Program / Course 12: Patristics and Historical Theology / Lesson 1.1
What you will learn
- Name the main writings called the Apostolic Fathers and say roughly when and where each was written.
- Explain why these texts matter as evidence for the generation after the New Testament.
- Describe what 1 Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and the Didache each show about church life.
- Separate what is widely agreed about these writings from what is still debated.
The big idea
The Apostolic Fathers are a small group of Christian writings from the late first and early second centuries. They are the earliest Christian texts outside the New Testament that survive in any quantity. They were written for particular churches facing particular problems: quarrels, persecution, questions about worship and leadership. Because they were not written as textbooks, they show ordinary church life more directly than later treatises do. They also show how quickly Christians began to ask how the apostles’ teaching should be handed on.
Key terms
- Apostolic Fathers
- A modern label for a collection of early Christian writings from about the end of the first century to the middle of the second. The name was applied in later centuries and reflects a belief that some of the authors knew the apostles.
- Patristics
- The study of the writers of the early church, who are called the Fathers (Latin pater, father) because later Christians looked to them as teachers.
- Bishop (episkopos)
- A Greek word meaning overseer. In the New Testament it is sometimes used of local leaders alongside elders. By the early second century, Ignatius writes of a single bishop in each city.
- Presbyter
- A Greek word meaning elder. A leader in a local church.
- Epistle
- A letter, here usually one sent from one church or bishop to another.
- Church order
- The way a church is organized: who leads it, who teaches, how worship is conducted and how disputes are settled.
- Didache
- A Greek word meaning teaching. It names a short early Christian manual on conduct, baptism, the Eucharist and church leadership, also called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.
- Pseudonymous
- Written under a name that is not the real author’s. Some early writings are of unknown authorship.
Background
The New Testament ends without telling the reader what happened next. Historians fill in the next stage mostly from a handful of writings that survive from roughly the years 90 to 150. A seventeenth century scholar gathered several of them into a collection, and the title Apostolic Fathers stuck. The collection is not a closed canon. Different editions include different texts, and the authors have little in common except their period and their closeness, in time, to the apostles.
The usual list includes 1 Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius, the Letter of Polycarp, the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the so-called Second Clement, fragments of Papias, and often the Epistle to Diognetus. Some of these were read as Scripture in certain churches for a time. The Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas, for example, appear in an important Greek Bible manuscript of the fourth century. Church leaders later decided they were useful but not Scripture.
Two cautions help a first reading. First, the dates are approximate. Scholars agree on a range, not an exact year, for most of these works. Second, the old belief that the authors personally knew the apostles is uncertain for several of them. Reading these texts is less about finding a perfect pure church than about seeing real communities at work, with their strengths and their quarrels.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: 1 Clement, a letter from Rome to Corinth
First Clement is a letter sent in the name of the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. It does not name its author in the text. From early on, Christians attributed it to Clement, a leader of the Roman church. Many scholars date it to about the year 96, though some argue for a slightly different date.
The occasion was a dispute. Some members of the Corinthian church had removed certain presbyters from office. The letter urges the Corinthians to restore order and to be humble. It uses examples from the Old Testament and from nature, and it appeals to the apostles Peter and Paul as models of endurance. It matters because it shows one church speaking with authority to another, and because it already speaks of leaders who hold office by appointment and not merely by popularity.
Step 2: Ignatius of Antioch and his seven letters
Ignatius was a bishop of Antioch in Syria. He was arrested and taken under guard to Rome, where he expected to be put to death. Tradition places this in the reign of the emperor Trajan, in the early second century. A few scholars have proposed a later date, and the question is debated. On the way, he wrote letters to churches in Asia Minor and to the church at Rome, and one to Polycarp.
His letters return to three themes: unity around the bishop, the reality of Christ’s human body and suffering, and his own coming martyrdom. He writes strongly against teachers who said Christ only seemed to suffer. His picture of one bishop with presbyters and deacons around him is one of the earliest clear descriptions of that pattern. Scholars still debate how widely that pattern had spread by his day, and whether Ignatius describes it or argues for it.
Step 3: Polycarp of Smyrna
Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna, a city in what is now Turkey. His surviving Letter to the Philippians was written after he received Ignatius on the journey to Rome. It is practical and modest. It quotes freely from what is now called the New Testament letters and the Gospels, which is evidence for how those writings were already being used.
Polycarp is also remembered for his death. An early account called the Martyrdom of Polycarp says he was put to death as an old man, and most scholars place this in the middle of the second century, around 155 or 156, though one alternative date is proposed. The next lesson returns to martyrdom in more detail.
Step 4: The Didache
The Didache is a short handbook of instruction. It begins with the Two Ways, the way of life and the way of death, then gives directions on baptism, fasting, prayer, the Eucharist, visiting teachers and prophets, and the choice of bishops and deacons. It includes a form of the Lord’s Prayer and a short thanksgiving prayer over the cup and the bread.
Its date and origin are debated. Some scholars place it in the late first century, perhaps in Syria, and others in the early second. The course does not choose a date. What matters is that it shows a community that has no written creed yet, but already has a clear way of life, a pattern of worship and a method for testing travelling teachers.
Step 5: What the group shows together
Taken together, these writings show a church that is already organized, already reading apostolic letters aloud, already worshipping on the Lord’s Day and already facing opposition. They also show how much was still unsettled. The vocabulary of the Trinity had not yet been developed, and different churches had different habits. A careful reader keeps both facts in view: there is real continuity with the New Testament, and there is real development after it.
- What problem was each writing trying to solve?
- Who is speaking, and to whom?
- What does the text assume that its readers already believe and do?
- What does it say about how the church is led, and what does it leave unsaid?
- Which details can be checked against the New Testament, and which cannot?
- How certain is the date, and what would change if the date moved by fifty years?
Examples
A church settles a dispute by letter
When a quarrel divided the Corinthians, the church at Rome did not send an army or a judge. It sent a long letter that appealed to Scripture, to examples of humility and to the memory of Peter and Paul. First Clement shows how early churches used writing to hold one another to account.
A bishop on his way to execution
Ignatius wrote to the Romans asking them not to try to save him from martyrdom. Whatever one thinks of that request, the letter shows how seriously he took the idea that suffering could be a way of following Christ. It also shows that a bishop could write to a distant church as a brother, not as a ruler.
A handbook for new converts
A congregation using the Didache would teach newcomers the Two Ways before baptism. The text even gives instructions for how to baptize if running water is not available. This is the kind of practical detail that later theological works rarely include.
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching values the Apostolic Fathers as witnesses to apostolic tradition and to the structure of bishops, presbyters and deacons. Catholic scholars point to Clement’s letter from Rome and to Ignatius’s description of the bishop as evidence that this structure and the role of Rome were early features of the church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these writers as witnesses.
Orthodox
Orthodox Christians honor these writers as Fathers of the church and often as saints. Ignatius and Polycarp are commemorated in the liturgical calendar. The Orthodox emphasis falls on their witness to worship centered on the Eucharist and to the unity of the local church around its bishop.
Protestant
Protestants generally treat these writings as valuable historical evidence but not as authorities equal to Scripture. Many Protestant scholars read them as showing the faith of the early church in a form close to the New Testament. Some stress the differences from later developments, such as the growth of church office. Others stress the continuity. Protestants differ among themselves.
Scholarly historians
Historians read these works as sources for the history of the early church, without deciding questions of doctrine. They agree on a broad range for the dates and debate the details. They also debate how uniform church organization was in the second century, and how far Ignatius describes a common pattern as opposed to arguing for one.
Why it matters
The Apostolic Fathers are the first answer to a simple question: what did Christians do and believe in the years right after the New Testament? Whatever a person thinks about later developments, these writings are the evidence nearest to the apostolic age. Learning to read them carefully, with attention to date, place and purpose, is the habit that the rest of the course builds on.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Apostolic Fathers were all students of the apostles.
Correction: Later tradition said so, and for some, such as Polycarp, an early link to the apostles is claimed. For others the claim is uncertain or unsupported. The title reflects an old view, not a proven fact about every author.
Misunderstanding: These writings are a lost part of the Bible.
Correction: They were never part of the New Testament canon that the churches finally received. Some were read in worship in certain places, but church leaders distinguished them from the apostolic writings.
Misunderstanding: The early church had exactly the same structure everywhere.
Correction: The evidence shows variety. The Didache describes prophets and teachers alongside bishops and deacons. Ignatius insists on one bishop in each city, which suggests that not everyone agreed or that the pattern was still being established.
Misunderstanding: If a text is early, it is more reliable than later ones.
Correction: Early texts are closer in time, but they can still be partial, rhetorical or mistaken. Historians weigh each text by its purpose and by how well other evidence supports it.
Knowledge check
What are the Apostolic Fathers, and why does the name need a caution?
They are a collection of early Christian writings from about the end of the first century to the middle of the second, including 1 Clement, the letters of Ignatius, the Letter of Polycarp and the Didache. The name needs a caution because the idea that every author knew the apostles comes from later tradition and is uncertain for several of them.
What was the occasion of 1 Clement?
Some members of the church at Corinth had removed certain presbyters from office. The church at Rome wrote to urge them to restore order and practice humility. The letter is usually dated to about the year 96, though that date is not certain.
Name two themes in the letters of Ignatius.
Two prominent themes are unity around the bishop and the reality of Christ’s human suffering, which Ignatius defends against teachers who said Christ only seemed to suffer. A third is his own coming martyrdom. Any two of these answers are correct.
Why do scholars disagree about the date of the Didache?
The text has no named author and no clear historical markers. Some of its material may be very early, while the final form of the work may be later. Scholars place it anywhere from the late first century to the early second century, and the course avoids choosing a date.
Think it through
- What do you gain by reading a church letter as a letter, written to real people with a problem, instead of as a statement of doctrine?
- The Didache gives practical instructions with no creed. What does that suggest about how early Christians learned the faith?
- Why might Ignatius have argued so strongly for one bishop in each city if everyone already agreed?
- Which of these four writings would you most want to read first, and why?
Independent assignment
A source card for each writing
In your notebook, make one card for each of four writings: 1 Clement, one letter of Ignatius, the Letter of Polycarp and the Didache. On each card write the author (or the traditional author), the place, an approximate date and how sure scholars are of it, the problem or purpose, and two details about church life. Then write a paragraph of about 150 words saying what the four cards have in common and where they differ. Aim for 400 to 600 words in all.
Further study
- J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Read the introduction to each work, then 1 Clement and the Didache in full.
- Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians (1 Clement) Read the opening chapters to see the dispute that prompted the letter.
- Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians Read the whole short letter and note what Ignatius says about the bishop and unity.
- Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Use the early chapters for a readable overview of the period.
- Acts 2:42 The earliest pattern of teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
- Philippians 1:1 Paul writes to the saints with the bishops and deacons.
- Titus 1:5 Titus is told to appoint elders in every city.