Part 4
Justin, First Apology 14.
17 Many men and women who were Christ's disciples from their youth remain chaste even though they live to the age of sixty or seventy.
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I believe I am able to prove that there are such people in every class of men – not to mention the countless throng of those who, after leading a licentious life, have repented and accepted these teachings. Christ did not call the righteous and abstemious to a change of heart but the godless, the dissolute, and the unjust.
Justin, First Apology 15.
18 Those who lived in innocence, following God's command, were called "children" in the earliest times as Papias tells in the first book of his Sayings of the Lord Explained.
Clement of Alexandria in The Tutor; Maximus Confessor, Comments
on Dionysius the Areopagite's Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 2.
19 Either we marry for the sole purpose of bringing up children, or else we renounce marriage altogether and remain continent.
Recently one of our people handed a petition to Felix, the Prefect of Alexandria, requesting him to allow his surgeon to remove his sex glands, for the physician there stated they were not allowed to do this without the prefect's permission. When Felix refused to sign such a permission under any circumstances, this young man remained single and was satisfied with that, a conscious attitude of mind which he and his fellow believers shared.
Justin, First Apology 29.
20 Must it not be entirely wrong to accept as good one part of what God has created for men's use, but to reject another part as useless and superfluous?
Letter to Diognetus 4.
21 Women who wear gold ornaments are evidently afraid that without their ornaments or stripped of their jewelry they might be taken for slaves. True nobility, however, is found in the beauty and substance of the soul. It does not recognize the slave by the price he fetches at a sale but by his unfree spirit. For us, what corresponds to freedom is not a
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mere semblance, but a being free because God, who even accepted us to be his children, is our educator. Therefore we must attain the highest degree of freedom in the way we bear ourselves at rest or in motion, in the way we walk and dress: in a word, in every part of life.
Clement of Alexandria, The Tutor III.11.59.
22 That we for the most part must be considered poor is no disgrace to us but an honor. A life of luxury weakens the spirit. Frugality makes it strong. And yet, how can anyone be considered poor who does not feel any want, who does not covet what belongs to others, who is rich in God's eyes? Much more should he be considered poor who always craves for more while he already has much.
Let me tell you what I think. No one can be as poor as he was at birth. The birds live without any inheritance, and cattle find their fodder each day. Yet these creatures are on the earth for our sake. We possess all of them if we do not covet them. Just as a man traveling on the road is the better off the lighter his bundle, so too, he who makes himself light by poverty, who does not need to pant under the burden of wealth, is happiest on his journey through life. If we regarded wealth as useful we would ask God for it. He surely could give us a share of it, for everything belongs to him, but we would rather despise wealth than have it in our hands.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 36.3–7.
23 Happiness does not consist in ruling over one's neighbors or in longing to have more than one's weaker fellowmen. Nor does it consist in being rich and in oppressing those lowlier than oneself. No one can imitate God by doing such things. They are alien to his sublimity. On the contrary, anyone who takes his neighbor's burden upon himself, who tries to help the weaker one in points where he has an advantage, who gives what he has received from God to those who need it, takes God's place, as it were, in the eyes of those who receive. He is an imitator of God. In this way, though living on earth, you will know with awe that
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there is a God who reigns in heaven, and you will begin to proclaim the mysteries of God. Then you will learn to love and admire those who are punished by death because they refuse to deny God. In this way you will despise the deception and error of the world.
Letter to Diognetus 10.
24 It is the Christians, O emperor, who have sought and found the truth. We have realized it from their writings; they are closer to the truth and to a right understanding than all the other peoples, for they acknowledge God. They believe in him, the creator and builder of the universe, in whom all things are and from whom everything comes. They worship no other God. They have his commandments imprinted on their hearts. They observe them because they live in the hope and expectation of the coming age of the world. They do not commit adultery. They do not live in fornication. They speak no untruth. They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them. They do not covet what belongs to others. They honor father and mother. They show love to their neighbors. They pronounce judgments which are just. They do not worship idols in human form. They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves. They do not eat the food sacrificed to idols, for they are pure. They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies. Their women, O emperor, are pure like virgins. Their daughters are chaste, kind, and gentle. Their men refrain from all unlawful intimate relationships. They keep free from all impurity, for they live in the expectation of the recompense to come in the other world. Any male or female slaves or dependents whom individuals among them may have, they persuade to become Christians because of the love they feel towards them. If they do become Christians, they are brothers to them without discrimination.
They worship no alien gods. They live in the awareness of their smallness. Kindliness is their nature. There is no falsehood among them. They love one another. They do not neglect widows. Orphans they rescue
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from those who are cruel to them. Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing. If they see a traveling stranger they bring him under their roof. They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God. If one of them sees that one of their poor must leave this world, he provides for his burial as well as he can. And if they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed by their opponents for the sake of their Christ's name, all of them take care of all his needs. If possible they set him free. If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him. In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs.
They are ready to give up their lives for Christ, for they observe the words of their Christ with much care. Their life is one of consecration and justice, as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning, yes, every hour, they give praise and honor to their God for all the good things he gives to them. They thank him for their food and drink. If any one of them who is righteous passes from this world, they rejoice and give thanks to God. They escort his body as though he were simply moving from one place to another. When a baby is born to one of them, they honor God, and if it should happen that the little child dies, they honor God even more, for it has passed through the world without sin. But if they have to experience that one of them dies in godlessness or sin, they weep bitterly over him. They sigh for him because he must go to meet his punishment. This, O emperor, is the rule of life of the Christians, and this their manner of life.
As men and women who know God, they ask of him the things that are proper for God to give and right for them to receive. Thus they run the course of their lives. They acknowledge the good deeds of God towards them. And see, because of them, good flows on in the world! Truly it is they who have sought and have found the truth, and from what we have understood here we must conclude that they alone are close to the knowledge of truth. Yet they do not cry out in the ears of the masses the
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good deeds they do. Rather, they take care that no one should notice them. They hide their giving like someone who conceals a treasure he has found. They strive for righteousness because they live in the expectation of seeing Christ in his radiance and receiving from him the fulfillment of the promises he made to them.
Take their writings and read in them, and you will see that I have not invented anything here and that I have not spoken as their partisan. Rather, through reading their writings I came to these firm convictions, also regarding the future things to which they bear witness. It is for this reason that I felt urged to declare the truth to those who are ready for the truth and ready to seek the world of the future.
Aristides, Apology 15,16; ca. A.D. 137.
25 It is good to be lowly in heart, to hate evil, And, above all, to love one's neighbor as oneself, To love God with all one's soul and to serve him. For this we shall be called "brothers," who stem
from the holy race Of the Messiah in heaven. In our meetings for worship We remember the joy; we tread the paths of godliness
and truth. Never may we approach the inner shrines of the temples, Or make offerings to idols, or honor them with vows And the delightful fragrance of flowers and the gleam
of torches, Or adorn [them] with splendid gifts and oblations, Nor may we light the altar with flames and the perfume
of incense, Nor when sacrificing a bull may we send with the libation The blood of a sacrificed sheep, as a ransom
for earthly punishment, Nor may we pollute the purity of the ether with the oily smoke
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Of flesh-consuming pyres and abominable smells. But let us be glad with a holy mind and understanding, With joyful hearts, with abundant gifts of love, And mild and generous hands. With gracious psalms and songs Worthy of our God, we are urged and impelled To sing to thee, the everlasting, ever-faithful God: The father of all, the all-knowing God.
Sibylline Oracles Book VIII.480 –500.
26 When people are challenged to participate in other mysteries, the proclamation is issued to "anyone who has pure hands and something wise to say!" or to "anyone who is free of all guilt, whose soul is not conscious of any evil, and who has lived a noble and just life!" Such is the propaganda of those who promise deliverance from sin.
Hear now what sort of people these [Christians] invite: "Everyone who is a sinner, who is foolish, who is simple" – in a word, everyone who is an unhappy wretch – "such a one the kingdom of God will receive." You should realize that a sinner is an unjust man, a thief, burglar, poisoner, a desecrator of temples, and a grave-robber! If one wanted to call together a band of robbers, these would be just the ones to invite.
The Christians make this offer, "Let no well-educated, wise, or great person come to us – such we consider bad. But if anyone is uneducated, foolish, and ignorant, let him take courage and come!" By maintaining that such people are of themselves worthy of their God, they prove that they desire and are able to win only the simple, the lowly, the foolish, the slaves, old women, and little children.
They say, "God has been sent to sinners." What does that mean? Is he not sent to those who are free from sin? What does evildoing consist in then? In not having sinned, perhaps? If someone speaks out a sin and humbles himself, conscious of his wickedness, God will accept him!
Celsus against the Christians, in Origen, Against Celsus III.44, 59–62.
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27 The new ones to be accepted are questioned by the teachers about the reason for their decision before they hear the Word. Those who bring them shall say whether they are ready for it and what their situation is…Whoever has a demon needs purification before he takes part in the instruction. The professions and trades of those who are going to be accepted into the community must be examined. The nature and type of each must be established. A pander, one who keeps a brothel, shall give it up or be rejected. A sculptor or an artist must be warned not to make idolatrous pictures; he shall give it up or be rejected. If anyone is an actor or impersonator in the theater, he shall give it up or be rejected. A charioteer, an athlete, a gladiator, a trainer of gladiators, or one who fights wild beasts or hunts them or holds public office at the circus games shall give it up or be rejected. A pagan priest or guardian of idols shall give it up or be rejected. A military constable must be forbidden to kill. If he is commanded to kill in the course of his duty, he must not take this upon himself, neither may he swear; if he is not willing to follow these instructions, he must be rejected. A proconsul or a civic magistrate who wears the purple and governs by the sword, shall give it up or be rejected.
Anyone taking part in baptismal instruction, or anyone already baptized who wants to become a soldier shall be sent away, for he has despised God. A prostitute, a sodomite, one who has mutilated himself or who does unmentionable things shall be rejected because he is defiled. A magician shall not come up for examination either. An enchanter, an astrologer, a diviner, a soothsayer, a seducer of the people, one who practices magic with pieces of clothing, one who speaks in demonic riddles, one who makes amulets: all these shall desist or be rejected. The slave who is a concubine and who has reared her children and has no relationship except with her master may become a hearer. If it is otherwise she must be rejected. Whoever has a concubine shall leave her or marry her legally. If he refuses he must be rejected. Should we have missed anything here, practical life will teach you, for we all have the spirit of God.
Hippolytus, Church Order in The Apostolic Tradition 16; ca. A.D. 218.
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28 Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of humankind by country, speech, or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not speak a special language; they do not follow a peculiar manner of life. Their teaching was not invented by the ingenuity or speculation of men, nor do they advocate mere book learning, as other groups do. They live in Greek cities and they live in non-Greek cities according to the lot of each one. They conform to the customs of their country in dress, food, and the general mode of life, and yet they show a remarkable, an admittedly extraordinary structure of their own life together. They live in their own countries, but only as guests and aliens. They take part in everything as citizens and endure everything as aliens. Every foreign country is their homeland, and every homeland is a foreign country to them. They marry like everyone else. They beget children, but they do not expose them after they are born. They have a common table, but no common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but through their way of life they surpass these laws. They love all people and are persecuted by all. Nobody knows them, and yet they are condemned. They are put to death, and just through this they are brought to life. They are as poor as beggars, and yet they make many rich. They lack everything, and yet they have everything in abundance. They are dishonored, and yet have their glory in this very dishonor. They are insulted, and just in this they are vindicated. They are abused, and yet they bless. They are assaulted, and yet it is they who show respect. Doing good, they are sentenced like evildoers. When punished with death, they rejoice in the certainty of being awakened to life. Jews attack them as people of another race, and Greeks persecute them, yet those who hate them cannot give any reason to justify their hostility.
In a word: what the soul is in the body, the Christians are in the world. As the soul is present in all the members of the body, so Christians are present in all the cities of the world. As the soul lives in the body, yet does not have its origin in the body, so the Christians live in the world yet are
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not of the world. Invisible, the soul is enclosed by the visible body: in the same way the Christians are known to be in the world, but their religion remains invisible. Even though the flesh suffers no wrong from the soul, it hates the soul and fights against it because it is hindered by the soul from following its lusts; so too the world, though suffering no wrong from the Christians, hates them because they oppose its lusts. The soul loves the flesh, but the flesh hates the soul; as the soul loves the members of the body, so the Christians love those who hate them. The soul is enclosed in the body, yet it holds the body together; the Christians are kept prisoners in the world, as it were, yet they are the very ones who hold the world together. Immortal, the soul lives in a mortal house; so too the Christians live in a corruptible existence as strangers and look forward to incorruptible life in heaven. When the body is poorly provided with food and drink, the soul gains strength. In the same way the number of Christians increases day by day when they are punished with death. Such is the important task God has entrusted to the Christians and they must not shirk it.
Letter to Diognetus 5, 6 (end of second century).
29 We are a united body. We are bound together by a common religious conviction, by one and the same divine discipline and by the bond of common hope. We form a permanent society and come together for communal gatherings as if forming an army around God and besieging him with our prayers. This is the kind of force in which God rejoices. We pray also for the Emperor and for all those who hold responsible offices and positions of authority. We pray for the postponement of the end. We gather to bring to mind the contents of the holy Scriptures as often as the world situation gives us a warning or a reminder. In every case we nourish faith with holy words, quicken expectation, and strengthen trust. We reinforce discipline by inculcating our precepts. In these meetings of our society there is also encouragement, admonition, and divine correction, for holding judgment is a matter which carries great weight among us, as it should be among people who are sure of God's presence.
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Thus when someone has sinned so much that he is excluded from the fellowship of prayer, from the entire sacred intercourse of the community, it is a deeply moving prelude of the judgment to come.
The most proven men preside; the "elders" as we call them. They have attained this honor only through their good name, never through the use of money, for nothing that is of God can be bought for money. Even though we have a kind of cash box, the money does not come from admission fees, as when one buys membership or position in a society. That would be like "buying religion." Rather, every man contributes something once a month, or whenever he wishes to, and only if he wishes to, and if he can; for no one is forced, but everyone gives his share freewillingly. These contributions might be called the deposit funds of fellowship with God as they are not spent on banquets or drinking parties or on gluttony. Rather they are used to feed and to bury the poor; for boys and girls without means and without parents to help them…for shipwrecked sailors; and for those doing forced labor in the mines, or banished on islands, or in prison, provided they suffer for the sake of God's fellowship. That makes them beneficiaries by virtue of their confession of faith. But even such acts of great love set a stain on us in the eyes of some people. "Look," they say, "how they love each other" (for they hate each other). "See, how ready they are to die for one another" (for they would sooner kill each other). Furthermore, they get excited because we are called by the name of "brothers." I think the only reason for this is that every word of blood relationship used to express heartfelt affection is hypocrisy with them. But we are brothers even to you by the law of nature, our common mother, although you are not true men as long as you are bad brothers! How much more does it express the truth to call and look upon those as brothers who have recognized their one father, God, and who have come, startled and amazed, from the same womb of ignorance to the one light of truth. But maybe we are not considered quite legitimate because our brotherliness is not loudly declaimed in a tragedy, or because we are brothers with regard to our family possessions too, at which point your brotherliness ceases to exist as a rule.
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We who are inwardly bound together in spirit and in soul can have no hesitation in surrendering our property. We hold everything in common except our wives. At this point we dissolve our community, and this is precisely the one point in which the rest of humanity practices community. Oh, this example of ancient Greek wisdom and Roman dignity! Procurers both, the philosopher and the government official!
How can anyone be surprised if such a great love as ours comes to expression in our communal meals! But you slander even our modest meals as wasteful after you have discredited them as criminal. Investigations are made only into the Christian banquets. Legally they are not allowed because they are regarded as unlawful meetings. According to the law such banquets are to be condemned as soon as anyone files a complaint on the basis of the paragraphs of the law enacted against secret societies. But have we ever met to hurt anyone? In our meetings we are the same as when we are scattered; jointly we are the same as individually. This we are without damaging or hurting anyone. When upright, good, believing and pure people join together, that should not be called a secret society, but a senate. On the contrary, those gatherings should be called secret societies which conspire to hate good and honest men, which call out for blood of innocent people. To justify their hate they use as a pretext their mad and groundless belief that the Christians are the principal cause of every public disaster and every misfortune of the people. If the Tiber rises over the city walls, or the other way around, if the Nile does not flood the fields, if the weather is not favorable, if there is an earthquake, or if there is a plague, then the cry is immediately raised, "The Christians to the lions!"
Tertullian, Apology 39, 40, A.D. 198.
30 We know that the followers of the Stoic school were also hated and killed because, at least in their ethical teaching, they showed a love of order by virtue of the seed of the Logos implanted in all humankind. It is similar with some of the poets. As examples I could give Heraclitus (whom I like to mention) and Musonius of our own time and others, for
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the demons, as we already pointed out, were always eager to make those hated who in some way tried to live according to the Logos and to avoid evil. No wonder then that the demons try to make those much more hated who live according to the vision and knowledge of the whole Logos, which is the Christ, instead of only a little part of the Logos, scattered like a seed among men. It had to be like that after the demons had been unmasked by him. And the demons will always carry on like this until they are confined to everlasting fire and suffer just punishment and torment. Even now they are overcome by believers in the name of Jesus Christ.
Justin, Second Apology 8. After A.D. 150.
31 Clearly, our faith is more sublime than any human doctrine, for the very reason that Christ, who appeared for our sakes, is the whole Logos, the Body as well as the Word and the Soul…Socrates, the most forceful of them all, was in his time accused of the same crimes as we are. They claimed that he introduced new gods and spurned the gods recognized by the State…"It is not easy to find the father and creator of all things, and when one has found him, it is indeed not without danger to proclaim him before all men." Yet our Christ did all this in his own power. No one believed so much in Socrates that he was willing to die for his teachings, and yet Socrates knew of Christ to some extent…After all, he was and is the Logos who dwells in every man, who foretold things to come, first through the prophets, and then in person when he took on our human nature and brought us this teaching! But not only philosophers and scholars believed in Christ; no, it was much more simple laborers and quite ordinary people who even scorned honor, fear, and death. Thus he is revealed as the power of the ineffable Father, in complete contrast to mere instruments of human reason.
Justin, Second Apology 10.
32 I must admit it is the object of all my prayers and earnest endeavors to be found a Christian. Not that the teachings of Plato are alien to those of Christ, but what I mean is that they are not equivalent in all
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things; neither are those of the others, the Stoics, the poets, and historians. Each of them spoke admirably in as far as he was endowed with the seed of the divine Logos disseminated everywhere and saw what is related to its nature. They contradicted each other in important issues however, showing a lack of far-sighted knowledge and clear, infallible understanding. Everything which was said by them rightly belongs to us Christians. For next to God we worship the Logos, who came from this same unbegotten and ineffable God, and we love him because he became man for our sakes and even took part in our suffering that he might heal us. All these writers could see only a demon-like glimpse of the truth through the indwelling, innate seed of the Logos, for the seed of something, and its imitation, given according to one's receptivity, are always quite different from the thing itself.
Justin, Second Apology 13.
33 You have learned enough now, I believe, to see that the Christians are right in keeping aloof from the common error and lack of judgment, and therefore also from the meddling and boasting of the Jews. But you cannot expect to learn from any man the mysterious nature of their own worship of God.
Letter to Diognetus 4.
34 Every generation is under a curse, as is shown in the Law of Moses. The Father of the whole universe willed that his Christ, out of love to men of every generation, should take upon himself the curse that is on all men. He fully realized that he would raise him up again after his death by execution.
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 95.1, 2.
35 The words of the Law, "Cursed is anyone who hangeth upon a tree," strengthen our hope, which clings to the crucified Christ…You can see with your own eyes what is actually happening now, for in your synagogues you Jews curse all those who have become believers through Jesus Christ, and the pagans put your curse into effect by executing any-
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one who simply confesses that he is a Christian. For all of them we have this answer, "You are our brothers. Recognize God's truth." Even if the pagans, as well as you, instead of following us, do all in their power to make us deny the name of Christ, we nevertheless prefer to die. We suffer because we are convinced that through Christ, God will give us all the good things that he promised us.
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 96.1–2.
36 The first elders were very distressed unless they had to suffer physically in some way all the time. They preferred to speak the truth rather than to write it down.
Clement of Alexandria about the oral tradition of the Elders
in early Christian times. Selections from the Prophets 11.27.
37 Neither would we be put to death, nor would unjust people, and demons, have any power over us, were it not for the fact that every one who is born must die, without exception. We are glad, therefore, when we are allowed to pay off this common debt.
Justin, Second Apology 11.
38 And now I want to turn to the person who asserts or believes that we are initiated by the murder and the blood of a little child. Can you think it possible that such a tender, tiny body should be gashed with mortal wounds, that anyone alive would slaughter a little baby hardly come into being, to spill, drain, and drink its innocent blood? Nobody can believe such a thing unless he is capable of doing it himself. But I do see people among you at times expose newly born children to wild beasts and birds and at other times put them to death by strangling or by other horrible means. Some women destroy the unborn child in their womb by taking drugs, thus committing infanticide before they are delivered.
For us it is not permissible even to see or to hear of murder. Yes, we shrink so much from human blood that we do not even use the blood of animals in the food we eat.
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Moreover, the rabble of demons has concocted the grandiose fable of incestuous banquets against us to throw the mud of ugly shame upon the good name of our chastity. They tried, through the horror of these outrageous opinions about us, to turn people away from seeking the knowledge of the truth. Even Fronto, whom you cite, did not produce any evidence based on affirmed testimony but simply gave vent to rhetorical abuse. The banquets that we organize are as chaste as they are sober. We do not like sumptuous eating, nor do we prolong our meals with drinking bouts. We know how to temper our gaiety with seriousness.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 30.1, 2, 6; 31.1, 5.
39 We are so far from practicing promiscuous intercourse that we are not even allowed a lustful glance. What could justify any doubt as to the purity of the life led by those who are not allowed to use their eyes for any other purpose than that for which God created them, namely to look in the light, for whom even a lustful glance is called adultery! For them the coming judgment applies even to thoughts!
We are not accountable to human laws, which a wicked person may evade. Right from the beginning I tried to convince you of the divine origin of our teaching. We have quite a different law. We have a task which has led us to see that the full measure of justice is to be found in rightly loving ourselves and our neighbors. With this in mind we look upon some, according to age, as sons and daughters; some we treat as brothers and sisters; and those who are older we honor as fathers and mothers. It is of the utmost importance to us that their bodies remain undefiled and uncorrupted: they belong, after all, to those we consider our brothers and sisters or some other relation! The Logos speaks to us once more, "If anyone kisses a second time, because he enjoyed it…!" adding, "Thus one must give the kiss and exchange greetings with great care, for if it should be defiled by any wrong thought it would rob us of eternal life."
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Therefore, because we are expecting eternal life, our contempt of the world extends even to the pleasures experienced only in the world of the imagination. Thus each of us has only one wife, whom he has married according to our own laws and, what is more, for the purpose of begetting children. The farmer, after entrusting the seed to mother earth, waits for the harvest without sowing more seed. In the same way our desire reaches its goal in the procreation of children. Nevertheless you can find many fellow-believers, both men and women, who grow old without ever marrying, in the hope of a closer inner communion with God. If, then, to persevere in the state of virginity brings both sexes nearer to God, and if a mere thought or lustful desire drives us away from him, how much more shall we despise the deeds the very thought of which we forbid ourselves? Our life does not consist in making up beautiful phrases but in performing beautiful deeds and in working toward them. Every man shall remain as he is born or marry only once, for a second marriage is only camouflaged adultery…He who severs himself from his first wife, even after her death, is an adulterer in disguise. He oversteps the ordinance of God who in the beginning created only one man and only one woman.
But why should I speak about things which are mysteries? In spite of such sublime principles we hear the most serious accusations against us, proving the saying, "The harlot reproves the chaste." The very people who organize a regular white-slave traffic; who avoiding the law offer young people every type of vile debauchery; who do not even abstain from males but perform shocking acts, males with males; who defile in every way just the most graceful and beautiful bodies; who drag the glorious handiwork of God's creation in the dust – for beauty is not on the earth of itself but because it is sent by the hand and grace of God – these very people dare to lay at our door all the infamous things they are conscious of in themselves and even attribute them to their "ideal" gods, evidently because they consider them noble deeds, worthy of their gods!
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Adulterers and corrupters of boys want to defame us who live in virginity or in strictly monogamous marriages! They, who actually live like fish of prey, gulp down everyone who comes their way, the stronger hunting down the weaker. Oh, what an outrage against human flesh when the laws, enacted by you and your ancestors with just consideration, are violated, when people are put under such pressure that the very governors appointed by you cannot cope with the lawsuits, when over and above this the people who have to suffer these things are not even allowed to hit back when struck and are expected to use only kind words when reviled! To be just alone is not enough because to be just means to repay like for like, but we have been commanded to go far beyond this, to be kind and patient.
How could anyone in his right mind accuse us of murder when we hold to such principles, for you have to kill someone if you want to eat human flesh!
Just as they lie in the first charge, so do they also in the second. If anyone were to ask them whether they have actually seen what they assert, not one of them would be brazen enough to say "yes." And yet we have slaves too, some more, some fewer. Nothing can remain hidden from them, but not one of them has ever invented such fables about us. We cannot bear to see a man or woman put to death, even justly! How then can anyone accuse us of murder and cannibalism?…How can we possibly kill anyone when we cannot even look on lest we are polluted with the guilt of murder and sacrilege! How can we possibly kill anyone, we who call those women murderers who take drugs to induce an abortion, we who say they will have to give an account before God one day! We are convinced that with God nothing goes unexamined, and that the body, after serving the irrational urges and lusts of the soul, will have its share in punishment. We have, therefore, every reason to detest even the slightest sin.
Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 32–35.
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40 Consider, then, whether those who have received such teaching can possibly practice promiscuous and unlawful intercourse, or, most godless of all, eat human flesh! We are forbidden so much as to look at gladiator fights lest we become privy to and participants in murder! We also consider it immoral to watch other shows because our eyes and ears shall not be defiled with sympathy for acts of murder as they are celebrated there in song. As for speaking about cannibalism: there the children of Thyestes and Tereus are devoured. As for speaking about adultery: with them it is the theme of their tragedies, not just as a misdeed of men, but even more so of gods, celebrated as a heroic act in elegant language during their contests!
May the very thought of doing such things be far from the Christians! They exercise wise self-control. They practice continence, observe monogamy, guard chastity, and wipe out injustice, destroying sin with its root. With them justice is lived out, laws are kept, and faith is witnessed to by deeds. They confess God. They consider truth supreme. Grace protects them. Peace shields them. The holy Word leads them. Wisdom teaches them. Life is decisive. God is their king.
Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Book III.15.
41 We are accused of being "Christians" [chresteu meaning "excellent"] but it is not right to hate what is excellent. And again, when one of the accused denies his faith and simply says he is not one, you acquit him as though you knew of no charge to bring against him. But if anyone confesses that he is one, you punish him because of his confession. It would be your duty rather to investigate the conduct of both the confessor and the renegade so that the deeds of each one establish his guilt or his innocence.
Justin, First Apology 4.
42 Our persecutors are actually not primarily interested in our property when they prosecute us, nor in our good name as citizens when they publicly heap insults on us, nor in any of the less important values when they plunge us into ruin. All these things we hold in contempt, no
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matter how important and worthwhile they may seem to the masses. We have been taught not to hit back at people who harass us, not to go to court against those who expel us and rob us. Rather are we enjoined to offer the other side of the face for more blows when they ignominiously smite us on the one side. When they take away our coat, we are to give them our overcoat as well.
No, it is clearly our body and our life that our persecutors plot against when there are no more goods they can take away from us. This is the only explanation for the many accusations they spread about us. If anyone can convict us of unjust acts, whether small or big, we are the last to beg off punishment; we would in fact demand the most severe and relentless punishment if this were to happen…While others accused of transgressions are not punished before they are convicted, in our case the judges do not inquire whether the defendant has committed any wrong but are provoked about the name as if that were in itself a crime.
Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians I.2.
43 What a beautiful sight it is for God when a Christian wrestles with pain; when he takes up the fight against threats, capital punishment, and torture; when smiling he mocks at the clatter of the tools of death and the horror of the executioner; when he defends and upholds his liberty in the face of kings and princes, obeying God alone to whom he belongs; when triumphantly and victoriously he challenges the very one who has passed sentence on him! For he is victor who has reached the goal of his aspirations.
Is there any soldier who would not face danger more boldly under the eyes of his general? Only he who proves himself receives the prize, and yet the general cannot give what is not his: he cannot prolong life. He can do nothing but give military honors.
But the fighter for God does not feel forsaken in his pain nor will he be destroyed by death. Thus it may seem as if the Christian were miserable, but that he can never be, in reality. You yourselves extol unfortunate men such as Mucius Scaevola to the skies. He would have perished
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among his enemies if he had not sacrificed his right hand. But how many from among us have sacrificed not only their right hand but much more than that: they suffered the scorching and burning of their whole body without uttering one single cry of pain! And they had it in their power to obtain their release. However, why do I compare men with Mucius or Aquilius or with Regulus? Among us, boys and frail women laugh to scorn torture and the gallows cross, the wild beasts and all the other horrors of execution! In their pain they show an endurance that comes from heaven.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 37.1–5.
44 The poor wretches have got it into their heads that they are altogether immortal.
Lucian (d. 180; writer of comedies), in Peregrinus 13.
45 How they are thrown to the wild beasts to make them deny the Lord! How unconquerable they are! Do you not see that the more of them that are executed, the more do the others grow in number? That is clearly not the work of men. That is the power of God. That is proof of his presence.
Letter to Diognetus 7.
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Notes to Self-Portraits and Portrayals
Marginal numbers refer to corresponding passages on the previous pages.
6-23 The conduct of the first Christians as it is described here can be understood only in the context
of their full acceptance and affirmation of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5); the texts should there-
fore be read with this teaching of Jesus in mind.
19 In this instance castration was the result of an all-too-literal interpretation of Jesus' words on
becoming eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God. (It should be noted here that Origen mutilated
himself in his youth, though later he judged this act as immature). As a rule, the procedure was not only
frowned upon but expressly condemned in important proclamations of the early church, such as The
Apostolic Tradition.
22-23 The aversion to property and wealth shown here is in accordance with Christ's teaching in the
Sermon on the Mount, and was shared by most, if not all, of the first Christians.
24 Seen together with the passages on pp. 91-94 above, this classic self-portrait is fundamen-
tal in understanding the attitude represented, striven for, and to a great extent carried out in actual
practice by the early Christians.
25 The way of the early Christians as the way of love to God and one's fellow human beings, of
worship without temples and sacrifices, of peace and adoration, is characterized here in the Sibylline
Oracles, which were originally completely pagan. Christians readily drew upon and expanded these pro-
phetic oracles of ecstatic Greek women who, according to their own testimony, may have originated in
Babylon.
26 Celsus, surely the most brilliant antagonist of early Christianity, recognizes that the loving ac-
ceptance of awkward, simple, poor, and wretched people is a peculiarity of Christendom.
27 In contrast to the preceding passage, the third-century Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus (evi-
dently quoting very old principles of church life) shows the clear-cut nature of conditions and require-
ments for new converts before acceptance into the community of believers. Again, these conditions and
requirements indicate a full acceptance, both literal and spiritual, of the Sermon on the Mount.
30-32 From the time of the Greek apologists, the concept of the Logos becomes very prominent in
Christian thought as the word of God – God's reason, mind, and revelation. It is not by chance that in
these texts Justin mentions the Logos in connection with Stoicism and popular Greek philosophy, with
Heraclitus and Socrates even, and with Greek poets and thinkers in general. The idea of the seed of the
Logos scattered everywhere is evident already in Philo and in Stoicism, and is similar to certain ideas of
Plato.
The early apologists persistently maintained that the Logos was fully manifest only in Christ; neverthe-
less, their conception of the Logos placed the Christian faith in dubious proximity to Greek philosophy,
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a development outlined below so as help the reader discern the transition from primitive Christianity to
the emerging theology of an institutional church:
To the Christians of Asia Minor the Logos and the Holy Spirit appear like the two hands of God, the
creator and lawgiver who becomes a redeemer. Yet God remains above and beyond all metaphors.
Through the Logos he embraces the whole world. For the creation of the world, the Logos proceeded
from God, almost, as Justin saw it, as another God in number (Justin, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 56).
In Jesus the Logos becomes man. He comes into the flesh. The historical Jesus brings into history the
event of salvation, the event of mankind's new creation, thereby annulling the history of sin. In Christ,
the Logos is revealed as the subordinate God within God himself. For the Christians of Asia Minor, the
Logos is almost interchangeable with the Spirit, proceeding from God as the ray proceeds from the sun.
In the administration of God's "household," the Logos and the Spirit – in complete penetration of all
areas of life – are made to dwell in the historical Son until by this means everything is fully in God once
more.
39 In this text, as in general, Athenagoras shows a strong affinity with Tertullian. His almost
Tolstoyan concept of marriage, his designation of second marriages as camouflaged adultery, his most
rigorous concept of single marriage (the exclusivity of marrying only one woman for the purpose of
procreating children): all this was widespread among second-century Christians, especially through the
influence of the Montanist revival movement. Athenagoras' description of the brotherly and sisterly kiss,
an expression of inner fellowship among the first Christians, is an example of their "freedom of con-
duct," offensive to some and acceptable only in the framework of strict moral self-discipline.
Regarding the assertion (see 39 and 40) that the slaves of Christian households never imputed to
Christians the serious accusation of licentiousness and murder, compare: II The State, Society and
Martyrs - 16.
41-42 The demand that the State should convict Christians only on the basis of their actual conduct –
i.e. upon proof of committed offenses – comes to expression here as a vigorous testimony for a life
grounded in the Sermon on the Mount, a life of nonresistance which surrenders all possessions and
makes litigation impossible. It also supports the assertion that ultimately their persecutors were aiming
at the very life of the Christians and at their complete annihilation.
43,45 The divine power revealed in the courage of the martyrs, evident even in women and children,
points to the real presence of Christ, whom they regarded the "general" under whose eyes alone they
were able to put up their fight.
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CREED, CONFESSION
AND SCRIPTURE
hat did the first Christians believe? Despite the diversity that marked the early church, and despite the lack (at that time) of a New Testament canon, there emerged a basic common confession of faith in "one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…" (Eph. 4:4–6). In our day, formalized expressions of religion are often looked at askance. To early believers, however, the "rule of faith" was regarded as a yardstick by which to measure and shape all thinking and conduct. Embraced by recent converts, it bespoke apostolic authority and thus illuminated their search to understand – and promulgate – the new faith.
With its cruciform stock or crosspiece, the anchor appears among early Christian symbols as a sign for the grounding of every believer's faith in the cross of Christ. Its derivation may also be related to Hebrew's 6:19, in which the writer speaks of "the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul."
T H E E A R L Y C H R I S T I A N S - C R E E D , C O N F E S S I O N A N D S C R I P T U R E
1 I believe in one God, The Father almighty And in his only begotten son Jesus Christ, our Lord, And in the Holy Spirit, Giver of new life, And in the resurrection of the flesh, And in one only, apostolic, holy church everywhere, Which is his church.
Earliest Coptic baptismal formula (still shorter in several other Egyptian texts).
2 We confess our faith: In the Father, the ruler of the whole world, And in Jesus Christ, our savior, And in the Holy Spirit, the representative advocate, And in the holy church, And in the forgiveness of sins.
The Epistle of the Apostles 3–5; ca. A.D. 150–180
3 After entering the baptismal water, we confess the Christian faith in the words of his law and declare with our own mouths that we have renounced the Devil, his pomp, and his angels.
The unity of the church is proven by the mutuality of the greetings of peace, by the use of the name "brother," and by mutual hospitality: the granting of these privileges depends on no other condition than the matching tradition of the same oath of allegiance in all.
There is one rule of faith: this is the belief [testified to in the following]. There is one and absolutely only one God and no other than the creator of the universe, who, through his own Word sent down before all other things, brought into being everything out of nothing. This Word is called his son, perceived in different ways under the name of God by the patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, brought down at last into the virgin Mary by the Spirit and in the power of God, his father, became
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flesh in her womb, and was born of her as Jesus Christ. Thereafter he proclaimed the new law and the promise of the kingdom of the heavens and wrought great acts of power; nailed to the cross, he rose again the third day; having ascended into the heavens, he sits at the right hand of the Father and has sent the Holy Spirit as his representative power to move those that believe; and he shall come again in glory to receive the saints into the fulfillment of eternal life and the heavenly promises, and to judge the sinners with incessant fire, after the raising of both from the dead has been brought about by the restoration of the flesh. This norm was established by Christ and is in no way questioned among us.
We believe as we have always done – and even more now since we have been better instructed by the representative advocate, who truly leads men into all truth – we believe that there is only one true God, namely in that administration of his household which we call "economy," that there is only one son of the one and only God, who is his own Word, who proceeded from him, through whom everything was made and without whom nothing was made, who was sent down by the Father into the virgin and was born of her, man and God, son of a human being and son of God, who is called Jesus Christ, the same who suffered, who died and was buried in accordance with the Scriptures, and was raised by the Father, and was received to sit at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again to judge the living and the dead. He is the same who in accordance with his promise sent down the Holy Spirit from the Father, the representative advocate who sanctifies the faith of those who believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. This norm has been current since the beginning of the Good News.
The rule of faith is definitely only one; it alone is immovable and unchangeable. It is the following: to believe in the one and only God, who has power over all things, the creator of the world, and in his son Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, raised again from the dead on the third day, received into the heavens, now sitting at the right hand of the Father, and who shall come again to judge the living and the dead through the resurrection of the flesh.
Tertullian, On Shows 4; The Prescription of Heretics 20, 13;
Against Praxeas 2; Concerning the Veiling of Virgins 1.
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4 He who holds immovable in his heart the plumb line of the truth, which he took hold of through baptism, is able to see through all deceptions of false teachers.
A spiritually minded disciple has the constant help of faith in the one God, of firm conviction about Christ, and of true recognition of the Holy Spirit. This teaching of the apostles is the age-old fellowship of the church throughout the whole world.
The church spreads out over the whole world to the uttermost ends of the earth. From the apostles and their disciples she received the faith: in the one God, the almighty Father, creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; in the one Christ [Messiah] Jesus, the son of God, who for our salvation took on flesh; and in the Holy Spirit who through the prophets proclaimed God's plan of salvation and the twofold coming of the Lord, his birth from a virgin, his suffering, his resurrection from the dead, the bodily ascension into heaven of our beloved Lord, the Christ [Messiah] Jesus, and his future coming from the heavens in the glory of the Father "to make all things new" and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race in order to execute judgment justly on all.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies I.9.4; IV.33; 1.10.1.
5 I believe in God, the almighty (Father), And in the Messiah Jesus, his only begotten son, Who is ruler over us, Who was born of the Holy Spirit and of Mary, the virgin, Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried, And on the third day rose from the dead, Who ascended into the realms of heaven And sits at the right hand of the Father, From where he will come to judge the living and the dead, And in the Spirit, who is holy, One holy church, Forgiveness of sins, And the resurrection of the flesh. Amen.
The Roman Baptismal Confession, used in the whole East in the Roman version, in this form since A.D. 125–135.
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6 O you happy and glorious ones in the Lord, you who keep your confession of the perfect apostolic faith in your hearts and until now knew nothing of any written creeds! You did not need the letter because you overflowed with the Spirit. Nor did you desire to use your hands for writing because for your salvation you confessed with your mouths what you believed in your hearts. There was no need for you as bishops to read what you knew by heart because you were reborn and newly baptized.
Hilary of Poitiers to the bishops of Gaul, Germany,
and Britain in the year 360.
7 We who worship the creator of this world are not atheists. What sensible person will not admit this?
Moreover, we want to make it known that we recognize Jesus Christ, who is our teacher in these things, who was born for this purpose and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judea at the time of the Emperor Tiberius, as the true son of God. To him therefore we give the second place, and with good reason we honor the prophetic Spirit in the third place.
Justin, First Apology 13.
8 I have shown sufficiently that we are not atheists, for ours is the one God, uncreated and eternal, invisible, immutable, incomprehensible, inconceivable, to be grasped only by the mind and by reason, surrounded by light and beauty, by Spirit and power to an ineffable degree: he by whose word the universe was created, was set in order, and is ruled.
However, we also acknowledge a son of God. Let no one think it ridiculous that God should have a son! For our thoughts about God the Father and the Son are very different from the myths of the poets who represent that the gods are in no way better than men. The son of God is the Word [Logos] of the Father. He is thought that shapes, and power that creates; for according to his pattern and through him is everything made, the Father and the Son being one. Since through the unity and
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power of the Spirit the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, the son of God is the thought [mind] and the Word [Logos] of the Father.
If, however, in your superior intelligence you should wonder what is meant by the expression "son," I will give you a brief explanation. He is first-begotten to the Father, but not as if he were created. God, the eternal mind, had the Word in himself from the beginning; he is never without the Word. Rather, the Son came forth to be formative thought and creative power for all things material. With this the prophetic Spirit also agrees, saying, "The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways for his works."
Further, we teach that the Holy Spirit, who shows himself at work in the prophets, is also an effluence of God, flowing from him and returning to him like a ray of the sun. How can a person know his way about if he hears people decried as atheists who confess one God, the Father, and one God, the Son, and one Holy Spirit, and who prove that these have power in their oneness and yet are different in their order?
Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 10.
9 From ancient times wicked demons in human form defiled women, corrupted boys, and showed men such terrifying sights that whoever did not have the insight to discern what was happening became confused. Obsessed by fear, they failed to recognize them as evil demons. They called them "gods" and gave to each the name which each demon had given to himself.
Socrates tried by true reason and exact inquiry to bring these things to light and to draw people away from these demons. That is why the demons, working through men who delighted in evil, knew how to bring about his execution as an atheist and sacrilegious person. They accused him of having introduced new gods. And now they try to do the very same thing to us. For it happened not only among the Greeks that these things were brought to light, (through Socrates) but also among the barbarians. It happened through the same Logos who took form and became a human and was called Jesus Christ. Him we follow, and we
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deny that the spirits who have done those things are true deities but assert that they are wicked and infamous demons, in no way even capable of such actions as men are who strive for goodness and merit.
Justin, First Apology 5.
10 Crosses also we do not worship, nor do we desire to worship them. But you, who consecrate gods of wood, very possibly worship wooden crosses as being parts of your gods.
Minucius Felix, Octavius 29.6.
11 So, then, we are called atheists. We confess that we are atheists as far as such false gods are concerned but not with respect to the true God, the father of justice, self-control, and of all other good qualities, the God who is free from all taint of evil. No. We worship and adore him and the Son who came from him and taught us these things, the host of other good angels who follow him and are very much like him, and the prophetic Spirit. To these we give honor in reason and in truth.
Justin, First Apology 6.
12 We think of God the creator of all things as being far above all that is corruptible.
Justin, First Apology 20.
13 Is it right, I ask, to charge us with atheism, we who clearly distinguish God from matter and prove that matter is something quite different from God and that there is a tremendous distance between them? We show that the divine being is uncreated and eternal, to be grasped only by mind and spirit. Matter on the other hand is created and corruptible.
Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 4.
14 The sacrifice most pleasing to him is that we try to recognize who stretched out and vaulted the heavens and set the earth as the center, who gathered the water into seas and separated light from
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