the apostolic fathers: didache, the shepherd of hermas

Part 5 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

Didache

Didache = teaching, ie “the teaching of the apostles” though not really.

We knew this writing existed but didn’t have a copy until 1873, when it hit the headlines and made the front pages of the papers, because it came from about 100AD and gives a detailed discussion of life, practice, and beliefs in the apostolic churches.  There were big expectations of what it might say.

the apostolic fathers: ignatius, polycarp, the martyrdom of polycarp

Part 4 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

 

Ignatius

The most colourful character in this period.  Bishop of Antioch, in Syria.  Know virtually nothing about him until he explodes on the scene a few weeks before his persecution.  In Antioch there was a citywide persecution, and he and some other Christians are arrested and deported to Rome to be thrown to wild beasts.  On route from Antioch, Ignatius under armed guard writes seven letters to the churches he passes through.  The letters are clearly written quickly, by a man under considerable strain.  Yet they are the last words of a man with only a few weeks to live – so are fascinating to read.  As he wrote he had three concerns:

the apostolic fathers: papius, 1 clement

Part 3 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here

 

 

Papius

The Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor.  Supposedly, a disciple of the apostle John, perhaps his scribe who wrote out the gospel of John.  Wrote Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord – 5 vol.  In second centuries, very highly esteemed, but quickly went out of favour, but then mostly everyone believed in pre-millennial, literal millennium.  Later derided.  Eusebius 3^rd 4^th cent – “Papius was a man of exceedingly little intelligence.” 

Why valuable today?  He shows us how important oral tradition was for his generation.  When we read his fragments, there are thousands of oral traditions going round of what Jesus said and did.  Some are weird.  Some sound credible.  According to Papius, oral tradition was valued in its day possibly even more than written accounts.  You could probe, test it, interact with it.  So Papius is a key source of info on oral traditions like these: 

introducing the apostolic fathers

Part 2 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here 

 

By about 100 AD, the whole generation of the apostles have died; Jerusalem and temple have been destroyed; time of huge and very difficult transition for Christianity.  Old points of authority and reference have gone; Roman Empire started to notice and persecute. 

First/second generation after apostles is our focus. 

The writings of the Apostolic Fathers are the most important books to understand these generations. 

Collection of the Apostolic Fathers – what is it?

Not a collection of guys, but a collection of about 10 texts – each one an Apostolic Father.  

why study historical theology?

Part 1 of … on Historical Theology.  Taught by Mike Reeves for the UCCF staff study programme.  Listen to the talks here 

 

 

Church history / historical theology: what’s the difference?

 

Church history = what has happened in history to/by/with the church

Historical theology = not just about what happened, but history of what people have believed. 

Generally, people focus on the former; the benefit – we get to see how the Lord is sovereign in all history.  Instead we’ll focus on the latter, so that through understanding what they think we can access great theologians quickly and not scarily.  Eg persecution – not just what happened, but what did the early church say about the persecution they were going through. 

As a staff team we’ll work our way through the centuries over next couple of years.  Here: up to 200 AD.  Firstly, the Apostolic Fathers, followed by  Justin Martyr and Iranaeus. 

 

Why study dead theologians?

 

Back in the summer I was in a class of bible students encouraging them to read dead theologians (eg CS Lewis introduction to Athanasius and the incarnation – read!).  When I appealed, one student challenged me: “Are you suggesting that the bible doesn’t have all I need to know?  Are you denying sola scriptura?”  My response: what are you doing here?  If you can read your bible on your own, why are you here?  Historical Theology is like having a bible study with the greats.  Have lunch with Luther!  Theology is really done as a community; we know God together.  So in Historical Theology we want to go to the great ones and find out what the Holy Spirit has taught them that he hasn’t taught us yet.  So we want to learn from these guys. 

However, we also want to cultivate a critical mind.  If one tendency is to reject them, another is to deify them, eg ‘Augustine is papal authority who we can’t answer’.  Instead – look critically at these guys; to see that there are problems even in the greats, and good things in the non-greats, so that big names don’t hold such sway – that’s the goal of cultivating this critical mind. 

 

Why look at the early church? 

 

(1) Their situation is remarkably similar to our situation today.  In first two centuries: church persecuted, pluralist society, no idea of Christendom – it was just a persecuted cult. 

(2) Facts about how the early church developed are becoming very important in apologetics.  Eg Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ makes claims about the corruption of Christianity in the first few centuries due to Constantine, that Nicea decided canon of scripture and discarded 80 gospels etc.  We just need to know this stuff to know it’s rubbish!

 

The best way to study this is to try to look at these guys as objectively as possible. Because: they can often seem wrong/weird to start with, and it’s easy to condemn them straight off.  OR it’s easy to loot these guys for good quotes to back up my position, without studying and earning these guys – just filling up my ammo store with big weapons to shoot people down! 

This means: try not to pre-judge/quickly judge.  May be uncomfortable; hang in with them to understand why they say what they say.  Stress: these are their words, not mine!  These are introductions, not final conclusions about them. 

There are full notes out there somewhere, with a timeline at the back. 

the original jesus

‘The Original Jesus, or How the New Testament bears witness to him’

A Christological Survey & Summary of the New Testament, taught by John Stott at The London Lectures in Contemporary Christianity, 2000

Regardless of whatever people may think of him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in Western culture for almost 20 centuries. 3 particular ways we can notice his dominance:

(i) He is the centre of human history.  One third of world claims to be Christian, split history into BC/AD

(ii) He is the focus of Scripture.  Jerome: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ, because the Scriptures are full of Christ.”

(iii) He is the heart of mission.  Why do Christians cross continents and cultures as missionaries?  To commend a person, Jesus Christ.

In this lecture, Stott considers the New Testament evidence for the Original Jesus, in general, except for the book of Revelation which he considers in a later lecture.  He summarises each New Testament book and in particular considers their teaching on Jesus Christ.  He proposes that the lecture series is appropriately called ‘The Incomparable Christ’, for there is nobody – past, present, or future – like Jesus.