(15 votes, average: 4.93 out of 5)
Loading...Now that I’ve completed the “New Testament in a Nutshell” series, with posts summarizing each of the twenty-seven books, explaining their major themes and emphases; when, why, and by whom they were written; giving suggestions for further reading; questions to reflect on; and summaries of the summaries – it is time to move on.
And where better to move than to the early Christian writings from outside the New Testament – some of which were considered to belong to the New Testament by various church leaders and authors, for centuries. Really?
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Why were men like Ignatius and Paul sent great distances to Rome for their trials and executions?
In Roman law a citizen of Rome could not be executed by local authorities but had to be sent to Rome. In Acts Paul is said to be a citizen (most people in the empire were not); but he says nothing about it and there are good reasons for thinking he was not (for one thing, he repeatedly was subject to corporal punishment by Roman authorities, as he himself claims, and that would not have happened if he was a citizen.
This is an enlightening list. I say that because, at least as far as I’ve seen, the label “apostolic fathers” appears indefinite. One figure or another is referred to as an “apostolic father” without (as far as I can tell) there being a clear definition as to who (or in the case of documents, which you listed, what) is or isn’t an “apostolic father.” So thank you for this.
Normally scholars do refer to “the Apostolic Fathers” and to an individual in the group as “an” apostolic father. But yes, there’s no official list of some kind.
Bart, I have always wondered since we know that certain books of the Bible weren’t written by the named persons , where did these authors study to become proficient enough to be able to write these books or letters? Did they just learn about teachings in a gathering (Church) or was there schools where they learned some of the early dogma and then write their own thoughts?
The only way was for them to be raised in wealthy elite urban families and given an education from childhood — possibly as pagans before ocnverint later in life. (The exceptoin: slaves were soemtimes trained in literacy from youth) They picked up their knowledge of Christianity from their Christian communities after they came into them, or when they were born into them.
Bart, I recall you saying on the MJ Podcast that the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion. The Didache 2:2 and The Epistle of Barnabas 19:5, however, are not silent on this issue; these passages explicitly ban abortion, seemingly in all cases. How does the exclusion of these passages from the NT canon affect the Bible’s position on abortion? In the legal world, there is a longstanding maxim of interpretation, expressio unius est exclusio alterius, meaning the expression of one thing implies the exclusion of others. Consistent with this principle, the exclusion of these passages on abortion from the NT canon arguably implies the NT is not merely silent, but intentionally silent on the issue of abortion. On the other hand, these early proto-orthodox books would seem to show early Christians, at least the proto-orthodox, were against abortion. Yet if these early Christians were serious about this issue, why not include these books in the NT canon to make their position clear for all time? Is there any historical evidence that the issue of abortion played a role in considering whether to include or exclude these books from the NT canon?
Yes, starting with the “Two Ways Doctrine” (as it is called) Christians did begin to condemn abortion. I did an online course on this, and there I argued that as Christians faced increasing persecution, there was pressure on them to show they were innocent of all charges, and when it came to questoins of ethics/morality, they began to insist they were far more moral than their pagan accusers: you are against adultery? we’re against lust! you’re against murder? we’re against infanticide. in fact, we don’t even kill the fetus! These books not being in the NT is a different matter; some church leaders did think they should belong, but the abortion issue is never mentioned (it’s just a verse in each one of them, and they are decent sized); decisions on canon were not generally made on the basis of just one verse or another in a book that was otherwise approved for its useful teaching. The books had to be by an apostle, and in wide circulation, etc.
Did the Christian insistence on the higher moral standards continue to the same degree after the persecution of Christians stopped in the 4th century?
Pretty much. It still continues today in many circles!
Hello Bart/Dr Ehrman
In the apocalypse of Peter do you think the reason why there is such few descriptions of the tour to heaven is because parts of the book have been lost and those parts that were lost were actually about the tours to heaven ?
Thanks.
Definitely not. We have the full book. There just isn’t much one can say to describe eternal bliss. It’s amazing!
And do you think the book was created to scare the life out of people?
To scare the hell out of them, literally.
Sounds great! I can’t help but wonder how far “outside the New Testament” you plan to go? Most non-technical discussions of early Christian thought skip immediately from the NT to Nicaea and leave the 2nd & 3rd centuries to the specialists. (And of course there are reasons for that.) I will enjoy you branching out.
I’ll take the risk of being presumptuous…
How about a discussion of Origen? Or the Montanist “heresy”? What sorts of Christologies were floating about after the NT but before Nicaea? What was the relationship between Christians and Jews in this period?
I realize your time is limited and the audience is ever demanding!
Yes, I’ve probalby talked about both Origen and Montanism on the blog! And Christology and Jewish Chritsian relations. But for this thread I’m going to get thorugh the eleven apostolic fathers and then see what’s next.
I recently read the Didache and I was thinking something about its dating: on the one hand, it mentions deacons and bishops; on the other, its ending is ultra apocalyptic. How do scholars date it?
Apart from that, I found the instructions to slaves to obey their masters like God ominous.
It is usualyl thought to comprise three different documents from three different writers; the apocalyptic sectoin is the final chapter. It’s hard to date the indivicual parts, but usually it is thought that the final document comes from around 100 CE or so.