History of Dogma Volume I Part 8

BOOK I

_THE PREPARATION_

CHAPTER I

HISTORICAL SURVEY

The first century of the existence of Gentile Christian communities is particularly characterised by the following features:

I. The rapid disappearance of Jewish Christianity.[140]

II. The enthusiastic character of the religious temper; the Charismatic teachers and the appeal to the Spirit.[141]

III. The strength of the hopes for the future, Chiliasm.[142]

IV. The rigorous endeavour to fulfil the moral precepts of Christ, and truly represent the holy and heavenly community of G.o.d in abstinence from everything unclean, and in love to G.o.d and the brethren here on earth "in these last days."[143]

V. The want of a fixed doctrinal form in relation to the abstract statement of the faith, and the corresponding variety and freedom of Christian preaching on the basis of clear formulae and an increasingly rich tradition.

VI. The want of a clearly defined external authority in the communities, sure in its application, and the corresponding independence and freedom of the individual Christian in relation to the expression of the ideas, beliefs and hopes of faith.[144]

VII. The want of a fixed political union of the several communities with each other--every _ecclesia_ is an image complete in itself, and an embodiment of the whole heavenly Church--while the consciousness of the unity of the holy Church of Christ which has the spirit in its midst, found strong expression.[145]

VIII. A quite unique literature in which were manufactured facts for the past and for the future, and which did not submit to the usual literary rules and forms, but came forward with the loftiest pretensions.[146]

IX. The reproduction of particular sayings and arguments of Apostolic Teachers with an uncertain understanding of them.[147]

X. The rise of tendencies which endeavoured to hasten in every respect the inevitable process of fusing the Gospel with the spiritual and religious interests of the time, viz., the h.e.l.lenic, as well as attempts to separate the Gospel from its origins and provide for it quite foreign presuppositions. To the latter belongs, above all, the h.e.l.lenic idea that knowledge is not a charismatic supplement to the faith, or an outgrowth of faith alongside of others, but that it coincides with the essence of faith itself.[148]

The sources for this period are few, as there was not much written, and the following period did not lay itself out for preserving a great part of the literary monuments of that epoch. Still we do possess a considerable number of writings and important fragments,[149] and further important inferences here are rendered possible by the monuments of the following period, since the conditions of the first century were not changed in a moment, but were partly, at least, long preserved, especially in certain national Churches and in remote communities.[150]

_Supplement._--The main features of the message concerning Christ, of the matter of the Evangelic history, were fixed in the first and second generations of believers, and on Palestinian soil. But yet, up to the middle of the second century, this matter was in many ways increased in Gentile Christian regions, revised from new points of view, handed down in very diverse forms, and systematically allegorised by individual teachers. As a whole, the Evangelic history certainly appears to have been completed at the beginning of the second century. But in detail, much that was new was produced at a later period--and not only in Gnostic circles--and the old tradition was recast or rejected.[151]

[Footnote 140: This fact must have been apparent as early as the year 100. The first direct evidence of it is in Justin (Apol. I. 53).]

[Footnote 141: Every individual was, or at least should have been conscious, as a Christian, of having received the [Greek: pneuma theou], though that does not exclude spiritual grades. A special peculiarity of the enthusiastic nature of the religious temper is that it does not allow reflection as to the authenticity of the faith in which a man lives. As to the Charismatic teaching, see my edition of the Didache (Texte u Unters. II 1. 2 p. 93 ff.).]

[Footnote 142: The hope of the approaching end of the world and the glorious kingdom of Christ still determined men's hearts; though exhortations against theoretical and practical scepticism became more and more necessary. On the other hand, after the Epistles to the Thessalonians, there were not wanting exhortations to continue sober and diligent.]

[Footnote 143: There was a strong consciousness that the Christian Church is, above all, a union for a holy life, as well as a consciousness of the obligation to help one another, and use all the blessings bestowed by G.o.d in the service of our neighbours. Justin (2 Apol. in Euseb. H. E. IV. 17. 10) calls Christianity [Greek: to didaskalion tes theias aretes].]

[Footnote 144: The existing authorities (Old Testament, sayings of the Lord, words of Apostles) did not necessarily require to be taken into account; for the living acting Spirit, partly attesting himself also to the senses, gave new revelations. The validity of these authorities therefore held good only in theory, and might in practice be completely set aside (cf. above all, the Shepherd of Hermas).]

[Footnote 145: Zahn remarks (Ignatius, v. A. p. VII.): "I do not believe it to be the business of that province of historical investigation which is dependent on the writings of the so-called Apostolic Fathers as main sources, to explain the origin of the universal Church in any sense of the term; for that Church existed before Clement and Hermas, before Ignatius and Polycarp. But an explanatory answer is needed for the question, by what means did the consciousness of the 'universal Church'

so little favoured by outer circ.u.mstances, maintain itself unbroken in the post-Apostolic communities?" This way of stating it obscures, at least, the problem which here lies before us, for it does not take account of the changes which the idea "universal Church" underwent up to the middle of the third century--besides, we do not find the t.i.tle before Ignatius. In so far as the "universal Church" is set forth as an earthly power recognisable in a doctrine or in political forms, the question as to the origin of the idea is not only allowable, but must be regarded as one of the most important. On the earliest conception of the "Ecclesia" and its realisation, see the fine investigations of Sohm "Kirchenrecht," I. p. i ff., which, however, suffer from being a little overdriven.]

[Footnote 146: See the important essay of Overbeck: Ueber die Anfange d.

patrist. Litteratur (Hist. Ztschr. N. F. Bd. XII pp. 417-472). Early Christian literature, as a rule, claims to be inspired writing. One can see, for example, in the history of the resurrection in the recently discovered Gospel of Peter (fragment) how facts were remodelled or created.]

[Footnote 147: The writings of men of the Apostolic period, and that immediately succeeding, attained in part a wide circulation, and in some portions of them, often of course incorrectly understood, very great influence. How rapidly this literature was diffused, even the letters, may be studied in the history of the Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle of Clement, and other writings.]

[Footnote 148: That which is here mentioned is of the greatest importance; it is not a mere reference to the so-called Gnostics. The foundations for the h.e.l.lenising of the Gospel in the Church were already laid in the first century (50-150).]

[Footnote 149: We should not over-estimate the extent of early Christian literature. It is very probable that we know, so far as the t.i.tles of books are concerned, nearly all that was effective, and the greater part, by very diverse means, has also been preserved to us. We except, of course, the so-called Gnostic literature of which we have only a few fragments. Only from the time of Commodus, as Eusebius, H. E. V. 21. 27, has remarked, did the great Church preserve an extensive literature.]

[Footnote 150: It is therefore important to note the locality in which a doc.u.ment originates, and the more so the earlier the doc.u.ment is. In the earliest period, in which the history of the Church was more uniform, and the influence from without relatively less, the differences are still in the background. Yet the spirit of Rome already announces itself in the Epistle of Clement, that of Alexandria in the Epistle of Barnabas, that of the East in the Epistles of Ignatius.]

[Footnote 151: The history of the genesis of the four Canonical Gospels, or the comparison of them, is instructive on this point. Then we must bear in mind the old Apocryphal Gospels, and the way in which the so-called Apostolic Fathers and Justin attest the Evangelic history, and in part reproduce it independently, the Gospels of Peter, of the Egyptians, and of Marcion; the Diatesseron of Tatian; the Gnostic Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, etc. The greatest gap in our knowledge consists in the fact, that we know so little about the course of things from about the year 61 to the beginning of the reign of Trajan. The consolidating and remodelling process must, for the most part, have taken place in this period. We possess probably not a few writings which belong to that period; but how are we to prove this, how are they to be arranged? Here lies the cause of most of the differences, combinations and uncertainties; many scholars, therefore, actually leave these 40 years out of account, and seek to place everything in the first three decennia of the second century.]

CHAPTER II.

THE ELEMENT COMMON TO ALL CHRISTIANS AND THE BREACH WITH JUDAISM

On account of the great differences among those who, in the first century, reckoned themselves in the Church of G.o.d, and called themselves by the name of Christ,[152] it seems at first sight scarcely possible to set up marks which would hold good for all, or even for nearly all, the groups. Yet the great majority had one thing in common, as is proved, among other things, by the gradual expulsion of Gnosticism. The conviction that they knew the supreme G.o.d, the consciousness of being responsible to him (Heaven and h.e.l.l), reliance on Jesus Christ, the hope of an eternal life, the vigorous elevation above the world--these are the elements that formed the fundamental mood. The author of the Acts of Thecla expresses the general view when he (c. 5-7) co-ordinates [Greek: ton tou christou logon] with [Greek: logos theou peri enkateias, kai anastaseos]. The following particulars may here be specified.[153]

I. The Gospel, because it rests on revelation, is the sure manifestation of the supreme G.o.d, and its believing acceptance guarantees salvation ([Greek: soteria]).

II. The essential content of this manifestation (besides the revelation and the verification of the oneness and spirituality of G.o.d),[154] is, first of all, the message of the resurrection and eternal life ([Greek: anastasis zoe aionios]), then the preaching of moral purity and continence ([Greek: enkrateia]), on the basis of repentance toward G.o.d ([Greek: metanoia]), and of an expiation once a.s.sured by baptism, with eye ever fixed on the requital of good and evil.[155]

III. This manifestation is mediated by Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour ([Greek: soter]) sent by G.o.d "in these last days," and who stands with G.o.d himself in a union special and unique, (cf. the ambiguous [Greek: pais theou], which was much used in the earliest period). He has brought the true and full knowledge of G.o.d, as well as the gift of immortality [Greek: gnosis kai zoe], or [Greek: gnosis tes zoes], as an expression for the sum of the Gospel. See the supper prayer in the Didache, c. IX.

an X.; [Greek: eucharistoumen soi, pater hemon huper tes zoes kai gnoseos hes egnorisas hemin dia Iesou tou paidos sou], and is for that very reason the redeemer ([Greek: soter] and victor over the demons) on whom we are to place believing trust. But he is, further, in word and walk the highest example of all moral virtue, and therefore in his own person the law for the perfect life, and at the same time the G.o.d-appointed lawgiver and judge.[156]

IV. Virtue as continence, embraces as its highest task, renunciation of temporal goods and separation from the common world; for the Christian is not a citizen, but a stranger on the earth, and expects its approaching destruction.[157]

V. Christ has committed to chosen men, the Apostles (or to one Apostle), the proclamation of the message he received from G.o.d; consequently, their preaching represents that of Christ himself. But, besides, the Spirit of G.o.d rules in Christians, "the Saints." He bestows upon them special gifts, and, above all, continually raises up among them Prophets and spiritual Teachers who receive revelations and communications for the edification of others, and whose injunctions are to be obeyed.

VI. Christian Worship is a service of G.o.d in spirit and in truth (a spiritual sacrifice), and therefore has no legal ceremonial and statutory rules. The value of the sacred acts and consecrations which are connected with the cultus, consists in the communication of spiritual blessings. (Didache X., [Greek: hemin de echariso, despota, pneumatiken trophen kai poton kai zoen aionion dia tou paidos sou]).

VII. Everything that Jesus Christ brought with him, may be summed up in [Greek: gnosis kai zoe], or in the knowledge of immortal life.[158] To possess the perfect knowledge was, in wide circles, an expression for the sum total of the Gospel.[159]

VIII. Christians, as such, no longer take into account the distinctions of race, age, rank, nationality and worldly culture, but the Christian community must be conceived as a communion resting on a divine election.

Opinions were divided about the ground of that election.

IX. As Christianity is the only true religion, and as it is no national religion, but somehow concerns the whole of humanity, or its best part, it follows that it can have nothing in common with the Jewish nation and its contemporary cultus. The Jewish nation in which Jesus Christ appeared, has, for the time at least, no special relation to the G.o.d whom Jesus revealed. Whether it had such a relation at an earlier period is doubtful (cf. here, e.g., the att.i.tude of Marcion, Ptolemaeus the disciple of Valentinus, the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, Aristides and Justin); but certain it is that G.o.d has now cast it off, and that all revelations of G.o.d, so far as they took place at all before Christ, (the majority a.s.sumed that there had been such revelations and considered the Old Testament as a holy record), must have aimed solely at the call of the "new people", and in some way prepared for the revelation of G.o.d through his Son.[160]

[Footnote 152: See, as to this, Celsus in Orig. III. 10 ff. and V. 59 ff.]

[Footnote 153: The marks adduced in the text do not certainly hold good for some comparatively unimportant Gnostic groups, but they do apply to the great majority of them, and in the main to Marcion also.]

[Footnote 154: Most of the Gnostic schools know only one G.o.d, and put all emphasis on the knowledge of the oneness, supramundaneness, and spirituality of this G.o.d. The aeons, the Demiurgus, the G.o.d of matter, do not come near this G.o.d though they are called G.o.ds. See the testimony of Hippolytus c. Noet. 11; [Greek: kai gar pantes apekleisthesan eis touto akontes eipein hoti to pan eis hena anatrechei ei oun ta panta eis hena anatrechei kai kata thualentinon kai kata Markiona, Kerinthon te kai pasan ten ekeinon phluarian, kai akontes eis touto periepesan, hina ton hena h.o.m.ologesosin aition ton panton houtos oun suntrechousin kai autoi me thelontes te aletheia hena theon legein poiesanta hos ethelesen].]