Early Christian Beliefs About Excommunication
Early Christian writings treat excommunication as a real church action used to keep the church holy and protect the flock. Cyprian, Tertullian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and the Apostolic Constitutions speak about excluding the unruly, heretical, or openly sinful, and sometimes taking people back after repentance. The clearest Bible passages are 1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18:17, 1 Timothy 1:20, and Titus 3:10.
144 early-church witnesses · 257 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about excommunication?
Early Christian writings teach that excommunication was a real church discipline used to remove stubborn sinners, heretics, and troublemakers from fellowship. Cyprian speaks most clearly about bishops and churches excluding people like Felicissimus and Novatian, while Tertullian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and the Apostolic Constitutions also treat expulsion and restoration as normal parts of church order.
The Bible passages most directly tied to this practice are 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Timothy 1:20, Matthew 18:17, and Titus 3:10. The witness is broad across the second and third centuries, and it is especially strong for exclusion of public sin, false teaching, and later restoration after repentance. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians did not treat excommunication as unusual; they saw it as normal church discipline.
- Church writers linked excommunication with keeping out heresy, open sin, and rebellion.
- Some early texts also speak of restoring repentant people after discipline.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Why did early Christians excommunicate people?
The sources link excommunication to heresy, rebellion against the Church, and serious disorder or sin. Cyprian, Tertullian, and other witnesses describe people being outside communion because they had separated themselves from the Church's discipline.
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Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching
To Caldonius, Herculanus, and Others, About the Excommunication of Felicissimus.
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Tertullian, On Baptism Direct teaching
Heretics, however, have no fellowship in our discipline, whom the mere fact of their excommunication testifies to be outsiders.
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1 Corinthians 5:13 Direct teaching
But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
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1 Corinthians 5:5 Direct teaching
deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
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1 Timothy 1:20 Supporting witness
of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
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Matthew 18:17 Direct teaching
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Did early Christians remove sinners from communion?
Yes. The evidence shows a consistent practice of excluding persistent sinners from fellowship, not eating with them, or putting them out of the Church. This is strongly supported by both apostolic Bible passages and patristic applications.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
In the meantime, if any unrestrained and impetuous person, whether of our presbyters or deacons or of strangers, should dare, before our decree, to communicate with the lapsed, let him be expelled from our communion, and plead the cause of his rashness before all of us when, by the Lord's permission, we shall assemble together again.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
But receive not from those that are excommunicated, until they are thought worthy to become the members of the Church.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
11. If any one, even in the house, prays with a person excommunicate, let him also be suspended.
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1 Corinthians 5:11 Direct teaching
But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
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3 John 1:10 Supporting witness
Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.
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2 Thessalonians 3:14 Supporting witness
And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
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1 Corinthians 5:2 Background
And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
More related quotations from this section 1 shown
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
... out of the congregation as a murderer of his brother. Some time later, if he says that he repents, discipline him with fastings. After that, lay your hands on him and receive him again, but still keep watch over him, so that he does not disturb anyone a second time. But if, after he is admitted again, he is still troublesome and will not stop disturbing and quarreling with his brother, looking for faults out of a contentious spirit, cast him out as a harmful person, so that he may not lay waste the Church of God. For such a man stirs up disturbances in cities. Even though he is inside, he does not become the Church, but is an unnecessary and useless member, casting a stain, as far as he can, on the body of Christ. For if people who are born with extra parts on their body, hanging from them like fingers or lumps of flesh, cut them off because of their ugliness, so that the deformity disappears and the man recovers his natural good shape by the surgeon's work, how much more ought you, the pastors of the Church, to do the same. For the Church is a perfect body, with sound members, made up of those who believe in God, in the fear of the Lord, and in love. So when an unnecessary mem
Did early Christians understand “deliver to Satan” as church discipline?
The sources show that early Christians read “deliver to Satan” as a disciplinary judgment connected with correction and the protection of the Church. Tertullian, Archelaus, and related texts cite this language as a real act against false or blasphemous teachers.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
... Jeremiah, when he urges men to repentance, says this: “Will not he who falls rise? Or he who turns away, can he not return? Why have my people gone back by a shameless backsliding? And they are hardened in their purpose.” Jeremiah 8:4-5. “Turn, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Jeremiah 3:22. Therefore receive, without any doubting, him who repents. Do not be hindered by such unmerciful men, who say that we must not be defiled with such as those, nor even speak to them. Such advice is from men who do not know God and His providence, and who are unreasonable judges and unmerciful brutes. These men do not know that we ought to avoid association with offenders, not in speech, but in actions. For “the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” Ezekiel 18:20. And again: “If a land sins against me by trespassing grievously, and I stretch out my hand upon it, and break the staff of bread upon it, and send famine upon it, and destroy man and beast in it, though these three men, Noah, Job, and Daniel, were in the midst of it, they shall only save their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord
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Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching
...he husband to do, if his wife continues in her vicious practices?" And he said, "The husband should put her away, and remain by himself. But if he puts his wife away and marries another, he also commits adultery." And I said to him, "What if the woman who was put away should repent, and wish to return to her husband? Shall she not be taken back by her husband?" And he said to me, "Assuredly. If the husband does not take her back, he sins, and brings a great sin upon himself. For he ought to take back the sinner who has repented. But not frequently. For there is but one repentance for the servants of God. In case, therefore, that the divorced wife may repent, the husband ought not to marry another, when his wife has been put away. In this matter man and woman are to be treated exactly in the same way. Moreover, adultery is committed not only by those who pollute their flesh, but by those who imitate the heathen in their actions. Therefore if anyone persists in such deeds, and does not repent, withdraw from him, and cease to live with him. Otherwise you are a sharer in his sin. Therefore the injunction has been laid on you, that you should remain by yourselves, both man and woman,
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
...he one who has despaired of salvation because of the great number of offenses to perish completely. Search for the one who has grown sleepy, drowsy, and sluggish, and who is careless about his own life because of the depth of his sleep, and who is far from his own flock, so that he is in danger of falling among the wolves and being devoured by them. Bring him back by admonition. Urge him to be watchful, and plant hope in him. Do not allow him to say what some have said: “Our impieties are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then shall we live?” Therefore, as much as possible, let the bishop make the offense his own, and say to the sinner, “Only return, and I will undertake to suffer death for you, as our Lord suffered death for me and for all men.” For the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But the hired servant, who is not the shepherd and whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, that is, the devil, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf seizes them. John 10:11-12 We must know, therefore, that God is very merciful to those who have offended, and has promised repentance with an oath. But the one who has offended and does not know this promise of G
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Peter of Alexandria, Canonical Epistle Background
Balsamon. Those who from fear only and timidity deserted the faith, and then had an eye towards repentance, the canon punishes with three years' exclusion, according to the parable of the fig-tree in the Gospels.
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1 Timothy 5:20 Supporting witness
As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
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1 Corinthians 11:32 Supporting witness
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Did early Christians receive repentant offenders back after excommunication?
Some early Christian sources clearly say the repentant should be received back, after discipline or penance. The Apostolic Constitutions and Hermas especially emphasize repentance and restoration rather than permanent exclusion in every case.
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Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching
...-baptize those whom they lure away from us. It does not matter to us at all what the enemies of the Church do, as long as we ourselves keep respect for our authority and for the firmness of reason and truth. For Novatian, like apes, which are not men and yet imitate human actions, wants to claim for himself the authority and truth of the Catholic Church, though he himself is not in the Church. No, more than that, up to now he has come forward as a rebel and enemy against the Church. For although he knows that there is one baptism, he claims this one for himself, so that he may say that the Church is with him and make us heretics. But we, who hold to the head and root of the one Church, know and confidently trust that nothing is lawful there outside the Church, and that the one baptism is among us, where he himself also was formerly baptized, when he still held to both the wisdom and truth of divine unity. But if Novatian thinks that those who have been baptized in the Church must be re-baptized outside the Church, he ought to begin with himself, so that he might first be re-baptized with a foreign and heretical baptism, since he thinks that after the Church, yes, and against the
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
...nd he fully informed us about the new and harmful schemes of Novatian and Novatus for attacking the Church of Christ. For on the day before, that harmful faction of heretical wickedness had arrived here. It was already lost itself, and ready to ruin others who joined it. Then on the next day, Nicephorus arrived with your letter. From it we ourselves learned, and have begun to teach and instruct others, that Evaristus, though once a bishop, has now not remained even a layman. Banished from the see and from the people, and an exile from the Church of Christ, he wanders far and wide through other provinces. Having himself made shipwreck of truth and faith, he is preparing similar shipwrecks for others like himself. Moreover, Nicostratus lost the diaconate of sacred ministries because he had stolen the Church's money through a sacrilegious fraud, and had denied the funds entrusted by widows and orphans. He did not so much want to come into Africa as to escape there from the city, because of his awareness of his robberies and his dreadful crimes. And now, a deserter and a fugitive from the Church, as if changing the climate could change the man, he goes on boasting and declaring hims
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Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching
1 Corinthians 15:33 And again: A man that is an heretic, after one admonition, reject: knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sins, being condemned of himself.
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Malchion, Epistle Against Paul of Samosata Supporting witness
5. Then at the close of the epistle they add the following words: — We have been compelled, therefore, to excommunicate this man, who thus opposes God Himself, and refuses submission, and to appoint in his place another bishop for the Church Catholic, and that, as we trust, by the providence of God — namely, the son of Demetrianus, a man of blessed memory, and one who presided over the same Church with distinction in former times, Domnus by name, a man endowed with all the noble qualities which become a bishop.
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Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness
Wherefore they have been excommunicated and anathematized by the Church.
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Titus 3:10 Direct teaching
A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
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1 John 2:19 Supporting witness
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
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2 Corinthians 6:15 Background
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
Common Questions
Did early Christians practice excommunication?
Yes. Writers like Cyprian and Tertullian describe excluding sinners and heretics from church fellowship, and some texts also describe later restoration after repentance.
What Bible passages were used for excommunication?
The clearest passages are 1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18:17, 1 Timothy 1:20, Titus 3:10, and 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14.
Could an excommunicated person return?
Yes, in some early texts. The Apostolic Constitutions and Hermas both speak of repentance and receiving someone back.
Source Index for Excommunication
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 257 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 144
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 113
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.