Chapter 2: Who Were the Early Christians? I still remember my college English professor trying to impress on me the importance of defining my terms in my essays. Although I gave little heed to his words at the time, I realized the significance of his admonition when I began discussing the early Christians with various groups. Invariably, one of the first questions people ask me is, "Just who do you mean by the early Christians?" So let me define some terms.
By the term "early Christians," I am primarily referring to the Christians who lived between 80-90 and 199. The Apostle John was still living at the beginning of this period. The first generation of early Christians were men like Polycarp, who had been personally taught by one or more of the apostles. The period ended with a man who was only one human link removed from John, Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp.
By the term "early Christianity," I'm referring to beliefs and practices of the worldwide community of early Christians who maintain bonds of fellowship and communion with each other. I'm not referring to the beliefs or practices of anyone labeled as a heretic by that church, so I'm not describing the entire field of wheat and weeds mixed together, but only the wheat.
Although this book primarily focuses on the Christians who lived between 90 and 199 AD, the common beliefs and practices of these early Christians were generally maintained by Christians living in the next century. For that reason, the discussion that follows will also include quotations from writers who lived between 200 and 313, as long as their teachings agree with those who lived in the period immediately after the apostles.
When I start talking about the early Christian writers, people usually respond by saying, "Oh, you mean the early church fathers." But these men were not church fathers. Most of them were fairly ordinary, hardworking Christian leaders with above-average education. They would have been highly indignant at being called church fathers. The only church fathers they recognized were the apostles. Actually, the very fact that these writers were not church fathers is what makes their writings so valuable.
If these men had been great founders of theology, their writings would be of limited value to us. They would simply tell us what doctrines these particular founding theologians had developed. But these men did not write theological treatises. In fact, no one in the second-century church can even be called a theologian in the modern sense. And there is no real systematic theology in the entire pre-Constantine church.
Instead, the early Christian writings primarily consist of: 1) Apologetic works explaining universally held Christian beliefs to the Romans and Jews; 2) Works defending apostolic Christianity against heretics; and 3) Correspondence between churches. These writings are a witness to what the church in general believed and practiced during the period shortly after the apostles had died. This is what makes them so invaluable.
In fact, the only person during the entire period between 90 and 313 AD who can rightly be called a theologian is Origen. But Origen didn't impose his views on other Christians. Instead, he was one of the least dogmatic of all the writers of the early Christian period. And this was an age when no one was very dogmatic on matters beyond the few essential Christian doctrines. One of the noticeable features of early Christianity is the relative lack of rigidly defined theological dogma.
In fact, the further one goes back in Christian history, the less defined dogma he finds. Nevertheless, there still were some essential doctrines and common practices that all orthodox Christians held to. This book will focus on these common or universally held beliefs and practices.
To that end, I have not represented any beliefs or practices as being those of the early church in general unless they met the following criteria: 1) All early Christian writers who mentioned the subject expressed the same view; and 2) At least five early Christian writers, separated by time or geographical distance, discussed the subject. Actually, most of the matters discussed in this book are supported by testimony from more than five writers.
Before discussing the early Christian teachings, I want to first introduce you to some of the writers from whom I will be primarily quoting. First is Polycarp. Polycarp, whose death was described earlier, was a model of faith and devotion to congregations in Asia. He was a personal companion and disciple of the Apostle John, who evidently appointed him overseer or bishop of the congregation at Smyrna.
If the angels of the seven churches of Revelation refer to the overseers of those churches, then it's quite possible that the angel of the church of Smyrna was none other than Polycarp. If so, this is noteworthy because Smyrna is one of the two churches in Revelation for which Jesus had no words of rebuke. Polycarp lived until he was at least 87. He was finally martyred around 155 AD. Number 2) Irenaeus.
One of Polycarp's personal disciples was Irenaeus, who moved to Gaul, modern-day France, to serve as a missionary. When the overseer of the congregation in Lyon, France, was killed during persecution, Irenaeus was named as his successor. The entire early church spoke well of Irenaeus, and he lived past 200 AD. As a pupil of Polycarp, who was a companion of the Apostle John, Irenaeus served as an important human link to the age of the apostles. Number 3) Justin.
During Polycarp's lifetime, a young philosopher named Justin embarked on a spiritual journey to find truth. One day, he was walking to his accustomed place of meditation in a secluded field overlooking the Mediterranean. Suddenly, he noticed an old man walking at a distance behind him. Wanting to be left alone, he turned and stared with annoyance at the elderly man. However, the old man, who turned out to be a Christian, struck up a conversation and learned that Justin was a philosopher.
The old man then began to ask some soul-searching questions, helping Justin to see the deficiency of human philosophy. As Justin later reminisced, "When the old man had spoken these and many other things, he left, encouraging me to think about what he had said. I've never seen him since, but immediately a flame was kindled in my soul. I was overwhelmed by a love for the prophets and the friends of Christ.
After pondering over the things the old man had said, I realized that Christianity was the only true and worthwhile philosophy." After becoming a Christian, Justin continued to wear his philosopher's robe to symbolize that he had found the one true philosophy. In fact, he became an evangelist to pagan philosophers and devoted his life to helping educated Romans understand the meaning of Christianity. His written defenses to the Romans are the oldest complete Christian apologies still in existence.
Justin proved to be a gifted evangelist, converting many Romans, learned and unlearned alike. In the end, a group of philosophers plotting against his life had him arrested. Choosing to die rather than to denounce Christ, Justin was executed in about 165. After his death, he became known as Justin the Martyr or simply Justin Martyr. Number 4) Clement of Alexandria. Another philosopher who found Christianity while on a spiritual journey for truth was Clement.
After realizing the inadequacy of human philosophy, he turned to Christianity. After his conversion, he journeyed throughout the Roman Empire, learning the precepts of Christianity firsthand from the oldest, most respected Christian teachers of his age. His writings, which are dated about 190, reflect the composite wisdom of his instructors, and they have inspired many Christians throughout the centuries, including John Wesley. Clement eventually settled in Alexandria, Egypt.
He was made an elder or presbyter in that congregation, and he was placed in charge of training new Christians. He is generally referred to as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from another Clement, Clement of Rome, who was an overseer or bishop of the church of Rome during the last years of the Apostle John. Unless indicated otherwise, references to Clement in this book will mean Clement of Alexandria. Number 5) Origen.
Among Clement's students in Alexandria was a gifted teenager named Origen, who had been reared in a Christian home. When Origen was 17, severe persecution broke out in Alexandria, and his father was imprisoned. Origen wrote his father in prison and encouraged him to remain faithful and not to renounce Christ out of fatherly concern for his family. After a date was set for his father's trial, Origen decided to appear at the trial by his father's side and to die with him.
However, on the night before the trial, while Origen was asleep, his mother hid all of his clothes, preventing him from leaving the house the next morning in time for the trial. Although he was only 17, Origen distinguished himself in the church of Alexandria by the loving care he gave to his fellow Christians during the fierce persecution raging at that time. The angry mobs noticed his acts of mercy, and he barely survived the persecution with his own life.
Origen had learned grammar and Greek literature from his father, and he began giving private lessons in those subjects to support his younger brothers and sisters. He was so unusually brilliant that many pagan parents sent their sons to be instructed by Origen, and many of these youths became Christians as a result of Origen's witnessing to them. Meanwhile, Clement, the teacher in charge of training new Christians at Alexandria, had put his life at risk. To the pagan officials, he was a marked man.
So he was forced to escape to another city to continue his Christian ministry. In an unusual move, the elders of Alexandria appointed Origen, only 18 at the time, to take Clement's place as the head of the training school. They chose wisely, and Origen poured his very soul into the task. He quit his short-lived profession as an instructor of grammar and literature, and he sold all of his Greek literary books on credit to another man.
He subsisted in poverty off of the small monthly installment payments he received from the sale of his Greek literary books. He refused to accept any payment for his services as a Christian teacher. After teaching new Christian believers all day, he would study the scriptures far into the night. Before long, Origen became one of the most respected Christian teachers of his age. Eventually, some of his friends asked him to give a series of lectures on the Bible, discussing each book of the Bible passage by passage.
His friends paid scribes to take down his words, and these became the first set of Bible commentaries ever written by a Christian. Origen didn't intend for his commentaries to be taken as dogmatic pronouncements since he frequently went off on tangents and personal surmises. Throughout the commentaries, he displays an amiable, flexible disposition, frequently ending the discussion by saying, "Well, that's the best I can do with that passage.
Maybe someone with more insight has a better explanation." Sometimes in his speculations, Origen expressed some unorthodox views that were not representative of early Christian thought. For that reason, I've been judicious in quoting from him. Despite his erroneous speculations, Origen possessed one of the most brilliant minds of his day among Christians and non-Christians alike. He even carried on personal correspondence with one of the Roman emperors.
But his fame also attracted the attention of the enemies of Christianity, and several times he was forced to move to new towns in order to escape persecution. Nevertheless, he managed to live until he was 70 when he was finally caught and tortured. No amount of torture could make him deny Jesus, and his tormentors finally gave up in exasperation. However, Origen eventually died from their inhumane treatment. Next is Tertullian.
To Western Christians, Tertullian is perhaps the most familiar of all the early Christian writers. He was a leader in the North African church of Carthage, the place where he eventually settled. Tertullian was one of the most gifted apologists of the early church, and he was one of the few early church elders who wrote in Latin rather than in Greek.
Tertullian is remembered for several memorable sayings such as "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Tertullian penned his writings during a span of about 20 years, from 190 AD to 210. In addition to his apologetic works, Tertullian wrote several short letters or essays reassuring Christians in prison and exhorting Christians in general to maintain their separation from the world. He also wrote several defenses of orthodoxy against the heretics of his day.
Later in his life, Tertullian was heavily influenced by the Montanist sect, which sect was orthodox in theology, but which expected its members to follow man-made ascetic commands. Fortunately, at least half of Tertullian's writings were penned before he adopted the Montanist view. Furthermore, since this group was orthodox in its theology, even Tertullian's Montanistic works are generally representative of early Christian thought.
Nevertheless, again, I've been cautious in quoting from any of his Montanistic works. Next is Cyprian. A few decades after Tertullian penned his works, a wealthy Roman named Cyprian converted to Christianity at the age of 40. Although he was an admirer of Tertullian, Cyprian never joined the Montanist sect, and he was strongly opposed to any heretical or schismatic groups.
As a new Christian, Cyprian was so jubilant to have found Christ and to be born anew that he liquidated his entire estate and gave the money to the poor. He rejoiced to be unfettered from the weight of his material possessions, and his writings contain some of the most moving passages on the Christian rebirth ever penned. The church in Carthage respected his enthusiastic commitment to Christ.
Though he had been a Christian only a few years, they selected him to be the overseer or bishop of their church, a very unusual event in that age. Cyprian's writings are particularly valuable because they consist chiefly of correspondence with the leaders of other churches, revealing the everyday concerns and problems of Christian congregations in that period. Cyprian was forced to carry on much of his pastoral work underground since intense persecution raged during much of his ministry.
He was a tireless shepherd, pouring out his energy and ultimately his very life for the flock that Christ entrusted to him. He was finally arrested by the Romans and beheaded in 258 AD. Finally, Lactantius. Lactantius is less familiar to most Christians today, but this is our loss because he wrote with unusual clarity and eloquence. Before embracing Christianity, he had been a celebrated teacher of rhetoric, receiving notice from Emperor Diocletian.
After his conversion, Lactantius dedicated his literary abilities to the cause of Christ. He lived through the last great Roman persecution of Christians in the early 300s, and he eventually settled in France. Although Lactantius was an old man when Constantine became emperor in 312, Constantine asked him to be the personal instructor of his oldest son. The writings of Lactantius are important because they were written at the very end of the pre-Constantine period of the church.
They demonstrate that most Christian beliefs had changed very little during the 223 years from the end of the Apostle John's life to the beginning of Constantine's reign. Now, I can well appreciate that these names are probably unfamiliar to you, and you may have trouble remembering them. For that reason, in the printed book, I've included a biographical dictionary at the very end, which gives you a sketch of all the writers that I cite in this book.
So if you have a printed copy of the book, you may want to go and review some of those names to refresh your memory. Now, in my early drafts of this book, I merely described the early Christian beliefs and practices, including only one or two actual quotes from the early Christians in each chapter. But the universal comment I received back from friends who reviewed those early chapters was, "We want to hear the early Christians themselves talk, not you.
Let them tell their story in their own words." So that's what I've done. Here's their story, told largely by them. Hopefully, it will challenge you as much as it did me.