly accre- dited to the Baptist himself as the incarnate Son of God.'^ After this event John continued in his appointed work, wil- lingly and gladly decreasing while Christ increased, and di- vinely enlightened respecting the general nature and aim of the new spiritual kingdom which he prophetically knew would be founded upon the sufferings of the " Lamb of God;" though not able to see the mystery of redemption in all its fulness of meaning,^ before the death of Christ had actually occurred, and the agency of the Holy Spirit had been dis- pensed to the church. The time had now come for C.lirist himself to commence his great work. In the narrative of the evangelists, the period of Christ's preparation for his public
1 John the Baptist t!ie son of Zacharias and Elizaheth was a relative of Jesus, and horn only six months hefore him. See B a x de Joh. Baptista; Leopold •Tohann der Tanfer.
' See John i. 31-34.
* See Matthew xi. 2-i>.
§ 11. EARTHLY LIFE OF CHRIST. 37
work closes with his temptation in the wilderness : a victori- ous conflict in which the entire history of his life and king- dom is shadowed forth. By reason of the sinlessness of the subject, the temptation, as in the previous instance of the unfallen Adam, must come wholly from without. Satan seeks to seduce the Redeemer into the common apostasy of mankind, by a threefold temptation appealing to bodily ap- petite, love of distinction, and love of worldly possessions ; but with no other result than the most convincing proof, that the tempted personage was the Son of God, and completely qualitied to be a deliverer from sin and Satan. Christ's en- trance.upon his public ministry and redeeming work, follows this personal triumph over the kingdom of evik The testi- mony of John the Baptist conducted his first disciples to him, whom he now caused to be the constant eye-witnesses of those supernatural agencies which he exerted through his entire public life, as the tokens of his divinity ; flashes, as it were, of that veiled deity and glory which was permitted to display itself in all its fulness of splendor, upon only a single occasion, on the mount of transfiguration. Teaching, and bestowing blessings wherever he went, he yet confined his public work almost entirely to the land of his country- men ; offering salvation first to the Jews, from whence it was to pass over to all mankind.^ But the envy and hatred of the Pharisaical Jews, whose carnal and contemptuous mind totally misapprehended the Old Testament promise of a Messiah, increased with every one of the few years of Christ's public ministry. Shortly before the last passover he spent upon earth, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the last time, and made a solemn entry into the sacred city, in order to tes- tify, by an act of mingled humility and regal dignity, that he was the promised and commissioned Redeemer of the world.
1 That the worlc of the Messiah was to avail for all humanity, and not solely for the Jews, is pluinly taught in Isaiah and other parts of the Old Testament. And yet that people whom God had chosen from the beginning mu^t be the cen- tral point of radiation: particularly through the Jewish birth of the mysterious Personafre himself. Hence we.lind the theatre of Christ's work to be Galilee and Judea. He passed through Samaria once, and only once do we find him out of Jewish territory. See Mark vii. 24-30.
38 JESUS CHRIST.
By the avarice of one of his disciples, delivered up to the malice of his enemies, from whom he ivould not escape, he yet keeps the passover with his disciples at the beginning of his voluntary passion, instituting at the same time the sacra- ment of the Supper, as the constant memorial of his expia- tory death, and the standing pledge of his communion with his church. On the same night he passes through the bitter preparatory conflict of Gethsemane, is then taken prisoner by the band of the traitor, and, after being deserted and denied by his dearest friends, is condemned to death, by both the Jewish high priest and the Roman proconsul, the character- less Pilate — by the former as the only-begotten Son of God, by the latter as a King, — by both, therefore, as the Messiah and Redeemer of mankind. In his death he finished the work of expiating human guilt. On the third day, as he foretold, he rose from the dead. Though immediately ac- knowledged in the heavens as the conqueror of sin and death, he yet chose only a few, from among those whose faith fit- ted them for such a function, to be witnesses on earth of this miracle, reserving the full demonstration of the great fact, for the final winding-up of human history. With the most vivid simplicity, all the eye-witnesses vie with each other in reproducing the great event of the resurrection, in ail its mi-" nutest features. Out of condescending love still tarrying forty days here below, as it were on the border line between the states of mundane existence and supra-mundane exalta- tion, Jesus Christ finally departed from his disciples in the act of ascension ; the necessary sequence and consequence of his far more wonderful resurrection, yet expressly testified to, not merely by Mark and Luke, but also by the apostles and actual eye-witnesses themselves.' He departed, how- ever, not to separate himself from his followers, but that he might henceforth be with them, by a more efllicient spiritual presence, to the end of the world, as the Lord and Head of the Church, his redeemed.
1 By Matthew xxvi. 64. By John iii. 13; y\. 52, 62; xx. 17. Also by both evangelists in their accounts of Christ after his resurrection. Likewise by T'eia I Pet. iii. 22 : and Acts ii. 33 ; v. 31.
§, 11. HISTORICO-CRITICAL PARTICULARS
39
HISTORICO-CRITICAL PARTICULARS RELATLKG TO THE LIKE OF CHRIST
1. Chronological Data. The hirlh-daij of Jesus cannot be determined with certainty. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, Slromata I. p. 340, some contended for the 25th of Pachon (May 20th) as the day of his birth, and others for the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi (Apr. 19th or 20th). Somewhat later, the Gtli of January was observed,- and afterwards, and more generally, the 25th of December (Sulpic. Sev. Hist. Sac. II. 27). Epiphanius (Expos. . Fidci c. 22 : Haer. II. c. 29) aflirms that the birth of Christ occurred on the 6th of January, which Jerome (Com. in Ezech. 1) denies. Augustine (Ep. 118, 119: Serm. 380) asserts that the Church, by common consent, held the festival of Ciirist's birth on December 25th.
As the birth-year of Christ, Christendom adopts the aera Diomjsiana, calcu- lated by Dionysius Exigiius in the 6th century, made more generally kno«vr. by Bede, and employed in public documents by Pepin and Charlemagne. This assumes Christ's birth to have occurred in the year 754 u. c; making use, as a point of reckoning, of the time of the advent of John the Baptist given in Luke iii. 1. This date, however, is 3 or 4 years too late, for Christ, according to Matthew ii. 1, 19, was born some time, though very shortly, previous^o the death of Herod the Great; but Herod died 75iu. c. The best informed of the early fathers designate the year 752 u. c. as the year of Christ's birth : See Irenaeus Adv. Haer. III. 25 ; Tertullian Adv. Judd. c. 8 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. I. p. 339 ; Epiphanius Haer. LI. 22.
The date of Christ's death is also uncertain. According to Luke iii. 1 compared with verse 23, Jesus commenced his public ministry about the 15th year of the reign of Tibe. us, and in the 30th year of his age. He died on the cross, after he had kept, during his ministry, at least three and and probably four passovers; consequently his ministry was at least more than two, and probably more than three, years in duration. See John ii. 13- vi. 4; xi. 55; v. 1. The three synoptical gospels distinctly mention Christ's presence at Jerusalem at only one passover; and this .the last and most important one, when he made his public entry into the city. Chronolo- gical and local data came more within the design of the writer of the fourth gospel, as supplementary to the first three. According to all the Roman ec- clesiastical writers of the first five centuries, the date of Christ's death falls within the consulate of the two Gemini, C. Rubellius and C. Fufius; i. e. in the year 782 u. c. : See Tertull. Adv. Jud. 8 ; Aug. De Civitate Dei XVIII. 54 ; be Trin. IV. 5 ; Lactant. Inst. IV. 10.
2. Pretended icritings of Christ. Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. I. 13.) mentiona a correspondence, said to have been found in the archives of the church at Edessa, translated from the. Syriac into Greek, between Christ and Abgarus kins of Edessa. According to this document, Abgarus during a severe sick- ness addresses a letter to Christ beseeching him to come and heal him ; to
40 JESUS CHRIST.
which Christ answers that he cannot come, but that after his ascension he ■will send one of his disciples to him. The letter of Christ appears to be made up of New Testament expressions, while that of Abgarus is not in the style of an oriental royal letter.
3. Contemporaneous notices of Christ by profane writers. The most im- portant is that by Josephus, Antiq. XVIH. 3, 3. It is as follows: as quot- ed also by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. I. 11. and Demonstr. Ev. III. 5. " At this time appeared Jesus, a wise man, [if indeed he may be called a man ; for] he performed wonderful works, [he was a teacher of those who willingly re- ceived the truth,] and he gained over to his doctrine many of the Jews and Gentiles. [He was the Christ.] After Pilate, on the ground of the accusa- tion of the chief men among us, had condemned him to the death of the fross, those who had first attached themselves to him did not cease their at- tachment; :for he appeared alive again to them after three days,.[as the di- vine prophets had foretold this, and many other wonderful things, of him.] The class of men who after him are called Christians, still exist to this day."
That this passage, as an entire whole, could not have been interpolated by one of the early Christians, is apparent from the fact that it says so little. It is found, moreover, in all the manuscripts of Josephus and Eusebius ; not to mention that a total silence on the part of Josephus respecting the career of Christ is hardly conceivable. But, on the other hand, the fact that Jo- sephus, notwithstanding all his eclecticism, was and continued to be a Jew, and had such a low idea of the Messiah as to regard the prophecies of the Old Testament as intimations that a mighty King was to proceed from Pales- tine, and applied them to Vespasian (De Bello Jud. VI. 5, 4), renders it questionable whether the passage has not received interpolation to some such extent as is indicated by the brackets.^
4. Pretended contemporaneous accounts of the life of Jesus. Of these, the most remarkable are the two Epistolae Pilati ad Tiberium," which briefly, and generally in a Christian tone, recite the incidents of Christ's life. To these may be added the more difluse, 'Afafopa UiXaTov wept 'Iriaov Xpitrrov.^
The apocryphal gospels, contain yet more minute, and more evidently apocryphal, accounts of Jesus and his kindred. They are the product of a taste not satisfied with the severe simplicity and plainness of the canonical gospels, and also of that wonder-seeking tendency which arose in the century immediately succeeding the apostolic age. They are, for the most part, of unknown and heretical origin. The following are the principal of them.
a. The Greek Protevangelium Jacobi (Thilo. Codex Apoc. p. 161-273), the oldest and most esteemed of the apocryphal gospels, is, as Origen suggests, the product perhaps of the 2nd century, certainly of the 3rd. The principal
1 See the authorities for, and against, the genuineness, in Gieseler's Church History. Vol. I. § 24. Note 1. * Thilo Codex Apocryphus N. T. P. I. p. 796-802. ^ Thilo Codex Apoc. N. T. P. I. p. 803 et seq.
§ 11. HISTORICO-CRITICAL PARTICULARS. 41
part of the work (.'oiUaiiis an account of the cliiMhooil ami yoiitli of Mary, to the hu-th of Jesus inclusively; then follows briefly, an<l in the phraseolo^xy of the canonical gospels, the narrative of tlie visit of the Magi and the (light into Egypt, coni-luding with a detailed account of the violent death of the father of John the Baptist. The book relates not a little, certainly, that is credible, and as a whole is less fabulous, and simpler in tone and style, than the apocryphal literature generally. Much of it agrees wilh corresponding narratives in Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus; evincing the exist- ence at this period of a common body of tradition pertaining to these sub- jects. According to this Protevangelium (Chap. 4), Mary, contrary to the later papal doctrine of the bumaculate conception, was the fruit of the pre- viously childless marriage of Joachim and Anna, late in life ; at the age of three years, by the choice of her parents, she was sent to the temple to be trained up in the ceremonial service ; at the age of twelve years, as one of the maidens of the temple, she was assigned to Joseph as her guardian ; in her fifteenth year she became the mother of the Redeemer. These are parti- culars that re-appear in all the other apocryphal gospels, and which the 3rd section of the Koran has likewise copied. The Western church made no use of this Protevangelium; though it obtained a wide currency in the Greek and Oriental churches, and was frequently read on festival days, particular- ly those of the Virgin Mary. The fathers attribute its authorship to " a cer- tain James," and in the work itself (C. 25) a James at Jerusalem speaks of himself; in which specification later tradition would definitely find the a5e\- ^bs ToD Ki/piou.
b. The Greek Evo.nrjelium lliomae (Thilo. Codex Apoc. p. 277-315) Is one of the most extravagant of the apocryphal gospels. Its character indi- cates unmistakably a Gnostic origin, and it was highly esteemed by the Ma- nichaeans. It purports to give an account of the childhood and youth of Jesus, from his 5th to his 12lh year, and narrates a multitude of partly offen- sive, and partly silly and mischievous, miracles. Origen mentions this work in his Homil. l»in Lucam; unless another of the same name is intended.
c. The Greek Evangelium Nicodemi (Thilo. p. 489-795), the next in im- portance after the Protevangelium, consists of two heterogeneous parts; the first a prolix specification of particulars relating to the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus ; the last a fanciful account of his descent into hell. Both parts are probably of Jewish, or Jewish-Christian origin ; having an apologetic aim with reference to the Jews. The first part may be regarded as an expansion of the Epislolae Pila/i, and undoubtedly has more or less of a historical foundation. The work in its present form, though purporting to be the production of Nicodemus in the time of Clirist, could scarcely have been composed before the 5th century. It was highly esteemed in the West- tern church, during the latter part of the Mediaeval period.
d. The Arah\c Hisforia Josepld fqhri lujnarii (Thilo. p. 3 Gl) is a work, perhaps of the 4th century, of an author acquainted with Jewish ideas. It describes, in a somewhat homiletic tone, the life and particularly the deatb
6
42 JESUS CHRIST.
of the foster-father of Christ. The narrative is full of marvels, and evidently founded upon the Protevanjielium.
e. The Arabic Evangelium Infantis Servatoris (Thilo. p. 65-131), consist- ing of loosely connected materials, perhaps a work of the 5th century and of Nestorian origin, relates the life of Jesus from his birth to his twelfth year, — partly on the foundation of the narrative in the Evcmfjelium T/iomae and with special reference to the exaltation of Mary, — in a fabulous, sometimes childii^h, and even obscene manner.
f. The latest of the apocryphal gospels are the two Latin ones; since the spirit of the Western church, up to the 6th century, was decidedly opposed to the apocryphal literature of the East. The Ecaiu/eliuni de Nativilate Ma- viae (Thilo. x>. 319-336), is an extract, substantially, from the Protevange- Hum. The Hlstorln de nativilate Mariae et de infanlia Salvaloris (Thilo. p. 330-400), (copies the preceding, at first, but concludes with materials from the Arabic EvangeUum Infantis.
It is obvious that these apocryphal gospels contain, by implication and contrast, a very powerful internal argument for the genuineness and authen- ticity of the canonical gospels: the existence of the counterfeit being inex- plicable except On the hypothesis of that of the genuine object.
CHAPTER THIRD.
FIRST APPEARING OF THE CHRISTIAN C [URCH
§ 12.
PENTECOSTAL EFFUSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The history of the distinctively Christian Church com- mences with the first great act of the risen and glorified Re- deemer : the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost.
Christ had repeatedly promised his disciples the Holy Spirit, who would conduct them to a full apprehension of the nature of his redeeming work, and transform their own inward life. He left them, at his ascension, firm in the con- fidence, on the ground of this promise, that through their own weak instrumentEility the word of the Lord would be diffused through the earth as a renovating power. With the first great manifestation of the Holy Spirit, to which all the preceding and comparatively fragmentary dispensations of divine influence had looked, the Christian Church, as distin- guished from the Patriarchal and Jewish, came into exist- ence, henceforth, through the bond of this its organizing spirit, to unite all its true members into one body of which Christ is the head. On the sabbath, fifty days after the re- surrection of the Lord, and ten days after his ascension, as- sembled with one accord at Jerusalem, on the occasion of the Jewish feast of Pentecost, (when the first fruits of the wheat harvest were offered, and the anniversary, according to an old tradition of the synagogue, of the giving of the
43
44 FIRST APPEARING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
law on Sinai,) the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and the new church of the gospel made its first appearance in the offering of its first fruits. Attended by extraordinary facts in the externa, world, that vividly typified the glorious occurrences in the internal world of the spirit, and by which the Supernatural betokened its domination over both nature and the human soul enslaved to nature, and, in particular, accompanied by the wonderful sign of speaking in foreign tongues, indicating that every human language was to be consecrated to the proclamation of the gospel, the first spe- cial and mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost, by the glori- fied Redeemer, took place. The dispensation of the Spirit now commenced, and an influence began to be exerted upon humanity which has ever since evinced its divine and super- natural quality, by the regeneration of the individual soul, and the restoration within it of the divine image and like- ness: the highest and most transcendent fact in the history of the human soul since its apostasy and fall. The disciples, previously full of prejudices, fickle, and timid, now speak from the overmastering consciousness of the truth that has made them free, henceforth, with a courage invincible by danger or death, preach the doctrine of faith in the Crucified " whom God hath made both Lord and Christ," and on the same day three thousand souls gladly received the word, and were baptized, who "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.'**
SPEAKING WITH TONGUKS.
There has been much controver?j', whether by the phrase " speaking witli tonfTues" is meant the miraculous use of languages never learned by the speaker. Nothing but the most arbitrary exegesis can deny that tiiis is the meaning, in the aicount given in Acts ii. There are, moreover, other passa- ges in the New Testament' in which illusion is made to the yXwaaats htpcui
' Acts ii. 41-47.
• Mark xvi. 17 ; Acts x. 46 ; xix. 6 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 2 et seq.
§ 12. SPEAKING WITH TONGUKS, 45
or yXiiiJOJ-is Kaivais or simply yXtiaaais or yXdaffij \a\uv, ami on con,ii:inng them with 1 Cor. xii. 10, it is eviileiit tliat one ami the same thing is (leiioted by them all, viz., a supernatural x'^p'O'^a of the early church. With refer- ence tc some of these passages (particularly Mark xvi. 17, compared with Acts ii.), the interpretation recjuired in the principal passage in the second chapter of Acts, is in itself the most probable; and with regard to the re- mainder, this interpretation is at least not impossible, — as is proved by the great number of interpreters who have thus explained them. It might there- fore be very fairly maintained, that in each and all of these passages, the em- ployment oV foreign languages that have not been learned is intended, and that the x«P"^^a '^'self, though having its highest value and imi)ortance only on the day of Pentecost, still continued to exist for some time after, as a re- miniscence of the great event of that day; thus having also a secondary em- blematic signification, such as the other class of interpreters would attribute to it as the'sole and only one. At the same time, however, it cannot be de- nied that the expressions, y\<!>(T<rri {\ Cor. xiv.) and yXdicraais Kctivals \a- \e1v (Mark xvi.), when taken in connection with the sense and connection of many of the passages, at least render possible, if they do not directly recom- mend, another explanation of this xap"^/*'*' "i *l>e above mentioned texts: viz., a new and ml ordinarily intclUcjible mode of utterance, produced by the Holy Ghost, and expressive of the highest exaltation and ecstasy of the mind. It may therefore be the most comprehensive and a(!cnrate explatiation, if we understand bj- the y\<i>(r(Tais KaX^lv etc. in all the textual passages, one and the same thing e^^enticdhj ; viz., the x«P'<^^« of a new mode of utterance given by the Holy Ghost, which xap'f^M" however manifested itself in a twofold form ; sometimes as the ability to use foreign languages that had never been acquired by the speaker, as on the day of Tentecost; and sometimes as an utterance, unintelHgible to the common auditor, of the deep inspiration of an ecstatic state of soul. Neither need the two forms be regarded, necessarily, as insulated from each other. On the day of Pentecost, the employment of foreign languages, though the predominant characteristic of the working of the Holy Spirit^, may not have altogether excluded the ecstatic condition pro- duced by the same agency, as Acts ii. 13, would seem to indicate; and the ecstatic utterances, described in 1 Cor. xiv, may have been accompanied with more or less of the same ability that was uppermost on the first bestowment of the x«P"^-"«- Perhaps these two forms, of the one agency of the^ Holy Spirit exerted with reference to language or utterance, are indicated in Jbe phrase, 1 Cor. xiii. i, Vav Tois yX^iaaais r a, v au^ p d,Tr wv \alu, Kalrwv iy yUccv: the former denoting the use of foreign languages, and the latter the ecstatic utterances of the soul rapt in the angelic consciousness.
CHAPTER FOURTH.
THE APOSTLES : AND THEIR AGENCY IN PLANTING THE CHRia* TIAN CHURCH IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES.
Cave Antiquitates Apostolicae, or, the History of the Apostles. Buddei Ecclesia Apostolica. Hess Geschichte und Schriften der Apostel Jesu. L ii c k e Comm. de ecclesia Cliristianorum apostolica. G. J. Planck Geschichte dcs Cliristentliums in der Periode seiner ersten Einfiih. durch Jesum u. d. Apostel. Neand er Geschichte der Pfianzung und Leitung der christ. Kirche durch die Apostel ; translated by K y 1 a n d . R o t h e Die Anfange der Kirche und ihrer Vcrfassung. Anger De temporum in Actis Apostolorum ratione. Wiese- 1 e r Chronologie der apost. Zeitalters bis zum Tode der Apostel Paulus und Pe- trus. Schwegler Das nachapostol. Zeitalter. Bauingarten Apostolic History. S c h a ff History of the Apostolic Church. Benson Planting of the Christian Religion.
§ 13.
TFIE COLLEGE OF APOSTLES.
The influences and effects of the first Christian pentecost were continued through the medium of the ApostJes. These were the first, and inspired, organs of the Holy Spirit, who now followed up the creative agency of his first effusion, by which the Christian Church was established, with a preserv- ing and perpetuating influence. Of these apostles, only four come prominently into view, whether we have regard to au- thorship or to active labor. Peter, John, James the youn^r, and Pavl the apostle of the Gentiles, representatives as it were of the principal types of Christian character, were the chief instruments through which the gospel was carried over the then known world, and has been preserved in a written . 46
^ 13. THE COLLEGE OF APOSTLES. 47
form for all time. Of the remaining apostles, as well as of the seventy other disciples of Christ (Luke x.), there are but few reliable accounts. The list, according to Matthew x. 2-4, contains the following: Andreio the brother of Peter, James the elder the brother of John, whom Herod Agrippa about the year 44 put to the sword, as a proof to the Jews of his zeal for their ancient religion (Acts xii. 2), Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Mattheio the author of the Gospel, Judas surnamed Lebbeus and Thaddeus, and Simon the Ca- naanite. According to Matthew xxviii. 19, they were to go into all the world and preach the gospel. According to an ancient tradition (Eusebius, V. 18), Christ commanded them to remain in Jerusalem until twelve years after his ascen- sion ; and as matter of fact we find them for some time in this city, testifying by word, and miracle, and in the midst of suffering and persecution from which they were some- times delivered by direct divine interference, what they could not refrain from making known, ^ Probably the eight above- named apostles, following the example of Christ, labored chiefly in Palestine and the adjacent countries, and mostly among the Jews. According to Eusebius, (III. 31), Philip preached also in Phrygia, where he died. Some of them un- dertook more distant missionary journeys : Andrew to Scy- thia (Eusebius, III. 1) ; Thomas to Parthia and India ; Bar- tholomew to India (§ 18); Matthew to Ethiopia (Rnfinus, h. e. X. 9 ; Socrates, h. e. I. 19) ; Judas to Arabia. All of these eight, Philip excepted, are said to have suffered martyr- dom.
In the place of Judas Iscariot the traitor, finally (though not until after the institution of the supper, Luke xxii. 20, 21) expelled from the communion of the disciples, and coming to a horrible end by suicide (Matt, xxvii. 4; Acts i. IS), the eleven chose Matthias by lot (Acts i. 26). Since this occur- red before the special outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts ii.), which the apostles had been commanded by Christ to wait for (Acts i. 4; Luke xxiv. 49), some would regard the
' Acts iv. 33; v. 21, 42; v. 12, 18, 40; v. 19.
^8^ THE APOSTLES.
act as a hasty one, performed without the command of Christ, if not against it. This judgment is itself a hasty one; for the chief purpose of this election was, merely to secure an actual eye-witness of the resurrection, in the place of Iscar- iot, and the selection was left wholly to divine providence (Acts i. 15-26). Christ himself afterward chose Paul as one of his inspired apostles. But inasmuch as he was destined to be pre-eminently an apostle to the Gentiles, and to some extent, consequently, to be separated from the others (Acts xxii. 21 ; Gal. i. 16), and since in the Apocalypse (xxi. 14) only twelve apostles are spoken of, — in harmony with the passages in Matthew (xix. 28) and Luke (xxii. 30), where the original Jewish apostles are evidently intended, — there is no valid reason for impeaching the apostolate of Matthias, and Paul should be regarded as the thirteenth : the apostle of the Gentiles, whose very important apostolic activity was to run parallel with that of the twelve, both in doctrine and practice.
TIIK THEORY OF THE TUBINGEN SCHOOL.
The view lias been advanced and ingeniously defended in modern times, tliat the apostles were an^ thing but the inspired and infallible organs of Christianity. On the con'niry, in the apostolic age there was no genuine Christianity in existence, but itxrely a one-sided and heated contest between Petrine and Pauline prejudices. On the one hand there was the Petrine Ebionitism, with which the Apostle Paul, as the preacher of the so-called Gentile-Christianity, was in constant feud, without however being able him- self to keep clear of som ■ of the essential features of Ebionitism; so that for the apostolic period, rure Christianity was a thing yet to be. I' as not until into the second cen'ury, that the understanding was brought a >•" t be- tween the Petrine and Pauline churches, through the skill and shre nesa of an unknown mediator between the two, and that union resulted, for which, in the age of the apostles, neither Paul with his rough and energetic temper, nor still less the other disciples of Jesus were ripe. According to the Tubing- en theory, Christianity proper owes its origin to the doctrine of the Logos, which was in reality the product of the second century, and falsely attri- buted to the Ebionitish John.
The principal support of this novel view is a negative one. The theorist postulates the spurioiisness of that which contradicts it in the archives of the apostolic age. " Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are post-apostolic, and more or less traditional ; John's Gospel arose far down in the second century, a spe-
§ 14. PETER. 49
culative and symbolical Invention without historical substanop : the Acts of the Apostles were composed long after the death of Peter and Paul, for the purpose of cloaking over the dissension between these apostles ; the Epistle to the Romans is spurious in the last two chapters; Corinthians and Galatians are genuine, but Ephesians, Phiiippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, are spurious; the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, are spurious; the first and second of Peter, the first, second, and third of John, the Epistles of James and of Jude, are all spurious : the Revelation of John is genuine, apostolic, and primitively Christian, — by which is meant that it is a genuinely Ebionitish production, full of hatred towards Paul and the Pauline Christian- ity.'"
§ 14.
PETER.
Compare N e a n d e r Planting and Training ; S c h a ff History of the Aposto- lic Church, pp. 348-377 ; Olshausen Commentary in locis.
The apostle Peter was selected to lay the foundations of the new church, as the first leader and spokesman of the dis- ciples.
Simon Peter, a fisherman, the son of Jona (John i. 43; Cf>' Matt. iv. 18), a native of Bethsaida in Galilee (John i. 45), a man of fiery swiftly-grasping mind and of impetuous energy, was brought by Andrew his brother (Matt. iv. 18 ; x. 2), at that time a disciple of John the Baptist, to Christ (John i. 43), who clearly knew what was in him. The heal- ing of his stepmother by Christ (Luke iv. 38), strengthened the impression already made. He now became with his whole heart a disciple of Christ, whom he recognized and loved as the Messiah, with a knowledge and fervor some what in advance of his fellow disciples. He first explicitly confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of the living God (Matt. xvi. 16) ; and upon this occasion Christ repeats with emphasis what he had said of him in their first inter- view, that he was Krjj>a<i, the rock, upon which he would
' Quoted b^ K u r t z Handbuch ^ 132. See, for an able criticism and reply to Baur, D i e 1 1 e i n Das Urchristenthum.
50
THE APOSTLES.
build his church. These words of the Lord evidently refer, primarily, to the Petrine confession of faith, and are conse- quently addressed equally to all the apostles as believers in the Messiahship of Christ. Besides this primary general reference, they may have also a secondary personal one to Peter himself; designating him as the spokesman of the cir- cle. He is named first in the list of the apostles (Matt. x. 2), and appears as the bold and fearless leader of the disci- ples, in the scenes immediately succeeding the ascension of Christ (Acts ii.-v.). This apostle did not, however, in the outset prove to be worthy of such a praise and distinction. On the night of his Lord's betrayal, he cowardly denied all acquaintance with him, and after the resurrection heard Christ's mild but powerful reproach (John xxi. 15). But having received the poAver of the Holy Ghost, he ever after testified with boldness and courage of what his own eyes had seen. His discourse on the day of pentecost (Acts ii. 14 et seq.), was the first distinct enunciation of the Christian system by an apostle, and resulted in the addition of three thousand to the church. As the first leader of the new church, in the name of all the members (Acts iv. 8 et seq.), he made a confession of the common faith before the high priests and all the people, and in spite of repeated threaten- ings and imprisonments continued in this confession (Acts iv. 3, 18 seq. ; v. 18, 29 seq.). In and by the name of Jesus, he performed miracles of healing (Acts iii ; v. 15 seq. ; ix. 32 seq.), restored the dead to life (Acts ix. 36 seq.), and brought death upon the living as a retribution (Acts v. 1-10).
The first extension of Christianity to Samaria, — by the disciples who had been driven from Jerusalem (Acts viii. 4 seq.), and particularly by the deacons and the evangelist Philip (Acts viii. 5-40; xxi. 8) after the death of the young deacon Stephen., the first Christian martyr (Acts vi. yii.), — called Peter, whose place in the mother church at Jerusalem now fell to James, together with John his already tried com- panion, to that city about the year 35. After a season of successful labor among the new converts, who now for the first time received the gift of the Holy Ghost through the
§ 14. PETER. 51
apostles, Peter and John returned to .Jerusalem (Acts viii. 25), preaching the gospel on their way in many places, in a later journey of visitation, Peter extended his labors still further (Acts ix. 32 seq.). During his stay at Joppa, the wonderful incidents connected with the heathen centurion Cornelius of Caesarea occurred (Acts x.), by which, Peter, first, of all the apostles, was divinely instructed to impart Christian baptism to believing Gentiles without requiring the observance of the Jewish ceremonial law, and was there- by enabled to justify his procedure before the church at Jerusalem (Acts xi. 2 seq.). The centre of his subsequent labors was now once more in Jerusalem ; for though fully agreeing with Paul in adopting the evangelical doctrine in respect to the admission of Gentiles into the church, having been taught it by a special vision from heaven, he yet felt it to be his own particular mission to preach the gospel to the Jews. But the fate of the elder James threatening him through the cruelty of Herod Agrippa, from which he was only preserved by the angel of God i-n answer to the prayers of the church (Acts xii.), he was led to leave Jerusalem for some length of time about the year 44. It would agree with the order of events to regard this as the time of Peter's residence at Antioch ; during which, momentarily yielding to a weak impulse, he practically renounced his previous princi- ples respecting the admission of Gentile converts, and was rebuked therefor by Paul his junior (Gal, ii. 11 seq.). But exegetico-chronological grounds seem to favor a later date for this residence at Antioch. Ever after this occurrence, however, Peter acted in the most hearty and inward agree- ment with Paul. And how indeed could it be otherwise; since it was specially through Peter's influence at the coun- cil of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem (about the year 50), that the Pauline principles were adopted, and recom- mended to the churches (Acts xv.) I
A man of the zeal and energy of Peter could not always remain in Palestine. No further mention is made of him in the accounts given of the Palestine churches in the Acts of the Apostles, and we know little with certainty of his apos-
52 THE APOSTLES.
tolic travels and labors. The ancient and very fragmentary notices respecting them, that have come down to us in the so-called Uepiohoi Ilerpov, and in the equally apocryphal Krjpvyfia Ilerpov, certainly contain some historical data, along with their fictions invented to subserve a polemic interest of either a grossly Pauline or of an Anti-Pauline sort.^ The indefinite (introduced with eocKev) account by Origen (Euse- bius III. 1), of Peter's preaching the Gospel among the dis- persed Jews in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia Minor, may possibly be only a hasty inference from 1 Peter i. 1 ; while, at the same time, the same thing is related by Jerome (De vir. ill. c. 1) and Epiphanius (Haer. XXVII. 6). The account by Eusebius (II. 14, 15), who refers some- what loosely to the authority of Clemens Alexandrinus, of Peter's visit to Rome in the time of Claudius (emperor from 41-54), is rendered doubtful by the connection with it of an alleged disputation between Peter and Simon Magus at this time. The collision between these two, in Samaria, occurred earlier, and the account itself wears a fabulous air. It is, moreover, difficult to credit the assertion of Peter's resi- dence at Rome so early as the reign of this emperor, from the fact that no mention is made of it either in the Acts of the Apostles or in the Epistles of Paul. Still, it is not im- possible that Peter may have made a short visit to the me- tropolis as early as the time of Claudius ; and on the other hand it may be that this account in Eusebius rests merely upon the fact of a later residence of this apostle in this city ]]ut the statement of Jerome (De vir. ill. c. 1), likewise based upon the Eusebian account, that Peter was bishop of Rome for twenty-five years preceding his martyrdom, contradicts the entire chronology of the apostolic history. From the passage 1 Peter v. 13, on the contrary, if the name " Baby- lon " is to be taken literally, as the character of the epistle
' The first mentioned of these represents Peter as an Ebionite. Tlie K-fipvy/na Uerpov, mentioned by Clem. Alex. Strom. VI. p. 636, of which the rcmainin!» frR!:ments are found in G ra he's Spicilegium and Fa brie iii s's Codex Apoc, Nov. Testamcnti, is a narrative of the life and controversies of Peter, in which he »ppears as the opponent of Ebionitism and in full agreement with Paul.
§ 14. PETER. 58
warrants, the conclusion is justified, that Peter, attended by- Mark his frequent companion, and the writer of the second Gospel which obtained its canonical authority from Peter,' had extended his labors into Pci'sia, where many -Jews had taken up their residence, and had chosen this part of Asia generally as the seat of his missionary efforts. From here, or at least soon after his return from here, he wrote, perhaps about the year 60, his First Epistle, — a document evincing, conclusively, the entire agreement between the Petrine and Pauline conceptions of Christianity. Its purpose was, to confirm in the faith, the Pauline churches in Asia Minor, which were now suffering from the incoming errors and her- esies of the time ; and it is written with the genuine terse- ness and energy of Peter.
In the last part of his life, and probably after he had writ- ten his Second Epistle, the apostle turned his course from the East to the West. The great metropolis of the world, where the gospel had already been preached and a church had been established, would now naturally attract a mind like that of Peter ; and in the last part of Nero's reign, in the year C7 or 6y, he died a martyr's death at Rome. All the oldest and most trustworthy writers concur in this statement. It is either represented as universally received, or else is person- ally adopted, by Clement of Rome (Ep. I. ad Cor. c. 5), Dionysius of Corinth and the Roman presbyter Caius (in Euseb. II. 25), Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. III. 1), Tertullian (Con. Marc. IV. 5 ; De praescr. c. 36 ; Scorpiace c. 15), Origen (in Eusebius III. 1), Lactantius (De mortt. persecc. c. 2), and Eusebius (II. 22; III. 12). The apostle Peter died on the cross, according to Tertullian (De praescriptt. c. 36) ; crucified with his head downwards, according to Rufinus's version of a somewhat obscure passage in Origen found in Eusebius (III. 1), and according also to a statement of Je- rome (De vir. ill. c. 1).
' Papias, cited by Eusebius III. 39 ; Irenaeus Adv. Haer. III. I ; III. 10, 6 , Tertull. Con. Marcion. IV. 5; Clem. Alex, in Euseb. II. 15 and VI. 14; Origon in Euseb. VI. 2.5 ; Jerome De vir. ill. c. 8.
•'54 THE APOSTLES.
§ 15.
PAUL.
Massutius Paulus Apostolus. Witsius Praelect.de vita Pauli, in the JMeietemata Leidensia. Pearson Annales Paulini. L a n ge Do vita et epis tolls Pauli. P a 1 e y Horae Paulinae. H e m s e n Dor Apostel Paulus ; translated in Bil)lical Repositor}', 1837. N e an d e r Planting and Training. T h o 1 u c k Vermisclue Schriften, Th. II. pp 272-329. C o n y b e a*- e and H o w s o n Life and Epistles of St. Paul. K ci 1 1 n e r Ueber den Geist, Lehre, und Leben des Apostel Paulus. Schott Erorterung einiger wicht. ehronol. Punkte in der Lebensgeschichte des Ap. Paulus. W u rm in the Tiibinger Zeitsclirift, 1833 (chronological). B a u r Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi. S c h a If History of thn Apostolic Church, pp. 226-343.
The successor of Peter, appointed to complete that great M'ork of evangelizing the cultivated Gentile world which this apostle had been divinely instructed to commence, was the apostle Paul.
Paul, hr&t named Saul, — which name he exchanged, ac- cording to a common custom among non-resident Jews, for a Roman one, on entering upon his work and residence in the Roman world, — was born in Tarsus, the capital of Cili- cia, of Jewish parents who had obtained the Roman citizen- ship (Acts xxii. 3, 27 seq. ; Phil. iii. 5).' Perhaps he had felt the influence of the Grecian culture which flourished here, but his parents intended him for a Rabbi. Accordingly, he soon commenced the study of the Jewish theology, in the schools of the Pharisees at Jerusalem ; at the same time, in accordance with the Jewish custom, learning a trade, by means of which he afterwards when an apostle supported himself without charge to the churches (Acts xxii. 3; x\iii 3 ; 1 Cor. ix. 14 seq. ; Phil. iv. 15 seq.). The principal teach- '/y-yy^iT^^ er of Paul was the moderate and wise Gamaliel, the uncle of Hillel. His moderation, however, was not shared by his" pupil, who, of a fiery mind and character, and grasping what
1 According to Jerome Catal. c. 15. (5), Paul was born in the city Gyschala in Judea, and followed his parents to Tarsus; but the explicit statement of the apos- tle himself, in Acts x,tii. 3, contradicts this.
§ 15. PAUL. 55
be did grasp with his whole strength, became a most deter- mined and zealous Pharisee. Earnestly seeking justification before God, by a most thoroughly ascetic and legal strain of all his moral force, he hardened himself against all Christian impressions and evangelical influences, and became the bit- ter enemy of the gospel which was now threatening the de- struction of Phariseeism. Triumphing over the death of the martyr Stephen (Acts vii. 58; viii. 1; xxii. 20), he had al- ready, under the authority of the government, hunted out and imprisoned many Christians, and given his voice in fa- vor of their execution (Acts viii. 3 ; xxvi. 10) ; and now, " breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disci- ples of the Lord" (Acts ix. 1), he had made preparations to persecute Christianity beyond the limits of Palestine, par- ticularly at Damascus. On his journey thither he was sud- denly converted, from the most vehement persecutor, into the most active and successful minister of the gospel, through the personal appearance and direct address of the Lord (Acts ix. 1 seq. ; xxii. 5 seq. ; xxvi. 10 seq. Compare Gal. i. 16, and 1 Tim. i. 12 seq.). Even if the account of this miracle were not the testimony of a companion of the apostle, and of himself also, and even if the oriental imagination were ac- tive enough, without the greatest mental imbecility or open deception, to compound such an occurrence out of a mere thunder-storm, who could rationally explain to himself, ex- cept on the supposition of the most direct agency of God, this so entire as well as instantaneous change in the charac- ter and spirit of Paul ; especially when taken in connection with the vast consequences of this event for the Christian church, which owes to it its whole establishment, formation, and developement in the Hellenistic world and the entire East I The date of the conversion of Paul has been various- ly assigned, but it probably falls within the year 35 or 36 after Christ."
' The time of Paul's conversion is determinable by comparing Gal. i. 15-18, and 2 Cor. xi. 32, with Josephus Archacol. XVIII. 5, 1, 3. When Paul throe years after his conversion leaves Damascus (Gal. i. 18), this Roman city is in th possession of the Arabian king Aretas, (2 Cor. xi. 32 seq., compared with Acts
56
THE APOSTLES.
As the appearance of Christ to his other disciples, after his resurrection, was the point from whence their illumination proceeded, so was the appearance of Christ upon this jour- ney to the apostle Paul, a corresponding beginning of a su- pernatural inspiration ; and the further developement of his spiritual knowledge, as in the instance of the other apostles, was not the work of any man, but of the Holy Ghost. Ana- nias at Damascus was merely the instrument of revealing the divine grace to Paul, and of bringing him into communi- cation with the Christian community after he had been bap- tized (Acts ix. 17 seq.). For the first three years after his conversion, Paul, while earnestly laboring for the spread of the gospel (Acts ix. 20, 22), and yet at the same time pre- paring himself more thoroughly for this work, abode partly at Damascus, and partly in northern Arabia. At length, having with gi-eat difficulty escaped the plots of inimical Jews at Damascus, he journeyed once more to Jerusalem (Gal. i. 17 seq. ; Acts ix. 26). Here he was at first naturally regarded with suspicion ; but Barnabas of Cyprus, a zealous and esteemed member of the Jerusalem church (Acts iv. 36 seq.), and perhaps previously acquainted with Paul, intro- duced him to Peter and James. At Jerusalem, also, he drew upon himself the persecution of the Jews, by his active zeal for the gospel, and having received a second, and still more direct, appointment from on high to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts xxii. 17-21), in addition to what had already been indicated at his conversion (Acts. ix. 15; xxvi. 17 seq.; Gal. i. 16), he left this city, fifteen days after his arrival, and went to Tarsus (Acts ix. 30).
From this time onward, Paul, in accordance with divine illumination and the developement of the grace imparted to him, was filled with that great idea of his life upon which his extraordinary call to the apostolic office, as supplement-
ix. 22-25). This must have been during the war between the Romans and Are- tas ; which began in the year that Tiberius died (viz. 37 A. D.) according to Jo- eephus Archaeol. XVIII. 5, 3. In the year 38, according to Dio Cassius LIX. 9, 12, the difficulties with Arabia were settled. Three years before, therefore about the year 35 or 36, the conversion of Paul is to be regarded as occurring.
§ 15. PAUL. 57
ary to that of the first twelve apostles, was founded: viz., that the Heathen, as well as the Jews, were destined to be- come members of the one great kingdom of God upon earth, and that the same condition for both parties, for entrance into it, could not be obedience to the .Jewish ceremonial law, — a condition that would mislead the pagan world into an entire misconception of the person and work of Christ, — but must be a living and justifying faith in the Redeemer.
About this time, Hellenistic-Jewish Christians had preach- ed the gospel, with much success, among the heathen, in Antioch, the great metropolis of the East. To this city, Bar- nabas, who had been sent out from Jerusalem, brought Paul, and both labored together here for a year (Acts. xi. 22-26). The name XpLarcavol, a designation which the A^ntiochian heathen were the first to give to believers in Christ,^ is an evidence of the success of Paul and Barnabas in this city. A famine which now occurred in Palestine (according to Jo- sephus, Archaeol. XX. 5, 2, in or after the 4th year of the reign of Claudius), was the occasion of the sejiding of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, to carry a collection that had been made sometime previous to the outbreak of the dearth, at the suggestion of a prophet Agabus (Acts xi. 30; xii. 25). This second journey of Paul to Jerusalem probably falls, therefore, within the year 44.
Soon after his return to Antioch (about the year 45), Paul, in company with Barnabas, — both having been consecrated, in accordance with divine instruction, by prayer and the lay- ing on of hands, to a more extended official labor among the heathen world,^ — commenced his first apostolic journey^ through Cyprus, Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia (Act-; xiii. xiv.). They uniformly addressed themselves first to the Jews. In case of repulse from them, they turned to the Gentiles, — a procedure which drew upon Paul, now and
' Believers had called themselves fia^rirai, ayioi, ttkttoI, or such like names.
2 In addition to this consecration, Paul, accordini^ to his own account in 2 Cor. xii. 2 seq., compared with Gal. i. 1, deemed himself to have received a yet more direct, and as it were heavenly, ordination to his apostolic work; the equivalent, in his case, for the commission given to the other disciples by the Redeemer, pre- vious to his ascension, in John xx. 21 seq., and Matthew xxviii, 18 seq.
8
58 THE APOSTLES.
during his whole life, the virulent persecuiion of the Jews (2 Cor. xi. 24 seq.), — and formed churches composed of Jew- ish and Pagan converts, of whom the latter were the larger proportion. Having completed their proposed tour, they re- turned to Antioch, which was now the centre for missions among the heathen.
About this time Jewish-Christians from Jerusalem came to Antioch, who obstinately defended their view that the Gentile converts must observe the Jewish ceremonial law, and thereby awakened controversies and conscientious scru- ples in the new religious societies (Acts xv.).i On this ac- count, Paul and Barnabas were sent (perhaps in the year 50, as, according to Gal. ii. 1, it was fourteen years after his conversion that he took the third journey to Jerusalem : the second journey being mentioned in Acts xi. 30, and xii. 25, and the fourth in Acts xviii. 18-22) as delegates to Jerusa- lem (Acts XV.), and the subject was publicly discussed by all the apostles, the elders of the church, and the delegates, in a general conve.ntion of apostles and elders at Jerusalem. Its common faith, and the spirit of love resting upon it, united the whole assemblage in the adoption of a few simple prin- ciples. First, Peter rose and reminded them of the effect of the gospel among the heathen, who had been sanctified with- out the observance of the ceremonial law; he himself having been the instrument employed. Next, the assembly listened to the report of Paid and Barnabas, and then James pro- posed to give the Gentile-Christians, not the entire ceremo- nial law, but only some precepts of a temporary nature, in order, through the observance of them, to keep the Pagan converts aloof from some things that stood in close connec- tion with the pagan idol-worship, and from olliers which the Jews were accustomed to regard with peculiar abhorrence.
' According to one view, Peter came to Antioch at this time (Gal. ii.). Pre- vious to this he had taken no offence at the free intercourse with the lieaihen, but now, from respect to these Jews, he withdrew from them. This behavior Paul frankly rebuked as hypocritical, and with good effect so far as Peter was concern- ed, though these Jewish-Christians did not yield their prejudices. According to another reckoning (see § 14), this passage at Antioch, between Paul and P)ten lappened later, though upon a similar occasion.
§ 15. PAUL. 59
The proposition of James was unanimously approved, and made known to the Gentile- Christian churches, particularly to those of Syria and Cilicia in the first place, by a letter written in the name of the apostles, elders, and the whole church in Jerusalem. Between the ceremonially inclined Jewish-Christian churches on the one hand, and the freer- minded Gentile-Christian churches on the other, a visible discrepancy with regard to externals continued, indeed, to exist, but it was repressed, and gradually removed, by the reception of the common apostolic doctrine and the posses- sion of a common evangelical spirit.
Soon after this apostolic convention, Paul departed, in the year 51 or 52, from Antioch, upon his second aposloUc jour- ney through Syria, Cilicia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Galatia, and
then, passing over for the first time into Europe, — through
Macedonia (preaching the word at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beraea), through Attica (preaching at Athens), and, lastly, into Achaia, (making a stop of a year and a half at Corinth). He then made a journey to attend the feast at Jerusalem, and returned to Antioch in the year 53 or 51 (Acts xv.-xviii.).i While at Corinth, Paul wrote the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, — the first of that series of in- spired epistles, elicited by the necessities of particular church- es yet enunciating at the same time the universal truths of Christianity, which constitutes so large a portion of the New Testament canon.
In the year 54 or 55, leaving Antioch, he began his third apostolic journei/ ( Acts, xviii. 23 ; xxi.). He first entered upon the visitation of the churches he had planted in Phrygia and
' Upon this, and his after journeys. Paul was accompanied iiy his assistants; of whom were' 5(7as, Tiimtheus especially dear to him, Titus, Luke the author of the Gospel published with Paul's autliority and of the Acts of the Apostles, and Murk. Paul met with Tiviothy at Lystra (Acts xvi. 2). A Jew on the mother's side (2 Tim. i. 5), he received circumcision (Acts xvi. 3), and was Paul's faithful assistant paiiicularly amont^ the Jews (Acts xvii-xx.). According to Euscb. III. 4, and Theodoret, Com. upon Pastoral Epistles, Timothy suffered martyr dom as bishop of Ephesus toward thef end of the first century. Titus, of paj,'an parentage, first mentioned as the attendant of Paul at the apostles' convention a> Jerusalem', was not circumcised, though the Jews demanded it from Paul (Gal. ii I, 3j. He is said to have suffered martyrdom in Crete (Euseb. and TheoJoret).
W THE APOSTLES.
(4a'atia, and then took up his residence for a season at Ephesus. From this point he could more easily labor for the spread of Christianity in Asia Minor, and also obtain intelligence from the churches already founded. Learning that Judaizing errorists had obtained entrance into the Gala- tian churches, and were endeavoring to force the Jewish ceremonial law upon the heathen converts, he wrote from Ephesus his Epistle to the Galatians, in which he strikes at the very lowest root of legalism. He also learned that divi- sions were threatening the destruction of the church at Co- rinth. The Corinthian Christians (1 Cor. i. 11, 12), regard- ing the heralds of Christianity as if they were the authors of salvation, had split into two parties, — a so-called Paul- ine and a so-called Petrine. The latter and smaller division, holding with great strictness to the ceremonial law, boasted of a Christianity that had come to themselves through the pillars of the Palestine church, and denied the apostolical authority of Paul ; while the other division, setting an extrav- agant estimate upon the native and merely human charac- teristics of Paul, would have nothing to do with the other apostles, and, boasting of their knowledge and evangelical freedom, contented themselves merely with a rough and rude opposition to the Judaizing party. A third party, calling itself after Apollos,' was a branch indeed of the pseudo-Paul- ine; but, dissatisfied with the plain simplicity of the Pauline style of preaching, would listen to Christian truth only in the philosophico-rhetorical forms of the Alexandrine school. A fourth, so-called C7/ri5/ian, party seems to have entirely re- jected the historical gospel of Peter and Paul, and to hav«j set forth an ideal gnosticising Christianity as the pure doc- trine of Christ. These and other accounts of the condition
1 Apollos, (Apollo, Apollonius') a learned and eloquent Alexandrine and dis- ciple of John Baptist, became acquainted with Aquila and Priscilla, — the friend- ly hosts of Paul at Corinth soon after their banishment from Rome by Claudius, — while they were accompanying Paul from Corinth to Ephesus during his second journey, and was by them instructed still more thoroughly in Ciiristianity. He continued the work Paul had commenced at Corinth Acts xviii. 2, 3, 24-28 Compare v. 18 seq. ; 1 Cor. iil. 6.
§ 15. PAUL. 61
of the Corinthian ciiurch induced Paul, after he had inform- ed himself still more particularly by a letter received from the Corinthians themselves,^ to send them the First Epistle to the Corinthians, rich in apostolical wisdom and tenderness. After laboring two or three years in Ephesus (Acts xix. 10; XX. 31), Paul, by reason of a popular tumult excited by De- metrius, a maker of images of Diana, whose craft was in danger (i\.cts xix. 23 seq.), departed from Ephesus, perhaps in the year 57, to Troas, and then made a visit to the Mace- donian churches. While in Macedonia he wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and soon after went down to Co- rinth (Acts XX. 2, 3). Here he remained three months, and wrote the Epistle to the Romans, making use of an oppor- tunity he had long desired to re-state the evangelical system, for the Roman brotherhood, in this chief epistle of the New Testament. About the year 58, passing through Macedo- nia, Troas, and Miletus, at which latter place he took leave of the elders of Ephesus full of heavy forebodings, he jour- neyed to Jerusalem to carry a contribution made by the Gentile-Christians as an expression of their fraternal love for their Jewish brethren (Acts xx. 3 seq. Compare Rom. xv. 25).
From the overseers of the Jerusalem church Paul received an affectionate reception ; but there was a large body of im- perfectly enlightened members who looked upon -him as the enemy of the Old Testament dispensation. This portion of the church, Paul endeavored to pacify, by the observance of a distinctively Jewish custom (Acts xxi. 26 seq.). There were, however, at that time in Jerusalem, Jews from Asia Minor, who were in the highest degree inimical to Paul. Their outcry against him set the entire Jewish population into excitement, and Paul escaped death only by being taken into custody by the captain of the Roman garrison'- (Acts xxi. 27 seq.). In vain did he defend himself (Acts xxii.- xxiv.) before the people, whom he at first mollified by ad-
1 Whether ia answer to a letter sent to thera by the apostle, is uncertain. Sec { Cor. vii. 1 ; V. I. * Claudius lT«'as, Acts xxiii. 26.
62
THE APOSTLES.
dressing them in the Hebrew tongue, but afterwards excited them to new rage by the mention of his apostolic calling to preach to the Gentiles; in vain again, before the Sanhedrim, whose wrath he neutralized by confessing Phariseeism in opposition to Sadduceeism, so far as the former contained truths that belonged also to the gospel system ; and, lastly, in vain, before the Roman procurator Felix, at Caesarea, whither the apostle had been sent by the governor Claudias l/ysias, in order to deliver him from the violence of the Jews (A^cts xxiii. 12 seq.). Felix, hoping that a bribe would be offered for his release, (Acts xxiv. 26), detained him as a prisoner for two years in Caesarea. Paul, failing to obtain justice from Festus the successor of Felix (Acts xxv.), ap- pealed to the Emperor (Acts xxv. 11.), — being, moreover, desirous of proclaiming the gospel in the metropolis of the world, — and, after having made still another defence of him- self before Agrippa II. (Acts xxv. 13 seq.), was carried prison- er to Rome about the year 61 (Acts xxvii.-xxviii,). Upon this journey also, as upon his earlier ones, the apostle expe- rienced, amidst many sufferings and perils, tokens of the miraculous power of God towards him and by him. He spent two years at Rome (Acts xxviii. 30 seq.), chained to a soldier by the arm, yet having liberty to preach the gospel. That he did not confine himself to oral instruction, is proved by his writings. During this imprisonment, he wrote the Epislle to the Ephesians, an animating circular-letter address- ed to tile churches of Pagan-Christians in Asia Minor ; the Epistle to the Colossians, historically important on account of the indication, plainly apparent in it, as also in his pastor- al epistles, of the incoming of a theosophico-ascetic spirit in connection with the already existing judaizing tendency among the churches ; the friendly, and tenderly apostolic, private Epist/e to Philemon in Colosse ; and, lastly, the Epis- tle to the Fhilippians, the most familiar in its tone of all his public letters, and composed at a late point in this capti- vity, as is indicated by expressions in it.
The Acts of the Apostles closes with the second year of Paul's imprisonment at Rome. The inquiry arises whether
) 15. PAUL. 63
the apostle was released from this imprisonment. There are no historical data that prove the negative, while the affirma- tive seems to be sufficiently established by the following con- siderations. In the first place, Paul would have been releas- ed at his trial before the procurators at Caesarea, had not Felix expected a bribe, and had not the yielding of Festus to the clamors of the Jews compelled him to appeal to the emperor at Rome (Acts xxiv. 26 ; xxv. 9; xxvi. 32). In the second place, a very ancient tradition that the gospel was carried into Spain by Paul, — an occurrence chronologically impossible before this imprisonment at Rome, — affords strong grounds for believing that the apostle was set free. This tradition was universally current in the fourth century,' but dates back to the second ; it being mentioned in the old Italian canon of the New Testament discovered by Mura- tori, and Clement of Rome, in his First Epistle to the Corin- thians (c. 5), adopts the statement and testifies to its credi- bility. And, lastly, the Second Epistle to Timothy necessi- tates the supposition of a second imprisonment at Rome, in order to account for the various geographico-statistical par- ticulars which it contains.^
After his release from his first imprisonment, about the year 63 or 64, and doubtless before the breaking out of the Neronian persecution, Paul made an apostolic journey to Spain, as according to Rom. xv. 28, he had designed to do, and also visited the East and his Oriental churches,' — during which time he appears to have written, while in Mac- edonia, his First Epistle to Timothy then in Ephesus, and his Epistle to Titus then in Crete. Having returned to the West again, perhaps, according to Dionysius of Corinth, in company with Peter, he was once more thrown into capti- vity during one of the last years of Nero's reign, in 67 or 6S;
• Eusebius Hist. Eccl. IT. 22, 25.
'^ For the justification of tliis chronologj' of the epistles of Paul, see G u e r i c k c Einlcitftnff in das N. T.
' This visit to the East may possibly have been first, and that to Spain second, in order. Tliat the apostle meditated a journey Eastward, is evident from I'hilip- pians ii. 24, and Philemon 22; and that this intention was carried out, seems to be implied in parts of the Second Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus.
64 THE APOSTLES.
a fact which rests, as an inference, upon the tradition respect- ing the place of his death. He had a hearing, indeed, but he saw a martyr's death in reserve (2 Tim. iv. 6-8, 16). His Second Epistle to Timothtj, written at this time, is a noble me- morial of the thoughts and feelings of a genuine christian martyr.' Paul was beheaded at Rome,^ perhaps spared a more disgraceful mode of execution on the ground of being a Roman citizen. The great series ^of living and permanent Christian churches, reaching from that metropolis of the Ro- man Occident even to the borders of the Orient, was the re- sult of his labors, and the monument of his tomb. He had certainly "labored more abundantly than they all" (1 Cor. XV. 9, 10).
§ 16.
JAMES.
N e a n (1 e r Planting and Training ; Paulus und Jacobus. S c h a ff Apostolic Church, pp. 377 9"q.
The apostle James the i/oimg-er, the son of Alpheus (Cle- ^^ opas) and Mary the sister of the mother of Jesus, after Peter the president of the church at Jerusalem,^ presents a striking
^ It is in the last of the Pauline Epistles. The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to belong to the Pauline Epistles in only a secondary sense. An unbiassed mind can find in it nothing unworthy of Paul, or unlike him : on the contrary it wears a decidedly Pauline coloring, both in sentiment and style, except that the lan- guage appears to be somewhat purer and more ornate than is usual with this apostle. But while the East, to whom the epistle was directed, acknowledged its Pauline authorship, the West doubted it; and although the testimony of the former is now the predominant one in history, and the West has since yielded to it, yet the opposing views upon both sides are best conciliated in tlie middle theo- ry, — that this epistle was written, under the eye and immediate dictation of the apostle Paul, by one of his most intimate pupils, and hence may with equal right be denominated Pauline and non-Panline.
* Clemens Romanus, 1 Cor .5 ; Caius llomanus, in Euseb. II. 25 ; Dionysras of Cor, in Euseb. II. 2.5 ; Eusebius himself II. 2.5. and III. 1, et alia. Jerome 'Cat- al. c. 5) mentions his grave as being " in via Osticnsi."
' In the new New Testament (Acts xii. 17 ; xv. 1.3 ; xxi. 18 ; 1 Cor. xv. 7 ; O2I.
§ 16. JAMES. 65
contrast to the apostle Paul, in his natural character, in his labors, and in the sphere of his labors. According to the New Testament account, as well as according to later testi- mony, he was, in individual character and official position, the principal representative of the Jewish-Christian tendency in the apostolic age. To him, — the only apostle who seems to have undertaken no distant apostolic journeys, — it had been allotted, both on internal and external grounds, to labor for the spread of the gospel among the Jews, from Jerusalem as a point of departure ; on which account he himself paid a strict observance to the Jewish ceremonial law, being for this reason styled AUaio<; (Justus).^ At the same time he distinct- ly recognized, in the apostolic convention (Acts xv.), the doctrine that man is justified by faith in Christ; he decided- ly declared himself against the demand of the pharisaically inclined Jewish-Christians, that the ceremonial law should be obligatory upon the converts from paganism ; and pro- posed the plan for the union of the two parties. Moreover, after this, there was undisturbed harmony between him and Paul, and the important memorial which we have from him in the Epistle of James, — a circular-letter to the Jewish- Christian churches written with reference primarily to their condition and needs, — evinces that both apostles were sub- stantially accordant in doctrine ; that each developed one and the same fundamental idea in a particular form, and with a particular polemic reference, — Paul opposing faith, as the living- source of genuine good works, to the claims of dead morality ; James opposing genuine works, as the ex- pression of a living belief, to the claims of a dead faith.
For a long time .Tames enjoyed the esteem of the Jews ;
i. 19; ii. 9, 12) James is represented only in general terms aj a pillar in the church at Jerusalem ; the succeeding: church historians (Hegesippus in Euseh. II. 23 ; Clem. Alex, in Euseb. II. 1 ; Jerome and others, compared with Josephus, Archaeol. xx 9, 1) expressly designate him as its leader or bishop.
' The identity of Jacobus Minor (Alphaei), with Jacobus Justus, the a5t\<phs rov Kvpiov and president of the church at Jerusalem, is proved, besides the N. T. lata, by the testimony of Clem. Alex, in Euseb. II. 1, — which is followed by Je- rome, Theodoret, Chrysostom, as well as the superscription of the Protevange- lium Jacobi.
9
66 THE APOSTLES.
but at length, when Paul had been withdrawn from their re senlment, they directed their enmity towards him. Accord ing to the statement of Hegesippus, which in the main is credited by Eusebius II. 23, they demanded of James that at Easter he should give testimony from the battlements of the temple against Christ. He witnessed, on the contrary, a de- cided and earnest confession for him, was thrown down headlong, then stoned alive, and finally while praying for his murderers was killed by a tanner with a club. Of this dif- fuse, and in its entire detail hardly credible, narrative of He- gesippus, thus much is expressly confirmed by Clem. Alex- andrinus (in Euseb. II. 1, 23), viz. : that James was thrown from the temple, and slain with a club by a tanner. The fact of the stoning is also testified to by Josephus, who is silent regarding the accompanying circumstances, and sim- ply relates that after the recall of Festus (in 64) the inhu- man high priest Ananus, under the show of judicial proce- dure but in reality contrary to law, caused James to be stoned to death.
§17.
joim.
N e a n d e r Planting and Training. Introductions to the commentaries (upou John )of01shausen, Liicke, Tholuck, Baumgarten-Crusius. E b r a r d Evangelium Joh. u. d. neueste Hypothese. S c h a ff Apostolic Church, pp. 395-427.
That apostle stood in a more intimate personal relation- ship to Jesus than any of the others, who far outlived all the rest, and with whom the period of the direct revelation of Christianity, in the unity of its spirit and the variety of its forms, closed.
Jolin^ the son of the Galilean fisherman Zebedee, a young man of fiery and excitable, yet, at the same time, thoughtful and profound nature, became, through an awakened Messi-
§ 17. JOHN. 67
anic feeling, a disciple of John the Baptist, and by him was directed to Christ (Matt. iv. 21; John i. 85, seq. ; Luke v. 10). His love to Jesus, — drawn forth not so much by the Messiahship, as in the case of Peter, as by the theanthropic Person of Christ, — was at first not free from an earthly and selfish element (Matt. xx. 20 seq.), and a carnal vehemence (Luke ix. 49, 51 seq.) ; and with reference to this passionate ardor, in conjunction however with a zealous affection for the Redeemer, and an evangelical energy springing out of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, Christ gave him, and his brother James the elder, the surname Boavep^h (Mark iii. 17). Through a more and more entire self-surrendry to the Redeemer, the whole inward character of John was gradual- ly transformed and transfigured into a profound and self- denying gentleness, and saintly blessedness in the commu- nion of Jesus became the impulse and goal of his existence.
After the first Christian pentecost, we find John a zeal- ous preacher of the gospel in Jerusalem with Peter (Acts iii. 4) ; and with Peter he also labored in Samaria (compare § 14). Next, he seems to have resided chiefly in Jerusalem (according to Nicephorus Callisti, H. E. II. 42, providing till her death for the mother of Jesus, who had been left to his care by Christ) as one of the more distinguished of the apos- tles (Gal. ii. 9), and as one of the pillars of the first church together with Peter and James, until he went to Asia Minor, — a step not taken, probably, till after Paul had left Asia Minor as a regular field of labor.* This region, now threat- ened by many secret and open enemies and corrupters of Christianity, he made the chief seat of his labors, taking up his abode at Ephesus.2 Here he labored for a long series of years, by word, example, and \ATitings, for the spread and
' Had John labored in Asia Minor before the imprisonment of Paul at Rome, there must have been indications of it in the Acts of the Apostles, and the Paul- ine Epistles. This imprisonment of Paul, and liis withdrawal from the region, furnished a motive and a necessity for John to take his place.
* Compare Polyoarp, in Euseb. V. 20; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. II. 22, .5; III. ^ 4 ; Clem. Alex. Qu. div. salv. c. 42 ; Polycrates of Ephesus, in Euseb. III. .31 am! V. 24 ; Origen, in Euseb. III. I ; Eusebius, III. 23 etc.
68 THE APOSTLES.
establishment of apostolical Christianity, until his death.' The Gospel of John, and his First Epistle, a pastoral letter to the Asia Minor churches, belong to this period, and, judg- ing from their style and contents, to the latter part of it. The two smaller private Epistles we also assign to this pe- riod.
But these labors were not destined to be unhindered. Not long after the Apostle's arrival in Asia Minor, Nero began his persecutions, and it is difficult to believe that the sword which had beheaded Peter and Paul could have altogether spared John, the sole one remaining of the apostolic pillars of the church. He was banished by NexQ^lo Patmos in the Aegean sea. According to the single and hardly sufficient testimony of TertuUian, De praescriptt. c. 36, he had pre- vious to banishment been dragged to Rome, and been thrown uninjured into a caldron of boiling oil. This banishment to Patmos is supported by the unanimous testimony of the old- est fathers,'^ and it is being occasionally confirmed by histori- cal discoveries. The time of the exile is less certainly estab- lished, though the period of the Neronian persecution is by far the most probable point for it.^ At Patmos (Rev. i. 9) John was entrusted with the divine Revelation respecting the whole future of the kingdom of God on earth, which h^ committed to writing immediately on his return from exile, soon after the divine imparting, and certainly, therefore, before the composition of his Gospel. On returning to Ephesus, the apostle devoted himself with paternal zeal to the care and welfare of the churches of Asia Minor. In one of his
' Irenneus Adv. Haor. II. 22, 5, and III. 3, 4; Origen, in Euseb. III. 1 ; and Euseh., III. 23.
* Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. V. 30, 3 ; Clem. Alex. Qu. div. salr. c. 42^ TertuU. De praescriptt. c. 36; Polyorates of Ephesus, in Euseb. V. 24 ; Origen, Comm. in Mt. T. XXV[. 6; Euseb., III. 18, 20,23, Demonstr. ev. III. 5, and Chron. ; Jerome, De vir. ill. c. 9.
^ The difficulty arises from the discrepancy in the early authorities. Eusebius and Jerome mention the reign of Domitian, as the time of John's exile ; Tlieo- ptiylact and the younger Ilippolytus, that of Nero ; TertuUian, Clement, and Ori- e:en, give no date for it; Epiphanius specifies the reign of Claudius. See. for the date given in the text, the author's Einleitung ins N. T
§ 17. JOHN, 69
visitatorial journeys, occurred the touching incident, illustra- ting the unwearied care of the aged apostle for the soul of a deeply fallen youth, mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius (III. 23).^ As in this occurrence we recognize the apostle's tenderness and forbearance towards the fallen, so we see his punitive earnestness towards teachers of false doctrine in the story, told by Polycarp and Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. III. 3), of his renunciation of all intercourse, even cas- ual and ordinary, with Cerinthus.
In the last days of his extreme old age, the apostle con- fined his instructions to the simplest of practical exhorta- tions ; which welled up, however, from the profound depths of a paternal and saintly spirit. Jerome (Comm. in Ep. ad. Gal. c. 6) narrates an old tradition, that when the apostle John could no lon:^er go into the congregations, on account of his bodily weakness, he caused himself to be carried to them, and with gentle voice merely said — " Children, love one another." ^ On being asked why he always repeated the same exhortation, he answered, — because this was the command of the Lord, and because enough was done if only this ojie thing were done. John lived into the reign of Tra- jan (Irenaeus Adv. Haer. 11. 22, 5 ; III. 3, 4 ; Euseb. III. 23). His tomb was at Ephesus (Polycrates in Euseb. v. 24).
' The apostle had intrusted a certain youth to the care of a bishop; the youth fell grievously, and became the head of a band of robbers. On a later visit John learned what had happened; he sought the apostate in the forest, hastened after him as he fled from him, and at length conquered him by the power of evangeli- cal love and encouragement.
* "Filioli, diligite alterutrum."
FIRST PERIOD : TO A. D. 311
PART SECOND.
CAREER OF THE CHURCH DURING THE FIRST THRl /, ( £\'. Til{\t.a
SECTION riKST. The Spread and Limitation of Christianity.
CHAPTER FIRST.
THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.
§ 18.
SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES.
Scarcely had the Christian church been established, when it found confessors and disciples in all parts of the known world. They were found in : —
1. Asia. The only seat of the church of Christ, imme- diately after pentecost, was Jerusalem (§ 12). The malice of the enemy, under the providence of God, led to its being planted out of Jerusalem, by Christians who had been driven from this city to Samaria (§ 14). Soon after this, Palestine generally, though Jerusalem was still the ecclesiastical cen- tre, became the chief field of the labors of Peter during one portion of his life (§ 14), of James (§ 16), and of most of the other apostles (§ 13). From Jerusalem and Palestine, Chris- tianity early spread to Antioch and Syria (§ 15), and from thence, through the labors of Paul and his companions, to
70
§ 18. IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES. 71
Asia Minor (§ 15 ; compare also § 17), and also, in a way not certainly determined, to Mesopolamia. From the state- ment of Eusebius, I. 13, that after Christ's ascension, in- duced by the pretended correspondence between Christ and Abgarus of Edessa (§ 11), Thaddeus, one of the seventy dis- ciples, was sent by the apostle Thomas to Edessa in Os- rhoene, and converted the king together with his people to Christianity, we may at least infer the very early diffusion of the Christian religion in these parts. Towards the end of the second century, Edessa was ruled by a Christian prince, Abgar Bar Manu. From Edessa Christianity spread into Persia. Jews from this country had been witnesses of the wonderful occurrences of the day of pentecost, and, still later, Peter (§ 14), and also the apostle Thomas (according to the tradition given by Origen, Euseb. TIL 1), had preached the gospel there. In the middle of the second century, Barde- sanes (§ 47) alludes (in Euseb. Praep. ev. VI. 10) to the spread of Christianity in Media, Persia, Parthia, and Bactria; and, in the third century, the existence of the sect of Mani- chaeans proves the general prevalence of the Christian reli- gion in those regions. From Edessa and Persia the seeds of Christianity seem to have been sown, in the third century, as far as Armenia (Dionys. Corinth, in Euseb. VI. 46). A tradition of the old Syrian- Persian church in Malabar, (given by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the 6th century), designates the apostle Thomas as the first preacher of the gospel in East India, and Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. 25 ad Arianos) mentions that Thomas preached in India. But the name India bore at that time a very wide signification. It was sometimes applied to parts of Arabia and Ethiopia (comp. Philostorg. h. e. II. 6) ; and Jerome, Ep. 148, seems to refer the tradition respecting Thomas to Ethiopia. The earlier testimonies, however, together with the data furnished by the history of modern missions, point rather to that region which now goes under the name of India, as the field of the apostle's labors.* According to a reliable account in Euse-
1 The city Mayilapur on the coast of Coromandel, near Madras, is still called
72 A. D. 1. 311. SPREAB OF CHRISTIANITY.
bius V. 10, and Jerome De vir. ill. c. 36, Pantaenus of Alex- andria (§ 59), towards the end of the second century, travel- led as far east as India, preaching to the eastern nations, having been preceded by Bartholomew, who had carried Christianity thither, and had left behind him the Gospel of Matthew in a Hebrew version, which Pantaenus found still in existence. It is however somewhat doubtful whether, in these accounts, East India be meant, or a part of Arabia Fe- lix. Lastly, in (northern) Arabia the apostle Paul resided some time (§ 15) ; in the third century Origen of Alexandria labored there for a while, invited thither, according to Euse- bius, VI. 19, by an r)yov/ji€vo<; t?}? 'Apafiia<i, — probably a Dux Arabiae under the Roman sway. At a still later period, Origen sustained intimate relations to the Arabian churches. 2. Europe. The apostle Paul and his companions had carried the gospel to Greece, and the adjacent regions, but Rome was naturally the central point from which Christian- ity would spread in Europe. A church must have soon arisen in this metropolis of the world, the existence of which is already recognized in Paul's Epistle to the Romans.^ Paul and Peter labored at Rome (§ 14, 15), and tradition has pre- served several names of the first successive Roman pastors (Jjinus, Anacletus, [Cletus], Clemens, — see Irenaeus Adv. Haer. III. 3 ; Euseb. V. 6 ; III. 2, 4, 15). The chronology is, however, evidently confused and uncertain (compare Consti-
by the Christians Bait Tonia, by the Arabs Beihuma (domus Thomae); as the place where the apostle Thomas is supposed to have suffered martyrdom.
' The origin of the most distinguished of the ancient churches, is the most ob- scure of all. When Paul wrote to the church at Rome, about 57 or 58, it had been in existence for some time (Rom. i. 8; xvi. 19), and judging from the con- tents of the Epistle, consisted of both Jewish and Gentile Christians. There is not the slightest trace of the apostolic origin of this church ; on the contrary, the matter and maimer of Paul's Epistle would indicate that it had been planted by others than the apostles themselves. Perhaps that numerous body of Jews who belonged to the Roman army, and dwelt across the Tiber in a district by them- selves, and who kept up their intercourse with Palestine, were the occasioa of the gospel being planted there by the '•strangers of Rome" (Acts ii. 10) present on the day of Pentecost, or still later by Adronicus and Junia, Paul's fellow-prison- ers who '■ were of note among the apostles and in Christ before him " (Rom. xvi. 7). Rom. xvi. 3 shows that Aquila and Priscilla labored in the gospel in this cilj-.
^ 18. IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES. 73
tutt. Apostol. VTI. 43; Augustine Ep. 53). As early as tlie second half of the second century we find flourishing churches in Gaul, at Lyons and Vienne, upon whose formation colo- nies from Asia Minor seem to have exercised a prominent influence, and whose bishop Trenaeus (§ 58) has left some accounts respecting the further spread of Christianity in Gaul at that time. About the middle of the third century, accord- ing to the statenlent of Gregory of Tours, seven Christian teachers came into Gaul from Rome and planted churches. One of these, Saturninus by name, according to an account of his martyrdom written about 300, founded a church at Toulouse; another, named Dionysius, in whom a later legend would find the Areopagite of Athens (Acts xvii. 34; comp. § 57), planted the church at Paris. In Irenaeus we also find accounts of the spread of Christianity in Spain and Ger- many. The gospel, in all probability, had been preached in Spain, even though it were but for a very short time, by St. Paul (§ 15), and it would easily pass over into Germania Cisrhenana (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. I. 10) owing to the close connection with Rome. But besides this, according to Ire- naeus (Adv. Haer. III. 4), Christianity seems to have found an entrance even into Germania Transrhenana. And, last- ly, TertuUian at the close of the second century (Adv. Judd. c. 7) speaks of the spread of Christianity in Britain, and that too not merely in the portion conquered by the Romans; while there is an English tradition handed down by the venerable Bede, to the effect that at the invitation of a British king Lucius, in the last half of the second century, the Romish bishop Eleutherus sent missionaries to Britain. The agreement of the usages of the British Church with those of Asia Minor, however, points rather to an Asia Minor, than a Roman, origin of the Old British church.^
3. Africa.'^ Eg->/pl was the po.'nt of departure for Chris-
1 T h e i 1 e Comm de Eccl. Britannicae primordiis. Usher Biitannicac Ec- clesiae Antiquitates. Lingard Antiquities of the Anj^lo-Saxon churi-h. We- ber Gesfhichte der akathol. Kirchen u. Secten von Groszbritiuinien. W i 1 k i n 9 Concilia Brit, et Hihern. J a m i e s o n Historical account of the Culdees. S t i 1 • 1 i n g f 1 e e t Origines Britannicae.
' M ii n t e r Primordia Ecclesiae Africanae.
10
74 A. D. 1. 311. SPREAD OF CHRISTIAN TY.
tianity in Africa. The gospel could speedily pass from Je rusalem to Alexandria (Apollos was an Alexandrian § 15), owing to the intimate intercourse between the Palestinian and Alexandrine Jews. A tradition, in Eusebius II. 16, de- signates Mark the Evangelist as the founder of the church at Alexandria. From this city Christianity very early spread into Cyrene^ and in the second and third centuries the Copts received it through the Greeiv colonists from Egypt. Of the spread of Christianity in Ethiopia or Abyssinia, we have no reliable accounts. The conversion of the treasurer of Can- dace queen of Meroe, by the deacon Philip (Acts viii. 28 seq.), carried it thither. All Proconsular" Africa, and partic- ularly Carthage, was soon and very generally Christianized, owing to the close connection with Rome; and in the second and third centuries Christianity had become so widely spread in Blauritania and Numidia that Cyprian, bishop of Car- thage (f 258), could convene a synod of 87 bishops.
19.
CAUSES AND FURTHERANCES OF THE SPREAD OF CHRIS- TIANITY.'
The antagonism between the earnest spirit of the gospel, and the resisting spirit of the world, must inevitably oppose many hindrances to the spread of (Christianity. There were hindrances arising from the very nature of Christianity it- self, which, particularly pure at that time, required and pro- duced an entire renunciation of the world, and a total denial of self in every degree, even to the surrendry of life. There were hindrances springing from the fact that the Christian religion had taken its origin from a dispersed nation, had been diffused by despised individuals, and had been received chiefly by the poorer classes, — from the fact of the very
■ Compare with this analysis that of Gibbon Decline and Fall, Chapter XV
^ 19. CAUSES AND FURTHERANCES. 75
close interweaving of the old pagan religions with the whole fabric of social, civil, and literary life, — and, lastly, from the fact of the recently awakened religious and political efibrt in the pagan world -to uphold the ancient religion, together with the existence of fanaticism and magic of every sort, called out by the active but unsatisfied religious aspirations of the time. In opposition to all these hindrances, there were, in particular, two causes which, in connection with the glowing zeal and entire consecration of the preacher of Chris- tianity, resulted in the rapid and triumphant spread of the Christian religion. These were : the internal divine power by which Christianity renovated and changed the individual character; and the external tokens of divine power,- by which the glorified Redeemer, constantly present with his church, gave miraculous testimony to the supernatural origin of the gospel, and thus prepared the way for faith in it.
The early Christians evinced by their walk and conversa- tion that the whole inner man had been renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. The most illiterate men (TertuU. Apol. c. 46) spoke of God, and divine things, and eternai life, with a clearness and confidence, the like of which one would seek in vain in the best schools of philosophy. The daily life of the seemingly most wretched of mankind, irra- diated by an inward serenity and joy, of which the resigna- tion of the philosopher was only a poor shadow and mimicry, — the mingled heroism and gentleness, under the most dread- ful tortures, of even tender youths and delicate females, who refused to renounce Christ to the last gasp of life, till the flame consumed them and the lion tore them, — was a surer testimony for the truth of Christian doctrines than the finest words of the cultivated pagan could ever be, (TertuU. Apol. c. 50). And, in an age when rigid selfishness, slavish fear of man, and enervating licentiousness penetrated and poi- soned all the relations of life, how could that cordial brotherly- love,' that invincible refusal to do even the slightest thing in
' TertuU. Apol. c. 39. Vide, inquiunt, ut invipcm se dili<rnnt. Ipsi enim iiivi- cem oderunt. Et ut pro alterutro niori siut paraii. Ipsi euiin ad occidenduui al- terutruir. paraliores.
76 A. D. 1. 311. SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.
opposition to the gospel at the command of man, that in* tense and even ascetic strictness of morals, — how, in such an age, could the entire saintly life of the early Christians, which shone forth not less illustriously in'the love and con- scientiousness of the once disobedient and disorderly slave (Tertull. Apol.c. 2), than in the noble and cultivated pagan convert, fail to overcome the opposition of many, so that even the most wicked and obstinate enemies of Christianity were converted, subdued by the example of Christian virtue, which they saw before their own eyes in the daily intercourse of life (Justin. Mart. Apol. 11. p. 63) I
In addition to all this, there were external acts of divine power proving the divinity of Christianity. At the name of Jesus the sick were healed, devils were driven out, the dead were brought to life, — a miraculous power employed not solely by the apostles, but one that is referred to, as still ex- erted before the eyes of the heathen themselves as eye- witnesses, by Justin Martyr (Apol. I. p. 45. ed. Col.), Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. II. 22), Tertullian, and even the highly educated and truth-loving Origen (Con. Cels. I. 46 ; I. 67; II. 8 ; II. 33; III. 24; VII. 4 ; VII. 8).' These causes combined, account for the remarkably rapid spread of Christianity.
' For all the passages from Origen, relating to the continuance of miraculous power, see Guericke Commentatio de Schola Alex. P. II. pp. 270-272. The passages from other fathers are given in L a R u e ' s Origen Con. Cels. I. 2. p 321, note a ; and also la N e a n d e r I. pp. 72-75.
CHAPTER SECOND.
OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY.
§ 20.
JEWISH PERSECUTION.
The Jews were the first persecutors of the Christians. On the first appearance of Christianity, Judaism was split into two sections, and from one of them, constituting a false Ju- daism, the opposition proceeded. The true and spiritual Israel joyfully accepted the Messiah, and thus Israel, the corporeal and spiritual seed of Abraham, the ancient people of God, became the basis and root of the Christian church, as it had been destined to be from the beginning. The first members of the church were believers from Israel according to the flesh ; original branches of the holy stock, upon which the heathen were grafted only irapa ^vcnv. But the Judaism of those who rejected their Mcbsiah had lost its original divine character, and rested upon an ungodly, unspiritual, base. This false Judaism (Rom. iii. 28), henceforth stood in the most violent opposition to that divine decree which had promised blessings to the race of Abraham only in Christ, and cherished an implacable enmity towards Chris- tianity, that was restricted in its manifestations only by the powerlessness of these Jews and their outcast condition among th^ nations.
The multitude of believers at Jerusalem, " of one heart and of one soul," had, at first, « favor with all the people." But in proportion as the preaching of Peter and the othei
77
78 A. D. 1. — 311. OPPOSITION to Christianity.
apostles, sounded with a clearer and louder tone of Christ the Crucified (Acts iii. iv.), the pride of the Pharisee, and the scepticism of the Sadducee, felt itself more severely rebuked and condemned. Soon their wrath broke forth into open at- tack, and the apostles were imprisoned and scourged (Acts iv. 3 ; V. 40). The distinct refusal of the apostles to cease preaching Christ, at the bidding of luan (Acts v. 29, comp. iv. 19), now awakened bloody purposes (Acts v. 33), which were repressed only through the wise counsel of Gamaliel (Acts V. 84 seq.). But only for a season. The suppressed rage against the constantly growing church at length gave itself vent when Stephen, one of the recently appointed seven deacons, in the demonstration of the spirit and with power, chastised the obstinate blindness and malice of the Jews. With the entire unanitnity of the Sanhedrim and the people, he was stoned to death (Acts vi. vii.), — the first Christian martyr, — only a few years after the ascension of Christ.^ His death was the signal for a violent persecution of the church (Acts viii. 1 seq.), in which Saul was especially ac- tive (§ 15). After some interval, about the year 44, Herod Agrippa, in order to win favor with the Jews, again spilt the blood of the Christians. The apostle James the elder was beheaded ; and only the angel of God saved Peter from the same fate (Acts xii.). Lastly, not long before the breaking out of the Jewish war, Paul, who had previously often expe- rienced minor persecutions (§ 15), and James, the younger, who now suffered martyrdom (§ 16), incurred the deadly hostility of the Jews. In the year 70, the divine judgment, preceded by terrible signs and suflferings, fell upon the Jew- ish metropolis, as Christ had foretold forty years before the event. The Romans under Titus captured the city, after a siege of four months, in which eleven hundred thousand of the inhabitants perished.^ Jerusalem, with the temple, be- came a heap of ruins; being levelled even with the ground by fire and shovel, while the company of Christian believers
1 In the year 35 or 36 ; see § 15.
* Josephus, De Bello Jud. lib. III.- VII.; Tacitus, Hist. V.; Eusebius, III. S leq.
§ 21. CAUSES OF PAGAN PERSECUTION. 79
were praising God for their safety in the little city of Pella beyond Jordan, whither in the year 66 they had taken refuge on the approach of the Roman army, — rennembering the prophetic declarations of their Lord respecting the doomed city, and also, according to Eusebius (III. 5), receiving other divine instructions.
The Christians once more felt the hatred of the Jews dur- ing the reign of the emperor Hadrian. Enraged, because upon the site of their ancient metropolis a Roman colony, in the year 126, had established itself under the name of Aelia Capitolina, and had built a temple to Jupiter, the Jews, under the lead of their pseudo- Messiah, Barcochba.^ once more revolted against the Roman government, and commen- ced a warfare bloody in the extreme, and one that resulted in their own total overthrow. During these years of rebel- lion, from 132 to 135, all those Christians who fell into the hands of the Jews and refused to renounce Christ and take part in the revolt were subjected to the most horrible tortures. This, however, was the last independent act of hatred towards Christianity on the part of Judaism ; yet, in all the succeed- ing pagan persecutions, the Jews, now scattered throughout the whole world, distinguished themselves by rendering an eager assistance to the Gentile enemies of Christianity.
Pagan Persecution
Lactantias De mortibus persecutorum. K o r t h o 1 1 Pajjanus obtrecta- tor: De persecutt. eccles. primaevae, Baldunii Commentar. ad edictn vett. prince. Romm. de Christianis. Martini Persecutiones Christianonim. Sagit- tarius De martyrum cruciatibus. Tzschirner Der Fall des Heidentlmms, Gibbon Decline and Fall, Chapter XVI. M o s h e i m Commentaries, in locis.
§ 21.
CAUSES OF PERSECUTION WITHIN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
Persecutions of Christians in the Roman empire proeoedcd partly from the state authorities, partly from the populace',
■SO A. I>. 1. 311. OPPOSITION TO CHRTSTIAXITV.
and panly from individuals. They were sonierimes the delib erate deductions from the principles of the state-religion which must not be violated with impunity, sometimes the result of rude outbreaks of popular rage which attributed all existing evils to the Christians, and sometimes they flowed from the retined malignity of individuals whose private inter- ests were anti-Christian.
1. The ancient religions were religions of a particular }>eo- ple and state. Hence among the Romans, by the laws of the Twelve Tables, (Cicero De legg. II. S), any religious worship that had not been publicly sanctioned was penally forbidden. The practice of their own religion had been al- lowed to the Jews by a special privilege, as was also, from policy, the case with the religions of all conquered nations ; but particular statutes were sometimes passed to forbid a Eoman citizen from embracing .Judaism (Tacit. Ann. II. S5)^ and onlv after it5> formal reception among the religiones lici- tas, did even the growing eclecticism of the time permit a foreign ceremonial to be employed by Roman citizens. The adoption and spread of any religio illicita. es^pecially in an age so suspicious as was that of the emperors towards all innovations and intimate associations, was equivalent to a breach of the law of the land : but a religio illicita like the Christian, novel, not pertaining to any one nation, without temple, altar, or sacrifice, by its claims excluding all other religions, and characterized by the most thorough union of its votaries, must have been an object of extreme suspicion. The invincible steadfastness of the Christians in their own belief, in opposition to all human authority, their determined refusal to engage in the ceremonies of the Roman state-reli- <rion even when demanded only as a civil duty incumbent upon all citizens, their refusal to scatter incense supersti tioasly before the busts of the emperors as merely the expres sion of the subject's reverence for his n:ler. or to take part in pagan and sinful festivities on the birth-day? of the emper- ors or at the celebration of a victory, their partial declining to serve in the armies of heathen generals, — all this must have appeared in that despotic age as particularly dangerous,
§ 22. PERSECUTIONS TILL NERVA. Si
nay as -inflexibilis obstinatio " against the government; as the sentiment and disposition of decided " hostes Caesarum et populi Roman!.''
2. Very many persecutions however had no special con- nection with the Roman government, but proceeded from the populace. Since the Christians rejected the national di- vinities, the people looked upon them as totally godless and detestable men, a^eoi, concerning whom they readily believed the most horrible accusations, — such as that they practised abominable and even unnatural vices in their assemblages ; that they killed their offspring and ate human flesh. More- over, as all epidemics, droughts, and famines, were regarded as effects of the wrath of the gods against their enemies and despisers.i these public calamities were continually furnish- ing occasions for popular attacks upon the Christians.
3. Lastly, many persecutions were excited bv individuals, — heathen priests, sellers of images (Acts xix. 24 seq.), ma- gicians (like Alexander of Abonitichus in the 2nd century), and such like persons, — with whose interests the spirit of the gospel and its confessors was in sharpest contrast, and who eagerly availed themselves of the prevailing temper of the populace and the government to carry out their own revenue.
§22.
PERSECUTIONS TO THE REIGN OF NERVA.
Only fragmentary materials remain, from which to derive a view of the relations which the first Roman emperors sus- tained to the Christian religion and church.
1. Tiberius, A. D. 14-37. According to one tradition, the
1 A common saying was '-non plait Deus, due ad Giristianos."' Tertallian (Apol. c. 40) remarks : •' Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilns non ascendit in arva, si coelum stent, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim Christianos ad leo nem ! "
11
82 A. D. 1. — 311. OPPOSITION to Christianity.
emperor of the world was brought into connection with the affairs of the church as early as the time of Christ's death. Tertullian (Apologeticus c. 5. 21) relates that Tiberius, dis turbed by the official report of Pilate, particularly with re- spect to the resurrection of Christ, proposed to the senate that Jesus should be enrolled among the deos Romanes, but, on their refusal, contented himself with threatening punish- ment towards all who should bring accusations against the Christians. This account cannot be arbitrarily rejected, as merely a popular tradition without any sort of foundation. It does not seem incredible, if we carefully take into account the character of Tiberius, who, frequently, when tortured by conscience and disturbed by some momentary impression, pestered the senate with hasty propositions. The threat of punishment, also, may have been only the result of a sudden impulse, and hence without further consequences.
2. Claudius, A. D. 4J-54. According to Suetonius (Claud. c. 25),' corroborated by Acts xviii. 2, the emperor Claudius banished the Jews from Rome. If there were Christians there at that time, it is highly probable that they were in- cluded in this banishment, since no very clear distinction was made between Jews and Christians by the Roman world until after the destruction of Jerusalem. Moreover, if there were Christians at Rome at this time they were most proba- bly converted Jews.
3. Neroj A. D. 54-68. The first Christian persecution, proper, in the Roman empire, broke out under Nero in the year 64. The occasion of it was a terrible conflagration in Rome, of nine days continuance, which was very generally attributed to the emperor, but which was by him charged upon the Christians of whom the populace readily believed the worst.2 Many were seized and put to death with horri-
1 The statement of Suetonius, made up, in all probability, partly from indefi- nite reports eoncerninp .Jesus, and partly from his knowledge of the restless tem- per of the Jews expecting a Messiah, is as follows: Claudius Judaeos impulsoro Christo assidue tumultuantes Roma expnlit.
* Even Tacitus, the principal authority in this instance, speaks of them as men per flagitia invisos, and characterized by an exitiabilis superstitio and an odium generis humani (Annal. XV. 44.)
§ 22. PERSECUTIONS TILL NERVA. 80
ble tortures; were sown up in the skins of wild beasts and then torn to pieces by dogs ; were smeared with wax and pitch and then burnt as torches to give light by night in the imperial gardens. The persecution in all probability spread from the city into the provinces; an ancient inscription ex- pressly mentions Spain as one. This persecution, during the latter part of which Paul and Peter suffered martyrdom (§ 14, 15), came to an end on the suicide of Nero. A report, however, spread among the Christians that Nero was not dead in reality, but had only withdrawn himself beyond the Euphrates, in order to reappear as Antichrist.
4. Domitian, A. D. 81-96. According to Tertullian (Apol. c. 5), Domitian planned a persecution of the Christians but did not execute it. Hegesippus (Euseb. III. 19, 20), makes the same statement, and relates that the emperor, hearing of " the kingdom of Christ," and misapprehending the phrase in a political sense, summoned two of the kindred of Jesus from Palestine to Rome for examination, but soon released them on finding that they were not suspicious persons. Yet, according to Dion Cassius Hist. LXVII. 14, and Eusebius, who foilovs'^s an earlier account in his Chronicle, individuals were persecuted, upon the charge of being Christians, by the suspicious and avaricious emperor shortly before his death ; some of whom were condemned to death, and others to have their goods confiscated, and to be sent into exile.
5. Nerva, A. D. 96—98. Dion Cassius relates that the " good" emperor Nerva recalled the exiles, and allowed no one of his subjects to bring accusations against another on account of uae^eta or of jBio^ lovBalic6<;, and especially for- bade the reception of charges of slaves against their masters. Yet with all this indirect favor, Christianity, as heretofore, still continued to be a religio illicita.
V
84 A. D. 1. — 311. OPPOSITION to Christianity.
23.
PERSECUTIONS UNDER TRAJAN, HADRIAN, AND ANTONINUS PIUS.
1. Trajan, A. D. 98 — 117. The emperor Trajan not onlj occasioned new persecutions of the Christians, by a law that forbade secret associations, and which was aimed primarily tigainst the Hetaerae, but this otherwise upright and noble prince was ihejirst ivho enacted a distinct penal statute against the Christians ; of which the malice of their enemies, of late restrained now eagerly availed itself. The younger Pliny, as proconsul over Bithynia and Pontus, became involved in judicial procedures against the Christians, and finding their numbers to be great,* — an anonymous bill of accusations, containing many names, having been given in to him, — wrote to the emperor (Epp. X. 96, al. 97), for instructions in the case. He reported, in his account of them, that the closest questioning, even of apostates from Christianity, and of Christian female slaves under the rack, had brought to light no crime properly chargeable upon the sect. They all came together early in the morning, on a particular day, sang hymns of praise to Christ as their God,^ pledged themselves to avoid all that was evil,^ and in the evening partook of a simple meal : this was all that he could discover, and on this account their religion appeared to him to be only a "super- stitio prava et immodica." Still, he thought public disobe- dience of the regulations of the Roman state ought not to go unpunished. Whoever should obstinately refuse to sacrifice to the gods, to scatter incense upon the emperor's statue, and to blaspheme Christ, he was of opinion, ought
' Multi, — says Pliny, — omnis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam vocantur in periculum et vocabuntur ; neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam atque aj>:ros siiperstitionis istius contagio pervagata est.
* Quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, carmenque Ciiristo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem.
•'' Ne I'uita. ne latroeinia, ne adulteria comraittorent, no fidcn fallerent, ne de- posituin !ip]it'llati ahncgarent.
§ 23. PERSECUTIONS UNDER TKAJAN, HADRIAN, ETC. 85
to be punished with death ; but he who should recant sliould be set free. With these views and propositions the emperor fully agreed in his answer, (Plin. Ep, X. 97 al. 98). He or- dered that the Christians should not be sought out by the government, but in case they had otherwise been delivered up, and had been convicted, they should suffer punishment;' and custom had made this, death by the sword. Many vic- tims fell, particularly in Syria and Palestine. Simeon, the venerable bishop of the church at Jerusalem, the successor of James, an aged man of 120 years, and a near relative of the Lord, died (in 107) a martyr's death upon the cross (Euseb. III. 32), witnessing a joyful confession after many days previous scourging. The excellent bishop Ignatius of Antioch, after a trial before the emperor, was thrown to the lions in the Colossaeum, in the year 116 (Euseb. III. 22, 36 ; Jerome, Catal. c. 16 ; Acta martyrii Ignatiani).
2. Hadrian, A. D., 117—138. The condition of the Chris- tians was not much improved under Hadrian. The attacks of the populace upon them, led Serennius Granianus, pro- consul of Asia Minor, to represent their case to the emperor, AJ/I^^,^ who, in his rescript to Granianus's successor, Minucius Fun- ^ danus, declared (Euseb., IV. 9) that not popular clamor, but*^^ ' •'" only judicial accusation, should be valid against the Chris- tians ; that punishment should be inflicted in case of proved opposition to the laws, — an evidence that Christianity was still a religio illicita, — but that false accusers should be punished also. According to Aelius Lampridius (Alex. Sev. c. 24), Hadrian formed the design, which was frustrated only bv the pagan priests, of building a temple to Christ, and en- rolling him among the deos Romanos ; but this witness from the 4th century is not sufficient authority for this statement, if we take into account Hadrian's great zeal for the Roman Sacra, and his contempt of all Sacra perigrina (Comp. Spar- tiani vita Hardr. c. 22; Vopisci Saturninus c. 8), together
' " Conquirendi non sunt : si deferantur et arguantur, punicndi sunt ; ita ta- tnen, ut qui negaverit se Christianum esse idque re ipsa manife«itum fecerit, ve- niam, ex penitentia iinpetret. Sine auctore veio propositi libelli nullo criinine locum habere debent."
86 A. i). 1. 311. OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITV.
with his actual desecration of the holy places of the Chris- tians.
3. Antoninus Pius, A. D. 138-161. This emperor, in va- rious rescripts to Grecian states (Euseb., IV. 26), declared
«/*nv /hi. against mob-violence, towards the Christians, which during his reign had been called out anew by famine, earthquakes, inundations, and conflagrations. More than this, he also sought to afford them protection in case of judicial, accusa- tion. In a rescript addressed to the convention of imperial deputies of Asia Minor, he even lays down the position that the Christians are not punishable on the score of their reli-
L-X, U^l^^ gion ;^ an ordinance, indeed, that must be of only temporary
WtO yt^^'i effect so long as Christianity was not held to be a religio li-
■ri*^^ cita.
24.
PERSECUTION UNDER MARCUS AURELIUS (ANTONINUS PIII- LOSOPHUS). A. D. 161-180.
The condition of the Christians grew much worse during the rule of the renowned Marcus Aurelius, who, as a Stoic philosopher, was neither able nor inclined to set a proper estimate upon the Christian religion ; disliking particularly the Christian enthusiasm (see his Monol. XI. 3), and anx ious, from political reasons, to preserve intact the old religion of the State. His law (in the Pandects) condemning the propagators of religious superstition to exile, probably had reference to Christians. More severe yet were the •' new .^•>^t/ edicts," respecting which Melito bishop of Sardis complains in his Apology (Euseb., IV. 26), but which have not come down to us. From the character of the persecutions at this time, — which were different from the earlier, in that indivi- dual Christians were searched out, and compelled bij torture to
' Eiiseh., IV. 13, where this rescript is erroneously attributed to Marcus Aure lius. The genui.neness of this document is disputed upon insufficient grounds.
y 5i4. PERSECUTION UNDER MARCUS AURELIUS. 87
renounce their religion^ — we may infer the contents of these
decrees ; and it is very probable that an edict, ascribed to
Aurelian (in Ruinart. Acta Symphoriani), which requires the tV>l£.,^ ^
" severe yet legal punishment of Christians by tortures of %^^ S^i
various kinds in order to extirpate the crime," was one of
these " new edicts " of Aurelius.
Contemporaneous documents give an account of two par- ticular persecutions under the emperor Aureiius, both of which were distinguished by Christian heroism. i^r^
1. Respecting the persecution at Smyrna^ in J^67j__a. letter
from the church at Smyrna to the churches in Pontus (Eu- (P- Jj^ 3-> seb., IV. 15) relates the following. The proconsul of Asia ^^^ji'U^ Minor, endeavored, through entreaties, threats and tortures, to induce the Christians to deny their faith ; " flayed by scourg- ing so that all their muscles and arteries were laid bare, placed upon sharp-pointed spikes, etc., the martyrs remained firm," and whoever remained firm was thrown to the wild beasts. The venerable bishop Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle John, met his death at this time (on Easter Sabbath, per- /ff/i-/ haps inJLSS). Having spent many days previous in prayer, and after he had affectionately entertained his persecutor as his guest, he was pierced through with a sword while tied to the stake, since the flames failed to consume him ; refus- ing " to curse the Lord whom he had served eighty-six years," and praising God with joyful heart " that he had been deemed worthy to be numbered among Christ's wit- nesses, and to share in the cup of Christ's sufferings." After Polycarp's martyrdom the proconsul made no further search for Christians.
2. Respecting the persecution at Lyons and Vienne, in the year 177, we have an account in a letter from these churches to those of Asia Minor (Euseb., V. 1-3). Even previous to the actual outbreak of this persecution, Christians could not show themselves in public without maltreatment; their hous- es were plundered, and all known to be Christians were in- carcerated. On the arrival of the imperial legate the inquisi- tion began, accompanied with the most exquisite and horri- ble tortures. The deacon Sanctus, Attalus of Pergamus,
fcSS A. D. 1. 311. OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY.
" pillars of the church," and others, particularly the young female slave Blandina, gave proofs of an almost superhuman Christian heroism. They were tortured with hot plates of brass applied to the most sensitive parts of the body, were dreadfully scourged, were roasted upon a glowing iron chair, were thrown to the wild beasts to be lacerated for a while, and finally, having endured all these and other tortures, sometimes for days together, were put to death. Blandina tired out her tormentors, by her endurance of every species of torture from morning till evening, and, with a body lace- rated and cut open, received new accessions of spiritual strength and courage as she testified, " I am a Christian and there is no evil done among us." After she and Ponticus a youth of fifteen years had daily witnessed the execution of others, they both met the end of martyrs ; Blandina having first been again scourged, then tortured by the bites of wild beasts and the red-hot iron chair, and, lastly, exposed in a net to the horns of a wild ox. These two were the last vic- tims of this persecution. The aged bishop Pothinus had al- ready departed, having been subjected to the greatest tortures in a most loathsome prison, in which others of his fellow- prisoners had suffocated. Those Christians who possessed the rights of Roman citizenship were, by an imperial deci- sion, beheaded. The corpses of the "army of martyrs" lay unburied for a time, and were subjected to indignities of va- rious sorts. They were, at length, collected and burnt ; and, in order to absolutely prevent their resurrection, as the perse- cutors supposed, the ^shes were thrown into the Rhone.
According to contemporaneous accounts (Comp. Euseb. v. 5), the occurrence connected with the legio fulmi- n e a , in the war against the Marcommanni and Quades, in the year 174, produced an alteration of the emperor's feeling towards the Christians, and led him to threaten punishment against those who should bring charges against them. The imperial army, it is related, was saved from impending de- .■^truction by the coming on of a terrible storm, slaking the thirst of the fainting soldiers and frightening the enemy, in answer to the prayers of the Christian soldiers of the twelfth
§ 25. PERSECUTIONS FROM Cl MMODUS TO PlIILlP. 89
legion. The truth of this statement is vouehed for by Clau- dius ApoUinaris (Euseb. V. 5) and Tertullian (Apol. c. 5), and all Christian and Pagan writers of antiquity agree at least in this, — that the Roman army was, at the time men- tioned, preserved in a very remarkable manner. The objec- tions to the essential credibility of this account do not seem to be of sufficient weight to overthrow it. At any rate, the fact itself of a deliverance in answer to the prayers of Chris- tians is established upon credible testimony, though it is in- deed uncertain whether the emperor's feeling towards Chris- tianity was changed thereby. If such were the case, his al- tered mood continued but a short time, since he soon attri- buted the aid he had received to his own divinities, or to the " fate " of Stoicism.
§ 25.
PERSECUTIONS FROM COMMODUS TO PHILIP THE ARABIAN.
After the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the condition of the (christians alternated for a time, finally settling into one of moderate prosperity for a limited period.
Commodus, A. D. 180-192. This emperor, worthless and detestable as he was, showed himself remarkably favorable to the Christians, owing to the influence of Marcia over him. According to Irenaeus, a contemporary, (Adv. Haer. IV. 30), there were Christians in the palace and service of the empe- ror. Nevertheless there were partial persecutions (Tertull. Ad. Scapul. c. 5), and Irenaeus himself speaks of martyrs at this time (Adv. Haer. IV. 33, 9). A distinguished Roman Christian, Apollonius, was executed ; but his accuser, his slave, was also put to death (Euseb. V. 21).
Septimius Severus, A. D. 193-211. Severus was at first /,'
favorably inclined towards the Christians, because his Chris- tian slave had cured him of disease (Tertull. Ad. Scaj)ulam, c. 4), but his feeling was soon changed to that of political suspicion. " Daily," so wrote Clemens Alexandrinus (Stro- 12
90 ' A. D. 1. 311. OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITV.
mara II. p. 414), not long after the death of Commodus, "do we see many martyrs burned before our eyes, crucified, be- headed ; " and the violence of the persecution was increased, on the enactment (A. D. 202) of a strict law prohibiting con- version to Judaism and Christianity. Persecution appear^ to have raged most virulently in Egypt and Proconsu]a3 Africa. At Carthage, Vivia Ferpetua, of noble birth, a young mother, with her infant in her arms, and her heathen fathe- weeping at her feet, in the exercise of genuine and triumph ant faith, became the victim of the wild ox and the glad iator's dagger (Augustine, in Ps. 47). Her companion in faith and suffering, the female slave Felicitas, being seized with the pains of labor in the prison, made answer to th • mock-pity of the jailor : " It is / that suffer now ; but then there will be another who will be with me, and suffer for me, because I shall suffer for him." At Alexandria Pufamiuna, a maiden of noble birth and distinguished beauty, steadfast under all threats of pain and shame, endured to the end, being finally slowly let down into a caldron of boiling pitch (Euseb. VI. 5).
Caracal/a, A. D. 211-217. Heliog-abalus, A. D. 218-222. Under Caracalla persecutions continued in many places; but the monster Heliogabalus, in order to fuse Christianity, to- gether with all other religions, in his Syrian Sun-worship, afforded it toleration (Lamprid. Heliogab. c. 8).
Alexander Severus, A. D. 222-235. This estimable ruler adopted Christianity as one element in his Platonic eclecti- cism. The busts of Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus, stood beside each other in his Lararium (Lam- prid., Alex. Sev. c. 29), and he is said to have entertained the design of erecting a temple to Christ. He was 'hf> son of a worthy mother, Julia Mammaea, the patroness of Origea (Euseb. VI. 21). Yet Christianity was not a religio licita, and Domitius Ulpianus, (De officio proconsulis), in this reign made a collection of the rescripts of the earlier emperors against the Christians.
^ Maxmin, A. D. 235-238. Gordian, A. D. 238-244. Phi lip, A. D. 241-249. From hatred towards his predecessor
§ 26. PERSECUTIONS FROM DECIUS TO DIOCLETIAN. 91
Maximin the Thracian was an enemy to the Christians, and the popular rage was also awakened against them by the oc« ourrence of dreadful earthquakes. Nevertheless they enjoyed tranquillity in many parts of the empire. This tranquiUity increased during the reign of Gordian, and particularly dur- ing that of Philip the Arabian, who openly favored the Chris- tians, and is even reported to have become a Christian him- self (Euseb. VI. 34, and Chronicle). Yet the earliest pre- tended account of this event (Dionys. Alex., in Euseb. VIL 10) is altogether indirect and uncertain, and in both the public and private life of this emperor we see the heathen in manifold ways. Moreover, Origen, who corresponded by letter with Philip and his consort Severa, says nothing of a confession of Christianity by a Roman emperor, in his great apologetic work.
26.
PERSECUTIONS FROM DECIUS TO DIOCLETIAN.
Decius, A. D. 249-251. In proportion as this period of rest had rendered the church somewhat unused to conflict, the deeper was the impression made by the new baptism of fire, the persecution under Decius, which exceeded all the previous ones in extent and cruelty, and aimed at the entire extinction of Christianity. From the contemporaneous ac- counts of it, in Cyprian's letters and in Dionysius of Alexan- dria (Euseb. VI. 40-42), we can infer the contents of the im- perial edict. At an appointed time, all Christians, in every province of the empire, must appear and oflfer sacrifice in public. Those who fled were sentenced to perpetual banish- ment, and their property was confiscated. The attempt was made, by explanations, threats, and the most exquisite and prolonged tortures, to induce those who remained to deny the faith. Many of those who refused, particularly the bish- ops and church officers generally, were executed. The pre-
92 A. D. I. — 311. OPPOSITION to Christianity.
ceding period of tranquillity had rendered many Christians, especially the rich and noble,