THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS
By: Ray Shelton
The Apostolic Fathers are a group of early Christian writers that
were believed at one time to have direct contact with the apostles.
The application of the designation "apostolic" to these
writers is doubtful in every case except possibly Clement, Ignatius,
and Polycarp. Today the use of this term is conventional rather
than descriptive to designate the earliest noncanonical Christian
writings of the late first and early second centuries. In content
they are broadly pastoral and practical rather than theological
and apologetical, being concerned with the internal life of Christian
communities. The following are some of the writings of Apostolic Fathers:
The Epistle of Barnabas,
The Didache,
First Clement,
Second Clement,
The Shepherd of Hermas,
The Epistles of Ignatius,
The Epistle of Polycarp,
The Martyrdom of Polycarp,
The Fragments of Papias.
- The Epistle of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.)
- Author and Date:
The writer of the Epistle that bears the name of
Barnabas nowhere claims to be the Apostle Barnabas, the companion
of the Apostle Paul. Indeed his language is such as to suggest
that he had no connection to the Apostle Paul. This does not
mean that the work is apocryphal, if by apocryphal we mean fictitious.
It is impossible to know how the name came to be associated with it.
The earliest references to it are confined to the Alexandrian
fathers and the presumption is that it was written in Alexandria
itself. An early tradition claims that Barnabas resided at Alexandria
in Egypt, but this story might be the consequence rather than
the cause of his name being attached to the letter. Possibly
the author is some unknown person who had been named for the "Son
of Consolation." The Epistle was certainly
written after the first destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by
Titus, to which it alludes. But if it had been written after
the war under Hadrian ending in the second destruction in A.D. 132,
it could hardly have failed to make reference to that event.
Therefore the possible limits of its writing are A.D. 70 and
A.D. 132. But within this period of sixty years many dates have
been assigned to it. The actual date depends upon the interpretation
of certain passages in the letter.
- Purpose and Content:
The Epistle that bears the name of Barnabas is unique
in the literature of the early church. Its writer is an uncompromising
antagonist of Judaism, but he has nothing in common with the later
antijudaic writers of the second century. Unlike Marcion, he
does not assume an opposition between the Old and New Testaments.
On the contrary he sees Christianity everywhere in the Law and
the Prophets. He quotes them profusely as authoritative. He
only accuses the Jews of misunderstanding them from beginning
to end.
- The Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
(end 1st century A.D.)
- Purpose:
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a manual
of church life and practice written about A.D. 150. It disappeared
about some one thousand years ago, and it was rediscovered in
A.D. 1873 and was published in A.D. 1883. Philotheos Byrennios,
Greek metropolitan of Nicomedia, found it in a library at Constantinople
in a manuscript dated A.D. 1056 which also contained the epistles of
Barnabas and Clement. Its full title is
"The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles
through the Twelve Apostles."
- Contents:
The Didache or Teaching (for this
is what the Greek word means) falls into two parts. The first
part (chapters 1-6) is a code of Christian morals, presented as
choice between the way of life and the way of death. While there
are references to the Sermon on the Mount, this part may be dependent
upon a Jewish source. Chapters 1 to 5 appears in a rather different
version at the end of the Letter of Barnabas. The second part
(chapters 7-15) is a manual of Church Order which, in a well-arranged
manner, lays down some rules for the conduct of a rural congregation.
It deals with such topics as baptism, fasting, the Lord's Supper,
itinerant prophets, and the local ministry of bishops and deacons.
It specifies baptism by immersion in the threefold name of God
in running water, but other water and affusion are allowed if
this is not possible. Chapters 11-15 are mostly concerned with
the ministry, with emphasis being placed upon prophets as well
as bishops and deacons. Tests are given to determine who are
false prophets. The word "bishop" is used synonymously
with "presbyter," as the Apostle Paul does (I Tim. 3:1-8),
indicating that the office of single bishop had not developed
yet. It concludes with a warning on the approaching end of the
world and the second coming of Christ.
- Value:
The Didache provides a very early view of the life
and order of the church at the end of the first century A.D. before
the monepiscopate had finally triumphed and while the gift of
prophecy was still exercised.
- First Clement (95 A.D.)
This is an epistle written in the name of the Roman Church to
the church at Corinth. The author was Clement, the Bishop of
the Roman Church, but he does not write in his own name. Its
date was near the close of the Diocletian's persecution.
- Purpose:
A feud had broken out in the Church of Corinth. Presbyters appointed
by Apostles, or by their immediate successors, had been deposed.
A split developed between those who opposed the deposition and
those who supported it.
- Contents:
This letter of Clement was written to rebuke the insubordination
of the opposition and to heal the dissension in the Church of Corinth.
- Value:
As an apology for the delay in attending to the matter, the letter
refers to the persecution at Rome. Incidentally some information
is given with respect to the character of the persecutions in
the course of the letter. Reference is made to the martyrdoms
of Peter and Paul at Rome in the later years of Nero's reign.
- Second Clement (140-150 A.D.)
- Purpose:
This Second Epistle to the Corinthians, read as
Scripture in Syria but recognized as spurious by Eusebius, is
actually a sermon, probably the oldest in postapostolic literature.
It appears to have been delivered about 140-150 A.D. in Rome (by
Bishop Hyginus, c 138-142? A.D.) or in Corinth (hence its manuscript
connections with First Clement), or perhaps in Alexandria.
- Contents:
It touches on several aspects of Christian doctrine, especially
the church and repentance, revealing Pauline and Gnostic influences,
but it is mainly a moral exhortation.
- Value:
As a literary production it has little value, but it is interesting
for its high moral tone and unswerving faith that it displays
throughout.
- The Shepherd of Hermas (90-140/150 A.D.)
Hermas was a Roman prophet, who was born a (Jewish?) slave but
was emancipated at Rome; he farmed and prospered, but lost his
property and saw his sons apostatize in the persecution.
- Purpose:
Hermas in the course of his visions relates that he was bidden
to write "two little books and [to] send one to Clement and
one to Grapte. Clement must then send it to the cities aboard,
for that is his duty, and Grapte shall exhort the widows and orphans"
(Hermas, Vis. II.4:3). Hermas is both the narrator and the hero
of the narrative. The Shepherd is the divine teacher, who communicates
to Hermas, either by precept or by allegory, the lessons which
are to be disseminated for the instruction of the Church.
- Contents:
The work consists of five Visions, twelve Mandates,
and ten Similitudes. The Visions are introductory,
and the Shepherd does not appear until their close. The first
person to be introduced in the book is Rhoda (Vision I.1), to whom
Hermas had been sold when brought to Rome as a slave. Many years
later he falls in love with her and would have married her. Later
as he is on his way to Cumae, she appears to him in the heavens
and reproaches him for his not too blameless passion for her.
After rebuking him, she withdraws. Then he sees before him an
aged woman, who he mistakes for Sibyl (Vision I.4), but who turns
out to be the Church. Hermas receives visions from this aged
woman who turns into a youthful beauty (Vision 14); she is the Church,
who is also depicted as a tower under construction. Hermas receives
Vision 5 from the "angel of repentance" in the guise
of a shepherd, who introduces the remaining sections. The Shepherd
delivers his message to Hermas in two parts:
- the Mandates or Precepts, and
- Similitudes or Parables, i.e. moral lessons taught by allegory.
The interpretation of these sections is greatly
complicated by inconsistencies, the apocalyptic and allegorical
genres, and colorful imagery. The major themes are ethical --
purity and repentance. Moral instruction occupies the Similitudes
and the Mandates, which embodies the "two ways"
pattern.
- Value:
The chief importance of the Shepherd lies in the light that it
throws on the beliefs of Jewish Christianity, the literary forms
it employed, and on the "vulgar catholicism" of a Christian
congregation in Hellenistic Roman society. The work enjoyed high
regard in the early Christian centuries, especially in the East.
It was widely included among the Scriptures until the third century
and was still used for catechetical purposes in Athanasius' day
(early 4th century A.D.).
- The Epistles of Ignatius (early 2nd century A.D.)
These seven epistles were written in the early years of second
century, when the writer, the Bishop of Antioch in Syria, was
on his way under armed guard from Antioch to Rome. He had been
condemned to death for his faith and he expected to be thrown
to the wild beasts in the amphitheater on his arrival. Chained
to a squad of armed soldiers, he is taken by the overland route
through Cilicia and Asia Minor, and thence to Rome. Where the
way forks at Laodicea, the soldiers chooses the northern route.
They halted at Philadelphia, and again at Smyrna, where Ignatius
is welcomed by Polycarp, bishop of that city, and by delegates
from the neighboring churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles.
It is from Smyrna that he writes his first four letters - three
to the churches that sent delegates and one to the church at Rome.
Moving northward, they stop again at Troas. From there he writes
to the churches at Philadelphia and Smyrna and adds a personal
note to Polycarp. Leaving Troas they crossed by sea to Neapolis
and halted once more at Philippi, where the Christians welcomed
him. After that he disappears and we can conjecture that he reached
Italy by the way of Dyrrhachium and Brundisium. We are fairly
certain that he eventually reached Rome and was martyred in the
Coliseum sometime during Emperor Trajan's reign (98-117 A.D.)
- Purpose:
These seven epistles may be divided into two groups, written at
two different halting-places on the journey. The first four were
sent from Smyrna, while Ignatius was staying there and was visiting
Polycarp the bishop. The three remaining letters were written
at subsequent stages of his journey, at Alexandria Troas, where
he halted again for a time, before crossing the sea to Rome.
The exact place of their writing may be determined from statements
in the epistles themselves. The letters themselves do not contain
any indication of their chronological order in each group. The
two groups, besides having been written at different places, are
separated from each other by another distinctive feature. All
the epistles written from Smyrna are addressed to churches he
had not visited in person but only known through their delegates.
In contrast the epistles written from Troas were addressed to
those that he already had personal communication at some previous
stages in his journey, whether to churches (to the Philadelphians
and to the Smyrnaeans) or to persons (to Polycarp).
- Contents:
The seven epistles of Ignatius are
- To The Ephesians
- To The Magnesians
- To The Trallians
- To The Romans
- To The Philadelphians
- To The Smyrnaeans
- To Polycarp
Ignatius' letters are dominated by three concerns.
- The first concern is his approaching martyrdom. This is the exclusive
theme of the letter To The Romans, but it underlies all the
other letters. To "imitate the Passion of my God"
(To The Rom. 6:3) is the theme of his letters.
- His second concern is the unity of Church.
Against threatening schisms, Ignatius is persistent in his stress
on obedience to the Church authorities. In his letters there
emerges the picture of the local congregation governed by a single
bishop who is supported by a council of presbyters (elders) and
assisted by deacons.
- Ignatius' third concern is to unmask those heretical movements
which are leading to schism. Two of these were prevalent.
- The first was the Judaizing movement similar
to the one attacked by Paul in his letter to Galatians. Although
not as thoroughgoing as that faced by Paul (it did not insist
on circumcision), it did involve the observance of the Sabbath,
along with belief in certain Jewish traditions. Among which was
the view that Jesus was just a prophet, perhaps the last prophet.
Against these views Ignatius emphasized the divinity of Jesus.
For Ignatius Christ is "our God."
- The second heretical movement was the Docetic heresy that was
rife in Smyrna. This heresy attempted to accommodate the Gospel
to the Greek culture by denying the reality of the Lord's body.
The basic Hellenistic idea that matter was evil led inevitably
to the denial of the incarnation, that God could take on a body
and become man. Accordingly, Christ could not have been genuinely a man.
He only appeared or seemed to have a body
(whence "Docetism," from the Greek dokeo, to seem).
Against such views Ignatius emphasized the reality of the incarnation,
passion and resurrection of Christ.
- Value:
In six of his letters Ignatius attacks a heresy compounded of
Docetic, Judaistic, and Gnostic features, and advances the antidote
of adherence to the bishops, presbyters, and deacons. This is
probably the earliest witness to the threefold ministry. He magnifies
the bishop's unifying authority as representing God (the apostolic
succession is not mentioned).
- The Epistle of Polycarp (early 2nd century A.D.)
- Purpose:
This letter was written by Polycarp in reply to the letter from
the Philippians. They had invited him to address to them words
of exhortation. They also had requested that he forward by his
messenger their letter to the Syrian Church and to send them any
epistles of Ignatius that he might have.
- Contents:
This letter is intimately connected to the letters and martyrdom
of Ignatius. The Philippians had recently welcomed and escorted
certain saints who were in bonds (Sec. 1). It appears that Ignatius
was one of these (Sec. 9). Two other persons are also mentioned:
Zosimos and Rufus. It is possible that these persons are Bithynian
Christians who had been sent by Pliny to Rome to be tried there
for their faith and had joined Ignatius at Philippi. They would
be placed under the same escort with Ignatius, and proceed with
him to Rome in the custody of the "ten leopards" (Ignatius,
To The Rom. 5). The visit of Ignatius to Philippi had been recent,
so recent that Polycarp had no knowledge whether Ignatius had suffered
martyrdom. Therefore Polycarp asked the Philippians, who are
nearer to Rome than Smyrna, to communicate any knowledge which
they may have received concerning the saint and his companions
(Sec. 13). Beyond the references to Ignatius there is not much
of personal nature in the letter. Polycarp refers to Paul's communications
with the Philippians, both written and oral (Secs. 3,11). The
letter illuminates the development of the Philippian community
(still without monepiscopacy), and is virtually a catena of quotations
and echoes covering at least thirteen New Testament writings and
First Clement. It warns against heresy, Docetism,
and avarice. He mentions the fame of the Philippian Church in
the early days of the Gospel and congratulates them on sustaining
that reputation (Secs. 1,11). But this fair fame has been sullied
by the sin of one couple. Valens and his wife had committed an
act of greed, perhaps fraud and dishonesty. Since Valens was
one of the presbyters of the church, the church was directly responsible
for the crime. Polycarp expresses himself as much grieved. Though
this incident is only mentioned in one passage, it plainly made
a deep impression upon him. The sin of avarice is denounced again
and again in the body of the letter (Secs. 2, 4, 6, 11). The letter
is sent by means of one Crescens, whose sister also intended to
visit them. They both are commended to them by Polycarp (Sec. 14).
- Value:
There is little about the life of Polycarp, apart from this Epistle
and the eyewitness account of his martyrdom. At the time of his
martyrdom he confessed that he had been a Christian for eighty-six
years. Since the date of his martyrdom can be fixed with reasonable
certainty as occurring in A.D. 155 or 156, his birth could therefore
not have been later than the year A.D. 69 or 70. Thus his career spanned
that critical era of the Church's development, after the passing
of its apostolic founders and missionaries, during which the persecution
by the Roman State increased and the Docetic and Gnostic heresies
emerged, to which the Church responded by the establishment of
the monepiscopacy and the crystallization of the Canon of the
New Testament writings. Polycarp was destined to be intimately
involved in them and exercise upon them the force of his commanding
personality and influence.
- The Martyrdom of Polycarp (155-156 A.D.)
- Purpose:
This document which gives an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp
is in the form of a letter addressed by the Church of Smyrna to
the Church of Philomelium in Phrygia. It was intended for wider
circulation and at its close (Sec. 20) directions are given to
secure its being so circulated. The letter seems to have been
written shortly after the martyrdom of Polycarp, which happened
in A.D. 155 or 156.
- Contents:
It consists of two parts,
- the main body of the letter ending with the twentieth chapter, and
- a number of supplementary paragraphs, comprising chapters
twenty-one and twenty-two. The genuineness of this second part
has been the subject of wide discussion. It may have undergone
interpolation and redaction.
- Value:
It presents Polycarp as an imitator of Christ, at times fancifully.
The writer of the narrative, who names himself Marcion, stresses
the point that it was "a martyrdom conformable to the gospel."
It is our earliest testimony to the cult of the martyrs in the
Church, that is, the veneration of the relics of the saints and
the annual celebration of the day of martyrdom with liturgical
observances. Apart from these cultish practices the story of
the death of Polycarp and others are eyewitnesses to the courage
of the faith of these persons. There are few pieces in the history
of Christian literature that are a match for its moving pathos
and edifying effect.
- The Fragments of Papias (110-130 A.D.)
Papias (c.60-c.130 A.D.) was the bishop of Hierapolis in Phyrgia.
Iranaeus said that he was "a man of primitive age, a hearer of John
[the Apostle], a companion of Polycarp."
- Purpose:
Fragments survive, chiefly in Iranaeus and Eusebius, of his work
called the Exposition of Dominical Oracles in five
books (c.110 A.D.), in which he collected unwritten traditions from
the circles of "the elders [presbyters]," associates
of the apostles, including Aristion and "the elder John"
in Asia and the daughters of Philip the Apostle (or evangelist?)
in Hierapolis.
- Contents:
Such traditions transmitted historical reminiscences (much discussed
accounts of the origins of the gospel of Mark and Matthew, and
of John's gospel activity and martyrdom), miracle stories, noncanonical
pericopae (that is, a variant on John 7:53-8:11 found in
the Gospel according to the Hebrews by Eusebius
and perhaps Papias also), but chiefly beliefs of primitive Judeo-Christianity,
including the millenarian enjoyment of a miraculously fruitful
earth, the fall of angels commissioned to govern the world, and
the interpretation of early Genesis in terms of Christ and the Church.
- Value:
Eusebius despised Papias' millenarianism, disparaged his material
and intelligence and argues that Papias heard only "the elder
John," whom he distinguished from the Apostle John. But
Papias' Exposition influenced many later writers.