THE GROWTH of THE CHURCH AFTER "ACTS of the APOSTLES"

Our present calendar was dated from the year Jesus was born.

• 33: Jesus crucified, then came Pentecost
• 35: Conversion of Saul to Paul
• 49: Council of Jerusalem. Up till now churches usually start in Jewish synagogues around the Roman Empire and Christianity is seen as a part of Judaism.
• 59: Apostle Paul was brought to Rome for trial
• 62: James, leader of Jerusalem Christians, was martyred
• 64: Emperor Nero blamed Christians for a fire that ravaged Rome. He used Christians as human torches to illumine his gardens. This was the first of many Roman persecutions.
• 66: The Jews revolted against the Roman authority.
• 67: Paul was executed
• 70: Titus destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and Jewish Christians dispersed from Jerusalem.
• 79: Domitian succeeded Titus as emperor. He demanded to be worshiped as "Lord and God." He was notorius for his persecution of Christians and Jews. He was murdered in 96. During his reign the book of Revelation was written.
• 135: The Roman suppressed the Bar Kochba rebellion (132 – 135), the last attempt by the Jews to win their liberty.

The church was left to men like Ignatius, Polycarp and Papias, the disciples of the Apostle John; Hermas (Romans 16:14) and Clement of Rome, the disciples of Apostle Paul. They were commonly referred to as the Church Fathers. Christianity was as yet a small movement. Jewish historian Josephus in his Antiquities in latter part of first century expressed amazement that the church had survived the persecution.

They had no sacred books other than those of the Old Testament, regarded by the Jews as the word of God. The last book, Malachi, was finished nearly 400 years before Christ was born. Doctrinal authority was based on Apostleship; being called by Christ. The Christians began to put into writings the sayings of Jesus and stories about him. The narrative gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the Gospel of Thomas. Within a century of Jesus' death, Christians had produced a small but quite diverse library of writings.

The epistles of Paul was compiled within a generation of his death into a separate collection which enjoyed a wide circulation among the faithfuls. The Christians instinctively looked upon the writings of the apostles as teaching of Jesus. They became an important part in the services of the different churches, side by side with readings from the Old Testament.

The Christian faith began to face problems.

• Ebionitism humanized Jesus and rejected the writings of Paul, resulting in a more Jewish than Christian faith.
• Gnosticism attempted to blend oriental theosophy, Hellenistic philosophy, and Christianity into a new religion that saw the physical creation as evil and Christ as a celestial being with secret knowledge to teach us. It often portrayed the God of the O.T. as inferior to the God of the N.T.
• Montanism got carried away with new revelations, prophecies, and judgmental attitudes toward other Christians. Montanus, responding to the gnostics, ended up claiming that he and two others were new prophets offering the highest and most accurate revelation from God. They exalted martyrdom and a legalistic asceticism that led to their rejection by the Church. About 156, the Montanism claimed that their self-styled "Testament of the Paraclete" has divine authority.
• Marcionism attempt to reduce the Scriptures - both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures - to a few select books. At ca. 160 Marcion, a ship owner and merchant, the son of a bishop of the church in Asia Minor, argued that the Jewish scriptures concerned only the covenant God made with Israel, and was not valid for Christians. If the Jewish scriptures had to do only with the history of the Jewish nation and temple, and if those institutions had come to an end, the church need no longer be concerned with the Jewish scriptures. Marcion was convinced that references to the God worshiped by the Jews appearing in the writings of Luke and Paul were corruptions of what Luke and Paul wrote originally. He proposed a New Testament of only one gospel, Luke, (which had the advantage of avoiding any discrepancies or inconsistencies) and one apostle, Paul. Marcion was excommunicated in 144.

IGNATIUS (30 – 107)

In the early second century Ignatius (35 – 107), Bishop of Antioch in Syria, visited and then wrote to various churches - Ephesians, Magnasians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrmeans. He warned the churches against heresies, Gnosticism and Docetism. He used language that clearly showed his familiarity with the letters of Paul. Ignatius ranked the Apostles above the Prophets. He voluntarily presented himself before Trajan at Antioch, when the prince was on his expedition against the Parthians and Armenians (107). He was brought to Rome, and martyred by the beasts.

POLYCARP (65 – 155)

Polycarp's pupil Irenaeus wrote: "I could describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat and taught; his going out and coming in; the whole tenor of his life; his personal appearance; how he would speak of the conversations he had held with John and with others who had seen the Lord. He make mention of their words and of whatever he had heard from them respecting the Lord."

Irenaeus told us that Polycarp visited Rome and rebuked Marcion. At an old age of 84 he was put to death by the first of the Antonines.

PAPAIAS (70 – 155)

Irenaeus and Eusebius recorded that Papais was a bishop of the Church in Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, in the first half of the second century. Later writers affirmed that he suffered martyrdom about 163, in Rome, others said at Pergamus.

CLEMENT, third bishop of Rome

Clement was probably a Gentile and a Roman. He seems to have been at Philippi with St. Paul (Philippians 4: 3) at 57. After Paul's death Clement was the natural representative for him. The Philippians, whose relationship with Rome was attested by the visit of Epaphroditus, looked naturally to the surviving friends of their great founder for advice.

It is probable that presbyter Linus and presbyter Cletus both perished during the persecution under Nero, and Clement succeeded them in the Roman Church. (Some placed Clement as the immediate successor of St. Peter. Others placed him after Linus, or after Linus and Anacletus.

He wrote to the Corinthian Church (1 Clement 47:1. ca. 97); "Examine the letter of the blessed Paul the Apostle. What did he write to you at first (Paul's first letter to the Corinthians), when he was just beginning to proclaim the gospel?" It presumed that the Christians in Rome owned a copy of I Corinthian, and that the church in Corinth still had a copy in its possession, half a century after Paul wrote it. He also included texts taken from the three synoptic Gospels, especially from St. Matthew. Clement does not allude to the Gospel of Luke as it was not composed till about that time.

The first and second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthinians (30 -100) was discovered in the Alexandrian manuscript. The was presented in 1628 by Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Charles I, and is now preserved in the British Museum.

It is clear that by the turn of the first century a number of churches had already acquired copies of Paul's letters for their use.

JUSTIN MARTYR (110 – 165)

Justin Martyr was born in Flavia Neapolis (now Nablous), a city of Samaria, probably about 114. His father and grandfather were probably of Roman origin. He studied in the schools of Socrates and Plato during the reign of Antoninus Pius. He then became impressed with the extraordinary fearlessness which the Christians displayed in the presence of death, and with the grandeur, stability, and truth of the teachings of the Old Testament. He converted to Christianity and became an evangelist, taking every opportunity to proclaim the gospel as the only way to salvation.

Justin Martyr confronted the philosophers on how false and hollow is wisdom. He exposed the impotency of even Socratic philosophy, in contrast to the regenerating power in the words of Jesus. He has spent some time in Ephesus, but probably settled in Rome as a Christian teacher. While he was there, the philosophers, especially the Cynics, plotted against him. He suffered martyrdom in the reign of Marcus Aurelius in 165.

His "Dialogue with Trypho" is the first elaborate exposition of the reasons for regarding Christ as the Messiah of the Old Testament, and the first systematic attempt to exhibit the false position of the Jews in regard to Christianity.

THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH (115 - 181)

Eusebius declared that Theophilus was the sixth bishop of Antioch in Syria in the eighth year of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, in 168. His supposed predecessors being Eros, Cornelius, Hero, Ignatius, and Euodius. It was suggested that he was a convert from paganism. Eusebius praised his unwearied labour to protect his flocks from heresies, by exhortations, admonitions, and refutations. Eusebius cited especially his lost work against Marcion as "of no mean character." He seemed to have been the earliest Christian historian of the Church of the Old Testament and was one of the earliest commentators upon the Gospels.

THE MURATORIAN CANON (approximately 170)

L. A. Muratori discovered a manuscript that listed thirteen books in the New Testament. It left out Hebrews, James, I and II Peter and the III John. This became known as the Muratorian Canon.

LUCIAN of SAMOSATA

Lucian was one of the founders of the Antioch school of exegesis. Lucian had acquired his education at Edessa, the metropolis of Eastern Syria. Luician is known to have edited the Scriptures at Antioch, and is supposed to have introduced there the shorter New Testament which later John Chrysostom and his followers employed. One in which Apocalypse, II Peter, II and III John, and Jude had no place. In John Chrysostom's ample expositions of the Scriptures there was not a single clear trace of the Apocalypse. He also implicitly exclude the four smaller Epistles - II Peter, II and III John, and Jude.

ATHENAGORAS (177)

We know with certainty that Athenagoras was an Athenian philosopher who had embraced Christianity. He was won over to Christianity while reading the Scriptures in order to controvert them. He was considered one of the ablest, of the early Christian Apologists, and his Apology was presented to the Emperors Aurelius and Commodus about 177. He also wrote a treatise on the Resurrection.

IRENAEUS (120-202)

He was most likely a native of Smyrna, Asia Minor. He was acquainted with Polycarp in his early youth. At that time there active trading between Smyrna and Marseilles, and Polycarp had sent Pothinus into Gaul as an evangelist. Irenaeus joined Pothinus in Lyons, as a presbyter, having been his fellow-pupil under Polycarp. Then came persecution in Lyons under Aurelius (177). Irenaeus went to Rome and returned at about 177, to continue the work of Pothinus who died a martyr's death. The emissaries of heresy followed him, and began to disseminate their licentious practices and foolish doctrines. Irenaeus confronted Gnosticism. The fundamental object of the Gnostic speculations to account for the existence of evil; and, to reconcile the finite with the infinite.

Irenaeus in his work Against Heresies (182), expounded that the Tetramorph (or Quadriform Gospel), was given by the Word and unified by one Spirit. To repudiate this Gospel was to sin against revelation and the Spirit of God. The Tetramorph (Fourfold Gospel or Quadriform Gospel) as a sacred collection can be traced to as far back as St. Justin Martyr (130-63). Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and Polycarp, of Smyrna, show a personal acquaintance with "the Gospel" and the thirteen Pauline Epistles. The earliest book being perhaps the Epistle of James (ca 45) and the latest probably the II Peter (between 100 and 150).

Marcion's view forced the church to draw up a list of books that were approved to be read in the churches. Irenaeus had proposed a list of twenty writings as canonical. He left out Jude, 2 Peter, James, Philemon, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation. By then the thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (Hebrew was not included) and I Peter was universally received. Irenaeus probably cited I Peter, but makes no reference to a Pauline origin. Clement of the Alexandrian Church admitted it as the work of St. Paul, and canonical. Clement of Alexandria was the first to apply the word "Testament" to the sacred library of the New Dispensation.

Other highly regarded books left out were the books of Hermas, Barnabas, Didache, and 1 and 2 Clement.

Irenaeus rendered Lyons a Christian city. He sent missionaries into other regions of Gaul (now France). Jerome recorded, repeated by subsequent writers, that he suffered martyrdom under Emperor Severus in the massacre (202). But neither Tertullian nor Eusebius, nor other early authorities, make any mention of such a fact.

AFRICAN CHURCHES

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (153 - 217)

It seems likely that Clement (or Titus Flavius Clemens) was born at Athens, when Antoninus Pius was emperor. On embracing Christianity, Clement eagerly sought the instructions of its most eminent teachers. He followed Tatian to the East and tracked Pantaenus to Egypt. He wrote how, coming to Pantaenus, his soul was filled with divine knowledge. Clement met in this school those who recalled Ignatius and Polycarp. Polycarp was yet living, and Justin and Irenaeus were in their prime.

He travelled extensively over Greece, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and other regions of the East. Alexandria and Antioch were the two important centres of Christianity at the time. Alexandria of Apollos and St. Mark has become the seat of Christian learning. Returning to Alexandria, Clement succeeded his master Pantaenus in the catechetical school, probably when the latter departed on his missionary tour to the East, at about 189. Clement continued to teach with great distinction till year 202, when the persecution under Severus compelled him to retire from Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen, Alexander bishop of Jerusalem, and Hippolytus. He died about 220.

Cyril of Alexandria calls him "a man admirably learned and skilful, and one that searched to the depths all the learning of the Greeks, with an exactness rarely attained before." Jerome pronounced him the most learned of all the ancients; while Eusebius applauded him as an "incomparable master of Christian philosophy." His three great works were, The Exhortation to the Heathen, The Instructor (Paedagogus), and The Miscellanies (Stromata). The central theme was the Logos − the Word, the Son of God. Clement's quotations from Scripture are made from the Septuagint version.

We can presume that by now each of the leading Churches - Antioch, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Corinth, and Rome had two well defined bodies of sacred writings of the New Testament. The Four Gospels (the Evangelium, and thirteen Epistles of St. Paul (the Apostolicum).

Origen (185 – 254): Church of Alexandria,

Origen divided the books with Biblical claims into three classes:

• The Homologoumena (canonical): the Gospels, the thirteen Pauline Epistles, Acts, Revelation, I Peter, and I John;
• Those whose Apostolicity were questioned: Hebrews, II Peter, II and III John, James, Jude, Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and probably the Gospel of the Hebrews.
• The apocryphal works.

Origen and Dionysius of Alexandria have doubts in the Apocalypse, and Jerome have doubts in II and III John. They questioned the Apostolic authorship of these works. Meanwhile two inspired Epistles of St. Paul have been lost. This appears from I Cor., v, 9, sqq.; II Cor., ii, 4, 5.

CYPRIAN (200 – 258)

Cyprian was the Overseer of the church in Carthage, Northa Africa. Cyprian accepted all the books of the New Testament except Hebrews, II Peter, James, and Jude. He inclined towards II Peter as authentic. Cyprian's testimony to the non-canonicity of Hebrews and James was confirmed by Commodian, another African writer of the period. This was attested by a document in 360 known as Mommsen's Canon. After many years of persecution during which the church existed underground Cyprian was captured and executed by the Romans.