The Bible and the Early Church
Table of Contents
The Bible and the Early Church: Part 2
This is the bare history of the New Testament h the second century, but the scanty records of that time yet give us some glimpses of the way in which the Scriptures were woven into the lives of early Christians.
The first account of early Christian worship is found in a letter 'of Pliny, governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Trajan. He was alarmed at the number of Christians in his province; had arrested some, and the following account is from the lips of some persons who said they had been Christians, but had given up their profession for some years. Pliny says that they "assured him that this was the sum of their fault or error, that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before light, and repeat a fixed form of words among themselves, in order to Christ as God, and bind themselves by an oath not to the commission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, robbery, adultery, not to break their word, not to withhold a pledge entrusted to them when called upon to restore it. When this was done, they said it was their custom to separate, and again to meet for a meal, which was, however, of the most simple fare and innocent; and that they had ceased to do this after Pliny's edict.”
A little later Justin gives an account with more detail. He says that on the day called Sunday all Christians of the town or country came together. They began by reading many passages from the Scriptures. "When the reader has ceased," says Justin, "the presiding minister addresses to us the appropriate admonitions, and invites us to imitate the noble examples found in Holy Scripture. Then we all rise up together and pray. And when we have ceased from prayer, bread is brought and wine and water, and the presiding minister offers up prayer and alike thanksgiving, according to his ability, and the people joyously respond, saying the 'amen.'”
It was at such a meeting in Scilla, a little town in Africa, that nine Christians, three of them women, were suddenly seized and brought before the governor. We have the account of their trial, taken probably from the proconsular records: “You persist, I see, in being a Christian," the proconsul said to Speratus, the chief of the martyrs.
“This Christian persistence I trust I have," was his reply; "not by my own strength, but of the gift of God. If you would know the set judgment of my heart, I am a Christian.”
“Perhaps," said the proconsul, "you wish a space for reflection.”
Speratus said, "No second deliberation is required for so good an object. For we decided not to abandon the worship of Christ when, renewed by the grace of baptism, we renounced the devil and followed the steps of Christ.'?",
"Tell me,'' said the proconsul the substance of the teachings in your religion?”
Speratus replied, "The books of the Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul, the apostle, a most holy man.”
“Take a respite of thirty days," said the proconsul, "that you may retract your confession of this sect. Perhaps you will return to the sacred ceremonies of the gods.”
Speratus replied, "A respite of thirty days will not be able to change our profession, but do you rather choose to take this space for deciding about life, that you may abandon the base worship of idols, and prove a lover of the Christian religion. But if you are not worthy to receive it, withdraw the respite; read the sentence. Doubt not that after the pause of thirty days, we shall be such as you see us today.”
Judgment was then given. As they had confessed that they were Christians, and refused the opportunity of recanting, they were condemned to death.
Speratus said, "We give thanks to Christ," and one of his companions added, "Today we are martyrs in heaven. Thanks be to God.”
Another of the innumerable company of martyrs of those early days was Marinus, a young soldier of Cesarea in Palestine. Eusebius, who tells the story, says that there was peace throughout the churches just at that time, about 260 A. D. The laws against, the Christians remained, however, unrepealed, and Christians were always in danger of being called before the magistrate and ordered to sacrifice to the emperor.
“Marinus was about to be promoted to be a centurion, but just as the honor was to be conferred on him, one of the other soldiers objected, saying that it was not lawful for him to share in the Roman honors, as he was a Christian, and refused to sacrifice to the emperor. The judge, whose name was Achaeus, roused at this, first began to ask what the opinions of Marinus were; and when he saw him constantly affirming that he was a Christian, he granted him three hours for reflection. But as soon as he came out of the pratorium, or judgment hall, Theotecnus, the bishop of the place, coming to him, drew him aside in conversation and, taking him by the hand, conducted him to the church; and having placed him within by the altar, he raised his cloak a little and, pointing to the sword that hung by his side, and at the same time showing him the book of the. Holy Gospels, told him to choose either of the two according to his wish. Without hesitation he extended his hand and took the book.
“Hold fast, then, hold fast to God," said Theotecnus, "and strengthened by Him mayest thou obtain what thou hast chosen-go in peace.”
Immediately upon his return from thence, a crier began to proclaim before the pretorium for the appointed time had already passed away; and being thus arraigned, after exhibiting a still greater ardor in his faith, he was forthwith led away as he was and suffered martyrdom.”
The Bible and the Early Church: Part 1
We saw last month that the New Testament was finished before the close of the first century. We can see from the last epistles that even before the death of the apostles the Church had lost her first love, and a time of decline had set in? It is evident that there was no one in the Church great enough or devoted enough to carry on the work of the apostles. Individuals there were, and many of them who were willing to seal their confession with their blood, but there was no one with a grasp of the truth, or spiritual discernment and power, which was able to turn back the tide of error which was slowly creeping over the Church.
Some writings of that early time have come down to us. The most important are as follows: The two epistles of Clement, Bishop of Rome, about A. D. 95.
The epistles of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, written on the way to his martyrdom in Rome about A. D. 107.
An epistle of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, also about A. D. 107.
A letter of Barnabas.
A curious allegory called "The Shepherd," written about the beginning of the 2nd century.
All these writings, though coming so soon after the New Testament, are immeasureably inferior. They show in a wonderful way the difference between an inspired writing and the mere work of man.
The later writers, Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp, etc., of course do not pretend to claim inspiration. Their epistles are full of quotations and allusions from the Old and New Testaments, and they speak most humbly of the difference between their position and that of the apostles.
We must remember the difficulties of the Christians of that age. The writings of the New Testament had not been collected, though they were known individually by assemblies scattered all over the world. Although their authors wrote by the inspiration of God, yet not all the epistles definitely state that they are inspired, and probably there were other epistles by equally holy men which have been lost, and no doubt were permitted so by God because they were not inspired. "He that is of God heareth God's words." John 8:47. May we not say that the guidance of the Holy. Spirit was needed to discern, and acknowledge the inspired writings, just as it was needed to write the words?
But just as the New Testament was written spontaneously, without concerted action, "not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," so during a century it was gradually being received, acknowledged, and collected into a whole. During those days, sometimes some books which we accept as inspired were not so accepted by individual assemblies, and on the other hand, they sometimes received books which we regard as apocryphal. But at last, at the end of the second century, the judgment of the Church was almost unanimous in accepting the Bible as we have it.
This is shown by two translations of the whole Bible which appeared almost at the same time,a Latin one in the west, and a Syriac one in the east.
The Syriac version, known as the Peshito, i.e. simple or literal version, is the oldest. Nothing is known of its translator, but it was in use among the assemblies of Syria early in the second century, and manuscripts of it are still in existence.
The Old Testament of the Peshito was taken directly from the Hebrew, and therefore its contents are the same as ours. The New Testament contains the four gospels, the Acts, the 14 epistles of St. Paul, including the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistles of James, 1 Peter, 1 John.
The remaining epistles, i. e. Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelations were translated and added later on.
The Old Latin version of the Bible, known as the Old Vulgate, was made in Africa about the middle of the second century. The Old Testament was a translation of the Septuagint, which it will be remembered was a Greek translation of the Old Testament made in Egypt about the middle of the third century. It therefore contained the books of the Apocrypha which had been included with the Septuagint.
The New Testament lacked, at first, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Epistles of James and 2 Peter. This old Latin version of the Bible was the one habitually used by Tertullian. It is worth while quoting some of his words on the authority of the Bible which he regards as one "Divine Instrument." (i. e record). He appeals to the historic tradition of the Churches to show the authenticity of the apostolic writings. "The Epistles of St. Paul have been preserved in the Churches which he founded; so too the four Gospels have been handed down to us in due succession on the authority of the Apostolic Churches.”
(To be continued.)