A short history of Christianity in the apostolic age

Front matter

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Preface

The aim of this book is to furnish Bible students a guide and companion in their investigation of the apostolic age. The author, cherishing that same ideal of thorough, constructive study of the Bible which dominates the former volumes of this series, has endeavored to do for the earliest period of church history what Professors Burton and Mathews have done for the life of Christ. As in that volume, so in this, the needs of. students in academies and colleges, and in the advanced classes of Sunday schools, have been constantly reg led. -

Tlj's work has been done with a conviction that the simple facts about the gospel in the first Christian generation are as interesting as a great imaginative poem, as essential to a liberal education as a knowledge of Greek history in the time of Pericles or of English history in the reign of Henry VIII, and more inspiring, more illuminating as regards the very spirit of Jesus, than the facts of any subsequent period in the long history of the Christian church.

In order that one may get the best results from the use of this book, it is urged that the passages of Scripture referred to in the synopsis at the head of each chapter be read carefully before reading the chapter, and then, after the chapter has been read, be studied again with even more care. The book wishes to be a guide to a certain region of early Christian history, but to the fulfilment of this end the student must enter that region for himself and must dwell in it with open eyes and open mind. Teachers who may use this book will, it is earnestly hoped, make plain to their pupils the necessity of securing first-hand acquaintance with the New Testament documents on which it is based.

The book is divided into Parts, Chapters, and Sections, the limits of which are determined by the nature and relations of the events and literature to be studied. Teachers are advised to assign lessons according to their judgment of the ability of the pupils to do the work, always including with the sections assigned for study the questions that pertain to them.

VI PREFACE

Certain sections and paragraphs have been set in smaller type than the rest of the book. These deal with questions of critical scholarship or matters of detail, and are intended especially for teachers and the more mature pupils. Teachers should exercise their judgment in deciding whether this material should be assigned for study. If it is omitted, the questions referring to it should, of course, also be omitted.

I wish to say frankly, in conclusion, that this volume owes not a little to the numerous suggestions of Professor Ernest D. Burton, of the University of Chicago.

Northampton, Mass.

June 9, 1906

Introduction

INTRODUCTION SYNOPSIS

A. Our Knowledge of the Church in the Apostolic Age § i. General Survey of the Sources of Our Knowledge.

§ 2. The Book of Acts.

§ 3. The New Testament Epistles.

§4. Limits of Our Knowledge.

B. A Brief Survey of the Extension of Christianity in the Apostolic Age

§ 5. The Limits of the Apostolic Age. §6. The Theater of Action. § 7. The Numerical Result.

§ 8. The Relation of the Jewish Church and the Roman Government to Christianity.

A. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE

§ 1. General Survey of the Sources of Our Knowledge. — There are two great sources whence we derive our knowledge of the church in the earliest period of its history, viz., the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles and Apocalypse. The gospels also, with the possible exception of John, were indeed written in this period, and are not without value for our view of the development of thought in the first century, though they are directly concerned with the work of Jesus. They throw light, for instance, on the early interpretation of Old Testament prophecy and on the primitive growth of the doctrine of the person of Christ.

Again, there are other Christian writings, notably the First Epistle 0) Clement to the Corinthians and the Teaching 0) the Twelve Apostles, which, though written at the close or even beyond the close of the apostolic age, afford us some help, especially in constructing a picture of the Christian thought of that time.

Finally, the Roman historian, Suetonius, in his Life 0] Claudius, and Tacitus, in his Annals, are of value for the light they shed on the earliest persecutions.

But these sources of information, while valuable, particularly for advanced students, are quite subordinate to Acts and the epistles.

§ 2. The Book of Acts. — This writing is presented as a continuation of the third gospel, which it calls "the former treatise" (Acts 1:1). Like that it is addressed to Theophilus, a Christian whom the author wished to establish thoroughly in the faith (Luke 1:3). The two books are also intimately bound together by a common literary style of a high order of excellence. It is generally recognized, therefore, that they are the work of the same author. Who this author was the gospel does not at all indicate, but the book of Acts with the letters of Paul gives us valuable hints. For in certain parts of Acts (viz., 16:10-17; 2 ° : 5~ 21 : 18; 27 : 28) the narrative is carried on in the first person. In these sections the narrator is a companion of Paul who went with him from Troas to Philippi on the second missionary journey, later from Philippi to Jerusalem, and finally from Caesarea to Rome. Now only two friends seem to have been with Paul on his eventful voyage to Rome, of whom one was Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica (Acts 27:2), and the other, the unnamed author of the account of this voyage In the letters written by Paul from Rome we seem to get near to this unnamed author. There are five 1 men with Paul, one of whom he mentions as sending greeting to his readers, viz., Aristarchus, then Mark, Epaphras, Luke, and Demas (Col. 4: 10-14; Philemon 23, 24), and we naturally look among these men for the author of the description of the voyage to Rome and of the other parts of Acts which are written in the first person. Now four of these five men are excluded from the authorship of the diary. Aristarchus is excluded by Acts 27:2, where he is mentioned by name and distinguished from the writer. Mark is excluded by the fact that he was not with Paul on the second missionary journey (Acts 15:39). Epaphras was a Colossian (Col. 4:12), and as Paul did not labor in the vicinity of Colossa? until the third missionary journey, there is no ground for thinking that Epaphras can have been with him on the second journey. Demas is apparently excluded by 2 Tim. 4 : 10, for Paul there says that he had forsaken him, having loved this present world. But it is improbable that a man who had continued with Paul in all the perils recorded in Acts 16 : 21-22; 27; 28 would at last forsake him out of love for the present world. There remains, then, of the five men, who were with Paul when he wrote to the Colossians and Philemon, only Luke, the "beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). We have ground, therefore, for ascribing to him the authorship of the diary which is embedded in Acts.

But it seems most natural to hold that he who wrote this diary wrote also the entire book, since a man of literary ability like that of the author of Acts would scarcely have incorporated in his history, in an unchanged form, the diary of some other man. With a good degree of confidence, therefore, we hold, with the church of the second century, that the author of Acts and of the third gospel was Luke.

» Six in Colossians; but the sixth (Jesus called Justus), being wholly unknown, is ignored in the above statement.

INTRODUCTION 5

In view, moreover, of the identity of the author of Acts and the third gospel, we apply to the composition of Acts what is said in the introductory verses of the third gospel (Luke 1:1-4). and hold that the author's careful investigation of his material furnishes good ground on which to accept the general trustworthiness of his narrative. In the parts covered by the diary he had first-hand knowledge. In other parts, as in the account of the first missionary journey, he needed no other source than Paul. For the history of the founding of the church and of the earliest spread of Christianity, especially for the long addresses of Peter and Stephen, he was probably dependent, at least in part, on the writings of others.

The purpose of Acts, as we may infer from the author's words in the preface to the gospels, was to inform and establish Theophilus, and the specific plan by which this was to be accomplished is suggested in Acts 1:8. It was to narrate the triumphant manner in which men had borne witness to Jesus from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

As to the time when Acts was written, those who hold it to be the work of Luke are divided between an earlier date (59-65 A. d.) and a later (75-80 A. d.), the preference now being for the second.

§ 3. The New Testament Epistles. — The second main source of knowledge regarding the church in the apostolic age is the New Testament letters. The composition of all these documents, if we except 2 Peter, probably falls within the first century. The authorship of some of them, e. g., 2 Peter and Hebrews, is entirely unknown; that of a somewhat larger number is regarded by many scholars as uncertain — this number including, among others, the two epistles to Timothy and Titus, the epistles of John, and the Apocalypse; but the authorship of the more important half of the whole group of writings is very generally accepted as reasonably sure. This number includes ten letters of Paul and one of Peter.

As compared with Acts these New Testament epistles introduce us to the teaching which was current in the apostolic age rather than to the external history of the church. And yet at the same time it is in these letters that we get some of our most vivid pictures of the effects which the new preaching produced. The book of Acts unrolls a large historical canvas before us; the letters contain miniatures.

§ 4. Limits of Our Knowledge. — While we know much of the history of the church in the apostolic age, it is wise to remember that our knowledge is limited on every side. Of the work of nine of the apostles whom Jesus chose and trained, and whom he sent out to bear witness even to the end of the earth, we know nothing at all. It is not once mentioned in our sources. Of the remaining two apostles — Peter and John — the latter simply appears a few times as the usually silent companion of Peter. Whether he preached and founded churches, and if so, where, we do not know. Peter is the hero of the early part of Acts, and we have glimpses of his movements until the death of James (Acts 12:2). We also know from Paul a little about his later career (Gal. 2 : 11 ; 1 Cor. 1:12; 9:5); but if he suffered martyrdom in the reign of Nero, as ancient tradition affirms, there is a period in his life of at least twenty years which is to us practically a blank. We know of one short evangelistic tour by him besides his early activity in Jerusalem, but that is all. If he made other and extensive tours, which seems probable (cf. Gal. 2:9), and if he founded churches or had great influence in other ways as the rock-apostle, there is no record of these things.

Thus our knowledge of the work of the original apostles is exceedingly meager. It passed into history largely as an impersonal force. It found no Luke to chronicle it for coming generations.

Paul is the only man of the apostolic age whose labors have been recorded with any fulness, and yet our knowledge even of him is but fragmentary. Thus of the first fourteen years of his Christian activity thirteen are practically unknown. He had worked many years as a foreign missionary before he went out from Antioch on the so-called first missionary journey. He was a great preacher, but we have none of his sermons; at most, five-minute abstracts or reports of a few of them. He was a great organizer and administrator ; but though we have important information regarding these phases of his activity, the sources leave us uncertain on some points.

Of the inner history of the church also in Paul's day our information is not complete. We know, e. g., that there were grave misunderstandings between the Jewish and the gentile Christians, but we have no statement of the case from one who fully sympathized with the Jewish position. Again, we know that believers in Paul's time were made acquainted with the life and the teaching of Jesus, but what written accounts of these were in circulation, and how such accounts were regarded in comparison with the Old Testament, no one is in a position to say definitely.

These points may suffice to suggest the limitations of our knowledge regarding the church of the earliest age, and the need of caution in the use of our sources.

INTRODUCTION 7

B. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE

§ 5. The Limits of the Apostolic Age. — The apostolic age began when the disciples became convinced of the resurrection of Jesus. The date of this event can be approximately determined ; it probably belongs to the year 30 a. d. ; but the close of the period is indefinite. The term itself naturally suggests that the period closed with the death of the last of the apostles whose work and death are known; but the death of the three men of whose labors we have any considerable information, viz., Peter, John, and Paul, is not recorded in the New Testament. A very old tradition puts the death of Peter and Paul in the persecution of the Christians under Nero (64-66 A. d.), and that of John in the time of Domitian, near the close of the first century. Now, since we have no direct information whatever regarding the history of the church from the death of Peter and Paul to the time of Clement of Rome, approximately from 65-95 a. d., it seems more natural to find the terminus of the age in 65 A. D. than in the death of John. But wherever we set the exact limit, it will remain true that the Apostolic Age practically closed some thirty-five years after the great day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1). This is the length of the first creative epoch in the history of Christianity.

It is beyond the scope of the present work to enter into an extended discussion of the chronology of the period. Within the thirty-five years above referred to there are two events to which there are references in contemporary history which enable us to determine their dates with approximate accuracy. These events are the death of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:23) and the accession of Festus (Acts 24: 27). The former of these events took place in 44 a. d. ; the latter probably in the summer of 58 A. d., though some modern scholars date it as early as 55 a. d., and some as late as 60 a. d. Into the chronological framework determined by these relatively fixed points the other events of the period can be fitted with varying degrees of certainty and definiteness. The result, subject to doubt on many points of detail, but at no point very wide of the mark, is exhibited in the following table of the approximate dates of the

5 CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOi. r E

CHIEF EVENTS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE 1

27 or 30 A. d. Death and resurrection of Jesus; Pentecost.

32 A. d. The conversion of Paul.

32-35 a. d. In Arabia and Damascus.

35-44 A. d. In Syria and Cilicia.

44 A. d. The planting of the church in Antioch.

45-47 a. d. Paul's first missionary journey.

48 A. d. The conference in Jerusalem.

49-51 a. d. Paul's second missionary journey.

52-56 a. d. Paul's third missionary journey.

56-58 A. d. Paul's two years' imprisonment in Caesarea.

58-59 A. d. Paul's voyage to Rome.

59-61 a. d. Paul's two years' imprisonment in Rome.

64 A. d. The death of Paul. The death of Peter also probably occurred not far from this time.

70 A. d. The destruction of Jerusalem.

64-100 a. d. A period of relative obscurity; the gospels, the Revelation, and several New Testament letters were written, but of the external events little is known.

§ 6. The Theater of Action. — The ministry of Jesus was limited to an area about 100 miles in extent from north to south, and half that distance from east to west. The labors of the apostolic age, so far as known to us, extended across a territory some 2,000 miles from east to west and 700 from north to south. If we leave Rome out of account, the- field of apostolic labor is at once reduced to about 1,000 miles from east to west and 500 from north to south. The course of the gospel across this region was along the Mediterranean coast, first northward to Antioch, then westward and northwestward to Troas and Philippi, and finally southward to Corinth. The missionary work of which we have record was confined chiefly to four large cities, viz., Jerusalem, Syrian Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth, and to seven others of lesser size, of which four were in Asia Minor, viz., Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and three in Greece, viz., Philippi, Thessalonica, and Bercea. The work of evangelization was extended rapidly from these centers through the surrounding country (see, e. g., Acts 14: 7; 19:10), but of this wider work within the period under consideration we know little.

i Fot the sake of completeness we give the approximate date of the death of Jesus. This rests upon grounds of its own which are independent of the Pauline chronology.

References to literature on the subject are given under § 10.

INTRODUCTION 9

§ 7. The Numerical Result. — On the day of Pentecost there were 120 believers gathered together in Jerusalem (Acts 1:15), who, although not all of those who had faith in Jesus as the Messiah, probably included the most vigorous elements of the whole company ; at the close of the period there were companies of Christian disciples in thirty cities and towns mentioned by name in our sources, 1 besides a considerable number of churches known to have existed though not named (see Acts 9:31; 15:41; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:1; Titus 1:5). Furthermore, the fragmentary character of our sources makes it probable that the results of evangelistic effort prior to the year 65 A. D. were considerably more extensive than we are able to point out in detail. It can scarcely be doubted, for instance, that the work of Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus, followed by that of Barnabas and Mark, bore fruit in the planting of a number of churches, and as little can we doubt that the message of Jesus was proclaimed in Alexandria and on the Euphrates before the death of Peter and Paul.

Of the size of the Christian communities of whose existence we have definite knowledge nothing certain can be said. The early development of the church in Jerusalem assumed large proportions, as did that of the churches in the Syrian Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. The riots occasioned by the preaching of the gospel in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Ephesus indicate plainly that the adherents of the new religion had become a power of no small magnitude. But of the total number of disciples won between Pentecost and the death of Paul, it is clearly impossible to speak except in the most general manner. The sources justify us in saying that the country bordering on the north coast of the Mediterranean as far as Corinth and also the interior of Asia Minor were thoroughly leavened by the gospel.

§ 8. The Relation of the Jewish Church and the Roman Government to Christianity. — From Pentecost to the Neronian persecution the authorities of the Jewish church opposed the work of Christian missions both among the Jews and the gentiles, but the

1 Damascus, Jerusalem, Samaria, Lydda, Joppa, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, Antioch (S.), Antioch (P.), Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Ephesus, Colossae, Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, Corinth, Puteoli, Rome, Smyrna, Pergamum Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea, Philadelphia.

IO CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE

Roman government took no notice of these missions as a religious movement. There were Christian martyrs in this period, but they fell before religious fanaticism, not as victims of political persecution. The power which had brought Jesus to the cross sought from the first to stamp out the movement instituted in his name. Apostles were imprisoned and beaten, and one was beheaded ; the first of the " seven " was stoned, and at one time the persecution was so hot in Jerusalem under the leadership of Paul that most Christians appear to have been driven from the city. Saul had no successor in the work of persecution of zeal and ability equal to his own, but the spirit of the Jewish authorities remained unchanged throughout the apostolic age, and wherever the gospel was preached the great majority of the Jews opposed its spread. But, while this is true, we should remember that a few Jews accepted it, and that from among these few came the greatest of the missionary workers — Paul and Barnabas, Stephen and Philip, Aquila and Apollos and Silas. The spread of the new religion in the apostolic age, though chiefly successful among the gentiles, was carried on by Christian Jews.

The state, as we have said, took no notice of the Christian missionaries as religious teachers during this first period. It was as safe to be a Christian as to be a Jew or an idolater, so far as the Roman government was concerned. Paul was apprehended and brought to trial, but only on one occasion was it made a ground of accusation against him that he was a follower of Jesus (Acts 24:5), and Felix, the Roman procurator, paid no attention to the charge. When the successor of Felix sent Paul to Rome to be tried before the emperor, he confessed that he had no definite charge to send with him though he knew that Paul differed religiously from the Jews. Whatever opposition, therefore, the Christian missionaries experienced from the Roman government in the apostolic age — and it was slight — was due to other causes than their religious faith.

§9. Questions and Suggestions for Study. — (1) Name the two chief sources of our knowledge of the apostolic age. (2) What value have the gospels in this connection ? (3) What other writings bear on the subject ? (4) How is Acts related to the third gospel? (5) What light do Acts and the epistles throw on the authorship of the diary ? (6) What may we infer from Luke 1 : 1-4 regard-

INTRODUCTION 1 1

ing the historical character of Acts ? (7) What are the purpose and specific plan of Acts ? (8) When was Acts written ?

(9) What New Testament letters are widely accepted among scholars as of known authorship? (10) How do the epistles compare with Acts as sources for the history of the apostolic age?

(11) How complete is our knowledge of the work of the original apostles? (12) What notable gaps are there in our knowledge of the career of Paul ? (13) Illustrate the incompleteness of our knowledge of the internal history of the apostolic church.

(14) Define the apostolic age chronologically. (15) Describe in general the theater of Christian activity in the apostolic age. (16) How many cities and towns are mentioned in our sources in which the gospel was planted in the apostolic age ? (17) What bearing has the fragmentariness of our sources on the question of the extension of the gospel in the apostolic age ?

(18) What was the general attitude of the Jewish church toward Christianity in the apostolic age ? (19) Of what nationality were most of the great missionaries of that time ? (20) What was the general attitude of the Roman government toward Christianity in the apostolic age ?

§ 10. Supplementary Topics for Study and References to Literature. 1 — 1. From the study of the diary, the so-called "wesections" (Acts 16:10-17; 2o: 5 — 21:18; 27:1 — 28:31), make a narrative of the experiences that the author of Acts shared with Paul.

2. On the sources of our knowledge of the apostolic age, see especially the recent works on New Testament introduction, as those of Salmon, Godet, Holtzmann, Julicher, and Bacon.

3. On geography look up in any standard atlas the location of the cities mentioned in § 7.

4. On the attitude of the Roman government toward Christianity, see:

Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 346-60.

1 The literature referred to in all the paragraphs with this heading will be in English. The aim of the references is simply to start the student in his collateral reading, and hence the number of references will not be large.

5. On the chronology of the apostolic age, see;

Schurer, Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Div. 2, Vol. II, pp. 163, 182 ff.; Burton, Records and Letters of the Apostolic Age, pp. 201 ff., McGiffert, The Apostolic Age, pp. 356 ff., 673; Turner, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, article on "Chronology of the New Testament;" Mathews, in Biblical World, Nov., 1897, pp. 353 ff.

Chapter I The Disciples Rallied And Waiting For The Spirit

§11. The reality of the resurrection. Acts 1:1-5; also Gal. 1:15-17; 1

§ 13. The gathering in Jerusalem. Acts 1:12-14; Luke 24:52, 53

§ 14. The choice of Matthias. Acts 1:15-26

§ 11. The Reality of the Resurrection. — The book of Acts and the apostolic age do not begin with Pentecost, but with the resurrection. There would have been no gathering of disciples in the upper chamber and no Pentecost, had they not previously been convinced that their Master was alive. With any difficulties that stand in the way of our forming a clear conception of the resurrection of Jesus it is not our present task to deal. We are concerned here with a simple fact of history, viz., that the makers of the apostolic age were convinced of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. The author of Acts begins his record of the great period with this event. We must do the same, for the apostles themselves and their deeds can not be understood unless we hold that the resurrection of their Master was an absolute reality to them. We see a stream of creative power flowing on through the apostolic age, and though we can not observe the sources of that power and explain them, we can not fail to see that the actors in this period believed that the power came from the resurrection of Jesus and the Spirit of God. And whatever mystery may remain around this double source of the transforming power manifested in the apostolic age, we do not know of any other adequate explanation of the fact than that which we find in the earliest records.

The mode of the resurrection of Jesus and the nature of his appearances to the disciples may never become altogether clear, but no fact of history is better established than that the disciples were convinced of having met the risen

THE DISCIPLES WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT 1 7

Lord face to face. Moreover, it seems impossible to account for this conviction without accepting a real return of Jesus to them, whatever may have been the nature or form of that return. For the conviction of his resurrection arose when the disciples were overwhelmed with sorrow; it persisted to the end of their lives; it was the fundamental fact in their testimony; and their testimony founded the Christian church.

J 12. The Ascension. — Luke is the only New Testament writer who speaks of a definite historical ascension of Jesus, and he does this only in Acts. The last that he says of Jesus in the gospel is that, having blessed the disciples on the Mount of Olives, he " parted from them." The ascension described in Acts took place forty days 1 after the resurrection; it took place on the Mount of Olives in the presence of the apostles, and was a visible phenomenon (Acts 1:9, 10). The event is evidently thought of as concluding the series of manifestations of the risen Lord to the disciples who had known him in the flesh, preceding his taking his seat at the right hand of the Father. It could hardly be otherwise than that the last of these appearances should be looked upon as ending in the departure of Jesus to heaven (cf. i Thess. 1:10).

The language recording the ascension is, of course, that of appearance, expressing in the forms of thought which were natural to the early Christians (according to which, e. g., heaven was above them) their interpretation of their experiences. The resurrection and the exaltation, between which the narrative of the ascension furnishes a link of connection, are conspicuous in the faith of the early church as reflected in the New Testament, but the ascension, as we have seen, is directly mentioned only once as a fact of history. Our belief in Jesus as the risen and reigning Savior would be the same had Luke not written Acts 1:9-11. That Jesus rose from the dead and was exalted to a throne of power were fundamental elements of early Christian faith; but how he finally passed into the unseen world, at what time, or in what place, these questions are plainly unimportant.