Hot Topics in Church History

Saint Anne Adult ForumLent 2013

Previews of Coming AttractionsWeek 1: Lost Christianities

Early Christians and faiths we never knewWeek 2: Establishment of the Church Canon

Books that didn’t make the bible and whyWeek 3: The Council of Nicaea

Establishment of Christian orthodoxyWeek 4: The Crusades

Religious wars in the name of ChristWeek 5: Establishment of the Anglican Church

A rift between England and Rome that became a new faithWeek 6: Modern Hot Topics

Contemporary topics, still unresolved after 2000 years of discussion

Lost ChristianitiesEarly Christian faiths we never knew

OutlineThe Christian world of 100 to 300 ADDifferent interpretations of what it meant to be

a ChristianEbonitiesMarconitesGnostics

Why did these different interpretations exist?What became of these Christianities?How do the differences in these Christian faiths

continue to influence our own faith today?

The Roman Empire 117 AD

The State of ChristianityNo established canonNo established set of beliefs (Council of

Nicaea wouldn’t meet until 325 AD)Many, many books available describing the

life and teachings of JesusMuch information about the life of Jesus was

still shared by word-of-mouthDifferent groups had very different

understandings of what it meant to be “Christian”

Where Does Our Information About These Groups Come From?Original texts and

writings generally don’t survive

Irenaeus – second century author who wrote against these interpretations, and sometimes quoted their texts

The EbionitesAccepted Jesus as the Jewish

Messiah, but still kept the Jewish law

May have been closely associated with James, the brother of Jesus

Believed that Jesus was fully human (not divine), and became a “Son of God” by keeping The Law perfectly

Had a gospel similar to the gospel of Matthew (less the first two chapters), plus the books of the Old Testament

MarcionitesTheology developed by Marcion

(85 – 160 A.D.) of SinopBelieved Jesus was fully divine

(not human)Did not think one had to keep

The Law to be right with God (i.e. did not have to be Jewish

Held that there were two Gods – one of the Old Testament (who also created the world) and one of the New

First to develop a canon of accepted scripture: Book similar to gospel of Luke

(called the Gospel of Marcion) Ten letters of Paul

Sinop

GnosticsVery little known about Gnostics

until the discovery of many Gnostic texts at Nag Hamadi, Egypt in 1946

Believed that the world is an evil place created by an inferior god, but many of us have the “spark of the divine” and are trying to return to the true God

Believed Christ entered the body of a man named Jesus, and came here to reveal this knowledge to us

Felt that the world wasn’t what it appeared to be, and that we aren’t supposed to be here

Gnostic TextsFollowed Gospel of

Mark and JohnMany other Gnostic

texts, including:Gospel of ThomasGospel of Truth

Alternate UniverseWhat would modern Christianity be like if

these other interpretations had “won”?Ebionites - Christianity would be a specialized

subset of JudiasimMarcionites – much shorter canon (no Old

Testament)Gnostics – Emphasis would be on discovering

your inner “divine spark”

What Were the Disagreements?Who was Jesus?

Was he fully human, but kept the law perfectly and became a Son of God? (ebionites)

Was he fully divine, and only appeared to be human? (Marcionites)

Was he a divine being who entered the body of a man named Jesus?

What was Jesus’ purpose here?To deliver a new interpretation of The Law?To be the perfect sacrifice?To deliver the knowledge needed to return to the

divine realm?

How Did Our Current Understanding of Christianity “Win”?Located in Rome

Roads – able to communicate the theology and the scriptures which eventually became the canon

Wealth – churches in Rome could send funds to help support like-minded Christian churches elsewhere in the Empire

Old – once the Old Testament was adopted, became credible and authoritative by virtue of its age (i.e. older than Homer, Plato, etc)

Popular – once adopted by Constantine, Christianity became quite popular

Ebonites – not very appealing (must become a Jew and keep The Law)

Marcionites – not very old, thus lacked authority and credibilityGnostics – elitist (only some, but not all, can be saved)

Questions?

On display through April 14, 2013

Next WeekBooks that didn’t make the bible and why

How the Bible Came to BeBooks that didn’t make the New Testament

and why

OutlineThe state of Christianity 100 – 300 A.D.A brief history of the books that made the New Testament

canonGospelsActsEpistlesApocolypse

Selected books that were not acceptedGospel of ThomasThe Infancy Gospel of ThomasThe Gospel of Peter

How were the books of the New Testament selected?How did the canon come to be?

The State of Christianity“Proto-orthodox”

Christianity becomes the dominant form in most parts of the empire by the 4th century

No formal canon (list) of accepted texts exists

Various Christian groups may be using different texts from one another

Books of the Modern New TestamentConsists of a total of

27 books by 14-15 different authors:4 gospels1 book of acts of the

apostles21 epistles (letters)1 apocalypse

All books were originally written in Greek

Letters of Paul written around 50 - 60 A.D.

Gospel of Mark ~ 65 A.D.

Gospels of Luke and Matthew 80 – 85 A.D.

Gospel of John 90-95 A.D.

Most books completed by 120 A.D.

Some Books Which Were Not Included in the Canon The Gospels of

Thomas Philip Mary Magdalene The Hebrews The Ebionites Bartholomew Nicodemus Basilides Truth The Nazarenes The Egyptians

The Secret Gospel of Mark The Aprocryphon of James The Infancy Gospel of James The Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew The Infancy Gospel of Thomas The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy The Armenian Gospel of the Infancy The Assumption of the Virgin The History of Joseph the Carpenter

The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles John Peter Paul Andrew Thomas Paul and Thecla Andrew and Matthias Barnabas James the Great Peter and Andrew Philip Pilate Thaddeus

The Ascents of James The Martyrdom of Matthew The Passion of Paul The Passion of Peter The Preaching of Peter

How Were Books Determined to be Canonical?Had to satisfy three

main criteria:Had to be written by

one of the apostles or one of the apostles’ companions (i.e. the book had to be old)

Had to be widely read by Christian churches throughout the world

Had to conform to the teachings of the church (had to be orthodox)

Infancy Gospel of ThomasDescribes the life of

Jesus prior to his 12th birthday

Many stories about miracles Jesus performed as a child

The Gospel of ThomasConsists of a total of 114

“sayings” attributed to JesusWidely used by the Gnostic

ChristiansWas known only by the

writings of Ireneaus until 1946A complete copy was

discovered in Nag Hamadi, Egypt, written in coptic

Translated into English in 1977

Not included in the canon because it was considered to be a gnostic text

Gospel of PeterGospel explicitly claims

to be written by PeterThe Gospel is written in

the first personContains an eyewitness

account of the resurrection

Was in use in the liturgy of many Christian churches

Declared heretical by Searpion of Antioch

Irenaeus, 2nd CenturyMarcion was the first to

develop a list of acceptable scription

Irenaeus was the first to call Mark, Luke, Matthew and John all canonical

Cites 22 of the 27 books in the New Testament

Uses apostolic succession in his arguments

The First Modern CanonThe first listing of

the 27 books contained in the modern New Testament dates from 367 A.D.

Listed in an annual spring letter by Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria

JeromeCommissioned by Pope

Damascus in 382 to revise the complete bible, including the Old and New Testaments

Rewrote the gospels from Greek, translated into consistent Latin

Dominant version of the bible from 400 to 1530 A.D.

For further reading…Ehrman, Bart D.

“Lost Christianities”“The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot”“Lost Scriptures”

Meyer, Marvin W.“The Secret Teachings of Jesus”

Pagels, Elaine“Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas”“Revelations: Visons, Prophesy and Politics in

the Book of Revelation”

Questions?

On display through April 14, 2013