Primary source documents

chapter 3: CHALLENGES TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE TREND TOWARDS A UNIFIED FAITH

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Greek Text B, III-IV

Source: The Apocryphal New Testament, translated by J. K. Elliott. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 81.

In contrast to the canonical gospels which, with the exception of Luke 2:40-52, contain no accounts of Jesus as a child, this story from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the gnostic Gospel of Thomas) relates miraculous anecdotes from Jesus’ childhood. The Infancy Gospel responded to people’s hunger for stories from the life of Jesus.

3. And Jesus made of that clay twelve sparrows; and it was Sabbath. And one young child ran and told Joseph saying, ‘Behold your child is playing in the brook and has made sparrows of the clay, which is not lawful.’ And having heard, he went and said to the child, ‘Why do you do these things, profaning the Sabbath?’ And Jesus did not answer, but looked at the sparrows and said, ‘Go, fly away, and remember me while you live.’ And at the word they took flight and went off into the air. And Joseph marveled when saw it.

4. And after some days, as Jesus was going through the middle of the city, a certain child threw a stone at him and hit him on the shoulder. And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall not go on your way.’ And straightway he too fell down and died. And those who happened to be there were astonished saying, ‘Where does this young child come from that every word that he says has immediate effect?’ They too went and complained to Joseph, saying, ‘You will not be able to dwell with us in this city. But if you please, teach your child to bless and not to curse; for he slays our children and every word that he says has immediate effect.’

Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book I Chapter 24:3-5 – The Docetic Principles of the System

Source: Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Series II Volume 1, Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995, p. 349.

Many of the heresies encountered by early Christians are known only through Christian theologians writing against these heresies. An important source of knowledge on this topic is Irenaeus of Lyon’s work Against Heresies. The first book contains various heretical doctrines that were refuted by early Christianity. The text excerpted below gives a glimpse of the theory of Basilides, one of the important Gnostic teachers. Basilides taught that the world was created by the chief of the lowest angels, that Jesus transfigured Simon of Cyrene into himself, and that Simon was then crucified instead of Jesus.

   3. Basilides again, that he may appear to have discovered something more sublime and plausible, gives an immense development to his doctrines. He sets forth that Nous was first born of the unborn father, that from him, again, was born Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, and from Dynamis and Sophia the powers, and principalities, and angels, whom he also calls the first; and that by them the first heaven was made. Then other powers, being formed by emanation from these, created another heaven similar to the first; and in like manner, when others, again, had been formed by emanation from them, corresponding exactly to those above them, these, too, framed another third heaven; and then from this third, in downward order, there was a fourth succession of descendants; and so on, after the same fashion, they declare that more and more principalities and angels were formed, and three hundred and sixty-five heavens. Wherefore the year contains the same number of days in conformity with the number of the heavens.

  

  4. Those angels who occupy the lowest heaven, that, namely, which is visible to us, formed all the things which are in the world, and made allotments among themselves of the earth and of those nations which are upon it. The chief of them is he who is thought to be the God of the Jews; and inasmuch as he desired to render the other nations subject to his own people, that is, the Jews, all the other princes resisted and opposed him. Wherefore all other nations were at enmity with his nation. But the father without birth and without name, perceiving that they would be destroyed, sent his own first-begotten Nous (he it is who is called Christ) to bestow deliverance on them that believe in him, from the power of those who made the world. He appeared, then, on earth as a man, to the nations of these powers, and wrought miracles. Wherefore he did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and standing by, laughed at them. For since he was an incorporeal power, and the Nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all. Those, then, who know these things have been freed from the principalities who formed the world; so that it is not incumbent on us to confess him who was crucified, but him who came in the form of a man, and was thought to be crucified, and was called Jesus, and was sent by the father, that by this dispensation he might destroy the works of the makers of the world. If any one, therefore, he declares, confesses the crucified, that man is still a slave, and under the power of those who formed our bodies; but he who denies him has been freed from these beings, and is acquainted with the dispensation of the unborn father.

   5. Salvation belongs to the soul alone, for the body is by nature subject to corruption. He declares, too, that the prophecies were derived from those powers who were the makers of the world, but the law was specially given by their chief, who led the people out of the land of Egypt. He attaches no importance to [the question regarding] meats offered in sacrifice to idols, thinks them of no consequence, and makes use of them without any hesitation; he holds also the use of other things, and the practice of every kind of lust, a matter of perfect indifference. […]

Justin, The First Apology, Chapter 26

Source: Justin Martyr, The First and Second Apologies, translated with introduction by Leslie William Barnard, New York: Paulist Press, 1997, 40-41.

This excerpt from The First Apology shows Justin Martyr’s response to some heresies of his day, among them the teaching of Marcion.

And, thirdly, because after Christ's ascension into heaven the devils put forward certain men who said that they themselves were gods; and they were not only not persecuted by you, but even deemed worthy of honors. One was a certain Simon, a Samaritan from the village called Gitto, who in the reign of Claudius Caesar, through the art of the demons who worked in him, did mighty works of magic in your imperial city of Rome and was thought to be a god; he has been honored among you as a god with a statue, which statue was erected on the River Tiber, between the two bridges, having this inscription, in Roman language:

          Simoni Deo Sancto. [To Simon the holy God.]

And almost all the Samaritans, and a few even in other nations, worship this man and confess him, as the first god; and a woman, Helena, who went about with him at that time, and had formerly been a public prostitute, they say was the first idea generated by him. And a certain man, Menander, also a Samaritan, of the village of Capparetaea, who had been a disciple of Simon, and inspired by demons, we know to have deceived many while he was in Antioch by his magical art, who even persuaded his followers that they would never die; and even now there are some living who profess this from him. And there is a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is even now teaching his disciples to believe in some other god greater than the Demiurge; who by the aid of the demons, has caused many of every race of men and women to speak blasphemies and to deny that God is the Maker of this Universe, and to profess that another, who is greater than He, has done greater works. All who take their opinions from these people, as we said before, are called Christians, just as also those philosophers who do not share the same views are yet all called by one common name of philosophy. And whether they commit the same shameful deeds – the upsetting of the lamp, promiscuous intercourse, and eating human flesh – we do not know; but we do know that they are neither persecuted nor put to death by you, at least for their opinions. But I have a treatise against all heresies which have arisen already composed, which I will give you if you wish to read it.

Hippolytus, The Refutation of all Heresies, Book VII, Chapter 18-19 – on Marcion

Source: The Refutation of All Heresies by Hippolytus. With Fragments from His Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture. Translated by J. H. MacMahon. Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1868, 296-99.

The important third-century theologian Hippolytus of Rome (170-235) countered Marcionism by emphasizing how Marcion had simply introduced the teachings of a pagan philosopher to the church.

Chapter 18. Source of Marcionism; Empedocles Reasserted as the Suggester of this Heresy.

When, therefore, Marcion or some one of his hounds barks against the Demiurge, and adduces reasons from a comparison of what is good and bad, we ought to say to them, that neither Paul the apostle nor Mark, he of the maimed finger, announced such [tenets]. For none of these [doctrines] has been written in the Gospel according to Mark. But [the real author of the system] is Empedocles, son of Meto, a native of Agrigentum. And [Marcion] despoiled this [philosopher], and imagined that up to the present would pass undetected his transference, under the same expressions, of the arrangement of his entire heresy from Sicily into the evangelical narratives. For bear with me, O Marcion: as you have instituted a comparison of what is good and evil, I also today will institute a comparison following up your own tenets, as you suppose them to be. You affirm that the Demiurge of the world is evil— why not hide your countenance in shame, [as thus] teaching to the Church the doctrines of Empedocles? You say that there is a good Deity who destroys the works of the Demiurge: then do not you plainly preach to your pupils, as the good Deity, the Friendship of Empedocles. You forbid marriage, the procreation of children, [and] the abstaining from meats which God has created for participation by the faithful, and those that know the truth. [Thinkest thou, then,] that thou canst escape detection, [while thus] enjoining the purificatory rites of Empedocles? For in point of fact you follow in every respect this [philosopher of paganism], while you instruct your own disciples to refuse meats, in order not to eat any body [that might be] a remnant of a soul which has been punished by the Demiurge. You dissolve marriages that have been cemented by the Deity. And here again you conform to the tenets of Empedocles, in order that for you the work of Friendship may be perpetuated as one [and] indivisible. For, according to Empedocles, matrimony separates unity, and makes [out of it] plurality, as we have proved.

Chapter 19. The Heresy of Prepon – follows Empedocles – Marcion Rejects the Generation of the Saviour.

The principal heresy of Marcion, and [the one of his] which is most free from admixture [with other heresies], is that which has its system formed out of the theory concerning the good and bad [God]. Now this, it has been manifested by us, belongs to Empedocles. (…)

Hippolytus, The Refutation of all Heresies, Book VII, Chapter 22 – doctrine of the Ebionaeans

Source: The Refutation of All Heresies by Hippolytus. With Fragments from His Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture. Translated by J. H. Macmahon. Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1868, 303.

This short piece written by Hippolytus of Rome describes the early Christian group the Ebionites. The Ebionites, literally ‘the Poor’, were the remnants of Jewish Christianity. As early Christianity developed its Trinitarian belief that Christ was of the same being as the Father, the Ebionites were declared heretical because they denied Christ’s full divinity. They regarded Christ as only a specially anointed human being who was not essentially different from other human beings.

The Ebionaeans, however, acknowledge that the world was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they are justified according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified by fulfilling the law. And therefore it was, [according to the Ebionaeans,] that [the Saviour] was named [the] Christ of God and Jesus, since not one of the rest [of mankind] had observed completely the law. For if even any other had fulfilled the commandments [contained] in the law, he would have been that Christ. And [the Ebionaeans allege] that they themselves also, when
in like manner they fulfil [the law], are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all [the rest of the human family].

Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul Chapter 9 – Account of an ecstatic vision by a Montanist woman

Source: Philip Schaff (ed.), Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 3. Latin Christianity: Its founder, Tertullian. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1994, 394-5.

Tertullian (c.160-220) was the first major theologian who wrote in Latin, and his contributions to the dogmatic decisions of the early church were very important. The text below shows something of Tertullian’s fascination with Montanism. His description of the Montanist woman’s visions make them appear to resemble expressions common in modern charismatic Christian groups. The text is part of a larger argument, in which Tertullian argues for the corporeality of the soul, against Plato’s teaching of the soul’s incorporeality.

Chapter IX.—Particulars of the Alleged Communication to a Montanist Sister. 

[…] We have now amongst us a sister whose lot it has been to be favoured with sundry gifts of revelation, which she experiences in the Spirit by ecstatic vision amidst the sacred rites of the Lord’s day in the church: she converses with angels, and sometimes even with the Lord; she both sees and hears mysterious communications; some men’s hearts she understands, and to them who are in need she distributes remedies. Whether it be in the reading of Scriptures, or in the chanting of psalms, or in the preaching of sermons, or in the offering up of prayers, in all these religious services matter and opportunity are afforded to her of seeing visions. It may possibly have happened to us, whilst this sister of ours was rapt in the Spirit, that we had discoursed in some ineffable way about the soul. After the people are dismissed at the conclusion of the sacred services, she is in the regular habit of reporting to us whatever things she have seen in vision (for all her communications are examined with the most scrupulous care, in order that their truth may be probed). “Amongst other things,” says she, “there has been shown to me a soul in bodily shape, and a spirit has been in the habit of appearing to me; not, however, a void and empty illusion, but such as would offer itself to be even grasped by the hand, soft and transparent and of an etherial colour, and in form resembling that of a human being in every respect.” This was her vision, and for her witness there was God; and the apostle most assuredly foretold that there were to be “spiritual gifts” in the church. […]

Jerome, On Illustrious Men, Chapter 53 – Tertullian the Presbyter

Source: Jerome, Fathers of the Church, Volume 100: On Illustrious Men. Translated by Thomas P. Halton. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1999, 74-75.

Jerome (c. 347-420), ‘Hieronymus’ in Greek, was an important theologian and Christian historian of the fourth and early fifth centuries. He is known particularly for the Vulgate, his Latin translation of the Bible. The text below is one of the sources that show the importance of Tertullian; it also mentions that he became a follower of Montanism.

   1. Now finally Tertullian the presbyter is ranked first of the Latin writers after Victor and Apollonius. He was from the province of Africa, from the city of Carthage where his father was a proconsular centurion.

   2. A man of impetuous temperament, he was in his prime in the reign of the emperor Severus and Antoninus Caracalla, and he wrote many works which I need not name since they are very widely known.

   3. At Concordia, a town in Italy, I saw an old man named Paul, who said that, when he was still a very young man, he had seen in Rome a very old man who had been secretary of blessed Cyprian and had reported to him that Cyprian was accustomed never to pass a day without reading Tertullian and would frequently say to him, “Hand me the master,” meaning, of course, Tertullian.

   4. This one was a presbyter of the church until his middle years, but later, because of the envy and reproaches of the clerics of the Roman church, he had lapsed into Montanism, and he makes mention of the new prophecy in many books.

   5. In particular, he composed against the church the works
       On Modesty,
       On Persecution,
       On Fasting,
       On Monogamy,
       six books On ecstasy, and a seventh [added] which he composed Against
             Apollonius.
He is said to have lived to a very old age and to have composed many works which are not extant.

 
Copyright 2015 Tobias Brandner. All rights reserved.
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