The Apostolic Fathers in English Read online

  There was also during this time a trend toward centralization and standardization of church structures. The surviving sources are not clear as to the precise rate and scope of the change, but the initial steps in that direction are evident during this period, particularly in the letters of Ignatius. Whereas most Pauline churches were shepherded by a twofold structure consisting of elders/overseers (“bishops”) and deacons, we find in the Ignatian churches a threefold structure consisting of one bishop under whom served elders and deacons. For Ignatius, the bishop was constitutive of the church; there could be no valid eucharist or baptism in his absence, and he was to be obeyed as though he were God himself. Clearly there is a move here toward a structure in which the bishop at least partially fills the vacuum left by the apostles. (Claims that these bishops and their predecessors could be traced back in an unbroken chain to the apostles themselves apparently represent later after-the-fact efforts to justify the new development in church organization that these monarchical bishops represent.) The change was not everywhere welcomed, and old ways died hard; the warning in The Didache against despising the residential leaders (bishops and deacons) in favor of the more prestigious traveling apostles and prophets reveals a certain resistance to this new organizational model. It was, however, the wave of the future.

  The Didache itself, a manual providing guidance on how to conduct various church activities such as baptism (the preferred mode was immersion, although pouring water over the head was also acceptable in a pinch) or the Lord’s supper (appropriate prayers for the bread and the cup are provided), is an example of another way the church grappled, usually successfully, with the challenges presented by the new circumstances in which it found itself.

  Expansion, both internal and geographical, continued throughout this time, though occasional warnings against “lukewarmness” hint that it was not always at the same intense pace or with the same enthusiasm as earlier (see The Shepherd of Hermas). Christianity was strongest in Asia; much of the work there and in Bithynia and Cappadocia appears to have concentrated on filling in the gaps between earlier missionary efforts. Further to the east, the faith followed the caravan routes past Edessa into Adiabene, beyond the Euphrates, where it was established by about 100. In Egypt, some form of Christianity had likely spread beyond the Fayyum, perhaps as far as Oxyrhynchus. Congregations could also be found at Nicopolis, on the western side of Greece, and in and around Rome and Puteoli in Italy; if others existed west or north at this time they have left no certain trace of their existence.

  Lack of evidence frustrates efforts to ascertain much about the social or economic circumstances and outlook of these congregations beyond the observation that Christianity remained overwhelmingly urban. The conversion of philosophers such as Justin Martyr indicates the faith’s growing attractiveness to intellectuals; the popularity of various apocryphal gospels and acts (with their fantastic stories about Jesus and the apostles) testifies to another quite different level of interest. Beyond this little is known.

  Church and State (70–160)

  As Christianity proceeded to distinguish itself from Judaism it became increasingly visible to the rest of Greco-Roman society, which in general was not impressed with what it saw. Indeed, the earliest documented instance in which the Roman government distinguished between Jew and Christian is quite a bloody one. Nero, needing a scapegoat for the disastrous fire in Rome in AD 64, which he was widely rumored to have set, blamed the Christians, members of an “extremely pernicious superstition,” in the words of a later Roman historian who recounted the event.[12] Many were put to death in the arena, while others were burned to provide illumination for the shows. Tradition has it that Peter and Paul were among Nero’s victims at this time.

  This outbreak of persecution did not establish an absolute precedent for dealing with Christians (persecution would remain local and sporadic, rather than empire-wide and systematic, until 250), but Nero’s actions and the attitude toward the new religion reflected in the historian’s remarks did set a tone for relations between church, state, and society that would continue for over two centuries. Pliny, the governor of Bithynia in 112, for example, found it necessary to write to the emperor Trajan for advice on how to deal with some believers who had been brought to his attention. While the surviving correspondence reveals no evidence of laws directed specifically against Christians, Pliny nonetheless knew without asking that Christians meant trouble.

  For their part, the Christians tried to follow the guidance of 1 Peter 2 and Romans 13 and live as good citizens. This advice is echoed in 1 Clement, which, among other matters, exhorts believers to fulfill their social obligations according to a standard that is little different from the accepted mores of Greco-Roman society and includes an extensive prayer on behalf of the Roman government.

  When this proved insufficient, however, and the government demanded of the church an allegiance it could give only to its Lord, the church for the most part refused to cooperate. To the Romans, who viewed religion as essentially a public matter whose primary function was to serve and protect the interests of the state and the empire, the refusal to acknowledge the emperor as lord and offer a sacrifice to him was treason, and the Christians were atheists who deserved the death penalty (if only because of their stubbornness). The Martyrdom of Polycarp sets forth the issues and consequences in classic form: asked to “swear by the genius of Caesar,” Polycarp refused and was executed. He was only one of the first of many believers to whom martyrdom for the sake of their Lord was preferable to apostasy.

  Throughout the postapostolic period, then, we find the emerging Christian movement struggling to define itself vis-à-vis its Jewish roots and, increasingly, vis-à-vis the Greco-Roman culture and society into which it was expanding. Moreover, a central aspect of this struggle involved the tension between continuity and change: how to maintain and propagate the tradition received from Jesus and his followers in the midst of rapidly changing circumstances and in the face of new and often unanticipated challenges. In light of this particular historical context, it is possible to appreciate the Apostolic Fathers for what they are: the stories and records of real people trying to “keep the faith” to the best of their abilities and gifts. In this respect, surely they have something in common with believers and the church throughout history.

  The Apostolic Fathers and Early Church History

  Prior to the nineteenth century, the Apostolic Fathers had almost no impact upon the study of the early church. Eusebius, an early church historian, made good use of many of them, but his was an isolated example. Very rarely are any of them (primarily Ignatius) mentioned in the doctrinal controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries.[13] From about the fifth to the sixteenth centuries these documents were virtually unknown, especially in the West.[14] The rediscovery and publication between 1633 and 1645 of 1 and 2 Clement, The Epistle of Barnabas, and the letters of Polycarp and Ignatius (in their genuine form) meant that they were once again the common property of theologians and historians. This was a time, however, of intense doctrinal controversy, usually carried out along denominational lines, and the use of these documents was largely restricted to the buttressing of positions already arrived at on other grounds. Moreover, there remained some question as to their authenticity, since they were still closely associated with a large number of spurious documents bearing similar titles or claiming the same authorship.

  The mid-nineteenth century witnessed a fundamental change in this state of affairs. In Germany, D. F. Strauss, F. C. Baur,[15] and a small group of associates known as the Tübingen School[16] developed a fundamentally different paradigm for understanding the history of early Christianity. Utilizing a Hegelian dialectic and taking his cue from 1 Corinthians 1 and the disagreement between Peter and Paul recorded in Galatians 2, Baur argued that the history of the early church is best understood in terms of a struggle or conflict between the Petrine (Jewish) and Pauline (Gentile) factions within the church. Furthermore, in his opinion this conf
lict continued unabated well into the middle of the second century, and the synthesis or resolution of the struggle, out of which arose the Catholic Church, was achieved only at the very end of that century. Having constructed this chronological framework, Baur then used it to date the New Testament and other early Christian writings. Those which betrayed some evidence of the struggle, such as 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians, were obviously very early, while those which showed no trace of the conflict (such as John, Mark, or the Pastorals) or portrayed Peter and Paul as cooperating, as the book of Acts does, must be late and inauthentic. Since 1 Clement and the letters of Ignatius fall into this second category, Baur argued that they were forgeries composed during the time of Pope Victor (189–198).

  In this context Theodor Zahn and J. B. Lightfoot published their groundbreaking studies of Ignatius and Clement.[17] Like Baur, Lightfoot was convinced of the necessity of dealing with the New Testament, not in isolation, as was the usual practice, but in relation to the entire corpus of early Christian writings. The most important works were those alleged to be by Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, representing two of the four major centers of Christianity at the time; as Baur himself recognized, his entire reconstruction was built upon the inauthenticity of these documents. By establishing the authenticity and dates of 1 Clement and Ignatius’s letters almost beyond questioning,[18] Zahn and especially Lightfoot demolished the foundation upon which Baur’s chronology rested and put in its place a set of reference points that continue to serve as the fundamental framework for the study of this period. In short, the Apostolic Fathers have provided an Archimedean point for the study of early Christian literature, especially the New Testament.[19]

  In the twentieth century, Walter Bauer, the renowned lexicographer, published a groundbreaking study that devoted extensive attention to the Apostolic Fathers.[20] Surveying the early church region by region, he argued that in many places the earliest discernible form of Christianity was often a form that later came to be labeled as heresy. As he developed his thesis, he relied extensively upon evidence drawn from the Apostolic Fathers, offering thought-provoking and occasionally original interpretations of points long viewed as settled. Bauer’s book has been extremely influential. Although at many points his conclusions have required modification or even rejection in light of further research and new evidence, especially archaeological discoveries,[21] he nevertheless succeeded in raising what are still fundamental questions for any historian of the early church and has forcefully reminded New Testament scholars, as Lightfoot did in his day, of the fundamental significance of the Apostolic Fathers for the study of the New Testament.

  Perhaps in recognition of this, there has been in recent decades an upsurge of interest in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, not only in terms of books devoted specifically to them, but also in terms of books that deal with early Christian literature and history as a whole rather than limiting attention only to the canonical writings and the apostolic period.[22] In addition to the increasing number of monographs and technical studies devoted to the Apostolic Fathers, at least three major commentary series are also devoting volumes to these important writings.[23]

  Select Bibliography

  Texts and Translations

  Texts with Translations

  Ehrman, Bart D. The Apostolic Fathers. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library 24–25. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

  Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

  Lake, Kirsopp. The Apostolic Fathers. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library 24–25. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1912–1913.

  English Translations

  Glimm, F. X., J. M. F. Marique, and G. G. Walsh. The Apostolic Fathers. Fathers of the Church 1. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1947.

  Goodspeed, E. J. The Apostolic Fathers: An American Translation. New York: Harper and Bros., 1950.

  Kleist, J. A. The Didache; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Epistles and the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp; The Fragments of Papias; The Epistle to Diognetus. Ancient Christian Writers 6. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1948.

  ———. The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch. Ancient Christian Writers 1. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1946.

  Richardson, C. C., in collaboration with E. R. Fairweather, E. R. Hardy, and M. H. Shepherd. Early Christian Fathers. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953; repr. Macmillan, 1970. [Does not include The Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, or the fragments of Papias.]

  Staniforth, Maxwell. Early Christian Writings. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin, 1987. [Includes only 1 Clement, the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, The Epistle to Diognetus, The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Didache.]

  Translation with Commentary

  Grant, R. M., ed. The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary. 6 vols. New York: Nelson, 1964–1968.

  Guides to Early Christian Literature

  Altaner, B. Patrology. Translated by H. C. Graef. New York: Herder & Herder, 1960.

  Aune, David E. The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature and Rhetoric. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.

  Döpp, Siegmar, and Wilhelm Geerlings, eds. Dictionary of Early Christian Literature. Translated by Matthew O’Connell. New York: Crossroads, 2000.

  Goodspeed, E. J. A History of Early Christian Literature. Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.

  Moreschini, Claudio, and Enrico Norelli. Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature: A Literary History. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005.

  Quasten, J. Patrology. 3 vols. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1951–1960.

  Collections of Other Early Christian Literature

  New Testament Apocrypha

  Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993.

  Hennecke, E., and W. Schneemelcher, eds. New Testament Apocrypha. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991, 1992.

  Gnostic Writings

  Layton, Bentley. The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987.

  Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library. Rev. ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

  Odes of Solomon

  Charlesworth, J. H., trans. and ed. “Odes of Solomon.” In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by J. H. Charlesworth, 2:725–71. 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983, 1985.

  History of the Jews and Judaism

  Barclay, John M. G. Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE–117 CE). Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996.

  Boyarin, Daniel. Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

  Cohen, Shaye J. D. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987.

  Cohen, Shaye J. D. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

  Mendels, Doron. The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism: Jewish and Christian Ethnicity in Ancient Palestine. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.

  Neusner, Jacob. The Emergence of Judaism. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.

  ———. Judaism When Christianity Began: A Survey of Belief and Practice. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002.

  Safrai, S., and M. Stern, eds. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum. Section 1, The Jewish People in the First Century. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974–1976.

  Sanders, E. P. Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE–66 CE. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1992.

  Setzer, Claudia. Jewish Responses to Early Christians: History and Polemics, 30–150 C.E. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.

  Schwartz, Seth. Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

  Smallwood, E. Mary. The Jews under Ro
man Rule from Pompey to Diocletian: A Study in Political Relations. Boston: Brill, 2001.

  Stone, M. E. Scriptures, Sects, and Visions: A Profile of Judaism from Ezra to the Jewish Revolts. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980.

  Wright, N. T. “First-Century Judaism within the Greco-Roman World.” Part 3 of The New Testament and the People of God, 145–338. Vol. 1 of Christian Origins and the Question of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

  History of the Early Church

  Baus, Karl. From the Apostolic Community to Constantine. Vol. 1 of History of the Church, edited by H. Jedin and J. Dolan. New York: Herder & Herder, 1965. Repr. New York: Seabury, 1980.

  Brox, Norbert. A Concise History of the Early Church. New York: Continuum, 1995.

  Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. Baltimore: Penguin, 1967.

  ———. The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

  Davidson, Ivor J. The Birth of the Church: From Jesus to Constantine, A.D. 30–312. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004.

  Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Translated by Roy J. Deferrari. 2 vols. New York: Fathers of the Church, 1953, 1955.

  Frend, W. H. C. The Rise of Christianity. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.

  Grant, R. M. Augustus to Constantine: The Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Reprinted as Augustus to Constantine: The Rise and Triumph of Christianity in the Roman World. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004.

  Guy, Laurie. Introducing Early Christianity: A Topical Survey of Its Life, Beliefs, and Practices. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004.

  Harnack, A. The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. Translated and edited by J. Moffat. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Putnam, 1908.

  McKechnie, Paul. The First Christian Centuries: Perspectives on the Early Church. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001.