The Strategy
The Social Setting of the Ministry early Christians were constituted by the proletarian poor.95 In doing this, however, he overlooks all the evidence to the contrary; he selects his data to fit the model. Secondly he must establish that Jesus had clear perceptions concerning his ultimate fate — a topic about which there is insufficient evidence to arrive at any firm conclusions. Further, he must show that the early Christians expected
Jesus to return on a specified date. It is most important that there be a parallel here or the entire enterprise fails; that the early Christians had strong eschatological beliefs is without doubt, but there is no evidence that they specified a time of Christ's return. Indeed one may draw the opposite conclusion from the evidence; in Mark 13:32 Jesus admits ignorance of the precise time of the Parousia and 2 Pet. 3:8 ("with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" — a text Gager quotes as evidence of a revision arising from the initial disconfirmation) may be equally interpreted as testimony to the fact that short of a global catastrophe the Christian doctrine of Christ's Second Coming is in fact non-falsifiable. However one interprets this Petrine passage, there is no evidence that the earliest Christians predicted the Parousia with the precision demanded in order for cognitive dissonance to arise. Thus Gager postulates connections where there are none and forces the evidence to fit his models, which are then used to fill the lacunae of historical evidence.
Both ideal types and models enable one to engage in comparative sociological research of the early Christian church. They cannot generate data; they can only help us to ask new questions. In subsequent chapters we hope to show that they help us to raise valuable questions unasked by scholars who have employed other methodologies in their attempts to discover the origins and development of the ministry.
The Strategy To gain a full appreciation of the role of householders in the communities selected for investigation here, it will be necessary first to provide a survey of the household in antiquity. We shall concentrate first on the traditional GraecoRoman household, and then turn to a discussion of pagan and Jewish groups organized along household lines. This will provide a prima facie case for looking to house-church patrons as the church's early leaders. This is followed by a chapter on the evidence of house churches and house-church leadership contained in the Pauline corpus. This chapter will provide us with a relatively firm setting from which to approach the later documents. Hermas provides the most direct evidence to substantiate our thesis. Here we shall analyse the problems facing the community arising out of leadership by well-to-do patrons as challenges to its sectarian identity, and Hermas' efforts to establish group boundaries. 1 Clement will provide us with an opportunity to discuss the institutionbuilding role of Clement's letter for the Corinthian community, and the development of house-church leadership. Finally, Ignatius will be discussed as a charismatic leader who used his privileged position as a potential martyr for Christ to establish more defined leadership structures in the Asia Minor communities by giving impetus to social forces inherent in the house-church setting of the community, and to protect these groups from perceived false teaching.
Introduction
N o t e s 1 Comm. iff Tit. 1:3 (.Migne Bibliotheca Patmm Latina 30, p. 880A); Epistle 146 (Corpus
Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 56).
2 Ep. ad Tim. 13:8 (H.B. Swete, ed., Tlieocfon Episcopi Mopsuesteni in Epistulas B. Pauli
Commentari. The Latin Version with the Creek Fragments. Vol IL (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1882), pp. 117fF.
3 Summa Theologica 11,2 quaest 184, art. 6.
4 Schmalkaldic Articles (1547) Tractatus de potentate et primatu papae n. 60ff 5 Sess. XXIII canon 7.
6 Hall, 1640, pp. 17f.
7 Pp. 303f.; also Pfaff, 1727, pp. 69f.; 1770; Hildebrand, 1745, pp. 9f.; Mosheim, 1753, pp. 125f.
8 Vol. 1, pp. 24-33.
9 1837, pp. 351-92; similarly, Bunsen, 1847, pp. 85f., 129f.; Lightfoot, 1888; Telfer,
1962, pp. 69f.
10 1696, pp. 467ff., 609ff. (English translation 1842, pp. 145fF.; 169flf.).
11 1835, pp. 84f.; 1838, pp. 59f.; first published 1863 (English translation 1873, Vol. 2, pp. 16ff.).
12 1857, pp. 415f, 432f., 441 f.
13 1880, pp. 194f£ 14 First published 1953 (English translation 1969, pp. 76ff.).
15 First published 1959 (English translation 1961, pp. 70f, passim).
16 1964, pp. 63Œ; 1969, pp. 236ff.
17 1866, pp. 35lf. In 1869 (Paulus, p. 257) Renan argued that parallels could be drawn between household, collegia and Christian house churches; cf. also Liebenam, 1890, p. 272 n. 4.
18 1881, pp. 453f.
19 1876, pp. 465ff.; 1877, pp. 89ff ; 1880, pp. 20-29; 1887, p. 556.
20 1879, pp. 542-46.
21 Schiirer (rev. and ed. Fergus, Millar, Black, and Goodman), Vol. 2, 1973f., pp.
427-39; also Harvey, 1974, pp. 318-32 (who overstates his case). The modern evidence is listed by Brooten, 1982, pp, 41-56, but her conclusions are far too strong.
Evidence for πρεσβύτεροι (male and female) in some localities (notably Alexandria) is insufficient to allow scholars to draw the strong parallels which have been drawn between the synagogue and the early church. It is difficult to determine in much of this evidence whether the title was used honorifically or to describe membership in a council. Such theories leave unexplained the entire lack in the early church of titles most common in the Jewish epigraphic and literary evidence. The exception is Epiphanius who notes that Palestinian Ebionites(!) possessed άρχισυνάγωγοι and πρεσβύτεροι (Panarion 30:18.2; cf. Haer. 30:11 for ύπηρέτης
= 1 Τ Π?).·
22 Especially lectures two to four; Hatch also argued for the influence of the synagogue.
23 Loening, 1889, pp. 21 f.; Lietzmann, 1914, pp. 101-106; Porter, 1939, pp. llOff.
24 Wilken, 1972, pp. 268ft (although he is somewhat equivocal: compare pp. 279 and 280); also Countryman, 1977, pp. 135ff.; Meeks, 1983, pp. 77-80; Malherbe, 1983, pp. 89-91. In our view the analogy holds, as we shall see in Chapter One, where both church and collegia relied upon wealthy patrons for the success of their communal activities, and the leadership drawn from these ranks.
25 Pp. 88-151.
The Social Setting of the Ministry 26 Pp. 3Iff.
27 For what follows we shall outline the position presented by him in 1920; for further discussion see Linton, 1932, loc. cit.
28 1912, p. 10 (first published 1887); for criticism of Harnack's use of evidence see pp. lOf.
29 1892; 1895; cf Linton, pp. 49f. for further discussion. References are to his 1892 publication.
30 See Holmberg, 1980b, pp. 187f.; for further discussion and criticism and Chapter
Four below.
31 1900, esp. pp. 57-197.
32 Turner, 1921, pp. 93-214.
33 Swete, 1921, pp. xiif. lists the conclusions of the collected essays; more succinctly, see 1912, pp. 13ff.
34 Dix, 1947, pp. 183ff., esp. pp. 227-74; 1978 (first published 1945), pp. 19ff., 48ff.
Dix pursued a unique line of argument by contending that the ministry arose out of liturgical practice, much of it borrowed directly from the synagogue. Dix's conclusions, especially those about t Clement, upon which much of his argument rests, are criticized by Jay, 1981, pp. 125ff. Dix (1978, pp. 82f) also generalizes too broadly from Hippolytus' Apostolic Tradition to make a case for earlier liturgical practice. His argument that the early eucharist was mutatis mutandis a chabûrah which everywhere took on normative characteristics from this Jewish religious meal exceeds the bounds of the evidence. His contention (pp. 50f.) that the Last Supper was a chabûrah becomes circular when he uses evidence drawn from later chabûrôth prayers to fill in gaps where evidence concerning Jesus' prayer is lacking (see especially pp.
54-5).
35 Kirk, 1946, especially the essay by Farrer, pp. 113-82. This whole approach has come under increasing attack; see, e.g., Burke, 1970, pp. 499ff.
36 1984, pp. 106,120ff.; Frend is also influenced by Harnack: cf. pp. 139f.
37 1929, pp. 50f.; note also the methodological assumptions established in Chapter
One.
38 1934 (ET 1971); further discussion of his theories appear in subsequent chapters.
39 The fruit of such labours may be discovered in Wilken, 1971.
40 For example Vallée, 1981 (short version, 1980, pp. 174ff.).
41 For example Pagels, 1979.
42 Robinson and Koester, 1971, esp. pp. 13-16,114ff.
43 Linton, 1932, pp. 132-35 groups twentieth-century approaches to the problem of early church leadership into four categories and provides examples of each: lexigraphical (focusing on key terms), theological (emphasizing the transcendent and often ideal origins of the church), historical (centring on recoverable data and chronology), and sociological. Our approach falls within Linton's fourth general category and will be explicated in the next section.
44 Philosophical questions of reductionism, the implications of sociology for a doctrine of Providence, and the relation between social determinism and free will are large topics which fall outside the confines of this discussion. While many nineteenth-century sociologists like Dürkheim were reductionist, contemporary sociologists make more modest claims. A discussion (not always convincing) of the topic of free will can be found in Berger, 1967, pp. 142ff; Berger and Kellner, 1981, pp.
92ff. Berger also discusses the relationship between sociological explanations and the ultimate reference of theological statements: see 1967, pp. 179ff.
45 Gill, 1977, has coined this term in his discussion of Berger and Luckmann's sociology of knowledge.
Introduction
46 Pp. 145fF; 429ff. (ET pp. lOf.) He refers to Beza (1519-1605) and Erasmus (1469-1536) in partial support (pp. 430, 431).
47 Pp. 76fF., especially 116.
48 1832, pp. 54ff. (Vitringa, 1696, p. 258).
49 1835, pp. 82, 84f.; 1838, pp. 86f.; 1863 (English translation 1879, Vol. 2, p. 16).
50 1881, pp. 444f.
51 1897, pp. 6ff.
52 1901, pp. 774ff.
53 1921, Vol. 4, pp. 2279Œ, esp. 2287.
54 Harnack, 1884, p. 142 argued that presbyters were often the church's patrons, but he did not draw a connection between hospitality and episcopacy.
55 Kraeling, 1967, provides an exhaustive account (summarized in Snyder, 1985, pp.
68-71); cf. also Hopkins, 1979, who postulates too confidently that it was a private place of worship before its conversion in the third century; similarly, von Gerkan,
1964.
56 1939, pp. 105Π57 1978, pp. 16ff.
58 1946, pp. 147f.
59 Pp. 57, 86, 165, esp. 165f., 171. This conclusion seems to be drawn primarily from the letters (especially Epistle 7) of Cyprian (d. 258), but is it not highly suspect to argue from such later evidence to account for an earlier setting? The burden of the proof is on those who contend that the earliest Christians owned buildings from the start. White, 1982, adducing pagan analogies for support, argues convincingly for a development from private-household meetings to semi-public house churches like that at Dura to the domus ecclesia of the third and fourth century.
60 Especially Chapters One and Two.
61 For reference see Chapter Two below.
62 Klauck, 1981, pp. 63ff.
63 First in 1984, pp. 82ff., and again in 1985, pp. 886-901.
64 A discussion of the literary evidence may be found in Rordorf, 1964, pp. 11 Off. and Dassmann, 1985, pp. 886ff.; the archaeological evidence is discussed by Snyder,
1985, pp. 67ff., where relevant literature is also cited.
65 Gerd Theissen is a contemporary pioneer who began offering essays employing a sociological methodology in 1973 (most collected in 1982). His conclusions regarding the well-to-do status of some early Christians were anticipated by Judge, 1960b and restated by Gülzow, 1974, pp. 189fF. See Meeks, 1983 and Elliott, 1985, pp.
27-34, for bibliography.
66 P. 573 (his italics).
67 Their concerns are summarized by Funk, 1976, pp. 4-22, esp. pp. 15-16.
68 Their methodology is criticized by Keck, 1974, p. 437.
69 Cited by Burke, 1980, p. 19.
70 Burke, 1980, pp. 13-29 provides a useful summary of the relationship between the disciplines over the years; cf. Hofstadter, 1968, pp. 3ff. for the relationship in America.
71 Martindale, 1959, pp. 59f.
72 Upset, 1968, p. 22.
73 Theissen, 1982, pp. 176-77.
74 Ibid., p. 177.
75 For what follows cf. ibid., pp. 177flf.
76 1964, pp. 261 f.
77 Ibid., pp. 266f.
The Social Setting of the Ministry 78 Ibid., p. 266.
79 Ibid., p. 267.
80 1949, p. 90.
81 1975, pp.1-23.
82 Ibid., p. 14; cf. Tuckett, 1987, pp. 146f. for further discussion.
83 1978, p. 62.
84 For thorough discussion see Wilier, 1967.
85 Malina, 1981, p. 17; cf. also Elliott, 1985, pp. 1-10.
86 Roth, 1971, p. 91.
87 1975, p. 5.
88 The model is set out in 1971, pp. 1 lOff. It is presented more fully in Chapter Four.
89 Ibid., p. 114.
90 Ibid., p. 79.
91 The review by Thomas, 1979, pp. 95-96 offers similar criticisms.
92 Gager, 1975, p. 4.
93 The theory is described in ibid., pp. 39f.
94 Ibid., p. 41.
95 Ibid., pp. 24,217f.