APOLOGISTS
IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Dan Petty
INTRODUCTION.
1.
AApologetics@ refers to a reasoned defense of belief
or behavior. Paul said he was appointed for the defense (apologia) of
the gospel (Phil.
2. Apologetics was a continual task of the early church, owing to the suspicion, criticism, and hostility encountered by Christianity.
3. This effort produced a distinctive type of literature, the Aapology.@ In the Greek tradition, an apology (apologia, Adefense@) was, strictly speaking, a speech offered by the accused in a judicial proceeding, the most famous example being Socrates=s answer in Plato=s Apology to the charge of impiety.
4. Christian apologies did not originate in legal proceedings, and there seems to be some question about whether they used the same literary form. But they all defended the faith.
5. The second century of the Christian era is sometimes called Athe age of the apologists.@ Their work strengthened a concern that already had appeared in the New Testament, and it was continued by defenders of the faith in subsequent centuries.
6. The apologists of the early church faced two distinct fronts, the Jewish and the Greco-Roman, and thus created two distinct bodies of apologetic literature.
7. In this lesson I intend to provide an overview of the major apologists of the second century, and provide a general introduction to their work. I will conclude with some general observations about lessons we might learn from them.
I. Apologies In Answer To The Opposition Of Judaism
A. It lay in the nature of things that Christianity should meet with strong Jewish opposition.
1. In dispensing with circumcision and other works of the law, Christianity had incurred the charge of running counter to God's immutable will.
2. Christ's humble and obscure life, ending in His death on the cross, was the very opposite of what the Jews expected of their Messiah.
3. Their judgment seemed to be confirmed by the fact that Christianity attracted but an insignificant portion of the Jewish people, and spread with greatest vigor among the despised Gentiles.
B. To justify the claims of Christianity before the Jews, the early apologists had to give an answer to these difficulties.
1. Since Christianity grew out of Judaism, the dialogue between Christianity and Judaism is virtually as old as Christianity itself. From the beginning the Christians used OT scriptures to argue their claim to the ancient revelation of Judaism, continuity with Jewish history, and the fulfillment of divine promises. The NT give abundant evidence of apologetic work regarding Judaism. Examples: Stephen=s speech (Acts 7); Luke=s account of the first gentile converts (Acts 10-11); Paul=s letter to the Galatians; and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
2. Of the second-century apologies the most important is the Dialogue with Trypho the Jew composed by Justin Martyr about 155‑160.
a. He vindicates the new religion against the objections of the learned Jew, arguing with great cogency that it is the perfection of the Old Law, and showing by an imposing array of Old Testament passages that the Hebrew prophets point to Jesus as the Messiah and the incarnate Son of God.
(1) AFor the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally. Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law C namely, Christ C has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance. Have you not read this which Isaiah says: >Hearken unto Me, hearken unto Me, my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me: for a law shall go forth from Me, and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm?= And by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: >Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt=). If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and abide by their confession even unto death, and maintain piety@ (Dialogue 11).
b.
He insists also that it is in Christianity that the
destiny of the Hebrew religion to become the religion of the world is to find
its realization, and hence it is the followers of Christ, and not the
unbelieving Jews, that are the true children of
c. By his elaborate argument from Messianic prophecy, Justin won the grateful recognition of later apologists.
3. Similar apologies were composed by Tertullian, Against the Jews (Adversus Judos, about 200), and by Cyprian, Three Books of Evidences against the Jews (about 250).
II. Apologies In Answer To Pagan Opposition
A. Of far more serious moment to the early Christian Church was the bitter opposition it met from paganism. Through its missionary efforts among non-Jews and outside Palestine, Christianity increasingly came into contact with the Greco-Roman world, and increasingly became more visible in society. While many Gentiles were converted, many others perceived it as politically dangerous, socially offensive, or intellectually absurd. Such negative perceptions are generally lacking in the NT, since most of the NT writings were addressed to Christians themselves. There are plenty of indications, however, of the critical attitudes of outsiders and of the problems of the relationship between Christians and the pagan world they lived in (1 Cor., 1 Pet., Acts 17). The apologists of the second century addresses head-on the criticism and hostility leveled by pagan society. This opposition came in several forms:
1. The antiquity of pagan polytheistic religion.
a. The polytheistic religion of the Roman Empire, venerated for its antiquity, was intertwined with every fiber of the body politic.
b. Its providential influence was a matter of firm belief.
c. It was associated with the highest culture, and had the sanction of the greatest poets and sages of Greece and Rome.
d. Its splendid temples and stately ritual gave it a grace and dignity that captivated the popular imagination.
2.
On the other hand, Christian monotheism
was an innovation.
a. It made no imposing display of liturgy.
b. Its disciples were, for the most part, persons of humble birth and station.
c. Its sacred literature had little attraction for the fastidious reader accustomed to the elegant diction of the classic authors.
d. And so the popular mind viewed it with misgivings, or despised it as an ignorant superstition.
3. But opposition did not end here. The uncompromising attitude of the new religion towards pagan rites was decried as the greatest impiety. The Christians were branded as atheists, and as they held aloof from the public functions also, which were invariably associated with these false rites, they were accused of being enemies of the State. The Christian custom of worshiping in secret assembly seemed to add force to this charge, for secret societies were forbidden by Roman law.
4. Nor were slanderous rumors wanting.
a. The popular imagination easily distorted the vaguely‑known Lord=s Supper into abominable rites marked by feasting on infant flesh.
b. The custom of calling each other Abrother@ drew the charge that Christians engaged in indiscriminate lust or incestuous behavior.
5. The outcome was that the people and authorities took alarm at the rapidly spreading Church and sought to repress it by force.
B. To vindicate the Christian cause against these attacks of paganism, many apologies were written.
1. Some were addressed to emperors for the express purpose of securing for the Christians immunity from persecution
a. Apology of Justin Martyr (150) was addressed to Emperor Antoninus Pius and his adopted sons. His 2nd Apology was written to the Roman Senate. In the first apology Tertullian urges the emperors to examine the charges against the Christians (chs. 1-3) and to free them from liabilities if found innocent. He offered proof that Christians were neither atheists nor idolators (chs. 4-13). The major portion of the work (chs. 14-60) discusses the morals, doctrines and Founder of Christianity, showing that the superior life and morality of Christ was foretold in the Old Testament. The final chapters (61-67) discuss the worship of Christians. He concluded that the charges against the Christians were false and that they should be free from persecution.
b. Plea for the Christians, by Athenagoras (177) was addressed to Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Commodus.
(1) He opens (chs. 1-3) by stating the charges made against the Christians. AThree things are alleged against us: atheism, Thyestean feasts, edipodean intercourse. But if these charges are true, spare no class: proceed at once against our crimes; destroy us root and branch, with our wives and children, if any Christian is found to live like the brutes. And yet even the brutes do not touch the flesh of their own kind; and they pair by a law of nature, and only at the regular season, not from simple wantonness; they also recognize those from whom they receive benefits. If any one, therefore, is more savage than the brutes, what punishment that he can endure shall be deemed adequate to such offenses? But, if these things are only idle tales and empty slanders, originating in the fact that virtue is opposed by its very nature to vice, and that contraries war against one another by a divine law (and you are yourselves witnesses that no such iniquities are committed by us, for you forbid informations to be laid against us), it remains for you to make inquiry concerning our life, our opinions, our loyalty and obedience to you and your house and government, and thus at length to grant to us the same rights (we ask nothing more) as to those who persecute us. For we shall then conquer them, unhesitatingly surrendering, as we now do, our very lives for the truth=s sake@ (ch. 3).
(2) He shows that the pagan gods are nothing but human creations (chs. 4-30) and that they are guilty of the same immoralities as those who worship them (chs. 31-34). He shows that the Christians are innocent of the charges of incest or of eating their children, and that the emperor should grant them clemency.
c. Apology of Tertullian (197) was addressed to the Roman governor of his province.
(1) In it he refuted the old charges against the Christians and argued that they were loyal citizens of the empire.
(2) He further showed that persecution is a failure anyway because when the authorities try to put them down they multiply. -- ABut go zealously on, good presidents, you will stand higher with the people if you sacrifice the Christians at their wish, kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. Therefore God suffers that we thus suffer; for but very lately, in condemning a Christian woman to the leno rather than to the leo you made confession that a taint on our purity is considered among us something more terrible than any punishment and any death. Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a temptation to us. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed A (ch. 50).
(3) He used his legal training to argue that the state was persecuting the church on shaky legal grounds because the associations, doctrines, and morals of the Christians were superior to the pagans.
2. Others were composed to convince the pagans on the basis of reason of the folly of polytheism and of the saving truth of Christianity.
a. Tatian (ca. 110-ca. 180) was a pupil of Justin and a widely traveled scholar. His Discourse to the Greeks (160) was addressed to a whole people, the Greeks.
(1) He argued the superiority of Christianity to Greek religion and thought and that therefore Christians should be treated fairly.
(2) The second section (chs. 5-30) is a comparison of Christian teaching with Greek mythology and philosophy.
(3) The third sections (chs. 31-41) argues the greater antiquity of Christianity to Greek thought since Moses predated the Trojan wars.
b. Theophilus of Antioch was converted by the reading of the Scriptures. Around 180 he wrote Three Books to Autolychus. Autolychus was a learned magistrate whom Theophilus was trying to convert by rational arguments.
(1) Book One discusses the nature, attributes, works and superiority of God. He deals with immortality and faith, and exposes the immoralities of the pagan gods.
(2) Book Two compares pagan religion to Christianity to show the superiority of the latter. B AWhen we had formerly some conversation, my very good friend Autolycus, and when you inquired who was my God, and for a little paid attention to my discourse, I made some explanations to you concerning my religion; and then having bid one another adieu, we went with much mutual friendliness each to his own house although at first you had borne somewhat hard upon me. For you know and remember that you supposed our doctrine was foolishness. As you then afterwards urged me to do, I am desirous, though not educated to the art of speaking, of more accurately demonstrating, by means of this tractate, the vain labor and empty worship in which you are held; and I wish also, from a few of your own histories which you read, and perhaps do not yet quite understand, to make the truth plain to you@ (ch. 1).
(3) Book Three answers Autolychus= objections to the Christian faith. Theophilus was the first to use the word trias to refer to the Trinity.
c. Epistle to Diognetus (about 190)
d. Octavius was the title of a dialogue written around 200 by Minucius Felix as an apology designed to convert his pagan friend.
C. In these apologies the argument from Old Testament prophecy has a more prominent place than that from miracles. But the one on which most stress is laid is that of the transcendent excellence of Christianity.
D. Though not clearly marked out, a twofold line of thought runs through this argument: Christianity is light, whereas paganism is darkness; Christianity is power, whereas paganism is weakness.
1. Enlarging on these ideas, the apologists contrast the logical coherence of the religious tenets of Christianity, and its lofty ethical teaching, with the follies and inconsistencies of polytheism, the low ethical principles of its philosophers, and the indecencies of its mythology and of some of its rites.
2. They likewise show that the Christian religion alone has the power to transform man from a slave of sin into a spiritual freeman. They compare what they once were as pagans with what they now are as Christians. They draw a telling contrast between the loose morality of pagan society and the exemplary lives of Christians, whose devotion to their religious principles is stronger than death itself.
Epistle to Diognetus C AFor the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred@ (ch. 5).
OBSERVATIONS.
1.
The apologists approached their task with differing
attitudes toward the pagan world and their efforts to defend their beliefs.
There were two opposing tendencies. Some of the apologists (Aristides, Melito,
Justin, Athagoras, Minucius Felix) sought to build bridges to the pagan world.
They tended to see in the pagan world elements of truth which they attributed
to divine providence. Others (Tatian and Tertullian) attacked every aspect of
paganism B AWhat indeed has
2. The apologists sometimes adopted ideas and terminology of the philosophies current in their day. They attempted to explain Christianity in philosophical terms familiar to and more acceptable to their audiences. They were attempting to show the intellectual reasonableness of the faith. Consequently they sometimes came to treat Christianity as a philosophical system in competition with others. Later controversies over the trinity and the deity of Christ were, in part, a consequence of such thinking.
3. The apologists performed an important service in the early church by defending the faith against the hostile attacks from the world. We can learn from them the value of such a defense as set forth in the NT.
4. ABut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear@ (1 Pet. 3:15.)