CH101 - The Second Century

Persecution of the Roman Empire
The defining moment in the life of the primitive church came after the first true Roman persecution under Nero that led to the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul (circa 62-64 A.D.) followed shortly thereafter by the seige of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Would this small movement survive?

For the next 250 years the Christian church endured periods of persecution at the hands of the Roman empire. It is important to realize that Roman persecution of Christians came in waves, tended to be regional in nature, and typically did not last more than a couple of years. The Romans were not always the inhumane savages we picture, throwing people into the pit with hungry lions. The Romans were basically cultured and disciplined, however warfare was an important part of that culture, and in war they were brutal, but only if you resisted them. When the Roman armies came against a territory the defending nation could send a peace envoy - the Romans were content to annex your territory and collect taxes for Caesar. You could keep your properties, continue to farm your lands, and live under the banner of Rome. If, however, you sent your armies to meet the Romans in battle you were very likely to suffer military defeat and then face the full brutality of the Roman legions. Punishment might include burning many of your buildings and homes to the ground, allowing the soldiers to plunder and rape their way through the countryside, and/or salt your fields, making them useless for 2-3 years.

To round up and imprison or kill citizens as they did from time to time with the Christians was not a popular act - many Romans were rightly disturbed when these pogroms were initiated - and some emperors refused to authorize such persecution [Vespasian (69-79 A.D.) and Nerva (96-98 A.D.) apparently released prisoners and recalled exiles]. Nonetheless, Roman persecution against Christians did happen. I will mention the various periods of intense persecution as we move through the next 200+ years.

Domitian
The end of the first century included one of these times of persecution under Emperor Domitian (81-96 A.D.). Although Domitian's father, Vespasian, did not take emperial divinity seriously, Domitian was over the top. Probably due to a combination of insecurity and an unstable personality, Domitian insisted on being worshipped and punished those who refused. The details of the Domitian Roman persecution (95-96 A.D.) are somewhat sketchy, but it appears to have been contained to Rome and in Asia Minor. Most scholars believe that the Domitian persecution is the historical backdrop for John's Revelation, the closing document of the New Testament. The writer is urging the first century believers to remain faithful in the midst of this persecution. There are other first century writings with similar theme - here is a brief introduction to a group of documents now known as the Apostolic Fathers.

Trajan
We know about the Roman persecution during the reign of Trajan (98-117 A.D.) because we can read Trajan's own writing contained in letters exchanged between the emperor and one of his governors, Pliny the Younger, 111-113 A.D. Pliny had written Trajan asking how to deal with the Christians. This is a portion of that request,

This is part of Trajan's reply:

In his letter to Trajan, Pliny indicates that he is not exactly sure what to do with these Christians, but that if they were citizens he would transfer them to Rome, presumably for trial. This is significant because, according to Eusebius, it was during Trajan's reign that Ignatius of Antioch the bishop, is taken prisoner and transferred by armed guard to Rome where he is executed.

More discussion on persecution in the Roman Empire will be covered in a later section.

Outline	Key People	Key Documents
Persecution of Roman Empire The Apostolic Fathers The Spirit of Martyrdom Second Repentance Second Century Heresies The Apologists New Testament Canon, Part 3 New Testament Canon, Part 4 Summary and Applications The New Testament, Part 3 Summary and Applications	Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Marcion Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Clement of Alexandria Tertullian	1 and 2 Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas The Letters of Ignatius Martyrdom of Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas

The Apostolic Fathers
This set of early Christian writings, referred to as "The Apostolic Fathers," were written by the first generation of Christian leadership after the apostles, thus the term "fathers." Some of these documents, written in the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century, were considered by second and third century fathers to be sacred and were quoted as inspired text. The early church took these writings very seriously as early witnesses of the faith.

1 Clement
This letter, written by Clement of Rome, named later as the bishop of Rome, is sent to the church in Corinth probably in the 90's. Apparently the church in Corinth had moved to replace their acting leadership and Clement is writing to instruct them concerning apostolic succession. He uses the OT example of Moses, showing that God appoints leaders as He did with the priesthood and those leaders appoint the next generation "with the consent of the whole Church." (1 Clement 44.2)

Points of Interest:
It is from 1 Clement 5 that we learn the fate of Peter and Paul in Rome,

Clement is familiar with Paul's letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians), referring to it in chapter 47, yet no NT text is ever quoted - his biblical citations and illustrations all come from the OT. Although he also quotes from Paul's letter to the Romans, his view of faith is more in line with James, "being justified by our works, and not our words." (1 Clement 30.3)

1 Clement is counted in the NT canon for several regions and was included in the Alexandrian Codex. Clement of Alexandria (cir. 198-202) often quotes from 1 Clement as scripture.

2 Clement
This appears to be the transcript of a sermon rather than a letter. It follows 1 Clement in the early manuscripts and has always been connected to the first letter, but the Greek is decidedly less proficient which points to a different author. This author also clearly quotes from the NT (words of Jesus) more freely, this is also different from 1 Clement.

Point of Interest:
Although this sermon contains some of the canonical sayings of Jesus, there are also some gnostic-like sayings, "For the Lord Himself, being asked by a certain person when his kingdom would come, said, 'When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male or female'." (2Clem 12:2) This saying is very similar to Gospel of Thomas 22.

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Didache
This early document, also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, could be dated prior to 70 A.D. and bears many marks of being an early Jewish-Christian document. It opens with what is called "The Two Ways" teaching, a derivative of what is found in Qumran manuscripts and The Manual of Discipline. The Didache also relies on Matthew's gospel and does not put any emphasis on the divinity of Jesus - these characteristics are consistent with the early Jewish movement referred to as Ebionites.

Didache is something of an early Minister's Manual. It gives very practical guidelines for baptism, fasting, prayer, the Lord's Supper (the Eucharist), and how to take care of traveling preachers and prophets.

Point of Interest:
This early document gives us an example of a lack of dogmatism:

The Epistle of Barnabas
The dating for Barnabas is highly disputed, ranging from 70 to 128 A.D. Some early fathers, like Clement of Alexandria, ascribed this document to the Barnabas named in Acts with the apostle Paul. In fact, Clement refers to Barnabas as an apostle and quotes from Barnabas as inspired text. Most scholars do not accept NT Barnabas as the author.

Barnabas has a very negative view of Judaism, believing that the Jews were being punished for crucifying Jesus. The author quotes extensively from the Greek OT and rarely from the NT. The same "Two Ways" teaching found in Didache is found at the end of Barnabas.

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The Letters of Ignatius
Early in the second century, probably during the reign of Trajan, Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch is arrested and is being taken to Rome for trial. Along the way he writes letters to various churches, urging them to remain faithful and to pay respect to the bishop. These letters give us any interesting insight into this period and the development of what is now called monoepiscopacy, the idea of a single bishop over a region.

Points of Interest:
We saw in the chapter on the first century that Ignatius writes against a group that holds to some kind of docetic view of Jesus, an emphasis that denies his humanity. Perhaps to combat this doceticism, Ignatius expresses a strong christology, Johannine in nature, but even more pronounced. This represents a continued confirmation of the early church belief in the divinity of Jesus,

In the letter to the Trallians there is an interesting section that points to a very early witness of what becomes known as the Apostle's Creed:

The Martyrdom of Polycarp
This document tells the story of Polycarp's arrest and martyrdom sometime in the middle of the second century. Polycarp had a large reputation as the bishop of Smyrna - Irenaeus reports that Polycarp had been a disciple of John the Evangelist. The story related in this document is fantastic in nature and becomes part of a growing body of martyrdom accounts.

After being arrested and taken into a stadium to be executed as part of the brutal entertainment in the Roman Empire, the proconsul urged Polycarp,

Polycarp is 86 years old, yet is treated roughly, urged to renounce Christ, and is threatened with being burned at the stake. His retort to the officials in the face of certain death has inspired generations of believers,

The attendants prepared the fire and as they moved to nail Polycarp to the stake he asked that he be allowed to have his hands free saying that the one who would give him the strength to endure the flames would also give him strength to remain in the fire.

Point of Interest:
This martrydom account became immediately popular among Christians of that age and fueled an already growing martyrdom cult. This will be discussed more fully in the next section, but it is important to mention here that martyrs (literally, witnesses) were being given favored status. Their bones were collected and venerated - stories of healings and miracles happening through the use of prayer and these "relics" circulated. Martyrs in prison were seen as having such a high standing that believers consistently visited them, asking for their prayers - this led to some friction within the local church leadership.

The Shepherd of Hermas
This interesting document was written in Rome sometime before the middle of the second century. The author is Hermas, brother of then bishop of Rome, Pius. This is an apocalyptic document, a series of visions and revelations given to Hermas through an angel, a shepherd.

This document seems to have been written as an encouragement to believers to endure persecution, but had a controversial aspect to it - a second chance for repentence. We will discuss this issue more fully in a later section, Second Repentence, but for now we can simply acknowledge that this caused The Shepherd of Hermas to be rejected by some early fathers.

Outline	Key People	Key Documents
Persecution of Roman Empire The Apostolic Fathers The Spirit of Martyrdom Second Repentance Second Century Heresies The Apologists New Testament Canon, Part 3 New Testament Canon, Part 4 Summary and Applications The New Testament, Part 3 Summary and Applications	Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Marcion Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Clement of Alexandria Tertullian	1 and 2 Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas The Letters of Ignatius Martyrdom of Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas

The Spirit of Martyrdom
From the time when "godly men buried Stephen" after he was executed by the Jews, martyrs were treated with great respect. Martyrs, or "confessors," were believed to have a greater degree of grace from God. There were reports (although some might be considered questionable) that miracles were performed through martyrs: bones (relics) could be used for healing, confessors sitting in prison were reported to have heavenly visions and personal audience with the risen Lord - these could offer prayers of special power, and could even grant confirmation of God's forgiveness.

By the middle of the second century pockets of the Church had followers desiring martyrdom to the point of throwing themselves in the way of officials of the empire, hoping to be selected for the "perfecting" of their faith, execution. This careless attitude had become commonplace enough that Clement of Alexandria urges believers not to offer themselves to their persecutors, but to flee.

Bishops of the second century found their authority being challenged by imprisoned confessors. People were flocking to imprisoned saints seeking empowered prayer and forgiveness for sins. During times of intense persecution many believers "lapsed" into various levels of their former sinful lives, then wanted to come back to the church. Each region had its own method of repentance, which typically depending on the local bishop. When lapsed believers started approaching, and gaining forgiveness through imprisoned confessors the authority of the bishop suffered.

Outline	Key People	Key Documents
Persecution of Roman Empire The Apostolic Fathers The Spirit of Martyrdom Second Repentance Second Century Heresies The Apologists New Testament Canon, Part 3 New Testament Canon, Part 4 Summary and Applications The New Testament, Part 3 Summary and Applications	Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Marcion Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Clement of Alexandria Tertullian	1 and 2 Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas The Letters of Ignatius Martyrdom of Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas

The Issue of Second Repentance
As was mentioned in the section on persecution in the Roman Empire, there was an ebb and flow in the persecution against Christians. It was not unusual for great numbers of believers to "lapse" during times of intense persecution. Some simply backed into the shadows for fear of being associated with the Christians. Others found it easy to go back to riotous living, the life of excessive drink and sexual indiscretions. Once the persecution lifted bishops would often find themselves faced with literally dozens, sometimes hundreds, of lapsed believers desiring to be readmitted to the fellowship of the saints. Lapsing during a time of persecution was a serious offense, especially when there were others who stood the test and were tortured and/or killed. Lapsed believers were not allowed to celebrate the Eucharist or to enter into the main church meeting, but had to sit in an outside room, or even outside the building or house. They could listen, but could not take part. Some never tried to come back, feeling that they were beyond forgiveness, others decided they did not want to come back.

In North Africa, according to Tertullian (On Purity 13), lapsed believers would dress in rags to show their penance, lay prostrate in the outer foyer where the elders would enter, and beg for prayer and forgiveness. Following 1 John 5:16,17 the elders were not to speak to or even pray for such "penitents," but were to let them continue in penance until the Lord somehow showed His mercy to them. Some of these lapsed believers would eventually give up, figuring they had lost their souls. Others would spend months, maybe years, in this condition, hoping that God would accept them when they died.

This "second hope" Tertullian refers to is the second repentance issue we mentioned earlier in the short discussion on The Shepherd of Hermas. Tertullian refers to The Shepherd in one of his later works, saying it is the only writing "which favours adulterers." (Modesty 10.12)

In this discussion it is quite important to remember the historical context - Roman persecution. Some believers are seeking forgiveness for what Tertullian calls mortal sins, apostasy, adultery, and fornication, and as we have seen, The Shepherd of Hermas indicates that many were willing to grant such forgiveness. Callistus, bishop of Rome, produced a decree (cir. 217-222) which authorized bishops to allow absolution for penitent adulterers. This idea greatly angered Tertullian. His response was to write On Purity in which he was critical of the idea that an adulterer could receive the same absolution that might be withheld from the one

He paints the picture of a believer being tortured, with a glowing iron held close to his face, being told to deny Christ. He maintains that this believer should be given opportunity for forgiveness before the adulterer.

As with other major issues, the Church had to grapple not only with practical application of "truth" in the lives of believers, but also with obscure biblical texts. In the end, judgments had to be made and tradition was established, but getting to that place was not easy. In 251 AD, under Cyprian of Carthage, the "second repentance" issue took on the added significance of who could offer penance and forgiveness to the 'lapsed.' The authority of the bishop was again being questioned and Cyprian's document, On the Unity of the Catholic Church, established the rule of the church followed from that time forward - authority rested with the bishops.

Learn more details on the issue of Second Repentance.

Outline	Key People	Key Documents
Persecution of Roman Empire The Apostolic Fathers The Spirit of Martyrdom Second Repentance Second Century Heresies The Apologists New Testament Canon, Part 3 New Testament Canon, Part 4 Summary and Applications The New Testament, Part 3 Summary and Applications	Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Marcion Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Clement of Alexandria Tertullian	1 and 2 Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas The Letters of Ignatius Martyrdom of Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas

The Initial Heresies and Heretics

Docetism
Beginning with the apostle Paul, the leaders of the early church had to address wrong headed ideas that threatened the integrity of the gospel message. One of the first, docetism, was mentioned in our discussion of the first century. Docetic, which comes from the Greek word meaning "to appear." Those who proposed this heresy maintained that Jesus really did not possess, or inhabit a physical body, but only "appeared" to have a body. The basis of docetism is that Jesus was truly a spiritual being, and as such, could not have had a true body.

There are aspects of the New Testament that suggest docetism was already a problem in the first century. Some scholars believe John's gospel contains some anti-docetic texts, for example in chapter 21 where Jesus eats fish with disciples. It seems that 1 John may have been written to combat this heresy, "...every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God." 1 John 4:2

As was mentioned in an earlier section (Century 1, page 9), Ignatius of Antioch is clearly writing against docetics when he says, "He was then truly born, truly grew up, truly ate and drank, was truly crucified, and died, and rose again." Philippians 3

Marcion
Around the year 85 Marcion was born, the son of a bishop. He traveled around the world as a merchant and moved to Rome around 135 where he became known in the church and began to teach.

Marcion observed the vast differences between the God represented in the Old Testament and the God of Jesus in the NT. His answer was to reject the God of the OT, seeing him as the evil craftsman (gk. demiurge) creator of an evil world. Marcion constructed a list that represents the first recorded listing of NT texts, basically his personal canon - he excluded the entire OT, and included only Paul's letters and Luke's gospel. He also excluded a few parts of Paul's letters - anything where Paul refers to the OT in a positive way (Marcion claimed these had been tampered with by Jews) and references to hell and/or judgment (for example 2 Thess 1:6-8). It is this unorthodox canon that leads the church fathers to begin naming the "accepted" documents.

Marcion's influence was significant enough for his teaching to be argued against by several church fathers including Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian. He worked hard as an evangelist and the Marcionite churches spread throughout the Roman Empire. Marcionite churches held strong until the beginning of the fourth century.

Montanus
Sometime in the 160's on the borders of Mysia (western Turkey) a believer named Montanus broke onto the scene. He testified that he had experienced an ecstatic visitation of the Paraclete (the Holy Spirit) and, along with two women (Maximilla and Priscilla), had the ability to deliver prophetic messages from God.

The Montanist message, whether spoken or delivered in ecstatic utterance, consisted of: the promise (or warning) of the immanent return of Jesus and the apocalyptic end of the world, a new outpouring of the Spirit announcing this message, and an encouragement to embrace persecution and martrydom. The church had not discouraged these messages up to this point, and indeed, did not immediately disagree with Montanus. Unfortunately, other messages existed behind these to form a three-part subtext. First, two of the primary characters were women. There are some modern scholars who seize upon this as evidence for a patriarchical stronghold that would deny any leadership to women. There are good arguments against this position, but the early church was a male dominated movement and women certainly did not have equal access to leadership roles. Another subtext was the over-zealous approach to martrydom. We have already covered the problems with what can be called "the cult of the martyrs." It is highly likely that Montanists were among the martyrs in the famous persecution scene of Lyons in the year 177. Probably the most problematic aspect of the Montanists was the view that their prophecies carried the authority of the gospels, and of apostolic teaching. Montanus and his two prophetesses did not see themselves in need of the authority of the church. The leading bishops did, however, prevail even after Tertullian defected from the church and joined the Montanists. Around 179 AD Maximilla complained of the treatment she had received, "I am driven as a wolf from the sheep. I am not a wolf. I am word, spirit and power." (Eusebius, History V.16.17)

In the end, Montanism was rejected more for being fanatical than for being heretical. David Wright concludes his study on Montanism by saying, "The reaction against Montanism brought upon the church impoverishment more detrimental than the upset caused by the unbalanced excesses of the New Prophecy." (Wright, David, "Why Were the Montanists Condemned?", Themelios 2:1, pp.15-22; also www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_montanists_wright.html)

Gnosticism
In the early second century a strange movement began to emerge, more strongly concentrated in Egypt, but with pockets of activity throughout the Roman Empire. Gnosticism was a curious synthesis of Jewish apocalypticism, Platonism, strains of pagan religions, and early Christianity. There are some indications of an early form of gnostic thought in the NT, but nothing like what developed in the second century.

Similar to Marcion, basic Gnosticism consisted of an extreme dualism, drawing a distinction between the body and the spirit realm. The "demiurge" was the evil creator of the physical universe, humans were bound in their "evil" physical body, and could only be released from the confines of that body through the gaining of gnosis, or divine knowledge. The seven visible heavenly bodies (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) gave rise to a belief in eight heavenly realms. Plato had written about the concept of pre-existent souls in a state of perfection prior to taking on a mortal body on the earth. When the soul is released from the prison of the body it ascends back to the heavenly realm where it is reunited with the realm of ideas. The soul in the Gnostic system must ascend through these heavenly realms in the quest to return to a state of perfection. Along the way the soul must pass guardians of each level; typically to pass into the next stage, or heavenly realm, the soul must recite some of the heavenly gnosis learned during the earthly trek. The eighth level is the place of perfection, the ultimate goal for every soul.

Gnosticism in the second century was not a unified movement. Each group tended to gravitate around a single enlightened leader, and most groups were exclusive, seeing their particular set of dogma to be unique and essential. This lack of cohesiveness between Gnostic sects makes it difficult to quickly summarize the gnostic system beyond the above overview. To learn more, see the explanations regarding some of the chief gnostics of the second century:

Carpocrates
Basilides
Valentinus

Outline	Key People	Key Documents
Persecution of Roman Empire The Apostolic Fathers The Spirit of Martyrdom Second Repentance Second Century Heresies The Apologists New Testament Canon, Part 3 New Testament Canon, Part 4 Summary and Applications The New Testament, Part 3 Summary and Applications	Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Marcion Justin Martyr Irenaeus of Lyons Clement of Alexandria Tertullian	1 and 2 Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas The Letters of Ignatius Martyrdom of Polycarp The Shepherd of Hermas

The Apologists
The second century brought with it a steady growth of Gentile Christianity, but not without opponents. We have seen the rise of various heresies, opposition marked by a twisting of "apostolic teaching." This led the early Christian leadership to further develop creeds and formulas as a way to solidify "orthodox" positions. One must remember that in the early second century the New Testament had not come fully into form the writings of the apostolic successors was held in high esteem. The growth of the church into something of a "grassroots" movement also brought critics like Lucian (a writer), Galen (a physician) and Celsus (a philosopher). Celsus is the most well-known early critic of Christianity. His attack must have had some influence - we know his writing through Origin's argument against him, Contra Celsum, written nearly 100 years later. The following arguments, voiced by Celsus, were commonly used against Christianity:

It is important to understand that intellectual criticism of the Christian faith and doctrine was not uncommon in the second century. This is important for many reasons, but let me point out two:

1. Christianity has always had critics. What we see and hear leveled against the faith is not new believers before us had to find answers against critics and so does the contemporary church.
2. The answers we find to the objections clearly indicate that the primary doctrines of the faith were well established before the NT took its final form. Those who argue that the faith being taught in the 21st century is somehow different from what the earliest believers held is simply not true. The virgin birth, the physical resurrection, the divinity of Jesus we find the same cardinal doctrines of faith in early second century Christianity.

Justin Martyr (cir. 100-165)
Justin was an ardent student of philosophy (mainly Stoicism and Platonism) and taught philosophy. In his early thirties he met an elderly man on a seashore who impressed upon Justin the trustworthiness of the gospel. Justin investigated the faith and became convinced. He continued to wear his philosopher's gown and teach philosophy, but now advocating the only true philosophy to be Christianity.

Justin is mainly known through his writings:
The Apologies a set of discourses propounding the supremacy of the Christian faith. The first Apology is addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius (ruled 138-161) and to his son, Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180), who himself was something of a philosopher. Justin appeals to these em