CHAPTER 1
Notes
INTRODUCTION
1. I am indebted to Paul Bradshaw for this insight. See his more specialized list of caveats for reading early liturgical texts,
"Ten Principles for Interpreting Early Christian Liturgical Evidence," in Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence Hoffman, eds., The Making of Jewish and Christian Worship (Notre Dame, IN:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 3-21.
2. Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus 3.29.
3. Irenaeus of Lyons, Demonstration (or Proof) of the Apostolic Preaching 74. See also Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 2.22.5-6, where Irenaeus relates a tradition that Jesus' ministry lasted only one year. See also 3.21.3, where Irenaeus says that Jesus' ministry lasted ten years and that he was in his forties when he died, demonstrating that he is in many cases only passing on what he has heard, even if that means including contradictory oral traditions.
CHAPTER 1
1. The earliest use of the word church to refer to a place of worship seems to be by Clement of Alexandra, The Instructor 3.11, written in the late second century. Even here, however, it does not refer to a church building, but to a dedicated worship space, probably a converted home.
2. Early house-church divisions may have been along ethnic (language) lines, socioeconomic lines, or geographic lines in the larger cities.
Reading the Early Church Fathers 3. Throughout the present book, the word Church is capitalized when it refers to the universal Church, and not capitalized when it refers to a local congregation or city church, that is, the Christians in a particular place.
4, See Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 16.8.
5. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians 3.3.
6. Suetonius, Life of Claudius 25.4.
7. Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 3, Theophilus of Antioch, 7d Autolycus 3.4, Tertullian, To the Nations (Ad Nationes) 1.7.
8. Tacitus, Annals 15.44.
9. Suetonius, Life of Nero 16.
10. The annexation of Judea to Syria took place in the year 6 CE. It coincided with the appointment of Quirinius as proconsular legate ("governor") of Syria, and resulted in a census, which was apparently the catalyst for the rebellion. The census of 6 CE is mentioned in Acts 5:37. Note that this is not the census described in Luke 2:1-5 (the occasion for Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem). The census of 6 CE cannot be the one mentioned in Luke 2 because the Gospel of Matthew tells us that the birth of Christ took place "in the days of Herod the King" (that is, Herod
I, the king in Matthew 2:1-23). This means that the census that forced Joseph and Mary to travel from Galilee to Judea must have taken place before Herod's death, which occurred in 4 BCE. The problem is that Quirinius was not governor of Syria, as Luke 2 is usually interpreted, until 6 CE. To harmonize the gospels it seems that Quirinius would have to be proconsul of Syria at the same time that Herod was king. At that time, however, Quirinius was proconsul in Galatia. In reality, the Greek word prote in Luke 2:2 can mean either "first" or "before." In this case, the latter should be used, so that the verse should be translated, "this census was before Quirinius was governing Syria." Luke's point would then be to distinguish the census that was taken around the time of Jesus' birth from the more famous one that caused an uprising in 6 CE. The proconsul of Syria at the time of Jesus' birth was Sentius Saturninus. Tertullian mentions a census under Saturninus (Against Marcion 4.19), as does
Justin Martyr (1 Apology 34), but there is no extant Roman record for such a census. In any event, Judea was still a client kingdom and not yet a province under the authority of Syria when Saturninus
Notes was governor. More important, a Roman tax census taken when Judea had become a province, but Galilee was still an autonomous tetrarchy (as in 6 CE), would not be likely to force Joseph and Mary to travel from one realm to another. But when all of Palestine was still united under Herod, people might have been required to register in their hometowns. 'There was such a census in Egypt in 104
CE. Therefore, the census mentioned in Luke 2:2 must be prior to that of 6 CE.
11. Timothy D. Barnes, "Pagan Perceptions of Christianity," in Early Christianity, ed. 1. Hazlett (Nashville: Abingdon, 1991),
231. Barnes notes that the fact that Nero could even attempt to blame the fire on the Christians shows that public opinion was already against them. The reader must also keep in mind that the members of the Church were not yet called "Christians." I use the term here strictly for convenience.
12. Note that the Colosseum was not built yet. In fact, the Colosseum now stands in the area that was leveled by the fire. It was built about fifteen years later.
13. According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down.
When he found out that he was to die in the same manner as the Lord, he pleaded that he was not worthy and should die some other way. His executioners mockingly agreed, nailing him to the cross upside down (see John 21:18-19).
14. It is impossible to know to what extent Domitian was personally involved in persecution, especially in the provinces. See
Timothy D. Barnes, Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 150. On the other hand, Tertullian and Eusebius both attest to Domitian as a persecuting emperor. See Tertullian, Apology 5, and Eusebius of Caesarea,
Ecclesiastical History 4.26.9.
15. Cassius Dio 67.14.1-2 refers to the execution of Flavius Clemens and the subsequent exile of his wife, Flavia Domitilla, on a charge of atheism. This may refer to Christianity, but it is not certain. Some argue that it refers to a conversion to Judaism, though there may still have been confusion of the two in the minds of the Romans. 'Tradition associates the couple with the catacomb of Domitilla in Rome, and also possibly as the former masters of a freedman who would become known as Bishop Clement of Rome.
Reading the Early Church Fathers The later Acts of Nereus and Achilles make Domitilla the niece of Clemens, probably in an attempt to present her as a virgin, and this error would find its way into later writers, including Jerome.
16. While there is ongoing debate over the date and authorship of the Book of Revelation, it is this author's conviction that the document was in fact written by the apostle John in the year 95 CE.
See James L. Papandrea, The Wedding of the Lamb: A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock/
Pickwick Publications, 2011), 16-27.
17. The word pagan is used here without the pejorative connotation it might have had in the early Church. The English word comes from the Latin pagani, which referred to the country dwellers, those outside of the urban areas. In the time after Christianity was legalized, some claimed that the only people who held on to the Greco-Roman mythologies were the people in the rural areas, since many cities were coming to have a Christian majority. Thus it was used in a derogatory sense, in the way that some today might use the term redneck. It is, admittedly, also used somewhat anachronistically when applied in the early centuries of the Church. In the present context, it simply refers to anyone who was not Christian or Jewish, and it assumes that participating in the traditional Greco-Roman worship would be considered a form of idolatry for Jews and Christians.
18. Pliny the Younger, Epistle 10.96-97 (to Trajan, with rescript). Pliny implied that he was following an earlier order of 'Trajan to outlaw Christian assembly; however, there is no extant evidence of such a law. Some have argued that the Christians in Pliny's province were considered guilty of illegal assembly, and not that the name of Christian alone was enough to have them executed. If that were the case, however, then simply making a loyalty sacrifice or denouncing the faith would not suffice to remove the charge.
19. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 6.5, 8.8.
20. Tertullian, Apology 2-4, 10. Tertullian (writing around the turn of the third century) does say that the name of Christian implies the crimes of "sacrilege and treason." This is significant because it makes Christianity, as a form of treason, a capital offense.
The apocryphal Acts of Apollonius (23-24) mentions a law that stated, "[N]o one at all anywhere shall be called a Christian." The
Notes document may not be reliable on this point and probably reflects the author's perception of public opinion rather than imperial policy. Note that The Shepherd by Hermas (9.9, 10.1) says that martyrs suffer "for the sake of the name." It is not clear here whether "the name" means the name of Jesus, or the name Christian, and much depends on the dating of the document to determine whether it would be too early for followers of Jesus even to be called
Christians. The important point to note, however, is that by the time of the early second century, believers are called "Christians"
(Pliny used the word), and it appears that the name was first used as an insult by the enemies of the Church, which strongly implies that the name Christian emerged at the same time that it was becoming a crime.
21. Tertullian, Apology 2, 49. The Romans also tortured the slaves of people suspected of being Christians, to try to get them to accuse their masters Justin Martyr, 2 Apology 12).
22. Cf. Timothy D. Barnes, Early Christianity and the Roman Empire (London: Variorum, 1984), 40-41.
23. As Barnes correctly points out, we do not know to what extent some emperors endorsed persecution, or for that matter, to what extent their orders were even carried out in the provinces.
Therefore, we cannot assume uniformity of enforcement across the empire, even when we have imperial edicts authorizing the persecution of the Church. No doubt many Christians were martyred without the emperors' knowledge and even under emperors who did not endorse persecution. On the other hand, there were also provinces governed by men who did not persecute Christians, even when the emperors encouraged it. A governor's primary goal was to keep the peace, and if the Christians and pagans in his province could coexist peacefully, he had the luxury of looking the other way.
In general, the farther from Rome a governor was, the more flexibility he had to deviate from the emperor's current programs. See
Barnes, Tertullian, 149, 155. It cannot go without mentioning, at this point, that the temple erected in the Roman forum dedicated to the deified Antoninus was later converted into a church.
24. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 4.13.1-7.
Because Christians refused to participate in the sacrifices, some Tay
Reading the Early Church Fathers martyrdoms resulted, though this was an indirect result of the edict.
25. Barnes, Early Christianity and the Roman Empire, 44, 49-50.
26. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 6.41. In the early part of his reign, Severus appeared to be tolerant of the Church. This made some Christian writers reluctant to blame the persecution on him. Tertullian even tried to paint him as a friend of the Church in order to convince the governor of North Africa to discontinue persecution (Tertullian, 7o Scapula 4.3-6).
27. Paul Keresztes, Imperial Rome and the Christians (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989), 11-13. The edict is mentioned in Historia Augusta, Septimius Severus 17.1, though the reliability of the Historia Augusta has been challenged.
See Geoffrey D. Dunn, Tertullian (New York: Routledge, 2004), 17.
Dunn does not accept the historicity of the edict, based on favorable comments Tertullian makes about Severus in To Scapula.
However this was an apologetic document and it would not have served Tertullian's purpose to criticize Severus. Note that Eusebius mentions the closing of the catechetical school in Alexandria
(Ecclesiastical History 6.3). In the end, the change in policy from Trajan's rescript to Pliny (advising that Christians should not be sought out) to the situation in the early third century (when
Christians like Perpetua were rounded up) is unexplainable without the edict of 202 CE.
28. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History 6.7. See Papandrea, The Wedding of the Lamb, 156-59.
29. Tertullian, Apology 7.
30. Enforcement of the edict apparently targeted recent converts, such as Perpetua. See Barnes, Early Christianity and the Roman Empire, 40. Perpetua and Felicitas were martyred in Carthage in 203 CE. Even though Perpetua was from the aristocracy, the right of Roman citizens to appeal to the emperor had all but disappeared by this time.
31. Martyrdom of Polycarp 2. See also Hermas, The Shepherd 24, where it says that the flames of martyrdom purify. This could be a reference to an early belief in purgatory.
32. 2:Clement 20.