Chapter 9, "The Horse's Mouth." As we have said, undoubtedly the 1st-century Corinthian congregation correctly understood what Paul is teaching them about the prayer covering. However, we are not in a position to ask those Corinthian Christians to explain Paul's letter to us. But the next generation of Corinthian Christians were. In fact, they did not have to ask, for they were eyewitnesses of the course of performance of the original Corinthian congregation.
They saw how the original Corinthian congregation understood Paul's letter. And they have left us a historical record of their course of performance. This historical record extends at least as far back as 96 AD, possibly even as far back as AD 60 or 70. The writings from Christians who lived before 200 AD are quite extensive. They are over 5 times as long as the New Testament writings. These writings by no means clarify every verse of the New Testament.
However, they do clearly reveal what the primitive Church believed on the major doctrines: the Trinity, the Incarnation, Salvation, Free Will, rewards and punishments after death, baptism, the Atonement, and the Eucharist or Communion. They also reveal the practice or course of performance of the early Church on baptism, communion, the prayer covering, Love Feast, Church meetings, and similar practices.
They graphically describe the lifestyle of Christians in that age, and they reveal their understandings of virtually every commandment and moral teaching found in the New Testament. These writings from the 1st and 2nd centuries are fortified by a vast collection of writings, over 10 times the size of the New Testament, from the period between AD 200 and 300. Appendix A provides a list of various English translations of the early Christian writings so that you can obtain and read them for yourself.
But please do not refer to these writers as "the Church Fathers." These men were not fathers; they were disciples. Some of them, such as Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome, were personal disciples of the Apostles. Others were only 1 or 2 generations removed from the Apostles. For an introduction to the lives and teachings of the early Christian writers, I refer you to my earlier book, "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up?" These men were not theological innovators.
Rather, most of them were defending Christianity against pagan and Jewish critics, or against heretics. In their writings, they repeatedly declared that the things they were writing were what the whole Church believed. For example, Justin Martyr, who wrote several apologetic works, almost always used the term "we" in describing to the Romans and Jews what Christians believed and practiced.
He even told the Roman emperors and senators, "And be it yours, as powerful rulers, to inquire whether we have been taught, and do truly teach, these things." Another example is the apologetic work to Diognetus, thought to have been written about AD 125. Its purpose was to explain actual Christian beliefs and practices to the pagan official Diognetus.
For this official was exceedingly desirous to learn the mode of worshiping God prevalent among the Christians, and inquiring very carefully and earnestly concerning them: what God they trust in, and what form of religion they observe. These early Christian writers repeatedly testified that the things about which they wrote were handed down to the Church by the Apostles.
For example, Clement of Alexandria wrote, "Now this work of mine in writing is not artfully constructed for display; but my memoranda are stored up against old age as a remedy against forgetfulness, truly an image and outline of those vigorous and animated discourses which I was privileged to hear, and of blessed and truly remarkable men." They, preserving well the tradition of the blessed doctrine derived directly from the holy Apostles—Peter, James, John, and Paul—the sons receiving it from the fathers.
But few were like the fathers. Came, by God's will, to us, also to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds. In his work against the Gnostics, written about AD 185, Irenaeus, bishop or overseer of the Church in Lyon, France, wrote, "Now the Church, although scattered over the whole civilized world to the end of the earth, received from the Apostles and their disciples its faith in one God.
Having received this preaching and this faith, as I have said, the Church, although scattered in the whole world, carefully preserves it as if living in one house. She believes these things everywhere alike, as if she had but one heart and one soul, and preaches them harmoniously, teaches them, and hands them down, as if she had but one mouth. For the languages of the world are different, but the meaning of the apostolic tradition is one and the same.
Neither do the churches that have been established in Germany believe otherwise, or hand down any other tradition, nor those among the Iberians, nor those among the Celts, nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor those established in the middle parts of the world. Neither will one of those preside in the churches who is very powerful in speech say anything different from these things.
For no one is above his teacher, nor will one who is weak in speech diminish the tradition." But wasn't Irenaeus several generations removed from the Apostles, you might ask? How could he be sure that the faith had been accurately handed down to him? The answer is that Irenaeus was only one human removed from the period of the Apostles. He was a student of Polycarp, who was a personal disciple of the Apostle John.
Irenaeus wrote, "Similarly, Polycarp, who not only was taught by Apostles and associated with many who had seen Christ, but was installed by Apostles for Asia as bishop in the Church in Smyrna. I saw him myself in my early youth, survived for a long time, and departed this life in a ripe old age by a glorious and magnificent martyrdom.
He always taught what he learned from the Apostles, which the Church continues to hand on, and which are the only truths." All of the works about which I am speaking were written by men who were considered Orthodox by the early Church throughout the world. These writers of which I am speaking are basically the same writers who are listed as Orthodox in the writings called the Ante-Nicene Fathers. These writers were not heretics or independent thinkers who were off in a world of their own.
Most of the writers from the first two centuries were elders or bishops in the Church. And not only did their writings reflect the faith of the Church and of Scripture, but these writers also lived out their faith. All of them risked their lives to write on behalf of the Church, and a number of them died for their faith. The Apostles spent the greater part of the 1st century establishing churches and teaching correct doctrine and practice to them.
I firmly believe that the faith was once for all delivered to the saints, as it says in Jude 3, and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and yes, forever (Hebrews 13:8). That being the case, the faith was complete when the Apostles passed it on to the next generation. The Church wasn't going to grow into a clearer and clearer understanding of true Christianity as centuries passed.
Rather, unless it held on to what was handed down to it, there was only one direction to grow: away from biblical Christianity. Moreover, unlike some Christians of later centuries, the generation that received the faith directly from the Apostles did not claim to have any further revelation or new light on Scripture. They believed that all necessary truth had already been revealed by the Apostles. They were committed to faithfully handing down to the next generation what they had received.
And we have a solid historical record of what that generation of Christians believed and practiced. So let's see what light they shed on the meaning of 1 Corinthians 11.