THE APOSTOLIC AGE IN PATRISTIC THOUGHT

SUPPLEMENTS TO

VIGILIAE CHRISTIANAE
Formerly Philosophia Patrum
TEXTS AND STUDIES OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE
AND LANGUAGE
EDITORS
J. DEN BOEFT J. VAN OORT W.L. PETERSEN
D.T. RUNIA C. SCHOLTEN J.C.M. VAN WINDEN

VOLUME LXX

THE APOSTOLIC AGE

IN PATRISTIC THOUGHT
EDITED BY

A. HILHORST

BRILL
LEIDEN BOSTON
2004

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The apostolic age in patristic thought / edited by A. Hilhorst.
p. cm. (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, ISSN 0920-623X ; v. 70)
English, French and German.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 90-04-12611-2 (alk. paper)
1. Apostolate (Christian theology)History of doctrinesEarly church, ca. 30-600. 2.
Theology, DoctrinalHistoryEarly church, ca. 30-600. 3. Fathers of the church.
I. Hilhorst, A. II. Series.
BV601.2.A665 2003
270.1072dc22

2003065308

ISSN 0920-623X
ISBN 90 04 12611 2
Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Brill provided that
the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright
Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands

CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................
Abbreviations ..............................................................................

vii
xiii

Theodore Korteweg
Origin and Early History of the Apostolic Oce ..................

Joseph Ysebaert
The Eucharist as a Love-meal (agape) in Didache 910, and
Its Development in the Pauline and in the Syrian
Tradition ..................................................................................

11

Ton Hilhorst
Romantic Fantasies: Early Christians Looking Back on the
Apostolic Period ......................................................................

28

Peter Van Deun

The Notion postolikw: A Terminological Survey ..............

41

Jan den Boeft

Miracles Recalling the Apostolic Age ......................................

51

Gerard Rouwhorst
Liturgy on the Authority of the Apostles ................................

63

Riemer Roukema
La tradition apostolique et le canon du Nouveau
Testament ................................................................................

86

Gerard P. Luttikhuizen
Witnesses and Mediators of Christs Gnostic Teachings ........ 104
H. S. Benjamins
Die Apostolizitt der kirchlichen Verkndigung bei Irenus
von Lyon ................................................................................ 115
Fred Ledegang
Origens View of Apostolic Tradition ...................................... 130

contents

vi

Johannes van Oort

The Paraclete Mani as the Apostle of Jesus Christ and the
Origins of a New Church .................................................... 139
Arnold Provoost
The Apostolic World of Thought in Early Christian
Iconography ............................................................................ 158
Adelbert Davids
The Era of the Apostles According to Eusebius History of
the Church .................................................................................... 194
G. J. M. Bartelink
Monks: The Ascetic Movement as a Return to the Aetas
Apostolica ................................................................................ 204
B. Dehandschutter
Primum enim omnes docebant: Awareness of Discontinuity in the
Early Church: The Case of Ecclesiastical Oce ................ 219
Antoon A. R. Bastiaensen
Urbs beata Jerusalem: Saint Augustin sur Jrusalem .................. 228
Indexes
Index
Index
Index
Index

of
of
of
of

References ................................................................
Names and Subjects ..............................................
Greek and Latin Words ........................................
Modern Authors ......................................................

243
249
252
253

INTRODUCTION
In March 2001, the Dutch Foundation for Early Christian Studies
celebrated its fortieth anniversary with a conference entitled Aetas
ApostolicaTertullians term for the founding period of Christianity.
As could be expected, the theme proved to be a most rewarding
one. Any movement or association will tend to assign a special prestige to its starting time, but in the case of nascent Christianity this
prestige was plainly due to the divine stature of its founder, Jesus
Christ, who had personally commissioned his Apostles and assured
them of the unfailing guidance of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the
authority of the Apostolic Age was acknowledged by all who regarded
themselves as Christians, no matter whether or not they were accepted
as such by a later orthodoxy. It was appealed to in questions of doctrine, of ritual and conduct, and it mirrored itself in literature and
art. Thus, the speakers at the conference could choose from a number of important subjects. Their papers, duly revised and footnoted,
are collected in this volume. Below is a summary of the contents.
There has been much discussion about the origin of the oce of
apostle. Korteweg shows that a Jewish precedent is hardly plausible.
An apostolos is an unspecic term for someone sent. Paul introduces
a specic sense for the wordto him, an apostle is a messenger sent
by God from heaven. There may be a connection with an ancient
oriental concept, as discussed by G. Widengren and W. Schmithals.
After Paul, a horizontal dimension becomes prominent: an apostle
is sent by the earthly Jesus, from Palestine and Jerusalem. The apostles are identied with the Twelve; the concept of apostolic succession comes into being.
Studying the earliest liturgy of the Eucharist, Ysebaert considers
that from Homer onwards a sacricial meal was normally a full
meal. This holds well for the Jewish Passover meal, the Last Supper,
and all Christian Eucharistic meals. The consecrated bread and wine
were consumed together with other food taken from home. The typical order of blessing the wine rst continues a Jewish tradition and
is still found in Didache 9, 1 Cor. 10.16 and parts of the Syrian
tradition. The conict in Antioch, Gal. 2.1114, is due to the new
situation that Gentile Christians might take unclean food with them.

viii

introduction

The abuse in Corinth encourages Paul to separate Eucharist and

love-meal, and to place the blessing of the wine after the meal,
1 Cor. 11.1734. His appeal to the Lord makes him contradict his
own words in 1 Cor. 10.16. Instead of the blessing he makes the
institution words the moment of consecration.
Hilhorst considers the idealized image of the apostolic age in the
Muratorian Canon and in the Letters alleged to have been exchanged
between Paul and Seneca. The idea emerging from these texts of
the starting time as a period of internal harmony and prestige with
the outside world is, however, found not to be restricted to apocryphal and patristic sources but already present in a number of books
of the New Testament, notably the Acts of the Apostles.
Van Deun sets out to investigate the usage of the Greek term
apostolikos. Absent from the New Testament and attested for the rst
time with Ignatius, it is used in quite a number of contexts, for
instance to denote the apostolic origin of a church or a conformity
with the doctrine of the Apostles, or also to refer to the Apostle par
excellence, Paul. Eusebius is the rst author to use it for the notion
of an apostolic era.
Miracles were a prominent feature of the apostles time but lost
importance in later periods. Theologians, Den Boeft argues, used to
interpret the shift as a sign of divine pedagogy: initially, people had
to be won over by visible means, later on, prime importance was
attached to ethical and spiritual values. Nevertheless, the importance
of miracles remained unaected in the cult of the saints; and Bishop
Ambrose even hailed the miracles accompanying the invention of
the bones of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius as a return of the
apostolic age. Augustine agreed with such a view, although earlier
he had taken the position that miracles belonged to the past.
Liturgical customs have always been legitimised by an appeal to
the foundational period of Christianity. Rouwhorst works this out
for the celebration of Passover/Easter. The Quartodecimans had
good reason to celebrate it on 14/15 Nisan, whatever the day of
the week, but from the second century onward they were opposed
by those who practised Easter on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection.
These opponents, who grew more and more numerous, went so far
as to claim apostolic authority for their own view and eventually
depicted the Quartodeciman claims as those of a sect disturbing the
unity of the Church.
Roukema examines the previous history of the New Testament

introduction

ix

canon in a number of authors of the late second and early third

centuries. Previous, indeed, because in that period there was not yet
any such thing as a New Testament canon in the sense of a closed
list of books declared authoritative by the Church. Rather, the question was whether a given book or an orally transmitted teaching was
a pure witness of the apostolic tradition as the foundation of faith
and ecclesiastical practice. However, a tendency to dene a list is
perceivable in Tertullian and in the Muratorian Fragment.
Gnostics, just like early orthodox Christians, appealed to Jesus
Christ for their doctrines, but they deliberately distinguished themselves. They claimed, as Luttikhuizen explains, either a right understanding of Jesus prepaschal teachings which their opponents allegedly
lacked, or they referred to special revelations. The receivers of these
revelations in some texts are the assembled apostles but more often
privileged witnesses: Peter, John, James, Jude Thomas or Mary
Magdalene.
Benjamins deals with two passages in Irenaeus Adversus Haereses in
which the author puts forward the apostolic character of the preaching against Gnostic and other dissident groups. Conceding that the
Apostles could disagree on such minor points as the validity of the
Mosaic Law, Irenaeus maintains that they were of one mind concerning the identity of the Old Testament God with God Father of
Jesus Christ. He denies the claim of his opponents that there was a
secret doctrine hidden behind the apostolic testimony.
Ledegang demonstrates that, for Origen, not just those in oce
but all who follow Christ are bearers of the apostolic tradition. They
all are sent to preach the Gospel and called to live accordingly.
Since 1970, our knowledge of Mani and Manichaeism has been
exceptionally enriched by the discovery of the so-called Cologne Mani
Codex, which informs us both of Manis life and ideas. Van Oort
studies the many new insights this document provides. On the basis
of a series of revelations, Mani apparently considered himself to be
the new Apostle of Christ as well as the incarnation of the Paraclete.
In this quality, it was his vocation to found a new and nal Christian
Church. A number of interesting parallels between the aetas apostolica
and Manis version of it are discussed. In particular, however, Manis
apostolate shows striking parallels with Jesus ministry.
Provoost asks how early Christian iconography in its dierent periods reected the body of ideas of the apostolic period. His material
is the frescos and sarcophagi found in Rome and Ostia. Remarkably,

introduction

the supply of material is most copious in the three quarters of a

century before the Church Peace.
Davids collects the information Eusebius of Caesarea provides on
the apostolic period. The Church historian pays attention to the
apostles and their succession, the family of Jesus, the Jews, including the fall of Jerusalem, and the heretics, with Simon the Magician
as their patriarch. According to Eusebius, Philo of Alexandria, when
describing the ascetic way of life of the Egyptian Jewish Therapeutae,
was thinking of the rst Christians.
More than any other movement in the early Church, the monks
were driven by the ideal of a revival of the earliest Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles. Bartelink points out
that this ideal took various forms. For some it meant a farewell to
the world, others interpreted it in the sense of a missionary fervour,
still others saw it embodied in the charisma of working miracles.
Also, the expectation of the imminent return of the Lord regained
strength in monastic circles.
The early Church had a strong sense of a continuity based on
the authoritative status of the apostolic age. On the other hand, as
Dehandschutter shows, a historical awareness of the dierence between
the origin and the present was by no means lacking among the
Church Fathers. Thus we do nd the opinion that Acts 6 does not
point to the diaconate, or that the later dierentiation between presbyters and bishops, or deacons and bishops, has no New Testament
foundation.
Jerusalem was the Holy City for Jews and Christians. For the
Christians it held the special attraction that it was also the seat of
the rst Christian community. For many Fathers of the Church,
therefore, Jerusalem with its history and its signicance, was a favourite
topic. Bastiaensen treats Augustines elaborations on the subject in
its various aspects: Jerusalem as the old capital of the Jewish people; the church of Jerusalem as the model Christian community; the
unanimity reigning in this community viewed as an image of the
unity of the Persons of the Trinity; the heavenly Jerusalem depicted
as the future abode of the faithful. While Jerusalem is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Augustine, he avoids dealing with
the heavenly city as the beloved Bride of the Lord, in line with his
reservedness vis--vis the biblical Song of Solomon, seen as a
glorication of bridal love.
The earliest period of the Church soon became normative for its

introduction

xi

members and, as a result, eventually had an immeasurable impact

on human history. In this process, the views on the apostolic age
current in the rst four centuries have played a crucial role because
they have inuenced, indeed dictated, the convictions of later ages.
Hence the interest of the essays assembled in this collection, even
though they can only cover some of the aspects involved.

This page intentionally left blank

ABBREVIATIONS
BG
CCSG
CCSL
CMC
CPG
CSEL
GCS
NHC
OOSA
PG
PL
SC
VC
ZPE

Berlin Gnostic Papyrus (Papyrus Berolinensis 8502)

Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca
Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
Cologne Mani Codex (Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis)
M. Geerard and F. Glorie, Clavis Patrum Graecorum
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller (continuous serial numbers)
Nag Hammadi Codices
Opera Omnia di SantAmbrogio
Patrologia Graeca
Patrologia Latina
Sources Chrtiennes
Vigiliae Christianae
Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Abbreviated titles of patristic works usually follow the dictionaries of Lampe for
Greek and Blaise for Latin.
References to Old Testament passages conform to the Septuagint and the Vulgate;
in case of dierencemainly in the Psalmsthe numerotation of the Hebrew text
is added in brackets.

This page intentionally left blank

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE

APOSTOLIC OFFICE
Theodore Korteweg
In order to trace the beginnings of the apostolic oce as it is documented in early Christian literature, we have to travel far back into
the past. At least if we should believe the Swedish scholar Geo
Widengren who suggests that in this respect too, in the words of the
title of a well-known book, History begins at Sumer.1 The oldest
predecessor of the apostle would then be the divine priest-king who,
like the early Christian apostle, is sent from heaven, entrusted with
a divine secret, sometimes in the form of a heavenly book, to be a
shepherd to the people and to establish a reign of justice on earth.2
In the same vein, the gure of Moses is portrayed in the literature
of the ancient Samaritans,3 while in a Jewish document like the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs Levi also appears as a kind of priestking, who is transported to heaven and there receives a divine commission to be a minister (leitourgos) of the Lord, announce his secrets
(must ria) among mankind and be a herald (k ruxeis) of the redemption of Israel.4 This is again reminiscent of the apostle Paul when
he describes himself in his Epistle to the Romans 15.16 as minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving the Gospel of God as a
priest.5 This Gospel of God is of course often characterized as the
revelation of a divine secret or mystery and on several occasions

S. N. Kramer, History Begins at Sumer (New York 1956).

G. Widengren, The Ascension of the Apostle and the Heavenly Book (Uppsala and
Leipzig 1950). A summary of this and several later studies of the same subject can
be found in G. Widengren, Religionsphnomenologie (Berlin 1969) 6269 and index in
voce Apostel and Ausgesandter.
3
See Widengren 1950 (n. 2) 4850 and J. E. Fossum, The Name of God and the
Angel of the Lord (Tbingen 1985).
4
T. Lev. 2.10.
5
Although J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 916 (Dallas 1988) 860 considers St Pauls
transformation of this cultic imagery by applying it to his missionary work to be
very striking, the only consequence he derives from it is that in this way the division between cultic and secular, and thus between Jew and Gentile, has been broken down. Obviously he cannot imagine that St Paul really conceived of his ministry
within a cultic setting!
2

theodore korteweg

St Paul makes it very clear that he had received his Gospel not by
way of human tradition but directly from heaven.
In addition to this vertical dimension, however, which seems to
dominate St Pauls self-consciousness and is excellently accounted for
by a theory such as that of Widengren and, more or less in his
wake, the German scholars Walter Schmithals and Hans Dieter Betz,6
there is also a much more horizontal approach to be found in those
texts where the apostles (in many cases numbering twelve) appear
together as the historical founders of the Church, its Creed, its canon
and its several traditions and institutions. From the second century
onwards, this concept, which is often connected with the writings of
St Luke and the phenomenon of so-called early Catholicism,7 has
become by far the most common, in fact so common that it is still
dicult for us to imagine an apostle other than as a disciple of Jesus,
sent by him from Jerusalem to preach the Gospel and to found the
worldwide Christian Church. This may, for example, partly explain
how even as recently as 1994 the Dutch scholar J. Ysebaert could
try to prove that in the earliest Christian documents, i.e. the epistles
of St Paul, the word apostle already functions as a terminus technicus
indicating a member of the Twelve. That St Paul can also speak of
apostles of the churches charged with organizing the great collection for the Church of Jerusalem is then seen as a kind of allusion
to the ocial title of the Twelve, which would already have become
so technical that there was no more fear of misunderstanding.8
Now, it is obvious that St Paul, although he unmistakably uses
the words apostle and apostolate with reference to both St Peter
and to himself,9 nowhere clearly identies the apostles with the Twelve
as such. Dr Ysebaert is of course quite aware of this too. But in his
opinion, St Pauls usage, when it is not clear in itself, has to be
explained according to that of roughly contemporary sources like the
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and there the identication is

W. Schmithals, Das kirchliche Apostelamt: Eine historische Untersuchung (Gttingen

1961) and H. D. Betz, Galatians: A Commentary on Pauls Letter to the Churches in Galatia
(Philadelphia 1979) 745.
7
Here, of course, one has to mention the inuential book by G. Klein, Die Zwlf
Apostel: Ursprung und Gehalt einer Idee (Gttingen 1961).
8
J. Ysebaert, Die Amtsterminologie im Neuen Testament und in der Alten Kirche: Eine
lexikographische Untersuchung (Breda 1994) 15.
9
Gal. 2.8.

origin and early history of the apostolic office

certainly found.10 In that case, of course, when tracing the origin of

the apostolic oce we need go no further back than the horizontal
concept, which from the second century onwards was coming to be
the common view of mainline Christianity: Jesus chose the Twelve
as his disciples and after his Resurrection made them into apostles
charging them to depart from Jerusalem to spread the Gospel to the
ends of the earth.
But why was the relatively obscure word apostle selected for this
purpose at all? Why would terminology more strongly rooted in biblical or contemporary usage, such as euangelist s (cp. the Hebrew
mebass r) or prophet on the one hand and aggelos (the usual Greek
word for messenger), presbeut s (cp. 2 Cor. 5.20) or k rux (cp. the frequent New Testament use of k russein and the well-known gure of
the Cynic herald of God) on the other, not suce? Of course, in
the word apostle there is a particular stress on the functional aspect
of being sent, even more than on the delivering of the message itself.
In fact, this applies to such an extent that when we read in Mark
6.30 that the apostles returned to Jesus, we need not assume the
use of a technical title here at all: they are just the ones who according to 6.7 had been sent out on a missionary journey, so that apostoloi is in this context merely the equivalent of apestalmenoi. This also
seems to be the most natural understanding of the apostles of the
churches mentioned by St Paul in 2 Cor. 8.23 and of Epaphroditus
being called your apostle in his Letter to the Philippians (2.25). To
assume here an allusion to the oce of the Twelve, as Ysebaert
does, is really quite unnecessary. Should Epaphroditus return to
Philippi, that would have meant the end of his mission and there
would be no further reason to call him an apostle in any meaningful sense of the word.
In other cases, however, titular use of the term apostle cannot
be denied. And certainly in some of these cases there seems to be
more behind the use of the terminology than the simple fact of being
sent out, for example when St Paul brings his being an apostle into

10
Although not without exceptions, e.g. Acts 14.4,14, see the commentaries ad
loc. Of course, one can always suspect a reminiscence of an earlier, perhaps
Antiochene source or even assume a special Antiochene conception of the apostolate in contradistinction to a Jerusalem one, as, e.g., K. Berger does in his
Theologiegeschichte des Urchristentums (Tbingen and Basel 1994), 181 . Cp. also our
discussion of Mark 6.30 in the text below.

theodore korteweg

connection with having seen Jesus11 or with the possession of a

specic authority (exousia).12 Do these connotations betray the presence of a more or less denite idea of apostleship that may even
predate Christianity itself ? As we have already indicated, the word
apostle in itself suggests nothing of the kind. Its specic use in the
sense of naval expedition, sometimes also naval commander, seems
to be of Attic origin. From Herodotus onwards we nd the neutral
sense of messenger, envoy, which also appears once in the Septuagint.13 And although Harnack thought that he had found this
meaning in Flavius Josephus AJ 17.300 too, there it is really used
in the sense of apostol , embassy. Thus the only conclusion we can
draw from a survey of the lexica seems to be that, leaving aside
specic military and commercial usage, the meaning messenger,
although very sparingly attested in the extant documents, has been
available since Herodotus.14
On the other hand, precisely this neutral sense with its strongly
functional overtone may have made it a suitable candidate for adoption by early Christianity as a title for a religious oce that as such
had no roots in an already existing institution. So, from J. B. Lightfoot
onwards, a number of scholars have considered the word apostle
in its Christian sense to be a semantic Christianism at least from a
strictly linguistic point of view.15 Among them is Kirsopp Lake, in
whose opinion the word even seems to have no history and is the
most markedly and exclusively Christian of all the technical terms
of the New Testament.16 However, even he thinks that in the nal

11

1 Cor. 9.1, at least according to what looks like a general consensus, although
interestingly K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St Paul (London 1919) 228 . disagrees.
12
E.g. 2 Cor. 10.8 and 12.10. Cp. also 1 Thess. 2.7.
13
Although K. H. Rengstorf, Theologisches Wrterbuch zum Neuen Testament i.397448
at 413 in the interest of his thesis tries to deny it, the LXX use of apostolos in 1
Kings 14.6 entirely corresponds with that of Herodotus.
14
Since J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Pauls Epistle to the Galatians (London 1884) 92 n. 2
apostolos is often regarded as an instance where the Attic usage has ruled the literary language, the word having meanwhile preserved in the common dialect the
sense which it has in Herodotus.
15
Cp. G. J. M. Bartelink, Lexicologisch-semantische studie over de taal van de Apostolische
Vaders (Utrecht 1952) 90, who observes that words that we nd relatively seldom
or even sporadically in profane literature frequently become of exceptional importance in LXX, the New Testament and later Christian authors.
16
K. Lake in F. J. Foakes Jackson and Kirsopp Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity,
i.5 (London 1933) 50.

origin and early history of the apostolic office

account there must be a Semitic concept and also a Semitic equivalent behind it. According to him, at the root of the designation is
Jesus choice of the Twelve who, as it is correctly represented in the
Gospel of Mark, in consequence of their preaching in Galilea, were
called shelichim. Later on, before or after the Resurrection, other disciples were given the same title, but in the end this proved to be
only a temporary development, and so at last the apostles were
denitely identied with the Twelve, to whose number only St Paul
was added.
Other scholars have gone much further. Although, as far as purely
linguistic matters are concerned, they generally concede that the use
of the Greek word is a Christian innovation, and there is even widespread consensus for its having been coined sometime during the
rst century in the surroundings of Antioch,17 behind the Christian
terminology they nevertheless surmise, again in the wake of Lightfoot
and later on the Jewish scholars Krauss and Vogelstein and the
Christian scholars Harnack and Rengstorf, not only a Semitic or
Jewish concept but even a full-blown Jewish institution.18 From patristic and rabbinical evidence they infer that from early times the
Jerusalem authorities, during the Hellenistic period represented by
the Sanhedrin, used to send emissaries into Palestine, and later on
also into the Diaspora, in order to deal with legal and religious questions. Their name would have been sheluchim. Certainly after the
destruction of the second Temple in ad 70, this would then have
become the title of a special kind of functionary charged with the
collection of dues from the Diaspora to the Jewish Patriarch in
Palestine. Although at rst sight it might seem rather problematic to
derive the Christian apostolate from a Jewish institution of which a
more or less clear picture can only be drawn for the period after
ad 70, and, moreover, these Jewish emissaries were certainly no more
than nancial deputies without any missionary purpose whatever,

17

The importance of Antioch as a kind of cradle for Gentile Christianity is considerably played down by M. Hengel and A. M. Schwemer, Paul between Damascus
and Antioch: The Unknown Years (Louisville, Ky., 1997) 279 .
18
J. B. Lightfoot (n. 14) 92 .; S. Krauss, Die jdischen Apostel, Jewish Quarterly
Review 17 1905 37083; H. Vogelstein, The Development of the Apostolate in
Judaism and its Transformation in Christianity, Hebrew Union College Annual 2 1925
99 .; A. von Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei
Jahrhunderten (Leipzig 19244) 340 .; Rengstorf (n. 13) 397 .

theodore korteweg

Harnack is sure that a link with the Christian apostolate must exist
since even St Paul was charged with a collection for the Church in
Jerusalem as soon as he was recognized as an apostle by the Jerusalem
authorities.19 The diculty with this argument is, of course, that in
this case these authorities themselves were, at least partly, also called
apostles and in their case nancial duties seem to be entirely out of
the question. Another, perhaps minor, problem is that the Greek
rendering of these sheluchim as apostoloi is only attested in Christian
sources of the fourth century, except for one Jewish inscription which
is not easy to interpret.20 But even if we could be sure that by the
time of St Paul this use of apostolos belonged to the vocabulary of
the Greek Diaspora, it is hardly conceivable that the Christian designation derives from a Jewish institution like this. It is rather the
apostles of the Churches of 2 Cor. 8.23 who could perhaps be
accounted for in this way, but since apostle can be a quite unspecic
designation for any envoy or deputy as such, in their case such an
explanation is entirely superuous. On the other hand an apostle
like St Paul with a lifelong commission that goes back to a heavenly call seems to have nothing in common with deputies of a Jewish
authority who were only sheluchim for the time of their charge.21
The unlikelihood of comparing St Pauls apostolate with the specic
Jewish institution under review may well have been one of the reasons why, beginning with K. H. Rengstorf, the above argument is
nowadays usually presented in a somewhat attenuated version: the
origin of the apostolic oce lies not in the juridical or civic Jewish
institution as such but in the concept on which it is based, the idea
expressed, for example in Mishnah Berakhot 5.5: a mans agent is like
to himself. This so-called judicial principle of agency, whereby the

19

Harnack (n. 18) 3423.

D. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, i (Cambridge 1993) no. 86. It seems
to date from the fth or sixth century and is sometimes used to prove that Jewish
apostles, like their Christian counterparts, were sent out in pairs. But see Schmithals
(n. 6) 97. Cp. also C. Spicq, Notes de lexicographie no-testamentaire: Supplment (Fribourg
Suisse and Gttingen 1982) 55 n. 3.
21
See, however, H. Lietzmann, An die Rmer (Tbingen 19715) 24, who thinks
that St Pauls opponents criticized him precisely because he did not behave like
that kind of deputy, i.e. as an apostle of the church (or churches). In his opinion,
St Paul has elevated the apostolic oce above the Jewish analogy which had up
till then still been customary in Christian circles. Thus, indirectly, he would have
been the cause that henceforth the title could no longer be applied in a wider sense,
but was restricted to the Twelve and himself.
20

origin and early history of the apostolic office

person sent has to be treated as if he were the person he is representing, would, according to scholars like K. H. Rengstorf and, more
recently, J.-A. Bhner, be the nucleus not only of the Jewish designation of shaliach, but also of the Christian apostolate as we nd it
in the New Testament.22 In Rengstorf s opinion, the apostle is not
so much charged with a mission of his own and for which he is
personally responsible, but with the authority of his sender, whose
mouthpiece he has to be during the whole course of his mission.
This is why he draws a vast distinction between a prophet, who
according to him is never called a shaliach in later Jewish literature
but is in possession of a kind of personal oce, and an apostle, who
has solely to act as the representative of the authority by whom he
is sent. On this point J.-A. Bhner has adduced a number of Jewish
texts where in fact prophets are called sheluchim, so that Rengstorf s
distinction no longer seems to hold and we can explain why St Paul,
who undoubtedly considered himself to be an apostle, can at the
same time give us a prophet-like self-description.23 But on the main
point Bhner shares Rengstorf s conviction to the full: behind the
Christian terminology is not primarily the functional aspect of being
sent on a mission, connected with the Greek word, but the specic
Semitic and Jewish concept of representative authority which is
implied in the designation of shaliach.
On the face of it, this may all seem rather convincing. As a matter of fact, St Pauls letters are the only early documents from which
a reconstruction of apostolic self-consciousness seems at all possible
and, as we have already seen, there the idea of representative authority is certainly present. God or Christ is speaking through his mouth,24
like the prophet Jeremiah he is given authority to build up and
destroy,25 the same expression used in the prophetic book itself to
describe Gods own activity, and, in his Letter to the Galatians, he
appreciates the fact that his readers received him as an angel of
God, indeed as Christ Jesus.26 Of course, this is reminiscent of sayings
J.-A. Bhner, Der Gesandte und sein Weg im 4. Evangelium (Tbingen 1977) 271 .;
id., pstolow, Exegetisches Wrterbuch zum Neuen Testament, i. 34251.
23
In Gal. 1.15 his model may as well have been the prophet Jeremiah as the
Servant of Isa. 49, who is also in the background in 2 Cor. 6.12, while Jeremiah
gures again in 2 Cor. 10.8 and 13.10.
24
See, e.g., 1 Thess. 2.13; 2 Cor. 5.20 and 13.3.
25
2 Cor. 10.8 and 13.10.
26
Gal. 4.14. On the likeness of apostles (and prophets) to angels, not only in
22

theodore korteweg

as in Matthew 10.40: Whoever receives you, receives me and whoever receives me, receives the One who sent me and Luke 10.16:
Whoever hears you, hears me and whoever rejects you, rejects me
and whoever rejects me, rejects the One who sent me. The ideas
of sending and of representative authority seem here to be intimately
related. Now, since in the Old Testament, especially within the
deuteronomistic tradition, the Hebrew verb shalach is regularly used
for the sending of prophets and the normal rendering of shalach in
the Septuagint is apostellein, we may compare these Synoptic sayings
in their turn with a passage like Matthew 23.34 ., where the
prophets, wise men and scribes who from time to time had been
sent to Israel and to Jerusalem receive the general designation of hoi
apestalmenoi pros aut n. Here the background is certainly the deuteronomistic tradition.27 This shows indeed that Rengstorf s distinction
between the oce of a prophet and that of a shaliach/apostolos as primarily a bearer of representative authority is entirely articial and
that one can even with less justice oppose the religious vocation of
a prophet to that of the shaliach as a juridical institution. Quite the
contrary. It is precisely the sending of prophets that is by itself a
basic idea in the deuteronomistic tradition as it is the sole fact that
it is God who is behind it that invests the words and the actions of
these messengers with divine authority. So, as far as this last element is concerned, neither the word apostolos on itself (which, as we
have seen, can also be used for an occasional messenger, sent on a
nancial errand) nor its supposed Hebrew equivalent are decisive,
but rather the religious context in which the terms are used and
which itself derives from the deuteronomistic tradition.
In this way we can explain why in St Pauls eyes it is not a horizontal chain of human tradition but a direct divine call or a heavenly vision that is constitutive for his apostleship. And there seems
to be no reason to suppose that this would have been dierent in
the case of the other apostles mentioned by him. The picture we
receive from his letters is the same which also appears from a passage like Matthew 28.1620: it is the heavenly Lord who commissions and instructs his earthly messengers and is the direct source of

Christian but also in Mandean and Manichean sources, see C. A. Gieschen,

Angelomorphic Christology (Leiden 1998) 171 . and on Gal. 4.14 in particular 315 .
27
See the fundamental study by O. H. Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der
Propheten (Neukirchen-Vluyn 1967).

origin and early history of the apostolic office

the traditions handed over by them to the communities.28 This picture still appears in many later texts, such as divers Church Orders
and Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, and, especially in the Syriac
tradition, it even aords a pattern according to which the oce of
Bishops is also delineated.29 But on the whole, of course, the development went in a rather dierent direction. For, since in mainline
Christianity ecclesiastical and especially episcopal authority was, as
a result of the struggle against deviant groups like the Gnostics, construed as entirely derivative of the Apostles, the episcopal oce was
increasingly seen as primarily a guarantee for the purity of the socalled apostolic tradition. Consequently, the Bishops, like the Apostles
and even the Lord Himself now no longer appeared in the rst place
in their quality of Messengers from Heaven, but became part of a
chain of tradition stretching out over time, and thus on a purely
horizontal plane. The concept of Apostolic Succession and with it
that of Salvation History was born.30
As far as our argument is concerned, this development gave rise
to two signicant changes. First, with regard to the semantics of the
word apostle, the connotation of authority became more prominent
now than ever before: the Apostles were henceforth seen as above
all the historical founders of the Church and the source of its established traditions and institutions and, therefore, as a strictly limited
group, located in place and time, with their own indispensable role
in Salvation History. This in turn explains why, for example, Origen
in his Commentary on St John now has to defend the much more general
use of the word apostle in John 13.16 by expressly stating that anyone who has been sent by somebody can be so called. In the same
manner, St Hippolytus in his Commentary on Canticles can permit himself
a wordplay by calling the women on the rst Easter Morning apostles to the apostles.31 This shows that in standard Christian usage,
28
That the visions of the resurrected Lord have to be interpreted above all as
reports of call experiences is argued, amongst others, by U. Wilckens, Rechtfertigung
als Freiheit: Paulusstudien (Neukirchen-Vluyn 1974) 1213. One has to ask, therefore,
whether the concept of tradition behind 1 Cor. 15.1 . has not also to be seen in
the light of 1 Cor. 11.23: the source is not the Jerusalem or Antiochene community, but the heavenly Lord!
29
On the close similarity of Bishops to the Apostles and even to Christ Himself
in the Syriac tradition see the inspiring study by R. Murray, Symbols of Church and
Kingdom: A Study in Early Syriac Tradition (Cambridge 1975) 195 .
30
On the importance of St Irenaeus in this respect see H. von Campenhausen,
Urchristliches und Altkirchliches (Tbingen 1979) 20 .
31
Origen Jo. 32.17; on St Hippolytus cp. Ysebaert (n. 8) 16; cp. also Justin

10

theodore korteweg

the word had now really become a frozen terminus technicus indicating a denite group of well-known biblical persons from the origin
of the Church. The second change, related to the rst, is that, with
regard to the concept of apostleship, the horizontal approach now
became entirely dominant at the cost of the vertical dimension that
is so characteristic of the original picture. Apostles no longer came
directly from the heavenly Lord, they came from the earthly Jesus
and they came from Palestine and Jerusalem. In St Pauls letters, on
the other hand, even the concept of tradition is still a vertical one
and the churches founded by the apostle, are also in fact the result
of a direct divine initiative: You are Gods plantation, Gods building (1 Cor. 3.9). Not only the origin but also the future of his
churches is seen by St Paul in an exclusively vertical context: he
wants to present them as a pure bride to her husband, who is the
heavenly Lord (2 Cor. 11.2).32
So, even without reviewing ancient Mesopotamian or later Gnostic
literature, we can conclude that in their general picture of the origin of the apostolic oce Geo Widengren and Walter Schmithals
may have been right after all. The Apostle to the Gentiles did not
conceive of himself at least as a link in a horizontal chain of tradition. He was called from heaven and although he had to proclaim
Gods mystery on earth, this was only to bring a message of otherworldly salvation to mankind. In the nal account, his own destiny
and the destiny of the churches he had founded, just like so many
heavenly plantations and temples holy to the Lord, was to be in
heaven again. And the goal for which he longed was certainly not
a position of honour in the historical record of Christianity, but that
Day of the Lord which he saw always approaching and on which
the churches he had founded would be his pride and his joy.33

1 Apol. 63.5 and Tertullian Praescr. 20.4 who oers an explanation of the Latin apostoli as adopted from the Greek as a title for the Twelve.
32
Cp. 1 Thess. 3.13 and 4.17: And so we will stay for ever with the Lord, i.e.
in the heavenly region. On the Church as Gods plantation in the Syriac tradition
cp. Murray (n. 29) 104 . who on p. 199 n. 4 also considers the relationship with
the description of the Qumranic community as Gods plantation in 1 QH 8.45.
Cp. also J. N. Bakhuizen van den Brink, Ecclesia, ii (The Hague 1966) 77 . On
planting and building as an activity of Christ, an apostle or a divine messenger
or saviour-gure in general, cp. H. Schlier, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den
Ignatiusbriefen (Giessen 1929) 4854 and P. Vielhauer, Oikodome, ii (Munich 1979)
passim.
33
1 Thess. 2.19.

THE EUCHARIST AS A LOVE-MEAL (AGAPE) IN

DIDACHE 910, AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN THE
PAULINE AND IN THE SYRIAN TRADITION
Joseph Ysebaert
From Homer onwards we hear of sacricial meals. It was always a
festive happening with plenty of meat. The gods received their part,
which could be achieved by burning some portions for them or
putting them before an image of the god. Within the Jewish tradition an oering could be burnt totally but, if a meal followed, this
of course was a full meal. This fact is important for the understanding of the relation between Eucharist and love-meal but has
been much neglected.
1. The sequence of cupbread in the Jewish Passover meal
The Jewish Passover meal as described in the Mishnah, Pesa im
10.17, is a full meal. It begins with a blessing over a cup of wine
mixed with water and then over the food that is brought in. This
sequence is not found for other meals, notably not in Essenic communal meals. The explanation for the unusual order in Pesa im
10.17 may simply be that the rst cup replaced the usual aperitif
of wine with some food in the case of a festive meal. This was taken
in another room but at the Passover there must have been lack of
rooms for so many participants who at sunset all should recline on
couches or pillows. As the second cup is mixed one listened to the
story of Exodus, the third cup was for the chief dish, and during
the fourth one was singing psalms. Cf. Mark 14.26, Billerbeck
4.1.5476 and 4.2.61139.
2. The text tradition in Luke 22.1720
The institution narrative or more precisely the consecration words
in the gospel of Luke include a well-known crux because in the majority of manuscripts the blessing of the cup is mentioned twice, once

12

joseph ysebaert

before the blessing of the bread and again after it, Luke 22.1720.
The so-called shorter text (the one without vv. 19b20) is found in
the Greek text of D (codex Bezae) and in the old Latin version of
the Itala to the exception of the codices b and e which put v. 19a
before 17 to arrive at the usual order of bread-wine; likewise the
Syriac tradition supports the short text: the so-called Curetonian
Syriac places 19 before 17; the Sinaitic Syriac does the same but
adds before 17 after they had supped and after 17 this is my blood,
the new covenant, borrowed from 20; the Peshitta Syriac omits 17
and 18 to obtain the sequence of bread-wine in 1920.
Westcott and Hort rejected the second blessing of the cup. One
does not understand, indeed, why this passage would have been suppressed to arrive at the unusual sequence of cupbread. On the
other hand, this unusual order may have occasioned the addition of
the verses 19b20 which are almost exactly the same as in 1 Cor.
11.24b25 and seem to be borrowed.
According to the traditional explanation the rst cup belongs to
the Jewish Pascha but, if so, one wonders why the Jewish blessing
of the bread is lacking and, even if this is supposed to be included
in the mentioning of eating in 1617, the main problem remains that
the new Pascha now does not replace the old but is added to it.1
In fact, starting from the hypothesis that the sequence of cup
bread in 1718 is original but was inverted in the liturgical practice
(see section 8a below), one understands why its presence in the manuscripts is weak and how the various adaptations could arise.
Nevertheless, the Nestle editions from 1993 onwards have removed
the double square brackets. See also section 8a.2

1
E.g. the Bible de Jrusalem (19561) comments: Ne comprenant pas cette construction thologique et stonnant de trouver deux coupes, des tmoins anciens ont
omis le v. 20 ou mme la n du v. 19; certainement tort (E. Osty).
2
Cf. B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart
19942) 14850, 1646. The author explains the suppressing of the second cup in
terms of the disciplina arcani; the majority of the editorial Committee impressed
by the overwhelming preponderance of external evidence supporting the longer
form, explained the origin of the shorter form as due to some scribal accident or
misunderstanding 150.

the eucharist as a love-meal

13

3. The passing of the cup according to Mark 14.234

The genitive absolute As they were at table eating which introduces the section on Jude in Mark 14.18, is resumed in v. 22. Follows
the blessing of the bread: . . . he took the bread, and blessed, and
broke . . .: Take; this is my body. Then the text goes on, 14.234:
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to
them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them: This is my
blood of the covenant . . .
Here v. 24 is remarkable because Jesus pronounces the consecration words when several apostles did already drink from the cup.
From a formalistic point of view, they received unconsecrated wine.3
Moreover, it was unusual that the cup passed, although there are
classical parallels. A dramatic example is found in Herodotus 3.11.
Apparently, the group was not yet lying down. There may have been
a room free because the group coming from Galilee had begun the
month one day earlier than the Jerusalem people. See the next section. As a matter of course we must assume that Jesus blessed all
the wine and all the bread and, as the Passover was a family feast,
the women who did the cooking were present in the room as far as
their work allowed.
As the designation of the traitor occurs during the meal, this was
after the initial blessing of cup and bread, Mark 14.20; Matt. 26.23;
John 13.26.
4. The Emmaus disciples and the Eucharistic love-meal in Acts 2.426
According to Luke 24.30 the disciples of Emmaus recognized the
Lord when he took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to
them (elghsen ka klsaw peddou). Luke uses twice in the gospel
and four times in Acts the words rton klv. They are a technical
expression for the Eucharistic meal. It then includes normally the

3
J. Jeremias, Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu (Gttingen 19603) 103, remarks that such
accompanying words were unusual. In fact it is dicult to imagine another occasion where a blessing of a meal could be given such a special signicance. He does
not reckon Mark 14.24 to the original words. Cf. E. Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des
Markus (Gttingen 196717) 3034: Dann kreist der also gesegnete Becher unter den
Tischgefhrten; J. Gnilka, Das Evangelium nach Markus 19893) 244 n. 26: Theologische
Konsequenzen sind aus dieser Hysteron-Proteron-Konstruktion nicht zu ziehen.

14

joseph ysebaert

full rite with bread and watery wine and other food. If the Emmaus
disciples did eat something more than dry bread, the Eucharist
included a normal meal.
The life of the early Christian community as reported by Luke in
Acts 2.426 shows some similarity with that of Essenic communal
life, as has often been observed. The breaking of bread (2.42,46) is
again a technical term, supposed to be known to the readers. It
includes the eating of ordinary leavened bread and other food. This
food was most probably not supplied by the owner of the house but
taken along from home by each according to his nancial circumstances. Thus the common meal was the Eucharist and a love-meal
or agape at the same time. Again the words to break (the) bread
are a technical expression for a Eucharistic meal of bread, wine and
other food, and not for the eating of dry bread.4
5. The Eucharist in the Didache
As I noticed elsewhere, the term pstolow in Did. 11.36 is used
as a technical term because it is supposed not to need any explanation for the addressees. It can therefore only be understood as
referring to the Twelve. This fact takes the origin of the Didache back
to the period immediately after the martyrdom of Stephen when the
Greek speaking Jewish Christians were expelled from Jerusalem. Their
sudden ight from the city to the country and further on to Antioch
and Cyprus created a new situation described in Acts 8; 11.19.
Herewith the details mentioned in the Didache perfectly t in: baptism without unction, rules for the reception of wandering missionaries, for hospitality and the founding of new communities by the
refugees themselves, Did. 78; 1113; 15.1.5

4
H. Lietzmann, Messe und Herrenmahl (Berlin 19553) 23946, does not see this
and supposes the expression to refer to a dry bread meal (Brotkommunion) as long as
there is no mention of water or wine. He does so in all the instances of the New
Testament including Luke 24.30,35 (Emmaus); Acts 20.7,11 (Troas); 27.35 (Malta);
Hom.Clem. 14 (Eucharist by Peter); Acts of John 106, 10910 (ed. M. Bonnet, Acta
Apostolorum Apocrypha, ii.1 [Leipzig 1898 = Hildesheim/Darmstadt 1959] 203 .; by
John) and the Acts of Thomas (see section 9b).
5
See J. Ysebaert, Die Amtsterminologie im Neuen Testament und in der Alten Kirche (Breda
1994) 18 and 2034. The Hellenists as Greek speaking Jewish Christians were relatively modern and more prone to release the rules of Mosaic life. When they were
expelled, the apostles rst remained in Jerusalem but then had to visit the refugees.

the eucharist as a love-meal

15

This is also true for the description of the Eucharistic meal in Did.
910. In the rst place, we nd for this meal the sequence of cup
bread as is typical of the Jewish Passover, whereas the rubric of 9.5
has the common sequence of eating and drinking. Secondly, the
thanksgiving over cup and bread is not followed by the institution
narrative and the consecration words. Apparently, this is not considered to be essential: As to the Eucharist (exarista) give thanks
(exaristsate) thus: rst for the drink: We give thanks (exaristomen)
to you, our Father, for the holy vine of David . . . As to the broken
bread: We give thanks (exaristomen) to you, our Father, for the
life and knowledge . . . Did. 9.13.
It would be mistaken to think of a Eucharist with one (little) piece
of bread and one draught of wine. Nevertheless some scholars have
doubted to nd here the Eucharist on the very ground that this was
a full meal: After being satised (mplhsynai), give thanks (exaristsate) thus: We give thanks to you, holy Father . . . 10.12. As
in Acts 2.42,46, the Eucharist is a full meal with ordinary, i.e. leavened bread and watery wine taken from home.6
6. The development of the terminology
Hebr. barak to praise, to speak well of esp. said of God but also
of other persons and of things, is in the Septuagint constantly translated by elogv, eloga, eloghtw. In Aramaic the meaning of
berak pa. to say well develops into to say grace after meal. In the
Septuagint the synonyms exaristv, exarista are rare and only
found in texts written originally in Greek. This Greek verb has no
passive but it has the advantage of expressing clearly the notion of
thanksgiving. Thus the gospels have elogv in Matt. 14.19 parr.
but exaristv in John 6.11. The Latin versions show the dierence

W. Rordorf, La Didach en 1999, Studia Patristica 36 2001 28990, does not understand this. Cf. for an early dating of the Didache also E. Mazza, Leucaristia di I
Corinzi 10.1617 in rapporto a Didach 910, Ephemerides Liturgicae 100 1986
193223.
6
Cf. for instance J.-P. Audet, La Didach (Paris 1958) 430, and B. Reicke, Diakonie,
Festfreude und Zelos (Uppsala 1951) 10 n. 1, who distinguishes between three opinions for each of which he notices some authors: Eucharist and agape were (a) originally distinct, (b) distinct but linked ritually, (c) originally identical.

16

joseph ysebaert

by translating the former with benedicere, benedictio, and the latter with
gratias agere, gratiarum actio.
Thus in Did. 9.15 the verb exaristv and the noun exarista
have obtained a new technical meaning of Eucharistic thanksgiving. In 9.5 the noun refers to the elements of bread and wine. On
the other hand, in 10.12 the verb is used in the general sense of
to give thanks.7
7. The Eucharist in Antioch and in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem agreement of 49 discharged Gentile Christians from
observing the law of Moses, Acts 15.1920. The compromise was
reached on the conditions proposed by James and found in Lev.
1718. As a matter of course the Jewish believers were not forbidden to observe Mosaic law. But were they still obliged? In his letter to the Galatians Paul blames Peter for his attitude towards the
Gentile believers. After a message from James in Jerusalem he feared
the circumcision party and drew back from the common meals with
the Gentiles, Gal. 2.12. Paul does not make a distinction between a
love-meal and a Eucharistic meal as such a distinction did not yet
exist. What upsets him is the fact that the converted Gentiles would
again be obliged to live as Jews (oudazein Gal. 2.14), and even
more that a complete separation between two groups of believers
was threatening.8
When Paul arrived in Jerusalem at the end of his so-called Third
Missionary Journey the segregation between Jewish and Gentile
Christians in the Holy City indeed appears to be total. Fear exists
that Paul does exhort Jewish Christians to forsake Moses. To the
Gentile Christians in Jerusalem itself James has sent a letter (pestelamen) to inform them that they should (only) abstain from what
has been sacriced to idols, from blood and from incest, Acts 21.25.9
7
See the dictionaries; also H. W. Beyer, elogv, Theologisches Wrterbuch zum
Neuen Testament 2.75163, and H. Conzelmann, exaristv, ibid. 9.397405.
8
For more details, see J. D. G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul and the Law: Studies in Mark and
Galatians (Louisville, Ky., 1990) 148 . The author does not see that the vehement
commotion of Paul in his letter to the Galatians can only be explained at a date
after the Jerusalem council when the incident at Antioch has made Paul aware of
the interpretation given by James, which turns the agreement into a misunderstanding (and makes it invalid). Cf. Ysebaert (n. 5) 209.
9
In Matt. 5.32; 19.9; Acts 15.20,29; 21.25 and 1 Cor. 5.1 pornea means incest.

the eucharist as a love-meal

17

For him a common meal with these Gentile Christians was unthinkable. And this we can now better understand because the Gentile
Christians could take from home other food that was ritually unclean.
This problem did not yet exist when according to Gal. 2.3 Titus as
Pauls test case took part in the Eucharistic meals during the Jerusalem
Conference.10 Here we nd the essential point in the misunderstanding between James and Paul.
8. The Eucharist in 1 Cor. 1011 and in the Pauline tradition
a. 1 Cor. 1011
In 1 Cor. 10.34 Paul refers in the usual sequence to the supernatural food and drink the Israelites received in the desert, likewise
in 10.7 (Exod. 32.6) and in 11.22, but in 10.16 he explains the cup
of blessing and the bread as a participation in the blood and the
body of Christ. Choosing now the sequence of cupbread and
bloodbody, he must have had in mind the Eucharistic model.
The account Paul gives in 1 Cor. 11.2034 of the Christian
Eucharistic meal is occasioned by an abuse in the Corinthian community and it is generally assumed that the apostle refers to a lovemeal or agape as distinguished from the Eucharist. But what does
he exactly disapprove? When you meet together, it is not the Lords
Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one takes beforehand his
own meal (kastow gr t dion depnon prolambnei), and one is hungry and another is drunk 1 Cor. 11.201.
In this context the preposition and prex pro- before, when taken
in the local meaning, does not make sense, nor does it in the
metaphorical meaning although one has tried to translate as hastily,
in a hurry, a sense not mentioned in Liddell-Scott s.v. But the temporal sense ts in well: each one takes his own meal beforehand,
i.e. before the proper Eucharistic meal begins. And they do so without sharing with the poor and waiting for one another. They have
their own houses to take such meals, Paul remarks, and if anyone
is hungry, let him eat at home.

This has been clearly argued by H. Baltensweiler, Die Ehebruchsklauseln bei

Matthus, Theologische Zeitschrift 15 1959 34056; Die Ehe im Neuen Testament (Zrich
1967) 87102.
10
Cf. Ysebaert (n. 5) 237.

18

joseph ysebaert

Yet, in Pauls view the abuse is part of the Eucharistic gathering

with a full meal: all members (kastow) start eating and drinking too
early. By his intervention Paul achieves the following eects: (a)
although the Eucharistic meal remains a full meal (cf. below Acts
20.7,11; 27.35), he occasions the introduction of separated love-meals
(cf. below Jude 12; 2 Peter 2.13; see also Pliny Ep. 10.96.7), (b) probably without being aware of the fact, he makes the Antiochene
unclean food problem disappear, and (c) in order to avoid the abuse
of wine he postpones the blessing of the cup to the end of the meal.
The latter Paul achieves by asserting that Jesus at the Last Supper
blessed the cup after the meal (met t deipnsai 1 Cor. 11.25). He
received this knowledge from the Lord, he says, but as a Jew he
knew doubtless that this is wrong, and he is in contradiction with
his own words in 1 Cor. 10.16. One could say that he tells a lie,
but the apostles concern was not with the historical details of the
Last Supper. The blessing is now embedded in a solemn institution
narrative with the consecration words, which makes the text very
appropriate for liturgical use. This sequence came into the nal
redaction of Matt. 26.269 and Mark 14.224, and a second cup
was added in Luke 22.20.
Concerning the contribution for the brothers in Jerusalem Paul
advises that as in other churches each put something aside on the
rst day of every week and store it (kat man sabbtou . . . par
aut tiytv yhsaurzvn) so that contributions need not be made
when he comes, 1 Cor. 16.12. The rst day from Sabbath, i.e. the
rst day of the week, began on Sabbath at sunset, as this was the
way how Jews and most others reckoned a day. We nd this day
also mentioned in Did. 14.1. For Jewish Christians the Sabbath as
a day of rest was not suited for a communal meal, but the Saturday
evening after sunset, which was also the day of the Resurrection,
was the most obvious time. And of course the contribution should
be stored not at home every week but by the deacons of the church
administration.11

11
Cf. W. Rordorf, Der Sonntag. Geschichte des Ruhe- und Gottesdiensttages im ltesten
Christentum (Zrich 1962) 190212. This author begins with the Roman calendar
which reckons the day from midnight to midnight and concludes that the Eucharist
was originally celebrated on Sunday evening. Likewise W. Rordorf and A. Tuilier,
La Doctrine des douze aptres (Didach) (Paris 1978) 66.

the eucharist as a love-meal

19

b. A love-meal in Eph. 5.1820

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul (or an anonymous author) refers
to a gathering in which psalms are being sung and not too much
wine should be drunk: Do not get drunk with wine . . . but be lled
with the Spirit, addressing one another with psalms and hymns . . .
Eph. 5.1819. It is dicult to see here a Eucharist. Apparently there
existed yet another more cheerful type of gathering: the love-meal.
c. The Eucharist in Troas during the night of Saturday on Sunday,
Acts 20.612
The breaking of the bread as mentioned in Acts 20.7 refers to the
Eucharist during Pauls stay in Troas. This occurred on the rst day
from the Sabbath, i.e. on Saturday after sunset, and in fact after
midnight. There is no mention of a love-meal.
d. The Eucharist on board a ship near Malta, Acts 27.35
When after a tempest of a fortnight the wind dropped, Paul exhorted
the 276 passengers and crew to take some food: And he took bread
and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and
began to eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food
themselves 27.356. One may be surprised at such a public celebration of the Eucharist, but passengers had to take their own food
with them, such as bread or cakes, smoke-dried meat and fruit, the
crew only providing fresh water. Eating with his own group, Paul
says the blessing only for them. And he may have done so every
day, even when the watery wine was wanting.12

12
According to S. Dockx, Luc a-t-il t le compagnon dapostolat de Paul?,
Nouvelle Revue Thologique 103 1981 358400 at 3956 the itinerary used by Luke in
the so-called We-sections is the work of Timothy who accompanied Paul during
these periods. Timothy and Luke were both in Rome during the Roman captivity
of Paul from March 56 to February 58. Bo Reicke, Die Mahlzeit mit Paulus auf
den Wellen des Mittelmeers, Act 27.3338, Theologische Zeitschrift 4 1948 40110,
suggests that Luke has inserted the verses 27.338 under the inuence of the Gospel
narratives on the miraculous multiplication of bread, but Reicke rather seems to
have been inuenced by these narratives to nd too much in the itinerary. Cf. also
F. Meijer, Paulus zeereis naar Rome (Amsterdam 2000) 134.

20

joseph ysebaert
e. A love-meal in Jude 12

A passage of the Letter of Jude blames love-meals for the misconduct of some participants: These are blemishes on your love-meals
(gpai) as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves . . .
Jude 12. The Greek word appears now as a technical term for the
Christian love-meal. The text suggests no connections with the
Eucharist and this points to a full separation between the two events.
f. The reference to a love-meal in 2 Pet. 2.1214
The second Letter of Peter also blames the excesses of the lovemeals. The text is similar to that of Jude 12 but the tone is stronger:
These, like irrational animals . . . (will be) suering for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime (n mr&
already before sunset; or: at the (Sun)day; cf. 3.10). They are blots
(sploi) and blemishes, revelling in their dissipations (n taw ptaiw),
carousing with you 2 Pet. 2.1213.
The author, i.e. his secretary, seems to depend on Jude 12 and
tries to strengthen and extend the images. He replaces the unclear
spildew peaks of rocks by sploi blots. Thus one sees better that
he chooses ptai with a pun on gpai. This gives an indirect evidence for the existence of love-meals. For the rest, this pun has not
been remarked upon in many commentaries. Some argue that the
meals before supper were considered as gluttony and therefore could
not be love-meals. Indeed, Christians had their love-meals rather in
the evening and thence the shameless people joining them (suneuvxomenoi) as well. Then, n mr& is an emphatic expression for the
day of the Lord, and the author refers to the carouse on the day
(of the Lord).13
g. The day of the Lord in Rev. 1.10
The author of the Book of Revelation, who announces himself as
John, writes: I John, your brother . . ., was on the island called
Patmos . . . I was in the Spirit on the Lords day ( kuriak), and

13
This instance of pun (Wortspiel) is not mentioned in F. Blass, A. Debrunner,
and F. Rehkopf, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (Gttingen 199017) 488,
and emphatic use of words is not mentioned at all. See among the commentaries
e.g. K. H. Schelkle (Freiburg 1964) and H. Paulsen (Gttingen 1992).

the eucharist as a love-meal

21

I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet Rev. 1.910. The

author supposes the term to be known to the seven churches to
which he writes. It can therefore only be the technical term for the
Sunday as already in Did. 14.1.
9. The Eucharist in Syria and further to the East
The early Syrian liturgy of the Eucharist has attracted the attention
of scholars because there are indications for an old tradition of a
rite without an institution narrative and without consecration words.
This gives a remarkable link with Didache 910. In antiquity, the
Syrian liturgy with Syriac as its liturgical language extended from
Antioch and Edessa to Mesopotamia and the Syro-Malabar Christians
of India. The principal sources are the Acts of Thomas, the Anaphora
of Addai and Mari and other anaphoras in Syriac manuscripts.
a. The Acts of Thomas and the Acts of John
The Acts of Thomas recount the missionary work of the apostle Judas
Thomas in India. This document may have had its origin in Edessa.
It survives in Syriac and in Greek, and the latter is usually supposed
the be a translation from the rst. Some Gnostic features may have
been wiped out for the convenience of the readers. The Eucharistic
meal is mentioned several times as following baptism.14 The formula
is: breaking bread (or: bread of the blessing) he ( Judas Thomas)
gave (or made the baptized partakers of ) the Eucharist Acts of Thomas
27, cf. 29, 4950, 1201, 133, 158 (AAA 2.2.142 .) When a queen
Mygdonia orders her nurse to take bread and mixed water, the nurse
would rather fetch agons of wine. The queen refuses this and the
ceremony is now described this way: after breaking bread and taking a cup of water (potrion datow), he (Thomas) made her a partaker in the Body of Christ 121.
As has been mentioned in section 4, the words rton klv are
a technical expression for the Eucharistic ceremony which includes
the drinking of watery wine. This is now called a mixture of water
(krsiw datow 120 twice). The word mixture includes the fact that

14
For the baptismal rite combined with an anointing, see J. Ysebaert, Greek
Baptismal Terminology (Nimeguen 1962) 31114, 3436, 3602.

22

joseph ysebaert

the water is mixed with another liquid, which in the context must
refer to wine. It is therefore probable that the cup of water in the
following chapter 121 refers to the same mixture.15
A prayer said by the apostle is mentioned as preceding or accompanying the Eucharist in 4950, 121, 133 and 158. He may have
always done so and several times the Eucharist is called a blessing
and a thanksgiving but there is no trace of the institution narrative
and the consecration words. The fact that something is not mentioned does not prove its absence but it seems probable that these
words were not considered to be essential. This is in keeping with
Didache 9. The sequence, however, is always that of breadcup.
One passage of the Acts of John is here of interest because the
apostle says a rather long prayer before the breaking of the bread
without any reference to the institution narrative and the consecration words, Acts of John 1059. The Acts are dated about ad 200
and as many of the events described have some connection with
Ephesus, the text may have its origin in that region. For the anaphora
this would mean some evidence outside Syria.
b. The anaphora of (composed by) the Apostles Addai and Mari
The church of Edessa traces its origin back to Addai, which is Syriac
for Thaddaeus, and his disciple Mari. Addai should have been one
of the seventy disciples sent out by Christ according to Luke 10.1.
15
Greek nouns in -tiw and -siw denote an action such as mixing or the result
of an action such as mixture. M. Bonnet in his edition of the text (Acta Apostolorum
Apocrypha, ii.2 [Leipzig 1903 = Hildesheim/Darmstadt 1959] 230.15,19), suggests
without manuscript evidence a correction into krason. This is a very rare word
which may have the meaning cup for mixing, in this case for the mixing of water
with wine. As the author of the Acts regards Mygdonias frugality, he may mention
the water instead of the wine or suggest that in this case only water was used. The
only known instance for krason is in John Moschos, Prat. 113 (PG 87.2977):
krason jouw a little (mixing) cup of poor wine or vinegar (t jow), cf. G. W.
H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford 19618) s.v. For the rest, a good instance
for the use of water without wine is found in the Acta Petri cum Simone (Vercelli
Acts) 2 (ed. R. A. Lipsius, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, i [Leipzig 1891 = Hildesheim/
Darmstadt 1959] 46): optulerunt autem sacricium Paulo pane et aqua, but Justin Martyr
mentions bread and a drinking-cup with water and a mixture (rtow ka potrion
datow ka krmatow) in his description of the Eucharist in Rome, which may suggest that for him the water is at least as important as the wine, 1 Apol. 65.3, cf.
67.5, and Dial. 70.34, referring to Isa. 33.16. Epiphanius mentions for the Ebionites
unleavened bread and water, Haer. 30.16.1; for Marcion water, 42.3.3; for the
Encratites water instead of wine, 47.1.7; and for the Quintillianites bread and cheese,
49.2.6. Cf. Lietzmann (n. 4) 2468, who mentions the earlier literature.

the eucharist as a love-meal

23

Although the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, also named the Anaphora
of the Apostles, is only preserved in Syriac manuscripts from the
16th century onwards, there can be no doubt about some very archaic
features. This concerns notably the absence of the institution narrative and the consecration words.
A. Gelston16 gives the following reconstruction of the two essential sections H and I, in Bottes edition 9 and 10.17 Gelston suggests
that we can arrive at yet an earlier version when the words between
square brackets are left out (55, 123):
H (9 Botte) Epiclesis: And let thy Holy Spirit come, O my Lord, and
rest upon this oering of thy servants [and bless it and sanctify it] that
it may be to us, O my Lord, for the pardon of sins and for the forgiveness of shortcomings, and for [the great hope of ] the resurrection
of the dead, and for new life in the kingdom of heaven [with all who
have been pleasing before thee].
I (10 Botte) Anamnesis: And for [all] thy [wonderful] dispensation
which is towards us we give thee thanks and glorify thee [without ceasing] in thy Church redeemed by the precious blood of thy Christ, with
open mouths and unveiled faces oering glory and honour and thanksgiving and adoration to thy [living and] holy [and life-giving] name,
now and at all times and for ever and ever. Amen.

The epiclesis shows its Semitic origin by the parallel structure. It

begins with an invocation of the Holy Spirit and the anamnesis with
a thanksgiving to God for his [wonderful] dispensation. The intention of a Eucharistic meal is supposed to be made suciently clear
by the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the thanksgiving. This epiclesis is not yet found in Didache 9 and in the Eucharistic prayers of
the Acts of Thomas. According to orthodox theology of the Eastern
churches who followed Nestorius in his schism after the Council of
Ephesus in 431 the consecration is eectuated by the descent of the
Holy Spirit invoked by the prayer of the epiclesis.18 However, as has

16
A. Gelston, The Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari (Oxford 1992) 55. Earlier
editions, translations and studies may be found in the Bibliography. Notice esp.
W. F. Macomber, The Maronite and Chaldean Versions of the Anaphora of the
Apostles, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 37 1971 5584 at 556.
17
B. Botte, LAnaphore chaldenne des Aptres, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 15
1949 25976; Problmes de lAnaphore syrienne des aptres Adda et Mari, LOrient
Syrien 10 1965 89106.
18
See W. de Vries, Sakramententheologie bei den Nestorianern (Rome 1947) 23340.
The author refers to an opinion rejected in a Syriac manuscript that paten and
cup are consecrated by the mere fact that they are put on the altar (240). This

24

joseph ysebaert

been observed by Hofrichter, the epiclesis of the Anaphora of Addai

and Mari does not say a word about the consecration of bread and
cup. Again this is supposed to be clear enough from the ceremony
itself.19
c. The Epistula Apostolorum
The Epistula Apostolorum, originally written in Greek but only extant
in Coptic and Ethiopic versions and in a Latin fragment, is dated
about ad 160, and originates from Syria. The Eucharist and the
Agape are mentioned as rather distinguished events. The mention
of the remembrance may include an anamnesis. The drinking of the
cup is mentioned without the breaking of the bread and thus seems
to be yet the rst and more prominent part of the Eucharist. The
absence of the consecration words suggests that they at least were
not yet considered to be essential. The Lord says to the Apostles:
And you therefore celebrate the remembrance of my death . . . And
when you complete my Agape and my remembrance . . . (so the
Ethiopic MS, the Coptic has: the remembrance that is for me, and
the Agape) . . . And we said to him: O Lord, have you then not
completed the drinking of the passover? Must we then do it again?
And he said to us: Yes Epistula Apostolorum 15 ( J. K. Elliott, The
Apocryphal New Testament, 565). See also below, section 9f.20
d. Other Syriac evidence
The institution narrative with the consecration words occurs in the
Byzantine liturgy and, perhaps because Nestorius had been bishop
of Constantinople, also in the Syriac liturgy of the Nestorians. Yet,
anaphoras without these words have been used among the Maronites
in West-Syria,21 the Christians of Nisibis and Seleucia-Ctesiphon near
would mean that the essential point is in the intention of the celebrant; cf. in the
sections 2, 9b, and 9f.
19
P. Hofrichter, Lanaphora dAddai et Mari dans lglise de lOrient: Une
eucharistie sans rcit dinstitution?, Istina 11 1995 95105 at 104.
20
For the dating and origin see J.-N. Prs, Lptre des Aptres et lAnaphore
des Aptres: Quelques convergences, Apocrypha 8 1997 8996; La solidarit fraternelle dans la clbration de lagape pascale selon lptre des Aptres, Ephemerides
Liturgicae 114 2000 628; H. Manders, Sens et fonction du rcit de lInstitution,
Questions Liturgiques 53 1972 20318.
21
Cf. I. E. Rahmani, Les liturgies orientales et occidentales (Beyrouth 1929) 31435,
esp. the comment 315. M. Hayek, Liturgie maronite: Histoire et textes eucharistiques (Paris
1964).

the eucharist as a love-meal

25

Baghdad22 and the Malabar Christians on the S.W. coast of the

Indian subcontinent.23
Moreover, in a description of the consecration words in Syriac
anaphoras as found in manuscripts from the Vatican Library and
elsewhere, A. Raes mentions several manuscripts which have the
institution narrative but without the consecration words.24 The core
of the text runs in the Latin translations by Raes: accepit panem
in manus suas, gratias agens benedixit ac sancticavit et fregit et
dedit discipulis suis et dixit: Accipite, manducate ex eo vos omnes
in remissionem peccatorum et in vitam aeternam . . . Similiter et calicem benedixit ac sancticavit et dedit apostolis et dixit: Accipite, bibite ex eo vos omnes in remissionem debitorum et in vitam aeternam.25
e. The latinization
The Maronites and the Malabar Christians used more than one
anaphora, which may have occasioned some interference especially
with regard to the institution narrative. However, when these groups
came in touch with the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches,
this brought about a process of purgation from heretical (Nestorian)
inuences and of orthodox traditions reaching to such details as the
making of the sign of the cross. The adaptations in the liturgy eaced
much of the old state of aairs.26

22
Cf. E. C. Ratcli, The Original Form of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari:
A Suggestion, Journal of Theological Studies 30 1929 2332.
23
Cf. R. H. Connolly, The Work of Menezes on the Malabar Liturgy, Journal
of Theological Studies 15 1914 396425, 56989, esp. 407 with note 2: the author
compares two texts of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, one with the institution narrative ( J. F. Raulin, Historia Ecclesiae Malabaricae cum Diamperitana Synodo [Rome 1745
= Westmead 1969] 31618) and the other without (from the Syriac missal Liturgia . . .
Adaei et Maris [Urmiae (Persia) 1890], translated in F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern
(Oxford 1896) 246, 290, col. 2 before the prayer Glory be to thee). See also F. C.
Burkitt, The Old Malabar Liturgy, Journal of Theological Studies 29 1928 1557. G. B.
Howard, The Christians of St Thomas and Their Liturgies (Oxford 1864 = Farnborough
1969), gives several anaphoras, among them the Anaphora of St Peter without and the
Anaphora of the Twelve Apostles with the institution narrative, 26790; cf. also 124.
24
A. Raes, Les paroles de la conscration dans les anaphores syriennes, Orientalia
Christiana Periodica 3 1937 486504.
25
The texts lacking the institution narrative and the consecration words can be
found in the Corpus of Syriac Anaphoras, edited by A. Raes and others, as 5,
Anaphora Syriaca Duodecim Apostolorum, and 19, Anaphora S. Thomae Apostoli. Cf. also 13
Anaphora Ioannis Sabae.
26
At the Synod of Diamper (near Goa) in 1599 A. de Menezes (cf. n. 23) as

26

joseph ysebaert
f. The explanation of the absence

The absence of the relevant passage has been explained in dierent

ways. Supposing that the consecration words were original, one thinks
of a copyists error, an omission out of reverence, or the need of
shortening an anaphora that had become too long.27 However, it
may now be clear that we nd here an early tradition which goes
back to the Didache. The essential point was the intention to celebrate the Eucharist, which could be done with an appropriate prayer.
To this end a community needs an pskopow and a dikonow to
replace the wandering missionaries, Did. 15.1. When later the epiclesis was considered to be the essential moment, the insertion of
the institution narrative may have met with some reluctance as to
the consecration words so that in some anaphoras they were left out.
Conclusion and summary
In the Jewish Passover tradition the blessing of the rst cup replaced
by lack of rooms for so many people the aperitif that was usual at
festive meals. When at the Last Supper Jesus pronounced the consecration words, this was to elucidate what was already included in
the initial blessing or thanksgiving. The eating and drinking of the
Eucharist substituted the Jewish Passover and was as any sacricial
meal in antiquity a full meal. From Luke 22.1719 it appears that
Jesus blessed rst the cup and then the bread. The rst Christians
did the same with wine, ordinary leavened bread and other food
taken by the participants from home for a full meal. This situation
is found in Acts 2.42,46; Did. 9 and 10.1 and Gal. 2.11 . (for
Antioch). The abuse among the Corinthians of the Eucharist as a
full meal urged Paul to intervene. This action led to the introduction of a love-meal or agape as separated from the Eucharist, whereas

the Portuguese archbishop of Goa reorganized the Malabar Church. J. P. M. van

der Ploeg, The Christians of St. Thomas in South India and their Syriac manuscripts (Rome
1983) 65, remarks that at this synod the consecration words were out of discussion.
This is correct, but for the Portuguese missionaries this problem was most important and must have been solved from the beginning. Cf. Hefele-Leclercq and
C. de Clercq, Histoire des Conciles (Paris 1949) 11.1.456 and 60.
27
See Raes (n. 24) 489 and 5014 for the earlier literature and for Raes himself. Add B. Botte, Les anaphores syriennes orientales, Eucharisties dorient et doccident (Paris 1970) 224 at 11, and van der Ploeg (n. 26) 62.

the eucharist as a love-meal

27

the latter within certain limits remained a full meal. To avoid any
abuse of wine at the Eucharist Paul put the blessing of the cup after
the meal. To this end he referred to the Lord himself at the Last
Supper, knowing that this was not correct but not aware of the contradiction with himself in 1 Cor. 10.16. He now embedded the blessing of cup and bread in a solemn institution narrative with the
consecration words. This he did with so much emphasis that he
arrived at its classical form, which was taken over in the synoptic
gospels and generally accepted in all the churches outside Syria.
There the tradition of the Didache persisted, but variants were introduced. So even the epiclesis could be considered to be the moment
of the consecration.
The separation of Eucharist and love-meal solved most probably
by itself and not on purpose the Antiochene problem of unclean
food combined with the Eucharist. One would like to know whether
James and Paul got aware of this eect and discussed it during their
second meeting in Jerusalem, but Luke only notices the complete
segregation.

ROMANTIC FANTASIES: EARLY CHRISTIANS

LOOKING BACK ON THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD
Ton Hilhorst
The life of Jesus and the rst stages of the movement he brought
about have always aroused keen interest, but the ideas formed about
them have diverged widely as historical insights changed. This paper
will provide an impression of the views currrent in antiquity by discussing some early Christian texts both inside and outside the New
Testament. The authors of the samples chosen are unknown, although
some of the texts purport to have been written by famous persons.
The rst half of this contribution will be devoted to what might
loosely be called apocryphal literature; then the New Testament will
be examined.
Muratorian Canon
One of the oldest lists of books of the New Testament is the fragment known as the Muratorian Canon. Published in 1740 by the indefatigable archivist Lodovico Antonio Muratori, it has been an object
of investigation ever since. In 1973, A. C. Sundberg argued for a
dating of the text to the fourth century; nevertheless, it is still generally held to date from the later second century.1 There is consensus about Greek being its original language, but what has come
down to us is a translation in what some scholars shudderingly
describe as barbarous Latin. In the eighth-century manuscript that
transmits the list, it is a continuous text of 85 lines which contains
a reasoned catalogue of New Testament writings. It begins at the
point where the author is concluding his discussion of St Marks

1
A. C. Sundberg, Canon Muratori: A Fourth-Century List, Harvard Theological
Review 66 1973 141. For the subsequent debate see the bibliography provided by
K. Zelzer, Canon Muratorianus (Fragmentum Muratori), in K. Sallmann (ed.),
Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike, iv (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft
viii.4; Munich 1997) 3489; add L. M. McDonald, The Formation of the Christian
Biblical Canon (Peabody, Mass., 19952) 20920, who sides with Sundberg.

looking back on the apostolic period

29

gospel, and it ends while dealing with books that are rejected by
some people or by the author himself.
The MS has the following digression on St Johns gospel (ll. 916):
quarti euangeliorum; iohannis ex
decipolis
cohortantibus condescipulis et eps suis
dixit conieiunate mihi; odie triduo et quid
cuique fuerit reuelatum alterutrum
nobis ennarremus eadem nocte reue
latum andreae ex apostolis ut recognis
centibus cuntis iohannis suo nomine
cuncta discriberet

For convenience, it is presented here in a normalized form, following mainly Hans Lietzmann, and in the close translation by
W. Schneemelcher R. McL. Wilson:2
Quartum euangeliorum Iohannis ex discipulis. Cohortantibus condiscipulis et episcopis suis dixit: Conieiunate mihi hodie triduo, et quid
cuique fuerit reuelatum, alterutrum nobis enarremus. Eadem nocte
reuelatum Andreae ex apostolis, ut recognoscentibus cunctis Iohannes
suo nomine cuncta describeret.
The fourth of the Gospels, that of John, (one) of the disciples. When
his fellow-disciples and bishops urged him, he said: Fast with me from
today for three days, and what will be revealed to each one let us
relate to one another. In the same night it was revealed to Andrew,
one of the apostles, that, whilst all were to go over (it), John in his
own name should write everything down.

I am not going to discuss the grammar and textual criticism of the

passage here, and will take the correctness of the translation just
quoted for granted. What does interest me is the statement about
2
H. Lietzmann (ed.), Das Muratorische Fragment und die monarchianischen Prologe zu
den Evangelien (Kleine Texte fr Vorlesungen und bungen 1; Berlin 1933 = Bonn
1902) 5; W. Schneemelcher and R. McL. Wilson (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha, i:
Gospels and Related Writings (Cambridge and Louisville, Ky., 1991) 345. A facsimile of the text is in S. P. Tregelles, Canon Muratorianus: The Earliest Catalogue of the
Books of the New Testament Edited with Notes And a Facsimile of the MS. in the Ambrosian
Library at Milan (Oxford 1867), after p. 10; photographs may be consulted in
H. Leclercq, Muratorianum, Dictionnaire darchologie chrtienne et de liturgie 12 1935
54360, after col. 552. There are no recent commentaries as far as I know. Useful
old ones include M. J. Routh, Reliqui Sacr, iv (Oxford 18181) 737; Tregelles ibid.
2965; B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament
(Cambridge and London 18815) 5348; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons,
ii (Erlangen and Leipzig 1890) 14128; and M.-J. Lagrange, Introduction ltude du
Nouveau Testament, i: Histoire ancienne du canon du Nouveau Testament (Paris 19332) 714.

30

ton hilhorst

the fellow disciples. Since its interpretation is still controversial, I will

have to spend some time on it before being able to use it as a
source. Summarizing my view as concisely as possible, I would say
that fellow disciples = bishops = apostles. The rst equation seems
to be made expressly in the text. What, however, about the second
one? The New Testament gospels use the word disciple in both wider
and narrower senses. In the narrower sense the word may denote
the inner circle of Jesus followers. Matthew 10.1; 11.1; 28.16, and
also the apocryphal Gospel of Peter 59, use the designation the twelve
disciples, i.e. the twelve apostles.3 The narrower sense must be meant
in the passage in the Muratorian Canon, for Johns epithet (one) of
the disciples precisely distinguishes him from Luke, who is mentioned just before (ll. 67) as having not seen the Lord in the esh.
The author might have called John one of the apostles, as he does
Andrew, but the wording may well have been inspired by John 13.23:
One of his disciples (unus ex discipulis eius Vulgate), whom Jesus loved,
was lying close to the breast of Jesus. If, then, Johns designation
as (one) of the disciples serves to denote him as an apostle,4 the
same applies to his fellow disciples; they are apostles just like John,
and Andrew, for that matter.
Our double equation conicts, however, with two traditional ideas,
namely that John wrote his gospel after the deaths of the other apostles, and that apostles and bishops are mutually exclusive quantities.
Therefore, scholars have done their best to harmonize this passage
with the familiar ideas.
First, there is the time of writing of St Johns gospel. M.-J. Lagrange
states that the author of the Canon cannot have contradicted what
was common knowledge in his time, apparently including Johns
advanced age at the time of writing the gospel.5 From this he tacitly

3
Cf. W. Bauer, K. Aland, and B. Aland, Griechisch-deutsches Wrterbuch zu den
Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frhchristlichen Literatur (Berlin and New York 19886)
s.v. mayhtw 2b; G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford 19618) s.v.
mayhtw 2a. Also, for instance, in the Coptic Apocryphon of James (NHC I.2) 1.245;
2.910, as Gerard Luttikhuizen pointed out to me.
4
For a challenge to this idea, see C. A. Credner, Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen
Kanon (Berlin 1860) 15860, who believes that the Canon speaks of two people
called John, a disciple who wrote the gospel and 1 John and the apostle who wrote
23 John and Revelation, and A. Ehrhardt, The Framework of the New Testament Stories
(Manchester 1964) 1415. I owe these references to Theo Korteweg.
5
Lagrange (n. 2) 712; cf. also his vangile selon saint Jean (tudes Bibliques; Paris
19488) lxilxiv.

looking back on the apostolic period

31

deduces that Johns condiscipuli cannot have been the apostles, for
they had all died by that time. The mention of Johns fellow disciples and the apostle Andrew, he argues, only seems to contradict
this conclusion. The condiscipuli are not Johns colleagues but his subordinates: they are ses disciples, condisciples entre eux. However,
if a discipulus is mentioned, the condiscipuli mentioned immediately
afterwards normally denote his fellow discipuli, and here the formula
cohortantibus discipulis instead of cohortantibus condiscipulis would have
been essential to avoid misunderstanding if indeed Johns disciples
were meant. Furthermore, if the condiscipuli are the disciples of Johns
advanced age, what sense would it make to have them review what
John had written? They were not eyewitnesses of Jesus public life
so their judgement would be without particular importance. Lagrange
seems more or less to concede this point, given his comment: Tous
ne pouvaient videmment attester la ralit des faits. Ils certient
simplement que cest bien Jean qui a crit ou dict. As for Andrew,
Lagrange takes the mention of his apostleship to exclude the same
quality for the condiscipuli: Ses condisciples ne peuvent tre dautres
aptres, puisquAndr va paratre sous ce nom. I fail to see the
cogency of this claim. In addition, it leads to the curious conclusion
that precisely the person not included in the condiscipuli whom John
invited to fast and expect a revelation was the receiver of that revelation. And furthermore, in his commentary on Johns gospel,
Lagrange arms that the mention of Andrew as an apostle does not
exclude Johns apostleship, although John is introduced as ex discipulis and not as ex apostolis.6 Why should this reasoning be valid for
the condiscipuli but not for the discipulus? Later on in the text, ll. 489,
yet another feature turns up militating against a late dating. We read
there that Paul in writing his epistles followed the example of his
predecessor John ( prodecessuris sui iohannis), who wrote the seven epistles incorporated in Revelation 23. According to the author of the
Canon, therefore, John wrote his Revelation very early; Lagrange himself suggests that he had in mind a date under Claudius, the period

6
Lagrange (n. 5), lxiv: Andr seul est nomm Aptre, ce qui dailleurs ne veut
pas dire que Jean ne ltait pas. Ehrhardt (n. 4), feels indeed that the dierent
description aims to represent John as a disciple, but not an Apostle, i.e. one of
the Twelve. H. von Campenhausen, Die Entstehung der christlichen Bibel (Beitrge zur
historischen Theologie 39; Tbingen 1968) 3012, rejects Ehrhardts opinion.

ton hilhorst

32

mentioned by Epiphanius.7 It is hardly reasonable to suppose that

he wrote his gospel half a century later.
Then there is the problem of the apostles being bishops. Lagrange
solves this problem simply by asserting, as we have seen, that the
condiscipuli are not apostles but disciples of John. He thinks the bishops are those of Asia Minor appointed by John and mentioned as
angels in Revelation 23.8 On the side of Lagrange are a statement by Victorinus of Pettau (c. 230304) and two by Jerome about
Asian bishops urging John to write the gospel.9 But both Andrew
and the checking of the text by the other disciples are lacking here,
and the earlier testimony by Clement of Alexandria in Eusebius h.e.
6.14.7 mentions John as writing his gospel protrapnta p tn
gnvrmvn, admonished by his acquaintances, which is compatible
with the idea that they were his fellow apostles. Anyhow, whether
there are dierences or not, as long as we cannot accept that the
condiscipuli are Johns disciples we have to come to terms with the
phrase condiscipulis et episcopis suis. Among the older scholars trying to
explain the reference to bishops is Theodor Zahn. His tacit premiss
is, like Lagranges, that we cannot suppose the author to claim things
(in this case, apostles being bishops) that contrast with familiar traditions. Therefore he assumes a mistranslation. The original Greek,
he suggests, read protrepntvn atn tn summayhtn ato ka
piskpvn (or tn piskpvn); the translator incorrectly applied ato
to the second noun as well and rendered cohortantibus condiscipulis et
episcopis suis.10 But in the absence of additional arguments the assump7

Lagrange (n. 2) 73 n. 3. The passage in Epiphanius is Panarion 51.33.9.

For an overview of the theories concerning the meaning of the angels of
Revelation 23 see D. E. Aune, Revelation 15 (World Biblical Commentary 52;
Dallas 1997) 10812. The idea that they are the bishops is mostly rejected nowadays, but cf. J. Ysebaert, Die Amtsterminologie im Neuen Testament und in der Alten Kirche:
Eine lexikographische Untersuchung (Breda 1994) 22.
9
Victorinus Commentarius in Apocalypsin 11.1: conuenerunt ad illum de nitimis ciuitatibus episcopi et compulerunt eum, ut ipse testimonium conscriberet in dominum; Jerome Vir. ill.
9.1: Ioannes apostolus . . . nouissimus omnium scripsit Euangelium, rogatus ab Asiae episcopis;
id. Prologue to the Commentary on Matthew: coactus est ab omnibus paene tunc Asiae episcopis
et multarum ecclesiarum legationibus de diuinitate saluatoris altius scribere . . . ut ecclesiastica narrat historia, cum a fratribus cogeretur, ut scriberet, ita facturum respondisse, si indicto ieiunio in
communi omnes deum deprecarentur; quo expleto reuelatione saturatus in illud prooemium caelo
ueniens eructauit: in principio erat uerbum et uerbum erat apud deum et deus erat hoc uerbum:
hoc erat in principio apud deum.
10
Zahn (n. 2) 35 and 141. For the sake of completeness I should mention that
Routh (n. 2) 3, puts a comma after episcopis, thus substantivizing the possessive pronoun suis, a solution of despair, in my opinion.
8

looking back on the apostolic period

33

tion of a mistranslation opens the door to arbitrariness. We might

also try a palaeographic approach. The manuscript uses the abbreviation eps (i.e. episcopis) with a line over it. Should this be a mistake
for aps (i.e. apostolis), a dierence of just one letter, then the text
would simply state that Johns fellow disciples were apostles, which
would be nothing special. However, it seems to be wiser to stick to
the one witness we have to the text and read episcopis.
Indeed it is perfectly possible to explain the text as it stands. The
common notion of apostle is that it is a disciple of Jesus commissioned by him, and such apostleship therefore cannot be transmitted to others. The apostles appointed bishops as their successors,
who in turn could appoint others. This excludes the equation of
apostle and bishop. However, as time went on there was an increasing tendency to stress the highness of the episcopal oce. In Western
Christianity this led occasionally to the idea of the apostles themselves being bishops. This was already casually suggested for our passage by G. Volkmar in 1860, but seems to have met with little
approval.11 It can, however, be substantiated by passages in St Cyprian
of Carthage ( 258) and later authors.12 Thus Cyprian remarks in
Ep. 3.3.1:
Meminisse autem diaconi debent quoniam apostolos id est episcopos
et praepositos dominus elegit, diaconos autem post ascensum domini
in caelos apostoli sibi constituerunt episcopatus sui et ecclesiae ministros.
But deacons ought to remember that the Lord chose the Apostles, that
is, the bishops and leaders, but, after the Ascension of the Lord into
heaven, the apostles appointed deacons for themselves as ministers of
their episcopate and of the Church (trans. R. B. Donna).

And in dealing with the election of Matthias in Acts 1.1526 Cyprian

says, Ep. 67.4.2:

11
In his edition of Credner (n. 4) 153 n. 8: Das Joh.-Ev. soll also in jeder
Beziehung, selbst seiner Veranlassung nach, das der Apostel berhaupt sein. Diese
gelten fr altkatholische Begrie zugleich als Vorangnger der Bischfe, die ersten
Bischfe aller Orte. Uebrigens wird das con(discipulis) auch zu episcopis zu denken
sein, also gleichsam co-episcopis. I owe this reference to Theo Korteweg.
12
Cf. A. Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-franais des auteurs chrtiens (Turnhout 1967) s.v.
episcopus 2; G. W. Clarke, The Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage Translated and Annotated,
ii: Letters 2854 (Ancient Christian Writers 43; New York, NY and Ramsey, NJ,
1983), 1678. For the Christian East cf. Lampe (n. 3) s.v. pskopow II B 1 b ii
and 2a.

34

ton hilhorst
quando de ordinando in locum Iudae episcopo Petrus ad plebem
loquitur.
When Peter is speaking to the people concerning the bishop to be
ordained in the place of Judas (trans. R. B. Donna).

We cannot even exclude that Cyprian took the term piskop (Vulgate,
episcopatus) in Acts 1.20, which we render as oce, in the sense of
episcopate. Indeed, the borderline between the apostle and the
bishop was not closed altogether. Peter came to be presented as the
rst bishop, rst of Antioch and then of Rome ( Jerome Vir. ill. 1.1),
and James the son of Alphaeus, identied with James the Lords
brother, was said to be the rst bishop of Jerusalem (Eusebius h.e.
2.23.1; 3.5.2; 7.19; Jerome Vir. ill. 2.1), as Andrew was the rst
archbishop of Constantinople.13 In later centuries, James the son
of Zebedee ranked as the rst archbishop of Spain: Santiago de
Compostela.
If our interpretation is acceptable, we can conclude that the passage is a typical example of projecting an institution of ones own
time, in this case the oce of bishop, back into the founding time.
In its context, however, the mention of bishops is a marginal feature. What the passage is really about is the drastic representation
of the gospels authenticity. On the one hand, heaven itself raties
the recording of the gospel by granting the revelation which John
sollicited. On the other, the apostles, apparently in Jerusalem before
departing for their respective missionary regions, endorse the document written down by John with their authority. Obviously, the idea
Christians nursed about their earliest past was one of palpable direction by God and permanent intimate, cordial and unanimous contacts between the disciples, a continuation so to speak of the gathering
in the upper room of Acts 1.
Paul and Seneca
After this look at the internal life of the Urgemeinde provided by the
Muratorian Canon we now will consider a document that gives an
impression of how the relationship with the outside world was imag-

13
For a detailed treatment see F. Dvornik, The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and
the Legend of the Apostle Andrew (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 4; Cambridge, Mass., 1958).

looking back on the apostolic period

35

ined. It is the correspondence alleged to have been exchanged between

the two most famous rst-century ad letter-writers, the Stoic philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca and the Christian preacher Paul. This collection is of a later date than the Muratorian Canon, i.e. the fourth
century. Its vogue is not only evident from the surviving numbers
of MSS that have come down to us, more than three hundred,14
but also from its mention by two Church fathers not totally devoid
of critical sense, Jerome and Augustine.15 We might call this correspondence an epistolary novel in which Seneca, who is at Neros
court, and Paul exchange remarks on Pauls letters and way of acting. We learn about the impression Pauls message made upon the
emperor, Seneca having submitted Pauls letters to Nero for his
inspection. Poppaea, the emperors wife, is mentioned, and a cautious allusion is made to the re of Rome, on which Tacitus had
written. Local colour is provided by the mention of the famous park,
the Horti Sallustiani. People mentioned include Lucilius, a historical
gure to whom authentic letters by the real Seneca have been directed,
and Theophilus, known from Luke 1.3 and Acts 1.1 and mentioned
in the apocryphal Third Letter to the Corinthians as one of the writers
of a letter to Paul.
I will not discuss the substance of this piece of literature here, nor
will I touch upon its stylistic qualities, although I cannot help deploring the lost opportunity to imitate the manner of such outstanding
stylists as both Seneca and Paul. What interests me here is the notion
that Paul associated with and indeed was admired by one of the
authoritative thinkers of his time and even kindled the interest of
the emperor of the immense Roman Empire.
Strictly speaking, this fantasy is not wholly contrary to the known
historical facts. Seneca and Paul were contemporaries. Acts 18.1217
relates that in Corinth Paul was protected by the proconsul, Gallio,
an elder brother of Seneca.16 And Seneca indeed sojourned at Neros
court, Nero did have a consort Poppaea, Paul did visit Rome, the
re of Rome killed many Christians and, even more importantly,

14
L. Bocciolini Palagi (ed.), Epistolario apocrifo di Seneca e san Paolo (Biblioteca
Patristica; Bologna 1999), 45.
15
Ib. 1923.
16
Cf. W. Eck, [II 15] L. I. Gallio Annaeanus, Der Neue Pauly 6 1999 67.

36

ton hilhorst

there are certain points of agreement between the realms of thought

of Seneca and Paul, respectively.17
Nevertheless, the correspondence is bound to be ctitious. As
already said, stylistically speaking nothing of either literary master is
to be found in it. The real Paul would certainly never have used
the honorary title of master of all men (magister tanti principis, etiam
omnium, letter 2) for Seneca. Conversely, not the slightest evidence
has been found of the inuence of Christian tenets in Senecas works,18
and as late as the fourth century, Lactantius is of opinion that Seneca
never met Christians.19 In an important article, Alfons Frst recently
argued that the aim pursued by the author was to enhance Senecas
prestige with Christians by making him a personal friend of Paul,
the embodiment of apostolic authority.20 He may be right, although
his material seems to suggest that this would be something like carrying coals to Newcastle, since, as he demonstrates, Christians of late
Antiquity had a high opinion of Seneca. In my view, the purpose
was rather to show that Christians enjoyed the esteem of the elite
of Graeco-Roman civilization from the outset, including intellectuals like Seneca and rulers like Nero.21
New Testament
It would be easy to expand this kind of testimony with naive stories in popular literature and less naive suggestions in the works of
serious theologians. And the material increases as time goes on. Here,
however, my aim is to show that the glamorizing tendency was
already present in the earliest stages of the Christian movement as
represented in the books of the New Testament. Admittedly, it is
absent from its oldest documents, the letters of Paul. His writings
cannot be regarded as looking back on an earlier period: they are
part of it. Even if their interpretation is complicated by the authors
17
But the resemblances are mainly supercial, see the thorough investigation by
J. N. Sevenster, Paul and Seneca (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 4; Leiden 1961);
cf. also A. Frst, Pseudepigraphie und Apostolizitt im apokryphen Briefwechsel
zwischen Seneca und Paulus, Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum 41 1998 77117,
esp. 80 and 10913.
18
J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford 1993) 547.
19
Bocciolini Palagi (n. 14) 19.
20
See n. 17.
21
For Neros inconsistent image in the correspondence cf. ibid. 102.

looking back on the apostolic period

37

passionate involvement in the subjects he is dealing with, the facts

he provides, for instance his conict with Peter in Galatians 2.1114,
are precious historical data. The remaining New Testament books,
however, all anonymous or pseudonymous and dating from the
decades after ad 70 (only Mark might be slightly earlier), reveal
numerous retrospectives on the founding period of Christianity.
Let us cast a glance at one of the less frequently read New
Testament books, the Letter of Jude, a book of twenty-ve verses.
Jude introduces himself as the brother of James. Which James? He
might be some person of that name known to the addressees but
unknown to us, but if we suppose, as has always been done, that
he is James the brother of the Lord, then Jude himself is also a
brother of Jesus. Jesus, James and Jude are mentioned together in
Mark 6.3, where the inhabitants of Nazareth ask about Jesus: Is not
this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses
and Jude and Simon?22 However, it is hard to accept that Jesus
brother Jude really wrote this letter. To begin with, he calls himself
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. Would anyone call himself his own brothers servant?23 But this is not the only
sign pointing to a Christian author from a later period. In verses
1718 he exhorts his readers in the following way: But you must
remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ; they said to you, In the last time there will be scoers, following their own ungodly passions . The apostles, we may presume,
are the twelve apostles. They apparently already belong to the past
and they are presented as a doctrinal authority. A third clue is the
way verse 3 speaks about faith. The term pistis no longer serves as
the expression of the personal attitude but denotes the depositum dei,
the orthodox doctrine, from which one should not deviate. Indeed, the
readers are warned against a false doctrine creeping in.
Another letter in turn depends on Jude and claims to have been
written by the apostle Peter. We cannot be absolutely sure that it
depends on Jude and not the other way round, but this is the more
probable option given the fact that it seems to complete the Letter

22
Biblical quotations are from the Revised Standard Version, occasionally slightly
adapted.
23
One might compare Jesus proof in Mark 12.357 that he is not Davids son:
in that case David would not have called him his lord in Psalm 109(110).1.

38

ton hilhorst

of Jude and to remove its imperfections.24 Here again we nd warnings against false teachers. One of the problems is the return of the
Lord failing to materialize. The authors solution is to remind his
readers that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3.8), which is in striking contrast with statements by Paul.25 This author has his own methods to
prove he is the real Peter. Thus he points to his being an eyewitness to the Lords transguration on the mountain (1.1618), he
expressly states that this is his second letter to the readers (3.1), and
nally he refers to the letters of our beloved brother Paul, which
apparently were already circulating as a collection, remarking that
there are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other
scriptures (3.1516).
Although we could browse through other New Testament letters,
the Pastoral Letters in particular would yield interesting material,
our most rewarding source is the book which expressly deals with
the earliest congregation: the Acts of the Apostles. They are the
clearest demonstration of the tendencies we are discussing. On the
one hand they highlight the unity reigning among the rst disciples,
on the other they picture the esteem nascent Christianity experienced from thinkers and rulers of the ancient world.
First, then, there is the unity. There was, Acts suggests, a complete unity and harmony of the church as guided by the apostles,
who agree on every issue and resolve every problem through the
direction of the Spirit.26 Thus the question of the circumcision of converts from paganism is solved during the Apostles Council reported
in chapter 15. This report, however, raises a number of diculties;
for instance, it is hardly imaginable that Peter, as a Jew, would
have described the law as a yoke which neither our fathers nor we
have been able to bear (15.10)27 or that James, Jesus brother, would

24
H. Conzelmann and A. Lindemann, Arbeitsbuch zum Neuen Testament (UniTaschenbcher 52; Tbingen 200012) 4256.
25
1 Thessalonians 4.1517; 1 Corinthians 7.2931; 10.11; Romans 13.1112;
Philippians 4.5.
26
B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian
Writings (New York and Oxford 20002) 137.
27
Cf. E. Haenchen, Die Apostelgeschichte (Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ber
das Neue Testament; Gttingen 19686) 387 n. 1. The question keeps scholars divided,
however, cf. J. Nolland, A Fresh Look at Acts 15.10, New Testament Studies 27 1981

looking back on the apostolic period

39

have cited Scripture according to the Greek version and in a sense

conicting with the Hebrew text (15.1617).28 This is obviously the
view of an author without an intimate knowledge of the circumstances in Palestinian Christianity before the year 70. Another example of the authors aim to emphasize the unanimity is his treatment
of the role of Stephen in chapter 6. The tension, he suggests, is the
result of the neglect of the Hellenist widows in the daily distribution; therefore the apostles appoint Stephen and his associates to
serve at the tables, which pleased the whole multitude. But Stephens
subsequent activities have nothing to do with serving at table. The
real problem appears rather to have been a conict between factions, which the author tries to dispose of not quite successfully as
a question of domestic matters.
The second feature is the respect early Christianity allegedly encountered in the Graeco-Roman world. Acts dwells upon this in the narratives about Paul in particular. Through his travels, Paul, the apostle
of the Gentiles, frequently came into contact with the Hellenistic
world and the Roman authorities. The classic example is, of course,
Acts 17, Paul in Athens. Here the apostle behaves like a Greek intellectual. Like a second Socrates, in the market place he argued every
day with those who chanced to be there, he exchanged views with
Epicureans and Stoics, and in a spirited address, in which he managed to remain acceptable to his highbrow audience for a long time,
he quoted a Greek poet, Aratus, verbatim. Admittedly, in the end
he failed to win general approval, but some at least of his listeners
were convinced by his argument. Can we believe that Paul, in the
very centre of Greek civilization, in hallowed Athens with its philosophical schools, held debates with the intellectual crme de la crme
of his time? It sounds too good to be true, and in Pauls letters no
trace of it is to be found.
Furthermore, Pauls encounters with the worldly powers are painted
in such a way as to make us believe that he was a person of consequence. He was born a Roman citizen and impressed the Roman
tribune, who had had to buy citizenship for a large sum (22.289).

10515; J. Fitzmyer, The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary (The Anchor Bible; New York etc., 1998) 548; J. Jervel, Die Apostelgeschichte.
bersetzt und erklrt (Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ber das Neue Testament;
Gttingen 1998) 3923.
28
Haenchen (n. 27) 389; Fitzmyer (n. 27) 5556.

40

ton hilhorst

Consequently, he was treated with consideration: two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, an almost
grotesque escort, brought him to Felix the governor in Caesarea
(23.23). We may also think of Pauls stay in Rome. He had appealed
to Caesar, as we read in Acts 25.11, and thus had to be tried in
Rome. But during his voyage the prisoner was regarded and acted
as as a man with authority (27.3,316,43). In Rome, he was allowed
to stay by himself, with the soldier that guarded him and could
freely speak with the local leaders of the Jews, whom he called
together himself (28.1617). The climax comes in the last two verses
of the book:
And he lived there two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and
welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and
teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.

Not a word about the trial before the emperor, although it was common knowledge that it ended in his death. His execution simply did
not t the image of the prestige the Christian preacher enjoyed with
the pagan rulers.
Conclusion
It is now time for a conclusion. In the very rst period of Christianity
the faithful were convinced of the nearness of the kingdom of God.
When the parousia failed to materialize and the initial fervour subsided, people began to look back and an idealized image of nascent
Christianity developed which we may summarize as follows. The
earliest Christians were like a close-knit family. Customs, ideas and
institutions of the Church originated with the apostles. Externally,
Christianity was a respectable quantity in Graeco-Roman society and
was treated accordingly by the cultural and administrative elite.29
This view of the starting time is not restricted to apocryphal and
patristic sources but is already present in a number of books of the
New Testament.30

29
Cf. K. M. Fischer, Das Urchristentum (Kirchengeschichte in Einzeldarstellungen
i.1; Leipzig 19912) 15162.
30
Gerard Luttikhuizen kindly commented on an earlier version of this paper.

THE NOTION APOSTOLIKOS:

A TERMINOLOGICAL SURVEY
Peter Van Deun
In opposition to its Latin equivalent apostolicus, the Greek adjective
postolikw has hitherto not been the object of a thorough study;

except for the excellent book of F. Dvornik,1 we only nd some marginal information.2 The present article aims to ll up this lacuna and
elucidate the subtle dierences characterizing this notion, which will
prove to be more complicated than one would think at rst sight.
As postolikw is one of the hit words of Greek Christian literature, we have to cope with a mass of references. Fortunately we
could start from the latest CD-ROM version of the Thesaurus Linguae
Graecae (TLG-E), which covers the whole vocabulary of pagan antiquity, as well as that of the Septuagint and New Testament, and of
quite a few Greek Church Fathers (such as Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa,3 Basil
of Caesarea, John Chrysostom) and of a small portion of Byzantine

1
The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and the Legend of the Apostle Andrew (Dumbarton
Oaks Studies 4; Cambridge, Mass., 1958). For the Latin adjective apostolicus see the
literature in H. J. Sieben, Voces: Eine Bibliographie zu Wrtern und Begrien aus der Patristik
(19181978) (Bibliographia patristica: Supplementum 1; Berlin and New York 1980)
237 and the studies mentioned below, n. 2.
2
Cf. G. J. M. Bartelink, Lexicologisch-semantische studie over de taal van de Apostolische
Vaders: Bijdrage tot de studie van de groeptaal der Griekse christenen (Utrecht [1952]) 8990;
I.-M. Dewailly, Notes sur lhistoire de ladjectif apostolique, Mlanges de science
religieuse 5 1948 14152; H. Holstein, Lvolution du mot apostolique au cours
de lhistoire de lglise, in LApostolat (Problmes de la religieuse aujourdhui; Paris
1957) 4161; M. Rveillaud, Lapostolicit de lglise chez les Pres, tudes thologiques
40 1965 14964; J. N. D. Kelly, Die Begrie Katholisch und Apostolisch in
den ersten Jahrhunderten, in Katholizitt und Apostolizitt: Theologische Studien einer gemeinsamen Arbeitsgruppe zwischen der Rmisch-Katholischen Kirche und dem kumenischen Rat der
Kirchen (Kerygma und Dogma. Beiheft 2; Gttingen 1971) 921; A. Faivre, Apostolicit
et pseudo-apostolicit dans la Constitution ecclsiastique des Aptres: Lart de faire
parler les origines, Revue des sciences religieuses 66 1992 1967; J. Zizioulas, Apostolic
Continuity of the Church and Apostolic Succession in the First Five Centuries,
Louvain Studies 21 1996 15368.
3
Here one must also look at postolikw, , n in F. Mann, Lexicon Gregorianum:
Wrterbuch zu den Schriften Gregors von Nyssa, i (Leiden, Boston, and Cologne 1999)
4989.

42

peter van deun

literature (mostly the oecumenical councils, the etymologica and the

historians). To this information has been added what we nd in our
dictionaries and also the modest contribution of our own readings.
The harvest is considerable: nearly 2,700 records of postolikw, in
all its cases.
1. Chronology
The rst problem we have to discuss here concerns the age of this
notion. In the past some have maintained that postolikw was not
used in pagan literature of classical antiquity,4 but this must be
rejected; postolikw indeed has a previous history in pagan literature. However, one thing is certain: as expected, the use of the word
is very rare in pagan texts (about 5 passages) and all these records
date from late antiquity; we nd the oldest pagan example in the
Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus, an author who worked in the early third
century ad, and this isas we shall showyounger than the oldest
Christian records. We also have to point out that the pagan postolikw is used in a very specic literary meaning: it is a kind of
song, the postolikn (i.e. mlow), sung upon the departure of a
diplomatic delegation or written by someone abroad who sent his
poem afterwards.5 So, Christian literature does not have the monopoly of the word; it is also a fact that postolikw is allotted there
to a totally dierent context.
4
See e.g. the article of I.-M. Dewailly (n. 2) 141 (Il nest donc ni profane ni
biblique), shading this (read n. 2 of the same page) by quoting one record in pagan
antiquity; the same author is also mistaken in saying that the word wasnt used in
papyri; see e.g. postolikw in the Diccionario griego-espaol, where a papyrus text of
the fth century ad is mentioned.
5
The pagan material concerns the following texts: Athenaeus Deipnosophistae
14.631d, edited by C. Burton Gulick, Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists (The Loeb Classical
Library; London and Cambridge, Mass., 1937 = 1959) (where the postolik and
another kind of songs, the parynia, have been mixed up); Photius, Bibliotheca, codex
248.322a, l. 345 in the edition of R. Henry, Photius: Bibliothque, v, Codices 230241
(Collection byzantine; Paris 1967) (in a codex devoted to the philosopher Proclus);
the Scholia Londinensia to the Ars Grammatica of Dionysius Thrax, p. 450 ll. 1112 of
the edition of A. Hilgard, Scholia in Dionysii Thracis Artem Grammaticam (Grammatici
Graeci I.3; Leipzig 1901 = Hildesheim 1965); two records in the Scholia vetera to
the Carmina of Pindar: scholion 6b, ll. 23 to the second Pythian Ode, and scholion
Inscr. a, ll. 13 to the second Isthmian Ode, both in the edition of A. B. Drachmann,
Scholia Vetera in Pindari Carmina, ii: Scholia in Pythionicas; iii: Scholia in Nemeonicas et
Isthmionicas (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana; Leipzig
1910 and 1927).

the notion

APOSTOLIKOS

43

Remarkably, the word is totally absent from the Septuagint and

the New Testament. But we see that postolikw does show up in
our earliest Christian texts. At the beginning of the second century
ad, Ignatius of Antioch greets the Asia Minor community of Tralles
and wishes it to be full of grace, just like the apostles, or better just
as the apostle, Paul: spzomai n t plhrmati n postolik xaraktri.6 This is not just a stroke of luck, for the word shows up regularly in the second century ad and even in the rst half of this
century. The notion has already become current and is used for persons as well as for objects. Thus we nd postolikw several times
in the work of Irenaeus of Lyons (second half of the second century
ad). In his Adversus haereses he speaks about postolik, i.e. the Letters
of Paul, and elsewhere, in more general terms, about apostolic sayings.7 Elsewhere, Irenaeus explains the importance of the knowledge
of the apostolic tradition of the Church.8 In the collection of Greek
remnants of lost works by Irenaeus (CPG 1315) the adjective also
occurs several times; but only once is it said to be an authentic fragment from Irenaeus: in that passage Polycarp, as an immediate successor of the apostles, is characterized as blessed (makriow) and
apostolic (postolikw).9 The same laudative words about the bishop
of Smyrna can be read in the Martyrium Polycarpi, which probably
dates from 156160.10 Furthermore there is the testimony of the
6
We nd these words in the title of this letter; see the edition of P. T. Camelot,
Ignace dAntioche. Polycarpe de Smyrne. Letttres. Martyre de Polycarpe (SC 10; Paris 19694).
The so-called letter of Mary to Ignatius, sent from the mysterious city of Cassobola
at an unknown date, addresses Ignatius as the bishop of the apostolic church of
Antioch (piskp kklhsaw postolikw tw kat Antixeian); see the edition of
J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, ii.3 (London 18892 = Hildesheim and New York
1973) 1356.
7
Adversus haereses 1.3.6 and 1.8.1 (ka o mnon k tn eaggelikn ka tn postolikn peirntai tw podejeiw poiesyai and prosarmzein peirntai tow
erhmnoiw toi parabolw kuriakw =seiw profhtikw lgouw postolikow);
see the edition of A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, Irne de Lyon. Contre les hrsies.
Livre I, ii (SC 264) 61 and 113.
8
Adversus haereses 3.3.3 (tn postolikn tw kklhsaw pardosin gnnai) again
in the edition of A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, Irne de Lyon. Contre les hrsies.
Livre III, ii (SC 211) 37.
9
See fragment 2 taken from Irenaeus lost work Ad Florinum de monarchia (CPG
1309) and transmitted in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius 5.20.7 (SC 41); for two
other fragments in which postolikw is used (numbers 7 and 35), the authenticity has been rejected (cf. CPG 1315, numbers 2 and 21).
10
16.2 (otow gegnei yaumasitatow Polkarpow, n tow kay mw xrnoiw

didskalow postolikw ka profhtikw genmenow pskopw te tw n Smrn

kayolikw kklhsaw) in the edition of B. Dehandschutter, Martyrium Polycarpi: Een

44

peter van deun

Gnostic Ptolemy from the middle of the second century ad, who
speaks in his Epistula ad Floram (CPG 1135) about the apostolic tradition.11 In the report of the anti-Christian pogrom at Lyons in the
year 177, a certain Alexander, who will die a martyr, is characterized as someone who shares in the apostolic grace.12 Finally we nd
postolikw often in the works of Clement of Alexandria; he is still
an author of the end of the second and the beginning of the third
century ad.
2. Semantics
Now we must deal with the subtle distinctions within postolikw
and with the problem which words are mostly used with it. On the
one hand, it is a transparent and common word formation with the
sux -ikw; there is no doubt about its general meaning: of one
apostle, of the apostle, of the apostles. On the other hand, it is
remarkable that the term is used in so many contexts with each time
just a small dierence in meaning.
In a rst nuance it means something like consisting of apostles,
compound of apostles. Thus we nd the adjective frequently with
words like xorw and xorea (the choir of the apostles, the crowd
of the apostles) (about 90 references), or in a more military context,
with the word tjiw (the battle array of the apostles, the apostolic
ranks).
A second, and often attested, nuance has to do with the religious
doctrine transmitted by the apostles orally or in writing. Sometimes
it refers in the most general way to the words of the apostles: e.g.
lgoi postoliko or fvna postolika or grafa postolika. But
more often it has a more specic meaning: a quotation from the
apostle, i.e. from Paul; so postolikw is combined with words as
graf (text), fvn (saying, testimony), martura (testimony), dighsiw
(exposition), paranesiw (admonition), and particularly with ljiw,
lgow, lgion, =ma and =htn (word, saying); the substantivated t

literair-kritische studie (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 52;

Louvain 1979).
11
7.9 (SC 24bis).
12
For the Epistula Ecclesiarum apud Lugdunum et Viennam (CPG 1324), see again
Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica 5.1.49 (SC 41): n gr ka ok moirow postoliko
xarsmatow.

the notion

APOSTOLIKOS

45

postolikn is also used in this same restricted meaning, i.e. a quo-

tation from one of the Letters of Paul.13 The Letters of Paul and
the other canonical Letters are often quoted with the neuter plural
t postolik; in this case, this part of the New Testament is often
opposed to or seen in correlation with the four Gospels (t eaggelik) and the prophetic books of the Old Testament (t profhtik).
The neuter, sometimes combined with the noun texow or biblon
(book, volume), can mean in a more extensive way a collection
of New Testament Letters assembled in one volume. Thus in his
edition of the Letters of Paul (CPG 3642) the deacon Euthalius, who
lived in the fourth century ad, speaks of an postolikn texow,14
but the most remarkable cases are related to Marcion who in the
Church of Rome in the rst half of the second century ad circulated a specic selection of the Letters of Paul (without the Pastoral
Letters e.g.): this corpus is called t postolikn.15 One would perhaps expect that t postolikn was also used with the meaning of
a liturgical reading from the Letters of Paul, or a liturgical book
containing these Letters, but in Patristic and Byzantine Greek texts
this is the case only once, as far as we know;16 the Byzantine Church
uses more the term pstolow or the broader word prajapstolow
for this lectionary. Finally, we have to note that the New Testament
Acts of the Apostles are indicated with the expressions Prjeiw tn
Apostlvn or Apostolika Prjeiw.
A third category of instances of the word postolikw concerns
persons or things which have the character of the apostles, which
are closely related to the apostles, which are typical of the apostles,
which are worthy of the apostles, which resemble the apostles, which
follow the example of the apostles. As said, persons and things are
characterized in this way, even if the material for persons is not very
large; apparently one was afraid of calling someone apostolic too

13
Only once did we nd a passage where the expression t postolikn does
not concern a text of Paul but a saying of John the Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew
(3.12); see Clement of Alexandria Eclogae propheticae 25.12 (GCS 17.143).
14
PG 85.720C23.
15
See e.g. several passages in the Dialogue of Adamantius, author of the fourth
century ad (CPG 1726), in the edition of W. H. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Der
Dialog des Adamantius Per tw ew Yen ryw pstevw (GCS 4), e.g. p. 10 l. 19;
p. 66 ll. 910; p. 188 l. 14.
16
See the second speech on the Annunciation sometimes attributed to Gregory
Thaumaturgus (CPG 1776): PG 10.1161C78.

46

peter van deun

quickly; nonetheless persons like Job, Polycarp, Ignatius, PseudoDionysius Areopagita, Barnabas, etc., received the label apostolic.
On the other hand, there are hundreds of examples of things. Thus
we read postolikw in combination with words like karda, cux,
frnew and frnhma (disposition, character, mental constitution),
xriw (grace), zlow (enthusiasm, eorts, devotion), ndrea
(courage), snesiw, dinoia and sofa (perception, wisdom), katorymata (successful virtuous acts and qualities), peirasmo (eorts,
aictions), t splgxna and esplagxna (sympathy, mercy),
xaraktr (character), t yaumsia, t yamata and t teratourgmata
(miracles), baymw, ja and jvma (grade, status, dignity),
jousa and rx (power, authority), etc. Special attention must
be given to the combination with bow (to live an apostolic life), an
ideal which is especially crucial for the Western Middle Ages, but
which is also important for Eastern Christianity; we found the expression some 40 times; our oldest testimonies are in Origen.17 The same
can be said of the notions politea and filosofa, a Christian way
of life sometimes called apostolic. For the rest there are the references to the postoliko xrnoi, the apostolic times, a notion with
which we will deal later.
A fourth group of attestations is very rarewe found only 10
records. In this case postolikw is connected with words like stol,
syw, sxma and mtion, which all refer to the immaculate white
dress of the apostles, an outt which often characterizes monks, bishops, especially the patriarch of Constantinople.
A fth and last group of records in Greek brings us to the meaning derived from the apostles, who or which traces his or its roots
to the apostles, who or which is in agreement with the traditions
of the apostles. More than half of all our references belongs to this
category in which postolikw, as one will notice, shows up more
and more in the dogmatic eld.
The Christian doctrine, the religious beliefs, liturgical acts and
canon law rules derive much of their inuence from their apostolic
character. Let us give some examples and gures. Apostolic are
called the krugma or the khrgmata (the Christian message; 94
instances), the pardosiw (the Christian tradition; 97 times), the
dgma or the dgmata (the Christian doctrine; 166 times), the

17

Hom. in Jer. 14.14 (GCS 6); Comm. in Mt. 15.2,24 (GCS 40.352 and 4212).

the notion

APOSTOLIKOS

47

didaskala or the ddagma or the didgmata (the Christian doctrine;

204 times), the nmoi or kannew (the rules of the Church; also 204
cases), and in the rst place the pstiw (the Christian faith; 279
times).
Quite often postolikw is joined to another adjective, kayolikw,
catholic, universal, concerning the whole Christianity, orthodox.
In this way the orthodoxy wants to oppose itself to the heretical
movements. However, these heresies also appeal to the apostolic tradition. Thus there is one heresy which feels very strongly about its
apostolic character and which therefore is called Apostoliko; it is
a sect which wants to get rid of all earthly, all material things in a
radical waywhence they are also called Apotaktiko, those who
give up all things and live a very severe ascetic life.18
For the same reasons the Church is often characterized as apostolic, because it was founded by the apostles and because it continues and preserves the tradition and the doctrine of the apostles;
we can give here 253 examples. And here too postolikw is often
combined with the quality kayolikw (in 179 times of these 253
places). To add more weight to this thought the indications to yeo
(of God) and ga or givtth (holy or very holy) are often
added. Thus we read in innumerable conciliar texts and in confessions of faith something which must have been a sort of standard
formula, with an invariable sequence of words: ga to yeo kayolik
ka postolik kklhsa. The same recurs with the term yrnow
(throne, chair of a bishop, a metropolitan or a patriarch; 179
records); less usual in this context is the combination with kaydra,
which has the same meaning as yrnow.
Very frequently the notion of apostolicity is used for those kklhsai
or yrnoi of which the roots go back to the apostles, they say, because
they were founded by an apostle. The fact that one of the disciples
of Christ had preached there for the rst time, makes these churches
feel superior to others.
Here we encounter a fundamental distinction between Western
and Eastern Christianity. In the West the pope and the Church of
Rome will quickly be called apostolic; this apostolic origin is willingly used, for example by papal legates on their visits to the East
18
See Epiphanius of Salamis Panarion 61.1.18.5 (GCS 31.3809), and also John
of Damascus Liber de haeresibus 61 (ed. B. Kotter [Patristische Texte und Studien
22; Berlin 1981] 36).

48

peter van deun

and this already from the fourth century ad on. In the East the situation is completely dierent. In the beginning the apostolic character of the ve patriarchs will not be used or only with great reserve.
There are dierent reasons for this. First there is the prominent role
of the emperor in ecclesiastical matters, so that the idea of an apostolic church remained in the background for a long time. In addition there is the fact that the Church in the East, much more than
in the West, will organize itself in accordance with the civil structures of the old Roman Empire; so some dioceses, like that of
Alexandria, present themselves as more important and mightier than
others; this has nothing to do with a possible apostolic foundation,
only with the fact that the city in civil context already took a leading role. It is only from the seventh century ad that the notion of
apostolicity really becomes general in the Christian East.
It must be noted here that thinking about the notion postolikw
is not just a game of words, but that this adjective is really important for the history of the Church in the East. Let us evoke very
briey two examples illustrating this importance. First of all there is
the well-known legend of the apostle Andrew, the rst-called disciple of Christ (prvtklhtow); he brought Christianity to Thracia and
Constantinople, as can be read in sources from the fourth-fth century ad on; the idea of apostolicity played an important part in the
acceptance of Constantinople as the fth patriarchate of the Church.19
The second example concerns the independence, the autocephaly,
of the Church of Cyprus. The Cypriote Church had to defend itself
against the claims of the patriarchate of Antioch. Under the reign
of the emperor Zeno the dispute was revived by the patriarch Peter
the Fuller who said that the Church of Cyprus was converted from
Antioch. Our legendary sources tell us that the Cypriots then found
a con containing the remains of Saint Barnabas. Legendary or not,
the fact is that the claim of Antioch was rejected, because it was
now clear that Cyprus was an apostolic foundation, securing in this
way its autocephaly.20
19

For all the details, see the book of Dvornik (n. 1).
In this note I have gathered all the literature concerning this question:
J. Hackett, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus from the Coming of the Apostles Paul
and Barnabas to the Commencement of the British Occupation (A.D. 45A.D. 1878) together with
some Account of the Latin and other Churches existing in the Island (London 1901) 1333;
archimandrite Chrysostomos, O Ayhnaikw kdij tn Praktikn tw g Okoumenikw
Sundou ka t atokfalon Ekklhsaw tw Kprou, Praktik tw Akadhmaw
20

the notion

APOSTOLIKOS

49

3. Apostolic times
A third and last part of this article will be devoted to the question
whether or not, and to what extent the notion of an apostolic era,
of apostolic times, postoloko xrnoi, lived in the Greek Patristic
times and in Byzantium. A quick survey showed that this question
must receive an armative answer. But one thing is clear also: the
material at our disposal is not very large; we have found only 20
records of the adjective postolikw in combination with xrnow or
xrnoi, and another 14 places where xrnow or xrnoi are used with
the plural genitive tn postlvn. In most of the cases we nd the
plural xrnoi. This reference to an apostolic era is absent in our oldest Greek Christian texts; the rst records can only be read in the
Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius of Caesarea.21
What information does this scant material contain? Nothing shocking, one will note! Some texts discuss individuals like Clement of
Alexandria and Apollinaris of Hierapolis who temporally do not stand
far from apostolic times.22 Another source speaks about a Church
custom, i.e. the genuection (the gonuklisa), which dates from the
time of the apostles.23 The roots of Christian religion are in apostolic times, as Epiphanius of Salamis explicitly indicates.24 Eusebius
Ayhnn 8 1933 5966; G. Hill, History of Cyprus, i, To the Conquest by Richard Lion
Heart (Cambridge 1940) 2739; I. P. Panagiotakos, T atokfalon tw Agivtthw
Apostolikw Ekklhsaw tw Kprou, Arxeon Ekklhsiastiko ka Kanoniko
Dikaou 12 1957 6573; E. Morini, Apostolicit ed autocefalia in una Chiesa orientale: la leggenda di S. Barnaba e lautonomia dellarcivescovato di Cipro nelle
fonti dei secoli V e VI, Studi e Ricerche sullOriente Cristiano 2 1979 2345;
P. Van Deun, in Hagiographica Cypria (CCSG 26) 1521.
21
H.E. 2.14.3; 3.31.6.
22
See e.g. the Chronicon Paschale (CPG 7960): PG 80C1012 (Apollinriow d
sitatow pskopow Ieraplevw tw Asaw, ggw tn postolikn xrnvn gegonw)
and 81A1113 (Klmhw sitatow Alejandrvn kklhsaw gegonw erew, nr
rxaitatow ka o makrn tn postolikn genmenow xrnvn).
23
See e.g. the quaestio et responsio CXXVI of Pseudo-Theodoretus (CPG 6285), in
the edition of A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Yeodvrtou piskpou plevw Krrou
prw tw penexyesaw at pervtseiw par tinow tn j Agptou piskpvn
pokrseiw (St. Petersburg 1895) 11718.
24
Panarion 73.2.11 (GCS 37.2701): tn k tn postolikn xrnvn . . . paradoyesan . . . pstin. From apostolic times, the Church has given the opportunity to
have knowledge of the mysteries of faith: see the Per tw prthw to yeo latreaw
of Gennadius Scholarius, the rst patriarch of Constantinople after the fall of the
Byzantine Empire (ed. L. Petit, X. A. Siderids, and M. Jugie, uvres compltes de
Gennade Scholarios, iv [Paris 1935] 237.36238.2: Ekklhsaw . . . tw k tn postolikn xrnvn xri ka nn ka vw tw sunteleaw t k yeo kubernsei per tn tw
pstevw musthrvn tn dcan tn filomayn potizoshw).

50

peter van deun

tells us that many Jews joined the teachings of Christ in apostolic

times.25 In some other sources one can read that theological rows
and schisms already started in apostolic times.26
All these texts say little about the meaning and the boundaries of
these apostolic times. Only in the Generalis elementaria introductio (CPG
3475), a work of Pseudo-Eusebius Caesariensis, does it become clear
that with apostolic times is meant a period of 70 years,27 without
doubt the period which runs until the destruction of the temple in
the year 70 ad.28

25
Commentarius in Isaiam 41.9 (GCS, Eusebius Werke, IX.261.1315): pollo gr
san kat tow postolikow xrnouw o p Ioudavn tn Xristo lgon paradedegmnoi, o mnon p tw Ioudaaw gw ll ka n tow loipow ynesin.
26
See e.g. Severian in his commentary on the Letters of Paul, especially on II
Thess. 2.68 (CPG 4219) (ed. K. Staab, Pauluskommentare aus der griechischen Kirche: Aus
Katenenhandschriften gesammelt und herausgegeben [Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen 15;
Mnster i.W. 1933 = 1984] 334.257: ti ka rxn dh elhfe t mustrion tw
nomaw, peid kat tow xrnouw tow postolikow ka sxsmata ka arseiw
gegnasin. The same thought can be read in Socrates Historia Ecclesiastica 5.22.65
(GCS N.F. 1): Oti d eyw p tn postolikn xrnvn polla diafvnai di t
toiata gnonto.
27
PG 22.1189D91192A1: tathn gr ew tn n deksin bdomda metalabn
lgow parsth tn smpanta tn postlvn xrnon ew bdomhkontaetan suntenein,
n t krugma tw kainw diaykhw okti n, ll pollow ynesi khruxyn ew
psan nedunamyh tn okoumnhn.
28
I should like to express my thanks to my wife Patricia and to Peter Van Dessel
who have helped with the translation of my paper.

MIRACLES RECALLING THE APOSTOLIC AGE

Jan den Boeft
Ambroses hymn Grates tibi, Iesu, nouas reects the discovery and the
translatio of the mortal remains of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius
in June 386. His prose report on the course of events, including his
two sermons, can be found in Epistula 77 Zelzer, addressed to his
sister Marcellina. The hymn summarizes these events in the typically succinct style of lyrical poetry. Its nal stanza (2932) is crucial for our theme, the signicance of the aetas apostolica:
Vetusta saecla uidimus,
iactata semicinctia
tactuque et umbra corporum
aegris salutem redditam.

We saw the olden times: there cannot be any doubt which times
are meant here. In the nal two stanzas of the hymn Ambrose
describes what the people in the streets of Milan had witnessed. In
this description he uses a few phrases and words which obviously
refer to the passages in the book of Acts in which the healings
wrought by the Apostles Peter and Paul are reported. These clear
reminiscences imply that in the perception of the lyrical poet we
saw the past: the aetas apostolica was visible for our eyes and we saw
that the sick regained their well-being, a characteristic of those
days.1
Of course, Ambrose was fully right in this. Miracles are an integrating part of both Jesus activities, as these are described in the

1
See for a description and a stimulating interpretation of the episode Neil B.
McLynn, Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital (Berkeley 1994)
21118. The following parallels deserve to be noted: 27 emissa totis urbibusconcurrebat et multitudo conjunctarum ciuitatum in Jerusalem (Acts 5.16 Sabatier), 30 semicinctia
simiknyia (19.12), 31 tactuque et umbra corporum5.15 and 19.11. See further the
relevant notes in my Vetusta saecla uidimus: Ambroses Hymn on Protasius and
Gervasius, in G. J. M. Bartelink, A. Hilhorst, and C. H. Kneepkens (eds.), Eulogia:
Mlanges oerts Antoon A. R. Bastiaensen (Instrumenta Patristica 24; Steenbrugge 1991)
6575.

52

jan den boeft

Gospels, and the period following his Passion, Resurrection and

Ascension. Two quotations from the Pauline corpus may suce here.
In Rom. 15.1819 Paul mentions all that kateirgsato Xristw di
mo ew pakon ynn, lg ka rg, n dunmei shmevn ka tertvn,
n dunmei pnematow, what Christ has done through me to bring
the Gentiles into his allegiance, by word and deed, by the power of
signs and portents, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and in 1 Thess.
1.5 he emphasizes that t eagglion mn ok genyh ew mw n
lg mnon ll ka n dunmei ka n pnemati g ka plhrofor&
poll, we did not bring you the gospel in mere words but in the
power of the Holy Spirit and with strong conviction.2 The dnamiw

of the apostle does not only manifest itself in his rhetorical power
of persuasion, but also in his deeds or rather his shmea.
Miracles as a missionary instrument
In the so-called long ending of the Gospel of Mark (16.920) the
fact that the verbal message, the faith of those who believe it and
miracles are fully interlaced is explicitly formulated. The resurrected
Lord assigns the apostles the task to preach the gospel. Then this
will happen: shmea d tow pistesasin tata parakolouysei: n t
nmat mou daimnia kbalosin, glssaiw lalsousin kainaw, feiw
rosin kn yansimn ti pvsin o m atow blc, p rrstouw
xeraw piysousin ka kalw jousin, faith will bring with it these
miracles: believers will drive out demons in my name and speak in
strange tongues; if they handle snakes or drink any deadly poison,
they will come to no harm; and the sick on whom they lay their
hands will recover (Mark 16.1718). The rst, second and fth items
of the series are quite familiar: exorcism, glossolalia and healing
respectively. Handling snakes, however, and drinking deadly poison

2
I doubt whether this rendering of the last two words in the version of the
Revised English Bible is correct. A translation in this vein is indeed current, cf. in
voller Gewissheit in the relevant lemma of the sixth edition of Bauers standard
dictionary, with full conviction in Dankers third edition of its English translation.
See, however, C. Spicq, Notes de lecture no-testamentaire, ii (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis
22/2; Fribourg and Gttingen 1978) 707: abondance de toute sorte, and S. Alkier,
Wunder und Wirklichkeit in den Briefen des Apostels Paulus: Ein Beitrag zu einem Wunderverstndnis
jenseits von Entmythologisierung und Rehistorisierung (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum
Neuen Testament 2.134; Tbingen 2001) 103: die hchste Flle.

miracles recalling the apostolic age

53

without fatal consequences pose some problems which even James

Kelhoer has not been able to solve entirely in his huge recent
monograph on Mark 16.920.3 For our present purpose this is less
important, in any case less interesting than the possible origin of the
passage. In his thorough analysis of the entire passage Kelhoer
develops the hypothesis that it was composed by a single author
between AD 120 and 150. If this is correct, we may conclude that
at least one second century author who, as Kelhoer shows, was
intimately familiar with the canonical Gospels, saw an intrinsic relation between word and miracles. It is, however, remarkable that the
author does not reserve these miracles for authoritative persons, as
seems the case in the Pauline corpus; cf. 2 Cor. 12.12 t mn shmea
to postlou kateirgsyh n mn n ps pomon, shmeoiw te ka
trasin ka dunmesin, the signs of an apostle were there in the work
I did among you, marked by unfailing endurance, by signs, portents,
and miracles.4
In his Christianizing the Roman Empire Ramsay MacMullen regards
miracles as a vital part of the various strategies of rival religious
groups: . . . the Apostles success in winning recruits arose from their
deeds, above all, in healing. This was indispensable in view of the
current worldview of the citizens of the Roman Empire: They . . .
took miracles quite for granted. That was the general starting point.
Not to believe in them would have made you seem more than odd,
simply irrational.5 Indeed, as soon as we overlook that people were
ready to believe events which were dierent from ordinary everyday
experience, we deprive ourselves of all possibility to understand their
mentality and reactions. Exorcism is only trustworthy in a society
which is convinced of the existence and inuence of demons. And
looking through the abundant testimonies about the healings wrought

3
James A. Kelhoer, Miracle and Mission: The Authentication of Missionaries and Their
Message in the Longer Ending of Mark (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen
Testament 2.112; Tbingen 2000). This admirable study contains a wealth of information on primary material and relevant scholarly literature. See 41116 on the
modern phenomenon of snake-handling in certain contemporary Christian Churches
of the American South.
4
Paulinisches Christentum ohne Gottes Wunder ist nicht mehr paulinisches
Christentum (Alkier [n. 2]) 306.
5
Yale University Press 1984, 22. See for an entirely dierent study of the growth
of early Christianity Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders
History (Princeton 1996).

54

jan den boeft

by Asklepios in the course of time, one cannot but conclude that a

religious movement which was unable to oer such proofs of divine
power would be in for a dicult time. In his famous Die Mission und
Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten,6 Adolf von
Harnack had noticed this too, for example in the chapter he devoted
to the struggle against the demons: . . . die Beschwrung war ein
sehr wichtiges Mittel der Mission und Propaganda, and he concludes: Das war keine blasse Theorie, sondern lebendigste Anschauung
(156). Indeed! However, the authors own sympathy went into a
dierent direction: Wenn die alten Christen die Beweise des Geistes
und der Kraft ins Auge fassten, so haben die hher stehenden unter
ihnen das unter dem Gesichtspunkt der sittlichen und religisen
Wirkungen getan: um dieses Erfolges willen sind sie der Kirche
geschenkt (226).
In religious controversies extraordinary feats tended to be judged
in divergent ways: that which in the eyes of one party was a specimen of salutary divinely inspired power, was regarded as no more
than an abject magic trick by the other. Philostratus wrote his extensive biography of Apollonius of Tyana to combat the false impression that this omnicompetent wise and divinely inspired man owed
his astonishing capacities to such a discreditable thing as magical
technique. This biography has nothing to do with any polemics
against Christianity; in fact, it received such a status only, when
Hierocles around 300 used it in his aggressive anti-Christian Lover of
Truth.7 So Philostratus biography clearly shows that such apologetics were also needed outside the conicts between pagans and

Leipzig 19244.
In his famous monograph Apollonius of Tyana und Christus (Leipzig 1876 =
Hildesheim 1966) F. C. Baur defends such a view about Philostratus objectives: es
darf von dem Plane seines Werkes die Absicht nicht ausgeschlossen werden, den
weisen Apollonius von Tyana Christus zur Seite zu stellen (120). Baur admits that
the biographer never mentions Christianity and does not refer to it in any clear
manner either, but this had a reason: Um seinen Gegenstand rein objektiv zu
behandeln, vermied er jede Erwhnung des Christenthums (121). See for a recent
assessment of Philostratus biography as an apology for the Greek way of life
S. Swain, Defending Hellenism: Philostratus, In Honour of Apollonius, in M. J. Edwards,
M. Goodman, and S. R. F. Price (eds.), Apologetics in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1999)
15796, and for a summary of recent discussions on Hierocles and the author of
the so-called Contra Hieroclem, usually ascribed to Eusebius of Caesarea, T. Hgg,
Hierocles the Lover of Truth and Eusebius the Sophist, Symbolae Osloenses 67 1992
13850.
7

miracles recalling the apostolic age

55

Christians. An example of their controversy can be found in Justins

Second Apology, 6.56: Ka nn k tn p cin ginomnvn mayen dnasye.
Daimoniolptouw gr pollow kat pnta tn ksmon ka n t metr&
plei pollo tn metrvn nyrpvn, tn Xristiann, porkzontew kat
to nmatow Ihso Xristo, to staurvyntow p Pontou Piltou,
p tn llvn pntvn porkistn ka p&stn ka farmakeutn m
ayntaw, santo ka ti nn ntai, katargontew ka kdikontew tow
katxontaw tow nyrpouw damonaw, Even now you can perceive this

in what is happening under your own eyes. Throughout the entire

world and in your city many who were possessed by demons were
healed by many of our men, Christians, who exorcize the demons
in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucied under Pontius Pilatus.
They are still healing those who were not healed by all the other
exorcists, enchanters and sorcerers, and they eliminated and banished the demons who possess human beings.
Irenaeus, on the other hand, focusses on heretical Christian groups.
In his judgment of the supporters of Simon Magus and Carpocrates,
who are said to perform uirtutes, he argues that in their case one
merely nds error and deceit, because they avail themselves of magic
manipulation. Neque enim caecis possunt donare uisum, neque surdis auditum, neque omnes daemones eugare, praeter eos qui ab ipsis immittuntur
(Irenaeus Adversus haereses 2.31.2), they are unable to give sight to
the blind or the power of hearing to the deaf nor can they drive
away the demons apart from those they send themselves. On the
other hand, Christs followers are in a position to perform salutary
actions: alii autem laborantes aliqua inrmitate per manus impositionem curant
et sanos restituunt; iam etiam, quemadmodum diximus, et mortui resurrexerunt
et perseuerauerunt nobiscum annis multis (ib. 2.32.4), others heal those
who are suering from some ailment by laying their hands on the
patients and restore their health; even better, as I mentioned already:
dead resurrected and went on to live many years among us.
As could be expected, miracles are conspicuous in the attack on
Christianity launched by Celsus and Origens counter attack. The
latter is convinced that miracles are indispensable: Ok n gr xvrw
dunmevn ka paradjvn knoun tow kainn lgvn ka kainn mayhmtvn koontaw prw t katalipen mn t ptria, paradjasyai d
met kindnvn tn mxri yantou t totvn maymata. Ka ti xnh to
gou kenou pnematow, fyntow n edei peristerw, par Xristianow
szetai jepdousi damonaw ka pollw seiw pitelosi ka rs
tina kat t bolhma to lgou per mellntvn (Origen Contra Celsum

56

jan den boeft

1.46), For without miracles and wonders they would not have persuaded those who heard new doctrines and new teachings to leave
their traditional religion and to accept the apostles teachings at the
risk of their lives. Traces of that Holy Spirit who appeared in the
form of a dove are still preserved among Christians. They charm
demons away and perform many cures and perceive certain things
about the future according to the will of the Logos (translation Henry
Chadwick). The general worldview, shared by pagans and Christians,
is explicitly brought into the discussion by Origen in the following
interesting passage: Pardoja d prgmata tow nyrpoiw pifanesya
pote ka tn Ellnvn strhsan o mnon o ponohyntew n w muyopoiontew ll ka o n pol pideijmenoi gnhsvw filosofen ka
filalyvw ktyesyai t ew atow fysanta (ib. 5.57), Some Greeks

have also related that miraculous events have been seen by men;
and these tales are not told only by those who might be suspected
of inventing legends, but even by those who have shown in many
ways that they are genuine philosophers, and who give an honest
account of the stories which have come to their ears (tr. H. Chadwick).
So according to Origen it would be unthinkable that those who have
proved to be devoted to God and are ready to suer martyrdom
cannot be trusted when reporting such miracles.
The end of the era of miracles?
There is every reason to regard Justin and Origen as important witnesses of their own time. Precisely for this reason it is somewhat disturbing that the passages in their writings which deal with our subject
seem to be few and far between and moreover put in general terms.
Specic cases are hardly mentioned.8 Would this mean that in their
experience such events rarely happened? There is an interesting passage in book 7 of Contra Celsum, in which Origen says that in Jesus
days signs of the Holy Spirit were manifest and that they even
increased in number (pleona) after his Ascension, though they became
lttona afterwards. All the same: ka nn ti xnh stn ato par

8
I am fully aware of the role of miracles in the various apocryphal Acts. However,
for my present purpose it seems prudent to concentrate on information which was
regarded as reliable by authoritative writers with an ecclesiastical status.

miracles recalling the apostolic age

57

lgoiw, tw cuxw t lg ka taw kat atn prjesi kekayarmnoiw

(ib. 7.8), even to this day there are traces of him in a few people
whose souls have been puried by the Logos and by the actions
which follow his teaching (tr. H. Chadwick). In Eusebius Church
History one can nd a similar observation: having quoted from Irenaeus
2.32, the chapter referred to above, he concludes with these words:
Tata ka per to diaforw xarismtvn mxri ka tn dhloumnvn
xrnvn par tow joiw diamenai (5.7.6), So much on the point that

a variety of gifts remained among the worthy up till the time spoken of (translation Kirsopp Lake). Both Origen and Eusebius seem
to imply that miraculous events which still took place in the second
century were now something of the past. Their view is, however,
not shared by Cyprian, who in his Ad Donatum stresses that the Spirit
is still owing forth in abundance, with clear results: facultas datur . . .
in medellam dolentium posse uenenorum uirus extinguere, animorum desipientium
labes reddita sanitate purgare . . . inmundos et erraticos spiritus, qui se expugnandis hominibus inmerserint, ad confessionem minis increpantibus cogere, ut
recedant duris uerberibus urguere (5), Power is given to annihilate the
venom of poisons in order to heal the sick, to clean the dirty spots
in irrational souls by restoring their health, to force the unclean and
wandering spirits, who have intruded in men and plan to capture
them, to confess their guilt, and to urge them by pitiless ogging to
withdraw. Nevertheless, the words of Origen and Eusebius are
remarkable. Could it be that a gradual change of the spiritual climate had taken place and that moral values now took prime place
in shaping Christian identity? In this respect it also deserves to be
noticed that the authentic martyrs documents do not refer to miracles.
Perhaps these facts are harbingers of the idea that the typical signs
of the apostolic age were now no longer needed. This idea can be
found in a number of late fourth century writings. In his explanation of 1 Cor. 12.31: But I can show you an even better way, the
anonymous author who has been called Ambrosiaster by the Maurini
quotes some sections from the Gospels which according to him show
very clearly that expelling demons and similar feats are no human
merits. So the question arises why people nowadays do not have this
divine gift. The authors answer is striking indeed: Inter initia eri oportuit ut fundamenta dei acciperent rmitatem. Nunc autem non opus est quia
populus populum adducit ad dem, cum uidentur eorum bona opera et praedicatio simplex (Ambrosiaster Ad Cor. prima 12.31), In the beginning miracles were indispensable for giving faith a rm foundation. This

58

jan den boeft

necessity does no longer exist, since men persuade one another to

accept the faith, when their good works are seen as well as the
straightforward message. Augustine defends a similar idea: divine
authority moves us in two ways: partim miraculis, partim sequentium multitudine, partly by miracles, partly by the large number of those who
follow divine authority. In olden times this availed itself of miracles
to reach people, but as soon as miracles become too common, they
fail to make any impression. Facta sunt igitur illa opportunissime, ut his
multitudine credentium congregata atque propagata, in ipsos mores utilis conuerteretur auctoritas (Augustine De utilitate credendi 16.34), The miracles of
those days were particularly opportune: they gathered and increased
a mass of believers and the divine authority could turn itself to ethics,
with a salutary result. Shortly before he had defended a similar view
from a dierent angle: Cum enim ecclesia catholica per totum orbem diusa
atque fundata sit, nec miracula illa in nostra tempora durare permissa sunt, ne
anima semper uisibilia quaereret et eorum consuetudine frigesceret genus humanum
quorum nouitate agrauit (De vera religione 47), As we all know (enim), the
catholic church has been diused and founded all over the world,
and therefore those miracles are not allowed to continue. Otherwise
the soul might keep seeking the visible and get used to that, losing
the glow which it had shown when miracles were a novelty. John
Chrysostom too plays down the importance of miracles: Ka n tow
makarismow d odamo t yamata poiontaw tyhsi, ll tow bon
xontaw ryn (De compunctione ad Demetrium 8), and in the Beatitudes
he nowhere allots a place to those who perform miracles, he only
mentions those who lead a correct life. In a passage of his treatise
on priesthood he says:
E gr ka t yamata fntew, p tn bon lyoimen to makarou ka tn
politean jetsaimen ato tn ggelikn, ka n tat mllon n tow
shmeoiw cei niknta tn ylhtn to Xristo (De sacerdotio 4.6).

If we would only leave out miracles and concentrate on the life of the
blessed man and examine his angelic conduct, you would be aware
that Christs athlete was victorious by this way of life rather than by
his signs.

Miracles in the ascetic movement and the cult of the saints

The similarity between these passages of three leading late antique
ecclesiastical authorities is obvious. Of course, in their eyes the real-

miracles recalling the apostolic age

59

ity and the value of the New Testament miracles is beyond doubt.
In the apostles time they were indispensable, but now they have
concluded their salutary service. Christians have to demonstrate their
faith by their irreproachable conduct. Yet the idea that miracles were
something of the past is quite astonishing for anyone who has the
two great movements of the fourth century in mind, asceticism and
the cult of the saints. As to the former, the inuential Life of Anthony
contains several healings by the holy man, who stipulates: to Svtrw
stin yerapea (Athanasius Vita Antonii 58.4), It is the Saviour who
achieves the cure. In a fascinating section of the biography (ch.
7280) Anthony is engaged in a debate with two pagan philosophers.
He explains that they operate with syllogisms and rhetoric, whereas
the Christian nds support in a faith which is operational: nergw
stin pstiw mn (ib. 78.2). In ch. 80 this is put to the test. A few
men who are possessed by demons have arrived on the spot. Who
will be able to make them clean? The philosophers with their accomplishments? Of course not! Only Anthony proves to be in a position to bring this about, to the amazement of his interlocutors: t
yaumzete p tot; ok smn mew o poiontew, ll Xristw stin,
di tn ew atn pisteuntvn tata poin (ib. 80.6), why are you
amazed at this? We are not doing this, it is Christ, who acts through
those who believe in him. That is precisely the view held by the
author of the long ending of the Gospel of Mark! One can only
wonder why Augustine in 390 proclaimed the end of the era of miracles. Had not he read the Vita Antonii himself and was he only
aware of the existence of this much read biography from Ponticianus
report in 386?9
Some seven years after Augustine had given miracles his notice
Sulpicius Severus wrote his brilliant biography of Martin of Tours,
with ample attention to his struggle against the demons and his healings.10 Curationum uero tam potens in eo gratia erat, ut nullus fere ad eum
aegrotus accesserit, qui non continuo receperit sanitatem (Sulpicius Severus

9
See Augustine Confessiones 8.14: ortus est sermo ipso narrante de Antonio Aegyptio monacho, cuius nomen excellenter clarebat apud seruos tuos, nos autem usque in illam horam latebat.
In 8.15 Ponticianus reports that during a walk near the walls of Treves two agentes
in rebus inuenisse ibi codicem, in quo scripta erat uita Antonii.
10
The Vita and the three Epistulae are available in J. Fontaines edition with an
extensive introduction and commentary (SC 1335). For the Dialogi one has to turn
to C. Halms edition of Sulpicius Severus Opera (CSEL 1).

jan den boeft

60

Vita Martini 16.1), the charisma of healing was so strong in him that
hardly any sick person came to him without immediately regaining
his health. Fontaine ad loc. refers to 1 Cor. 12.28 xarsmata amtvn,
gratias curationum. In Sulpicius Severus account of Martins career
many phrases are reminiscent of the miracles performed by Jesus
and the apostles. In the introduction of his edition with commentary Fontaine summarizes Martins salutary activities in this way: La
lutte contre Satan y prend le tour beaucoup plus vanglique contre le mal physique et le mal spirituel. In the Vita Martini miracles
are not a phenomenon of the past, but a feature of the holy mans
career in fourth century Gaul: nullum uacuum ab opere Dei tempus (Vita
Martini 26.2).
The fourth century witnessed the opening of another source of
holy energy beside the one which manifested itself in the great ascetics,
such as Anthony and Martin. The veneration of the martyrs and
the celebration of their dies natalis had been introduced before, but
now the power which was present in their bones became more and
more visible. Reporting the defeat of the devil, Hilary of Poitiers
mentions this: ueneranda ossa cottidie testimonio sunt, dum in his daemones
mugiunt, dum aegritudines depelluntur (Hilarius Contra Constantium 8), the
venerable bones bear witness to this every day, when the demons
are bellowing and ailments are driven away. In 386 Augustine had
witnessed it himself; during the translatio of the remains of Gervasius
and Protasius those quos inmundi uexabant spiritus confessis eisdem daemonibus sanabantur (Confessiones 9.16), who were plagued by unclean
spirits, were restored to health, a fact which was acknowledged by
the very demons, and a Milanese man who had been blind for years
got his eyesight back. Were miracles something of the past? Paulinus
of Nola would have been astonished, and when Paula travelled
through the Holy Land in 385 she heard the howling of demons
who were tormented near the graves of Old Testament prophets.11
In 415 the grave of the protomartyr Stephen was discovered and
soon relics of this saint were transported to Africa. Healings followed.
Judging by the fascinating chapter 8 of the 22nd book of De civitate
Dei, this was the origin of Augustines conversion. He now concludes that miracles are still happening. They are, however, far less
known than those in the Bible, which after all is read everywhere,

11

Jerome Ep. 108.4.

miracles recalling the apostolic age

61

whereas miracles tend to be known only in their local surroundings.

He then continues with a series of twenty-two accounts, mainly of
healings, thirteen of which have something to do with Stephen. One
is reminded of the impressive stelai in Asklepios sanctuary at
Epidauros.12 These contained a large number of inscriptions registering the healings wrought by the god. Augustine says that he had
ordered to compose collections of healings in Hippo and Calama.
At the time of writing he had some seventy reports (libelli ) at his
disposal. Why did he take such measures? Id namque eri uoluimus, cum
uideremus antiquis similia diuinarum signa uirtutum etiam nostris temporibus
frequentari et ea non debere multorum notitiae deperire (De civitate Dei 22.8.21),
I wanted this to be done, when I saw that miraculous signs which
resembled those of olden days were also occurring frequently in our
times and these ought not be lost to the knowledge of many.
The apostolic age has returned
Antiquis similia diuinarum signa uirtutum: the mere words make the reader
return to the apostolic time with its shmea and dunmeiw. Past and
present are not wide apart: Fiunt ergo etiam nunc multa miracula eodem
Deo faciente per quos uult et quem ad modum uult, qui et illa quae legimus
fecit (ib. 22.8.22), At present, too, many miracles are taking place.
They are being wrought by the same God who wrought those about
which we read, using the men and the methods he wants.13 Similia,
eodem: these words express the identity of past and present. The cult
12
See for a recent scholarly treatment of these invaluable testimonies Lynn R.
LiDonnici, The Epidaurian Miracle Inscriptions: Text, Translation and Commentary (Atlanta
1995). The stelai were probably on view inside the abaton, the hall in which the
patients slept awaiting Asklepios arrival and cure in their dreams. It is likely that
an important function of the display and preservation of the Iamata . . . was to
heighten the suppliants expectations and to pre-condition them for dreaming
properly miraculous dreams (18). Mutatis mutandis, this is not unlike Augustines
aims.
13
In Retractationes 1.13.7 Augustine deals explicitly with the words quoted above
from De vera religione 47. He does not recant what he had said (uerum est quidem), but
adds that this was true for some miracles, such as xenolalia and healing the sick ad
umbram transeuntium praedicatorum, obviously referring to Acts 2.111 and 5.15 respectively. He next assures not to have overlooked the numerous miracles which occurred
in his own time. It is not the most satisfactory page in the Retractationes. See Rowan
A. Greer, The Fear of Freedom: A Study of Miracles in the Roman Imperial Church (Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1989) 171 and Gerald ODaly, Augustines City of God: A
Readers Guide (Oxford 1999) 2278.

62

jan den boeft

of the saints had revived the past. There was no essential dierence
between the aetas apostolica and late antiquity. Ambrose had reached
this conclusion some thirty-ve years before. One can understand
this. The Milanese bishop may have been Augustines inferior intellectually, but he combined the organizational talent of an experienced
manager with the perception of a lyrical poet: uetusta saecla uidimus.

LITURGY ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE APOSTLES

Gerard Rouwhorst
Rituals are closely connected with tradition. People who take part
in rituals tend to believe that their origins reach back to a remote
past and have remained more or less unchanged over the centuries.
Whether this belief can stand the test of critical historical research
or notvery often it cannot, there is no doubt that ritual traditions owe their authority for a considerable part to their aura of
antiquity. Their prestige will increase further when these rituals are
believed to originate in a period which not only belongs to a distant
past, but is also regarded as foundational and therefore particularly
authoritative. The belief in the power of rituals will be strengthened
even further when it is coupled with the conviction that authoritative persons have instituted these rituals.
No doubt these phenomena have also played an important role
in the history of Christian liturgy. Throughout the centuries we
encounter Christian groups and Christian leaders defending and legitimising liturgical customs by appealing both to authoritative persons
and to authoritative and foundational periods. As for the appeal to
authoritative persons living in the period of the origins, two types
of argumentation may be distinguished here. Firstly, ritual traditions
have been traced back to Christ himself. In case this proved not to
be possiblefor example because such an idea could not be made
plausible on the basis of the Gospels, often an alternative strategy
was adopted. It consisted of attributing the origins of certain ritual
practices to the apostles or otherwise to persons who had lived in a
close relationship with them or had been their successors. The notion
of apostolic authority misses the cogent persuasiveness of the idea of
the institution by Christ Himself. On the other hand, it has the
advantage of being more open-ended and, therefore, leaving more
possibilities to ones own imagination. In fact, there were twelve apostles and the information the canonical New Testament provides about
most of them, is extremely scarce. Moreover, precisely the fact that
the authority of the apostles was less absolute than that of Christ
Himself, may have made its appeal easier and, in addition, ecclesiastical

64

gerard rouwhorst

authorities may have been less concerned about combating claims

of apostolic authority which were dubious or even dangerous in their
eyes. In this regard, one may point to the fact that in early Christianity,
apocryphal Acts of the Apostles were tolerated for a longer period
than non-canonical Gospels.
There is no doubt that this process has already started in early
Christianity. This is, for instance, testied by the numerous church
orders which, at least from a certain period onward, were ascribed
to the apostles and deal for a considerable part with issues closely
related to liturgy.1 However, many other early Christian sources
might be adduced here as examples as well.2
The question may then be raised how the process of underpinning liturgical traditions by apostolic authority has developed in the
early church. When did it start? Which were the rituals that were
preferably attributed to the apostles? What theological and political
factors played a role in this process? What strategies did it reect?
How was it related to the development of Christian communities,
which sought to establish their identity by several means but in particular also by their rituals?
The best way to discuss these kinds of questions is not to deal
with them in a generalising wayby talking about early Christian
liturgy as a whole, but rather to start from concrete examples.
Among the rituals that might be selected for that aim, probably the
most intriguing one is the celebration of Christian Passover. It is
interesting for several reasons. Firstly, it played a central part in the
life of early Christian communities and it is highly illustrative of their
religious beliefs. Furthermore, celebrating it in the right way was
considered by many early Christians as vital to their identity. Second,
during the rst three or four centuries it underwent a remarkable
development.3 It started as a celebration held on the date of the
1
See for instance B. Steimer, Vertex traditionis (Berlin and New York 1992), especially 33663; G. Schllgen, Pseudapostolizitt und Schriftgebrauch in den ersten
Kirchenordnungen: Anmerkungen zur Begrndung des frhen Kirchenrechts, in
G. Schllgen and C. Scholten (eds.), Stimuli: Exegese und ihre Hermeneutik in Antike und
Christentum: Festschrift fr Ernst Dassmann ( Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum, Ergnzungsband 23; Mnster 1996) 96121.
2
I will limit myself here to pointing to a number of anaphoras attributed to the
apostles, such as the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, the Syriac Anaphora of the Twelve
Apostles. See A. Hnggi and I. Pahl, Prex eucharistica (Spicilegium Friburgense 12;
Fribourg 1968).
3
See, for instance T. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year (New York 1986) 178.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

65

Jewish Pesach, i.e., in the night from the 14th to the 15th Nisan.
Quite soon, however, the Quartodeciman Passover was supplanted
by one based on the chronology of the Passion as encountered in
the Gospel, which meant that the Christian Passover was celebrated
on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In the fourth century, the celebration has almost everywhere expanded to a week, namely the
week of the Passion. This development went hand in hand with a
shift in the theological content of the feast. Gradually, the commemoration of the Resurrection became more clearly distinguished
from that of the death and the Passion, and the motif of the liberation from Egypt, once very prominent, was relegated to a more
secondary position. Finally, it has to be observed that all of these
developments were accompanied by continuing debates and conicts.
One of the most remarkable facets of those conicts is that the relation between minority and majority positions changed and, at the
end of the day, was even inverted. It is quite generally agreed now
that the oldest form of Christian Passover was the one celebrated
by the Quartodecimans. This group, however, would end up becoming a marginal minority. On the other hand, the celebration on a
Friday, Saturday and Sunday which came into existence in the second century as the result of a liturgical innovation, was eventually
adopted by the majority of the Christians and regarded by them as
normative. Lastly, another interesting thing about the development
of Christian Passover is that hardly any other early Christian ritual
or festival has asked for so frequent appeals to the authority of
apostles.
The question we will try to answer in this paper, will have become
clear by now. Our aim is to explore how dierent groups of Christians,
both minorities and majorities, have appealed to the authority of
apostles. What use did they make of it to legitimise their own ways
of celebrating Passover? What arguments did groups of Christians
draw from it to criticise dierent and, in their eyes, deviating practices? While elucidating these questions, we will begin with those
Christians whose paschal celebration represents the oldest stage attainable of its development, the Quartodecimans.

66

gerard rouwhorst
1. Quartodecimans invoking the authority of apostles

It is generally agreed that one of the most important and undisputed

sources for the history of Quartodecimanism is the Church History of
Eusebius of Caesarea. The fth book of this work contains a number of passages which deal with the controversy the celebration of
14/15 Nisan aroused in the second half of the second century
(5.235).4 Since this controversy is described in most publications
addressing questions related to the history of early Christian Easter,5
there is no need to mention here all the details. It will suce to
recall that the debate was between the Christians of Asia who ardently
defended the Quartodeciman practice against the custom of concluding the paschal fast on the day of the Resurrection which, at
least according to Eusebius, was followed by the then Christian world
and which in particular was favoured by Victor, the bishop of Rome,
who even wanted to go so far as to break o the community with
the Christians of Asia for that reason.
In the description of the controversy produced by Eusebius, we
encounter more than once attempts to draw argument from the
authority of one or more apostles. It should be observed immediately that the historical reliability of some of the information provided by Eusebius with respect to this point is open to discussion.
As has already been pointed out by Norbert Brox, generally speaking, those passages in which Eusebius does not quote sources but
uses his own words, should be dealt with very carefully.6 This holds
in particular true for 5.23.1 where Eusebius claims that the practice
of concluding the paschal fast on Sunday was based on apostolic
tradition. It is very questionable whether Eusebius here does not
voice his own, fourth century, view rather than that of the secondcentury adherents of Sunday Easter. We will return to that point
shortly to substantiate it further. There is, however, no reason to
doubt the reliability of the sources quoted by Eusebius. This being
established, it has to be noted that in one of these sources argument

Ed. G. Bardy (SC 41.6672).

See for instance Talley (n. 3) 1827; R. Cantalamessa, Easter in the Early Church
(Collegeville 1993) 123.
6
N. Brox, Tendenzen und Parteilichkeiten im Osterfeststreit des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Zeitschrift fr Kirchengeschichte 83 1972 291324, for instance 2912 (= id.,
Das Frhchristentum: Schriften zur historischen Theologie [Freiburg 2000] 10741 at 107).
5

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

67

is explicitly drawn from apostolic authority. This is the letter which

the Asian Quartodeciman Polycrates wrote to Victor of Rome in
order to defend the Asian custom. The source has been translated
many times, but, for the sake of convenience, we will give here once
again an English translation of the part which is most crucial for
our purpose:
For our part we keep the day scrupulously, without addition or subtraction. For Asia too holds the resting place of great luminaries, such
as will rise again on the day of the Lords parousia, when he comes
with glory from heaven and will search out all the holy ones: Philip
of the twelve apostles, who rests in Hierapolis, and his two daughters
who had grown old in virginity, and the other daughter who lived her
life in the Holy Spirit and rests in Ephesus. There is also John, the
one who leaned on the Lords breast and who became a priest wearing the insignia of holiness, both martyr and a teacher; he rests in
Ephesus. . . . All of them observed the fourteenth as the day of the
Pascha according to the gospel, not deviating in the least, but following the rule of faith.7

The passage may be qualied as remarkable for several reasons.

First, its Quartodeciman provenance is beyond dispute. Next, it is
more than just an isolated testimony to Quartodeciman tradition.
Eusebius asserts that Polycrates wrote the letter in his capacity as
leader of the Asian bishops. We can, therefore, be sure that Polycrates
voices a view which is highly representative of Asian Quartodecimanism.
Lastly, one is struck by the self-condence of Polycrates and by the
strength of his arguments. He does not refer to a vague and general notion such as apostolic tradition, but adduces concrete names
of authorities, adding even precise indications regarding the places
where they had lived or were buried. All this attests the wide acceptance of the Quartodeciman practice in Asia as well as its antiquity.
As for his conviction that this practice had apostolic origins, there
can be no doubt that it was shared by most, if not all Asian Christians.
Incidentally, there can be no doubt that it was well founded. Everything
indicates that the Quartodeciman Passover dates back to the beginning of Christianity in Asia, that is, to apostolic times.8
7

H.E. 5.24.26 (SC 41.678). English translation: Cantalamessa (n. 5) 345.

See for the Quartodeciman Passover also G. Rouwhorst, The Quartodeciman
Passover and the Jewish Pesach, Questions liturgiques 77 1996 15273; A. StewartSykes, The Lambs High Feast: Melito, Peri Pascha and the Quartodeciman Paschal Liturgy
at Sardis (Leiden 1998).
8

gerard rouwhorst

68

Apart from the letter of Polycrates, some additional sources may

be mentioned which possibly point to the fact that the Quartodecimans,
or some of them, based their Passover celebration on the authority
of apostles. Admittedly, their testimony is not as clear, unambiguous and informative as the letter of Polycrates. Nonetheless, these
sources are intriguing enough for us to look at them more closely.
The rst document we would like to mention here is a source
which has originally been written in Greek, but has only been preserved in a Coptic and an Ethiopic translation. It is commonly known
as the Epistula Apostolorum.9 Both the provenance and the date of this
source have been disputed since its discovery at the beginning of the
twentieth century and still continue to give rise to contradictory theories.10 It is, however, quite generally accepted that the document
originated in the second century and its provenance is located by
the majority of the scholars either in Asia Minor or in Syria.11
Especially the last-mentioned fact is of particular interest for our purpose, since Asia and most probably Syria as well were centres of
Quartodeciman practices and traditions for a certain period and they
certainly were so during the second century.12
The Epistula Apostolorum contains a passage which clearly alludes
to the celebration of Passover and is quoted and discussed in numerous
publications dealing with the history of that feast.13 Its setting is that
of a speech addressed by Christ to his apostles after the Resurrection.
The Lord commands his apostles to remember his death after He
will have gone to the Father. Then, a scene is described which is
obviously based on Acts, ch. 12 where we read that Peter was put

Edition of the Coptic text: C. Schmidt, Gesprche Jesu mit seinen Jngern nach der
Auferstehung (Leipzig 1919 = Hildesheim 1967) 1*26*. Edition of the Ethiopic text:
L. Guerrier, Le Testament en Galile de notre Seigneur Jsus-Christ (Patrologia Orientalis
9.3; Paris 1912). Variants drawn from a manuscript that was not taken into consideration by Guerrier are given by I. Wajnberg in his German translation of the
Ethiopic text (see C. Schmidt, Gesprche Jesu, 25155).
10
See for an overview of the dierent theories proposed C. Hill, The Epistula
Apostolorum: An Asian Tract from the Time of Polycarp, Journal of Early Christian
Studies 7 1999 153, especially 521. See also J. Hills, Tradition and Composition in the
Epistula Apostolorum (Minneapolis 1990).
11
See Hill (n. 10) 1621.
12
See for Syria (and Mesopotamia) G. Rouwhorst, Les hymnes pascales dEphrem de
Nisibe, i (Supplements to VC 7.1; Leiden 1989), especially 195203.
13
Ch. VII and VIII of the Coptic version (C. Schmidt [n. 9] 5*6*) = ch. 15
(or 26) of the Ethiopic version (Guerrier [n. 9] 1989; Schmidt and Wajnberg [n. 9]
526). English translation: Cantalamessa (n. 5) 389.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

69

into prison in the days of Unleavened Bread and is liberated during the night by an angel. In the version of this story presented by
the Epistula Apostolorum the scene is explicitly located in the night of
Passover. One of the apostleshe remains anonymoushas been
thrown into prison for the sake of the name of the Lord. While
being imprisoned, he grieves because he cannot celebrate Passover
with the other apostles. However, after being liberated by the power
of the Lord who appears in the form of the angel Gabriel, he has
the possibility to watch with them until the cock crows and, next,
to take part in the Eucharist and the Agape which form the conclusion of the Passover vigil. The celebration having come to an
end, the apostle is thrown into prison again for a certain time.
There can be hardly any doubt that the description of the Passover
night as found here has been strongly inspired by the liturgical practice of the milieu in which the Epistula Apostolorum was composed.
Most probably it mirrors a Quartodeciman celebration which consisted of a one-night vigil which was concluded by a paschal Eucharist.14
The Eucharist included an agape and ended by the time of cockcrow, in the last part of the night. This fact is of particular interest
for two reasons. First, it means that valuable information may be
drawn from it with regard to the Quartodeciman Passover with which
the author of the passage was familiar. This has been done in a
good number of publications dealing with the history of the Christian
Passover. What, however, makes the text relevant for the more specic
issue we are dealing with in this article, is that it presupposes that
the apostles had been Quartodecimans and, consequently, that in
the view of the author of the Epistula Apostolorum, the Quartodeciman
practice of his church had apostolic roots.15

14
See also Talley (n. 3) 57; Rouwhorst (n. 12) i.1935. Admittedly, there is no
absolutely incontrovertible evidence to the Quartodeciman character of the celebration concerned. On the other hand, no indications exist which might point to
a paschal Sunday. More in particular, the attempt which recently K. Gerlach has
made to prove the contrary, is not convincing. It is based on the assumption that
the description of the Epistula Apostolorum may be supplemented by data derived
from Acts 12.6 which situates the imprisonment of Peter in the days of the Unleavened
Bread. According to Gerlach this means that the vigil described was that of a
Sunday celebration within the week of Unleavened Bread (K. Gerlach, The Antenicene
Pascha: A Rhetorical History [Liturgia condenda 7; Louvain 1998] 978). It has to be
noted that harmonizing Acts and the Epistula Apostolorum in this way is very problematic from a methodological point of view.
15
It may be remarked that T. Talley has gone a little bit further and has argued

70

gerard rouwhorst

Perhaps, a second source may be adduced as evidence for the fact

that Quartodeciman Christians were convinced of the apostolic origins of their practice and, possibly, also appealed to it in order to
bolster or to defend it. The source concerned has in common with
the Epistula Apostolorum that it is usually assumed to have been written in the second century and to have originated either in Asia or
in Syria, i.e., in regions where the Quartodeciman were predominant for a certain time. The source in question is the Gospel of Peter.16
The Gospel of Peter provides a description of the Passion, the death
and the Resurrection of Christ. This description contains a number
of elements we do not come across in any of the canonical Gospels.
One of its most remarkable peculiarities is that mention is made
explicitly of the fact that Peter and the apostles had fasted and
grieved from the moment when Christ died. This fact is noteworthy enough in itself. However, what makes it still more remarkable
and, at rst glance, even may cause confusion, is that some very
surprising details are given with regard to the duration of the fasting and grieving. According to 27 the disciples were fasting, grieving and crying day and night, until the Sabbath. The question
naturally arises as to what period of time is precisely meant. Were
the disciples fasting and grieving until the beginning of the Sabbath
following the death of Christ? This possibility has to be simply discarded since it would mean that the fasting and grieving would have
lasted three hours only. Another way of solving the problem would
be to understand until in the sense of up to and including. The
fasting of the disciples would then have lasted until the end of the
Sabbath and the beginning of Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
Such an interpretation, however, has to be dismissed as well, because

that the Epistula Apostolorum contains an explicit defense of the Quartodeciman

Passover which, by the way, would not have been addressed to adherents of Paschal
Sunday, but to Christians who were not convinced of the necessity to celebrate
Passover at all. Talley grounds his view on the passage that comes just after the
description of the paschal celebration. The disciples then ask the Lordin the
Ethiopic versionif He did not complete the drinking of the Pascha and if they
are obliged to do it again. The Lord responds that it is necessary indeed until the
day when He shall come (Talley [n. 3] 67). In my view, this suggestion, interesting though it is, remains rather speculative. The problem is that the notion of
Passover in this context may have several connotations which it is impossible to
disentangle. Instead of denoting the Passover festival it might as well refer to the
Eucharist or to martyrdom.
16
Ed. M. Mara, vangile de Pierre (SC 201).

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

71

it hardly nds support in the Greek word vw which is used. As a

matter of fact, to discover the right interpretation of the passage, we
will have to continue reading the Gospel until the last chapters where
we nd ourselves after the resurrection of the Lord. The tomb has
been opened and the good news has already been announced to the
women, but these have ed in bewilderment (57). Thereupon another
scene follows which unfortunately breaks o quite soon because the
last part of the Gospel is missing. Still, it is sure that the disciples,
here identied as the Twelve (apostles), are still fasting and grieving (59). Then, mention is made of three disciples, namely Peter,
Andrew and Levi (Matthew), taking their nets and going in the direction of the sea (60). Here the text breaks o, but it is apparent that
the missing text contained a version of the account of the apparition of the Risen Lord at the sea of Tiberias ( John 21.114) in
which Peter has a prominent role. In point of fact, this apparition
must have put an end to the fasting and grieving of the disciples.
The most interesting thing of this last preserved part of the Gospel
is that it contains an indication of time. In 58 the scene of the still
fasting and grieving disciples is situated on the last day of the
Unleavened Bread when the festival was over and many people
returned home. This means that the apparition at the sea of Tiberias
took place in the night after that day. Now everything clicks into
place. Starting from the fact that the week of Unleavened Bread had
begun on the Friday on which Christ died, the last day of the
Unleavened Bread cannot have been but the Friday after the
Resurrection and the disciples nished their fasting and grieving on
that day, more precisely, in the night from Friday on Saturday which
was the beginning of the Sabbath.17
This being established, the course of events as depicted by the
Gospel of Peter has been claried satisfactorily. Immediately, however,
a new question emerges. How to explain the astonishing fact that,
according to the Gospel of Peter, the disciples or apostles, fasted and
grieved one week after the death of Christ and that the goods news
of the Resurrection took six days to reach them? How can this reconstruction of the events be reconciled with passages of the canonical
Gospels, denitely known to the author of the Gospel of Peter, which

17
This solution is also proposed by D. Crossan, The Cross that Spoke (San Francisco
1988) 25 and Gerlach (n. 14) 1923.

72

gerard rouwhorst

refer to apparitions of Christ on the same day when the women visited the empty tomb? It may be added that the Gospel of John situates the scene at the Sea of Tiberias after the apparition to Thomas
which, for its part, is said to have occurred eight days after the
women found the tomb empty and Christ appeared in the evening
to the other disciples. While following this chronology, it is impossible to place the scene at Tiberias just after the last day of Unleavened
Bread as calculated by the Gospel of Peter.
It will be impossible to nd a solution to this problem which is
based on entirely cogent arguments. However, I would like to suggest that the key may be found in a number of data related to the
celebration of Passover by some Syrian churches. In fact, it is remarkable that various Syriac sources designate Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, which essentially was a week of fasting and grieving
for the Christians, as the Week of the Unleavened Bread18 or, at
the very least, regard it as its Christian counterpart. This being the
case, it is very well conceivable that Christians projected their Week
of the Unleavened Bread back to apostolic times.
Subsequently the question naturally arises as to what sort of
Christian week of the Unleavened Bread might underlie the indications of time provided by the Gospel of Peter. One possibility which
seems to present itself, was that the week of Unleavened Bread
observed by the disciples was inspired by the traditional Holy Week
preceding Easter Sunday. This, however, appears extremely unlikely
for a twofold reason. First, we do not have any indication that this
form of Holy Week had already come into development in the second century. Second, the idea that the disciples would have continued fasting some days after the Resurrection, can hardly be reconciled
with a celebration of Passover which reaches its climax in the commemoration of the Resurrection in the night from Saturday on
Sunday. In that case, the behaviour of the disciples would have been
in sharp contrast to that of the Christians celebrating the joyful day
of the Resurrection and the doubtless joyful days which followed.
The only possibility, then, which remains is that we hear an echo
here of a Christian week of the Unleavened Bread which coincided
with the Jewish one and began on the Quartodeciman Passover, that
is, on the 15th of Nisan. Once they had celebrated their Passover

18

Cf. Rouwhorst (n. 12) i.30 n. 16.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

73

which primarily centred around the theme of the Passion and death
of Christ rather than that of His Resurrection, they went on fasting
and grieving until the end of the Jewish (and the Christian) week of
Unleavened Bread. In a later period, when Easter Sunday was introduced, the week of the Unleavened Bread was placed before that
day, but the Christians of the regions concerned continued calling
it the Week of Unleavened Bread.
Assuming that this interpretation is correct, it may be concluded
that the Quartodeciman community from which the Gospel of Peter
would have originated, was convinced of the apostolic roots of its
Passover celebration. One may even make a step further and wonder why the author of this gospel found it necessary to take so much
pains and to use such a lot of exegetical artice to demonstrate that
the apostles had observed the liturgical practice with which he was
familiar. Admittedly, the answer to this question remains in part a
matter of conjecture. Nonetheless, one cannot help presuming that
this practice was urgently in need of apostolic support and that it
was far from being generally accepted. It is very well conceivable
that the author of the Gospel found himself in a situation very similar to that of Polycrates.
To conclude the foregoing, we have to concede that we remain
in the dark concerning many aspects of the Quartodeciman Passover.
Neither do we know a lot about the arguments they used to sustain
their liturgical practice. So much is clear, however, that at least many
of them were convinced of its apostolic origins and it may be added
that they had good reason for that.
The question which arises next, is how the proponents of Easter
Sunday who from the third century onward were in the majority in
most places, reacted to the Quartodeciman claims of apostolic authority.
2. Reactions of the non-Quartodeciman majority
Based on the available sources, it appears that, when being confronted with Quartodeciman claims of apostolic authority, proponents of Sunday Easter reacted in dierent ways. The three following
reactions may be distinguished: (a) Avoiding discussion. (b) Sustaining
the celebration of Easter Sunday and the preceding fast by an appeal
to apostolic authority. (c) Playing down the importance of apostolic
authority.

gerard rouwhorst

74

2.1

Avoiding discussion

While dealing with Eusebius account of the second-century Paschal

controversy, we saw that the Quartodeciman Polycrates showed a
sharp awareness of following a tradition which reached back to apostolic tradition and, moreover, that he did not hesitate to fully exploit
that argument. Several scholars, and in particular N. Brox,19 have
pointed to the fact that this passionate appeal to apostolic authority
strikingly contrasts with the complete silence about this issue in
another source which is quoted extensively by Eusebius and defends
the Easter Sunday tradition, namely the famous letter of Irenaeus
(H.E. 5.24.1217).
Two questions arise here. First, it may be asked whether the lack
of any allusion to apostolic authority is due to coincidence. For
instance, can it be accounted for by the fragmentary character of
the quotation? Did the letter mention apostolic authority but did
Eusebius not consider it to be necessary or useful to quote that part?
This seems highly unlikely since Eusebius himself proves to be very
concerned to stress the apostolic roots of Easter Sunday. It is very
dicult to imagine that he would have missed the opportunity to
validate his position on that issue by a quotation of Irenaeus letter
if it referred to it. Therefore, it seems most probable that Irenaeus
did not touch upon the issue of apostolic authority. But then the
question arises how we should explain the absence of any allusion
to this point in Irenaeus letter. One possible solution has been proposed by N. Brox.20 In his view, Irenaeus silence about apostolic
authority is occasioned by his specic position; as a bishop of Lyons
he was familiar with Easter Sunday and he also defended that tradition, but, at the same time, he was an Asian by birth and therefore well acquainted with Quartodeciman tradition and, moreover,
aware of its ancient roots. Finding himself in that rather awkward
position, he took a diplomatic and irenical stand in the debate. He
defended the Easter Sunday practice, but he tried to prevent that
the conict escalated and, moreover, he realised that it would be
wise to keep silent about the issue of apostolic authority. On the
contrary, Victor and the Romans would have appealed to the authority of Peter and Paul.
19
20

Brox (n. 6) 295302.

Ibidem.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

75

This explanation proposed by Brox gives rise to a number of serious objections. First, the suggestion that Irenaeus consciously kept
silent about the apostolic claims put forward by Victor and the
Romans is based on an argument from silence. It cannot be validated by any indication derived from the text quoted by Eusebius.
Secondly, it may be advanced that since Brox wrote his article, it
has become more and more obvious that the oldest form of Christian
Passover was the Quartodeciman Passover and that, on the contrary,
Easter Sunday came into existence at a more recent date, most probably as the result of a transfer of the Quartodeciman celebration to
the Friday, Saturday and Sunday after 14/15 Nisan.21 What this
precisely meant for the celebration of Passover in Rome prior to the
introduction of Easter Sunday is not completely clear and remains
a matter of debate. It cannot be excluded that in Rome as well
Passover was celebrated in the night from 14 to 15 Nisan. It is also
conceivable that the Christians of Rome did not celebrate Passover
at all (this view appears to have won ground during the last few
decades).22 In either case, however, it is obvious that the Roman
paschal practice cannot be traced back to the time of the apostles
or, more specically, Peter and Paul. One might raise the objection
that liturgical innovations are often legitimised by an appeal to an
authoritative past and that, therefore, it is conceivable that also Victor
and the Romans would have done so. This, in itself, is true and several examples might be adduced to strengthen the argument. On
the other hand, it should be emphasised that the success of the invention of a tradition presupposes a minimum of plausibility and that
it also depends on not seeing it too easily as a transparent ruse. If,
then, the celebration of Easter Sunday was a rather recent invention in Rome and everybody was still aware of this fact, it may be
asked if the strategy of inventing an apostolic tradition would work.
Taking into account all these facts, the most probable explanation
of the absence of any allusion to apostolic authority in Irenaeus
letter seems to me to be that Victor and the Romans simply had

21
Cf. Rouwhorst (n. 8), especially 1579. Cf. also Talley (n. 3) 26: Most writers today would accord some measure of historical priority to the Quartodeciman
observance of Pascha, and thus allow that Easter Sunday represents an adjustment
of that custom to the independently established weekly Sunday.
22
Cf. Talley (n. 3) 236.

gerard rouwhorst

76

no reply to the self-conscious and well-founded claims of apostolic

authority advanced by the Quartodecimans.23
2.2

Appealing to the authority of the apostles

Avoiding the issue of apostolic authority was only one of the ways
in which the proponents of Easter Sunday (and Holy Week) reacted
to the claims of apostolic authority. Very soon, a good number of
them started resorting to the same strategy that also was used by
the Quartodecimans. To counter the arguments of the latter and to
support their own liturgical practice, they began themselves appealing to the example or the authority of the apostles.
This is exactly what Eusebius does in the passages of his Ecclesiastical
History where he does not quote Polycrates or Irenaeus, but speaks
in his own words. Thus, in 5.23.1 he explicitly asserts that the
churches outside of Asia who terminated the paschal fast on the day
of the Resurrection, were following an apostolic tradition. A little bit
further (5.25.1), he once more states that the tradition about the
Pascha defended by him directly derives from the apostles.
In this connection, mention can also be made of the Church Histories
written by Socrates and Sozomen. In those sources which are in
part based on the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, we can read that
the Quartodecimans of Asia appealed to the authority of John and
the Christians of Rome to that of Peter and Paul.24 The explicit reference to those specic apostles is lacking in the work of Eusebius
and, therefore, cannot have been borrowed from this source. It may
be added that especially Socrates tries to play down the force of the
argument from apostolic tradition (as we will see further on). Therefore,
it can be excluded that it was heor Sozomenwho had invented
this tradition. This means that only one possibility is left: the idea
must have become current among Christians after the second century and it appears very likely that some of them have used it to

23

It may be remarked that the idea that Victor would have appealed to the
apostles Peter and Paul, has already been disputed by H. Koch, Petrus und Paulus
im zweiten Osterfeststreit?, Zeitschrift fr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 19 191920
1749. See also Brox (n. 6) n. 7 where he repliesbut, in my view, not convincinglyto the objections raised by Koch and mentions other authors who share his
own position.
24
Socrates Ecclesiastical History 5.22 (PG 67.632); Sozomen Ecclesiastical History
7.19.1 (PG 67.14736).

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

77

defend the celebration of Easter Sunday over against Quartodecimans

(we will return to this question later on).
There is, however, one source which, to defend the celebration
of Easter Sundayand Holy Week, draws on the authority and
the example of the apostles much more explicitly and extensively
than the church historians just mentioned do. This is the twentyrst chapter of the Didascalia Apostolorum.25
Notoriously, the interpretation of this text arouses the greatest possible diculties. The train of thought is, according to some scholars, extremely complicated and according to others even confused.
In any case, it is very hard to follow the thread of the argumentation. Most scholars assume that the text as transmitted by the Syriac
manuscripts is the result of a complicated process in which various
layers representing dierent stages in the development of Christian
Passover have been superimposed onto one another and have been
interwoven. Starting from the same assumption, I have tried to
demonstrate in another publication that through various more recent
layers of the text which date to the fourth century and deal with
the celebration of Holy Week, an old third century stratum can be
reconstructed which presupposes a Quartodeciman type of Passover
celebration.26 Recently, this hypothesis has been called into question
and it has been argued that, apart from some minor later updates,
the complicated text as we have it now, might be read as a more
or less coherent whole which would reach back to the third century.27 One of the implications of this theory is that that it does not
make sense to look for an older Quartodeciman stratum since there
never was such a thing. I will return to that question further on,28
but I will begin by indicating the basic ideas which emerge from
the chapter as it is transmitted by the manuscripts.
Dicult though the interpretation of the text may be, at least two
things are clear. First, the author (or redactor) tries to defend a

25

Ed. A. Vbus, The Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac, ii (Corpus Scriptorum

Christianorum Orientalium 407; Louvain 1979) 20318 (translation vol. 408.184202).
26
Rouwhorst (n. 12) i.15790.
27
Gerlach (n. 14) 20330.
28
I hope it will be evident that discussing in detail the interpretation of the chapter as proposed by Gerlach would lead us too far aeld here. I will be forced to
limit myself to giving further on in this article some essential arguments in favour
of my position.

78

gerard rouwhorst

certain type of fast which is held during the days of Passover, that
is Holy Week. This fast lasts the whole week, but on Saturday and
Sunday it is stricter than on the rst four days of the week. On
Saturday night at nine oclock, the fast is broken and concluded by
a celebration of the Eucharist and an agape meal. Next, it is noteworthy that the author/redactor attempts to explicitly ground this
practice on the example of the apostles. Thus, the apostles in their
quality as (ctional) authors of the Didascalia expressly and repeatedly emphasise that they had mourned and fasted from the moment
on which the Lord, the Bridegroom, had no more been among them.
Great pains are taken by them to count this period in a very precise way. By their reckoning, it includes the three days and nights
in which the Lord had been among the dead and which correspond
to the especially strict fast of Friday and Saturday. Further, to make
plausible that the apostles had also fasted on the rst four days of
the Week, the author/redactor develops an idiosyncratic and surprising chronology of the Passion which has already perplexed many
a scholar. The key to this chronology is provided by the idea that
the taking away of the Bridegroom should be understood as His
imprisonment. A common-sense reading of the Gospels might suggest
that this event took place on Thursday evening. The author/redactor
of the Didascalia, however, sees if dierently. He situates the Last
Supper and therefore also the imprisonment on Tuesday. As a matter of fact, this does not yet suce for the apostles to have started
their mourning and fasting on Monday. The author/redactor of the
Didascalia nds a way out of this diculty by taking as his starting
point the moment at which the priests and the elders assembled and
decided to put Christ to death and this would have occurred on
Monday!
The chronology of the Passion developed by the author/redactor
is astonishing enough in itself. However, what makes it even more
surprising is that the author/redactor takes such a great pains to
legitimise the practice of fasting during Holy Week by appealing to
the example of the apostles. In a sense, this might seem not so surprising since the apostles are claimed to be the authors of the Didascalia
and, more precisely, to have composed it just after the rst council
held in Jerusalem. It might therefore be accounted for by the pseudepigraphical setting of the Didascalia. Yet this explanation loses its persuasiveness entirely if we take a closer look at the role played by
the apostles throughout the dierent chapters of the work. In fact,

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

79

the apostles do not appear by far as frequently as we might expect

on the basis of the pseudepigraphical setting of the work.29 In the
rst ten chapters they are almost never mentioned and in the chapters 10 to 20 only occasionally. It is only in the chapters 24 and 25
that the apostles come to the fore. It is not dicult to nd out the
reason why they play such a prominent role in this nal part of the
Didascalia. These chapters are dealing with all sorts of heresies and
schisms and the intention of the author/redactor is to show that
these had already been condemned by the apostles during the rst
council! The conclusion presents itself that the apostles appear on
the scene when the author/redactor of the Didascalia is concerned
to combat heresies or, more in general, deviating views and practices. It is, then, highly probable that this also holds true for the
passages of the twenty-rst chapter dealing with the fast of Passover.
To become more precise, one cannot get away from the impression
that the author/redactor nds himself in discussion with opponents
who do not agree with the liturgical practice defended by him and,
for instance, call it into question as being an unjustied innovation.
The question then arises who these opponents were and what type
of Passover fast and celebration they advocated. It is obvious that
they were not familiar with the phenomenon of Holy Week and, in
fact, it is generally agreed that this was the result of an innovation
which cannot have been introduced before the end of the third century. Yet there must have been more at stake than just the extension of a paschal triduum to a Holy Week. The fact that the Didascalia
stresses so strongly that the apostles had fasted during the three days
and nights in which the Lord was among the dead, suggests that
the opponentsor some of themwere against the triduum sacrum
itself. This means they were Quartodecimans.
Whether one will agree with this conclusion or not, it becomes
obvious from the Didascaliaas well as from Eusebiusthat, in the
third and fourth century, there were Christians in Syria who resorted
to the authority of the apostles to defend the celebration of the
paschal triduum and Holy Week.

29

See also Schllgen (n. 1) 11415 and, in particular, Steimer (n. 1) 559.

gerard rouwhorst

80

3. Relativizing the authority of the apostles

In the foregoing, we have seen that both Quartodecimans and proponents of Easter Sunday and Holy Week tried to avail themselves
of apostolic authority. At the same time, it has emerged that the
claims of the former group were questionable from a purely historical point of view. There is no doubt that many Quartodecimans
were aware of that fact, but one can easily imagine that some of
their opponents realised this as well. The question then arises to
what other arguments or strategies the proponents of Easter Sunday
and Holy Week resorted when their claims of apostolic authority did
not prove successful. Did they simply stick to these claims? Probably
some of them will have followed this strategy. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see that a number of sources dating to the fourth and fth
century indicate that at least some proponents of Easter Sunday and
Holy Week dealt with this problem in a dierent way. They frankly
granted that the liturgical practice followed by the Quartodecimans
and possibly by other opponentswas of apostolic origin, but, at
the same time, tried to play down the relevance of this fact. In their
view, there was something which mattered more than the following
of the example of the apostles on this point, namely the unity of
the Christians. This became endangered by dierences with regard
to the celebration of Passover and the best remedy to this problem
would be that the minorities followed the majority, even if the claim
of the apostolic origin of their tradition was well-founded in itself.
One of the most interesting representatives of this strategy is the
church historian Socrates.30 As already remarked before, this author
makes mention of the fact that both Quartodecimans and their opponents lay claim on apostolic authority. Socrates, then, tries to nd
a way out of this predicament by relativizing the claims advanced
by both parties and he does so on the basis of what N. Brox has
called a liberal-historical analysis.31 The point he attempts to make
is that the appeal to the behaviour of either Christ or the apostles
even if the historical facts adduced are correct in themselvesis
problematic. Incidentally, so he adds, this does not only hold true
for the celebration of Easter, but for many other customs that were

30
31

H.E. 5.22.
Brox (n. 6) 321.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

81

observed by the rst Christians. In his view, these customs are not
normative for the Christians of his time. If they would be really consistent in this matter, so he remarks penetratingly, these Christians
should have to observe many more Jewish customs which are mentioned in the Gospels!32 In addition, from the very rst beginning of
the church dierent customs and practices had existed side by side
and, moreover, occasioned disputes and conicts. From all this Socrates
draws a sensible, pragmatic conclusion. He gives the advice not to
worry oneself about these sorts of things, but to maintain peace.33
He still adds that the apostles had adopted the same attitude with
regard to this kind of issues (In so far, Socrates does not entirely
get away from appealing to apostolic authority himself !). As for the
Quartodecimans, this means in practice that they have to follow the
customs of the majority.
Another interesting example of the same, or at least a very similar, strategy we have is provided by the seventieth chapter of
Epiphanius Panarion which is entirely devoted to a discussion with
the Audians, a group of Christians who lived in Mesopotamia and
appear to have come into existence in the aftermath of the Council
of Nicea.34 The members of this movement upheld a number of theological views which in the eyes of Epiphanius and of others were
not orthodox. What matters to us more in particular with regard to
our subject, is that they did not celebrate Easter on the same date
as the majority of the Christians and appealed for that to a source
which is called by them the diataxis of the apostles and turns out
to be nothing but a version of the Didascalia.35
The question here arises in which way the Audians celebrated
Passover. From the description provided by Epiphanius at least
the following conclusions can be deduced. First, Epiphanius blames
the Audians for celebrating with the Jews (9.2; 10.3), i.e. at the
time when the Jews hold their Feast of Unleavened Bread (9.2) or
in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (10.6). Second,
Epiphanius quotes or paraphrases (?) a passage from the diataxis
from which it emerges that one should mourn and fast when the

32

PG 67.6436.
PG 67.6414.
34
GCS 37.23249. English translation of the most important passages: P. Amidon,
The Panarion of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (New York and Oxford 1990) 27181.
35
See Epiphanius Pan. 70.914.
33

82

gerard rouwhorst

Jews eat their paschal meal and that one should keep a meal and
make merry when the Jews eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs
(11.3). It may be assumedalthough Epiphanius does not say so
explicitlythat the Audians wanted to put this instruction into practice literally.
The opinions of scholars diverge as to how these data should be
interpreted. Two solutions have been advanced which, both of them,
continue to nd adepts. The rst possibility is that the Audians were
Quartodecimans.36 In that case, a precise simultaneity existed between,
on the one hand, the fast of the Christians and the Pesach meal of
the Jews and, on the other hand, the Eucharist and agape of the
Christians and (the beginning of ) the Week of Unleavened Bread.
The other solution is that the Audians were protopaschites, i.e. they
were familiar with Easter Sunday and Holy Week, but for their computation of the paschal moon they simply followed the Jews, which
meant that they sometimes celebrated Easter and Holy Week on
another date than the majority of the Christians who calculated their
paschal moon independently of the Jews.37 In that case, the synchronism between the Christian and the Jewish rituals was much
less precise. The most striking thing would have been that Christian
Easter was celebrated during the Week of Unleavened Bread and
that the Pesach meal of the Jews contrasted with Christian Holy
Week. As a matter of fact, the question is closely bound up with
the interpretation of the twenty-rst chapter of the Didascalia. In case
this text would contain a Quartodeciman core, it would be well conceivable that the Audians were Quartodecimans and appealed to an
older version of the Didascalia to buttress their liturgical practice.38
If the Didascalia would have presupposed a Paschal Sunday from the
outset, it would have been much more likely that the Audians were
Quartodecimans, but even then it cannot be entirely excluded that
they tried to base their paschal observance on a non-Quartodeciman
Diataxis/Didascalia since some passages are ambivalent enough to lend
themselves for a Quartodeciman interpretation. Further, apart from

36
Thus, B. Lohse, Das Passafest der Quartadecimaner (Gtersloh 1953) 1618; A.
Strobel, Ursprung und Geschichte des frhchristlichen Osterkalenders (Texte und Untersuchungen
121; Berlin 1977) 344; Rouwhorst (n. 12) i.181.
37
Thus E. Schwartz, Christliche und jdische Ostertafeln (Berlin 1905) 115; Schmidt
(n. 9) 6727; Cantalamessa (n. 5) 16970.
38
Cf. Rouwhorst (n. 12) i.1812.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

83

the question raised by the interpretation of the Didascalia used by

the Audians, the text of the Panarion itself suggests a precise contrasting synchronism between the Jewish and Christian rites, in the
sense that the Christians were fasting during the hours when the
Jews ate their Passover meal and that they started eating and making merry as soon as the Jewish festal meal was over and the period
of the Unleavened Bread had begun. In fact, it may be asked what
happened when 14 Nisan fell at the beginning of the week, for
instance on a Monday. In that event, for a Quartodeciman there
would not be any problem. He would fast on Monday evening until
the end of the Jewish Pesach meal which will have occurred around
midnight and, next, he would have celebrated a paschal Eucharist.
Someone celebrating Paschal Sunday would have found himself in
a rather awkward position. He would have been forced to postpone
his Passover celebration until Saturday night with the undesirable
eect that his fasting and mourning during Holy Week practically
coincided with the week of Unleavened Bread. For the rest, a minor
detail of Epiphanius argumentation corroborates still further the presumption that the Audians strove for a precise contrasting simultaneity between the Jewish and Christian rituals. Epiphanius argues
that the regulation as prescribed by the Diataxis entails a contradiction. In fact, so he reasons (11.4), it may happen that 14 Nisan falls
on a Saturday. In that case, so the argumentation goes on, the Jews
are obliged to postpone the slaughtering of the paschal lambs
which, incidentally, is not practised any more after the destruction
of the templeuntil Saturday evening after sunset, that is, after the
end of Shabbath. This, however, has the eect that the Passover
meal is delayed as well and is actually eaten at a time of the night
when Sunday already has begun. However, the order to fast in that
part of Sunday night which would follow from the principle defended
by the Audians, is in contradiction with the prohibition, equally
found in the Diataxis, that is the Didascalia, to fast on the Day of the
Lord. It appears that Epiphanius objections hit the mark only when
his opponents are Quartodecimans.39

39
If the Audians would have been protopaschites we may assume that their
Holy Week either preceded or followed the 14/15 Nisan. Easter Sunday would
then coincide either with 15 or with 22 Nisan. In either case, the objection might
be raised against them that their Passover Eucharist did not fall in the Week of

84

gerard rouwhorst

Be that as it may, whether the Audians were Quartodecimans or

otherwise, the most important thing for our purpose is to see how
Epiphanius attempts to refute the arguments of his opponents. In
fact, he does so in a very subtle way, namely by relativizing the
views of the apostles as allegedly transmitted by the Diataxis. His
argumentation is based on two assumptions. First, the apostles were
of Jewish origin. Second, they were not interested in the observance
of a particular paschal date or in the fact of celebrating on the same
date as the Jews. Their sole concern was with maintaining the unity
of Christian communities and preventing schisms and conicts. Starting
from these two basic convictions, Epiphanius reconstructs the earliest history of Christian Passover as follows. The apostles wished that
everybody should celebrate Passover on the same day. This ideal
could be best realised when all Christians would observe the Jewish
date and, therefore, this date became generally prescribed by the
apostles. The rst generations of Christians continued celebrating
together with the Jews. However, the situation changed when there
were no more bishops from the circumcision who were ordained in
Jerusalem and had the task of determining when the feast should be
celebrated. From that time onward, there had been a lot of confusion and quarrelling about the paschal date. Eventually, the emperor
Constantine had set the matter right and restored unity by xing a
uniform rule for the calculation of the paschal date. Epiphanius
stresses that this rule has to be followed in the whole world for the
sake of unity. Finally, to further strengthen his case, he points to
some contradictions in the regulations established by the apostles and
transmitted by the Diataxis. Above, we have dealt with one of those
contradictions (namely the one raised by the fact that time and again
the Diataxis makes it necessary to fast on Sunday).
Conclusion
What conclusions can be drawn from the foregoing? No doubt, the
most striking result is that it has emerged that in the various disUnleavened Bread. If they celebrated on 15 Nisan, the Passover Eucharist practically coincided with the delayed Pesach meal. On 22 Nisan the Week of Unleavened
Bread was over. Furthermore, the Jewish Pesach meal would not have been celebrated during Christian Holy Week, because it was held on a Sunday. Epiphanius,
however, does not mention this problem.

liturgy on the authority of the apostles

85

cussions about the Passover celebration which have taken place in

early Christianity, Christians have often appealed to the authority of
the apostles to defend their own practices and customs and, more in
particular so, when these became a matter of discussion or were
under attack. It hardly comes as a surprise that the Quartodecimans
were the rst Christians to make use of this argument. First, their
appeal to apostolic authority was rather well-founded but, more
importantly, it was the Quartodecimans who, from the second century onward, were challenged and even forced to defend their position which more and more became that of a minority. As for their
opponents who from the end of the second century became the
majority in most places, it seems that a gradual development of their
argumentation can be perceived. At rst, they appear to have had
no clear reply to the apostolic claims of the Quartodecimans. Quite
soon, however, they tried to claim the apostolic authority for their
own Paschal Sunday and Holy Week traditions and occasionally they
did not hesitate to pull out all the stops if that might prove useful
to achieve their goal. The Didascalia testies to this most clearly.
Finally, once the battle was won and the Quartodecimans did not
constitute but a small minority, their opponents availed themselves
of another strategy. They tried to play down the argument drawn
from apostolic authority and to make it subordinate to a principle
they considered as being of much greater importance, namely maintaining unity, i.e., following the majority. Resorting to apostolic tradition was, as far as the celebration of Easter was concerned, depicted
as characteristic of sectarian movements which kept old-fashioned
traditions.

LA TRADITION APOSTOLIQUE ET LE CANON DU

NOUVEAU TESTAMENT
Riemer Roukema
Dans sa trente-neuvime Lettre Pascale, de 367, Athanase dAlexandrie
prsenta une liste de livres de lAncien et du Nouveau Testament
auxquels, son avis, lglise devait se limiter pour en recevoir linstruction en vue du salut.1 En ce qui concerne le Nouveau Testament,
cette liste de livres canoniss (kanonizmena) correspond exactement
au canon connu de nos Bibles, ce qui suggre qu partir de ce
moment-l la formation du canon du Nouveau Testament tait acheve. Dans lglise occidentale, quelques synodes de la n du quatrime et du cinquime sicle (Hippone, 393; Carthage, 397 et 419)
ont eectivement conrm, sous linuence dAugustin, la liste de
livres canoniques dAthanase; Augustin la donne aussi dans le
deuxime livre de son uvre De doctrina christiana, crit en 397.2
De nombreux tmoins montrent, nanmoins, qu cette poque
on pouvait encore prendre la libert de se rclamer dautres livres
que ceux canoniss par Athanase et Augustin. Pour nen citer quun
seul exemple: la n du quatrime sicle Didyme dAlexandrie ne
se rfrait pas seulement, peu prs, aux mme livres reconnus par
Athanase (sauf lptre Philmon et la deuxime et la troisime
ptre de Jean), mais aussi au Pasteur dHermas, lptre attribue
Barnab, lptre dIgnace dAntioche aux Romains, la Didach
et lptre de Clment de Rome aux Corinthiens. Bien quil ne
soit pas absolument clair si Didyme a reconnu tous ces cinq crits
comme ayant la mme autorit que ceux de notre Nouveau Testament,
ceci sest avr tre le cas au moins pour le Pasteur dHermas et
lptre de Barnab.3 Puisque la liste promulgue par Athanase comme

1
dite, par exemple, par E. Preuschen, Analecta. Krzere Texte zur Geschichte der
alten Kirche und des Kanons (Freiburg im Breisgau et Leipzig 1893) 144146.
2
De doctrina christiana II, 8, 13 (CCSL 32). Voir B. M. Metzger, The Canon of the
New Testament. Its Origin, Development, and Signicance (Oxford 19944) 237238.
3
Voir B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament Canon of Didymus the Blind, VC
37 1983 121.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

87

un dcret pour son diocse ntait, pourtant, pas reconnu par un

docteur aussi important que Didyme, il est manifeste qu cette
priode la question du canon du Nouveau Testament ntait pas
encore dnitivement rgle. Dailleurs, bien quAthanase nait pas
voulu canoniser la Didach et le Pasteur dHermas, il a d reconnatre que les Pres en avaient recommand la lecture aux catchumnes. En 318 environ, Athanase aussi avait encore cit le Pasteur
comme tant gal la Gense pour prouver la creatio ex nihilo.4
Dans cette contribution, nous ne poursuivrons pas lhistoire du
canon du Nouveau Testament au quatrime sicle, mais nous exposerons brivement quel stade tait la formation de ce canon la
n du deuxime et au dbut du troisime sicle, chez quelques auteurs
de lglise de langue grecque et latine.5 Il nous faut admettre, tout
de mme, que la formulation de notre sujet est anachronique pour
deux raisons. Premirement, cette poque le terme canon ntait
pas encore utilis dans le sens que lon y attachera plus tard, cest-dire une liste de livres canoniss dont lglise reconnat lautorit.
En fait, cette formulation fait dj rfrence au langage du quatrime sicle. La consquence presque invitable de cette formulation est que le stade plus primitif nest plus considr en soi, mais
dans la lumire de lvolution ultrieure. Deuximement, la formulation de la question est anachronique parce qu la priode plus
primitive lglise utilisait le terme canon dans un autre sens; il gure
dans des constructions comme kann tw lhyeaw et kann kklhsiastikw, se rfrant au contenu de la foi catholique et la pratique ecclsiale correspondant celle-ci. Malgr cet anachronisme
terminologique, pour des raisons pratiques, nous nous servirons rgulirement, quand mme, dans cette contribution sur le deuxime et
le troisime sicle, du terme canon dans le sens de la priode ultrieure. Par cette expression nous entendrons la liste dcrits qui, dans
lglise ancienne, rpondaient aux critres suivants: ils taient considrs comme inspirs par lEsprit Saint, ils pouvaient tre lus dans
les liturgies, et ils taient cits dans les discussions thologiques comme
ayant la mme autorit que celle que lon attribuait aux livres de

De incarnatione 3 (SC 199).

Nous traiterons seulement de quelques tapes de lhistoire du canon no-testamentaire; en outre, nous passerons sur les dveloppements dans lglise de langue
syriaque.
5

88

riemer roukema

lAncien Testament. En principe, ce canon est dlimit, ou du moins

on aspire sa dlimitation.
Nous serons particulirement attentif au rapport que lon voyait,
cette priode de la n du deuxime et du dbut du troisime
sicle, avec le temps des aptres; ce qui implique quil nous intresse de savoir dans quelle mesure, ou de quelle manire, fonctionnait le critre de lapostolicit pour les crits tant dignes dtre reus
dans cette collection que lon appellera, plus tard, le canon.
1. Le rle de Marcion
En ce qui concerne le dveloppement du canon du Nouveau Testament, des savants comme von Harnack, Knox et von Campenhausen
ont attach une grande importance au rle de Marcion.6 Autour de
140, ce pilote du Pont7 avait compos sa propre liste de livres autoriss, consistant en une version, dpourvue de la plupart de leurs
lments vtro-testamentaires, de lvangile de Luc et de dix ptres de Paul. Les ptres Pastorales manquaient sa collection. La
slection de Marcion semble avoir toutes les caractristiques dun
canon dlimit, mais, juste titre, il existe des doutes si Marcion
lui-mme considrait sa collection comme close.8 On peut, eectivement, allguer que les marcionites ultrieurs ont cit aussi dautres
vangiles et, semble-t-il, dautres ptres, parmi lesquelles guraient,
peut-tre, mme les ptres Pastorales.9 Quoi quil en soit, selon les
savants mentionns ci-dessus, les chrtiens catholiques de la deuxime
partie du deuxime sicle, notamment Irne, auraient t provo-

6
A. von Harnack, Die Entstehung des Neuen Testaments (Leipzig 1914) 4041; Marcion.
Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott (Leipzig 1924) 210215, 442*444*; J. Knox, Marcion
and the New Testament (Chicago 1942) 1938; H. von Campenhausen, Die Entstehung
der christlichen Bibel (Beitrge zur historischen Theologie 39; Tbingen 1968) 174244.
7
Ponticus nauclerus, selon Tertullien De Praescriptione 30,1 (SC 46); nauclerus peut
aussi dsigner: armateur ou propritaire dun navire; voir A. Bailly e.a., Grand dictionnaire Grec Franais (Paris 2000), s.v. naklhrow.
8
Voir G. M. Hahneman, The Muratorian Fragment and the Development of the Canon
(Oxford 1992) 9093; L. M. McDonald, The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon
(Peabody 1995) 160; A. Sand, Kanon. Von den Anfngen bis zum Fragmentum Muratorianum
(Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte I, 3a, 1; Freiburg, Basel et Wien 1974) 59. Knox
(n. 6) 163165, suppose que Marcion ne connaissait que lvangile de Luc, ce qui
nous parat invraisemblable; ayant beaucoup voyag, Marcion tait en contact avec
de nombreuses glises, de sorte quil devait connatre plusieurs vangiles.
9
Hahneman (n. 8) 9193.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

89

qus par cette collection limite de Marcion composer un canon

plus complet. Les dix ptres de Paul furent compltes par les ptres Pastorales et ventuellement par lptre aux Hbreux; au lieu
du seul vangile de Luc lglise en acceptait quatre, et elle t place
des ptres sous le nom dautres aptres comme Pierre et Jean.
Bien que ce schma soit sduisant par sa simplicit, il a, tout de
mme, t rfut par ceux qui invoquent le fait quavant Marcion
dj lon avait commenc collectionner des crits reconnus comme
dignes de foi, comme les ptres de Paul.10 Cette objection doit tre
nuance, cependant, par le fait quune collection dcrits importants
nimplique pas automatiquement la formation dun canon dlimit.
Quoi quil en soit, une raison majeure pourquoi, notre avis, il nest
pas ncessaire dattribuer un rle principal Marcion pour la formation du canon no-testamentaire, cest quaprs lui, lglise a tard
encore longtemps xer un canon dlimit. Bien que de nombreux
chercheurs aient constat que, en principe, Irne avait dj en main
le canon ultrieur du Nouveau Testament, il faut signaler que cette
constatation est fonde sur lapproche anachronique releve dans
notre introduction. Si lon essaie de comprendre Irne en soi, dtach du dveloppement ultrieur, on verra quil naspirait pas vraiment la formation dun canon dlimit de livres autoriss pour y
fonder la foi et la pratique de lglise.
2. Irne
Il est vrai quIrne dfendait lavis que seulement les vangiles apostoliques selon Matthieu, Luc, Marc et Jean taient dignes de foi.11
Par ce choix, daprs ce quil en dit lui-mme, il sopposait:12

10
Par exemple Sand (n. 8) 5960; U. Swarat, Das Werden des neutestamentlichen Kanons, in G. Maier (d.), Der Kanon der Bibel (Giessen et Basel 1990) 2551
(p. 39); Metzger (n. 2) 9799; Y.-M. Blanchard, Aux sources du canon, le tmoignage
dIrne (Cogitatio Fidei 175; Paris 1993) 282283. U. Schmid, Marcion und sein
Apostolos. Rekonstruktion und historische Einordnung der marcionitischen Paulusbriefausgabe
(Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung 25; Berlin et New York 1995)
284303, a conrm quavant Marcion il existait dj une dition dptres de Paul.
11
Matthieu est appel aptre (Adversus Haereses III,9,1; SC 211), Luc compagnon
et disciple des aptres (Adversus Haereses III,10,1), Marc interprte et compagnon
de Pierre, qui tait aptre (Adversus Haereses III,10,6; 12,1); il est remarquable, cependant, que Jean est seulement appel disciple du Seigneur (Adversus Haereses III,11,1).
12
Adversus Haereses III,911 (SC 211).

90

riemer roukema

1. aux bionites qui se servaient du seul vangile selon Matthieu

(voir aussi Adversus Haereses 1,26,2);
2. Marcion qui se limitait lvangile amput selon Luc;
3. un groupe apparemment gnostique qui, daprs Irne, se limitait lvangile selon Marc (mais il est galement possible quIrne
ait invent cet lment pour tre en mesure de dire quelque chose
sur lvangile de Marc);
4. aux valentiniens qui auraient surtout utilis lvangile selon Jean,
mais qui auraient aussi compos un vangile de Verit (il est
possible que cet vangile soit identique au troisime crit du premier codex de Nag Hammadi, commenant par les mots Lvangile de la vrit . . .);
5. ceux qui, probablement par crainte de la Nouvelle Prophtie
du Montanisme, rejetaient lvangile selon Jean parce que cet
vangile contient la promesse de lenvoi du Paraclet, duquel
Montan se rclamait.
Irne fondait son choix des quatre vangiles sur le fait quil existe
quatre rgions du monde et quatre vents principaux, et sur les quatre animaux clestes gurant dans lApocalypse de Jean 4,7. Si, dans
les uvres dIrne, il est question dun canon dlimit, il consiste
dans les quatre vangiles. Suite ce choix, il ne rejetait pas seulement lvangile de Vrit, mais aussi tous les crits valentiniens.13
Face au valentinien Marc, il t la dirence entre la multitude innie
dcrits apocryphes et btards (nyow) confectionns par eux et les
crits de la vrit.14
Pourtant, Irne nappliquait pas de faon consquente sa limitation aux quatre vangiles, car la n de ses livres Contre les Hrsies,
il cita des paroles de Jsus, concernant lavenir bienheureux sur la
terre, qui ne gurent dans aucun des quatre vangiles.15 Dabord, il
se rclama de la tradition orale des presbytres qui auraient entendu
ces paroles de Jean, le disciple du Seigneur. Ensuite, il se rfra
Papias qui, en tant quauditeur de Jean et familier de Polycarpe,
avait attest cette tradition par crit ( per scripturam, ggrfvw). De
plus, Papias a ajout aux paroles de Jsus, la raction incrdule de

13
14
15

Adversus Haereses I, praefatio 12 (SC 264); III,11,9 (SC 211).

Adversus Haereses I,20,1 (SC 264).
Adversus Haereses V,33,34 (SC 153).

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

91

Judas. Il apparat donc que, malgr sa limitation au nombre de quatre vangiles, Irne nexcluait pas dautres traditions sur Jsus.16
Les autres crits provenant du christianisme primitif et cits par
Irne sont les suivants:17 douze ptres de Paul (celles de notre
Nouveau Testament sauf lptre Philmon), les Actes des Aptres,
la premire ptre de Pierre, deux ptres de Jean, lApocalypse de
Jean, et le Pasteur dHermas, cit comme scriptura, ce qui pourrait
tre traduit par criture ou par crit.18 Pour Irne, en outre, des
tmoins trs importants de la tradition apostolique taient lptre
envoye par lglise de Rome celle de Corinthe (connue comme
1 Clment), designe comme ipsa scriptura, et lptre de Polycarpe aux
Philippiens.19 Sans qualication apostolique, il cita lptre dIgnace
aux Romains et louvrage de Justin contre Marcion.20
Selon Eusbe, Irne aurait cit lptre aux Hbreux dans un
livre contenant des entretiens divers,21 mais dans son ouvrage Contre
les Hrsies, Irne na pas cit cette ptre; les allusions prtendues
lptre aux Hbreux sont quivoques.22 Puisque le livre auquel
Eusbe se rfre est totalement inconnu, il nest pas vident quIrne
ait connu cette ptre. Dans sa collection, il manque apparemment,
vu de la perspective ultrieure, les ptres de Jacques, de Jude et la
deuxime de Pierre. Peut-tre, lptre de Paul Philmon faisaitelle partie de la collection dIrne sans quil lait cite.
En eet, les uvres conserves dIrne ne contiennent pas une
liste intgrale de livres no-testamentaires; la seule liste quil ait rdige ne contient que les quatre vangiles. Le fait quIrne nait pas
rdig une liste complte, est conrm par Eusbe qui, faute dune

16
Cf. aussi Adversus Haereses I,20,1 (SC 264), o Irne semble reconnatre une
parole de Jsus cite par les disciples de Marc le gnostique: Souvent ils ont dsir
entendre une seule de ces paroles, mais ils nont eu personne qui la leur dise (voir
SC 263, pp. 264265 pour ce texte conjectural; cf. lvangile de Thomas 38 et Mt
13,17); et Adversus Haereses II,34,3 (SC 294), o il cite comme parole du Seigneur:
Si vous ntes pas dles dans les petites choses, qui vous donnera les grandes?
(cf. Luc 16,11).
17
Voir Blanchard (n. 10) 238274.
18
Adversus Haereses IV,20,2 (SC 100); Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica V,8,7 (SC 41);
cf. aussi Irne Adversus Haereses II,30,9 (SC 294).
19
Adversus Haereses III,3,34 (SC 211).
20
Adversus Haereses V,28,4 (SC 153); IV,6,2 (SC 100).
21
Historia Ecclesiastica V,26 (SC 41).
22
Blanchard (n. 10) 254256.

92

riemer roukema

telle liste, a lui-mme compos un canon rudimentaire partir des

uvres dIrne.23 Il est signicatif que, dans la mesure o Irne
parle des deux testaments (diaykai), il se rfre lancienne et
la nouvelle alliance et non pas lAncien et au Nouveau Testament.24
Plusieurs chercheurs ont dduit de louvrage Contre les Hrsies que
pour Irne, en fait, il existait dj un canon no-testamentaire. Il
est curieux, cependant, quils naient pas conclu, aussi, que lptre
de Clment, le Pasteur dHermas, lptre de Polycarpe et les traditions de Papias faisaient partie de ce canon naissant.25 Ainsi apparat-il clairement quIrne a t tudi dans la perspective du
dveloppement ultrieur.
La question t aborde dune manire plus quilibre par
Lawson. Il reconnat que chez Irne les quatre vangiles taient
dans un stade plus avanc de canonisation que les ptres, bien que
cela ntt rien lautorit quil attribuait celles-ci. A juste titre,
Lawson signale, cependant, quil est anachronique de se demander
si Irne considrait lun ou lautre crit apostolique comme criture canonique.26 Cela veut dire que, pour Irne, la question ne se
posait pas de savoir si lptre de Clment, le Pasteur dHermas, lptre de Polycarpe ou les paroles de Jsus transmises par Papias taient
canoniques, dans le sens quils guraient sur une liste dcrits reus.
Par contre, pour lui, la grande question tait de savoir si ces crits
correspondaient la vivante tradition apostolique. Cette tradition
apostolique tait exprime dans le canon de la vrit mentionn cidessus; elle portait sur la foi orthodoxe en un seul Dieu, le Pre

23
Historia Ecclesiastica V,8,19 (SC 41); cette liste contient les quatre vangiles,
lApocalypse de Jean, 1 Jean, 1 Pierre, le Pasteur dHermas et la Sagesse de Salomon;
ensuite il se rfre un presbytre apostolique anonyme, Justin le Martyr et
Ignace. Ici, Eusbe passe sur les ptres de Paul.
24
Blanchard (n. 10) 146150.
25
M.-J. Lagrange, Histoire ancienne du canon du Nouveau Testament (Introduction
ltude du Nouveau Testament I; Paris 1933) 4649; A. Benot, Saint Irne. Introduction
ltude de sa thologie (tudes dHistoire et de Philosophie Religieuse 52; Paris 1960)
146147; von Campenhausen (n. 6) 213244; I. Frank, Der Sinn der Kanonbildung.
Eine historisch-theologische Untersuchung der Zeit vom 1. Clemensbrief bis Irenus von Lyon
(Freiburg, Basel et Wien 1971) 195; A. Ziegenaus, Kanon. Von der Vterzeit bis zur
Gegenwart (Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte I, 3a, 2; Freiburg, Basel et Wien 1990)
1523; Blanchard (n. 10) 127131. Metzger (n. 2) 155: le Pasteur dHermas somewhat doubtfully. Cf. aussi P. Nautin, Irne et la canonicit des ptres pauliniennes, Revue de lHistoire des Religions 182 1972 113130.
26
J. Lawson, The Biblical Theology of Saint Irenaeus (London 1948) 36, 52; cf.
McDonald (n. 8) 164169.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

93

tout-puissant, le Crateur du ciel et de la terre, et en Jsus-Christ,

le Fils de Dieu, qui sest incarn pour le salut des hommes, et en
lEsprit Saint.27 Grce cette tradition, lglise savait discerner, selon
Irne, entre ce qui est vrai et ce qui est hrtique, et elle savait
aussi comment interprter les critures. Contre la tradition orale des
valentiniens, Irne dfendait cette autre tradition orale qui tait toujours, son avis, en rapport direct avec les aptres.28 Limportance
quil attachait la tradition orale est appuye par son hypothse que
les aptres nauraient pas laiss dcrits. Mme dans ce cas, les chrtiens devraient suivre la tradition transmise par lglise. Aussi taitil possible dtre chrtien orthodoxe tout en tant illettr.29
Lacceptation, par Irne, dcrits comme le Pasteur dHermas et
lptre de Clment pourrait nous mener la conclusion quils taient
lus dans les cultes de sa communaut. Il faut avouer, toutefois,
quIrne ne donne pas dindication concrte ce sujet. Nanmoins,
cette pratique est connue, quant lptre de Clment, grce une
remarque de Denys de Corinthe, mais il sagit l de lglise laquelle
cette ptre, lpoque, avait t destine.30 Quant la lecture publique du Pasteur dHermas on peut se rfrer Henne, qui dduit
cette possibilit dune remarque de Tertullien.31
3. Tertullien
Comme Irne, Tertullien aussi attachait une grande importance
la tradition apostolique, quil appelait regula dei ou regula.32 Comme

27

Adversus Haereses I,10,12 (SC 264). Voir H. Ohme, Kanon ekklesiastikos. Die
Bedeutung des altkirchlichen Kanonbegris (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 67; Berlin et
New York 1998) 6177.
28
Cf. Adversus Haereses II,22,5 (SC 294); IV,27,1 (SC 100); Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica
V,20,48 (SC 41).
29
Adversus Haereses III,1,14,2 (SC 211). Voir Lawson (n. 26) 3236, 8793; von
Campenhausen (n. 6) 214; Blanchard (n. 10) 284285.
30
Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica IV,23,11 (SC 31); Denys indique quaussi la lettre
de Soter, alors vque de Rome, tait lue dans son glise. A la n du quatrime
sicle, Jrme, De viris illustribus 15, 2 (Biblioteca Patristica 12), conrme au sujet
de lptre de Clment: certains lieux elle est lue aussi en public.
31
Ph. Henne, Canonicit du Pasteur dHermas, Revue Thomiste 90 1990 81100
(88). Jrme, De viris illustribus 10 (Biblioteca Patristica 12), conrme au sujet du
Pasteur: dans quelques glises de la Grce il est lu aussi en public. Voir aussi le
5 de notre chapitre.
32
Voir Ohme (n. 27) 78121.

94

riemer roukema

Irne, il tait davis que, grce ladhsion cette tradition, lglise

tait en rapport direct avec les aptres appels par Jsus-Christ.33 Si
on le compare Irne, tout de mme, Tertullien faisait une slection plus claire des livres accepts dans lglise. Bien que, pas plus
quIrne, il nait propos une liste complte dcrits canoniques, il
reconnaissait, face aux marcionites, non seulement les quatre vangiles, mais aussi, explicitement, les treize ptres de Paul. Il reconnaissait galement lptre aux Hbreux, quil attribuait Barnab;
il prcisait quen tant que compagnon de Paul et des autres aptres,
Barnab tait en accord avec leur instruction.34 Ensuite, il reconnaissait la premire ptre de Jean, la premire ptre de Pierre, lptre de Jude, appel aptre,35 les Actes des Aptres et lApocalypse
de Jean. Tertullien ne citait pas la deuxime et la troisime ptre
de Jean ni la deuxime ptre de Pierre. Il signalait quil ntait pas
ncessaire que les crits reus soient composs par un aptre; il sut
quils concordent avec la rgle apostolique de la foi.36
Une fois, il se rfra, dans son crit primitif Sur la Prire, au Pasteur
dHermas, parce que dautres chrtiens se rclamaient de celui-ci.37
Bien que Tertullien parle dune scriptura, le contexte ne montre pas
quil se rfre lcriture. Plus tard, devenu montaniste, Tertullien
rejeta le Pasteur dHermas parce que ce livre tait trop indulgent
pour les chrtiens adultres.38 Contrairement la vrit, il suggra
que ce livre avait t jug par toutes les assembles des glises, y
compris les vtres (c.--d.: catholiques), comme une pice apocryphe
et falsie.39 galement, Tertullien rejetait les Actes de Paul, partir desquels dautres chrtiens dfendaient le droit des femmes

33

De Praescriptione Haereticorum 1321 (SC 46); 32; Adversus Praxean 2,12 (CCSL 2);
De Virginibus Velandis 1,3 (SC 424).
34
De Pudicitia 20,25 (SC 394).
35
De Cultu Feminarum 3,3 (SC 173).
36
Adversus Marcionem IV,2 (SC 456); De Pudicitia 12,1; 20,1 (SC 394); voir von
Campenhausen (n. 6) 327328.
37
De Oratione 16,14 (CCSL 1). Cest partir de ce texte que Henne suggre
quon lisait le Pasteur dHermas dans les cultes; cf. n. 31.
38
De Pudicitia 10,12; 20,2 (SC 394).
39
De Pudicitia 10,12 (SC 394). Selon von Campenhausen (n. 6) 382, ab omni concilio ecclesiarum ne se rfre pas des conciles, mais aux runions des glises locales; cf. Harnack, Die Entstehung (n. 6) 16; Henne (n. 31) 88. Sans le vouloir, Tertullien
admet quil exagre en De Pudicitia 10,12, en disant, en De Pudicitia 20,2, que lptre de Barnab (c.--d. aux Hbreux) est mieux accueillie (receptior) dans les glises
que ce Pasteur apocryphe des adultres; il sensuit que le Pasteur dHermas tait
toujours reconnu, du moins un certain niveau.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

95

enseigner et baptiser; mais Tertullien refusait ces Actes parce quils

avaient t composs par un prtre dAsie.40 Toujours en les dnigrant, il parlait des hrtiques qui tentaient dintroduire leurs crits
chez les catholiques.41 Cependant, Tertullien citait quelques paroles
connues seulement de la tradition orale, sans pour autant les attribuer explicitement Jsus.42
Il semble donc moins anachronique que chez Irne, darmer
que Tertullien tait conscient du concept dune collection no-testamentaire qui tait, peu peu, close, sans quil se servt dun terme
comme canon. Par contre, il parlait de levangelicum instrumentum et
du novum testamentum comme dune collection dcrits.43 Pour lui, le
critre tait, pour les livres reus, quils correspondent la tradition
apostolique, sans quil ne soit ncessaire quils aient t crits par
un aptre. Il est remarquable que son canon no-testamentaire
concorde pour la plus grande partie avec la collection ultrieure.
4. Hippolyte
Nous nous contenterons de quelques remarques seulement sur le personnage dHippolyte de Rome. Dans les uvres qui lui sont attribues,44 on peut reprer les livres de notre Nouveau Testament sauf
lptre Philmon, lptre de Jude et la deuxime et la troisime
ptre de Jean. Ces uvres contiennent, peut-tre, quelques rminiscences du Pasteur dHermas, de lptre de Barnab et dun rcit des
Actes de Paul. La supposition mise part que le Fragment de Muratori
fut crit par Hippolyte, aucune liste de livres reus ne fut transmise
sous son nom.45 Si la Tradition Apostolique fut compose par lui, nous
voyons, dune part, jusqu quel point lauteur tenait cette tradition, et dautre part, quil ne donnait aucune prcision, dans les

40

De Baptismo 17,45 (SC 35).

De Praescriptione Haereticorum 14,9 (SC 46); cf. De Resurrectione Mortuorum 63,7
(CCSL 2).
42
De Oratione 26,1 (CCSL 1): As-tu vu un frre, alors tu as vu ton Seigneur;
De Baptismo 20,2 (SC 35): Personne nobtiendra le royaume des cieux sans avoir
t tent.
43
Adversus Marcionem IV,1,1 (SC 456); 2,1; Adversus Praxean 15,1 (CCSL 2).
44
Nous nentrerons pas dans le dbat, ici, sur lauthenticit des uvres portant
son nom ou quon lui a attribues. Voir J. A. Cerrato, Hippolytus between East and
West. The Commentaries and the Provenance of the Corpus (Oxford 2002).
45
Voir Lagrange (n. 25) 5966, 7884.
41

96

riemer roukema

paragraphes sur le lecteur et le livre, sur les livres quil fallait lire
dans les cultes.46
5. Le Fragment de Muratori
Le dveloppement que nous venons dobserver chez Tertullien, peut
aussi tre repr dans le texte appel le Fragment de Muratori.47
Normalement ce fragment ou canon est localis dans lglise occidentale et dat autour de 200, ce qui correspond aux uvres primitives de Tertullien. Cependant, Sundberg et Hahneman ont tent
de dater ce fragment non pas autour de 200 mais au quatrime
sicle;48 de plus, selon ces auteurs, ce texte ne proviendrait pas de
loccident mais de lorient. Cette datation tardive et cette localisation ont t acceptes par Dahl, Koester, McDonald et Trobisch.49
Lun des arguments en faveur de ce point de vue est quautour de
200, lglise naurait pas encore t prte un canon clos. Par
contre, dautres, comme Ferguson, Henne, Metzger, Kaestli et
Verheyden,50 ont tent de dmontrer que la datation primitive mrite
dtre soutenue. Dans cette contribution, nous prfrons nous aussi
la datation primitive, entre autres parce quil est dit, dans ce fragment,
que le Pasteur dHermas fut crit rcemment, de nos jours; les tentatives dinrmer ce propos ne nous paraissent pas convaincantes.
Ce fragment contient une numration de la plupart des livres de

46
B. Botte, A. Gerhards, S. Felbecker, La Tradition Apostolique de Saint Hippolyte
(Mnster 19895) 31, 89 ( 11; 41). Voir aussi Ohme (n. 27) 156177.
47
dit, par exemple, par H. Lietzmann, Das Muratorische Fragment und die monarchianischen Prologe zu den Evangelien (Bonn 19082, 1921) 311.
48
A. C. Sundberg, Towards a Revised History of the New Testament Canon,
Studia Evangelica 4,1 1968 452461; Canon Muratori: A Fourth-Century List, Harvard
Theological Review 66 1973 141; Hahneman (n. 8).
49
N. A. Dahl, The Origin of the Earliest Prologues to the Pauline Letters,
Semeia 12 1978 233277 (p. 237); H. Koester, History and Literature of Early Christianity
(Introduction to the New Testament 2; New York et Berlin 20002) 12; McDonald
(n. 8) 209220; D. Trobisch, Die Endredaktion des Neuen Testaments. Eine Untersuchung
zur Entstehung der christlichen Bibel (Fribourg [Suisse] et Gttingen 1996) 57.
50
E. Ferguson, Canon Muratori. Date and Provenance, Studia Patristica 17,2
1982 677683; Ph. Henne, La datation du Canon de Muratori, Revue Biblique 1001
1993 5475; Metzger (n. 2) 193; J.-D. Kaestli, La place du Fragment de Muratori
dans lhistoire du canon. propos de la thse de Sundberg et Hahneman, Cristianesimo
nelle Storia 15 1994 609634; J. Verheyden, The Canon Muratori. A Matter of
Dispute, in J.-M. Auwers et H. J. de Jonge (ds), The Biblical Canons (Louvain 2003)
488556.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

97

notre Nouveau Testament, tandis que dautres livres sont rejets.

Quoique le dbut manque, il est vident quil parlait des vangiles
selon Matthieu et Marc. Le texte prsente le mdecin Luc comme
lauteur du troisime vangile, et il traite, dune manire relativement dtaille, de lorigine de lvangile selon Jean. Il relate que,
pendant un jene des disciples, il fut rvl Andr que Jean devait
tout noter, tandis que les autres devaient contrler ce que ce dernier avait crit. Ensuite, le fragment parle des Actes de tous les
Aptres, crits par Luc, et des ptres de Paul sept glises (aux
Corinthiens, aux phsiens, aux Philippiens, aux Colossiens, aux
Galates, aux Thessaloniciens et aux Romains). Ces glises sont compares aux sept glises auxquelles Jean crit dans son Apocalypse,
ce qui voulait dire quil crivait toutes les glises. Aprs cela, les
ptres Philmon, Tite et Timothe sont numres. Les ptres, attribues Paul, aux Laodiciens et aux Alexandrins sont rejetes comme des falsications marcionites qui ne peuvent tre reues
dans lglise catholique (quae in catholicam ecclesiam recipi non potest).
Par ailleurs, lptre de Jude, deux ptres de Jean, lApocalypse de
Jean et lApocalypse de Pierre sont reues (recipimus), bien que lauteur
prcise que quelques-uns ne veulent pas que ces deux apocalypses
soient lues dans lglise.
Hermas est introduit comme lauteur du Pasteur et, tonnamment,
comme le frre de Pie qui tait lvque de lglise de Rome. Au
sujet du livre dHermas il est not: et ideo legi eum quidem oportet, se
publicare vero in ecclesia populo neque inter prophetas completo numero neque
inter apostolos in ne temporum potest. Suivant une suggestion de Harnack,51
nous aimerions traduire cette phrase ainsi: cest pourquoi il faut le
lire, mais dans lglise, au peuple, il ne peut tre rendu publique ni
comme faisant partie des prophtes, dont le nombre est complet, ni
comme faisant partie des aptres dans la n des temps. Contrairement
linterprtation habituelle, selon laquelle le Pasteur ne devait pas
tre lu du tout dans lglise,52 nous proposons que, daprs ce texte,
le Pasteur dHermas pourrait alors tre lu dans lglise, si on avait
prcis quil ntait pas considr comme lun des prophtes de
lAncien Testament ou comme lun des aptres.
51
O. de Gebhardt, A. Harnack, Hermae Pastor Graece (Patrum Apostolicorum
Opera III; Lipsiae 1877) XLVIXLVIII.
52
Par exemple: Th. Zahn, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons II (Erlangen et
Leipzig 1890) 111112; Henne (n. 31) 85; Hahneman (n. 8) 37.

98

riemer roukema

Selon le Fragment, les uvres dArsinos (qui est inconnu), de

Valentin et de Miltiade53 ne sont pas reues (nihil in totum recipimus);
il est ajout quils composrent un nouveau livre de psaumes pour
Marcion, avec Basilide dAsie, le fondateur des cataphrygiens. Bien
que cette remarque soit embrouille, les noms indiquent une origine
autour de 200, quand les disciples de Marcion et de Basilide comme
aussi les cataphrygiens montanistes provoquaient lglise catholique
marquer ses limites. Aucune mention nest faite de lptre aux
Hbreux, de lptre de Jacques, des deux ptres de Pierre et dune
troisime ptre de Jean.
On a dit que la forme littraire du fragment nest pas celle dun
canon, dans le sens dune liste close des livres du Nouveau Testament,
mais quil est plus proche du genre des prologues gurant comme
des introductions aux livres bibliques. Il est vrai que quelques parties de ce fragment ont t reprises dans deux prologues ultrieurs.54
Nanmoins, il nous parat incontournable que ce fragment ait les
caractristiques dun canon, puisquil est question des livres reus
dans lglise catholique et du rejet dautres crits. Pourtant, le texte
ne prsente pas la promulgation dun dcret, mais la constatation
dune pratique. Le critre principal pour la rception nest pas prcisment lapostolicit, mais celui de la catholicit.55 Cela veut dire
que lglise catholique savait quel livre tait digne de foi et lequel
ne ltait pas. Cette conscience est proche de la notion de la tradition apostolique prsente par Irne. Dans son introduction de
lvangile selon Jean notamment, il est manifeste que lauteur recourut aussi la tradition orale. Son acceptation de lApocalypse de
Pierre, sans pour autant mentionner lptre de Jacques et les deux
ptres de Pierre, plaide en faveur dune datation primitive. Le fait
que lptre aux Hbreux manque, correspond Irne.
Par consquent, cette numration de livres reus dans lglise
53
Cf. Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica V,16,3 (SC 41), qui mentionne un Miltiade relatif au Montanisme.
54
Kaestli (n. 50) 616617; cf. Hahneman (n. 8) 910.
55
H. Burckhard, Motive und Mastbe der Kanonbildung nach dem Kanon
Muratori, Theologische Zeitschrift 30 1974 207211. Voir aussi K. Stendahl, The
Apocalypse of John and the Epistles of Paul in the Muratorian Fragment, in W.
Klasen, G. F. Snyder (ds), Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation. Essays in
honor of O. A. Piper (London 1962) 239302, et N. A. Dahl, The Particularity
of the Pauline Epistles as a Problem in the Ancient Church, in Festschrift O. Cullmann, Neotestamentica et Patristica (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 6; Leiden
1962) 261271.

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

99

catholique conrme la tendance dune dlimitation, visible galement

chez Tertullien. Puisque la slection mme du fragment dire de
celle de Tertullien, il apparat, cependant, que le processus de formation du canon no-testamentaire ntait pas encore termin.
6. Clment dAlexandrie
Malgr toutes les dirences de fond entre Clment dAlexandrie et
Irne, il y a une remarquable correspondance formelle entre ces
deux Pres en ce qui concerne leur usage des crits du christianisme
primitif. Clment parlait des quatre vangiles qui nous taient transmis,56 ce qui indique une collection spciale. Pourtant, il citait aussi,
en tant en accord, les Traditions de Matthias,57 lvangile selon les
Hbreux,58 la Prdication de Pierre,59 un vangile anonyme,60 de
nombreux agrapha de Jsus,61 une tradition sur le baptme des aptres, et des traditions connues du Protvangile de Jacques.62 Il utilisait douze ptres de Paul (il manque celle Philmon); il attribuait
galement lptre aux Hbreux cet aptre.63 Puis, il se rfrait aux
Actes des Aptres, la premire ptre de Pierre, aux deux ptres
de Jean, lptre de Jude, lApocalypse de Jean et lApocalypse
de Pierre.64 Lptre de Jacques manque dans ses uvres. Il reconnaissait, par ailleurs, lptre de Barnab, quil appelait aptre,65 la
Didach,66 le Pasteur dHermas,67 lptre de Clment de Rome, appel
aptre,68 une tradition de Jean sur Jsus connue des Actes de Jean,69

56
Stromateis 3,93,1. Voir J. Ruwet, Clment dAlexandrie, Canon des critures
et Apocryphes, Biblica 29 1948 7799 391408; J. A. Brooks, Clement of Alexandria
as a Witness to the Development of the New Testament Canon, The Second Century
9 1992 4155.
57
Stromateis 2,45,4 (SC 38); VII,82,1 (SC 428).
58
Stromateis 2,45,5 (SC 38); V,96,3 (SC 278).
59
Stromateis 6,39,24; 6,41,26; 6,43,3; 6,48,2; 6,48,6; 6,128,13 (SC 446).
60
Stromateis 5,73,7 (SC 278).
61
Voir J. Ruwet, Les Agrapha dans les uvres de Clment dAlexandrie,
Biblica 30 1949 133160.
62
Stromateis 7,93,7 (SC 428); In Epistulam Judae 1 (GCS 172).
63
Stromateis 6,62,12 (SC 446).
64
Eclogae propheticae 41; 4849 (GCS 172; Biblioteca Patristica 4).
65
Stromateis 2,31,2; 2,35,5 (SC 38); cf. Actes 14,4.14.
66
Stromateis 1,100,4 (SC 30).
67
Stromateis 1,85,4 (SC 30); 2,3,5; 2,43,544,3 (SC 38); 4,74,4 (SC 463).
68
Stromateis 1,38,8 (SC 30); 4,105112 (SC 463).
69
In Epistulam primam Iohannis 1,1,1 (GCS 172).

100

riemer roukema

une tradition orale sur Jean,70 et un propos inconnu de Paul.71 De

plus, Clment citait, sous quelques rserves, lvangile selon les gyptiens.72 Quant au fragment de lvangile secret de Marc cit dans
une lettre prtendue de Clment, dite par M. Smith, il faut,
notre avis, attendre le moment que le manuscrit soit mis la disposition des chercheurs avant que lon puisse en tirer des consquences dnitives concernant son authenticit.73
Une dirence importante par rapport Irne est que Clment
se rclamait beaucoup plus largement des crits dits apocryphes.
La correspondance formelle entre ces deux auteurs repose sur le critre qui tablit ce qui pouvait tre reu par lglise: cest le kann
de la vrit, appel aussi, par Clment, kann kklhsiastikw, kann
tw kklhsaw et kann gnvstikw.74 Daprs Ohme, ce canon nest
pas, chez Clment, une brve confession de foi, comme chez Irne
et Tertullien, mais il reprsente la tradition normative de lglise
catholique75 concernant linterprtation des critures, la pratique de
la vie chrtienne et la liturgie. Quoique, pour Clment, le canon
ecclsiastique soit en rapport troit avec les critures, la notion dun
canon clos de lAncien et du Nouveau Testament lui est trangre.76
A son avis, lglise tait, grce sa tradition normative appele
canon, en contact direct avec les aptres qui Jsus avait con
la gnose.77

70

Quis Dives Salvetur 42 (GCS 172); Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica 3,23,519 (SC 31).
Stromateis 6,43,1 (SC 446).
72
Stromateis 3,45,3; 3,6366; 3,92,293,1 (GCS 52 [35]).
73
M. Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge, MA,
1973); cf. A. Le Boulluec, Lcole dAlexandrie, in L. Pietri (d.), Histoire du
Christianisme I ([Paris] 2000) 531578 (pp. 547548); La lettre sur lvangile Secret
de Marc et le Quis Dives Salvetur? de Clment dAlexandrie, Apocrypha 7 1996 2741.
74
Stromateis 1,15,2; 1,96,1 (SC 30); 3,66,1; 3,71,1; 3,105,1 (GCS 52 [35]); 4,3,2;
4,15,4; 4,98,3; 4,101,1 (SC 463); 5,1,4 (SC 278); 6,125,3; 6,131,1; 6,165,1 (SC 446);
7,41,3; 7,90,2; 7,94,5; 7,105,5 (SC 428). Voir Ohme (n. 27) 122155 et W. C. van
Unnik, Notes on the Nature of Clemens Alexandrinus Canon Ecclesiasticus, in idem,
Sparsa Collecta III (Leiden 1983) 4051.
75
Stromateis 7,105107 (SC 428).
76
Cf. Eusbe Historia Ecclesiastica 6,13,414,7 (SC 41), qui, faute dune liste de
livres reconnus par Clment, a lui-mme rassembl quelques donnes sur les critures utilises par celui-ci.
77
Stromateis 1,11,3 (SC 30); Eusbe H.E. 2,1,4 (SC 31).
71

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

101

7. Origne78
Au dbut de la septime homlie sur Josu par Origne, gure une
liste de livres no-testamentaires correspondant au canon actuel sauf
lApocalypse de Jean. Mais comme ce sermon nest connu que dans
la traduction de Run, datant de 400 environ, cette liste risque dtre
adapte au canon du temps du traducteur, de sorte quelle ne peut
tre cite comme un tmoignage dOrigne. Il est dautant plus douteux quOrigne composa lui-mme une liste de livres reconnus,
quEusbe, toujours intress donner des renseignements sur le
canon,79 dut lui-mme reconstruire un canon no-testamentaire
partir des uvres dOrigne, comme il lavait dj fait pour Irne
et Clment. La liste dEusbe comprend les quatre vangiles, les ptres de Paul, lptre aux Hbreux, dont lAlexandrin rapporte les
traditions qui disent quelle fut crite par Clment de Rome ou par
Luc; de plus, il ajoute une ptre de Pierre, une ptre de Jean et
lApocalypse de Jean. Selon Eusbe, Origne exprimait ses doutes
sur la deuxime ptre de Pierre et sur les deux autres ptres de
Jean.80 Eusbe nnumre pas les ptres de Jacques et de Jude, mais
cela nempche pas quelles gurent dans les uvres dOrigne.81
Origne relate que le Pasteur dHermas tait en usage dans les glises, sans quil ne ft reconnu par tous comme un crit divin; lui,
cependant, le tint pour inspir.82 Par ailleurs, il cite avec consentement lptre de Barnab,83 lptre de Clment,84 les Actes de Paul,85
et avec rticence lvangile selon les Hbreux.86 Il se rfre, sans

78
Cf. J. Ruwet, Les Antilegomena dans les uvres dOrigne, Biblica 23 1942
1842; Les Apocryphes dans les uvres dOrigne, Biblica 25 1944 143166,
211334.
79
Historia Ecclesiastica 3,3,3 (SC 31).
80
Historia Ecclesiastica 6,25,314 (SC 41), avec citations de quelques fragments
dOrigne provenant de ses Commentaires sur Matthieu et sur Jean et de ses
Homlies sur Hbreux.
81
Par exemple, De Principiis 3,2,1 (SC 268); Comm. in Ioannem 19,152; 20,66 (SC
290); Comm. in Matthaeum 10,17 (SC 162); 17,30 (GCS 40).
82
Comm. in Matthaeum 14,21 (GCS 40); Comm. in Epistulam ad Romanos 10,31 (Aus
der Geschichte der Lateinischen Bibel 34); cf. De Principiis 1,3,3; 2,1,5 (SC 252);
3,2,4; 4,2,4 (SC 268); Hom. in Ezechiel 13,3 (SC 352); Hom. in Lucam 35,3 (SC 87).
83
De Principiis 3,2,4 (SC 268); Contra Celsum 1,63 (SC 132).
84
De Principiis 2,3,6 (SC 252); Comm. in Ioannem 6,279 (SC 157).
85
De Principiis 1,2,3 (SC 252); Comm. in Ioannem 20,91 (SC 290).
86
Comm. in Ioannem 2,87 (SC 132); Hom. in Ieremiam 15,4 (SC 238); Comm. in
Matthaeum 15,14 (GCS 40).

102

riemer roukema

jugement ngatif, une tradition atteste par lvangile selon Pierre

et par le Livre de Jacques (le Protvangile).87 De plus, il cite plusieurs agrapha de Jsus.88 Par rapport la Prdication de Pierre il
fait, dans son Commentaire sur lvangile selon Jean, la distinction importante entre des livres authentiques, btards et mls (gnsiow, nyow,
miktw), mais sans classier cette Prdication portant le nom de
Pierre.89 Il est possible que cet crit soit identique la Petri Doctrina
cite dans son ouvrage Sur les Principes, o il rejette celle-ci.90 Dans
sa premire Homlie sur lvangile selon Luc, il rejette galement les
vangiles selon les gyptiens, selon les douze Aptres, de Basilide,
selon Thomas et selon Matthias.91
Notons quOrigne cherchait plus nettement que Clment dlimiter le nombre de livres dignes de foi. Cependant, tout en tenant
compte du choix de lglise, il se permettait une position indpendante par rapport lusage de livres qui ntaient pas gnralement
accepts. En n de compte, il se savait tenu par la tradition ecclsiastique et apostolique, autrement dit la prdication apostolique,
rsume dans le prface de son ouvrage Sur les Principes.92 Pour Origne, cette tradition apostolique tait la norme pour linterprtation
des critures. Il ntait pas question, tout de mme, dun canon clos.
8. Conclusions
Cette brve exploration nous permet de constater qu la n du
deuxime et au dbut du troisime sicle, il y avait, dans lglise,
une conance ferme dans la crdibilit de la tradition apostolique
portant sur la foi et sur la pratique ecclsiale. Cette tradition tait
transmise oralement, bien quelle se trouvt galement dans les crits
qui ont plus tard form, plus ou moins dans cette composition, le
Nouveau Testament. Pourtant, lide que lglise avait besoin dune
collection close de livres provenant de la priode apostolique, par

87

Comm. in Matthaeum 10,17 (SC 162).

De Oratione 2,2; 14,1 (GCS 3); Comm. in Ioannem 19,44 (SC 290).
89
Comm. in Ioannem 13,104 (SC 222).
90
De Principiis 1 praefatio 8 (SC 252).
91
Hom. in Lucam 1,2 (SC 87).
92
De Principiis 1 praefatio 2; 1,4 (SC 252); cf. 4,2,2 (SC 268); Hom. in Ieremiam
5,14 (SC 232); Fragmenta in Epistulam primam ad Corinthios 4; 74,4043 ( Journal of
Theological Studies 9 1908 234; 10 1909 42); Ohme (n. 27) 193218.
88

tradition apostolique et canon du n.t.

103

laquelle elle pouvait se dfendre contre les hrsies, tait peu rpandue. Cela nempche pas que certains livres fussent rejets, comme
lvangile de Vrit par Irne, le Pasteur dHermas et les Actes de
Paul par Tertullien, ou la Doctrine de Pierre et cinq vangiles par
Origne, ou quun livre ft cit avec rserve, comme lvangile selon
les gyptiens, par Clment. Toujours, la question principale tait de
savoir si un crit correspondait la tradition apostolique. Ce qui est
caractristique de lglise de cette poque, cest quelle prtendait
connatre le fond de la tradition apostoliquebien quil paraisse que
Tertullien, dans sa priode montaniste, scartait de la pratique plus
large par rapport au Pasteur dHermas. Grce cette conance dans
la tradition orale, il y avait, en gnral, une attitude assez gnreuse
envers les crits accepts comme tant dans le droit l de la prdication des aptres.
Il est moins clair dans quelle mesure les crits censs tre apostoliques pouvaient tre lus dans les cultes. A notre avis, en ce qui
concerne la lecture publique dcrits chrtiens dans la priode tudie, lglise ne marquait pas la limite avec rigueur. Enn, notons
un exemple, de cette attitude, que nous navons pas encore relev
ci-dessus: Eusbe relate comment, en 190 environ, lglise de Rhossos,
prs dAntioche, avait commenc lire, en toute innocence, lvangile selon Pierre.93 On pourra prsumer que cette ouverture desprit
tait, cette poque, encore trs rpandue. Pour une grande partie
de lglise, la question ntait pas de savoir si tel vangile, ou le
Pasteur dHermas, faisait partie dun canon clos, mais sil tait inscrit
dans la tradition cense tre apostolique.

93

Historia Ecclesiastica 6,12,26 (SC 41).

WITNESSES AND MEDIATORS OF CHRISTS

GNOSTIC TEACHINGS
Gerard P. Luttikhuizen
1. Introduction: The Letter of Peter to Philip
The Letter of Peter to Philip (NHC VIII.2)1 relates how at Peters
request, Philip returned from his missionary travels, and thereupon
how all the apostles gathered together on the Mount of Olives.2
When they were praying to the Father and to the Son, suddenly a
great light appeared to them. The apostles heard the voice of Jesus
Christ asking them why they were seeking him. They reacted by
putting several questions to Christ: they wanted to understand the
deciency of the aeons and their fullness, and they asked him why
they were detained in this world, how they came here, how they
would be able to leave, and why the cosmic powers fought against
them. Christ answered their questions with a summarized version of
the Gnostic myth of origins and with other typically Gnostic teachings. But before giving these answers the voice of Christ uttered the
following comment:
You yourselves bear witness that I said all these things to you. But
because of your unbelief I shall say it again.3

In this statement, Christ makes it clear to the assembled apostles

that the Gnostic doctrines which he is about to reveal conform with
his prepaschal teachings. This includes Christ already being a Gnostic
teacher before Easter. But at that time the apostles allegedly did not
believe or understand his words. For this reason a repetition was
necessary. The apostles are called as witnesses to the unity and the

1
M. W. Meyer, The Letter of Peter to Philip (Chico, Calif., 1991); H.-G. Bethge,
Der Brief des Petrus an Philippus (Texte und Untersuchungen 141; Berlin 1997).
2
As in other early Christian sources, Philip the evangelist (Acts 6.5; 8.440; 21.8)
is identied with Philip the apostle (Acts 1.13 and elsewhere).
3
135.58.

witnesses of christs gnostic teachings

105

immutability of Christs teachings. At the same time, they are criticized for their initial unbelief.
The Letter of Peter to Philip refers more than once to the prepaschal
existence of Christ in a human body. For instance, the Mount of
Olives is designated as the mountain where the apostles used to come
together with Christ, when he was in the body.4 This distinction,
however, does not serve to stress the dierences. On the contrary, the
continuity of Christs teachings before and after Easter is underlined.5
This view of the relation of Christs Gnostic revelations to his
prepaschal teachings has polemical overtones: if Peter and the other
disciples could attest that the Gnostic doctrines were identical with
the teachings Jesus Christ had given when he was still in their midst,
it follows that the Gnostics were his true followers and, moreover,
the legitimate representatives of the early apostolic tradition.
While the author of the Letter of Peter to Philip connects his Gnostic
ideas with the teachings of Jesus Christ as they were understood by
the apostles after their nal enlightenment, he must have associated
non-Gnostic accounts of Christs teachingsnotably the Lucan writings which he is likely to have read and used for his reports of several appearances of the exalted Christ in and near Jerusalem6with
the unbelief and the incomprehension of the disciples before their
enlightenment.
To summarize, the Letter of Peter to Philip claims that its Gnostic
contents are consistent with the prepaschal message of Christ; secondly, it appeals to the assembled apostles as witnesses to this interpretation of Christs teachings. In addition, and more implicitly,
non-Gnostic accounts of the teachings of Christ are disparaged as
documents of the supposed initial unbelief of the disciples. Below we
shall compare the claims of this document with the pertinent views
of other Gnostic texts.

133.17; cf. 138.3 and 139.11.

Cf. 139.11f., where Peter states: Our Lord Jesus, when he was in the body,
indicated everything to us.
6
Cf. Luttikhuizen, The Letter of Peter to Philip and the New Testament, in
R. McL. Wilson, Nag Hammadi and Gnosis (Leiden 1976) 76102.
5

106

gerard p. luttikhuizen

2. How were the Gnostic revelations of the exalted Christ related to his
prepaschal teachings?
It is possible that the Wisdom of Jesus Christ (NHC III.4 and BG 3)7
contains a similar view on the relation between the Gnostic revelations
of Christ and his earlier teachings. The opening frame story tells
how after the resurrection of Christ, the twelve disciples and seven
women followers came together on the Mount of Olives8 and how
they were in great confusion about the nature of the Universe, about
the power of the cosmic authorities, the plan of the Saviour, etc.
Then the Saviour appeared to them in the likeness of a great angel
of light asking them what they were perplexed about and what they
were searching for. When they submitted their questions to Christ,
he revealed to them the Gnostic truth. At the conclusion of the text
we learn that these revelations dispelled the disciples uncertainties
and that their perplexities gave way to ineable joy. They were now
prepared to preach the gospel of God.9
Just like the Letter of Peter to Philip, this text reports that after Easter
the disciples were still in the dark about fundamental issues of Gnostic
knowledge. But the Wisdom of Jesus Christ does not explain their uncertainties. Was the earthly Jesus a Gnostic teacher and did his own
followers not believe or understand this, as the Letter of Peter to Philip
wishes its readers to believe? Or were the disciples still ignorant
because it was not until after Easter that the Saviour revealed the
full truth?
The latter idea is suggested in the Secret Book of John, one of the
better known Gnostic documents.10 This text tells how after a dispute with a Pharisee, John the son of Zebedee went to a desert place
on the mountain, apparently the Mount of Olives. There he pondered the following questions:

7
D. M. Parrott, Nag Hammadi Codices III,3 4 and V,1 with Papyrus Berolinensis
8502,3 and Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1081 (Leiden 1991).
8
The text situates this mountain in Galilee, NHC III.4, 90.1891.1; BG 3.
77.1578.1.
9
NHC III.4, 119.1016; BG 3.127.110.
10
The Secret Book survives in four Coptic manuscripts: NHC II.1; III.1; IV.1 and
BG 2. In addition, Bishop Irenaeus summarized a Greek version of the rst part
of the text in his Adversus Haereses 1.29. Synoptic text edition: M. Waldstein and
F. Wisse, The Apocryphon of John: Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II,1; III,1; and IV,1
with BG 8502 (Leiden 1995).

witnesses of christs gnostic teachings

107

How was the Saviour appointed and why was he sent into the world
by his Father, and who is his Father, and of what sort is that aeon
to which we shall go? He said to us, This aeon has been stamped
after the model of that imperishable aeon, but he did not teach us
what that one is like.

The last sentence seems to reveal how the Gnostics behind this text
related Christs postpaschal revelations to his earlier teachings. If it
was characteristic of Christs earlier teachings that he mentioned the
imperishable aeon but that he did not reveal of what kind it is, his
prepaschal teachings must have had an incomplete and provisional
character, while the full and denitive truth was only revealed after
Easter.
In the Secret Book of John, Christ does not deliver his revelatory
teachings to the assembled apostles or to the apostles plus several
women followers but to one of them, John. The limitation of the
audience is connected with another dierence from the above-mentioned two writings. In the Letter of Peter to Philip and the Wisdom of
Jesus Christ, the Saviour reveals the Gnostic truth to his disciples and
thereupon commissions them to preach the Gospel (the Gospel of
Gnostic salvation) in the world, whereas in the Secret Book the true
knowledge is reserved for John and his fellow spirits, the people of
the Immovable Race. In the concluding section of the text, Christ
does not send his followers out into the world, as he does in the
above two texts. Rather he emphasizes the secret character of his
teachings.11
This means that the chronological distinction between a period of
incomplete teachings and a period in which the full and denitive
truth is revealed runs parallel with a distinction between public and
secret teachings:12 while Christ addressed his prepaschal message to
all and sundry, he reserved his postpaschal revelations for the select
group of Johannine Gnostics.
In the opening frame story quoted above, John wishes to be

11

BG 2.75.1517 and parallel passages.

In his Historia ecclesiastica 2.1.4, Eusebius ascribes a similar distinction to Clement
of Alexandria (Hypotyposes 7). This idea is reminiscent of the distinction made in the
Gospel of John between parabolic or veiled teachings in the period before Easter
and clear language after Easter. Cf. esp. 16.25: Till now I have spoken in gures
(paroimai); the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in gures, but
tell you plainly of the Father.
12

108

gerard p. luttikhuizen

informed about the meaning of an earlier saying of Christ. But

nowhere in his actual revelations does the Gnostic Saviour explain
or consider words spoken by him before. It was perhaps precisely
because the Gnostics of the Secret Book were convinced of the fundamental dissimilarity of the words spoken by Christ before and after
Easter that they were no longer interested in the earlier teachings.
For the sake of completeness I should add that we encounter a
very dierent interpretation of Christs prepaschal teachings in the
surviving fragments of the exegetical works of Valentinian authors
such as Heracleon, Theodotus, and Ptolemy. These Gnostic theologians claimed that the things done, said, and experienced by Christ
during his temporary dwelling in a human body had a hidden symbolic meaning. Their intention was to uncover this spiritual meaning
in the familiar Gospel accounts of Christs public ministry. In their
view, Christs prepaschal teachings contained the whole truth, but a
special hermeneutical key to the sources was needed to nd it.13
3. Apostolic witnesses and mediators
a. Peter
The Letter of Peter to Philip supports its Gnostic interpretation of the
teachings of Christ with a reference to Peter and to the testimony
of the assembled apostles. We nd a comparable reference to Peter
in the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII.3).14 This text speaks of
visions and auditions received by Peter during the events of Good
Friday.15 On one of the rst pages, the Saviour says to Peter:
From you I have made a beginning for the others whom I have called
to knowledge (i.e. gnosis).16

13
E. H. Pagels, The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis: Heracleons Commentary on
John (Nashville 1973) 14. The author discusses the hermeneutics of various Gnostic
schools, notably the Naassenes and the Peratae (reported and refuted by Irenaeus
and Hippolytus). It should be noticed that this hermeneutical principle was also
used by other Christian teachers, notably by the Alexandrian theologians Clement
and Origen.
14
H. W. Havelaar, The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter (Texte und Untersuchungen 144;
Berlin 1999).
15
Luttikhuizen, The Suering Jesus and the Invulnerable Christ in the Gnostic
Apocalypse of Peter, in J. N. Bremmer, Apocalypses of Peter and Paul, forthcoming.
16
71.1921.

witnesses of christs gnostic teachings

109

The Apocalypse of Peter tells how Peter was gradually given full insight
into the nature and the mission of the Saviour. In addition, Christ
revealed that in the course of time, some of his followers would turn
away from the truth and that they would cause several schisms. In
particular, the future leaders of orthodox Christianity are blamed,
those who call themselves bishop, and also deacons, as if they
have received their authority from God.17 They are designated by
the Gnostic Christ as the messengers of error (. . .) who merchandise in my word.18 The Apocalypse of Peter insists that these Christian
leaders wrongly claim the authority of Peter for their traditions.19
With their appeal to Peter, the Letter of Peter to Philip and the
Apocalypse of Peter attempt to show that the Gnostics were the true
heirs of the apostolic tradition. This can be seen as a frontal attack
against emerging orthodox Christianity. The more usual way to
defend the own position vis--vis other Christian groups was the
appeal to another disciple, someone, that is, who, because of his or
her close contacts with Jesus, was supposed to have been more familiar with the person and the teaching of the Saviour than Peter and
other disciples.
b. The Beloved Disciple
The Secret Book of John appeals to John, one of the sons of Zebedee.
It was commonly assumed in early Christianity that John was the
disciple whom Jesus loved, the authority behind the special eyewitness tradition of the Fourth Gospel. Indeed, Beloved Disciple is a
tting designation of a condant of the teacher. In the Fourth Gospel,
the position of this disciple is contrasted with that of Peter (cf. John
20.29 and 21.424). The Secret Books preference for John as a recipient of Christs secret teachings, at the expense of Peter and the
Twelve, respectively, is in line with this tradition.20

17

79.248.
77.245 and 27.3328.1.
19
Cf. K. Koschorke, Die Polemik der Gnostiker gegen das kirchliche Christentum (Leiden
1978), esp. 1190; T. V. Smith, Petrine Controversies in Early Christianity (Tbingen
1985) 12637.
20
Cf. also the Gnostic section of the Acts of John (94102), discussed in Luttikhuizen,
A Gnostic Reading of the Acts of John, in J. N. Bremmer (ed.), The Apocryphal
Acts of John (Kampen 1995) 11952, and P. J. Lalleman, The Acts of John: A TwoStage Initiation into Johannine Gnosticism (Louvain 1998).
18

110

gerard p. luttikhuizen
c. James

Followers of Jesus who continued to live in conformity with the

Mosaic Law used to refer to James, Jesus brother (Gal. 1.19; Mark
6.3), as their main authority. No doubt, the historical James derived
his leadership role from his family relationship with Jesus. There is
no evidence that he belonged to the inner circle of disciples before
the death of Jesus. But soon after Easter he began to play a prominent role in the community of followers of Jesus in Jerusalem (cf.
esp. Gal. 2.9). The apostle Paul rated him among those to whom
the risen Christ had appeared (1 Cor. 15.7). According to one of
the surviving fragments of the Jewish-Christian Gospel of the Hebrews,
James was the very rst person to see Jesus after his resurrection.21
The authority of James is strongly emphasized in some Gnostic
writings, notably in the Gospel of Thomas (NHC II.2), logion 12:
The disciples said to Jesus: We know that you are going to leave us.
Who will be our leader? Jesus said to them: Wherever you are, you
are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came
into being.22

These words of Jesus are likely to represent an early tradition. It is

remarkable that they are preserved in the Gospel of Thomas for, as
appears from the next logion (13, quoted below), in this document
it is Thomas, Jesus supposed twin brother, who is regarded as the
ideal follower of Jesus.
A similar tradition about James can be found in the so-called second Apocalypse of James (NHC V.4). In a direct speech to James, Jesus
characterizes him as the one who shall take over his ( Jesus) work
of redemption:
You are not the redeemer nor a helper of strangers. You are an illuminator and a redeemer of those who are mine, and now of those

21
W. Schneemelcher, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, i (Tbingen 1987 5), 147;
J. Painter, Just James: The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition (Columbia, South
Carolina, 1997) 1846.
22
34.2530. This logion is easier to understand in the light of ancient Jewish
and Christian texts according to which the world was created, or continues to exist,
for the sake of the righteous, Abraham, Moses, the Messiah, the Church, etc. See
L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, v (Philadelphia 1925) 678. The tradition that
Jesus appointed James as the leader of the community can also be found in pseudoClementine texts: Clem. contest. 5.4; Clem. ep. 1.1 (to James, the brother of the Lord
and the bishop of bishops); Recogn. 1.43.3; Painter (n. 21) 18797.

witnesses of christs gnostic teachings

111

who are yours. You shall be a revealer; you shall bring (what is) good
among them all. [They shall] admire you, because of (your) powerful
(deeds). You are blessed by the heavens.23
My beloved! Behold, I shall reveal to you those (things) that (neither)
[the] heavens nor their archons have known. (. . .) Behold, I shall reveal
to you everything, my beloved. [Understand] and know them [that]
you may come forth just as I did. Behold, I [shall] reveal to you him
who [is hidden].24

As these passages show, we can distinguish several aspects in the

gure of the favourite disciple: this follower receives special revelations
(I shall reveal to you everything), he or she is a mediator of secret
knowledge (you are a revealer) and also a prototype of the future
believer.
In the Secret Book of James (NHC I.2), James speaks of a revelation granted to him and to Peter. But the two disciples are not on
the same level. It is James and not Peter who is appointed as the
guardian of the higher knowledge of the Saviour. At the conclusion
of the text, James sends each of the disciples out on their missions,
while he himself goes up to Jerusalem.
d. Jude-Thomas
In the eastern part of Syria, early Christians referred to Thomas, a
disciple of Jesus who was identied with Jude, a brother of Jesus
and James (Mark 6.3; Matt. 13.55; Jude 1). The Aramaic (Syriac)
name Thomas means twin (brother), just as the Greek name Didymos
does. In the Thomas tradition it was assumed that the disciple JudeThomas was not just a brother but a twin brother of Jesus. The
close relationship between Jesus and his twin brother served as a
model for the relationship between the individual believers and their
heavenly twin. Through union with their other self they could
reach self-knowledge and at the same time knowledge of God.25
Logion 13 of the Gospel of Thomas (which comes after logion 12

23
55.1525, text and translation C. Hedrick, in J. M. Robinson (ed.), The Coptic
Gnostic Library, iii (Leiden 2000) 131.
24
56.1620; 57.410.
25
The so-called Hymn of the Pearl (Acts of Thomas 10813) can be read as a
poetic expression of this idea. Cf. Luttikhuizen, The Hymn of Jude Thomas, the
Apostle, in the Country of the Indians, in J. N. Bremmer (ed.), The Apocryphal Acts
of Thomas (Louvain 2001) 10114.

112

gerard p. luttikhuizen

in which priority is assigned to James) tells how Jesus took Thomas

aside and revealed three things to him. When Thomas returned to
the group of the disciples, the others were eager to know what Jesus
had said to him, but Thomas did not disclose Jesus words, for their
own benet:
If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up
stones and throw them at me; a re will come out of the stones and
burn you up.26

Whereas in logion 12 James is presented as the spiritual leader after

Jesus departure, this passage points to Thomas as Jesus favourite
and as the prototypical Gnostic believer. The two logions might
reect a shift in the tradition: in earlier stages, James was regarded
as the leader of the community of followers of Jesus; when the sayings tradition was transmitted in Syria, Jude-Thomas is likely to have
replaced him.27
e. Mary Magdalene
According to the Fourth Gospel, Mary Magdalene was the rst person to meet Jesus after his resurrection.28 This report is remarkable
since other traditions claim that it was Peter (1 Cor. 15.5; Luke
24.34) or James (cf. above) who rst saw Jesus after his resurrection.
To early Christians, Marys rst encounter with the risen Jesus must
have been a token of her special bond with the Saviour.
In the Gospel of Mary (BG 1), Peter invites Mary to disclose to him
and to the other disciples the words of the Saviour which she remembered, and which the other disciples did not know. But after Marys
speech Peter appears to have taken oence at her privileged position:
Did he really speak with a woman without our knowledge (and) not
openly? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her
to us?29

26

35.1114.
Cf. H. Koester, Introduction to the New Testament, ii (Philadelphia 1982) 1523,
and R. Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas (London 1997) 78.
28
John 20. Cf. also Matt. 28.910.
29
17.1822. The conclusion of the Gospel of Thomas (logion 114) also points to a
controversy between Mary and Peter. Peter said to his fellow apostles: Mary should
leave us, for women are not worthy of Life. But Jesus sides with Mary: Every
woman who will make herself male (i.e. who becomes a complete human being, a
monachos, cf. esp. logia 22 and 49) will enter the kingdom of heaven. Cf. also Pistis
27

witnesses of christs gnostic teachings

113

Peter was rebuked by Levi. Among other things, Levi said:

Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Saviour made
her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour
knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.30
The Gospel of Philip (NHC II.3) also points to a special spiritual bond
between Jesus and Mary The [Saviour loved] Mary Magdalene more
than [all] the disciples [and used] to kiss her on her [mouth].31 The
rest of [the disciples. . . . .] They said to him, Why do you love her
more than all of us? The Saviour answered and said to them, Why
do I not love you like her?32

It should be observed that in all the above cases we are dealing with
personal rather than with apostolic authority: it was believed that
the Beloved Disciple ( John), James, Jude-Thomas, and Mary Magdalene, respectively, were more intimately related to the Saviour than
any of the other early followers was, and that for this reason they
possessed knowledge that the other disciples did not have.33
The view of the twelve apostles as a more or less closed group
of eyewitnesses to Jesus ministry and at the same time as joint leaders of the Jerusalem church can be found in the canonical book of
Acts.34 This notion is likely to have developed in the community of
the author.35 The critical attitude towards Peter and towards the disciples of Jesus in general in such early texts as Pauls Letter to the
Galatians and the Gospel of Mark suggests that in the rst decades
their authority was not unchallenged. In the texts quoted above, the

Sophia 17 ( Jesus said to Mary: You are she whose heart is more openly directed
to the Kingdom of Heaven than all your brothers); 19; 36; 72 (Mary said to Jesus;
I am afraid of Peter, for he threatens me and hates our race [genos]). C. Schmidt
and V. Macdermot, Pistis Sophia (Leiden 1978). Cf. A. Marjanen, The Woman Jesus
Loved: Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi Library and Related Documents (Leiden 1996);
S. Petersen, Zerstrt die Werke der Weiblichkeit! Maria Magdalena, Salome und andere
Jngerinnen Jesu in christlich-gnostischen Schriften (Leiden 1999).
30
18.715.
31
The kiss was an expression of the spiritual union between Gnostics. It was
supposed to convey spiritual powers to the receiver. H.-G. Garon, Studien zum koptischen Philippusevangelium unter besonderer Bercksichtigung der Sakramente (diss. Bonn 1969).
Cf. H.-M. Schenke, Das Philippusevangelium (Texte und Untersuchungen 143; Berlin
1997) 336 n. 792.
32
63.3464.5.
33
St. J. Patterson, The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus (Sonoma 1993) 116.
34
Cf esp. 1.216 and 8.1.
35
E. Haenchen, Die Apostelgeschichte (Gttingen 19686) 129.

114

gerard p. luttikhuizen

criticism is not levelled against the historical apostles but against

emerging orthodox Christianity and its claim to represent the teaching of Jesus and his rst followers.
3. Conclusions
Gnostics regarded Jesus Christ above all as a bringer of divine gnosis. Their texts pretend to convey the teachings he revealed to his
worthy followers. In various ways, these revelations are related to
his (other)36 prepaschal teachings. Gnostics were aware that for their
knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christalso and particularly for
their knowledge of his private instructionsthey were dependent on
the evidence of witnesses. They refuted the early orthodox appeal
to the twelve apostles and their leader Peter either by claiming the
authority of the apostlesrst of all Peterfor their own traditions
or by referring to witnesses who were allegedly more qualied than
Peter and the Twelve.

36
In the Apocalypse of Peter, the Saviour reveals his teachings to Peter before Easter
(on Good Friday). The Gospel of Thomas does not distinguish between prepaschal
and postpaschal teachings. The sayings of this Gospel are spoken by the living
Jesus. By hearing and contemplating his words, the believer becomes one with him.
Cf. logion 108 (NHC II.2, 50.2831): Jesus says, Whoever drinks from my mouth
will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the hidden things will be
revealed to him.

DIE APOSTOLIZITT DER KIRCHLICHEN

VERKNDIGUNG BEI IRENUS VON LYON
H. S. Benjamins
Irenus gehrt zu den ersten Theologen, die die apostolische berlieferung in Anspruch nahmen, damit die kirchliche Lehre gegen
hretische Auassungen abgegrenzt und legitimiert werden konnte.1
Der Appell an die apostolische Autoritt implizierte zugleich eine
Denition des katholischen, christlichen Glaubens. Katholisch ist nmlich das, was mit der berlieferten Lehre der Apostel, die durch die
Aufeinanderfolge der Bischfe schriftgem bewahrt wird, bereinstimmt.2 Die Apostel sollten die Wahrheit der Kirche somit garantieren. Sie haben den Heiligen Geist vom Herrn empfangen, den
Glubigen erteilt, und so die Kirchen in aller Ordnung gegrndet
(Epid. 41). Der besondere Status der Apostel wird auch mit Schriftstellen
belegt. Nicht nur das Kommen Christi, sondern auch die Verkndigung
von den Aposteln wurde im Alten Testament bereits vorhergesagt,3
z.B. an den folgenden Stellen (Epid. 86): Wie lieblich sind die Fe
der Freudenboten des Friedens und der Freudenboten des Guten
( Jes. 52,7), und von Zion wird das Gesetz ausgehen und das Wort
des Herrn von Jerusalem ( Jes. 2,3), und ,in alle Lande geht ihr Laut
aus, und ihre Worte bis ans Ende des Erdkreises (Ps. 18[19],5). Die
Verkndigung der Wahrheit wurde von den Propheten vorhergesagt, von Christus ausgefhrt, und von den Aposteln berliefert (Epid. 98). Die Erkenntnis der Apostel und ihre Darstellung des

1
Ausgaben der Werke des Irenus, Epideixis und Adversus Haereses (SC 406, 263/4,
293/4, 210/1, 100, 152/3), von A. Rousseau, L. Doutreleau, B. Hemmerdinger,
C. Mercier. Dieselbe Ausgabe in: Irenus von Lyon, Gegen die Hresien, Fontes
Christiani, Band 8/14, bersetzung und Einfhrung von N. Brox.
2
Die wahre Gnosis ist die Lehre der Apostel und der Glaube der Kirche in
seiner Gesamtheit seit alters her auf dem ganzen Erdkreis; das unterscheidende
Kennzeichen des Leibes Christi liegt in der Aufeinanderfolge der Bischfe, denen
die Apostel die jeweilige Ortskirche bertragen haben. Dieses Bewahren gibt es bei
uns bis heute, ohne da dabei Schriften geflscht werden (Haer. 4,33,8).
3
Justin, dessen Werk Irenus bekannt war, vgl. Haer. 4,6,2 und 5,26,2, behauptet ebenfalls, da die Weissagung in Jes. 2,3 von der Predigt der Apostel erfllt
wurde (1 Apol. 39). Irenus erweitert das Thema.

116

h. s. benjamins

christlichen Glaubens lassen sich nicht berbieten, obwohl Markion

(Haer. 1,27,2), Karpokrates (1,25,2) und die Hretiker im allgemeinen (3,2,2) anscheinend tiefere Verstndnisse als die Apostel fr sich
in Anspruch nehmen.4
Die ,apostolische Lehre ist fr Irenus von grter Bedeutung.
Man knnte von unserer modernen Sicht aus aber vermuten, da
Irenus ziemlich naiv gewesen sei bei der Darstellung einer apostolischen Lehre, denn die Apostelgeschichte zeigt, da es innerhalb des
Apostelkreises Gegenstze gab. Nach der Apg. 6 war ein Konikt
von Griechischsprachigen und Hebrern latent vorhanden. Die
Beschneidung der Heidenchristen wurde zum Streitpunkt, und sie
veranlate das sogenannte Apostelkonzil (Apg. 15,121).5 Die gemeinsame Mahlzeit von Juden und Heiden war umstritten (Gal. 2,1114).
Daraus ergibt sich fr uns die Frage, ob es berhaupt eine apostolische Lehre gab, wie Irenus sie, anscheinend naiv, behauptet. Die
Apostelgeschichte bezeugt vor allem einen bergang der christlichen
Gemeinschaft von Judenchristen zu berwiegend Heidenchristen, und
da lt sich bezweifeln, da die Apostel tatschlich eine unverbesserliche Lehre formulierten und die Wahrheit der Kirche in der Vergangenheit festlegten. Ihre Auassungen knnen auch als uerungen
einer kontextuellen Theologie, mit der sie sich unterschiedlich auf
den Proze der Vernderung einlieen, verstanden werden.
War Irenus naiv, als er eine apostolische Lehre verteidigte, oder
aus den Schriften herausarbeitete, und hat er tatschlich Gegenstze
unter den Aposteln bersehen? Und vor allem: was ist eigentlich der
genaue Gehalt der apostolischen Lehre bei Irenus? Formell ist die
apostolische Lehre fr ihn von grter Bedeutung als Mastab fr
den kirchlichen Glauben, inhaltlich ist aber nicht immer einleuchtend, was diese Lehre bei Irenus besagt.
In Adversus Haereses 1,10 beschreibt Irenus den Glauben, den die
Kirche von den Aposteln und ihren Schlern angenommen hat. Er
umfat mehrere Glaubensartikel, aber es bleibt unsicher, ob er nach

Vgl. Haer. 3 (Praefatio): ,Der Herr ber alles hat nmlich seinen Aposteln die
Vollmacht verliehen, das Evangelium zu verknden. Durch sie haben wir auch die
Wahrheit erkannt, das heit die Lehre des Sohnes Gottes. Zu ihnen hat der Herr
auch gesagt: Wer euch hrt, hrt mich, und wer euch verachtet, der verachtet
mich und den, der mich gesandt hat.
5
In Jerusalem wurde angeblich eine bereinstimmung erreicht, die nachher von
Paulus wohl als berholt betrachtet wurde, vgl. C. J. den Heyer, Paulus. Man van
twee werelden, Zoetermeer 1998, 118, 247.

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

117

Irenus im strengsten Sinne wohl als apostolisch aufgefat werden

darf, weil er von den Aposteln und ihren Schlern herrhrt.6 In
Haer. 2,22,1 behauptet Irenus, da es nach der regula veritatis nur
einen Gott gibt, den Schpfer. Nach Haer. 2,28,1 besagt die regula
veritatis aber, da es nur einen Gott gibt, der Vater ist und die Welt
schuf, den Menschen formte, und in seiner Kreatur das Wachstum
gewhrte. Aus diesen und anderen Formulierungen7 geht keine eindeutige Beschreibung der apostolischen Lehre bei Irenus hervor.
Eine ausfhrliche Umschreibung der apostolischen Lehre bei Irenus
wurde von Holstein dargestellt.8 Sie sei ,la prdication de loikonomia,
lexpos du plan salvique de Dieu ralis dans une histoire qui
aboutit au Christ et na de sens que par lui et pour lui . . . Les
Aptres nont pas expos une doctrine abstraite et intemporelle, mais,
ds le jour de la Pentecte, ont racont une histoire, celle mme du
peuple lu, hritier de la promesse faite Abraham, et charg de
raliser le plan divin de la prparation du Christ.9 Gegen diese
Umschreibung soll aber der Einspruch erhoben werden, da die apostolische Lehre dadurch nicht begrenzt, sondern mit der gesamten
biblischen Botschaft aus der Perspektive des Irenus identiziert wird.10
Im Folgenden mchte ich an Hand der Texte aus Haer. 3,15
und 3,12 den Gehalt der apostolischen Lehre bei Irenus nochmals
darstellen. Die Darstellung beschrnkt sich auf das dritte Buch, weil
es ordentlich strukturiert ist,11 und die Apostolizitt der Verkndigung

6
In Epid. 3 behauptet Irenus sogar, die ltesten, die Schler der Apostel, haben
uns den Glauben berliefert.
7
Siehe z.B. Epid. 3 und 6; Haer. 3,16,6; 4,33,7.
8
H. Holstein, La tradition des aptres chez Saint Irne, Recherches de science
religieuse 36 1949 229270.
9
Ib. 269.
10
Vgl. A. Bengsch, Heilsgeschichte und Heilswissen. Eine Untersuchung zur
Struktur und Entfaltung des theologischen Denkens im Werk Adversus Haereses
des Hl. Irenus von Lyon, Leipzig 1957, insbesondere 6274: Die apostolische
Tradition als einziger Zugang zur Heilsordnung Gottes. Bengsch behauptet: Apostolisches Kerygma und Verkndigung der Kirche sind fr Irenus dasselbe (62).
11
Der Zusammenhang in den Schriften des Irenus steht zur Debatte. Die Struktur
des dritten Buches ist einsichtig, vgl. A. Benot, Saint Irne. Introduction ltude
de sa thologie, Paris 1960, 169182. Der Zusammenhang der Gedanken im vierten
Buch ist strittig, vgl. ib. 182192; Ph. Bacq, De lancienne la nouvelle alliance
selon S. Irne: unit du livre IV de lAdversus Haereses, Paris 1978; R. Noormann,
Irenus als Paulusinterpret. Zur Rezeption und Wirkung der paulinischen und deuteropaulinischen Briefe im Werk des Irenus von Lyon, Tbingen 1994, 169 .;
N. Brox, Einleitung zu Buch 4 in: Irenus von Lyon, Gegen die Hresien (Fontes
Christiani 8/4), Freiburg im Br. usw. 1995.

118

h. s. benjamins

darin explizit thematisiert wird. In Haer. 3,15 verteidigt Irenus die

Apostolizitt der kirchlichen Verkndigung gegen Hretiker,12 die
ihre eigenen Auassungen auf eine geheime apostolische berlieferung
begrnden wollen.13 In Haer. 3,12 errtert er das apostolische Zeugnis
Juden, Griechen und Heidenchristen gegenber.
Adversus Haereses 3,15
Irenus behauptet in 3,1,1, da wir die Heilskonomie durch die
Apostel, die uns das Evangelium erteilten, erkannt haben: Wir haben
nmlich durch niemand anderen die Ordnung unseres Heils erkannt
als durch diejenigen, durch die das Evangelium zu uns kam. Sie
haben zunchst mndlich verkndigt und ihre Verkndigung nachher aufgeschrieben. Zwar meinen die Hretiker, da die Apostel
bereits predigten, als sie die vollkommene Gnosis noch nicht besaen, sie verkndigten aber erst, als der Heilige Geist nach Christi
Auferstehung ber sie gekommen war und sie mit vollkommener
Gnosis erfllte. Die Apostel haben das Evangelium Gottes alle gemeinsam und jeder fr sich, und sie haben es sowohl mndlich als auch
schriftlich verkndigt. Matthus predigte bei den Hebrern, und hat
ein schriftliches Evangelium herausgegeben. Petrus und Paulus verkndigten das Evangelium in Rom; Markus hat die Verkndigung
des Petrus aufgeschrieben, Lukas hat als Begleiter des Paulus das
von ihm gepredigte Evangelium zu Papier gebracht. Johannes, ein
Jnger des Herrn, gab in Ephesus ein Evangelium heraus. Sie alle
haben, so Irenus in 3,1,2, uns berliefert, da es einen einzigen
Gott, den Schpfer des Himmels und der Erde, gibt, vom Gesetz und
von den Propheten verkndigt, und einen einzigen Christus, Gottes
Sohn. Wer dem widerspricht, verachtet den Herrn und den Vater,
und hat sich selbst gerichtet.
Das erste Kapitel des dritten Buches besagt also, da die Apostel
das Evangelium mndlich und schriftlich berlieferten, durch das wir
die Heilskonomie erkennen knnen. Der Sinngehalt des Evangeliums,

12
Mit Hretikern sind hier vor allem die Gnostiker, aber gelegentlich auch
judenchristliche Gruppierungen, wie die Ebioniten, gemeint.
13
Die streitenden Parteien sind sich also in diesem Punkt einig, da die Richtigkeit
des Glaubens nach dem Mastab der Apostolizitt beurteilt werden soll. Fraglich
ist nur, ob apostolisch auf die apostolischen Schriften oder die apostolische Geheimlehre verweist.

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

119

das sie alle gemeinsam und jeder fr sich hatten, d.h., der Konsens
der Apostel, wird aber auf den Satz reduziert, da es einen Schpfergott
und einen Christus gibt.
Im zweiten Kapitel polemisiert Irenus gegen Hretiker. Wer ihnen
aus den Schriften beweist, da sie im Irrtum sind, erhlt die Erwiderung, da die Schriften weder fehlerfrei, noch eindeutig sind. Zur
Interpretation der Schrift bedarf man einer mndlichen berlieferung, die Paulus z.B. in 1 Kor. 2,6 andeutet: Wir reden Weisheit
unter den Vollkommenen, aber nicht Weisheit dieser Welt. Valentin,
Markion, Kerinth, Basilides, oder andere Hretiker behaupten nun,
da ihre Lehre mit der Weisheit des Paulus, die er unter den Vollkommenen geredet habe, bereinstimme (3,2,1). Schriftliche und
mndliche berlieferung seien demnach nicht identisch. Folgt aber
die (kirchliche) Entgegnung, da die mndliche berlieferung doch
wohl durch die Aufeinanderfolge der Presbyter in der Kirche bewahrt
sei, erwidern sie, sie seien weiser als die Apostel und haben die reine
Weisheit gefunden, weil die Apostel die Herrenworte mit Elementen
des Gesetzes gemischt haben. Sogar der Herr habe Aussprche getan,
die vom Demiurgen, oder aus der Mitte, aber nicht alle vom Allerhchsten stammten. Selbst aber bewahrten die Hretiker das verborgene Mysterium rein und fehlerfrei (3,2,2).14 Irenus skizziert also die
folgende Lage. Werden die Hretiker aus den Schriften widerlegt,
so ziehen sie sich auf eine mndliche berlieferung zurck. Wird
ihnen aber diekirchlichemndliche berlieferung entgegengehalten, so verneinen sie deren Zuverlssigkeit, und ziehen sich auf das
verborgene Mysterium zurck. Sie sind so glatt wie die Schlangen,
schliet Irenus (3,2,3).
Im dritten und vierten Kapitel stellt er dem verborgenen Mysterium
der Hretiker die entliche, kirchliche berlieferung gegenber,
damit sie glaubhaft, das hretische Mysterium aber disqualiziert
werde. Die apostolische Tradition ist auf der ganzen Welt oenkundig,
und kann in jeder Kirche gefunden werden (3,3,1). Die lckenlose
Aufeinanderfolge der Bischfe, die die apostolische Tradition berlieferten, lt sich am Beispiel der Kirche in Rom vorfhren (3,3,23).15
14
Anderswo bringt Irenus dagegen die These vor, eine mehrdeutige Schriftstelle
sollte vom Eindeutigen und Klaren her interpretiert werden, das Eindeutige knnte
aber nicht afgrund von verschwiegenen Einblicken erklrt werden, siehe Haer. 2,10
und 2,27,1.
15
Literatur zu Haer. 3,3,2 angefhrt von Mary Ann Donovan, Irenaeus in Recent
Scholarship, The Second Century 4 1984 219241, dort 238240.

120

h. s. benjamins

Polykarp war Schler der Apostel, er lehrte in Asien und war glaubwrdiger Zeuge. Er habe erzhlt, da Johannes, der Schler des Herrn,
das Badehaus entohen sei, als Kerinth darin war. Polykarp selbst
habe Markion einmal den Erstgeborenen Satans genannt (3,3,4).
Irenus will mit alledem betonen, da die Bischfe auf die Apostel
zurckgehen, die Apostel und ihre Schler die Hretiker aber immer
mieden, so da es wohl reichlich fabuls klingen werde, gerade die
Hretiker verfgten ber ein verborgenes apostolisches Mysterium.
Dem fgt Irenus weitere Argumente hinzu, die die Zuverlssigkeit
der schriftlichen und mndlichen kirchlichen berlieferung unterstreichen sollen. Die Wahrheit sei mhelos von der Kirche zu bekommen, ,denn die Apostel haben in ihr wie in einem reichen Vorratsraum
alles in grter Vollstndigkeit zusammengetragen, was zur Wahrheit
gehrt (3,4,1). Gesetzt den Fall, da die Apostel keine Schriften hinterlassen htten, mte man die Ordnung der Kirche folgen, die die
Apostel denen bergaben, denen sie die Kirche anvertrauten (3,4,1).
Diese Ordnung wird von Barbaren ohne Schriften tatschlich unverndert festgehalten (3,4,2). Die Ansichten jedes einzelnen Hretikers
rhren dagegen von ihm selbst her, werden vor ihm nicht gefunden, und sind also spter als die apostolischen Auassungen aufgetreten (3,4,3).
Den Argumenten des dritten und vierten Kapitels, und insbesondere dem Beispiel der Kirche in Rom, wurde in der Literatur viel
Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Das folgende, fnfte Kapitel ist m.E. aber
von grter Bedeutung fr Irenus Verteidigung der Apostolizitt
der kirchlichen berlieferung. In 3,2,2 erwies sich, da die Hretiker
die berlieferung der Kirche ablehnten, weil die Ansichten der
Apostel und die Worte des Herrn teilweise irrig wren. Im fnften
Kapitel stellt sich heraus, wie sie diese Auassung begrnden. Der
Herr und die Apostel htten sich ihren Zuhrern angepat. Den
Katholiken haben sie z.B. katholisch zugeredet, wem aber ein tieferer Einblick in die Wahrheit anvertraut werden konnte, htten sie
mit Parabeln und Rtseln das Mysterium zugesprochen, hnlich wie
Paulus Weisheit unter den Vollkommenen geredet habe. Nach den
Hretikern habe der Herr den Demiurgen manchmal ,Gott genannt,
weil er, hnlich wie die Apostel, sich der Fassungskraft und den Erwartungen seiner Zuhrer anpate. Sie haben den Blinden ihrer
Blindheit entsprechend zugeredet, den Schwachen ihrer Schwche
gem, den Irrenden nach ihrem Irrtum. ,Und denen, die meinen,
allein der Demiurg sei Gott, sollen sie diesen gepredigt haben. Wer

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

121

den Vater dagegen als unnennbar begrien hat, an den seien sie mit
anderen Worten herangetreten. Der Herr und die Apostel htten
demnach nicht immer wahrheitsgem, sondern verstellt und nach
der Fassungskraft ihrer Zuhrer verkndigt (3,5,1).
Irenus erwidert, da keiner so unterrichten wrde. Keiner hilft
einem Blinden, indem er ihn anregt auf dem falschen Weg weiterzugehen; kein Arzt richtet sich nach den Wnschen der Kranken,
falls sie gegen die Heilkunde verstoen. So haben auch der Herr
und die Apostel gem der Lehre vom Heil, und ohne Anpassung
und Verstellung geredet (3,5,2). Das lt sich mit den Reden des
Herrn auch belegen. Als der Herr sich den Juden als Sohn Gottes
zeigte, und die Apostel die Heiden lehrten, ihre Bilder aus Holz und
Stein zu verlassen, und den wahren Gott zu verehren, seien sie
gerade gegen ihre Zuhrer vorgegangen (3,5,3). Irenus verneint
demnach, da die kirchliche berlieferung, da der Herr und die
Apostel sich ihren Zuhrern angepat htten, irrig oder aus Unverstndnis korrumpiert tradiert worden sei. Die Apostel haben den
Glauben wahrheitsgem verkndigt.
Adversus Haereses 3,12
In Haer. 3,12 errtert Irenus die Verkndigung der Apostel den
Juden, Griechen und Heidenchristen gegenber, und in diesem
Kapitel16 steht das hretische Argument, die Apostel htten sich ihren
Zuhrern angepat, ebenfalls im Mittelpunkt. Petrus, Johannes und
die anderen Apostel verkndigten, wie die Apostelgeschichte (25)
zeigt, immer den einen Gott, den Vater von Jesus Christus, der von

16
Das Kapitel nimmt in der gesamten Darlegung des Irenus folgende Stelle ein.
Haer. 3,623 zerfllt in zwei Teile: 3,615 ist der Verteidigung der Einheit Gottes,
des Schpfers, Gesetzgebers, und Vaters Jesu Christi gewidmet. 3,1623 berhrt die
Einheit Christi, die nicht in ein irdisches Teil menschlicher Herkunft und ein gttliches Element aus der oberen Welt zerteilt werden kann. Im ersten Teil ber die
Einheit Gottes verteidigt Irenus erstens, weder der Herr noch die Apostel haben
je eine unbekannte Gottheit Gott genannt (3,6,19,1); zweitens, die Evangelien des
Matthus, Markus, Lukas und Johannes sind zwar unterschiedlicher Art, verkndigen aber alle nur einen Gott, den Schpfer der Welt und den Vater Jesu Christi
(3,911); drittens, auch die Apostel haben diesen einen Gott verkndigt (3,1215).
Die Verteidigung des dritten Satzes ist wiederum in zwei Teilen gegliedert. In 3,12
wird die Verkndigung der Apostel vorgelegt, in 3,1315 wird bewiesen, da Paulus
mit den anderen Aposteln bereinstimmt.

122

h. s. benjamins

den Toten erweckt wurde (3,12,15). Manche behaupten aber, da

die Apostel den Juden keinen anderen Gott verknden konnten, und
sich den jdischen Auassungen anpassen muten. Irenus erwidert
diese hretische Ansicht aber sehr ausfhrlich. Htten die Apostel
sich nur den bereits bekannten Auassungen angeschlossen, htte
keiner die Wahrheit von ihnen erfahren; auch die Hretiker htten
nicht die wahre berlieferung vernommen, sondern auch nur eine
solche, die ihren Voraussetzungen entsprechen wrde. Erhielte der
Herr nur die eingewurzelte Meinung aller Zuhrer, wre sein Kommen
umsonst. Die Apostel haben gepredigt, Jesus sei der Christus, obwohl
die Juden ihn ans Kreuz schlugen, und daraus ergibt sich bereits
ein solcher Widerspruch, da sie genausogut einen Gott ber den
Schpfergott predigen konnten, wollten sie nur Konikte vermeiden.
Die Apostel haben sich jedenfalls den Heiden nicht angepat, als sie
ihre Gtter beseitigten, und htten auch den Juden oen von einem
anderen Gott geredet, falls sie daran glaubten.
Anschlieend beweist Irenus aus der Apostelgeschichte, da die
Apostel ihre Predigt den Heiden gegenber nicht nderten. Htten
sie sich den Juden vielleicht anpassen mssen, den Heiden konnten
sie auf alle Flle freimtig predigen, da der Gott der Christen ein
anderer als der Gott der Juden sei. Petrus verkndigt dem Hauptmann
Kornelius aber keinen zweiten Gott, sondern die Ankunft Gottes
Sohnes (Apg. 10; 3,12,7).17 Philippus predigte dem Eunuchen aus
thiopien unter vier Augen, da der Sohn desselben Gottes, von
dem die Propheten sprachen, wie ein Mensch gekommen ist (Apg.
8; 3,12,8). Auf dem Areopag, wo kein Jude dabei war, predigte
Paulus den Schpfergott, und denselben hat er auch mit Barnabas
in Lystra verkndigt (Apg. 14; 3,12,9). Auch Stephanus lehrte das
Volk ber den Gott von Abraham (Apg. 7; 3,12,10).
Aus den Abschnitten 11 und 12 von 3,12 erweist sich, warum die
Widerlegung der Behauptung, die Apostel haben sich den Zuhrern
angepat, Irenus so wichtig ist. Er meint, die Hretiker verstnden
nicht, da sowohl das Gesetz nach Mose als auch die Gnade des
neuen Bundes, beide zu ihrer Zeit, von ein und demselben Gott zum

17
,Also haben die Apostel den Sohn Gottes verkndet, den die Menschen noch
nicht kannten, und seine Ankunft denen, die schon zuvor ber Gott instruiert waren.
Aber sie fhrten keinen zweiten Gott ein. Htte Petrus nmlich von so etwas gewut,
dann htte er freimtig den Heiden gepredigt, da der Gott der Juden ein anderer als der der Christen sei (Haer. 3,12,7).

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

123

Nutzen des Menschengeschlechtes eingerichtet wurden. Darin kommt

der Kern Irenus eigener Theologie zum Ausdruck. In der Heilsgeschichte ergreift Gott mehrere Manahmen und Anordnungen,
damit die Menschheit zur Gemeinschaft mit Gott erzogen werde.18
Im Proze der Erziehung hat das mosaische Gesetz z.B. einen
bestimmten, aber auch eingeschrnkten Zweck. Das Gesetz lehre den
Menschen eine gute Gesinnung durch die Bande der Knechtschaft.
Christus hob die Knechtschaft aber auf, und lehrte die Seele ohne
fesselnde Bande Gott zu folgen.19 Wer nur verstehen kann, da alle
Heilsmanahmen unter verschiedenen Ordnungen, geeignet fr die
jeweilige Zeit, zum Nutzen des Menschengeschlechtes, von Gott
ergrien sind, der wird auch den Zusammenhang der apostolischen
Lehre mit frheren Oenbarungen und Bedingungen verstehen knnen
(3,12,11). Irenus zufolge knnen die Hretiker den Zusammenhang
aber nicht verstehen, weil sie den Unterschied zwischen mosaischem
Gesetz und Lehre des Evangeliums zwar beobachten, die Grnde
fr den Unterschied beider Ordnungen aber nicht erforschten. Darum
bildeten sie sich ein, sie wten mehr als die Apostel, die den jdischen Auassungen noch verhaftet wren. Sie seien in ihren Augen
aber weiser, und erfanden einen anderen Gott. Das alles brachte
ihnen ihre Unkenntnis der Schriften und des Heilsplans Gottes ein.
Ich will aber die Ursache fr die Unterschiede zwischen den Ordnungen und umgekehrt ihre Einheit und bereinstimmung in dem,
was folgt, auseinanderlegen (3,12,12).
Nach Irenus haben die Hretiker aus dem Unterschied beider
Ordnungen also auf die Existenz zweier Gtter geschlossen. Da die
Apostel nicht selbst zwei Gtter predigten, knnen sie dadurch erklren, da sie sich ihren Zuhrern anpaten, sich mglicherweise aber
auch selbst ihres eigenen Kontextes nicht bewut waren,20 oder aber
bereits verkndigten, als sie die volle Gnosis noch nicht besaen.21
Auf alle Flle knnte man nach den Gnostikern aber aus den apostolischen Schriften herauslesen, da die Apostel einen unnennbaren, vom Alten Testament unterschiedlichen Gott verkndeten.
Dem erwidert Irenus zwar, aber seine Antwort, Gott habe sich in

18

Siehe z.B. Haer. 3,12,13; 4,14,2; 4,20,8.

Haer. 4,13,2.
20
Das Argument lt sich in Irenus Aussage in Haer. 3,12,12, apostolos . . . quae
sunt Iudaeorum sentientes adnuntiasse evangelium . . . durchblicken.
21
Siehe Haer. 3,1,1, obengenannt.
19

124

h. s. benjamins

verschiedenen Zeiten der Entwicklung der Menschen angepat, ist

nicht unbedingt unwiderlegbar. Die Rckfrage wre: Falls Menschen
sich in bezug auf ihre Sitten entwickeln, warum nicht auch in bezug
auf ihr Verstndnis von Gott? Falls Gott seine Heilsmanahmen im
Alten Testament auf der menschlichen Entwicklung eingestellt hat,
warum konnten die Apostel nicht ihre Verkndigung den Zuhrern
anpassen? Da bleibt Irenus nur die Antwort, die er tatschlich entwickelt und betont: Die Apostel haben sich ihren Zuhrern nicht
angepat, sondern immer wahrheitsgem gepredigt. Weil es eine
Oenbarung der vollstndigen Wahrheit durch die Ankunft Christi
gibt, lassen die Heilsmanahmen des Alten Testaments sich eben als
Anpassungen und Vorbereitungen auf die Wahrheit Christi verstehen. Will man aber auch in der Oenbarung Christi zwischen
Anpassung und Wahrheit unterscheiden, brauchte man als Mastab
eine Wahrheit, die die Wahrheit der Oenbarung Christi bertrfe.
Eine solche, noch weiter fortgeschrittene Wahrheit, gibt es aber nicht;
die haben die Hretiker sich selbst ausgedacht, und zwar zu Unrecht,
denn die Apostel haben immer wahrheitsgem und ohne Anpassungen
gepredigt. Die apostolische Lehre bedarf keiner Suberung, sie ist
unberbietbar.22
In 3,12,13 beweist Irenus nochmals, da die Apostel sich ihren
Zuhrern nicht anpaten. Stephanus starb als Mrtyrer (Apg. 7), die
Apostel haben ihr Leben fr das Evangelium eingesetzt (Apg. 15,26).
Sie haben den Menschen sicher nicht blo deren herkmmliche
Meinung gepredigt. Die Juden konfrontierten sie mit der Predigt,
da Jesus, der von ihnen gekreuzigt wurde, Gottes Sohn ist, die
Griechen mit der Verkndigung, da es nur einen Gott gibt, dessen Sohn Jesus Christus ist. Darin steckt keinerlei Anpassung.
In den abschlieenden Abschnitten 14 und 15 von 3,12 behauptet Irenus, aus dem sog. Apostelkonzil (Apg. 15) gehe noch oenkundiger hervor, da die Apostel immer der Wahrheit gem nur
einen Gott verkndigt haben.23 Die Passage ist wichtig, weil Irenus
darin die Dierenz der Apostel zwar anerkennt, aber betont, da
sie trotzdem im Wesentlichen, d.h. in dem Glauben an den einen
22
Vgl. E. Meijering, Irenaeus, grondlegger van het christelijk denken, Amsterdam
2001, 117122.
23
Siehe G. Ferrarese, Il concilio di Gerusalemme in Ireneo di Lione. Ricerche
sulla storia dellesegesi di Atti 15,129 (e Galati 2,110) nel II secolo, Brescia 1979.

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

125

Gott, bereinstimmen. Die Dierenz unterstreicht mirabile dictu die

bereinstimmung. Die Apostel und ltesten konferierten in Jerusalem
wegen der Frage, ob die Heidenchristen sich beschneiden lassen sollten, und einigten sich darber, da die bekehrten Heiden sich nur
der Gtzenverehrung, der Unzucht und des Blutes enthalten sollten;
zur Beschneidung wurden sie nicht verpichtet (Apg. 15). Aus allem
wird vllig klar, da sie nicht die Lehre verbreiteten, es gebe (noch)
einen anderen Vater, sondern sie gaben denen den neuen Bund der
Freiheit, die durch den Heiligen Geist auf neue Art an Gott glaubten. Durch die Tatsache, da sie die Frage stellten, ob die Jnger
noch immer beschnitten werden mssen oder nicht, haben sie deutlich bewiesen, da sie nicht die Vorstellung eines anderen Gottes
hatten (3,12,14). Htten die Apostel nicht an dem Gott des alten
Bundes geglaubt, htten sie sich auch nicht um dessen Bestimmungen
gekmmert. Die Apostel glauben alle, zwar auf verschiedene Weisen,
aber aufrichtig, da der Gott des alten Bundes auch der Gott des
neuen Bundes der Freiheit ist. Die hretische Auassung, die Apostel
htten zutiefst einen anderen Gott erkannt, taugt also berhaupt
nichts.
Auch ber die gemeinsame Mahlzeit von Judenchristen und
Heidenchristen waren die Apostel sich uneinig. Die Uneinigkeit
bezeugt auf alle Flle, da sie den Gott des alten Bundes predigten,
sonst htten sie nicht einen derartigen Respekt vor dem ersten Bund
gehabt, da sie mit Heiden nicht einmal zusammen essen wollten.
Petrus taufte den Heiden Kornelius (Apg. 10,4748), obwohl es einem
Jude nicht erlaubt war, mit einem Nichtjuden zu verkehren (Apg.
10,28). Die Apostel um Jakobus verblieben aber bei den alten
Gesetzesregeln, so da Petrus, wie Barnabas, aus Angst von ihnen
beschuldigt zu werden, nicht mehr mit den Heiden a, als einige
Leute von Jakobus zu ihm kamen (Gal. 2,1213). So verfuhren die
Apostel . . . mit der Einrichtung des mosaischen Gesetzes gewissenhaft und erklrten, da es von ein und demselben Gott stammt. Das
htten sie, wie gesagt, nicht getan, wenn sie . . . vom Herrn noch
etwas ber einen anderen Vater erfahren htten (3,12,15). Irenus
betont also, zwar der Status des Gesetzes werde zur Debatte gestellt,
nicht aber die Frage, ob der Gott des Gesetzes der Gott Christi sei.
Die Uneinigkeit der Apostel unterstreicht somit ihre bereinstimmung darber, da der Gott des alten Bundes auch der Vater Jesu
Christi ist.

126

h. s. benjamins
Ergebnis

In Adversus Haereses 3,15 und 3,12 zeigt sich der groe Wert, den
Irenus auf die Apostolizitt der kirchlichen Verkndigung legt. Auf
Grund dieser Texte lassen sich die Verteidigung und der Sinngehalt
der apostolischen Lehre bei Irenus przisieren.
Im Kern grndet Irenus Verteidigung der apostolischen Lehre
sich auf drei wichtigen Punkte. 1. Anerkennung der apostolischen
Pluriformitt, 2. bereinstimmung der Apostel ber wesentliche
Auassungen in bezug auf Gott und Christus, worber sie 3. immer
aufrichtig, der Wahrheit gem, und ohne Anpassung geredet haben.
Nach diesen drei Punkten haben die Apostel, durch die wir die
Heilskonomie erkennen (3,1,1), mittels mndlicher und schriftlicher
berlieferung in der Kirche wie in einem reichen Vorratsraum alles
in grter Vollstndigkeit zusammengetragen, was zur Wahrheit
gehrt (3,4,1). Es gibt allerdings Unterschiede zwischen den Aposteln
(so z.B. in 3,12,1415), die sich z.B. zum mosaischen Gesetz unterschiedlich verhielten, aber darber, da es nur einen Gott und einen
Christus gibt, waren sie sich immer einig, wie es gerade auch ihren
Dierenzen zu entnehmen ist. Die Wahrheit, da es einen Schpfergott
und einen Christus gibt, haben die Apostel ,alle gemeinsam und
jeder fr sich (3,1,2). Weil die Apostel darber immer wahrheitsgem gesprochen haben, kann man hinter ihren Worten nicht noch
eine andere, geheime Lehre vermuten.
Diese Verteidigung der apostolischen Lehre verdeutlicht auch, wie
Irenus sich den Inhalt dieser Lehre denkt. Holstein behauptet, die
apostolische Lehre sei die Predigt der Heilskonomie. Das ist sicherlich nicht falsch, aber Irenus nimmt fr die Heilskonomie nicht
nur die Apostel, sondern die Apostel und ihre Schler in Anspruch
(so z.B. 2,22,1). Wir haben die Heilskonomie zwar durch die Apostel
erkannt (cognovimus per eos; 3,1,1), und die Heilskonomie ist deswegen korrekter Ausdruck der apostolischen Lehre, aber sie mu ihr
darum nicht identisch sein. hnlich wie das Alte Testament das sptere Kommen des Logos schon enthlt (vgl. 4,10), enthlt die Predigt
der Apostel bereits die sptere Ausarbeitung der Heilskonomie.
Irenus przisiert das Verhltnis fters nicht, weil er glaubt, da das
Neue bereits vom Alten umfat, und vom Vorhergehenden angekndigt worden ist (4,10). In Irenus Sicht bilden apostolische Lehre
und Heilskonomie ein organisches Ganzes. Gegen die Hretiker
gengt aber nicht die Behauptung, da apostolische Lehre und

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

127

Heilskonomie zusammenhngen, sondern ist der Beweis erforderlich. Zu dem Zweck beweist Irenus erstens, da die Apostel sich
nicht angepat haben, so da man ihnen aufs Wort glauben kann.
Dann zeigt er, da sie alle verkndigt haben, da der Gott des Alten
Testaments auch der Vater Jesu Christi ist. Wenn dieser Konsens
der Apostel als Ausgangspunkt ihrer Lehre einmal gesichert ist, lt
sich auch nachweisen, da diese AusgangspunkteEinheit Gottes
und Einheit Christisich unter dem Begri der Heilskonomie verstehen und erlutern lassen, aber unter den Begrien der hretischen
Theologie verneint werden. Der Glaube der Kirche ist die Heilskonomie, und sie ist die apostolische berlieferung im weiten, ausgearbeiteten Sinne. Damit sie gegen Hretiker aber tatschlich als
,apostolisch bewiesen werden kann, erforscht Irenus die Ausgangspunkte der apostolischen Verkndigung, die sich auf die Einheit
Gottes und seines Sohnes Jesu Christi beschrnken, und sie bilden
die apostolische Lehre im strengsten Sinne. Der Glaube der Kirche
ist ,apostolisch, d.h. er ist der Glaube an eine Heilskonomie. Wurde
dieser ,apostolische Glaube von den Aposteln gelehrt? Das beweist
Irenus nun eben nichter ist nicht naiv. Er beweist nur eine Art
,Minimalkonsens der Apostel, die alle einen Schpfergott und einen
Christus predigten. Der ausgearbeitete, apostolische Glaube an der
Heilskonomie lt sich insofern als apostolisch nachweisen, da sie
dem Minimalkonsens der Apostel entspricht, was den hretischen
Auassungen nun ganz und gar abgesagt werden mu. Es geht
Irenus freilich um diesen Nachweis. Er glaubt die Heilskonomie
und will sie als apostolisch beweisen und das bedeutet, da eben
diese Heilskonomie, und nicht die gnostische Geheimlehre sich auf
der Grundlage des apostolischen Minimalkonsenses aufbauen lt.24
Irenus behauptet zwar, da die Apostel die Wahrheit vollstndig
in der Kirche zusammentrugen,25 er bemht sich aber nicht um eine
spekulative Eindringung in die Wahrheit, so da seine Theologie
eine breite Darstellung der ganzen Wahrheit wre. Er will nur verteidigen, da die Auassung der Heilskonomie den Auassungen
24
Dies entspricht der Behauptung von Karlmann Beyschlag in seinem Grundri
der Dogmengeschichte, Band I, Darmstadt 19872, 177: ,Es konnte sich nicht . . .
um eine gesetzliche Autorisation apostolischer Schriften fr die Gegenwart handeln,
sondern mit diesen Schriften war vielmehr umgekehrt der Nachweis zu erbringen,
da der gegenwrtige kirchliche Glaube mit der Ur-Kunde der Christusbotschaft . . .
nach wie vor bereinstimmte.
25
Vgl. Haer. 1,10 und 2,2528.

128

h. s. benjamins

der Apostel entsprche. Darin unterscheidet er sich z.B. von Origenes,

der einer jngeren Generation und einem intellektuellen Milieu
zugehrt. Irenus Auassungen ber die Apostolizitt knnen durch
den Vergleich zur Theologie des Origenes deutlicher hervorgehoben
werden.
Im systematischen Hauptwerk De Principiis erwhnt Origenes eine
Liste von ,ganz klaren Aussagen der Apostel, die den Ausgangspunkt
jeder christlichen Theologie bilden sollten.26 Irenus beweist nur, da
die Apostel einen Gott und einen Christus predigten. Origenes zufolge
haben die Apostel z.B. aber auch gelehrt, da die Seele eigene
Substanz und eigenes Leben hat, und ber die Entscheidungsfreiheit
verfgt,27 da diese Welt vergehen mu,28 und da die heiligen
Schriften nicht nur einen oenen, sondern auch einen verborgenen
Sinn haben.29 Origenes beweist die Apostolizitt dieser Auassungen
nichtund das war eben die Spitze der Theologie des Irenus,
sondern er versucht sie zu einem Ganzen zu verbinden; eine Aufgabe,
die die Apostel denen berlieen, die dazu wrdig seien.30 Irenus
verharrt auf die kirchliche Lehre, deren Apostolizitt zu beweisen
ist, Origenes dagegen erforscht den spekulativen Zusammenhang der
apostolischen Reichtmer.
Zur Verteidigung der Apostolizitt der kirchlichen Verkndigung
behauptet Irenus mit Nachdruck, die Apostel haben sich ihren
Zuhrern nicht angepat. Origenes, der den verborgenen Sinn der
biblischen und apostolischen Botschaft ausndig machen will, meint
dagegen aber, da die Apostel sich den Zuhrern schon angepat
haben. Origenes zufolge wird die Anpassung durch die Aussage des
Paulus, er rede Weisheit unter den Vollkommenen (1 Kor. 2,6),
belegt.31 Die Gnostiker meinten nach Irenus, da diese Schriftstelle
eine geheime mndliche berlieferung bezeuge. Irenus opponierte
gegen diese Deutung, damit er die kirchliche Lehre als apostolische
Lehre verteidigen kann. Origenes meint aber, diese Stelle verweise
nich auf eine geheime mndliche Lehre, sondern auf einen tieferen Sinn der Schriften, der von den Aposteln selber klar bezeugt

26
27
28
29
30
31

Princ. 1 praef. 410.

Princ. 1 praef. 5.
Princ. 1 praef. 7.
Princ. 1 praef. 8.
Princ. 1 praef. 3.
Siehe z.B. Comm. in Rom. 2,14 (PG 14,917).

apostolizitt der verkndigung bei irenus

129

worden sei.32 Irenus will die Apostolizitt der Heilskonomie beweisen, Origenes will den tieferen Sinn aufdecken, die die Apostel selber entlich andeuten. Beide lehnen aber eine geheime mndliche
Lehre ab.
Mehr als Origenes sah Irenus sich gezwungen, die Ausgangspunkte
der kirchlichen Lehre als apostolisch zu beweisen. Anders als Origenes
hat er sich der Entfaltung der apostolischen Reichtmer erwehrt.
Irenus wollte nicht einen tiefen, verborgenen Sinn hinter den kontextuellen Aussagen, sondern die apostolische bereinstimmung als
Grundlage ihrer Aussagen hervorheben. Das kann man ihm als Verdienst und als Schwche anrechnen.

32

Siehe Anmerkung 28.

ORIGENS VIEW OF APOSTOLIC TRADITION

Fred Ledegang
All who believe and are convinced that grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ [ John 1.17] and that Christ is the truth (in accordance
with his own saying I am the truth [ John 14.6]), derive the knowledge which calls men to lead a good and blessed life from no other
source but the very words and teaching of Christ. By the words of
Christ we do not mean only those which formed his teaching when
he was made man and dwelt in the esh, since even before that
Christ the Word of God was in Moses and the prophets.1 Thus
Origen begins the preface of De Principiis and further on he speaks
repeatedly about the presence of Christ in the Old Testament.2 But
like Christ was present in the prophets before, so he has also spoken in his apostles after his Ascension. For the apostle Paul says:
Then you will have the proof you seek of the Christ who speaks
through me [2 Cor. 13.3].3 And the apostolica dignitas is based upon
this speaking of Christ in the apostles.4
As Christ has spoken in the prophets as well as in the apostles it
can correctly be said that the Church has been built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets (Eph. 2.20). The dierence
is that the prophets did not yet see that what the apostles did.
Anyway, this is not a matter of superiority of the latter, but of the
phase of revelation.5 When the apostles quote the Old Testament,
they sometimes seem to do that rather freely. The reason is that
they dont quote literally, but according to the spirit and it is part
of their auctoritas apostolica to depart from the Hebrew text or the
Greek translation.6 For his allegorical and typological exegesis Origen

On First Principles 1 praefatio 1.110 (SC 252.76).

H. de Lubac, Histoire et Esprit: Lintelligence de lcriture daprs Origne (Thologie
16; Paris 1950) 16678, 33646.
3
On First Principles 1 praefatio 1.214 (SC 252.768).
4
Commentary on Romans 6.9 (ed. C. H. E. Lommatzsch, Origenis opera omnia quae
graece vel latine tantum exstant et ejus nomine circumferuntur [Berlin 183148] 7.52).
5
Commentary on John 13.48.314 (SC 222.204).
6
Commentary on Romans 3.2 (Lommatzsch [n. 4] 6.173); cp. 8.7 (7.2367); 11 (269).
2

origens view of apostolic tradition

131

refers to the apostle Paul, to his pronouncements in Gal. 4 and 1

Cor. 10 respectively.7 Apart from that he sometimes expresses his
surprise about a certain exegesis or understanding by Paul.8 Usually he solves such problems by explaining these pronouncements
allegorically.
The apostles received their oce to proclaim the Gospel with
authority, since Christ himself also was called an apostle (Heb. 3.1),
i.e. a messenger of the Father, and he also says that he has been
sent to announce good news to the poor (Luke 4.18).9 However,
the apostles could not understand what the Lord would teach them
until the coming of the Holy Spirit.10 And through the Spirit they
did not only see the corporeal Jesus, but also the Word,11 God himself who has become man.12 And by the Spirit their words get persuasiveness.13 It is the Word of God that comes to us in the Law
and the Prophets, in the Gospels and the writings of the apostles.
Therefore God is in fact the only Teacher and he gives instruction
in person or by means of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, by means
of Paul and Peter or someone of the other saints.14 Two things should
be mentioned. First, that Origen uses the instrumental n in connection with the activity of the Holy Spirit and the preposition di
which points more to mediation in other cases. Second, that with
the other saints he does not mean only the apostles, because for
him the circle of the saints is much wider than the circle of the

7
For Gal. 4.2131 see e.g. Homilies on Leviticus 11.3.156 (SC 287.15862); for
1 Cor. 10.1 . Homilies on Genesis 3.4.1620 (SC 7bis.124); Homilies on Exodus 1.5.2847
(SC 321.58); Homilies on Leviticus 7.4.1454 (SC 286.32830) with a critical remark
against the doctores of his days: Paul has learned these better than those who now
boast to be teachers; 9.2.17 (SC 287.74).
8
E.g. in Homilies on Genesis 7.3.611 (SC 7bis.202); Homilies on Numbers 20.3 (GCS
30.191.17 .).
9
Commentary on Romans 1.7 (Lommatzsch [n. 4] 6.301).
10
On First Principles 2.7.3.7681 (SC 252.330); Homilies on Luke 24.1 (SC 87.324);
Commentary on Matthew 40 (GCS 38.78.1317).
11
Homilies on Luke 1.4 (SC 87.1046). Judas, however, was an exception.
12
Commentary on Matthew fr. 288 (GCS 41.1.28); Commentary on John 13.25.153 (SC
222.114); Homilies on Luke 3.4 (SC 87.124), where Judas is also mentioned as someone who stands outside the circle of Jesus disciples, because he did not see the
greatness of his divinity.
13
Against Celsus 3.68 (SC 136.1546); cp. 8.47 (SC 150.2768). In On First Principles
2.6.1.4350 (SC 252.310) he says that the apostles were lled with the divine power
of Christ. Yet the divine re was present in Jesus in one way and in those who
participate in him in another (2.6.6.197218 [SC 252.3202]).
14
Homilies on Jeremiah 10.1.112 (SC 232.396).

132

fred ledegang

apostles. Well then, Origen says, we have to preserve the teaching of the Church, handed down per successionis ordinem from the apostles and which still continues to exist in the churches up to the
present day. And that only is to be believed as the truth which in
no way conicts with the tradition of the Church and the apostles.15
Now the apostolic tradition is not clearly dened by Origen. In
the preface of On First Principles he may give a list of the most important articles of faith,16 but he observes that the apostles took certain
doctrines, those namely which they believed to be necessary ones,
and delivered them in the plainest terms to all believers, but the
consequences of their statements they left to be investigated by such
as should merit the higher gifts of the Spirit, the graces of language,
wisdom and knowledge.17 That is to say: the apostles have indicated
the limit, within which a lot of theological brainwork can be done.
Or, to put it in biblical terms: they have laid the foundation, on
which others may build further (1 Cor. 3.1015).18
It is the question whom Origen has in mind speaking about others. Who followed the apostles in the unbroken succession of faith?19
Does the ordo successionis, the diadoch , run via bishops or priests, via
the teachers/theologians or via the faithful in general? Sometimes
Origen mentions in this respect angels, apostles and doctores in the
same breath20 and says that the apostles were the rst who put aside
the literal meaning and revealed the spiritual one and that the doctores followed in their footsteps.21 In a fragment of a homily on the
parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10.2537) the innkeeper is
identied with the apostles and their successors, bishops and teach-

15
On First Principles 1 praefatio 2.3943 (SC 252.78); cp. 4.2.2(9).6871 (SC
268.300): the rule of the heavenly Church of Jesus Christ according to the succession ( per successionem) from the apostles.
16
On First Principles 1 praefatio 4.5810.187 (SC 252.808); cp. Commentary on John
20.30(24).26972 (SC 290.288); 32.16(9).18793 (SC 385.26870); Homilies on Jeremiah
5.13.1431 (SC 232.31012); Commentary on Matthew 33 (GCS 38.61.111).
17
On First Principles 1 praefatio 3.4457 (SC 252.7880).
18
Homilies on Genesis 12.5.6471 (SC 7bis.306): When you take up a book of the
Scriptures, you may begin even from your own understanding to bring forth some
meaning, and in accordance with those things which you have learned in the
Church, you too attempt to drink from the fountain of your own abilities.
19
Homilies on Genesis 2.6.56 (SC 7bis.110).
20
Commentary on John 32.10(7).122 (SC 385.240); Homilies on Numbers 11.4.1.27882
(SC 442.34); 2.30414 (368); Homilies on Isaiah 6.3 (GCS 33.273.10).
21
Homilies on Joshua 20.5 (SC 71.422).

origens view of apostolic tradition

133

ers, or their angels. But the authorship of this passage is uncertain.22

Referring to the story of the washing of the feet he says that 1 Cor.
12.28 shows that God has put the teachers in the Church in order
of ranking (directly) after the apostles and the prophets.23 In the socalled Regula magistri from the sixth century this scriptural passage is
explained from a historical perspective and the order has been
adapted: the prophets stand for the Old Testament preaching, the
apostles for the preaching of the New Testament and the teachers
are their legitimate successors in the present Church.24 It is striking
that in the cited passages Origen mentions more often the teachers
in relation to the apostles than the bishops, although bishops may
also be teachers. But Vogt and others show that Origen does not
see the bishops as the successors of the apostles, nor did Ignatius.25
With this Origen is in agreement with Clement of Alexandria, for
whom the apostolic succession runs via the teachers who instructed
the apostolic doctrine.26
But the nal word has not been said yet. On other occasions it
is a matter of Jesus, the apostles and their disciples27 or of the apostles and those who in the second place were sent.28 And sometimes
even more in generalof the apostles and their likes,29 priests according to the great High Priest (Heb. 4.14).30 And Origen remarks:
Those who are like the apostles or something less, may be from a

22
Homilies on Luke fr. 71 (= fr. 168 Rauer) (SC 87.520). Cp. E. Molland, Le
dveloppement de lide de succession apostolique, Revue dHistoire et de Philosophie
Religieuses 34 1954 129 (esp. 15). On the problems about the authenticity see
H. J. Vogt, Das Kirchenverstndnis des Origenes (Bonner Beitrge zur Kirchengeschichte
4; Cologne and Vienna 1974) 223.
23
Commentary on John 32.10(7).122 (SC 385.240).
24
See K. S. Frank, Vita apostolica als Lebensnorm in der Alten Kirche,
Internationale Katholische Zeitschrift 8 1979 10620 (esp. 116).
25
Vogt (n. 22) 910; see also 5870 about Die Lehrer. Cp. G. Bardy, La Thologie
de lglise de saint Irne au concile de Nice (Unam Sanctam 14; Paris 1947) 164:
(Origne) na pas, comme saint Irne une thorie de lpiscopat et de la succession apostolique . . .; il semble faire dpendre la validit de lordination de la saintet du candidat et lexercice mme des fonctions piscopales de la vertue actuelle
de lvque, de sorte qu tout instant un chef dglise pourrait tre expos perdre ses pouvoirs sil venait pcher.
26
Clement of Alexandria Stromateis 1.1.11.312.1 (GCS 15.9.412); 6.7.61.3
(462.2830); 7.12.77.4 (17.55.811); see Molland (n. 22) 14.
27
Homilies on Leviticus 7.5.3746 (SC 286.3368).
28
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.11.12 (SC 376.602).
29
Commentary on Matthew 15.29 (GCS 40.441.1920).
30
On Prayer 28.9 (GCS 3.381.2).

134

fred ledegang

material viewpoint poor like they were, but spiritually they are rich.31
It appears that the ordo successionis is not tied to the bishops, nor
exclusively to the teachers.32 Who else then are the bearers of the
apostolic tradition? With reference to John 13.20, In very truth I
tell you, he who receives any messenger of mine receives me . . .,
Origen says that everybody can be an apostle. Now also, every time
the Saviour sends someone for the salvation of men, the messenger
is an apostle of Jesus Christ.33 So Origen points for example to the
Samaritan woman ( John 4.142), whom he calls a (female) apostle.34
First of all it is a matter of preaching the Gospel, but the life of
the apostles also deserves to be imitated, since for Origen doctrine
and life are inextricably bound together.35 Several times Origen refers
to the saying of Paul: Follow my example as I follow Christs (1
Cor. 11.1; cp. 4.16).36 These words of the apostle imply that nally
it is always the imitation of Christ (or God) that matters. Nevertheless
also the life of those who really have imitated Christ can be made
into a standard. In a homily on Ezekiel he says: The acts of the
apostles are described and we know the deeds of the prophets from
the Holy Scriptures. That example is strong, that attitude is solid
and he who wishes to follow it goes safely.37 In the Commentary on
Matthew he also refers to the book of Acts, when it is about the
desire to achieve the perfection of Christ: When somebody wants
to be convinced by Holy Scripture that something like that is possible [namely to achieve the perfection of Christ], then he must lis-

31

Commentary on Matthew 15.17 (GCS 40.398.48).

Otherwise Molland (n. 22) 1516, who concludes: Cest--dire, la vraie succession partir des aptres, cest la succession des docteurs spirituels . . .
33
Commentary on John 32.17(10).204 (SC 385.274). Erroneously Molland (n. 22)
1112 says: Le titre apostolos ntait bientt employ que dans le sens restreint et
fut le titre dhonneur rserv pour les douze et pour saint Paul. Origen is an exception anyway.
34
Commentary on John 13.28.169 (SC 222.126); 30.179 (132); cp. Phebe (Rom.
16.12), quae est in ministerio ecclesiae (Commentary on Romans 10.17 [Lommatzsch (n. 4)
7.4289]).
35
Homilies on Luke 37.4 (SC 87.43840); cp. Commentary on Matthew 15.24 (GCS
40.421.320; 422.510).
36
Homilies on Ps. 39 (38) 2.1.3944 (SC 411.372); Commentary on Ephesians 19.503
(Journal of Theological Studies 3 1902 419); Homilies on Judges 1.3.2747 (SC 389.64);
Commentary on Matthew 16.1 (GCS 40.462.812); Commentary on Matthew 73 (GCS
38.174.711); Commentary on Lamentations fr. 116 (GCS 6.277.1518); Commentary on
John 28.4.25 (SC 385.70).
37
Homilies on Ezekiel 7.3.658 (SC 352.258).
32

origens view of apostolic tradition

135

ten to what is told by Luke in the Acts of the apostles about those
who by the power which worked in the apostles were inspired to
believe and to live perfectly according to the words of Jesus. It is
written: All whose faith had drawn them together held everything
in common [Acts 2.44] etc. And a bit later that they were united
in heart and soul (Acts 4.32).38 He concludes from that that those
become perfect who sell their possessions and give to the poor (cp.
Matt. 19.21). But also those who in another way throw o the love
of the world and give up their desires, fear, passion and wrath. Those
are no longer earthly, but become heavenly, like Christ is heavenly.
And it appears that the apostles and their likes realize it.39 Because
from the beginning this doctrine of Jesus had great inuence upon
his hearers, teaching them to despise the life led by the multitude,
and to seek earnestly to live a life like that of God, he says in his
apology against Celsus.40
About the unanimity he remarks that in the Church of his days
there are dierent opinions, but that that was not the same with the
apostles: they were unanimous.41 That does not exclude that (also
among the apostles) may exist dierent ways of thinking. Although
Jesus is One, he has several aspects (epinoiai) and those who saw him,
did not see him all in the same way. That has to do with their comprehension and their relationship with Jesus. Thus there was among
the apostles a dierence between Peter, James and John, who saw
on the mountain Jesus glory, and the other apostles.42 He also
observes that Peter has another approach to the cross than Paul.
Peter says that Christ has left an example (1 Pet. 2.21). For him
Christ is especially a model. Paul, however, says that Christ on the
cross has defeated the Devil (Gal. 6.14). According to Origen both
interpretations are legitimate.43
Furthermore we read about the imitation of the apostles: Let us
be the least of all and say with our deeds and attitude: For it seems

38

Commentary on Matthew 15.15 (GCS 40.391.23392.29).

Ib. 15.18 (GCS 40.401.28403.6); cp. 15 (395.47).
40
Against Celsus 2.45 (SC 132.388).
41
Commentary on Matthew 35 (GCS 38.67.3268.10); cp. Homilies on Leviticus 4.4.1138
(SC 286.1702); Homilies on Exodus 9.3.624 (SC 321.290).
42
Against Celsus 2.64.114 (SC 132.434); cp. Homilies on Genesis 1.7.5760 (SC
7bis.44); 4.5.3543 (156).
43
Homilies on Joshua 8.3 (SC 71.224); also in Homilies on Numbers 2.2.23 (SC
415.624) he goes into the dierences between Paul and Peter.
39

136

fred ledegang

to me God has made us apostles the most abject of mankind [1

Cor. 4.9]. And even when I am not an apostle, it is possible to be
the least, so that God, who causes the clouds to ascend from the
ends of the earth [Ps. 134(135).7] causes me to ascend.44 The point
is to imitate the life of the apostles and to be a cloud, i.e. a messenger of Gods truth. It involves, however, often suering for the
ambassadors of the Word, both for the prophets and the apostles
and for us who want to imitate them.45 If the apostles, in spite of
their prayers, did not escape the persecutions, should not the same
go for us, who are inferior to them?46 The dierence between the
original apostles and those who as messengers of the Gospel imitate
them, is that the former were sent to the Gentiles or to the circumcised (Gal. 2.9), i.e. to many and the present apostles sometimes only to one person.47
We come across this surprising distinction between one or many
also in another context. In Matt. 16.18 Peter, after he has made his
confession, is called by Jesus a rock, according to Origen from the
spiritual Rock (1 Cor. 10.4), which is the Lord himself.48 Because
Christ is the Rock, we as his imitators can also be called rocks and
on each such a rock the ecclesiastical doctrine and corresponding
way of life are built.49 For the Church is present in every perfect
person. And when Jesus says to Peter: You are Peter and on this
petra I will build my Church, we may conclude from it that all
those whom the gates of death shall not conquer, who have in themselves a work called rock, are also rocks.50
In addition to a rock, a petra, he identies the actual imitators of
Christ also with Peter himself: When we just like Peter have said
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God . . . and become

44

Homilies on Jeremiah 8.5.1622 (SC 232.366).

Ib. 14.14.169 (SC 238.94100); cp. Exhortation to martyrdom 34 (GCS 2.30.10 .).
46
On Prayer 29.4 (GCS 3.383.1024).
47
Commentary on John 32.17(10).20413 (SC 385.2746).
48
Commentary on Matthew 139 (GCS 38.287.715); Commentary on Matthew fr. 345
2.34 (GCS 41.1.149). Cp. Commentary on Matthew 12.11 (GCS 40.88.1529) for
other examples of paronomasia.
49
For the vita apostolica as a standard for life see Frank (n. 24).
50
Commentary on Matthew 12.10 (GCS 40.86.112); 11 (88.1521); Commentary on
Matthew 139 (38.287.726). Although Origen in the last quotation mentions especially the apostles and prophets, it is in general about all who have a work called
rock .
45

origens view of apostolic tradition

137

Peter, also to us could be said by the Word of God: You are Peter
etc.51 The Church is not exclusively built on Peter, but also on these
Peters.52 In a polemic passage Origen addresses himself to those who
assign an exclusive position to Peter: But if you suppose that upon
that one Peter only the whole Church is built by God, what would
you say about John the son of thunder [Mark 3.17] or each one of
the apostles? Shall we otherwise dare to say that against Peter in
particular the gates of death shall not prevail, but that they shall
prevail against the other apostles and the perfect?53 Therefore it is
said not only to the apostle Peter, but also to all other Peters: I will
give you the keys of the Kingdom.54 Origen, however, nds that in
the Gospel according to Matthew twice is spoken about binding and
loosing, viz. in Matt. 16.19 and 18.18. In the former case Peter is
the addressee, in the second case the circle of addressees is much
wider. Moreover he nds that Jesus speaks to Peter about binding
and loosing in heavens (plural), but otherwise about binding in
heaven.55 And that makes a dierence: the better, the more perfect
someone is, he binds or looses in more heavens. But when someone passes judgement unrighteously (whether or not ocially), it is
not binding or loosing.56 He says it in particular to the bishops, who
monopolize the power of the keys.57
We go back to the question who according to Origen are the
bearers of the apostolic tradition. Who holds the oce of Peter and
who has the power of keys? It appears that for Origen there is no
essential dierence between the clergy and the laity or between the

51
Commentary on Matthew 12.10 (GCS 40.85.2586.1); cp. 14 (98.610); Against
Celsus 6.77.3542 (SC 147.3724).
52
R. B. Eno, Origen and the Church of Rome, American Ecclesiastical Review 167
1973 4150 (esp. 468).
53
Commentary on Matthew 12.11 (GCS 40.86.1525). See J. Ludwig, Die Primatworte
Mt.16,18.19 in der altkirchlichen Exegese (Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen 19.4; Mnster
1952) 41; Eno (n. 52) 49; B. Schultze, Origenes ber Bekenntnis und Fall des
Petrus, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 40 1974 286313 (esp. 291 n. 3).
54
Commentary on Matthew 12.14 (GCS 40.96.610).
55
Ib. 13.31 (268.26271.9).
56
Ib. 12.14 (98.1428; 100.1826).
57
Ib. 12.14 (98.2899.17). Origen says in Homilies on Judges 2.5.227 (SC 389.90)
that God binds sinners not only through the apostles, but also through those who
are in charge of the Church. See about Origen as einer der hervorragendsten
Busstheologen der alten Kirche H. Freiherr von Campenhausen, Kirchliches Amt und
geistliche Vollmacht in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Beitrge zur Historischen Theologie
14; Tbingen 19632) 2848.

138

fred ledegang

apostles and the perfect faithful after them. As the faithful can revert
to sin, the example of Judas shows that apostles also can lose their
apostleship.58 Judas, too, cured patients like the other apostles, when
he belonged to the cavalry of salvation, but later he belonged to
the cavalry of the Devil.59 And when he was a servant of sin, he
was no longer servant of the Word of God, nor apostle of Jesus.60
For Origen the decisive factor is the degree of a persons perfection and to what extent someone really is an imitator of Christ.61 In
general the apostles take rst place, although Peter (even he!) once
nearly dropped out of the sacred rank of the apostles62 and Judas
did completely. Subsequently belong to the perfect who make up
the true Church those who build upon the foundation laid by the
apostles and prophets (Eph. 2.20), Jesus Christ, and those who instruct
in the Church hand over this foundation.63 Thus the apostles support those who rest on them, while these for their part together with
the apostles support the weaker.64 Die ganze Kirche steht also in
der Apostelnachfolge, Vogt summarizes Origens view,65 but there
is an order of perfection, in which the criterion is who stays closest
to the foundation. That may be the foundation of the doctrine of
the apostles or the foundation Christ.66 Holiness and perfection are
not given with the oce, but exist only in relation to Christ.67 Those
who are perfect carry on the apostolic tradition by word and action
and they are qualied to bind and to loose. And in them Origen
sees the aetas apostolica still kindle up.

58
Commentary on Romans 1.2 (Lommatzsch [n. 4] 6.1416), where Origen mentions among others apostles, prophets and teachers.
59
Homilies on Exodus 6.2.815 (SC 321.174); cp. Commentary on Matthew 78 (GCS
38.187.1020).
60
Commentary on John 32.13(8).14950 (SC 385.252); 32.14.168 (258); 32.18(11).232
(284).
61
Campenhausen (n. 57) 279.
62
Homilies on Leviticus 16.7.418 (SC 287.2946). See Schultze (n. 53).
63
Homilies on Jeremiah fr. 12 (GCS 6.203.1718).
64
Commentary on John 10.39(23).268 (SC 157.5468).
65
Vogt (n. 22) 24; Frank (n. 24) 10910.
66
Homilies on Joshua 9.1 (SC 71.244).
67
Homilies on Jeremiah 11.3.1646 (SC 232.4202). See my Mysterium Ecclesiae:
Images of the Church and Its Members in Origen (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum
Lovaniensium 156; Louvain 2001) 1923, 551, 5923, 670 et al.

THE PARACLETE MANI AS THE APOSTLE OF JESUS

CHRIST AND THE ORIGINS OF A NEW CHURCH
Johannes van Oort
This contribution consists of three parts, all of which are indicated
in the title: (a) the origins of a new Church; (b) Mani as the Apostle
of Jesus Christ; (c) Mani as the Paraclete. Our main focus is on the
Cologne Mani Codex, a prime source which documents the origins of
Mani and Manichaeism.
It may be feasible to note that, originally, the allotted title of this
paper was Manis imitation. Although, in view of the theme of our
Aetas apostolica conference, I readily changed this title, it may still be
worth mentioning as being highly indicative. When dealing with
Manichaeism, one is inclined to see it as a kind of imitation, and
its origins even linked with counterfeit and fraud. There are several
historical reasons, however, to challenge this view. In opposition to
the orthodox Christians, Mani and his followers did indeed consider themselves to be the veri Christiani and, accordingly, their Church
was the vera ecclesia. But they did not do that on the basis of any
shining example. Nowhere in their writings do they speak of an aetas
apostolica in the more or less generally accepted sense: i.e., the age
of the rst Christian community in Jerusalem under the guidance of
the twelve apostles. Consequently, such a period was not imitated:
for the simple reason that Mani and the Manichaeans all repudiated Lukes Acts of the Apostles; and thus easily dismissed the orthodox Christian concept of an idealized ecclesia primitiva. What Mani
brought about, however, was the proclamation of a new revelation:
he himself was the new Prophet; the new Apostle of Jesus Christ;
the new incarnation of the Paraclete. On the basis of this revelation, he founded a new Christian Church (and even a world religion) of his own. A discussion of the origins of his Church, which
for several reasons can be designated as its aetas manichaica, may shed
light on the general theme of this conference.

140

johannes van oort

1. The origins of a new Church

We now have new and crucial information about the origins of

Manis Church thanks to the discovery of a Greek Manichaean document, the Cologne Mani Codex or Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (CMC ).
This puts both Manis descent and the genesis of his Church into
a radically dierent perspective.
But let me, before elaborating on this document, rst briey introduce Mani.1 The prophet from the land of Babylon Mani (or,
according to his Syriac name, M n ajj , i.e., the living Mani) was
born on 14 April 216 ce near the southern Mesopotamian town of
Seleucia-Ctesiphon on the Tigris. His fathers name was Patt g or
Patt g (Greek: Pattkiow; Latin: Patticius; Arabic: Futtuq). In all probability, the name of his mother was Maryam or Miryam. After receiving several revelations, Mani started his missionary journeys inside
and even outside the Persian empire in 240, at rst accompanied
only by his father and two other members of the Jewish-Christian
sect in which he was reared. While missionaries were sent out and
even passed beyond the Persian-Roman frontiers, Mani himself journeyed in 241 by boat to India and up the Indus valley to Turan,
where he won over the Turan king for himself. Soon after the accession of Shapur I (24273) as the sole King of Kings of the Persian
Empire, Mani seems to have delivered to him his only Middle Persian
writing, the Sh buhrag n. His admittance into Shapurs entourage
(comitatus) accorded him unique opportunities to propagate his new
prophecy. After Shapurs death, Mani also found a willing ear with
Hormizd (Ohrmazd, 2723). At the beginning of the second year of
the reign of Bahr m I (2746/7), however, this benevolent attitude
changed: Kard r, the head of the Zoroastrian Magi began to persuade the Great King to take action against the new prophet. Mani
was summoned before Bahr m, duly accused, put in chains, and tortured. After 26 days in prison he died: in all probability on 26.2.277.

1
For general studies on Mani and Manichaeism, see H.-C. Puech, Le manichisme:
Son fondateur, sa doctrine (Paris 1949); F. Decret, Mani et le manichisme (Paris 1974);
A. Bhlig, Die Gnosis, iii: Der Manichismus (Zrich and Munich 1980); M. Tardieu,
Le manichisme (Paris 1981); S. N. C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and
Medieval China (Tbingen 19922 ); A. Bhlig, Manichismus, Theologische Realenzyklopdie
22 1992 2545; J. van Oort, Mani and Manichismus, Die Religion in Geschichte
und Gegenwart4 5 2002 7312 and 73241.

mani and the origins of a new church

141

His religion soon spread from Mesopotamia to the Atlantic in the

West and, nally, as far as the Pacic in the East.
The most fundamental document to study the origins of Manis
religion, the CMC, was discovered shortly before 1970 in Egypt. It
came into the possession of the University of Cologne and hence it
received its name. It is probably the smallest parchment codex ever
discovered. Its pages measure only 4.5 by 3.5 cm and the writing
on them is 3.5 by 2.5 cm. Despite its minute format, Manichaean
scribes managed to copy an average of twenty-three lines of Greek
majuscules onto each page. The rst preliminary report on the CMC
was presented by Albert Henrichs and Ludwig Koenen in a now
famous 1970 issue of the Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik.2 From
then onwards, these scholars produced their editio princeps.3 A critical
edition of the rst and most legible part of the CMC appeared in
the year 1988 as Der Klner Mani Kodex, in 1994 supplemented by
the edition of the remaining part.4 Ever since the scholarly discussion on the text and interpretation of the CMC is going on5 and a
denitive scholarly edition has not yet appeared.6
The CMC is written in Greek and has as its running title Per
tw gnnhw to smatow ato: On the Genesis of His Body. When

A. Henrichs and L. Koenen, Ein griechischer Mani-Codex (P. Colon. inv. nr.
4780), ZPE 5 1970 97216 [= Vorbericht].
3
Editio princeps of CMC 172.7 in ZPE 19 1975 185 (with extensive commentary); of CMC 72.899.9 in ZPE 32 1978 87199 (with very extensive commentary); of CMC 99.10120 in ZPE 44 1981 201318 (with very extensive commentary);
of CMC 121192 in ZPE 48 1982 159.
4
L. Koenen and C. Rmer, Der Klner Mani-Kodex: ber das Werden seines Leibes:
Kritische Edition aufgrund der von A. Henrichs und L. Koenen besorgten Erstedition (Opladen
1988); C. E. Rmer, Manis frhe Missionsreisen nach der Klner Manibiographie: Textkritischer
Kommentar und Erluterungen zu p. 121p. 192 des Klner Mani-Kodex (Opladen 1994)
(with ample commentary). Moreover, a diplomatic text has been edited by L. Koenen
and C. Rmer, Der Klner Mani-Kodex: Abbildungen und diplomatischer Text (Bonn 1985).
5
See the studies listed in the Manichaean Studies Newletter (MSN ), now annually
edited on behalf of the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS) by Gunner
Mikkelsen (Cambridge). For the years 1969 through 1994, see J. van Oort, The
Study of the Cologne Mani Codex, 19691994, MSN 13 1996 2230. An important research tool is L. Cirillo, Concordanze del Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis (Bologna
2001) (a considerably improved edition of L. Cirillo, A. Concolino Mancini,
A. Roselli, Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis: Concordanze [Cosenza 1985]).
6
Substantial parts in English translation will appear in S. N. C. Lieus and
I. Gardners anthology of Manichaean texts, scheduled to be published by Cambridge
University Press in 2003. Rather recently, a translation by E. Bradshaw Aitkin of
some parts has been included in R. Valantasis (ed.), Religions of Late Antiquity in
Practice (Princeton Readings in Religions; Princeton and Oxford 2000) 16176.

142

johannes van oort

we consider the meaning of the title, it is important to know that

two main views prevail. If Manis physical body is meant, then the
Greek word gnna can be translated as procreation.7 Alternatively,
the title of the CMC could well be an echo of the Pauline elements
so evident in Manichaeism. Just as the apostle Paul described in his
letters the Church as the body of Christ, so here the (nascent)
Manichaean Church (kklhsa) is described as the body of Mani.8
In this way, the codex may even have constituted the rst part of
a history of the early Manichaean Church.9 It is dicult to decide
between these two viewpoints: it could well be that both are quite
correct.10 In any case, the 192 more or less extant pages of the codex
have, as their main theme, the story of the young Manis sojourn
among baptists and his earliest missionary journeys after his nal
break with the sect at the age of twenty-four. These missionary travels during the aetas manichaica resulted in the establishment of Manis
ecclesia primitiva.
The CMC is not the work of a single author, but comprises excerpts
from the testimonies of Manis closest disciples and early followers.
Just as the Evangelists gave their account of the life and work of
Jesusor better: their account of Jesus deeds and words (cf. Acts
1.1)so here these earliest witnesses give their account of Manis

7
See e.g. L. Koenen, How Dualistic is Manis Dualism?, in: L. Cirillo (ed.),
Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis: Atti del Secondo Simposio Internazionale . . . (Cosenza 1990)
19 .
8
Cf. L. Koenen, Das Datum der Oenbarung und Geburt Manis, ZPE 8 1971
250; Augustine and Manichaeism in Light of the Cologne Mani Codex, Illinois
Classical Studies 3 1978 1646. It should be remarked, however, that in his later
publications Koenen no longer maintained this view.
9
One of the Coptic Manichaean codices from Medinet Madi, the greatest part
of which is now unfortunately lost, appeared to show the same literary structure as
the CMC and perhaps was part of the same work. On the contents of this codex,
see C. Schmidt and H. J. Polotsky, Ein Mani-Fund in gypten: Originalschriften
des Mani und seiner Schler, Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der wissenschaften
zu Berlin, Philosophisch-historische Klasse 1933 2730; on its fate and remains, J. M.
Robinson, The Fate of the Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi, 19291989, in
G. Wiener and H.-J. Klimkeit (eds.), Studia Manichaica (Wiesbaden 1992) 515.
10
Cf. K. Rudolph, Die Bedeutung des Klner Mani-Codex fr die Manichismusforschung: Vorluge Anmerkungen, in Mlanges dhistoire des religions oerts
Henri-Charles Puech (Paris 1974) 471 (updated repr. in id., Gnosis und Sptantike
Religionsgeschichte: Gesammelte Aufstze [Leiden, New York and Boston 1996] 668):
Beides lt sich natrlich schwer trennen, da die irdische Manifestation Manis ber
seinen Tod hinaus in seiner Gemeinde fortlebt; Bradshaw Aitkin (n. 6) 162: It [sc.
the title Concerning the Origin of His Body] refers both to the story of Manis
existence and to the origin of the religious movement he founded.

mani and the origins of a new church

143

deeds and words. And just as one Gospel harmony was made from
several Gospels as, for instance, in the case of the Diatessaron of
Tatian, so here we have a compilation and redaction of the earliest testimonies about Mani. Among the names of the Manichaean
witnesses which have been preserved are Salmaios the Ascetic, Baraies
the Teacher, a certain Timotheos, Abjesous the Teacher, Innaios the
brother of Zabed, a certain Za[cheas?], Koustaios the Son of the
Treasure of Life, and Ana the Brother of Zabed the Disciple.11 From
the number of these dierent authors,12 it must be concluded that
Mani often spoke at length about himself and his supernatural experiences in the presence of his closest disciples. Thus, these earliest
disciples functioned as trustworthy witnesses of Manis deeds and
words during the formative period of his Church.
It is a veritable eye-opener to analyse the contents of the CMC
and detect the essentials of the aetas manichaica. We cannot enter into
all the details here, but some of the most important facts can be
mentioned. First, we see that Mani grew up among baptists (baptista: CMC 5.11; 6.8; 7.6; 9.15; etc.). It is stated in the codex that
they performed daily ablutions on themselves and their food (CMC
80.13; 80.2383.13; 88.1315). Besides, their religion is referred to
as the Law (Nmow), which implies that the sect of the baptists lived
in conformity with the Jewish Law (e.g., CMC 20.911; 87.1618;
89.1113). Moreover, those baptists appealed to the traditions of the
Fathers (patrew, e.g. CMC 87.27; 91.49). All these typical features
refer to Jewish traditions. Another indication of the Jewish roots of
the sect is the fact that its members observed the Rest of the Hands
(npausiw tn xeirn: CMC 102.15), which seems to refer to the
observance of the Jewish Sabbath.13 Moreover, in a passage from

11
On their often typical Jewish names, see J. Tubach, Die Namen von Manis
Jngern und ihre Herkunft, in L. Cirillo and A. Van Tongerloo (eds.), Atti del Terzo
Congresso Internazionale di Studi Manicheismo e Oriente Cristiano Antico, Arcavacata di Rende
Amantea, 31 agosto 5 settembre 1993 (Louvain and Naples 1997) 37593.
12
It seems plausible that several of the testimonies existed in a written form; see
A. Henrichs, Literary Criticism of the Cologne Mani Codex, in B. Layton (ed.),
The Rediscovery of Gnosticism: Proceedings of the International Conference on Gnosticism at Yale,
New Haven, Connecticut, March 2831, 1978, ii: Sethian Gnosticism (Leiden etc. 1981)
72433; and cf. e.g. Koenen and Rmer 1988 (n. 4) xvi and 17 n. 2.
13
It probably is this custom which returns in Manichaeism as the seal of the
hands of the Manichaean Elect, i.e., their abstinence to perform any task (e.g. tilling the soil, harvesting, even bathing) that might hurt the particles of divine light
enclosed in evil matter.

144

johannes van oort

Baraies, one of the witnesses from whose testimonies the editor14 of

the CMC compiled his work, no less than ve apocalyptic writings
are quoted: an Apocalypse of Adam; an Apocalypse of Sethel; one
of Enos; one of Sem; and one of Enoch (CMC 48.1660.7). Whatever
the precise origin and role of these previously unknown scriptures,
their contents clearly refer to Jewish apocalyptic traditions.15 Evidently,
the essential features of the advent of Mani and his Church originated in a Jewish milieu.
The sectarians of the CMC acknowledged a certain Alchasaios
(Alxasaow, mentioned in CMC 94.10,23; 95.13; 96.13,19; 97.3,13,15)
as the founder of their rule. This important detail supports the remark
of the tenth-century Muslim writer al-Nad m that the sect of the
baptists (Mughtasilah) was instituted by a certain al- s ,16 an
alleged Jewish-Christian prophet who is said to have lived at the
beginning of the second century. They were denitely (a certain
branch of the) Elchasaites.17 Thus it was not merely in a Jewish, but
in a Jewish-Christian18 community that Mani was reared. Because of
his Jewish descent, we may suppose that, like any Jewish boy, he
was circumcised,19 and, from the CMC, we know that he lived in
accordance with the Mosaic Law.
Against this Law, however, the young Mani protested and so he
became a Gnostic.20 In the CMC, the break with the religion of his

14

Or editors?
For an ample and excellent analysis see: J. C. Reeves, Heralds of that Good Realm:
Syro-Mesopotamian Gnosis and Jewish Traditions (Leiden, New York, and Boston 1996).
16
Cf. B. Dodges English translation of al-Nad ms Fihrist or Catalogue, written
c. 9889 in Baghd d: The Fihrist of al-Nad m: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture,
ii (New York and London 1970) 811. The frequent reference to Baptists in the
CMC proves the reliability of Ibn al-Nad ms testimony that Mani grew up among
Mughtasilah, those who wash themselves. Cf. ibid. 773 .
17
On both Alchasaios (Elchasai, Elkesai, Elxaios, Elxai) and these Jewish-Christian
Baptists, see e.g. J. van Oort, Elkesaiten, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 4 2
1999 12278 (with bibl.).
18
The Christian inspiration of the Baptists can be perceived in e.g. CMC 91.111
(they are told to refer to the commandments of the Saviour, i.e., Jesus). Cf. e.g.
CMC 79.201 and 80.1112.
19
G. Quispel, Mani the Apostle of Jesus Christ (1972), in id., Gnostic Studies
(Istanbul 1975) 232; cf. id., Hermes Trismegistus and the Origins of Gnosticism
(1992), revised version in R. van den Broek and C. van Heertum, From Poimandres
to Jacob Bhme: Gnosis, Hermetism and the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam 2000) 160.
20
In this respect, one might compare him with the Gnostic Marcion, who had
a considerable inuence upon Mani. According to A. von Harnack, Marcion: Das
Evangelium vom fremden Gott (Leipzig 19242 = Darmstadt 1996) 22, Marcions reac15

mani and the origins of a new church

145

youth is told vividly and even dramatically. Here we also nd what

kind of experience led him to become the founder of a new Gnostic
religion. The codex tells us that, since his early childhood, Mani had
come under special divine protection and instruction: angels and
powers of holiness were entrusted with his safekeeping and he also
received visions and signs (CMC 1 .).21 One of these divine messengers
turned out to be Manis special protector. Throughout the whole of
the CMC, he is described as his Syzygos (Szugow: CMC 18.15 etc.),22
i.e., his Twin, Companion or guardian angel.23 A special revelation
by this heavenly Twin was imparted to Mani at the completion of
his 24th year (CMC 17.8 .; 73.56). The impact of this revelation
eventually led to Manis break with the sect of his youth.
In the codex we nd that, after his departure, Mani was followed
by two members of the sect: Simeon and Abizachias (CMC 106.16
.). They rst travelled to Ctesiphon where Manis father Pattikios
joined their company (CMC 111 .); soon afterwards Manis rst
missionary journeys in and even outside the immense Persian Empire
appear to have begun (CMC 121 .).24 In order to establish his
Church, Mani also went to India (CMC 140 .).25 A striking feature
of all these early missionary accounts is that nearly everywhere
even in Indiathe new prophet and apostle of Jesus Christ could
start his work in congregations (sunagvga) of Jewish-Christian Baptists
and, in all probability, even in other Jewish synagogues (CMC 13740).26
Apart from these essential features of the aetas manichaica, the CMC

tion against Judaism and its Bible sprang from a resentment which stemmed from
his youth.
21
In the apocalyptic Jewish milieu in which Mani was brought up, such experiences were quite common. See I. Gruenwald, Manichaeism and Judaism in Light
of the Cologne Mani Codex, ZPE 50 1983 2945; cf. B. Visotsky, Rabbinic Randglossen
to the Cologne Mani Codex, ZPE 52 1983 295300.
22
Sometimes (CMC 13.2; 101.14 and probablycf. ZPE 58 1985 53133.12)
also called the szuj.
23
The Syzygos is the gure which in Manichaean teaching is described as an
emanation of the Nous or divine intellect (which in turn is an emanation of Jesus
the Splendour); see below.
24
Rmer 1994 (n. 4).
25
Cf. e.g. Kephalaia (ed. H. J. Polotsky and A. Bhlig [Stuttgart 1940]) 15.247;
184.23185.15.
26
Cf. J. M. and S. N. C. Lieu, Mani and the Magians (?)CMC 137140
(1991), repr. in S. N. C. Lieu, Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East, Leiden,
New York, and Cologne 1994, 121, and my additional comments in New Directions
in Manichaean Research, Le Muson 106 1993 2456. Cf. also Rmer 1994 (n. 4)
957.

146

johannes van oort

does not tell us very much about the origins of Manis Church. From
the fragmentarily preserved page 164 we may infer that the story of
Manis encounter with Shapur I on 9 April 243 is related. The extant
part of page 165 mentions the name of Adda(s). From many other
sources,27 we know that, even during his lifetime, Mani sent out several missions headed by his chief disciples: Add or Addai (the same
person Augustine calls Adimantus)28 went as far as Egypt, as did the
missionaries Papos and Thomas;29 Mar Ammo reached Chorasan
and the Sogdiana.30 Even before 277, a wide-spread Church had
sprung up within and even outside the Persian Empire and, in the
centuries which followed, Manichaeism spread as far as Spain and
Gaul in the West and the China Sea in the East.31
Although Mani failed to make his revelation the ocial religion
of Iran, he succeeded in what he really intended: the establishment
of a new world religion or Church.32 The rm interior organization
of this Church seems to date from the aetas manichaica and, in essence,
may even be a creation of the prophet himself. The Church was
headed by Mani and later by his deputy (rxhgw); immediately following this arch gos or princeps there were, in the order of three subordinate ranks, the 12 apostles or teachers, the 72 bishops, and the
360 presbyters; the fourth rank was constituted by the Elect, both
27

W. Sundermann, Mitteliranische manichische Texte kirchengeschichtlichen Inhalts (Berlin

1981); Studien zur kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur der iranischen Manicher, I,
Altorientalische Forschungen 13 1986 4092; Studien zur kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur
der iranischen Manicher, II, ibid. 13 1986 239317; Studien zur kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur der iranischen Manicher, III, ibid. 14 1987 41107.
28
E.g. in his Contra Adimantum (CSEL 25.115190). On Adimantus and Contra
Adimantum, cf. F. Decret, Adimantum Manichei discipulum (Contra-), AugustinusLexikon, i (Basel and Stuttgart 1986) 904; Adimantus, ibid. 945.
29
Cf. A. Villey, Alexandre de Lycopolis: Contre la doctrine de Mani (Paris 1985) 202;
Les psaumes des errants: crits manichens du Fayyum (Paris 1994) 47.
30
Sundermann III (n. 27) 68.
31
On the diusion of Manichaeism (apart from the studies mentioned in n. 1):
E. de Stoop, Essai sur la diusion du manichisme dans lempire romain (Ghent 1909 =
1987); P. Brown, The Diusion of Manichaeism in the Roman Empire (1969),
repr. in id., Religion and Society in the Age of Augustine (London 1972) 94118; S. N. C.
Lieu (with a contribution by D. A. S. Montserrat), From Mesopotamia to the
Roman EastThe Diusion of Manichaeism in the Eastern Roman Empire, in
S. N. C. Lieu 1994 (n. 26) 22131; id., Manichaeism in Central Asia and China, Leiden,
Boston, and Cologne 1998.
32
For the designation church in a great variety of texts in Greek, Coptic, and
Latin see S. Clackson, E. Hunter, and S. N. C. Lieu in association with M. Vermes,
Dictionary of Manichaean Texts, i: Texts from the Roman Empire (Turnhout 1998) 17, 67,
188, 200. It may be noted, however, that in particular from the Latin texts a very
limited choice has been recorded in this Dictionary.

mani and the origins of a new church

147

men and women; and, nally, the fth rank consisted of the wide
circle of auditors. In order to rmly establish the doctrine of his
Church, Mani composed a sevenfold canon of authoritative writings:33 1. The Living (or Great) Gospel; 2. The Treasure of Life; 3. The
Pragmateia (or Treatise or Essay); 4. The Book of Mysteries (Secrets); 5. The
Book of the Giants; 6. The Letters; 7. The Psalms and Prayers. All of
these writings only survive in fragmentary form. It is owing to the
discovery of the CMC that we now have a highly signicant extract
from the rst and most important of Manis writing, i.e., his Living
or Great Gospel (CMC 668).
2. Mani as the Apostle of Jesus Christ
These are, in brief, the outlines of the origin of Manis Church and
its earliest development. One may discover a few parallels between
this aetas manichaica and the aetas apostolica in the ordinary sense, since
both are obviously relating to an emerging Church. Yet the aetas
apostolica of the ocial Christian Church is not a source (neither of
imitation, nor of any inspiration) of the Manichaean aetas. On the
contrary, Mani created a new Church ab ovo: he is the new Apostle
of Jesus Christ; he is also the promised Paraclete in persona.
Both these aspects require further analysis. From the CMC, it is
evident that Mani assumed the title Apostle of Jesus Christ. According
to the rst (?) CMC-fragment,34 the opening words of the Living Gospel,
which we now have in Greek,35 run as follows:
I, Mani,36
Apostle of Jesus Christ,
through the will of God, the Father of Truth. . . .37
33
Apart from his Sh buhrag n (see above), Mani wrote all his writings in his East
Aramaic (Syriac) mother tongue and used his own variant of the Palmyrene script.
34
In my view it still has to be determined whether the immediately following
fragments (CMC 6870) belong to the Gospel or to some other writing(s) of Mani.
35
For other testimonies, see A. Adam, Texte zum Manichismus (Berlin 19692) 12
and 111; cf. H.-C. Puech, Das Evangelium des Mani, in W. Schneemelcher (ed.),
Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, i (Tbingen 19906) 3207, esp. 3237.
36
Litt. Mannixaow; on the variant spellings of the name and its signicance, cf.
J. van Oort, Mani and Manichaeism in Augustines De haeresibus: An Analysis of
haer. 46,1, in: R. E. Emmerick et al. (eds.), Studia Manichaica, iv: Internationaler Kongre
zum Manichismus, Berlin, 14.18. Juli 1997 (Berlin 2000) 45163, esp. 45562.
37
CMC 66.47: Eg Mannixaow Ihso Xristo pstolow di yelmatow Yeo
Patrw tw lhyeaw.

148

johannes van oort

It is important to note that Manis Gospel consisted of twenty-two

chapters or logoi, which were arranged according to the twenty-two
letters of the Syriac alphabet.38 Thus, in all likelihood, it started in
its original Syriac (East Aramaic) form with the words ynam yna, i.e.,
Ani Mani. On the basis of two fragments from Turfan (M 17 and
M 172), we have long known the initial words of the Gospels prooemium: I, Mani, the Apostle (prstag/fr tag) of Jesus the Friend.39
Where does the title of Apostle come from and what does it
mean? It seems not to be fashioned after the example and role of
the apostles of Jesus in the New Testament. Actually, the well-known
eleven or twelve40 apostles do gure in the Manichaean texts.41 For
example, in the Psalm of Endurance, one of the Psalmoi Sarak t n
in the Manichaean Psalm-Book,42 we are told that all the Apostles
endured their pains:43 in order to illustrate this, the apostles Peter,
Andrew, John and James, Thomas, and also Paul are mentioned by
name, and reference is also made to their disciples such as Thecla;
the blessed Drousiane; Maximilla; and Aristoboula.44 But, apart from

38
Cf. Adam (n. 35) 1 and Puech (n. 35) 324. In the Manichaean Psalter (C. R. C.
Allberry [ed. and transl.], A Manichaean Psalm-Book, ii, Manichaean Manuscripts of the
Chester Beatty Collection, 2 [Stuttgart 1938] 46) it is stated that the Gospel has two
and twenty compounds (mgma). I still do not rule out the possibility that the number of books of Augustines De civitate Dei has some connection with the arrangement of Manis Gospel in twenty-two parts; see J. van Oort, Jerusalem and Babylon:
A Study into Augustines City of God and the Sources of his Doctrine of the Two Cities (Leiden,
Copenhagen and Cologne 1991) 7881.
39
Cf. Adam (n. 35) 111, with reference to F. W. K. Mller, Handschriftenreste in
Estrangelo-Schrift aus Turfan (Berlin 1904); Puech (n. 35) 326; Henrichs and Koenen
(n. 2) 192 and 1967; H.-J. Klimkeit, Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central
Asia (San Francisco 1993) 146.
40
As a rule, the Manichaean texts mention the twelve apostles familiar from the
New Testament, i.e., the eleven apostles plus Paul. Sometimes the texts (e.g. Manichaean
Psalm-Book, ed. Allberry [n. 38] 190.30 and 191.1) even explicitly express the concept of the dozen (dvdekw) of Apostles; the expression Eleven is found in e.g.
Psalm-Book 187.13 (cf. 192.21).
41
See the list of apostles in Psalm-Book 142 and 194; cf. S. Richter, Exegetisch-literarkritische Untersuchungen von Herakleidespsalmen des koptisch-manichischen Psalmenbuches
(Altenberge 1994) 193219.
42
Psalm-Book 141.1143.34. Allberry (n. 38) xxii expressed his doubts about the
translation of the Coptic sarak te; P. Nagel, Die Psalmoi Sarakoton des manichischen Psalmbuches, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 62 1967 12330, demonstrated that
its meaning is wanderer, pilgrim. On these Psalms, see now Villey 1994 (n. 29).
43
Psalm-Book 142.17.
44
Psalm-Book 142.18143.14, which passage from the Psalm of Endurance
(141.1143.34) is concluded by the characteristic remark (143.1516): All the godly

mani and the origins of a new church

149

the information on Paul,45 everything which is said here about those

gures appears to originate from the so-called apocryphal Acts of
the Apostles.46 The well-known New Testament canonical Acta apostolorum do not play any role in these and other Manichaean texts
for the simple reason that they tell us that the Paraclete had already
been revealed at Pentecost.47
When Mani called himself Apostle of Jesus Christ, he pre-eminently followed in the footsteps of the apostle Paul. It is this apostle who both in the CMC and in other Manichaean writings functions
as his example.48 The expression I, Mani, Apostle of Jesus Christ,
through the will of God . . . is directly reminiscent of the typical
beginning of several of the Pauline epistles.49 Even all of the exordia
of Manis letters seem to reveal this very same imitatio Pauli: the former Manichaean Augustine, who so often turns out to be a trustworthy

[that] there have been, male, female,all have suered, down to the Glorious One,
the Apostle Mani.
45
Psalm-Book 142.31143.2 and cf. 2 Cor. 11.323. A plausible interpretation of
the ensuing but rather enigmatic expression in Psalm-Book 143.3 in Villey 1995 (n. 29)
229: La formule mystrieuse: Il laissa la place vacante du Seigneur . . ., plutt
qu un dtail cont par les Apocryphes, pourrait bien se rfrer lide dune
vacance du magistre apostolique entre Paul et Mani.
46
See P. Nagel, Die apokryphen Apostelakten des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts in der
manichischen Literatur, in: K.-W. Trger (ed.), Gnosis und Neues Testament: Studien
aus Religionswissenschaft und Theologie (Berlin 1973) 14982; W. Schneemelcher,
K. Schferdiek et al. in W. Schneemelcher (ed.), Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, ii
(Tbingen 19976) 71367; P.-H. Poirier, Les Actes de Thomas et le manichisme,
Apocrypha 9 1998 26389; cf. id., Une nouvelle hypothse sur le titre des Psaumes
manichens dits de Thomas, Apocrypha 12 2001 927.
47
For the Manichaeans rejection of Lukes Acta apostolorum for this reason, see
e.g. Augustines discussion with the Manichaean doctor Felix in C. Felicem 1.46
(CSEL 25.804 7), esp. 1.56 (807). Cf. Augustines De util. cred. 3.7 (CSEL
25.9.2310.12); C. Adim. 17 (CSEL 25.169.27170.2); C. ep. fund. 5.6 (CSEL
25.198.26199.9); C. Faustum 19.31 and 32.15 (CSEL 25.434.26535.2; 774.24775.5).
48
On Paul in the CMC, see H. D. Betz, Paul in the Mani Biography (Codex
Manichaicus Coloniensis), in L. Cirillo and A. Roselli (eds.), Codex Manichaicus
Coloniensis: Atti del Simposio Internazionale (Rende-Amantea 37 settembre 1984) (Cosenza
1986) 21534; on Paul and the Manichaeans in general: J. Ries, Saint Paul dans
la formation de Mani, in: J. Ries et al., Le epistole Paoline nei Manichei, i Donatisti e
il primo Agostino (Rome 1989 = 2000) 727; F. Decret, Lutilisation des ptres de
Paul chez les Manichens dAfrique, ibid. 2983 (reprinted in Decret, Essais sur
lglise manichenne en Afrique du Nord et Rome au temps de saint Augustin [Rome 1995]
55106). As early as 1958, a denite inuence of the apostle Paul on the Manichaeans
in Central Asia (in particular as regards their sacred meal) was demonstrated by
H.-C. Puech: Saint Paul chez les Manichens dAsie Centrale, reprinted in id., Sur
le manichisme et autres essais (Paris 1979) 15367.
49
See 1 Cor. 1.1; 2 Cor. 1.1; Eph. l.1; cf. Col. 1.1; 2 Tim. 1.10.

150

johannes van oort

witness,50 testies to this,51 as in all likelihood did the now substantially lost letters of Mani which were discovered in Medinet Madi
in 1930.52 For many years, we have also had a curious piece of
Manichaean art which records Manis self-designation as being the
Apostle of Jesus Christ.53
Although this imitatio Pauli is quite clear, in the case of Mani the
concept of Apostle should be taken in an even wider sense. It is
signicant that, in the CMC, Paul functions as a link in a long chain
of Apostles of truth. On p. 45, the Teacher (didskalow) Baraies
introduces his homiletic54 account of a number of these Apostles of
truth with these words:
Know, then, brethren, and understand everything which has been written here: concerning the way in which this apostolate (postol) was
sent in our generation, just as we were taught by him; and also concerning [his] body . . . (some 12 lines scraps and lacuna)
(46) concerning this apostolate (postol) of the Spirit, the Paraclete,
(so that no one) having turned away (from the community practices)55
will say: Those alone have written about the rapture of their teacher
in order to boast.
Moreover [Mani wrote?] also concerning the origin of his body . . .
and also . . . of that . . . (some 10 lines lacuna and scraps)
(47) he sins.56 But let him who is willing hear and attend how each
one of the forefathers has made known his own revelation to his own
elect,57 which he chose and brought together in that generation in

50
Cf. J. van Oort, Mani, Manichaeism and Augustine: The Rediscovery of Manichaeism
and Its Inuence on Western Christianity (Tbilisi 20004) e.g. 43; Augustinus Confessiones:
Gnostische en christelijke spiritualiteit in een diepzinnig document (Turnhout 2002), passim.
51
C. Faustum 13.4 (CSEL 25.381.25): . . . apostolum quippe eius se dicit . . . omnes
tamen eius epistulae ita exordiuntur: Manichaeus apostolus Iesu Christi; cf. e.g. De haer. 46.16
(CCSL 46.318): Unde seipse in suis litteris Iesu Christi apostolum dicit . . .
52
See Schmidt and Polotsky (n. 9) 247, esp. 26 on the exordium of Manis (now
lost) third letter to Sisinnios.
53
See J. P. de Menasce and A. Guillou, Un cachet manichen de la Bibliothque
Nationale, Revue de lHistoire des Religions 131 1946 814, on the so-called seal of
Mani which has been carved in rock cristal and is encircled by a Syriac inscription (in Estrangelo script): M n l h dI
M h .
54
Note e.g. the typically homiletic address brethren in 45.1; cf. delfo in this
same extract from Baraies in 61.16 and 63.17.
55
Cf. metabllesyai in e.g. CMC 46.3 and 85.5.
56
Or: He (sc. who does not believe that) errs (martnei).
57
I.e., elected community.

mani and the origins of a new church

151

which he appeared, and wrote down it and passed it on to posterity.

He declared about his rapture; and they (i.e., his disciples) preached
to the outsiders . . . (some 7 lines scraps and lacuna)
(48) (Thus it could happen that every apostle in each generation) wrote
down (his revelation) and made it known (to his disciples) and that
afterwards (those disciples) praised and extolled their teachers and the
truth and hope which was revealed to them. So, then, each one, according to the period and course of his apostolate (postol), spoke what
he had witnessed and has written it as a memorial, and the same he
did about his rapture.

Then, from page 48 onwards, Baraies makes mention of Adam,

Sethel, Enos, Sem, and Enoch (CMC 4860), and he continues his
homily by putting both Paul and Mani at the end of his enumeration (CMC 6072). In regard to the forefathers, Baraies concludes
that All the most blessed Apostles, Saviours, Evangelists, and Prophets
of the truth . . . each of them beheld inasmuch as the living hope
was revealed to him for proclamation (CMC 62.1018). It is important to note that all of these forefathers (progensteroi: CMC 47.4;
cf. 75.23), and also Paul and Mani, are pre-eminently designated as
Apostles (thus, according to all probability, the very small fragment
CMC 47.18; cf. 62.11 and 71.19); and that, in line with this, their
mission is dened as apostolate (postol). The fact that, in order
to conrm the veracity of the apostolate of Mani, the teacher Baraies
cites from (previously unknown but highly interesting) apocalyptic
writings of such forefathers as Adam, Sethel, Enos, Sem, and Enoch,
will not further engage us now.58 It suces to remark that both Paul
(with reference to e.g. Gal. 1.1; 2 Cor. 12.25; Gal. 1.1112) and
Mani (with reference to quotations fromin any casehis Gospel
and his Letter to Edessa) are described in the CMC as being part
of the self-same Jewish apocalyptic tradition. Like those forefathers,
Paul the visionary was called to be the Apostle for his time; and the
same goes for the ( Jewish!) visionary Mani: he was elected to become
the Apostle for his generation. Every one of those apocalyptic visionaries,

58
Not only the curious contents, but also the genuineness of these apocalypses
are still debated. See e.g. D. Frankfurter, Apocalypses Real and Alleged in the
Mani Codex, Numen 44 1997 6073; and, in particular, Reeves (n. 15). See also
L. Cirillos From the Elchasaite Christology to the Manichaean Apostle of Light,
a paper presented at the Fifth International Conference of Manichaean Studies in
Naples (Sept. 2001).

152

johannes van oort

according to the period (perodow) and course (perifor) of his

postol (CMC 48.811), was called to become the Apostle for his
own time and generation. We know about the idea of the cyclical
incarnation of the true Apostle (or Prophet or Saviour or Evangelist:
evidently these terms are interchangeable; cf. CMC 62.11 .) from
the information on Elchasai59 and from e.g. a typical Jewish-Christian
writing such as the Pseudo-Clementines.60 Besides, all over the world
this idea has become well known through the Koran: Mohammed
is the Apostle (ras l ) of God and the Seal of the Prophets (Sura
33.40).61 It is very likely that, for the Manichaeans, Mani was both
their Apostle and the Seal of the Prophets. Although there still is
some discussion62 about the epithet Seal of the Prophets, according
to Manichaean thinking one thing is beyond all doubt: Mani is the
Apostle of Jesus Christ for his time. Thus, with Mani a new aetas
apostolica was inaugurated; or (more precisely), according to the
Manichaeans of the CMC a new aetas apostolica began anew in each
generation with a new Apostle of truth.63

59
E.g. Hippolytus Refutatio 9.14.1 and 10.29.2; cf. e.g. Epiphanius Panarion 53.1.8
for the Sampsaeans and 30.3.1 . for the Ebionites. From the CMC we now have
important additional evidence for the occurrence of this idea among the Elchasaites,
e.g. from CMC 86.917: Some of them treated me as prophet and teacher; some
of them said, The living word is sung through him. Let us make him teacher of
our doctrine. Others said, Has a voice spoken to him in secret and is he saying
what it revealed to him? .
60
Cf. Pseudo-Clem., Hom. 17.4 (GCS 42.230) and Rec. 2.47 (GCS 51.80). See the
discussion of this phenomenon in e.g. H. J. Schoeps, Theologie und Geschichte des
Judenchristentums (Tbingen 1949) 98116, 3278, 335 .; Puech (n. 1) 1446;
H.-J. Schoeps, Urgemeinde, Judenchristentum, Gnosis (Tbingen 1956) 256.
61
See for background and interpretation of this Sura e.g. A. J. Wensink, Muhammed
und die Prophetie (1924), now as Muhammed and the Prophets in U. Rubin
(ed.), The Life of Muhammed (Aldershot etc. 1998) 31943, esp. 3401; Schoeps
(n. 60) 337; J. E. Fossum, The Apostle Concept in the Qur n and Pre-Islamic
Near Eastern Literature, in M. Mir and J. E. Fossum (eds.), Literary Heritage of
Classical Islam (Princeton 1993) 14967, esp. 151 .
62
According to G. G. Stroumsa, Seal of the Prophets: the Nature of a Manichaean
Metaphor, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 7 1986 6174 (French translation in
id., Savoir et Salut [Paris 1992] 27588), the view that Mani was the seal of the
prophets can only be demonstrated from Islamic sources; according to C. Colpe,
Das Siegel der Propheten: Historische Beziehungen zwischen Judentum, Judenchristentum, Heidentum
und frhem Islam (Berlin 1989), this does not rule out the possibility that Mani den
Ausdruck fr sich selbst geprgt hat, und da Mohammed ihn fr sich bernahm
(231). Cf. Reeves (n. 15) 9: It was Mohammed who adopted and adapted the concept of the cyclical progression of universal (as well as ethnic) prophets from Manichaeism; see also ibid. 22 n. 27.
63
Other apostles mentioned in Manichaean sources (e.g. Kephalaia 9.1116.31:

mani and the origins of a new church

153

3. Mani as the Paraclete

But, apart from being the Apostle of Jesus Christ, Mani was also
the Paraclete. It is this pretension in particular which was treated
by the church fathers as sheer blasphemy: Did Mani imagine that
he was the Holy Spirit (and, thus, even God himself )? Or, did he
(only) pretend that the Holy Spirit dwelt in him? In the patristic
sources, as in some of the forms of abjuration,64 we nd both positions. And, from a certain point of view, both are correct.
In order to understand Manis claim, it is necessary to consider
carefully some key elements of the very complicated Manichaean
myth.65 According to this myth, there took place in the heavenly
world a whole series of emanations: from the Father of Greatness
came forth the Messenger of Light, and from this divine gure
emanated Jesus the Splendour who in turn brought forth the LightMind or Light-Now. This Now called forth the Apostle of Light and,
during the course of world history, this (heavenly!) Apostle of Light
became incarnate in great religious leaders such as the Buddha,
Zoroaster, Jesus the Messiah, and Mani. When Mani assumed the
title of Apostle of Jesus Christ, he actually considered himself an
apostle of Jesus the Splendour: and not of the historical Jesus. As
a matter of fact, the gure of Jesus the Messiah was well known
in Manichaeism; but, in comparison to the other Apostles, he did
not have any unique signicance: he also was an apostle of the LightNow and thus of Jesus the Splendour. And, according to the interpretatio Manichaica, the same also goes for the apostle Paul (CMC

Concerning the Advent of the Apostle) include the Buddha and Aurentes; Zarathustra;
Hermes Trismegistus; and Lao-Tzu. For a discussion of the diverse texts, still see
Puech (n. 1) 1446; cf. e.g. Reeves (n. 15) 715 and notes.
64
On these formulae, see e.g. Adam (n. 35) 90103, esp. 923 (here the curious mention that Adimantus seems to have been considered the Paraclete as well!)
and 97; on the long abjuration formula, see S. N. C. Lieu, An Early Byzantine
Formula for the Renunciation of ManichaeismThe Capita VII contra Manichaeos of
Zacharias of Mitylene, Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum 26 1983 152218 (updated
and revised in S. N. C. Lieu [n. 26] 203305, esp. 236 and 258).
65
Maybe the best account still is the one provided by H. J. Polotsky, Manichismus,
Realencyklopdie fr protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Suppl. Bd. 6 1935 24171 (= id.,
Abriss des manichischen Systems [Stuttgart 1935], repr. in G. Widengren (ed.), Der
Manichismus [Darmstadt 1977] 10144, and in Polotskys Collected Papers [ Jerusalem
1971] 699714). Brief descriptions of the myth in e.g. Bhlig, Die Gnosis (n. 1)
2935; id., Manichismus (n. 1) 313; Van Oort (n. 1) 7368.

154

johannes van oort

61.4 ., with explicit reference to 2 Cor. 12.15; cf. Gal. 1.1 in CMC
60.18 .).
In addition to being Apostle of Jesus Christ, however, Mani is
also expressly called the Paraclete. In a fragment from his Gospel,
which was transmitted by the tenth century Muslim historian alBiruni, it is explicitly stated that he is the Paraclete who had been
announced by the Messiah.66 Nowadays, in the CMC, we nd this
title corroborated by Baraies no less than four times: Mani is the
Paraclete ( parklhtow) and head ( korufaow) of the apostolate
(postol) in this generation (CMC 17.47); he himself laid down
his supernatural experiences in writings so that nobody would hesitate about this apostolate (postol) of the Spirit (pnema), the
Paraclete (parklhtow) (CMC 46.13); Mani is the Paraclete (parklhtow) of truth (CMC 63.213); and, nally, after having apologetically cited a number of quotations from Manis own writings: In
the books of our father there are very many other extraordinary passages similar to these, which demonstrate both his revelation and
the rapture of his apostolate (postol). For very great is the abundance of this coming which comes to (us) through the Paraclete
(parklhtow), the Spirit (pnema) of truth (CMC 70.1023).
From these quotations from Baraies testimonies incorporated into
the CMC (which in turn go back to autobiographical statements of
Mani), it is completely clear that Mani considered himself to be the
Paraclete. This particular theologoumenon should therefore not be
treated as an example of Gemeindetheologie (though one might be
tempted to conclude this from e.g. the Coptic Kephalaia67 and the
even abundant utterances in the Coptic Psalm-Book68). Another question is how to interpret this claim of Mani. It is from the CMC, and
again from Baraies testimony, that we could well nd the clue to
solve this problem. At the beginning of his rst excerpt (CMC 1426),
this disciple quotes Mani as speaking of his Nous that is enclosed in
his earthly body.69 Mani, among other things, states that his Nous

66

Cf. e.g. Adam (n. 35) 1.

E.g. Keph. (ed. Polotsky) 16.2930; for other texts from the Keph., cf. Lieu et
al. (n. 32) 78.
68
Lieu et al. (n. 32) 778.
69
See the ingenious reconstruction by A. Henrichs and L. Koenen in their edition of the CMC in ZPE 19 1975 1619 (commentary 726); cf. e.g. L. Koenen,
Augustine and Manichaeism in Light of the Cologne Mani Codex, Illinois Classical
Studies 3 1978 16776, esp. 170.
67

mani and the origins of a new church

155

will liberate the souls from ignorance by becoming the Paraclete

(parklhtow) and head (korufaow) of the apostolate (postol) in
this generation (CMC 17.47). So it is his Light-Nous, his heavenly
Mind or Intelligence,70 that is the Paraclete. Manis Nous descended
from the heavenly world of Light and was imprisoned in an earthly
body. The real Mani was the Nous of Mani. This Nous, according
to Baraies, is the Paraclete.
There are, however, other texts which suggest that it is not the
Nous, but Manis heavenly Twin or Syzygos (Szugow), the divine
messenger that imparted to Mani his special revelation, which is
identied with the Paraclete. In this context, it is important to see
rst what we are told about Manis vocation in a passage in the
Kephalaia: From that time on [sc. from the beginning of Manis apostolate] was sent the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth; the one who has
come to you in this last generation. Just like the Saviour said [cf.
John 16.7]: When I go, I will send to you the Paraclete. . . . In
that same year, when Ardashir the king was crowned, the living
Paraclete came down to me. He spoke with me. He unveiled to me
the hidden mystery, the one that is hidden from the worlds and the
generations, the mystery of the depths and the heights.71 Here and
also elsewhere in the Kephalaia,72 the Paraclete has precisely the same
function as the Twin or Syzygos (Szugow) as described in the CMC.
In short: the Paraclete and the Twin are identical in Manichaean
theology.
Was Mani, then, the Paraclete (which in orthodox Christian circles wasand isidentied with the Holy Spirit)? Or was the
Paraclete (or Holy Spirit) in Mani? And, in what manner may the
evidence that both the Nous and the Syzygos are named as Paraclete
match to each other? The dilemma of the church fathers as well as
the seeming contradiction that both the Nous and the Syzygos are
called Paraclete may be solved by a further examination of the
Manichaean (and typical Gnostic) concept of the Syzygos. When
Mani, i.e., the Nous of Mani, was sent into the world, a mirror image
70
On this central concept in Manichaeism, see A. Van Tongerloo and J. van
Oort (eds.), The Manichaean NOUS: Proceedings of the International Symposium organized in
Louvain from 31 July to 3 August 1991 (Louvain 1995).
71
Keph. (ed. Polotsky) 14.47 and 14.3115.3; English translation: I. Gardner,
The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with
Commentary (Leiden, New York, and Cologne 1995) 20.
72
Keph. 15.1924; 16.1921.

156

johannes van oort

of this Nous, i.e., his alter ego, remained behind in heaven. One ego,
Manis Light-Now, was imprisoned in his body and thus forgot his
mission. Then the Syzygos, the alter ego, was sent to him from heaven:
as it is told throughout the CMC, this Twin brought Mani the revelation by reminding him of his divine nature and mission; and, like
his guardian angel, he protected him.73 The Now of Mani and his
Szugow should therefore be treated as two complementary aspects
of Manis identity.74
Because Manis Nous (or real Self ) and his Syzygos were considered to be one and the same identity, this implies that, if one of
them is the Paraclete, the other must be the Paraclete. Perhaps
Augustine did not fully understand this identity, and so he and other
church fathers stated that Mani was either the Paraclete or that the
Paraclete was in Mani. The North-African bishop Evodius of Uzali,
however, Augustines pupil and colleague who provided us with some
unique information on Mani,75 correctly says: Qui (sc. Mani) se mira
superbia adsumptum a gemino suo, hoc est [a] spiritu sancto, esse gloriatur. Et
utique si geminus est spiritus sancti, et ipse spiritus sanctus est.76 Because
Evodius identied this spiritus sanctus with the Holy Spirit of fourth
century Trinitarian dogma, however, he wrongly concluded that Mani
must have considered himself to be God.77
Conclusions
At the end of this investigation, the main conclusions in the context
of the topic of this book may be summarized:
1. According to the Manichaeans, each human generation has its
own aetas apostolica;
2. The advent of Mani marked the nal aetas apostolica: he was the
apostle of the last generation;

73

See CMC 18.15; 19.17; 22.1625.1; etc.

Cf. for this and the preceding remarks: Koenen (n. 69) esp. 173.
75
Like Augustine, he quotes a number of fragments from Manis Thesaurus and
from the Epistula fundamenti; moreover, from Manis Epistula fundamenti he transmits
some exclusive readings and a unique fragment. Cf. Evodius De de contra Manichaeos
5.11.1416.19 and 28 (CSEL 25.9523; 9547; 958 and 964).
76
Evodius De de 24 (CSEL 25.961).
77
Ibid.: . . . et ipse deus omnipotens ut spiritus sanctus.
74

mani and the origins of a new church

157

3. Manis apostolate reveals striking parallels with the apostolate of

Jesus. Just as the historical Jesus is said to have sent out his twelve
and seventy disciples, so Mani sent out his twelve missionaries
(also called apostles or teachers) and appointed his seventy-two78
itinerant bishops.
4. Mani considered himself the apostle of Jesus Christ par excellence,
being at the same time the promised (cf. e.g. John 16.7) Paraclete.
The recurrent designation Apostle of Jesus Christ, typically styled
after the model of Paul, did not refer to the historical Jesus, however, but actually to the heavenly Jesus the Splendour.

78
In a typical Jewish-Christian text like the Pseudo-Clementines, in the Acts of Thomas
which were well-known among the Manichaeans and also contain archaic JewishChristian traditions, and particularly in Tatians Diatessaron it is said that Jesus sent
out seventy-two (and not seventy) missioners. Mani himself in all likelihood knew
the Diatessaron and this Gospel text may well have suggested the election of seventytwo bishops to him.

THE APOSTOLIC WORLD OF THOUGHT IN EARLY

CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY
Arnold Provoost
1. Introductory considerations
I would like to give this dissertation on the apostolic world of thought
in early Christian iconography the subtitle of In the land of the
blessedMakrvn n xr. This phrasing is derived from an
inscription on a sarcophagus from the second half of the third century (g. 3). The complete text is as follows: Here rests Paulina, in
the land of the blessed. Pakata rendered her the last honours, as her
sweet wet-nurse, holy in Christ. The suggestive formula makrvn n
xr conveys to my mind very well the way the body of thought
of the Apostles, at least like it is expressed in iconography, is to be
interpreted. And let me be clear from the start: particularly in the
rst three centuries this land of the blessed is in no way to be interpreted as the heavenly paradise, as the funeral context suggests. It
means more than life after death: it means the blissful state of the
believer whose life was fundamentally changed by the coming of the
Empire of God. Initially for this overwhelming blissful state no distinction was made between the past, the present and the future.
Only after c. 350 do a few explicitly eschatological scenes situate the
Christian pax/ernh particularly in a superterrestrial future.
How to proceed? On the global interpretation of early Christian
iconography a consensus appears to have been reached since a few
decades. Nearly everybody assumes that Christians and non-Christians
used a common late ancient iconographical repertory. Christians,
however, selected only those depictions that allowed a deeper meaning for them. Moreover, a number of explicitly biblical-ecclesiastical
depictions were selected as well. There even seems to be agreement
on the ideological background and nature of Christian iconography.
Most early Christian depictions are said to display a strong parallelism with a number of prayers for salvation and with the texts
included in the lectionaria (a selection of lectures from the Bible,
intended for catechesis). Elsewhere I have already tried to demon-

early christian iconography

159

strate why this holistic interpretation based on the salvation paradigms is dicult to maintain and why I choose an alternative vision.1
Here I can take a step further thanks to the recent research I conducted on funerary early Christian iconography in Rome and Ostia.
Through the inventory, interpretation and quantitative processing in
the catacombs in Rome and on sarcophagi from Rome and Ostia
the body of thought from the early period of Christianity can almost
be completely represented, for Roman funerary iconography, we may
assume, is representative of the whole of early Christian iconography, at least what concerns the better o (the poor could normally
at best permit themselves a simple engraved or painted epitaph).2
No less than 403 fresco ensembles and 1394 sarcophagi are available, of which 22 examples (1.22%) are to be situated c. 150250;
957 (53.25%) c. 250325; 526 (29.27%) c. 325375; 279 (15.25%)
c. 375500; and 13 (0.72%) c. 500800. This rst made it possible
as for Rome anyway, and presumably also what was known as oikoumen at the timeto verify exactly when a certain theme or motif
was rst used, how long and to which degree it remained popular,
and when it disappeared. The same can be done with certain thematic clusters, and with the spheres of inuence. It is obvious that
such a quantitative approach will also give us information on important qualitative aspects, notably the content and inuence of the
apostolic body of thought.
Basically we shall sort the iconographical material according to
six cultural-anthropological contexts (which concur, broadly outlined,
with the traditional periods). For each context we shall establish its
characteristic features and, in addition, at least for the most important contexts, try to give, through the analysis of a few representative examples, an as concrete view as possible of the ideas and
sentiments that have determined the face of the representations. In

1
A. Provoost, Le caractre et lvolution des images bibliques dans lart chrtien primitif , in J. den Boeft and M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (eds.), The Impact
of Scripture in Early Christianity (Supplements to VC 44; Leiden, Boston, and Cologne
1999) 79101.
2
See A. Provoost, Das Zeugnis der Fresken und Grabplatten in der Katakombe
S. Pietro e Marcellino im Vergleich mit dem Zeugnis der Lampen und Glser aus
Rom, Boreas 9 1986 15272; Van embleem tot icoon, Lampas 23 1990 30925;
De vroegchristelijke beeldtaal (Louvain 1994), passim; Makaron eni choroIn het land van
de gelukzaligen: Inleiding tot de vroegchristelijke materile cultuur, kunst en beeldtaal (Louvain
2000), passim.

160

arnold provoost

a general conclusion we shall nally try to look at the evolution and

impact of the apostolic body of thought from a global point of view.
In advance we shall however have to pay some attention to the
problem of dating, since sorting the material inevitably depends on
this. For the frescos the situation can be called downright disastrous.
Wilperts corpus isnt only incomplete, but it opts for datings that are
more than ever debatable.3 Nestoris repertorium on the other hand is
as good as complete but lacks any form of dating (probably because
the publications referred to often supply no or contradictory chronological data).4 I myself published a working document in 2000 that
not only oers a chronological repertory of all paintings in the catacombs of Rome, but, in addition, inventories, interprets and quantitatively processes all occurring themes and motifs.5 For the sarcophagi
the situation seems brighter at rst. Wilperts corpus does suer the
same shortages as his work on the frescos.6 Ever since, however, not
only are there the two repertories that came about under the auspices of the Deutsches Archologisches Institut in Rome, but even
an ambitious handbook saw the light of day.7 In these publications
the dating of the separate sarcophagi is not disregarded, and there
seems to be less disagreement on chronology. Still, on a closer inspection that certainty is somewhat deceptive. Especially G. Koch can
frequently be caught contradicting himself. Moreover, the methodological approach relating to chronology is almost exclusively typological, stylistic and art-historical of nature, so that quite a few datings
do not meet the criteria laid down by recent archaeological research.
In a just completed but not yet published printed publication I have
tried to create a chronological repertory for the sarcophagi as well,

3
G. Wilpert, Le pitture delle catacombe romane (Rome 1903; German version:
J. Wilpert, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms (Freiburg i. Br. 1903).
4
A. Nestori, Repertorio topograco delle pitture delle catacombe romane (Roma Sotterranea
Cristiana 5; Vatican City and Rome 1975; slightly re-edited edition in 1992).
5
A. Provoost, Chronologisch repertorium van de schilderingen in de catacomben van Rome:
Met inventaris, duiding en kwantitatieve verwerking van de themas en motieven (Louvain 2000);
see 312 for a methodological justication.
6
G. Wilpert, I sarcofagi cristiani antichi (Monumenti dellAntichit Cristiana pubblicati per cura del Ponticio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana; Rome 192936).
7
F. W. Deichmann, G. Bovini, and H. Brandenburg (eds.), Repertorium der christlichantiken Sarkophage, i: Rom und Ostia (Wiesbaden 1967); J. Dresken-Weiland, Repertorium
der christlich-antiken Sarkophage, ii: Italien mit einem Nachtrag Rom und Ostia. Dalmatien.
Museen der Welt (Mainz am Rhein 1998); G. Koch, Frhchristliche Sarkophage (Handbuch
der Archologie; Munich 2000).

early christian iconography

161

in which the occurring themes and motifs are inventoried, interpreted and quantitatively processed.8
Within the scope of this dissertation I unfortunately lack the space
to give an elaborate justication of the dating system I have chosen. Out of necessity I limit myself to referring to Table 1 (an
overview of the iconographical genres) and to Table 2 (illustrating
the relation between the cultural-anthropological situation and iconography). Through a combination of an archaeological/iconological
approach with the usual stylistic and typological one it has proved
possible to assign all frescos and sarcophagi to one of the six archaeological contexts. Besides, detailed studies about individual pieces, especially sarcophagi, almost always oered evidence for the classication
per context.9
2. Considerations of global nature
2.1.
If we limit ourselves to frescos and sarcophagi with iconographically
signicant rests10 we end up with a total of 1797: 403 fresco ensembles
and 1394 sarcophagi. We must of course not lose track of the fact

8
A. Provoost, Chronologisch repertorium van de christelijke sarcofagen uit Rome en Ostia:
Met inventaris, duiding en kwantitatieve verwerking van de themas en motieven (Louvain 2003).
9
A more precise chronology is probably not feasible and in my opinion not
really desirable either. Koch (n. 7) for instance opts for this subdivision of sarcophagi: Vorkonstantinische Zeit (270/280312/13); Konstantinische Zeit (312/13um
340); Nachkonstantinische Zeit (um 340um 360/70); Valentinianisch-theodosianische Zeit (um 360/70um 400); sptere Sarkophage (nach 400). These are just a
few of the objections: the commencing date 270 is without a doubt far too late; as
to the evolution of material culture, historical facts like the Edict of Milan and the
reigns of Constantine, Valentinian and Theodosius hardly have any value as chronological reference points (which is obviously still preferable to referring to the papal
reigns!); the sptere Sarkophage category is clearly too ample. Methodologically it
is understandable that one attempts to take portraits on coins and on historical
reliefs as a basis for datingwhich would also explain why the chronology of sarcophagi seems more certain than that of frescos. However, it must be borne in
mind that the ocial art, in which the portraits due to their representative function were more strictly bound to time, oer more reliable chronological information than the often routine catacomb paintings and the bulk production sarcophagi.
10
The quantitative processing was done without taking into account the 51 fresco
ensembles and 9 sarcophagi that are included in the repertories mentioned but do
not contain any utile iconographical information.

arnold provoost

162

that the repertories do not make mention of the presumably incredibly numerous rooms and walls in the catacombs that never got
painted, and of the possibly even more numerous sarcophagi that
remained undecorated. Furthermore it is dicult to assess how many
pieces got lost or havent turned up yet in the course of time. This
does not prevent that the importance of early Christian catacomb
paintings and Roman sarcophagi with signicant rests is hard to
overestimate. In archaeology there are hardly other sites that supply an equal amount of information. As for representativeness and
also given the relatively large numbers, a quantitative evaluation,
and even a statistical processing of the Roman frescos and sarcophagi
is denitely possible, useful and justied.
2.2.
That way we obtain a pretty accurate view of the origin, the growth
and the decline of early Christian funerary iconography, at least the
way it featured among the better o, which obviously diered to a
large extent from the iconography used by everyone (like can for
instance be found on simple memorial plaques or on terracotta lamps
built into the graves as identifying marks).11 If we take a closer look
at the chronology we obtain a sort of Gaussian curve, which seems
to guarantee the correctness of classication according to contexts:
1.22% are to be situated in context 2, 53.25% in context 3, 29.27%
in context 4, 15.25% in context 5, and 0.72% in context 6. This
immediately puts us in front of a rather unexpected conclusion: the
prime of early Christian funerary art is not situatedas is commonly
presumedin the period after the Church Peace when Christianity
was an ocially tolerated religion, but in the preceding period in
which Christians, in spite of the severe persecution campaigns (in
the middle of the third century and at the change from the third
to the fourth century), apparently enjoyed enough tolerance to organise and manifest themselves as a community.
2.3.
While determining the order in the ranking according to the elds,
those according to the thematic clusters, and those concerning the

11

Provoost 1986 (n. 2).

early christian iconography

163

iconographical subjectscf. Table 3we must always opt rst for

the most obvious explanation.
Funerary archaeological objects and features are rst of all situated on an infrastructural meaning level (i.e. the vital needs). In
everyday life, burying the dead was a vital necessity, and iconography gives us, just like the inscriptions, often also, and even in the
rst place, information on prevalent data such as the identity of the
dead person, the circumstances of their life and decease, about their
age, about their relation to the persons or associations taking care
of the burial etc. Therefore we are hardly amazed at the high score
of the realia/personalia (personally related representations) sphere of
inuence (44.51%), of orants who almost always symbolically seem
to represent the deceased (23.2%), of funerary coloured iconographical
items in general (26.65%), but also of items whose prime meaning
may not be funerary but still appear to help visualize the reality of
death, for example resting personages like the extended Jonah or
herdsmen (10.62%) and the resurrection of Lazarus (8.18%).
Mostly neglected is that the structural meaning level (i.e. concerning the social-economic position) must have been even more
important. Both the catacomb paintings and the sarcophagi reect
the social-economic position of the better o Christians, who preferred to be buried in a paradisus or tomb garden. However, since
this was only rarely possible they often settled for an evocation of
it.12 The gures speak for themselves: the idyllic/bucolic sphere of
inuence gets no less than 62.54%, the intellectual sphere of inuence
17.41%; and among the separate themes and motifs items like an
ornamental frame, oral/vegetal decoration, birds, decorative patterns and gardens are all in the top twenty, with percentages ranging from 36.78% to 7.23%.
Should we therefore assume that the superstructural meaning level
(i.e. the sphere of higher ideas) was regarded as a matter of secondary importance, like quite a few authors have seemed to suggest
recently? Christians and non-Christians, as is commonly supposed,
drew on a common repertory appropriate for the circumstances of
a death or the status of the deceased and his family. In other words,

12
A. Provoost, De Cleveland-beeldengroep: bestemd voor een graftuin?, in
M. Jordan-Ruwe and U. Real (eds.), Bild- und Formensprache der sptantiken Kunst, Hugo
Brandenburg zum 65. Geburtstag (Boreas 17 1994) 187201.

164

arnold provoost

we would mostly be confronted with functional information and emotional clichs, rather than images reecting a deeper Christian body
of thought. The two so-called primal images of early Christian iconography, namely the criophorus (the so-called good shepherd) and the
orans, are said to be nothing but routine evocations of philanthropy
on the one hand, and of pietas or conscientiousness on the other
hand. For that reason most recent publications do not even longer
consider the presence of a shepherd or an orant an indication of a
Christian representation. I am however convinced this has been taken
much too far. Although the non-Christian origin of the criophorus
and orans is obvious, I do not know of any example of a catacomb
painting or a late antique sarcophagus with an orans or shepherd
that is to be undisputedly, for instance through an inscription, interpreted as pagan. Besides, the archaeological context speaks against
such merely profane interpretations as well. Indeed, the frescos and
sarcophagi we are dealing with here form fairly coherent ensembles
that can usually be clearly related to aboveground or underground
Christian burial places, and never to pagan ones. Furthermore, iconography too usually points in an unambiguously Christian direction.
For instance, the biblical/ecclesiastical sphere of inuence has a frequency of no less than 61.43% (even though the scores of the separate scenesincluding the Jonah and Peter scenesare relatively
low). If de Rossi and Wilpert interpreted certain paintings and sarcophagi as Christian, this was in my opinion done rightly, even
though their interpretations are in many aspects outdated. Klausers
hypercritical point of view has, like a kind of cunning poison, particularly in sarcophagus repertories and Kochs textbook, caused an
exaggerated scepticism leading to the rejection of many pieces that
in my opinion deserve a place in the discussion on the most ancient
Christian iconography.13 I am on the other hand in no way advocate of labelling early Christian iconography on the whole as a catechesis, and seeing in nearly every scene an allusion to the heavenly
paradise.14 The idyllic/bucolic framework is, as already said, an
13
T. Klauser, Studien zur Entstehungsgeschichte der christlichen Kunst, Jahrbuch
fr Antike und Christentum 1 1958 2051; 3 1960 11238; 7 1964 6776; 89 19656
12670; 9 1967 82120.
14
See for example F. Bisconti, La pittura paleocristiana, in A. Donati (ed.),
Romana pictura: La pittura romana dalle origini allet bizantina [publication on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in Rimini, 28 March30 August 1998]
(Turin 1998) 3353.

early christian iconography

165

expression of the social-economic positioning of the Christians concerned, but just as much of the fundamental early Christian experience of joy, so aptly reected in formulas like IN RACE, EN EIRHNH,
MAKARVN ENI XVRV.
2.4.
It is striking that certain iconographical items are exclusively or
mainly connected with either the frescos or the sarcophagi. For
instance, the following items only feature on sarcophagi: strigiles,
parapetasma, niche, capture of Peter, columns as framework, musing
shepherd/person, orans + apostles, traditio legis, entry in Jerusalem.
Restricted to frescos are for example: marble/marble imitation, unrecognizable miracles, cassette decoration, angry Jonah.
I would like to mention an intriguing example of an item which
occurs much more frequently on sarcophagi than on paintings, namely
the Peter scenes. In spite of a global score of no less than 12.96%
(which even places these scenes narrowly into the top ten) the sarcophagi-frescos ratio is 15.42% against 4.46%. I actually see only
one explanation for this discrepancy: the choice for Peter scenes on
sarcophagi is probably related to the long tradition in Greek-Roman
sculpture for military scenes. Sculpting such sturdy male gures of
Roman soldiers was apparently an easier job for late antique sculptors than for instance representing ordinary people from miracle
scenes (for which hardly any precedents existed).
3. The nature and evolution of iconography in the six contexts (Tables 23)
3.1. Context 1: Christ and the charismatic leaders (c. 30150)
From an archaeological point of view there is but little to tell on
the pioneering time, when charismatic leaders spread the Christian
message among pretty much all the important trade cities (especially
if a community of Jews dispersed in the diaspora was already present there). At that time a proper Christian material culture was out
of the question. For their gatherings and everyday needs believers
just made use of all existing material facilities deemed suitable.
Concerning buildings and constructions we think in the rst place
of synagogues, porches around squares, public utility buildings without pagan connotations and private houses. Our main interest here
is the question whether Christians at that time already made use of

166

arnold provoost

representations. Most likely they were, in the tradition of the Mosaic

legislature, rather averse to depictions of living creatures, but denitely
not to visual symbols or ideograms, and not even to gurative scenes
(on the condition that they were not the object of veneration).
Due to the absence of Christian material rests from this rst context there is but little to tell on the nature of iconography at the
time. Following authors such as H. Urs von Balthasar, J. Danilou,
E. Testa and B. Bagatti, Frderick Tristan recently suggested that
for the following biblical-messianic items spread amongst Jews and
Jews-Christians a visual pendant is perfectly imaginable: the tav-sign
in the shape of a + or an x; the palm; the wreath or crown;
plantings; water; the ascia or hatchet; the anchor; sh; the palm tree;
the lamb; the good shepherd; the orans; a little boat.15 Nearly all
these representations can, be it more and more in a later context,
indeed be found in the list of iconographical themes and motifs
(Table 3). Previously, J. Danilou had pointed out the following possibilities: the palm and the wreath; the grapevine and the tree of
life; the living water and the sh; the Churchs little boat; Elijahs
wagon; Jacobs star; the twelve apostles and the zodiac; the tau sign.
He even believed, based on a study by E. Testa, he could substantiate this list with a few rst and second century examples: a palm
on a stele from Khirbit Kilkir, Hebron; a sh on a Jerusalem ossuary;
a little boat with ogdoad (= the earth with the seven skies) from a
church/synagogue in Nazareth; a plough on a Jerusalem ossuary; a
hatchet on a paving brick near the large theatre in Ephesus; a star
on a Palestinian ossuary; and a tree and a tau-shaped cross on a
Jerusalem ossuary.16 In this vision, which I regard as an interesting
interpretation in spite of the heavy criticism to which it has been
subject, the oldest iconography was restricted to such signs symbolizing certain biblical themes.17

F. Tristan, Les premires images chrtiennes: Du symbole licne: II eVI e sicle (Paris 1996).
E. Testa, Il simbolismo dei Giudei-Cristiani ( Jerusalem 1962); J. Danilou, Les symboles chrtiens primitifs (Paris 1961) g. 13.
17
See for a critical approach of the Jewish-Christian input J. E. Taylor, Christians
and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish Christians origins (Oxford 1993); The Phenomenon of Early Jewish-Christianity: Reality or Scholarly Invention?, VC 44 1990
31334. With thanks to L. V. Rutgers for some useful directions on the subject.
15

16

early christian iconography

167

3.2. Context 2: First expressions of organisation (c. 150250)

For context 2 we have only a very limited number of usable representations from Rome and Ostia: 12 fresco ensembles (on a total
of 403) and 10 sarcophagi (on a total of 1394). This context can
therefore denitely not be considered as representative yet.
The classication of the elds, the thematic clusters and iconographical items gives us following overview:
A. Ranking according to the elds:18
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Idyllic/bucolic
Realia/personalia
Mousikos/culture
Pagan
Biblical/ecclesiastical
Orans
Signs

100%
59.09%
54.54%
40.9%
36.36%
31.81%
22.72%

957
565
522
391
348
304
217

B. Ranking according to the thematic clusters:

1. Pastoral (stricto sensu)
2. Old Testament
3. New Testament

50%
479
27.27% 261
22.72% 217

C. Ranking according to the iconographical subjects:

1. Floral/vegetal
2. Ornamental framework
Mousikos (stricto sensu)
Birds (incl. pigeons)
5. Criophorus
Ornamental pattern
7. Funeral
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Gardens (incl. scenery/accessories)
11. Genius
Shepherd (excl. criophorus)
Reposing personage
Flock (animals + attributes)
Vases
Peacock

63.63%
54.54%
54.54%
54.54%
40.9%
40.9%
31.81%
31.81%
31.81%
31.81%
27.27%
27.27%
27.27%
27.27%
27.27%
27.27%

609
522
522
522
391
391
304
304
304
304
261
261
261
261
261
261

18
The absolute gures next to the percentages are based on the exact gures in
Table 3, but have been converted exponentially.

168

arnold provoost
17. Jonah (all scenes)
Marine
Dolphins
20. Mask/head
Jonah ejected (= orans)
Repast/agap
Pedestal/aedicula
24. Lions
25. Strigiles
Moses/Peter striking the rock
Raising of Lazarus
Parapetasma
Abraham and Isaac
Gesture of speech
Shepherd in position of rest
Milk-scene
Seasons/ornamental heads
Hunting/exotic animals
Victoria

22.72%
22.72%
22.72%
18.18%
18.18%
18.18%
18.18%
13.63%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%
9.09%

217
217
217
174
174
174
174
130
87
87
87
87
87
87
87
87
87
87
87

The small number of representations that may be assigned to context 2 obviously prompts us to the greatest care while interpreting.
While classifying the elds it is nevertheless hard to disregard the
ascendancy of the traditional neutral visual repertory: the idyllic/
bucolic scenes in the rst place with no less than 100%; the realia/personalia in the second place with 55.09%; the mousikos scenes in the
third place with 54.54%. It is neither surprising that the pagan sphere
of inuence has remained prominently present (in the fourth place
with 40.9%). Still, the biblical/ecclesiastical subject matter too is
already emphatically represented, be it with a relatively low frequency
(36.36%). The low score of the signs (still 22.72%) is probably the
result of the small suitability of this type of representations to paintings
and sarcophagi, but can also be related with the reluctancy of Hellenistic Western Christians towards a cryptic iconographycf. the wellknown recommendation of Clement of Alexandria (Paedagogus 3.59.2)
to opt for existing scenes possessing a deeper meaning for Christians.
Concerning biblical subject matter it is notable that the Old
Testament scenes (27.27%) eclipse the New Testament ones (22.72%)
slightly, and that the individual topics are restricted to a mere four
( Jonah in the 17th position with 22.72%; and furthermore the rock
miracle of Peter/Moses, the resurrection of Lazarus and the sacrice
of Abraham in the 25th position with 9.09%). Specically ecclesiastical themes are still out of the question.

early christian iconography

169

The tub sarcophagus dated c. 24050 situated in S. Maria Antiqua

in Rome, and also found there, almost perfectly illustrates this start
of funerary iconography (g. 1). On the front can be seen from left
to right: Jonah-orans in a little boat; three lying rams; Jonah spit
out and resting beneath the foliage; the deceased woman (see the
unnished face) as a standing orans between two trees; a sitting
philosopher with open book roll; a criophorus between two trees;
the baptism of Christ. The left side shows us Poseidon, the right
side two shermen with a fyke. This almost spontaneous accumulation of scenes, which must have seemed familiar to the pagans as
well, shows us the feeling of bliss of better o Christians. The deceased
is portrayed as conscientious (orans = pietas) and cultivated (the
philosopher), but as much as a Christian (the Jonah scenes and the
baptism of Christ). The outstanding symbols of blissthe criophorus and herd animalsare echoed on the sides in a marine-idyllic
fashion with the sea god Poseidon (undoubtedly considered neutral)
and a sherman scene.
Although less and less researchers dare to label the famous Southern
French sarcophagus of Brignoles-La-Gayole (g. 2) as Christian, I
am inclined to consider it possibly even more typical of budding
Christianity than the sarcophagus of S. Maria Antiqua. This con
in Proconnesic marble, which in my opinion is dated even before
250, was once placed inside a funeral building of a retired Roman
ocial in La Goyale, and is preserved in the town of Brignoles. As
primary gures can be seen in the centre a sitting man, anked on
the left by a female orans and on the right by a criophorus; on the
left end is the bust of the sun god Helius and an angler, and on
the right end a sitting man with a sta, and a ram looking up to
him. The secondary elements are important as well: a garland of
acanthus and owers (beneath the whole), and furthermore three
lying rams and a small standing gure (before and beside the trees
which the birds are sitting in). Is there a line in this multitude of
scenes? The old man in the middle, who through his clothing (a
cloak draped around the presumably naked lower bodya xed
attribute of philosophers) manifests himself as cultivated, symbolically
represents the deceased. The small gure next to him is a female
servant, and seems to hand him a jug of beveragethe whole scene
is presumably a meal in the open air, or in any case an idyllic
mousikos scene. The orans on the left of the old man shows clear
portrait traits, and so most likely represents the wife of the deceased,

170

arnold provoost

early christian iconography

171

Fig. 1ac. Sarcophagus, found and preserved at S. Maria Antiqua in Rome.

From: F. W. Deichmann, G. Bovini, and H. Brandenburg (eds.), Repertorium
der christlich-antiken Sarkophage, i: Rom und Ostia (Wiesbaden 1967) 747.

Fig. 2. Sarcophagus from the mausoleum of a villa at La Gayole, and

preserved in the Museum of Brignoles. From: A. Provoost, J. Vaes, and
J. Pelsmaekers (eds.), De materile cultuur van de eerste christenen (Louvain 1983)
pl. 8.

172

arnold provoost

characterized by the orans pose as being devoted. Since the criophorus on the other side presumably shows portrait traits as well,
the deceased is therefore labelled as happy. On the far right we see
the deceased for a third time, this time in the symbolic guise of a
shepherd-teacher-ruler. As a left pendant can be seen the idyllic
clich gure of an angler and the symbolic representation of the sun,
source of life, warmth and light. However, critics remark, cant all
these gures be found on pagan sarcophagi as well? Here I can give
a at answer: at the best they appear as isolated gures, but never
in a comparable connection. What connection could a pagan have
seen between disparate elements like an idealizedly depicted man in
philosophers attire during a meal, an orans, a criophorus, a shepherd-teacher-ruler, an angler (with a dolphin on the hook!), an anchor,
a Helius bust, herd animals, trees with birds in the branches, and
the oral frame? He will probably have, except for the few allusions
to the reality of death (the idealized portrayal of the deceased as an
old man and as a shepherd-teacher-ruler, and both portraits), recognized most elements, but not understood them. No matter how
familiar everything might have seemed, the logic of the whole must
have been hardly retrievable to a non-Christian. A Christian on the
other hand interpreted the anchor as a crucix, and knew that the
dolphin/sh alluded to the Ichthys acronym (Ihsow Xristw Yeo
Uw Svtr). This immediately made him understand the meaning of
the whole frieze: the main stress on the experience of bliss and peace;
secondary stress on Christian piety and devotion, tuition in the new
doctrine, and pastoral concern about a former ocial who wanted
to be a shepherd for those left in his care. To a Christian the message of this sarcophagus even was rather simple: here a cultivated
person formerly in charge is buried, along with his devoted wife;
thanks to his faith he was happy, and partly due to that faith he
endeavoured to be a shepherd to his subordinates.19
19
See A. Provoost, De sarcofaag van Brignoles-La Gayole: een compendium van
de derde-eeuwse vroegchristelijke emblemen, in A. Provoost, J. Vaes, and J. Pelsmaekers
(eds.), De materile cultuur van de eerste christenen (Louvain 1983) 6678. I am convinced
that even the comparable Ludwig sarcophagus in Basel is Christian as well. See
G. Berger-Doer, Fischer-Hirtensarkophag fr ein Ehepaar, in Antike Kunstwerke aus
der Sammlung Ludwig, iii: Skulpturen (Verentlichungen des Antikenmuseums Basel
4.3; Basel 1990) 41736: no. 256. Gratia Berger-Doers thesis that immortality
emblems are involved and that the representations are related to a pagan hereafter
contradicts a cultural-anthropological approach of the iconic repertory of that time.
For more about this, see Provoost 2000 (n. 2) 858.

early christian iconography

173

3.3. Context 3: Advancing organisation (c. 250325)

It cannot be emphasized enough that, as opposed to what might
have been expected, this context consists of no less than 53.25% of
the total number of representations. The breakthrough of Christianity
therefore did not take place after the Edict of Milan, but apparently
from the middle of the third century onwards!20
The tables clearly show in what sense this Christianization is to
be interpreted:
A. Ranking according to the elds:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Idyllic/bucolic
Biblical/ecclesiastical
Realia/personalia
Orans
Mousikos/culture
Pagan
Signs

59.97%
56%
54.75%
25.91%
16.82%
7.83%
4.38%

574
536
524
248
161
42
42

B. Ranking according to the thematic clusters:

1. Old Testament
2. Pastoral (stricto sensu)
3. New Testament

36.57% 350
24.13% 231
22.77% 218

C. Ranking according to the iconographical subjects:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Ornamental framework
Funeral
Floral/vegetal
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Criophorus
Jonah (all scenes)
Shepherd (excl. criophorus)
Reposing personage
Mousikos (stricto sensu)
Strigiles
Birds (incl. pigeons)
Genius
Peter (all scenes)

30.3%
28.73%
22.15%
21.21%
20.16%
20.16%
15.36%
15.15%
14.94%
13.27%
12.95%
12.01%
11.7%

290
275
212
203
193
193
147
145
143
127
124
115
112

20
Even when keeping in mind that I count the archaeological remains from the
so-called Early Constantine period among context 3 and that any dating from just
before or just after 325 can almost never really be substantiated, it is hard to deny
that the number of pre-Constantine representations is unexpectedly high.

174

arnold provoost
14. Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Moses/Peter striking the rock
16. Ornamental pattern
17. Parapetasma
18. Multiplication of bread/shes
19. Raising of Lazarus
20. Lions
21. Abraham and Isaac
22. Capture of Peter
Noah in the ark
24. Daniel between the lions
Flock (animals + attributes)
26. Gardens (incl. scenery/accessories)
Adoration of the Magi
28. The three youths in the ery furnace
29. Healing of the blind man

11.18%
11.18%
11.07%
8.15%
8.04%
7.62%
6.68%
5.95%
5.74%
5.74%
5.64%
5.64%
5.43%
5.43%
5.32%
5.01%

107
107
106
78
77
73
64
57
55
55
54
54
52
52
51
48

In the evolution of the elds three obvious trends can be observed:

the biblical-ecclesiastical eld climbs to no less than 56%, only
preceded by the idyllic-bucolic sphere of inuence (59.97%); the traditional repertory even slightly or heavily declines (realia/personalianow 54.75%; oransnow 25.91%; mousikos/culturebarely
16.82%; pagan7.83%); the frequency of the symbols even declines
to 4.38%.
The table of thematic clusters seems at rst sight to contradict
those of the elds. The pastoral group (stricto sensu) declines to a
quarter (from 50% to 24.13%), although the idyllic/bucolic eld
maintains its rst position with 59.97% (incidentally we shall later
have to point to a kind of bucolisation of the main part of the themes
and motifs). In the biblical group we see a rise of the Old Testament
scenes up to 36.57%, while the New Testament ones nearly stagnate with 22.77%.
The most interesting ndings can be seen in the table of themes
and motifs. In the rst and third place can now be found ornamental framework (30.3%) and oral/vegetal (22.15%), but among
the other topics surpassing 5% are no less than ten other ones with
a idyllic/bucolic character: criophorus (20.16%), shepherd (15.36%),
reposing personage (15.15%), strigiles (13.27%), birds (12.95%), genius
(12.01%), ornamental pattern (11.07%), lions (6.68%), ock (5.64%),
gardens (5.43%). Besides we see how the Old Testament scenes too
may actually be labelled as a sort of biblical idylls: Jonah (20.16%),

early christian iconography

175

Fig. 3. Sarcophagus found in the Vigna of the Cimitero dei Giordani and
preserved in the Vatican Museum Pio Cristiano. From: F. W. Deichmann,
G. Bovini, and H. Brandenburg (eds.), Repertorium der christlich-antiken Sarkophage,
i: Rom und Ostia (Wiesbaden 1967) 118.

Moses/Peter striking the rock (11.18%), Abraham and Isaac (5.95%)

and Noah in the ark (5.74%).21
This explicit bucolisation becomes even clearer through the analysis of three concrete examples.
The sarcophagus preserved in the Vatican Museum Pio Cristiano
referred to in the introductory paragraph (g. 3with the makrvn
n xr formula), dating from the second half of the third century,
shows at the left of the tabula with inscription no less than three
types of shepherds, namely a sitting shepherd, a criophorus and a
musing shepherd. The rests of a little boat on the right of the tabula
presumably belonged to a Jonah scene. The inscription conrms the
main stress that is unmistakably idyllic: Here rests Paulina, in the
land of the blessed. Pakata rendered her the last honours, as her
sweet wet-nurse, holy in Christ.
The bucolisation is almost excessive in the cubiculum of Ianuarius
in the Praetextatus catacomb, a burial chamber that can be dated
c. 31020 (g. 4). The four vault copings are fully covered with
vegetal motifs, with in between a few birds. This scenery symbolizes
the seasons: volutes of wild roses for spring and of ears of corn for

21

Furthermore such relatively simple scenes (and particularly the Jonah scenes)
are particularly suitable as isolated motifs or emblemscharacteristic of context
3, whereas they have proved to be for instance less usable in the xed panel
structure of the Irish high crosses from the eighth to the tenth centuries (from which
the Jonah scenes are even missing altogether).

176

arnold provoost

Fig. 4. Cubiculum of Ianuarius in the Praetextatus catacomb: right wall

with arcosolium and vault. From: G. Wilpert, Le pitture delle catacombe romane
(Rome 1903) tav. 34.

summer, vines for autumn, and olive branches for winter. On top
of this there are garlands appearing from vases, placed in the corners. On the walls of the room we nd similar scenes in great measure: mowers (= summer) on the front of the niche in the left wall;
small circles with birds and stylized owers on the arch of the same
niche, and a criophorus in the lunette; vintage (= autumn) on the
front of the niche in the back wall; rows of peacocks and pigeons
facing each other on the arch of that same niche, and the rock miracle in the lunette; olive crop (= winter) on the front of the niche
in the right wall; rows of storks (?) and pigeons on the arch of that
same niche, and Jonah thrown into the sea in the lunette; children
picking roses (= spring) on the entrance niche.

early christian iconography

177

Fig. 5. So-called Cubiculum of the ve saints in the Callixtus catacomb.

From: G. Wilpert, Le pitture delle catacombe romane (Rome 1903) tav. 34.

Of the so-called Cubiculum of the ve saints in the Callixtus catacomb, dating from the beginning of the fourth century, only the
back wall has been preserved (g. 5). The remarkable scenery consists of a garden setting and ve deceased people in the guise of
orans gures. The captions identify them as Dionisia, Nemesius, Procope,
Eliodora and Zoe. Every name has the standard formula of IN PACE
(in peace) added. There is also a sixth name, namely Arcadia, which
however evidently stands near a peacock. Are these ve (or six) souls
in bliss in the heavenly paradise, as is invariably claimed? Or should
this evocation of an idyllic funeral garden perhaps be seen as the
iconic equivalent of the IN PACE inscriptions, and isnt the situation
of bliss of the Christian deceased represented strikingly here (without being explicitly projected into the future)?

arnold provoost

178

3.4. Context 4: Beginning stabilisation (32575)

After a rst absolute peak in context 3 with 53.25%, funerary early
Christian iconography rises to a second peak in context 4 with
29.27%. Converted to an identical length of time (namely half a
century as opposed to three quarters of a century) we obtain a ratio
of 789 for context 4 to 957 for context 3.
The tables show both continuity and change:
Ranking according to the eld:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Biblical-ecclesiastical
Idyllic/bucolic
Realia/personalia
Orans
Mousikos/culture
Signs
Pagan

68.82%
64.44%
32.69%
24.14%
17.87%
12.35%
7.6%

659
617
313
231
171
118
73

Ranking according to the thematic clusters:

1. New Testament
2. Old Testament
3. Pastoral (stricto sensu)

49.8% 477
36.69% 351
21.1% 202

Ranking according to the iconographical subjects:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
8.
9.
10.
11.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

Floral/vegetal
Ornamental framework
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Funeral
Mousikos (stricto sensu)
Birds (incl. pigeons)
Ornamental pattern
Peter (all scenes)
Criophorus
Moses/Peter striking the rock
Genius
Raising of Lazarus
Strigiles
Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Multiplication of bread/shes
Gardens (incl. scenery/accessories)
Apostles
Lions
Daniel between lions
Shepherd (excl. criophorus)
Jonah (all scenes)

44.29%
42.96%
22.24%
21.29%
15.96%
15.58%
15.58%
14.82%
12.92%
12.73%
12.54%
12.54%
11.02%
11.02%
11.02%
10.07%
9.31%
9.12%
8.55%
8.36%
7.79%

424
411
213
204
153
149
149
142
124
122
120
120
106
106
106
96
89
87
82
80
75

early christian iconography

20. Adoration of the Magi
21. Niche
Columns as framework
23. Healing of the blind man
24. Marble/marble-imitation
25. Adam and Eve + tree
26. Abraham and Isaac
Paul (all scenes)
28. Reposing personage
29. Healing of the paralytic
30. Capture of Peter
Marine
32. Haemorroissa

7.6%
7.41%
7.41%
7.22%
6.27%
6.08%
5.89%
5.89%
5.7%
5.51%
5.32%
5.32%
5.13%

179

73
71
71
69
60
58
56
56
55
53
51
51
49

Two important changes can be noted in the ranking of the elds.

Both are related to the way Christianization is being made increasingly more explicit. The biblical-ecclesiastical sphere of inuence now
comes in the rst place, not stepping aside from it in the next two
contexts. The symbolsespecially crucixes and Christ monograms,
no longer modestly placed in a corner, but mostly taking a prominent placeare starting a revival that will manifest itself even more
clearly in the following contexts. Except for the realia/personalia the
other spheres of inuence can just about maintain their frequency.
Inside the thematic clusters the Old Testament and New Testament
scenes are changing place; also in the following contexts the New
Testament scenes will maintain this ascendancy.
The ranking of the separate themes and motifs likewise shows the
advance of biblical-ecclesiastical scenes. The Peter scenes and the
rock miracle even make the top ten, followed in a downward tendency by the resurrection of Lazarus, scenes with apostles, Daniel
in the lions den, Jonah scenes, the adoration of the Magi, the healing of the blind man, Adam and Eve, representations concerning
Paul, the healing of the paralysed man, the arrest of Peter, and the
healing of the haemorroissa. In the bucolic-idyllic themes we see a
decline of the oral/vegetal elements. On the other hand, the ornamental framework comes more and more to the forefront, which
even leads to separate types of sarcophagi (for example with niches,
columns, city gates as ornamental framework).
A tree sarcophagus with ve niches from the Vatican Museo Pio
Cristiano from the second third of the fourth century illustrates this
evolution of iconography well (g. 6). The tree niches with birds in
the branches show how the idyllic/bucolic framework remains a

180

arnold provoost

Fig. 6. Sarcophagus from the hypogaeum of the Confessio of S. Paolo fuori

le mura in Rome, and preserved in the Vatican Museo Pio Cristiano. From:
F. W. Deichmann, G. Bovini, and H. Brandenburg (eds.), Repertorium der
christlich-antiken Sarkophage, i: Rom und Ostia (Wiesbaden 1967) 61.

constant, but at the same time changes its countenance. The scenes
in the tree niches have become either an abstract appearance or
have evolved to pure illustrations of the biblical or apocryphal stories. From the left to the right can be seen: God the Father with
Cain and Abel; the arrest of Peter; the triumphal cross crowned with
wreathed chrismon (tropaion) and two guarding soldiers; the chained
Paul, just before his execution; the mourning Job with wife and
friend.
3.5. Context 5: Final stabilisation (c. 375500)
From context 5 onwards funerary early Christian iconography in
Rome has started a regression. In spite of the duration of 125 years
the percentage amounts to just 15.25% of all the early Christian
representations in Rome and Ostia. This should be interpreted in
the light of the total evolution: an increase up to context 3, and an
irrevocable decrease from context 4 onwards. If the numbers are
chronologically reduced to one and the same denominator (namely
to 25 years) the following view is obtained: 5.5 for context 2; 319
for context 3; 263 for context 4; as opposed to 60 for context 5;
and 1 for context 6.
The ranking tables conrm the trends manifested for the rst time
in context 4:
Ranking according to the elds:
1. Biblical-ecclesiastical
2. Idyllic/bucolic

67.02% 641
66.3% 635

early christian iconography

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Realia/personalia
Signs
Mousikos/culture
Orans
Pagan

31.89%
25.44%
15.77%
12.9%
5.01%

181

305
244
151
123
48

Ranking according to the thematic clusters:

1. New Testament
2. Old Testament
3. Pastoral (stricto sensu)

38.35% 367
20.78% 199
5.37% 51

Ranking according to the iconographical subjects:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
19.
20.
21.
23.
24.

Ornamental framework
Floral/vegetal
Funeral
Apostles (all scenes)
Strigiles
Chrismon/cross/monogram
Mousikos (stricto sensu)
Peter (all scenes)
Niche
Columns as framework
Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Criophorus
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Genius
Wreath/corona
Birds (incl. pigeons)
Marine
City gate
Traditio legis
Parapetasma
Gardens (incl. scenery/accessories)
Paul (all scenes)
Shell
Christ + apostles (context uncertain)

44.44%
28.31%
27.59%
26.88%
18.27%
17.92%
15.77%
15.41%
15.05%
15.05%
12.18%
11.82%
11.46%
10.75%
10.39%
8.96%
8.6%
8.6%
6.81%
6.45%
6.09%
6.09%
5.37%
5.01%

425
271
264
257
177
175
151
147
144
144
117
113
110
103
99
86
82
82
65
62
58
58
51
48

The biblical-ecclesiastical sphere of inuence is in the lead with

67.02%, but the idyllic-bucolic subject matter stays at nearly the
same level with 66.3%. The symbols with 25.44% move up to the
fourth position.
Among the thematic clusters can be noted that the frequency of
the biblical scenes (with 38.35% for the New Testament, and 20.78%
for the Old Testament representations) decreases considerably. The

arnold provoost

182

purely pastoral subject matter reaches a critical bottom limit with

5.37%.
In the classication of the separate themes and motifs the sixth
place of chrismon/cross/monogram (17.92%) and the nineteenth
place of the newcomer traditio legis (6.81%) are an obvious expression of the increasing inuence of the Church management.
3.6. Context 6: The rise of dierent Christian subcultures at the cost of the
common Roman culture (c. 500800)
In spite of the duration of no less than three centuries context 6 has
to do with a mere 0.72%. This low number evidently summons us
to certain caution while interpreting.
The tables nevertheless show how the turns that were clearly visible from context 4 onwards seem to have become denitive.
Ranking according to the eld:
1. Biblical-ecclesiastical
2. Idyllic/bucolic
3. Signs
4. Realia/personalia
Mousikos/culture
6. Orans
7. Pagan

84.61%
38.46%
30.76%
15.38%
15.38%
7.69%
0%

810
368
294
147
147
74
0

Ranking according to the thematic clusters:

1. New Testament
Pastoral (stricto sensu)
3. Old Testament

15.38% 147
15.38% 147
0%

Ranking according to the iconographical subjects:

1.
3.
4.
6.
7.
8.

Floral/vegetal
Christ + apostles
Ornamental framework
Funeral
Christ (bust/portrait/sitting)
Chrismon/cross/monogram
Marble/marble-imitation
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Mousikos (stricto sensu)
Birds (incl. pigeons)
Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Gardens (incl. scenery/accessories)

84.61%
84.61%
69.23%
61.53%
61.53%
38.46%
15.38%
7.69%
7.69%
7.69%
7.69%
7.69%

810
810
663
589
589
368
147
74
74
74
74
74

early christian iconography

Flock (animals + attributes)
Trellis/rastering
Cassette-decoration

7.69%
7.69%
7.69%

183
74
74
74

Among the elds the symbols move up to third place with 30.76%.
Among the thematic clusters the Old Testament scenes seem to
have completely vanished, while the New Testament and purely pastoral themes maintain themselves with a poor 15.38%.
The ranking per theme or motif shows a kind of generalisation
of the markedly ecclesiastical items: Christ + apostles in the shared
rst place (84.61%); the isolated Christ in the shared fourth place
(61.53%) and chrismon/cross/monogram in sixth place (38.46%).
4. Conclusion: the development of the apostolic body of thought in early
Roman Christian iconography
The quantitative approach of early Christian Roman iconography
has enabled us to distinguish several steps in the development of the
apostolic body of thought, which coincide with the evolution of early
Christian material culture according to six contexts (Table 2).
In context 1 (c. 30150), when a proper Christian material culture was evidently out of the question, iconography was probably
restricted to the direct transformation of biblical, possibly merely Old
Testament concepts into visual symbols (in analogy with cuneiform
characters and hieroglyphs).
In context 2 (c. 150250) Jewish-Christian cryptic iconography was
abandoned resolutely in favour of the Hellenistic-Roman repertory.
This led to a selection of mainly idyllic/bucolic images expressing
the Christian feeling of bliss. The Old Testament biblical idylls
(genre Jonah, Noah and the like) were complemented with several
New Testament scenes. The mousikos an r and pietas themes (cfr. especially the teaching and reading scenes and the orants) indicate in
the rst place that the graves in the catacombs as well as the
sarcophagi were primarily destined for the better o, to whom being
literate was a status symbol.
In context 3 (c. 250325), which includes little more than half of
the frescos and sarcophagi, the idyllic-bucolic character gets even
more explicit. The more elaborate biblical scenes are becoming more
numerous, with still a lead of the Old Testament on the New
Testament scenes. The mousikos representations and the orants remain

184

arnold provoost

mainly an expression of the social-economic positioning of the better o. The portraits or symbolic representations of the deceased
and the realia are apparently mainly functional distinguishing marks.
In context 4 (c. 325375) the basic elements we got acquainted
with in the previous contexts continue to exist, but the elaborate
biblical scenes are seen to be more and more evolving into really
narrating scenes (historiae, i.e. the systematic observation and representation of the most relevant features of an event), and the portraits into devotional depictions (characteres, i.e. the ideoplastic expression
of the essence of a person)which leads to the rst devotional portraits of Christ, martyrs and saints. There may even be talk of a
kind of mutation, in the sense of an increasing management of the
Church. That the New Testament scenes surpass the Old Testament
ones for the rst time may be equally symptomatic of this advancing process of dogmatizing.
In context 5 (c. 375500) Christian iconography reaches its peak
and at the same time the rst signs of quantitative and qualitative
regression can be noted. For instance the symbols receive a more
markedly Christian countenance. The portraits get more and more
outspokenly the character of worshipped depictions (and later of
icons). The narrating scenes become mostly real illustrations of episodes
from the Bible or apocryphal literature (instead of idyllic evocations).
Some emblems become elaborate allegories or attributes with didactic purposes. Incidentally, from the whole of iconography the direct
inuence of the doctrine and cultus controlled by the Church becomes
more and more clear.
In context 6 (c. 500800) iconography dierentiates per cultural
territory. Rome doesnt escape the tendency towards a stricter application of image prohibition either, with reduction or even disappearance of gurative scenes (cfr. iconoclasm). Only the symbols seem
unthreatened and even come more clearly to the fore, at the expense
of the characteres and historiae.

early christian iconography

185

Table 1 Evolution of the iconographic genres

ca. 30150
Christ
+ charismatic
leaders

ca. 150250
First expressions of
organisation

ca. 250325
Advancing organisation

ca. 325375
Beginning stabilisation

Emblems/

Dispersed motifs

Scenes/

Portraits

Historiae/

Characteres

ca. 500800
Dierentiated Christian
subcultures

Biblical signs

ca. 375500
Final stabilisation

30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
380
390
400
410
420
430
440
450
460
470
480
490
500
510
520
530
540
550
560
etc.
800

arnold provoost

186

Table 2 Relation between the cultural-anthropologic situation

and the iconography
ca. 30150
Christ
+ charismatic
leaders

30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
ca. 150250
150
First expressions of
160
organisation
170
180
190
200
210
220
230
240
ca. 250325
250
Advancing organisation 260
270
280
290
300
310
320

ca. 325375
330
Beginning stabilisation 340
350
360
370

CONTEXT 1
Creation of Christian communities in
many places, in consequence of the action
of Christ and the charismatic leaders.
Spontaneous co-ordination.
The iconography is probably limited to
a restricted number of cryptic signs with
explicitly Christian character; perhaps also
some neutrally disposed personalia/realia.

CONTEXT 2
First expressions of common provisions,
like house-churches and separate sections
on cemeteries; foundation of some schools
and libraries. General break-through of the
signs and the personalia/realia; evolution
of the signs, in the framework of the
pictural stripes-style and the plastic art of
the sarcophagi, into dispersed motifs
(emblems).
CONTEXT 3
Long period of peace between two violent
campaigns of persecution; continuing
realisation, perhaps through a central
strategy, of common provisions like burial
and poor-relief; adaptation of existing
buildings for religious services and the
earliest new buildings; euergetism of the
rich; beginning monachism; further
extension of schools and libraries.
In the iconography: continuation of the
signs and personalia; emblems/dispersed
motifs become frequently elaborated scenes
and portraits.
CONTEXT 4
Christianity is now a tolerated religion;
more material possibilities.
In the iconography: continuation of the
signs, the personalia/realia and the
emblems/dispersed motifs; the elaborate
scenes evolve into historiae, and the
portraits into characteres.

early christian iconography

ca. 375500
Final stabilisation

380
390
400
410
420
430
440
450
460
470
480
490

ca. 500800
Dierentiated
Christian subcultures

500
510
520
530
540
550
560
570
580
590
600
610
620
630
640
650
660
670
680
690
700
710
720
730
740
750
760
770
780
790
800

187

CONTEXT 5
Christianity becomes the state religion, so
that the public and the religious
organisation melt more and more together;
more and more explicit Christian
interventions in the existing topography of
the cities.
In the iconography: signs receive a more
emphasised appearance; the portraits
evolve still more explicitly into
characteres (and later on into icons), the
narrative scenes into historiae; some
emblems become elaborated allegories,
other ones become attributes; growing
inuence of the doctrine and cult
controlled by the Church.
CONTEXT 6
Christianity splits up, under the inuence
of the invaders and the expansion of
Byzantium, in divergent subcultures: the
Byzantine Empire and the Coptic
civilization in the East; the Germans,
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians,
Saxons/Anglo-Saxons and Vandals in the
West. Large diversity of social patterns
and liturgical practices.
The iconography dierentiates according
to the subcultures; everywhere inclination
towards stricter application of the
prohibition of images, with reduction or
even vanishing of gurative scenes (cf.
iconoclasm); the signs are uncontested; the
characteres and historiae survive, but
become more scanty.

188

Table 3 Ranking-Lists
CONTEXT 2 CONTEXT 3 CONTEXT 4 CONTEXT 5 CONTEXT 6
Total
Fresco-ensembles
Sarcophagi

22 (1.22%)
12 (2.97%)
10 (0.71%)

957 (53.25%)
197 (48.88%)
760 (54.51%)

526 (29.27%)
169 (41.93%)
357 (25.6%)

279 (15.25%)
14 (3.47%)
265 (19.01%)

13 (0.72%)
11 (2.72%)
2 (0.14%)

574
536
524
248
161
42
75

339
362
172
127
94
65
40

185
187
89
36
44
71
14

5
11
2
1
2
4
0

TOTAL
1797
403
1394

RANKING ACCORDING TO THE FIELD

22
8
13
7
12
5
9

(100%)
(36.36%)
(5.09%)
(31.81%)
(54.54%)
(22.72%)
(40.9%)

(59.97%)
(56%)
(54.75%)
(25.91%)
(16.82%)
(4.38%)
(7.83%)

(64.44%)
(68.82%)
(32.69%)
(24.14%)
(17.87%)
(12.35%)
(7.6%)

(66.3%)
(67.02%)
(31.89%)
(12.9%)
(15.77%)
(25.44%)
(5.01%)

(38.46%)
(84.61%)
(15.38%)
(7.69%)
(15.38%)
(30.76%)
(0%)

1124
1104
800
419
313
187
138

(62.54%)
(61.43%)
(44.51%)
(23.2%)
(17.41%)
(10.4%)
(7.67%)

RANKING ACCORDING TO THEMATIC CLUSTERS

Old Testament
New Testament
Pastoral (stricto sensu)

6 (27.27%)
5 (22.72%)
11
(50%)

350 (36.57%)
218 (22.77%)
231 (24.13%)

193 (36.69%)
262 (49.8%)
111 (21.1%)

58 (20.78%)
107 (38.35%)
15 (5.37%)

0
(0%)
2 (15.38%)
2 (15.38%)

607 (33.77%)
594 (33.05%)
368 (20.47%)

RANKING CONCERNING THE ICONOGRAPHICAL SUBJECT

Ornamental framework
Floral/vegetal
Funeral
Orans (excl. biblical orantes)
Criophorus

12
14
7
7
9

(54.54%)
(63.63%)
(31.81%)
(31.81%)
(40.9%)

290
212
275
203
193

(30.3%)
(22.15%)
(28.73%)
(21.21%)
(20.16%)

226
233
112
117
68

(42.96%)
(44.29%)
(21.29%)
(22.24%)
(12.92%)

124
79
77
32
33

(44.44%)
(28.31%)
(27.59%)
(11.46%)
(11.82%)

9
11
8
1
0

(69.23%)
(84.61%)
(61.53%)
(7.69%)
(0%)

661
549
479
360
303

(36.78%)
(30.55%)
(26.65%)
(20.03%)
(16.86%)

arnold provoost

Idyllic/bucolic
Biblical/ecclesiastical
Realia/personalia
Orans (incl. biblical orantes)
Mousikos/culture
Signs
Pagan

12
5
12
2
0
6
7
9
6
6
2
0
2
0

(54.54%)
(22.72%)
(54.54%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(27.27%)
(31.81%)
(40.9%)
(27.27%)
(27.27%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(9.09%)
(0%)

143
193
124
127
112
115
107
106
147
145
107
40
73
77

(14.94%)
(20.16%)
(12.95%)
(13.27%)
(11.7%)
(12.01%)
(11.18%)
(11.07%)
(15.36%)
(15.15%)
(11.18%)
(4.17%)
(7.62%)
(8.04%)

84
41
82
58
78
66
58
82
44
30
67
49
66
58

(15.96%)
(7.79%)
(15.58%)
(11.02%)
(14,82%)
(12.54%)
(11.02%)
(15.58%)
(8.36%)
(5.7%)
(12.73%)
(9.31%)
(12.54%)
(11.02%)

44
13
25
51
43
30
34
9
5
10
12
75
6
8

(15.77%)
(4.65%)
(8.96%)
(18.27%)
(15.41%)
(10.75%)
(12.18%)
(3.22%)
(1.79%)
(3.58%)
(4.3%)
(26.88%)
(22.15%)
(2.86%)

1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)

284
252
244
238
233
217
207
206
202
191
188
164
147
143

(15.8%)
(14.02%)
(13.57%)
(13.24%)
(12.96%)
(12.07%)
(11.51%)
(11.46%)
(11.24%)
(10.62%)
(10.46%)
(9.12%)
(8.18%)
(7.95%)

7
3
2
1
0
2
6
0
0
0
0
0
0

(31.81%)
(13.63%)
(9.09%)
(4.54%)
(0%)
(9.09%)
(27.27%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)

52
64
78
54
52
57
54
48
8
7
55
5
55

(5.43%)
(6.68%)
(8.15%)
(5.64%)
(5.43%)
(5.95%)
(5.64%)
(5.01%)
(0.83%)
(0.73%)
(5.74%)
(0.52%)
(5.74%)

53
48
15
45
40
31
25
38
39
25
28
39
26

(10.07%)
(9.12%)
(2.85%)
(8.55%)
(7.6%)
(5.89%)
(4.75%)
(7.22%)
(7.41%)
(4.75%)
(5.32%)
(7.41%)
(4.94%)

17
7
18
6
10
10
10
10
42
50
3
42
2

(6.09%)
(2.5%)
(6.45%)
(22.15%)
(3.58%)
(3.58%)
(3.58%)
(3.58%)
(15.05%)
(17.92%)
(1.07%)
(15.05%)
(0.71%)

1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
5 (38.46%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)

130
122
113
106
102
100
96
96
89
87
86
86
83

(7.23%)
(6.78%)
(6.28%)
(5.89%)
(5.67%)
(5.56%)
(5.39%)
(5.34%)
(5%)
(4.84%)
(4.78%)
(4.78%)
(4.61%)

early christian iconography

Mousikos (stricto sensu)

Jonah (all scenes)
Birds (incl. pigeons)
Strigiles
Peter (all scenes)
Genius
Scroll/bundle of scrolls
Ornamental pattern
Shepherd (excl. criophorus)
Reposing personage
Moses/Peter striking the rock
Apostles
Raising of Lazarus
Multiplication of bread/fishes
Gardens (incl. scenery/
accessories)
Lions
Parapetasma
Daniel between the lions
Adoration of the Magi
Abraham and Isaac
Flock (animals + attributes)
Healing of the blind man
Niche
Chrismon/cross/monogram
Capture of Peter
Columns as framework
Noah in the ark

189

190

Table 3 (cont.)

CONTEXT 2 CONTEXT 3 CONTEXT 4 CONTEXT 5 CONTEXT 6

1

(4.54%)

0
5
2
0
4
6
4
0
0
0
6
0
0
1
2
5
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
2

(0%)
(22.72%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(18.18%)
(27.27%)
(18.18%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(27.27%)
(0%)
(0%)
(4.54%)
(9.09%)
(22.72%)
(0%)
(0%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(9.09%)

44 (4.59%)

29 (5.51%)

51
21
47
31
45
35
47
47
25
12
28
21
28
21
40
19
6
5
29
6
14
9
17
25

22
28
20
32
13
25
15
16
26
20
25
33
25
27
11
19
26
31
15
19
22
24
19
15

(5.32%)
(2.19%)
(4.91%)
(3.23%)
(4.7%)
(3.65%)
(4.91%)
(4.91%)
(2.61%)
(1.25%)
(2.92%)
(0.2%)
(2.92%)
(2.19%)
(4.17%)
(1.98%)
(0.62%)
(0.52%)
(3.03%)
(0.62%)
(1.46%)
(0.94%)
(1.77%)
(2.61%)

(4.18%)
(5.32%)
(3.8%)
(6.08%)
(2.47%)
(4.75%)
(2.85%)
(3.04%)
(4.94%)
(3.8%)
(4.75%)
(6.27%)
(4.75%)
(5.13%)
(2.09%)
(3.61%)
(4.94%)
(5.89%)
(2.85%)
(3.61%)
(4.18%)
(4.56%)
(3.61%)
(2.85%)

6 (22.15%)
6
24
9
10
7
2
1
1
10
29
1
2
5
8
3
11
13
17
4
14
13
15
10
3

(22.15%)
(8.6%)
(3.22%)
(3.58%)
(2.5%)
(0.71%)
(0.35%)
(0.35%)
(3.58%)
(10,39%)
(0.35%)
(0.7%)
(1.79%)
(2.86%)
(1.07%)
(3.94%)
(4.65%)
(6.09%)
(1.43%)
(5.01%)
(4.65%)
(5.37%)
(3.58%)
(1.02%)

(0%)

0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
2 (15.38%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
8 (61.53%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
11 (84.61%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)

80 (4.45%)
79
78
78
73
69
68
67
64
61
61
60
58
58
57
56
54
53
53
50
50
49
48
46
45

(4.39%)
(4.34%)
(4.34%)
(4.06%)
(3.83%)
(3.78%)
(3.72%)
(3.56%)
(3.39%)
(3.39%)
(3.33%)
(3.22%)
(3.22%)
(3.17%)
(3.11%)
(3%)
(2.94%)
(2.94%)
(2.78%)
(2.78%)
(2.72%)
(2.67%)
(2.55%)
(2.5%)

arnold provoost

Healing of the paralytic

The three youths in the ery
furnace
Marine
Gesture of speech
Adam/Eva + tree
Mask/Head
Vases
Jonah ejected (= orans)
Musing shepherd/person
Traditio clavium
Wreath
Peacock
Marble/marble-imitation
Cana
Haemorroissa
Shepherd in position of rest
Dolphins
Christ (bust/portrait/sitting)
Paul (all scenes)
Milk-scene
Christ + apostles
Articulation by columns/pilasters
Shell
Grapes/wine
Seasons/ornamental heads

TOTAL

19
18
17
16

scenes
scenes
scenes
scenes

(1.05%):
(1%):
(0.94%):
(0.89%):

15 scenes (0.83%):

4 (18.18%)
4 (18.18%)
0
(0%)

28 (2.92%)
25 (2.61%)
10 (1.04%)

9 (1.71%)
8 (1.52%)
20 (3.8%)

0
0
0
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

22
9
11
21
18
14
0
10
4
5
6
9
14
0
10
8
12

12
15
19
6
7
8
0
11
6
14
16
10
6
2
10
10
8

(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(0%)
(4.54%)
(9.09%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)
(0%)

(2.29%)
(0.94%)
(1.14%)
(2.19%)
(1.88%)
(1.46%)
(0%)
(1.04%)
(0.41%)
(0.52%)
(1.59%)
(0.94%)
(1.46%)
( 0%)
(1.04%)
(0.83%)
(1.25%)

(2.28%)
(2.85%)
(3.61%)
(1.14%)
(1.33%)
(1.52%)
(0%)
(2.09%)
(1.14%)
(2.66%)
(3.04%)
(1.9%)
(1.14%)
(0.38%)
(1.9%)
(1.9%)
(1.52%)

2 (0.71%)
3 (1.07%)
8 (2.86%)
4
13
6
3
0
3
24
1
13
2
0
3
2
19
1
2
0

(1.43%)
(4.65%)
(22.15%)
(1.07%)
(0%)
(1.07%)
(8.6%)
(0.35%)
(4.65%)
(0.71%)
(0%)
(1.07%)
(0.71%)
(6,81%)
(0.35%)
(0.71%)
(0%)

0
0
0

(0%)
(0%)
(0%)

0
(0%)
1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
1 (7.69%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)
0
(0%)

43 (2.39%)
40 (2.22%)
38 (2.11%)
38
38
36
32
25
25
25
24
23
22
22
22
22
21
21
20
20

(2.11%)
(2.11%)
(2%)
(1.78%)
(1.39%)
(1.39%)
(1.39%)
(1.33%)
(1.27%)
(1.22%)
(1.22%)
(1.22%)
(1.22%)
(1.16%)
(1.16%)
(1.11%)
(1.11%)

191

Denial of Peter; Abel and Cain; Capsa

Stars; Baptism; Harvest/gathering
Punition of Adam and Eve; Pilate; Sea-creatures; Fossor; Crossing of the Red Sea; Mandorla; He-goat/buck
Samaritan woman at the well; Angler/sher; Healing of youth at Nam; Dragon/snake; Palm; Musical
instruments; Alpha and/or omega
Moses pulling o boots; Madonna/woman with child; Articulation by trees; Pastoral/rural scene; Genius
with torch; Soldiers near cross; Triumphal cross

early christian iconography

Repast/agap
Pedestal/aedicula
Moses receives the Law
Nebukadnessar + the three
youths
Trellis/rastering
Scale-decoration
Hunting/exotic animals
Unrecognizable miracles
Orans + apostles
City gate
Victoria
Acclamation
Cassette-decoration
Job
Entry in Jerusalem
Tending shepherd
Traditio legis
Hunting animals
Cantharus/basin
Angry Jonah

192

Table 3 (cont.)

14 scenes (0.77%):
13 scenes (0.72%):
12 scenes (0.66%):
11 scenes (0.61%):
10 scenes (0.55%):
9 scenes (0.5%):
8 scenes (0.44%):
7 scenes (0.38%):

4 scenes (0.22%):

3 scenes (0.16%):
2 scenes (0.11%):

arnold provoost

6 scenes (0.33%):
5 scenes (0.28%):

Christ-teacher; Daniel + dragon/destruction of temple; acanthus; olive-branch (incl. with pigeon); Arcade
Rastering; Dionysiac/Bacchic
Christ + Peter and Paul; Pigeon/bird with twig; Chest; Crib
Fishes; Susanna with the elder men; Martyrium of Paul; Dextrarum iunctio; Throne; Deer
Cathedra; Christ in unrecognizable scene; vision of Ezekiel; Muse/Polyhymnia; Codex; Servant
Prophet; Balaam; Moon/Luna; Sun-dial; Tritons/Nereids; Hunting scenes
Barrel; Orpheus; Helius/Sol/sun; Ivy; Olive-tree; Hare/boy with hare; Yoke; Gems/jewels; Scrinium; Shield;
Thyrsus
Swastika; Ascension of Elijah; Amor and Psyche; Grin; Kneeling person; Cornucopia; Raising of a deceased
person; Jonah-orans in a boat; Creation; Shepherd-teacher
Angels; Orans + Peter and Paul; Christ-Lamb on rock/mount; Eagle; Door; Trident; Peter and Paul
Hercules; Tobias; Healing of the leper; Phoenix; Raising of the daughter of Jairus; Capture of Christ;
Diptychon; Peter and Paul; Pegasus/winged horse; Horseman; Lance
Felix; Medusa/Gorgo; Lamb of God; Sermon on the Mount; Washing of the feet; Christ + chief of
Capharnaum;
Zacchaeus; Lily; Adoration of the shepherds; Punition of the elder men (Susanna); Sea-horse; John the
evangelist; Herme; Eros
Felix + Adauctus; Martyrium of Peter; Caelus/vault of heaven; Canaanite woman; Peter + the dog of
Simon Magus; Axe; Herodes + Magi; Writing materials/theca calamaria; Lotus; Kymation; Panther/seapanther; Christ + soldiers; Cock-fight; Mark; Oceanus; Palmbranch
Milestone; Merita + Felix + Adauctus; Meal of Isaac; Pillar of re; Samson; Daniel condemns the older
men; Samson strangles the lion; Hercules robs the apples of the Hesperides; Miracle of the manna;
Hermes/Mercurius; The wise and stupid virgins; Healing of the deformed woman; Jacob; Lot; Coronation;
Boat; Joseph and his brothers; Soldiers raming the dress; David with sling; Miracle of the quails; David
and Goliath; Satyr; Lighthouse; Iuno; Baldachin; Healing of the sick at the Bethesda-pool; Healing of three
blind men; Driver; Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasse; Stork; Bucket

1 scene (0.05%):

early christian iconography

Pudicitia; Hymenaeus; Incensory; Anchor; Cuirass; Dionysus; Silenus; The massacre of the Innocents; Pyxis;
Simon of Cyrene; Atlas; Christ + evangelists; Concordia; John the Baptist; Christ menaced by the Jews;
Christ and Caiphas; Birth of Christ; Salvation of Peter; Peter heals the blind widow; Moses menaced;
Capture of Moses; Christus Pronubus; Resurrected Christ + two Maries; Peter walking on the water;
Poseidon; Fight-scne; Helmet; Capture of apostle; Mouse; Knuckle-motif; Judas kiss; Dioscure; Ibex; Bear;
Tamer of wild beasts; Journey; Flagellation; Prisoner between two soldiers; Cursor; Urn upon pillar; Amphore;
Graces; Boy with goose; Flutes; T-cross with hanging cloth; Duck; Punition of Ananias; Healing of the servant of the centurion; Visitation; Drunk Noah; Odysseus; Mortuary monument; Procession; Pluto; Sabazius;
Caduceus; Prostratio; Wheel-motif; Venus; Devastation of idol; Meeting Judah-Tamar; Grieved Adam and
Eve; Vision of Mamre; Jacob and the vision of Bethel; Dream of Jacob; Moses saved from the water;
Arrival of Jacob in Egypt; Dreams of Joseph; Phinehas with Zimri and Cozbi; Absalon; Samson sends foxes;
Dea Tellus; Anatomic lesson; Ornamentation with lambda and omega; Hercules saves Alcestis from Hades;
Hercules kills the hydra; Dying Admetus with family; Hercules kills enemy; Athena and Hercules; Abundantia;
Demeter-Abundantia; Apparition of Christ to Peter; Spies with bunch of grapes; Prophecy of Micah;
Gorgonius/Peter/Marcellinus/Tiburtius; Moses and Aaron; Maurus/Papias/Sisinnius; Marcellus/
Pollion/Petrus/Milis/Pumenius; Turtura/Felix/Adauctus; Merita/Adauctus/Petrus/Paulus/Stephanus; Luke;
Agnes; Philip and eunuch; Lamb multiplicates breads; Martyrium of Callixtus; Viatrix/Simplicius/
Faustinus/Rufus; Sixtus/Optatus/Cornelius/Cyprian; Protus and Hyacinthus; Abdon/Sennen/
Milix/Vincentius; John the evangelist/Hermes/Benedictus; Felicitas and sons; Cecilia/Urbanus/Polycanus/Sebastian/Quirinus

193

THE ERA OF THE APOSTLES ACCORDING TO

EUSEBIUS HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
Adelbert Davids
Apologetic approach of Eusebius of Caesarea
The History of the Church by Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine (d. c.
339) is a most important source for our knowledge of the history of
the rst three Christian centuries, and in some cases our only source.1
Eusebius aim was to show how the Christian religion spread throughout the whole world after Christs Ascension until, after the cessation of persecutions and elimination of heresies, it reached its nal
status of free religion in the Roman Empire under the Emperor
Constantinean event of which Eusebius himself was a witness of
the rst order.2 In his historiography he set out the main lines for
centuries to come: a Syriac translation of his History was in circulation in the East as early as the fourth century, and it was translated
into Armenian not long after; and in the West his bookafter the
Latin translation by Runus in 403was also highly appreciated.
Eusebius History has known successive original editions. It is
believed that Eusebius started work on it in the last decade of the
third century, that is, before the great persecution by Emperor
Diocletian.3 Eduard Schwartz, editor of the critical edition of the
History, has suggested that the rst edition appeared soon after the
so-called edict of Galerius in 311.4 Subsequent events, such as new

1
The edition used in this contribution is E. Schwartz, Eusebius, Kirchengeschichte:
Kleine Ausgabe (Leipzig 19142 = Berlin 19555). The translations are taken from G. A.
Williamson, Eusebius: The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine (Harmondsworth
1965).
2
See W. Vlker, Von welchen Tendenzen liess sich Eusebius bei Abfassung
seiner Kirchengeschichte leiten?, VC 4 1950 15780.
3
T. D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass. 1981) 128, 14950;
the rst edition dates from around 295. For the dierent editions of the History see
R. M. Grant, Eusebius as Church Historian (Oxford 1980) 1021.
4
E. Schwartz, Eusebius Werke, ii: Die Kirchengeschichte 3 (GCS 9.3) lvi: between 311
and 313. See also R. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians in the Mediterranean World from
the Second Century AD to the Conversion of Constantine (Harmondsworth 1988) 6089.

the era of the apostles according to eusebius

195

persecutions by Maximin Daia in the East, the victory of Licinius

and, nally, the succession of Constantine in 324, made further editions with additions necessary. A nal tenth book is a panegyric on
the Christian Emperor Constantine.
In his plan to be the rst author to describe the history of the
Church, Eusebius could rely on his own Chronicle and on his apologetical works Praeparatio evangelica and Demonstratio evangelica. He had
also collected Old Testament texts in his Eclogae, which proved in
his eyes that the doctrine of Christ would nally be triumphant
throughout the world. He was convinced that Christianity was the
oldest religion, that it had been secretly present since Abraham,
that the Law of Moses had prepared humankind for the theophany
of the Logos of God on earth, and that the coming of Christ had
happened providentially at the very time that the pax romana was
spreading over the whole oikoumen . These perspectives were not new;
the great Alexandrian theologian Origen in particular, who had spent
the last part of his life in Caesarea in Palestine, had already clearly
shown the way to follow.
The sources
Many sources from the earliest history of the Christian church are
known to us only through Eusebius History. He quotes extensively
from them or describes their content. As assistant to Pamphilus, who
died as a martyr in about 310, he had easy access to the impressive library of Origen in Caesarea, of which Pamphilus, a great
admirer of Origen, was in charge. He could also make use of the
library of the church of Jerusalem. The Jewish writers Philo and
Flavius Josephus were very important witnesses for Eusebius, and of
the Christian authors writing about the apostolic era, Hegesippus,
Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria were particularly important;5
that is, the authors of Greek texts which dealt almost exclusively
with the situation in the Eastern part of the empire. Eusebius was
hardly interested in the Latin West. If the West was mentioned, it
was always in reference to Roman contacts with the East.

5
See F. G. Chesnut, The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret,
and Euagrius (Thologie historique 46; Paris 1978) 32. The 2nd rev. ed. (Macon,
Ga., 1986) was not available to me.

196

adelbert davids

For the apostolic era, Eusebius quotes from only one text of Latin
origin: the rst part of chapter V of Tertullians Apologeticum, which
Eusebius read in a poor Greek translation. For instance, Eusebius
cites from Tertullian:
ntxete tow pomnmasin mn. ke ersete prton Nrvna toto t
dgma, nka mlista n Rm, tn natoln psan potjaw, mw n ew
pntaw, dijanta.

Study your records; there you will nd that Nero was the rst to persecute this teaching when, after subjugating the entire East, in Rome
especially he treated everyone with savagery.6

But Tertullian actually wrote:

Consulite commentarios vestros, illic reperietis primum Neronem
in hanc sectam cum maxime Romae orientem Caesariano gladio
ferocisse.
Consult your histories; you will there nd that Nero was the rst who
assailed with the imperial sword the Christian sect, making progress
then especially at Rome.7

The participle orientem (from oriri) has been misunderstood as the

accusative of the noun the East (tn natoln), as if Nero had conquered the entire East, and the whole meaning of Tertullians sentence is changed.
The apostolic period
The era of the apostles described by Eusebius covers the period from
the Ascension of Christ (2.1.1) until the reign of Emperor Trajan
(98117), because when dealing with Trajan he writes: In these
pages I have set down all the facts that have come to my knowledge regarding the apostles and the apostolic period (postolikn
xrnvn).8
When dealing with the period, he more or less loosely follows the
guidelines for his History as proposed in the introduction to book I.
He focuses especially on the succession of the holy apostles (tw tn

Eusebius History 2.25.4 (GCS 9.1.723); trans. Williamson 104.

Tertullian Apologeticum 5.3 (CCSL 1.1.95), trans. The Ante-Nicene Fathers, iii
(repr. Grand Rapids, Mich. 1993), 22.
8
Eusebius History 3.31.6 (GCS 9.1.111); trans. Williamson 142.
7

the era of the apostles according to eusebius

197

ern postlvn diadoxw), on the important events, the outstanding leaders and heroes . . . in the most famous Christian communities; the men . . . who by preaching or writing were ambassadors of
the divine word.9 He also pays particular attention to the innovations of the heresies (esp. Gnosticism) and to the calamities that
immediately after their conspiracy against our Saviour overwhelmed
the entire Jewish race. In addition, he highlights the attacks by
pagan unbelievers and the heroic resistance of the martyrs.

The twelve apostles and the seventy disciples

Already in the time of Emperor Tiberius (1437), who was well disposed towards Christians, the whole world was suddenly lit by the
sunshine of the saving word.10 That had already been announced
by the Holy Scriptures: the voice of its inspired evangelists and apostles went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the
world.11 In every city and village, churches with large congregations
were built (2.3.2). In fact Eusebius, who in Book II of his History
mainly follows the story as related in Acts, substantiates his optimistic vision only by mentioning the conversion of Cornelius at
Caesarea and the beginnings of the church of Antioch as set forth
in Acts 10 and 11.
At the beginning of Book III, which deals with the reign of Trajan,
Eusebius mentions again that the apostles and disciples had spread
over the whole world. Referring to Origens Commentary on Genesis
the only explicit mention of Origen before the story of Origens life
and works in book VI of the Historythe various regions of the
world to be evangelized were divided among the apostles: Thomas
was chosen for Parthia, Andrew for Scythia, John for Asia, whereas
Peter seems to have preached in Pontus, Galatia and Bithynia,
Cappadocia and Asia, to the Jews of the Dispersion before coming
to Rome, where he was put to death. Paul undertook his missions
as far as Illyricum, before being martyred in Rome (3.1.13). Eric
Junod, following Adolf von Harnack, has carefully investigated this
9

Eusebius History 1.1.1 (GCS 9.1.2); trans. Williamson 31.

Eusebius History 2.5.3 (GCS 9.1.45); trans. Williamson 76. Eusebius quotes in
the context from Tertullian Apol. 5.12 (CCSL 1.1.945); see also above, n. 7.
11
Eusebius quotes Ps. 18[19].5 LXX; in the Hebrew text of the Psalm it is the
voice of the heavens that has gone out into all the earth.
10

198

adelbert davids

passage and come to a conclusion that goes further than that of

Harnack: Eusebius here uses Origen, whose source was based on a
Syriac tradition from Edessa, still available in the Acts of Thomas: the
various regions to be Christianized were assigned by lot to the
apostles.12
Eusebius tries to draw a distinction between the twelve apostles
and the seventy disciples of Jesus. The twelve were elected by a special privilege (graw) by Jesus at the start of his public appearance
after his baptism by John in the Jordan (1.10.7). Their names are
known from the gospels (1.12.1). But a list of names of the seventy
disciples did not yet exist in Eusebius time.13 For some names he
refers to Acts and Paul: Barnabas, Sosthenes, Cephas,14 Matthias and
the other man in the drawing of lots,15 and Thaddaeus (1.12.13).
But besides them there were a great number of other disciples,
because Paul says in 1 Cor. 15.5,7 that Jesus was seen after his
Resurrection by all the apostles (1.12.5).
Thaddaeus plays an important role in the legend of King Abgar
of Edessa and the correspondence between the king and Jesus (1.13).
Eusebius says that he found the Syriac texts in the archives of Edessa
and translated them into Greek. The sick king begged Jesus for relief
from his disease. As the Jews were treating Jesus with contempt,
Jesus was oered refuge in Edessa. Jesus replied that he was not
able to come, but that after his Ascension he would send a disciple.
In due course the disciple Thaddaeus was sent by the apostle Judas
Thomas to the king, who in his encounter with him professed his
faith in Jesus and stated that he had planned to destroy the Jews
who had crucied Him. The king and many citizens with him were
cured of their corporeal diseases.16
12
E. Junod, Origne, Eusbe et la tradition sur la rpartition des champs de
mission des aptres (Eusbe, Histoire ecclsiastique, III, 1, 13), in F. Bovon et al.
(eds.), Les Actes apocryphes des aptres: Christianisme et monde paen (Geneva 1981) 23348.
For missions in earliest Christianity see W. Reinbold, Propaganda und Mission im ltesten
Christentum: Eine Untersuchung zu den Modalitten der Ausbreitung der frhen Kirche (Forschungen
zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 188; Gttingen 2000)
25364.
13
In Luke 10.1 and 10.17 Eusebius read seventy not seventy-two disciples, cf.
B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart 19942)
1267.
14
This Cephas, a homonym of the apostle Peter, is meant in Gal. 2.11; Eusebius
refers to the Hypotyposes of Clement of Alexandria.
15
Joseph Barsabbas of Acts 1. 23 is meant here.
16
The legend of King Abgar is also known from the later Syriac Doctrine of Addai;

the era of the apostles according to eusebius

199

The rst succession of the apostles

When speaking of the foundation of the churches by the apostles,
Eusebius only facts are the missions by Paul among the pagans from
Jerusalem to Illyricum and by Peter among the circumcized Jews in
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (3.4.1). Concerning
their direct succession, he mentions only those people known from
the letters of Paul and from Acts as leaders of churches: Timothy
as rst bishop of Ephesus, Titus of Crete, Luke the evangelist, Crescens
in Gaul, Linus as rst bishop after Peter in Rome, Clement as third
bishop there, and Dionysius the Areopagite as rst bishop of Athens
(3.4.35). The subsequent episcopal successions in Rome, Alexandria,
Antioch, and Jerusalem are carefully noted by Eusebius throughout
his History.
In the time of Trajan, many of the direct successors of the apostles and their disciples were still living. They continued to organize
the hierarchical structure and propagated the faith all over the world
(3.37.1). Following the advice of the Lord, they had distributed their
goods among the poor, left their country and founded churches in
foreign regions, where they appointed others as shepherds of the new
ocks in order to continue their evangelization into further parts of
the world and among other nations (3.37.23). In this generation
Eusebius mentions Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, and Papias,
whom he knows from Irenaeus Against heresies (3.389).
The family of Jesus
Jerusalem plays an important role. James, the brother of the Lord
(Gal. 1.19), was the rst bishop there. Because of his virtue he was
called the Just (2.2.2). To save the apostolicity of the see, Eusebius
borrows from the Hypotyposes of Clement of Alexandria: the three
foremost apostles Peter, James, and John unanimously chose James
the Just as the rst bishop. His martyrdom in year 62 is carefully
depicted with extensive quotations from Hegesippus and from The
Antiquities of Flavius Josephus (2.23).17

see H. J. W. Drijvers, Edessa, Theologische Realenzyklopdie 9 1982 27788; id. in

W. Schneemelcher (ed.), Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, i (Tbingen 19875) 38993.
17
On the family of Jesus and, in particular, on James, the brother of the Lord

200

adelbert davids

The person of James the Just has recently been the subject of
many public discussions, mainly due to Robert Eisenmans controversial thesis. In his voluminous book James the Brother of Jesus: The
Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls18
he tried to prove that James was the head of the sect of Qumran
and identical with the teacher of righteousness of the Qumranic
commentary of Habakkuk. According to Eisenman, he was the opponent of the man of lies and the false prophet, as Paul was called.
The thesis has met with much criticism, especially from John Painter
in his book Just James: The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition.19
But the family of Jesus and the race of David also play another
role in the apostolic era. Here, Eusebius relies heavily on a letter
by Julius Africanus to Aristides and on Hegesippus book, called by
Eusebius Hypomnemata (1.7). Julius Africanus tries in his letter to harmonize the dierent genealogies of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew
and Luke. In this connection he speaks of members of Jesus family (despsunoi) from the Jewish villages of Nazareth and Cochaba20
who spread to other parts of the country. These despsunoi had discovered their family register, a book called The Book of the Days
(1.7.14). Hegesippus is Eusebius source for his knowledge about the
episcopal succession after James. After the fall of Jerusalem in year
70, the apostles and disciples gathered together in Jerusalem with
family members of the Lord because most of them were still alive.
Unanimously, they chose Jesus cousin Symeon, the son of Josephs
brother Clopas, as successor to James (3.11). This Symeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem, died as a martyr at the age of 120 during the reign of Trajan (3.32.3). All the bishops of Jerusalem down
to the revolt of Bar Kochba (132135) were of Jewish-Christian origin. Eusebius knew all fteen by name (4.5.3).

see W. A. Bienert in Schneemelcher (n. 16) 3739 and esp. P.-A. Bernheim, James,
Brother of Jesus (London 1997).
18
New York 1997.
19
Edinburgh 1997, 27788. See also P. R. Davies, James in the Qumran Scrolls,
in B. Chilton and C. A. Evans (eds.), James the Just and Christian Origins (Novum
Testamentum, Supplements 98; Leiden 1999) 1731; cp. R. M. Price, Eisenmans
Gospel of James the Just: A Review, in B. Chilton and J. Neusner (eds.), The Brother
of Jesus: James the Just and his Mission (Louisville, Ky. 2001) 18697.
20
Two villages with the name of Cochaba are known, see M. Avi-Yonah, Gazetteer
of Roman Palestine (Qedem 5; Jerusalem 1976) 50, but Eusebius History 1.7.14 is not
mentioned there.

the era of the apostles according to eusebius

201

In the meantime, the ospring of King David were regarded with

great suspicion by the Roman emperors. After year 70, Vespasian
wanted to trace the descendants (3.12) and Domitian ordered them
all to be exterminated. According to Hegesippus, heretics had accused
the grandchildren of Judas, brother of Jesus, of planning a restoration of the kingdom of David. When these grandchildren appeared
before the emperor, they showed their callous labourers hands and
explained that the kingdom of Christ was a heavenly kingdom, not
of this earth and would only appear at the end of time. Thereupon
Domitian stopped further plans for persecution (3.1920). On their
release the freed grandchildren became leaders of the churches both
because they had borne testimony and because they were of the
Lords family. They were still alive in the time of Trajan (3.20.6).
The Jews
The main obstruction to the apostles performing their missionary
tasks came from the Jews. Eusebius is rmly convinced of this. The
Jews had been responsible for the deaths of Christ and many of the
apostles and disciples: Stephen, the apostle James, James the Just,
and of the other apostles (3.5.2). It is only because of the patience
of God that the Jews were not struck by divine punishment until
forty years after Jesus crucixion. God had allowed them sucient
time to convert. Eusebius account of the apostolic era culminates
in the denitive destruction of Judaism. The fall of Jerusalem in
year 70 is in his eyes the nal judgment upon this whole impious
race (3.5.3).21
In this connection Eusebius makes use (and abuse) of The Jewish
War by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. It has been said that
Josephus is not only the most read but also the most distorted and
abused historian in the whole of historiography. Although Josephus
was against the Jewish revolt, he would never have believed that
God would turn away forever from his people. But throughout the

21
Eusebius quotes extensively from Josephus Jewish War, in which the calamities in Jerusalem are vividly depicted. Eusebius follows Origens theory about the
nal punishment of the Jews, see J. Ulrich, Euseb von Caesarea und die Juden: Studien
zur Rolle der Juden in der Theologie des Eusebius von Caesarea (Patristische Texte und
Untersuchungen 49; Berlin 1999) 267 (on Bestrafungsmotiv).

202

adelbert davids

centuries the Christian tradition has made use of Josephus as a propagator of anti-Semitism.22
Many disasters had fallen upon the Jewish people as signs of the
coming nal destruction. But the murder of James the Just in year
62 was the immediate cause of the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the Romans (2.23.9). In the meantime, the
Christian community of Jerusalem had received a divine advice to
move to the city of Pella in Trans-Jordan (3.23.19). Eusebius, and
after him Epiphanius of Salamis, are the only early Christian authors
to give an account of the removal to Pella. Among the sources suggested are Aristo of Pella, Hegesippus, and Julius Africanus. But
Joseph Verheyden has pointed out that the story of the ight to
Pella must have arisen in the anti-Jewish brain of Eusebius. The idea
tted well into his vision: the Roman emperor could conquer Jerusalem
and destroy Judaism without censure as the Christian community
was no longer there.23
The heresies
Another menace in the apostolic era were the heresies. During the
lifetime of the apostles they managed to remain concealed, but after
the deaths of the apostles the godless deceit began to emerge. That,
at least, is the opinion of Hegesippus, whom Eusebius quotes (3.32.78).
Earlier in his History Eusebius quoted extensively from the First Apology
of Justin Martyr: Simon the Magician of Acts 8 was the patriarch
of all heresies and was unmasked as such by the apostle Peter in
Samaria. Simon found a refuge in Rome during the reign of Claudius
and was even honoured with a statue. But Peter met him there once
more and again revealed his true nature. This was to demonstrate
that through Peter the true light of the East could also shine in the
West (3.14.6).
22
F. J. A. M. Meijer and M. A. Wes in the introduction to their translation of
Josephus Jewish War and autobiography: Flavius Josephus, De Joodse oorlog & Uit mijn
leven (Baarn 1992) 25; cf. H. Schreckenberg, Die christlichen Adversus-Judaeos-Texte und
ihr literarisches und historisches Umfeld (1.11. Jh.) (Europische Hochschulschriften
23.172; Frankfurt am Main etc. 19953) 263 and 763.
23
J. Verheyden, De vlucht van de christenen naar Pella: Onderzoek van het getuigenis van
Eusebius en Epiphanius (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgi, Klasse der Letteren 50.127;
Brussels 1988) 24.

the era of the apostles according to eusebius

203

Simon was succeeded by Menander, who also came from Samaria.

Thus further heresies arose at the end of the apostolic era, such
as those of the Ebionites, Cerinthus, and the Nicolaitans. For this
information Eusebius relied on Justin, Gaius, Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria and Dionysius of Alexandria. But each of these heresies
disappeared after a short time (3.269, esp. 3.29.4).
Philo and the apostolic era
In addition to the leading motifs of the Christianizing of the whole
world, the destruction of Judaism, and the ght against the heresies,
the description of the daily life of the rst Christians is a special
item which Eusebius was eager to borrow from the Jewish author
Philo of Alexandria (2.17). In his book On Contemplative Life, composed
in the years 334, Philo depicted the philosophical and ascetic way
of life of the Egyptian Jewish Therapeutai. According to Eusebius, Philo
was thinking of the rst Christians of Acts 4.345, and he called
them Therapeutai because the name Christians was not yet commonly
known. The old writings, which the Egyptian Jewish ascetics were
eager to allegorize, were in fact the gospels and the writings of the
apostles. The liturgical services, held in the ascetics sacred room,
called semneon and monastrion, were in fact, according to Eusebius,
Christian services under the supervision of the bishops.24
The lives of Christian monks later in the fourth century do indeed
resemble the asceticism and abstinence of Philos Egyptian Jewish
ascetics. But around 300the time that Eusebius was writingthere was
not yet a thorough organization of Christian anchorites or coenobites.
It could be that Eusebius when interpreting Philos description had
the Christian example of the philosophical and ascetic way of life of
Origen and his pupils at Caesarea in mind. This ambience had been
depicted by Origens pupil Gregory Thaumaturgus,25 but there is no
proof of any direct literary dependence by Eusebius on Gregory here.

24
Philo De vita contemplativa 25 (ed. L. Cohn and P. Wendland vi.52) on the
sacred semneon and monastrion of the philosophically living ascetics; ibid. 28
(ibid. 53) on their allegorical explanations of Holy Scripture.
25
Gregory Thaumaturgus Pan. Or. 6.7380 (SC 148.124/6): Origen teaches his
disciples the philosophical, ascetic life; and 15.17383 (SC 148.168/72): on the
allegorical interpretation of Scripture by Origen. Eusebius knew, of course, that
Gregory Thaumaturgus was pupil of Origen, see e.g. History 6.30.

MONKS: THE ASCETIC MOVEMENT AS A RETURN

TO THE AETAS APOSTOLICA
G. J. M. Bartelink
The description of the conversion of Anthony in his Vita written by
Athanasius is the locus classicus for the portrayal of a radical conversion. Numerous are the echoes of this passage in early Christian
writers. The author of the Vita Antonii may have stylized the biography in some respects, the outline of the aspirations of the new
ascetic movement, as described by Athanasius, presents very authentic features.
Right at the beginning we notice that the example of the apostles and of the rst Christian community led by them inuenced the
young Anthony.1 One Sunday morning, Anthony, son of a well-todo Egyptian farmer, eighteen years of age, goes to the church and
on the way, considers how to shape his life. At once texts from the
New Testament occurred to him: that the apostles had given up all
their possessions following the Lord;2 that some Christians had sold
their possessions and put down the proceeds at the feet of the apostles to be distributed among the poor.3 After he entered the church,
he heard another text of the same tenor4 and moreover, a week
afterwards, he had a similar experience. It meant to him that those
divine words werelike an oracleintended for him personally. His
answer was the radical resolution to detach himself from all property and so to be free to follow Christ and to seek perfection.
This is the rst time a monastic text presents the apostles who
follow Christ and the rst community of Christians in Jerusalem with
an ideal to aim at. The same idea is to be found in many later
monastic writings. The texts about Jesus sending out His apostles
and instructing them to set o without purse, rucksack or footwear
were also quoted in this connection.5 The ascetics aimed at the revival
1
2
3
4
5

Athanasius Vita Antonii 2.24 (SC 400.132).

Matt. 4.20.
Acts 4.325.
Matt. 19.21.
Matt. 10.515; Mark 6.713; Luke 10.212.

the ascetic movement as a return

205

of the enthusiastic Christian community described in Acta Apostolorum

4. The life of the rst Christians was interpreted as a programme
of the way towards perfection.6
In the life of the Church, again and again, these texts received a
new actuality bringing about a new dynamic power. They accompanied the ascetics on their path of life, for asceticism is a laborious process and the imitation of Christ demands continuous attention
from day to day. Monastic texts emphasize that restriction of material needs and the fuga mundi are only a rst step and that essentially it is the attitude of inner abstinence that is most important; it
is this that makes possible the imitatio Christi and total devotion to
God. Only by means of continuous eort can the consistent way of
life be acquired that reects this ideal. Many ascetics looked back
to the inspiring examples from the rst days of the Church. Heimweh
nach der Urkirche, as Bacht called it,7 was a characteristic feature
of early Christian monasticism. Even more than the prophets of the
Old Testament, did the apostles, as leaders of the earliest Christian
communities, impose exempla. They were, as Theodoret of Cyrrhus
says, torches lighting the way for the Christians.8
In the course of time, the importance of the apostleswho at rst
chiey provided a standard of the Christian doctrinein setting an
example for Christian life was gradually stressed. Called by Christ
Himself, they had given up their earthly possessions and, as Irenaeus
already remarked, those who follow their example may also expect
the reward of the apostles.9 In fact, the principal monastic ideas are
a heritage of the earliest Christian traditions. The vocation of the
monk is properly speaking the vocation of the baptized Christian.
Monasticism has its roots in a spirituality that applies to all Christians.

6
See G. Morin, Lidal monastique et la vie chrtienne des premiers jours (Abbaye de
Maredsous 1931); K. S. Frank, Vita apostolica. Anstze zur apostolischen Lebensform
in der alten Kirche, Zeitschrift fr Kirchengeschichte 82 1971 14566. Cf. 1467:
Tatschlich war auch das frhe Mnchtum vom Willen zu vita apostolica erfllt.
Ohn alles Bedenken verknpften die ersten Mnche ihre asketische Lebensweise
mit der der Apostel. Die Eremiten von gypten wollten das Leben der Apostel
nachahmen, ihre Brder in den ersten Koinobien nicht weniger. Die klsterliche
Gemeinschaft des Basilius und die klerikale Familie des Augustin sahen das Leben
der Apostel und der apostolischen Urgemeinde in ihren Gemeinschaften zu neuem
Leben erweckt.
7
H. Bacht, Heimweh nach der Urkirche, Liturgie und Mnchtum 7 1950 6478.
8
Theodoret of Cyrrhus Graecarum aectionum curatio 8.5,70 (SC 57.312,335).
9
Irenaeus of Lyons Adversus haereses 4.12.5 (SC 100,II.523).

206

g. j. m. bartelink

The only dierence is that, for the monks, the authentic Christian
perfection is an absolute aim and the only prospect. Hence Basil the
Great sometimes uses the general term Christian to design the
monk. Monasticism ts in a living tradition that goes back to the
time of the apostles.10
Even before the rise of monasticism the expression apostolic life
had been applied to the manner of life of the perfect, ascetic Christians.
Clement of Alexandria, for instance, describing the true Christian
Gnostic, makes use of it11 and according to Origen the ascetics lead
an apostolic life.12 For Methodius Christian asceticism is an apostolic institution.13 Epiphanius mentions the Apostolikoi, name of an
ascetic sect, otherwise called Apotaktikoi.14 And the Church historian
Socrates praises the apostolic life of the Desert Fathers in Nitria
and Scete.15
For their view on the apostles as imposing examples, monastic
authors chiey appealed to New Testament texts, but they also underwent the inuence of some apocryphal writings, especially apocryphal
Acts. These writings, which circulated among premonastic groups of
ascetics, are nearly all characterized by strong ascetic and encratite
tendencies. Here we see the apostles as ascetic wandering missionaries, possessing miraculous powers.16
Some monastic authors idealizing the primitive Church
Cassian
Because in the rst Christian community of Jerusalem the imitatio
Christi had been practised in an impressive way, it is considered as
an ideal to strive after in many monastic writings. Cassian is one of

10
Cf. H. Holstein, Lvolution du mot apostolique au cours de lhistoire de
lglise, in A. Pl et al. (eds.), LApostolat (Paris 1957) 4161.
11
Clement of Alexandria Stromata 4.9.75.12 (GCS 15.2812).
12
Origen, Matthuserklrung I. Die griechisch erhaltenen Tomoi (GCS 40.352,4212).
13
Methodius of Olympus Symposium 10.2 (GCS 27.123).
14
Epiphanius of Salamis Panarium 61.1 (GCS 31.380).
15
Socrates Historia ecclesiastica 4.2.3 (PG 67.512B).
16
Cf. M. Blumenthal, Formen und Motive in den apokryphen Apostelgeschichten (Leipzig
1933); R. Sder, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und die romanhafte Literatur der Antike
(Stuttgart 1932 = Darmstadt 1969). Some topics are common to the apocryphal
Acts and monastic texts.

the ascetic movement as a return

207

these authors. Although his retrospective view of the historical development of monasticism has little to do with reality, there is no denying that an essential idea is right: during the rst centuries asceticism
has continuously accompanied the Church. In his eighteenth Collatio
he puts into the mouth of abba Piamun the following exposition.17
After the death of the apostles the initial enthusiasm diminished, the
faithful became less fervent and newly converted people introduced
pagan practices into the Church. The demands made upon them
were less high, they were allowed to keep their possessions, and this,
in its turn, had a repercussion on the way of life of the other faithful. But some of themquibus adhuc apostolicus inerat fervorwere determined to continue their apostolic way of life. They left the cities and
practised individually what the apostles had prescribed for the whole
Church community. Groups came into being that began to lead their
own lives. Living in communities, as cenobites, they were called
monks.18 Their cells and abodes were called cenobia: Istud ergo solummodo fuit antiquissimum monachorum genus. These communities, according to Cassian, existed already long before the rst hermits appeared,
such as Paul of Thebes and Anthony. They were the rst representatives of another, secondary form of monasticism: anachoretism.
In some Pachomian texts the apostolic community appears as an
example of the koinobion. In his Liber Orsiesii, a kind of spiritual testament, Horsiesi admonishes the Pachomian monks that they must
follow the great leaders of beginning monasticism.19 They built us
on the foundations of the apostles and the prophets and on the doctrine of the Gospel that have been built on the cornerstone Jesus
Christ.20 These pioneers, Horsiesi says, carried out what they had

17
Cassian Collationes 18.56 (SC 64.1418), cf. Instituta 2.5 (SC 109.648). See
A. de Vog, Monachisme et glise dans la pense de Cassien, in Thologie de la
vie monastique (Thologie 49; [Paris] 1961) 21340 at 21422.
18
Monachus, however, was not used before the fourth century as a technical term
to refer to the ascetics in the desert.
19
Liber Orsiesii 6 (sanctorum exempla sectantes . . . habentes principem et perfectorem Iesum)
and 21 ( patres nostri aedicaverunt nos super fundamentum apostolorum et prophetarum, et evangeliorum disciplinam, quae angulari lapide continetur Domino Iesu Christo) (ed. A. Boon,
Pachomiana Latina: Rgle et ptres de S. Pachme, ptre de S. Thodore et Liber de
S. Orsiesius. Texte latin de S. Jrme [Bibliothque de la Revue dhistoire ecclsiastique
7; Louvain 1932] 112 and 123). Cf. H. Bacht, Pakhme et ses disciples (IV e sicle),
in Thologie de la vie monastique (Thologie 49; [Paris] 1961) 3971; id., Das Vermchtnis
des Ursprungs: Studien zum frhen Mnchtum, i (Wrzburg 1972) 66 and 110.
20
Cf. Eph. 2.20.

208

g. j. m. bartelink

learnt from the apostles and the prophets. As to the poverty of the
prophets, Horsiesi could have thought of Hebrews 11.37 (they wandered around in goatskins, in poverty, distress and misery) and as
to the exemplary poverty of the apostles, he thought of the texts
about their vocation: they left behind all they possessed to follow
Christ.21 And in Liber Orsiesii 50: That our group and the community that holds us together go back to God, the Apostle told us: But
do not forget to be helpful and generous, for that is the kind of
sacrice that pleases God. 22 Likewise we read in the Acts of the
Apostles: There was but one heart and soul in the multitude who
had become believers, and not one of them claimed anything that
belonged to him as his own, but they shared everything they had.
The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, with great power.23 The Psalmist agrees with these words saying: Lo, how good and lovely it is when brethren dwell together
as one.24 In some later monastic texts Acts 4.13 and Ps. 132(133).1
are also sometimes quoted together.
Pachomius too, the founder of the way of the cenobites, had
been inspired by the ideal of the apostolic life, where poverty had
a central place. He had shaped that ideal especially in the perspective of the primitive community around the apostles, where private
property had been abolished. It was taken over by Shenoute, Besa
and Horsiesi. But in the Coptic Vita Pachomii we read that among
his rst disciples Pachomius found only little comprehension for his
new kind of evangelic poverty.25
In his Catechesis Pachomiuss disciple Theodore describes the koin
nia as a revelation from the time of the apostles to all those who
want to live for the Lord after their example.26 And in the introduction to his translation of the Rule of Pachomius Jerome likewise
calls Pachomius and his disciples apostolic men. Pointing out that
heas a true interpreterhad maintained the simple style of the
Coptic text, he motivates this as follows: we want to prevent that

21

Cf. Matt. 4.20; Mark 1.18.

Heb. 13.16.
23
Acts 4.323.
24
Ps. 132(133).1.
25
Cf. L.-T. Lefort, Les vies coptes de s. Pachme et de ses premiers successeurs (Louvain
1943 = 1966) 3 and 65.
26
Theodore of Tabennisi Catechesis (Lefort [n. 25] 38).
22

the ascetic movement as a return

209

rhetorical embroidery might alter the image of these apostolic men,

who are completely lled with the grace of the spirit.27
Quotations of Acts 4.325 are lacking in the Apophthegmata Patrum.
The character of the Sayings of the Fathers, which contain chiey practical admonitions and rules of life, leaves no room for theorizing
about the background and the origin of monasticism.
Basil the Great
In the ascetic writings of Basil we are frequently confronted with a
nostalgic hankering after the rst period of the Church. This pioneer of monasticism in Asia Minor considered the community of a
monastery as a real revival of the primitive community of Jerusalem.28
At the end of the seventh of his Regulae fusius tractatae he remarks
that the monastic community has the characteristic features of the
saints in Acts 2.44. In Epistula 2 he stresses that it is a condition for
the monk to detach his soul from the world that leads us away from
the essential. When, in Epistula 22, Basil refers to models and admonitions of Scripture, he quotes mainly from the epistles of Paul.
Before the vita apostolica the vita prophetica (the example of Elijah and
the other prophets) pales into insignicance. Bound up with the ideal
pattern of the primitive Christian community the vita apostolica traces
a direct line from the beginnings so that there is a straight link with
the example of Christ Himself. Texts from the Pauline epistles play
a prominent part in the monastic tradition. In Epistula 295 Basil likewise denes life in a monastery as an imitation of the way of life
that was prescribed by the apostles. The ascetic lifeespecially in
the koinobionin the view of Basil meant the true form of Christianity,
a reection of their authentic beginning. The monastery is the body
of Christ, the house of God and an image of the Church. There
one can live as a new man, as the New Testament teaches us.29

27

Jerome Praefatio in Regulam Pachomii 9 (ed. Boon [n. 19] 9).

Acts 2.44: Regulae fusius tractatae 7.4 (PG 31.933C); 35.3 (PG 31.1008A); Acts
4.32: Ethica 60.1 (PG 31.793C); Regulae fusius tractatae 7.4 (PG 31.933C); 32.1 (PG
31.996A); 35.3 (PG 31.1008A); Regulae brevius tractatae 85 (PG 31.1144A); 183 (PG
31.1205A); Acts 4.35: Regulae fusius tractatae 19.1 (PG 31.968B); 34.1 (PG 31.1000B);
Regulae brevius tractatae 93 (PG 31.1148B); 131 (PG 31.1169C); 135 (PG 31.1172C);
148 (PG 31.1180C); 252 (PG 31.1252B). Cf. W. K. L. Clarke, The Ascetic Works of
Saint Basil (London 1925) 426; P. Humbertclaude, La doctrine asctique de saint Basile
de Csare (Paris 1952) 31320.
29
Cf. Eph. 2.15; 4.24; Col. 3.10.
28

210

g. j. m. bartelink

In his monastic communities Basil wanted the spirit of the apostolic communities to reign, including the charismatic character he
describes in his Regulae fusius tractatae. Unity of spirit and harmony is
a main requirement. The Spirit will distribute His gifts according to
the needs of the entire community. In this way the individual gift
will become a common possession. In Basils Regulae fusius tractatae,
then, one is frequently reminded of the early times of the Church.
Because all monks, in the words of Paul, are members of the body
of Christ, the individual charismata contribute to the well-being of the
whole. The monk, as pneumatikos, receives spiritual gifts for the benet
of others. But, Basil says, supernatural healings and visionswhich
were not lacking in the rst period of the Churchdo not belong
to the charismata of the monks.
In his Ethical Rules 58 Basil develops his view that the Spirit grants
some monks special gifts for the good of the whole community. The
charismata accompany everyone in the function he holds and make
him more suitable for it. This applies particularly to the abbot who
is charged with the leadership and who has to preach the word of
God. Here Basil refers to Paul, who says that the gift of eloquence
is a charisma.30
In the biographies of anchorites, on the other hand, the charisma
of the working of wonderssometimes compared with those of the
apostlesis essential to show the greatness of a holy monk. When,
for instance, Amun crosses the river Lycus31 with dry feet, Athanasius
compares him with Peter walking on the lake.32 The Syrian ascetic
Peter, when healing someone, is compared with the apostle Peter
working a similar wonder.33 Especially the raising of a dead person
is considered an apostolic wonder.34
John Chrysostom
When John Chrysostom, who knew the monastic worldboth of the
hermits and of the cenobitesfrom his own experience, started to
charge the monks with a missionary task among the heathens, he

30
31
32
33
34

Basil Ethica 58 (PG 31.78892B); cf. 1 Cor. 12.8.

Athanasius Vita Antonii 60.9 (SC 400.296).
Matt. 14.29.
Theodoret of Cyrrhus Historia religiosa 9.14 (SC 234.433); cf. Acts 9.3641.
Theodoret of Cyrrhus Historia religiosa 21.14 (SC 257.92).

the ascetic movement as a return

211

also appealed to the Pauline texts on the charismata. All Christians,

but especially the monks, are called to the imitation of the apostles.35
In the opinion of Chrysostom, the imitation of the apostles also comprised that of the k rugma, apostolic missionary activity. Just as at the
time of the apostles, according to him, a right way of life was more
credible than miracles, also in his days. For this reason the preaching of the faith by the monks could be of great value. Coupled as
it was with an ascetic life of high moral standing it could be an auspicious starting-point to convert the unbelieving.36 In his numerous
references to the charismata mentioned by Paul, Chrysostom did not
omit to present the missionary activity of the monks as one of their
special gifts. In Homilia 33.4 on Matthew,37 he describes monasticism
as going back directly to the apostles: they founded the choirs of the
monks.
Augustine
The pericope Acts 4.325 played an important part in the description Augustine presents of ideal religious life. Possidius says that
Augustine, after becoming a priest at Hippo, before long established
a monastery intra ecclesiam, where he, together with the other servants of God, started to live secundum modum et regulam sub sanctis apostolis constitutam. Nobody was allowed to have their own possessions
whatsoever, but they should have all things in common and everything should be distributed according to their needs. Augustine had
already lived in such a way after his return from Italy to Thagaste.38
Referring especially to the studies of Luc Verheijen,39 I will restrict
myself here to some short remarks.
35
Cf. 1 Cor. 4.16; John Chrysostom Ad populum Antiochenum 16.2 (PG 49.175).
See I. Auf der Maur, Mnchtum und Glaubensverkndigung in den Schriften des hl. Johannes
Chrysostomus (Fribourg 1959); J.-M. Leroux, Monachisme et communaut chrtienne
daprs saint Jean Chrysostome, in Thologie de la vie monastique (Thologie 49; [Paris]
1961) 14390.
36
In Epistulam I ad Corinthios Homilia 6.4 (PG 61.54).
37
PG 57.393.
38
Possidius Vita Augustini 5 (ed. A. Bastiaensen, Vite dei Santi 3; Rome 1975,
140).
39
L. Verheijen, Saint Augustines Monasticism in the Light of Acts 4.3235 (Villanova,
Pa., 1979); Spiritualit et vie monastique chez saint Augustin: lutilisation monastique des Actes des Aptres 4, (31) 3235, in Jean Chrysostome et Augustin (Thologie
historique 35; Paris 1975) 93123 at 99102 = id., Nouvelle approche de la Rgle de
saint Augustin (Bgrolles en Mauges 1980) 75105 at 814; cf. also T. J. van Bavel,
Die erste christliche Gemeinde und das religise Leben. Apostelgeschichte 4,3135

212

g. j. m. bartelink

Augustine aimed at reviving the apostolic example of the rst

Christian community in the new monastic communities. Describing
the life of the brothers in his monastery at Hippo, he made a deacon recite the above mentioned passage from Acts 4. Then Augustine
himself took over the same text addressing the people: I myself want
to read this passage to you also. It is more satisfying to read these
words than to say to you something of myself. And he concluded
the lecture with the words: You heard what we desire to practise.
Pray that we may be able to full it.40 The words one heart and
one soul became as it were a motto in Augustines descriptions of
monastic life. Augustine emphasized that it was the Holy Spirit who
descended on the young community and brought it to life41 and that
in his days it was the same Spirit who poured out love into the
hearts of the faithful and gave them the force to follow the commandments of God. It is to be noticed that more than once Augustine
linked the rst verse of Psalm 132(133) with Acts 4.325. In Epistula
57.3942 he refers to the example of the apostles, relating it to his
own situation. According to the words of the Lord to the rich young
man the striving after perfection means detachment from earthly
possessions, as Augustine himself did with the help of the grace of
God. It does not matter whether one abandons a lot or only little:
nam neque ipsi apostoli, qui priores hoc fecerunt, divites fuerunt.
In the Middle Ages the Rule of Augustine (Epistula 211) had a
loud echo. Apostolicam vitam optamus vivere from the Rule became the
motto of many a reformer of monastic life.
Jerome
Jerome, author of the Vitae of the monks Paul, Malchus and Hilarion
and translator of the Rule of Pachomius, regarded the communal

in der Interpretation des Augustinus, In unum congregati 29 1982 79100; Apostolisch

religieus leven: spiritualiteit, Aggiornamento 20 1988 16673.
40
Augustine Sermo 356.1 (PL 39.1574).
41
Cf. A. Zumkeller, Augustines Ideal of Religious Life (New York 1986) 131. The
device one heart and one soul: Augustine Contra Faustum 5.9 (CSEL 25.281); De
opere monachorum 25.32 (PL 40.572); Enarratio in Ps. 132.2,6,12 (PL 37.1729,17323,
1736). See also T. J. van Bavel, Ante omnia et in Deum dans la Regula sancti
Augustini, VC 12 1958 15765 (especially 1624).
42
CSEL 44.485. On Ps. 132(133).1: L. Verheijen, LEnarratio 132 de saint
Augustin et sa conception du monachisme, in Forma Futuri: Studi in onore di Michele
Pellegrino (Turin 1975) 80617; A. Solignac, Le monachisme et son rle dans lglise

the ascetic movement as a return

213

life of the community of Jerusalem (adding that of Alexandria, on

account of the Therapeutae, whom he, following the footsteps of
Eusebius, took for Christians) as a preguration of the cenobitical
life in a community.43 To him, the monastery is a training-ground
for acquiring virtue, and, following Paul, he frequently uses the image
of the competition and the wrestling-match against the Adversary
and his satellites, the demons. According to Jerome, the exhortations
and prescriptions of the apostles are the foundation of the monastic
rules.44
Complete detachment from the world, family ties, possessions and
prestige is the cornerstone of the ascetic ideas of Jerome, after the
example of the apostles, who left all to follow Christ.45 He exhorts
Paulinus of Nola, who desires to lead an ascetic life, to put the proceeds of his possessions at the feet of the apostles.46 The reference
to Acts 4 in this text has become a symbol for the treading under
feet of riches: pecuniam esse calcandam. Thus, in a humble and detached
life, one can despise forever what has been despised once.47
Theodoret of Cyrrhus
In his Historia religiosa, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, in short biographies
of monks, describes models of Christian life, modelled in their turn
on the life of Christ and of the great gures of the Old and the
New Testament. Nearly all the heroes of this important representative of Syrian monasticism are, as Canivet formulates it,48 a replica

daprs lEnarratio in Psalmum 132, in C. Mayer (ed.), Homo Spiritalis: Festgabe fr

Luc Verheijen O.S.A. zu seinem 70. Geburtstag (Wrzburg 1987) 32739.
43
Jerome De viris illustribus 11 (ed. W. Herding, Bibliotheca Teubneriana; Leipzig
1924, 16).
44
Cf. Jerome Epistula 108.20 (CSEL 56.3356) (appeal to 1 Tim. 6.8).
45
Cf. Jerome Tractatus in Marci Evangelium 1.12,20 (CCSL 78.459,463); Homilia in
Matthaeum 18.9 (ibid. 505).
46
Jerome Epistula 58.4 (CSEL 54.5323).
47
Cf. Jerome Epistula 66.6 (ibid. 654): the words of Paul (Gal. 1.10) should serve
for the guidance of the monks: When I am trying to please people, I cant be a
servant of Christ; Epistula 3.4.4 (ibid. 16): (Bonosus) totus de apostolo armatus (cf. Eph.
6.12). See P. Antin, Le monachisme selon saint Jrme, in Recueil sur saint Jrme
(Collection Latomus; Brussels 1968) 10128 (especially 11415).
48
P. Canivet, Histoire du monachisme syrien (Paris 1977) 277; cf. A. Vbus, History
of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient: A Contribution to the History of Culture in the Near East,
ii: Early Monasticism in Mesopotamia and Syria (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum
Orientalium 197; Louvain 1960); J. Gribomont, Le monachisme au sein de lglise
en Syrie et en Cappadoce, Studia Monastica 7 1965 724.

214

g. j. m. bartelink

of the apostles by their love and their charismata. Sometimes Theodoret

refers to their way of life, but mostly to analogies with the miracles
worked by the apostles. When, in his introduction, he appeals to the
authority of eye-witnesses, Theodoret immediately refers to the apostles, who recorded the Gospels.49 Particularly Peter who, as the rst
bishop of Antioch, was attached to Syria by special ties, is mentioned as an example.50
The expectation of the parousia
Some ideas living in the beginning period of Christianity revived in
the monastic world, such as the expectation of the parousia and the
xeniteia (to be a foreigner on earth). The expectation of the imminent return of the Lord (parousia), which lived strongly among the
rst Christians, is also found with the monks. It becomes part of the
central idea of the imitatio Christi. Virginity is an anticipation of a
situation that once will be. From an eschatological viewpoint, asceticism as real evangelic life points forward to the future reign of God.
When the author of the Historia monachorum in Aegypto51 unfolds the
programme of life of the monks, he does not omit to give this expectation a clear accent: the monks expect the coming of Christ as children expect the coming of their father, an army that of its king or
a faithful servant that of his lord and his liberator. They will not
care about clothes or about food any more but, with the singing of
hymns, they will only look out for the coming of Christ.52 Time
and again we see the ascetics detaching themselves from this world
and turning to the future world. Already Anthony says in one of his
letters: We must free ourselves for the coming of the Lord.53 Horsiesi
49
The apostles Matthew and John were eye-witnesses, Mark and Luke were
informed by others. Cf. Gregory the Great Dialogi 1, Prol. 10 (SC 260.16): quia
Marcus et Lucas evangelium quod scripserunt, non visu sed auditu didicerunt; Augustine De
consensu evangelistarum 1.38 (CSEL 43.34,78).
50
Historia religiosa 1.9 the episode of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5.111); 2.19
the healing of the lame by Peter and John (Acts 3.116); 2.11 the humbleness of
Peter who did not allow the Lord to wash his feet ( John 13.514), referred to as
example of the humility of the monk Julianus (SC 234.176,238/40,220).
51
Historia Monachorum in Aegypto Prol. 7 (ed. A.-J. Festugire, Subsidia Hagiographica
53; Brussels 1971, 7).
52
Ibid., Prol. 8 (ibid. 7).
53
Antonius Epistula 4.3 (PG 40.994; Latin translation by Valerio de Sarasio, published in 1516 by Symphorianus Champerius).

the ascetic movement as a return

215

admonishes the leaders of the Pachomian monasteries to be prepared for the advent of the Redeemer, and he urges the monks:
You must bear burning lamps in your hands like servants expecting their lord.54 In the ascetic writings of Basil the expectation of
the parousia is also a central thought.
When Augustine characterizes ascetic life as angelic55 and views it
as an anticipation of life after death, he describes it from the perspective of the spirituality of the primitive Church. Asceticism makes
us foreigners in this world, being amatores huius mundi no more. In
the monastic works of Augustineas in those of Ambrose alsothe
theme of the expectation of the vita caelestis is strongly represented.
At the end of Enarratio in psalmum 132 we read: Therefore, now go
and seek for yourself a dwelling in heaven. But, you will answer,
how can I live in heaven, being clad in the esh and tied to the
esh? But hasten with your heart, when you cannot follow with
your body. Dont be deaf, when you hear: Elevate your hearts. 56
The xeniteia
In the world of the monks the awareness of the Christians of the
rst hour revived that during their stay on earthas strangers, foreigners and pilgrimsthey were only on their way to heaven, their
native country and their proper destination. The monks in the East
used the word xeniteia to denote this alienship that was linked with
the idea of the fuga mundi and at the same time was a facet of the
imitatio of Christ, of whom it was written that He, wandering through
Palestina, had nothing to lay His head on.57 Some monks therefore
sought an abode far from their country, others did not settle permanently anywhere.
In the monasteries the idea of xeniteia, based on New Testament
tradition,58 also lived. In 1 Pet. 2.11 the conclusion had been drawn

54

Liber Orsiesii 10 and 19 (ed. Boon [n. 19] 114 and 120).
Cf. Matt. 22.30; Augustine Enarratio in Ps. 76.4 (CCSL 39.10545).
56
Augustine Enarratio in Psalmum 132.13 (CCSL 40.1935).
57
Matt. 8.20.
58
Heb. 11.13: the exemplary faithful of the Old Testament, who lived on earth
as xenoi ( peregrini) and parepid moi (hospites); 1 Pet. 2.11 paroikoi (advenae) and parepid
moi ( peregrini). See H. von Campenhausen, Die asketische Heimatlosigkeit im altkirchlichen
und frhmittelalterlichen Mnchtum (Tbingen 1930); A. Guillaumont, Le dpaysement
55

216

g. j. m. bartelink

already that the Christians should abstain from earthly cupidity.

Likewise abba Tithos denes xeniteia as control of the mouth, referring to two forms of self-restraint: fasting and keeping silent.59 Such
a spiritualization became current. According to Palladius a monk
lives like a stranger to be able to practise virtue.60 In the view of
Eulogius xeniteia is the highest of the monastic exercises.61 And another
ascetic says that to live as a stranger is better than to oer hospitality.62 Thus xeniteia revived in monastic circles.
The aetas apostolica reected in monastic language
It has not remained unnoticed that some characteristic terms of the
aetas apostolicain the course of time fallen into desuetudewere
restored in the monastic world. Words that had become conventional, were so to speak re-dened. These linguistic facts also reect
the strife of the monks to model their lives as much as possible in
the spirit of the Gospel. Adelphos/frater, reduced to formulaic use, is
a well-known example. In the words of Lori: Hence also the christian frater is endued with a fresh and unwonted vigour, when
applied to the monks, the earliest revivalists of the ideal christian
way of living: monks are fratres in Christo par excellence.63
Other fading terms were likewise recharged with a new force. In
ascetic texts the athletic terminology after Pauline model received a
new impulse. The agonistic terminology, just as that of the militia
Christi, ourished in reference to the theme of the struggle against
the demons. For his spiritual asceticism, a monk had to gird on the
spiritual armour.64 Origen was the rst to adapt this terminology to

comme forme dascse dans le monachisme ancien, in Aux origines du monachisme

chrtien (Spiritualit orientale 30; Bgrolles en Mauges 1979) 89116; J. Roldanus,
Vreemdeling zonder vaste woonplaats (Leiden 1980).
59
Cf. Apophthegmata Patrum, Systematic Collection 4.52 (SC 387.213).
60
Palladius Historia Lausiaca 4.3 (ed. G. Bartelink, Vite dei Santi 2; Rome
1974, 28).
61
Nilus Tractatus ad Eulogium 2 (PG 79.1096B).
62
Apophthegmata Patrum, Abba Jacobus 1 (PG 65.232B).
63
L. T. A. Lori, Spiritual Terminology in the Latin Translations of the Vita Antonii with
reference to the fourth and fth century monastic literature (Latinitas Christianorum Primaeva
11; Utrecht-Nimeguen 1955) 43.
64
Cf. Eph. 6.1117; 2 Tim. 2.3.

the ascetic movement as a return

217

ascetic life. The frequency of this kind of expressions in Jerome without doubt goes back to the example of Origen.65
Monastic use of the term agap was also a conscious choice. In
the fourth century the practice of the Agapes (common meals organized by well-to-do Christians in the rst centuries with charitative
intentions in order to express fraternal love) had been opposed to
by the ecclesiastical authorities. As can be seen from some canons
of synods and councils, there was a growth of malpractices.66 In his
commentary on 1 Cor. 11, John Chrysostom describes the agape as
gone out of use.67 But in monastic circles the term could persist. The
hermits in the desert of Scete in the north of Egypt who on Saturday
or Sunday assembled for a common meal, could call it agap , because
they were guided by the ideal example of former times and worldly
admixtures did not play a part here.68 Still about 800 Theodore of
Studios used agap for the meal in a monastery.69 It is to be noticed,
however, that in some texts the use of agap is ambiguous (common
meal or alms).70
Conclusion
We may conclude that in the early monastic texts the topic of a
return to the ideal Christian community of the rst period and the
nostalgic retrospective view of the very beginning of Christianity
where the imitatio Christi was lived in an ideal way, was clearly present. The stress on the alienship of the Christian on earth and the
eschatological expectation constitute a part of it. The exemplary char-

65
See A. Harnack, Militia Christi: Die christliche Religion und der Soldatenstand in den
ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Tbingen 1905 = Darmstadt 1963) 935; W. Vlker, Das
Vollkommenheitsideal des Origenes (Tbingen 1931) 3662. The theme is to be found
also in baptismal catecheses: the newly baptized must be ghters for Christ; cf. John
Chrysostom Homiliae catecheticae 1.1; 7.31 (SC 50.108,245).
66
Cf. Concilium Laodicenum, can. 27 and 28. But in the Egyptian churches common meals still seem to have been practised in the fourth century; cf. Socrates
Historia ecclesiastica 5.22 (PG 67.636AB); Sozomen Historia ecclesiastica 7.19.1 (GCS
50.330).
67
John Chrysostom In Epistulam I ad Corinthios, Homilia 27.1 (PG 61.224).
68
Cf. Apophthegmata Patrum, Abba Isaias 4 (PG 65.181A); Abba Motius 1 (PG
65.300A); Abba Sisoes 20 (PG 65.400B); John Moschus Pratum spirituale 13 (PG
87.2861B).
69
Theodore of Studios Oratio 12.6 (Laudatio S. Arsenii anachoretae; PG 99.853A).
70
Cf. e.g. H. I. Bell, Jews and Christians in Egypt (London 1914) 28 (agap n poiein).

218

g. j. m. bartelink

acter of the rst Christian community in Jerusalem is likewise a regular theme in somewhat later theological reection, as in ascetic writings of Basil, Jerome, Augustine, Cassian and John Chrysostom.
Dierent aspects are stressed. Cassian, for instance, considers cenobitism as coming into existence in postapostolic times and passing
later into anachoretism. Basil, in his Rule, draws a parallel between
the community of Jerusalem and cenobitic life. In the view of John
Chrysostom, monks are bearers of a charisma as described by the
apostle Paul: because of their respectable life, this makes them more
than others suitable for the service of the Church through missionary activities.

PRIMUM ENIM OMNES DOCEBANT:

AWARENESS OF DISCONTINUITY IN THE EARLY
CHURCH: THE CASE OF ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE
B. Dehandschutter
It has commonly been assumed that the Early Church looked back
with reverence to the Apostolic Age. This may be illustrated from
a document as early as the end of the rst century a.d. The author
of the so-called First Epistle of Clement1 writes: Our apostles also
knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife over
the meaning of the episkop . So for this reason, having perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons and subsequently
gave them permanence, so that if they should fall asleep, other
approved men should succeed to their service (1 Clem. 44.12). There
is no need to give further analysis of this well-known passage2it
shows how early the reference to the Apostolic Age became important. The apostles foresaw everything, and as a consequence those
early times received an almost normative status.
One could observe the same tendency in other early Christian
writings, such as the Epistle of Jude: You, beloved, remember the
words of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they said you
that at the end of time there will be deceivers . . . ( Jude 1718), a
recommendation becoming an entol , an order, in 2 Pet. 3.2.3 It is
no wonder either that in that way many early Christian writings
1
For a discussion of the date of 1 Clement, see H. E. Lona, Der erste Clemensbrief
(Kommentar zu den Apostolischen Vtern 2; Gttingen 1998) 758, 116; and our
remarks in VC 54 2000 32631.
2
See the excellent commentary by H. E. Lona, ibid. 45571; one remark however about the translation of t noma tw piskopw by die Wrde des Episkopenamtes (455). As 1 Clement does not show any trace of a theory of ministry (see
the excursus on Amt, 47181), it seems better to avoid the idea of Amt also in
the translation of the noun piskop. We left it untranslated, to leave any anachronistic translation aside, though the English provides us with the term supervision;
cf. A. Lindemann, Die Clemensbriefe (Tbingen 1992) 121: das Amt der Aufsicht,
with emphatic quotation marks. Perhaps one could follow the ancient translation
of E. J. Goodspeed: the title of overseer.
3
Remember . . . the commands given by the Lord and Saviour through your
apostles . . . Afterwards, Irenaeus has taken up once for all the notion of foreknowledge, cf. Adversus Haereses 3.1.1.

220

b. dehandschutter

took the shape of teachings or instruction attributed to the apostles.4

Whatever their dierences may be, the same tendency may be recognised: the problems of the post-apostolic generations are anticipated
by a solution, given in what the Apostles said or did. In other words,
from the apostolic times to the present, there is a continuity based
on the authoritative status of the beginnings.5
But has the Early Church always embraced without much reservation this idea of apostolic continuity, so often present in expressions such as apostolic teaching, apostolic tradition, apostolic
succession etc.? It might be instructive to investigate the possibility
that the early times were also considered as venerable but past. In
other words, they belong to a period dierent from the present. It
is indeed not impossible to nd some testimonies about an idea of
discontinuity with regard to the Apostolic Age, which might indicate in the Early Church itself the existence of a more historical
approach.
Our investigation about this will necessarily be aected by some
limitations. It seemed useful to focus on texts about early Christian
ministry, as this should give some occasion for a reection on then
and now. Moreover, we do so through some cases of scriptural
interpretation dating from the second half of the fourth and the
beginning of the fth centuries, as a larger number of commentaries
and homilies is available only then. We will take the story of Acts
6 as a starting point, then turn to the text of Ephesians 4.1112,6
and nish with a consideration of the terms episkopos and presbuteros
as interchangeable in the earliest Christian literature.7

The Didache of the Twelve Apostles, the Didascalia Apostolorum, the Apostolic Constitutions
etc. See B. Steimer, Vertex traditionis: Die Gattung der altchristlichen Kirchenordnungen
(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 63; Berlin and New
York 1992); G. Schllgen, Der Abfassungszweck der frhchristlichen Kirchenordnungen, Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum 40 1997 5577.
5
Cf. G. G. Blum, Tradition und Sukzession: Studien zum Normbegri des Apostolischen
von Paulus bis Irenus (Berlin and Hamburg 1963).
6
This text often is explained in connection with 1 Corinthians 12.28: Within
the church God has appointed in the rst place apostles, in the second place
prophets, thirdly teachers . . ., see e.g. Chrysostoms homily 11 on Ephesians, English
translation in P. Allen and W. Mayer, John Chrysostom (London and New York 2000)
5972.
7
This phenomenon has been studied suciently, see e.g. J. Ysebaert, Die
Amtsterminologie im Neuen Testament und in der Alten Kirche (Breda 1994); but in the context of this contribution we focus the indicated aspect of the reference to the
Apostolic Age.

ecclesiastical office

221

1. Acts 6
This text on the appointment of the Seven receives a remarkable
interpretation by John Chrysostom in his fourteenth homily on Acts.8
It is known that the Seven are chosen to relieve the activities of the
apostles, especially by devoting themselves to the support of widows
(Acts 6.14). Chrysostom refers to a number of peculiarities of this
passage: the choice made by the disciples, the unanimity, the presence of the Spirit. Then comes the question: but what kind of instruction was given to the Seven? Chrysostom atly denies that it was
the diaconate (in the later sense of the word) or any other function
we know about (e.g. the presbyterate). The story of Acts points to
a peculiar situation, and it was to nd a solution to that situation
that the Seven were appointed.
Of course one could suspect Chrysostoms carefulness is due to
the fact that the Book of Acts does not make any use of the word
diakonos as such, and that the terms diakonia and diakonein are still
used in a general way.9 Moreover, it should not have escaped him
that the Seven, as far as we know, did everything except that for
which they were singled out. Acts 6 continues with the episode on
Stephen, a man full of faith and holy spirit, who achieves great miracles among the people. He gets in trouble with the Jewish leaders,
and, after his famous oration, his martyrdom is the consequence.
Philip, the second of the Seven, brought to Samaria by the persecution after Stephens death, preaches there the Messiah. Later he
is guided by an angel to meet the Ethiopian, teaches and baptises
him (Acts 8).
However one judges Chrysostoms interpretation,10 we cant but
discover the expression of a clear dierence between the Apostolic
Age and the later developments in his mind. There is no question

8
Cf. PG 60.11120, esp. 11516. The homily might be dated about ad 400,
cf. J. N. D. Kelly, Golden Mouth: The Story of John ChrysostomAscetic, Preacher, Bishop
(London 1995) 1668; but see Allen and Mayer (n. 6) 177.
9
See Acts 6.1,4: diakona; Acts 6.2: diakonen.
10
Cf. M. Lochbrunner, ber das Priestertum: Historische und systematische Untersuchungen
zum Priesterbild des Johannes Chrysostomos (Bonn 1993) 23840; but this author analysed
our passage too much from the presumption that xeirotona could be interpreted
as ordination (Weihe). In our view this is contrary to the sense Chrysostom wants
to give to the passage about the Seven.

222

b. dehandschutter

that Acts 6 should point to the diaconate: at that time there were
only apostles.11
2. Ephesians 4.1112
The dierence between the Apostolic Age and the present can be
found even more explicitly in the commentary on the Pauline letters by the famous Ambrosiaster. This anonymous author12 starts
his exegesis of Ephesians 4.11 (And He gave apostles as well as
prophets and evangelists, shepherds and teachers . . .) with some
details about these oces, a subject greatly interesting him.13 Those
who are called in the text apostles are now bishops, the prophets
are now people explaining sacred Scripture, the evangelists now the
deacons, shepherds the readers, teachers exorcists! Ambrosiaster then
gives some more explanation about the exorcists, to arrive at this
crucial observation: But when in all places churches were established
and ministry (ocia) organised, it was dierent from the beginning;
in the beginning everybody was teaching and everybody baptised
according to the occasion given, at whatever day or hour; so Philip
did not question the moment or the day when he was to baptise
the eunuch, nor did he precede it by a fast . . ..14 Ambrosiaster continues in the same way: Paul and Sileas did not delay the baptism
of the guardian with his house, nor did Peter in the case of Cornelius.
Only afterwards, as many communities were established, the leadership was organised and the ocia were arranged, so that no one
was occupying himself with the duties of another. All this means
that deacons for instance no longer preach. In other words,
Ambrosiaster clearly observes a dierence between the Apostolic Age

11
Katoi odpv odew pskopow n ll o pstoloi mnon (PG 60.116). Again,
this statement contrasts with the view of Westerners such as Ambrosiaster or
Jerome, who connect the diaconate with the Apostolic Age.
12
See the presentation of M. G. Mara, Ambrosiaster, in A. Di Berardino (ed.),
Patrology, iv (Westminster 1986) 1804.
13
Cf. A. Souter, The Earliest Latin Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul (Oxford
1927) 76.
14
Tamen postquam omnibus locis ecclesiae sunt constitutae et ocia ordinata, aliter conposita
res est quam coeperat. primum enim omnes docebant et omnes baptizabant, quibuscumque diebus
vel temporibus fuisset occasio; nec enim Filippus tempus quaesivit aut diem, quo eunuchum baptizaret neque ieiunium interposuit . . . (CSEL 81.iii.99).

ecclesiastical office

223

and a later development, which is illustrated again by his remark to

the eect that, as Pauls letters belong to the earliest period, one
cannot read everything in the apostolic letters as corresponding with
regulations in the churches now.15
3. EpiskoposPresbuteros
Ambrosiasters interpretation pointed also to another phenomenon
illustrating the dierence between the Apostolic Age and later times:
the fact that the terms episcopus and presbyter were understood as interchangeable.16 The original lack of dierentiation of these terms has
occupied many a Father, and this is due no doubt to the number
of New Testament texts giving occasion to such a conclusion: in Acts
20 Paul summons the presbyteroi of Ephesus to Miletus, but speaks in
his farewell address only about episkopoi; the address of the Epistle
to the Philippians, mentioning only episkopoi and diakonoi, no presbuteroi; again several passages from the Epistles to Timothy and
Titus.17 Ambrosiaster comes back to the question more than once,
for example at 1 Timothy 3.8, besides the aforementioned Ephesians
text,18 but also very explicitly in the Quaestiones (101).19
15
Of course the text of Ephesians can give rise to other considerations. We
already referred to Chrysostoms homily 11. But also Jerome shows his own preoccupation. For him the text is an important proof against Sabellianism. See further B. Jeanjean, Saint Jrme et lhrsie (Paris 1999). It might be added that Origen
took up the passage of Ephesians to stress the position of the teachers, cf. H. J.
Vogt, Das Kirchenverstndnis des Origenes (Cologne 1974) 19, 5870; cf. U. Neymeyr,
Die christlichen Lehrer im zweiten Jahrhundert (Leiden 1989) 95102.
16
nam et Timotheum presbyterum a se creatum episcopum vocat, quia primi presbyteri episcopi appellabantur . . . (CSEL 81.iii.100).
17
As a matter of fact, the text quoted at the beginning from 1 Clement shows the
same phenomenon. The problem of the troubled position of the presbyters in Corinth
is answered by the reference to the position of the episkopoi (and diakonoi ) as ordered
in the Old Testament, with an adapted quotation from Isaiah 60.17 as a prooftext. The whole notion of episkopos is however limited to the passage in 1 Clement
424, with exception of 1 Clem. 59.3, where God is called episkopos in the nal
prayer, see H. E. Lona (n. 1) 595.
18
For 1 Timothy 3.8 see Vogels, CSEL 81.iii.267. In ch. 3 of the Letter to
Timothy considerations about the episkop are followed by recommendations about
the deacons. There again the question about the presbyters could arise.
19
CSEL 50.1938. Though the authorship of this writing has been a matter of
discussion, there seems to be a consensus to attribute it to Ambrosiaster, see Mara
(n. 12) 184; but as a nal proof seems to lacking we do not refer too much to this
text.

224

b. dehandschutter

However, Jerome may not be neglected here. It is well known

how he dealt with the question in his Epistle to Evangelus (Ep. 146).20
This Roman presbyter must have made a complaint to Jerome about
the importance of the (Seven) deacons in the Roman church over
against the (many) presbyters. Jeromes answer essentially is that a
presbyter initially is no less than an episcopus, so that there is no reason for feelings of inferiority. It should not be neglected however
that Jerome at the same time builds up an argument about the position of the presbyter over against the episcopus.
Most instructive is Jeromes commentary on the Epistle to Titus,
where he treats the question of the original equivalence of both, and
this once more against the background of some disputation about
the matter.21 Jerome argues that those who oppose the equivalence
should read Scripture. He quotes eagerly Acts 20, the address of
Philippians, Hebrews 13.17 and 1 Peter 5.1, where Peter himself
indicates his person as sunpresbuteros! The conclusion is evident: apud
veteres eosdem fuisse presbyteros quos et episcopos.22 Jerome has another striking remark to add: if it is so that at some moment the episcopus has
been chosen as the head of the community to avoid dissension and
scission, it implies that all this was a matter of consuetudo ecclesiae.23
However, it must be recognised that the presbyter of Strido leaves
no doubt about the dierence between the then (see the apostolic
writings) and the now.
Another author certainly not to be neglected is Theodore of

20

CSEL 56.30812.
Jerome knew the commentaries of the anonymous, and though he heartily
disliked Ambrosiaster, he might have been inuenced by the position of the latter,
cf. J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings and Controversies (London 1975) 146, 212.
However, Ambrosiasters Quaestio 101 is more occupied with answering the pretensions of the Roman deacons and less with the position of the presbyters. As the
commentary on Titus precedes Epistula 146, the latter may be also dependent on
the former, see S. L. Greenslade, Early Latin Theology: Selections from Tertullian, Cyprian,
Ambrose and Jerome (London 1956) 3834.
22
PL 26.563.
23
Cf. R. Hennings, Hieronymus zum Bischofsamt, Zeitschrift fr Kirchengeschichte
108 1997 111; we are not convinced that Hennings is right in recognising in
Jeromes writings a concept of the one ministry as dispositio dominica. In our view,
Epistula 52 ad Nepotianum is only relevant as an attempt to link Christian ministry
with its (presumed) Old Testament models. However, Jerome certainly wants to say
that those who claim a privileged position for the episcopus cannot do so by making an appeal to an institution of the Lord Himself.
21

ecclesiastical office

225

Mopsuestia, whose commentaries on the Pauline epistles oer interesting materials. On the occasion of 1 Timothy 3.8 Theodore even
arrives at a lengthy excursus, a kind of history of early Christian
ministry.24 Its main elements may be summarised as follows: in ancient
times presbyters were also called episkopoi (so Paul does not neglect
them in the address of Philippians 1.1). As a matter of fact, the leaders of the early communities were called presbuteroi, elders, according to the Jewish model. Sometimes they were called episkopoi,
overseers, according to their responsibility. This can conveniently
be read in Acts 20. Further it is manifest that those in charge as
overseers were not the same as those in charge of a whole region,
as the latter were called apostles, travelling around and creating
local leaders (by the imposition of hands). The post-apostolic generation has not dared to appropriate the title of apostle, and so a
further dierentiation of the terms was made necessary. Otherwise,
it did not escape Theodores attention that episkopoi had been local
leaders, long before they became in charge of a whole region.25
As a kind of inclusio it might be interesting to return for a moment
to John Chrysostom, whose rst homily on Philippians is here again
instructive.26 When in Phil. 1.1 Paul addresses himself to the sunepiskopoi 27
and the diakonoi, one could wonder whether there was more than
one bishop in Philippi. Of course not, Chrysostom answers, Paul
addresses the presbytersthe terminology was not yet dierentiated.
An episkopos could even be called diakonos. So Paul writes to Timothy:
accomplish thy diakonia.28 From an early time presbyters were indicated as episkopoi and diakonoi christou,29 or episkopoi could be desig-

24

Cf. H. B. Swete, Theodori Episcopi Mopsuesteni in epistolas B. Pauli commentarii: The

Latin version with the Greek fragments, ii (Cambridge 18802) 11826.
25
See again Theodore, 1 Thess.-Philm., ad Titum 1.7. Like a number of Fathers
(e.g. Jerome) before him, Theodore also refers to the importance of the presbyterate
in the Egyptian church. This testies to a historical consciousness that takes into
account the particularities in the development of the dierent churches.
26
Cf. P. Allen and W. Mayer, Chrysostom and the Preaching of Homilies in
Series: A Re-examination of the Fifteen Homilies in Epistulam ad Philippenses (CPG
4432), VC 49 1995 27089.
27
Chrysostoms reading. It is rejected by B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on
the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart 19942), 544, with a reference to Theodore, but this
does not aect the sense given to it by Chrysostom.
28
2 Timothy 4.5: do the work of an evangelist, full thy diakonia.
29
Cf. 1 Tim. 4.6. See also on this J.-N. Guinot, Lapport des pangyriques de
Jean Chrysostome une dnition de lvque modle, in Vescovi e pastori in epoca
teodosiana: XXV incontro di studiosi dellantichit cristiana, ii (Rome 1997) 395421.

226

b. dehandschutter

nated as presbuteroi.30 Only afterwards did the designations get separated to refer to dierent functions.
With all this, it is striking that Chrysostom remains consistent with
his interpretation of Acts 6. The diakonoi in Phil. 1.1 should not be
pressed to mean deacons in the later sense. Chrysostom is not tempted
to any kind of actualisation: the texts of the apostolic age should be
read in terms of the apostolic age, and not in the light of later
developments.
Conclusion
No straightforward conclusion should be drawn from this limited
investigation. Other Christian writers should be added, and other
texts (such as 1 Tim. 4.14) and their interpretation. Also not negligible would be a further consideration about the Fathers views on
ministry, and the way they nd them conrmed in the earliest
Christian tradition.
It might be illuminating to add a quotation from Chrysostom,
taken from the 11th homily on 1 Timothy (about 1 Tim. 3.8):
Discoursing of Bishops, and having described their character, and the
qualities which they ought to posses, and having passed over the order
of Presbyters, he proceeds to that of Deacons. The reason of this omission was that between Presbyters and Bishops there was no great
dierence. Both had undertaken the oce of Teachers and Presidents
in the Church, and what he has said concerning Bishops is applicable to Presbyters. For they are only superior in having the power of
ordination, and seem to have no other advantage over Presbyters.31

If it might be argued that Chrysostoms position seems slightly dierent

from our interpretation above,32 it should be taken into account that
the homilies reect dierent situations.33 Above all it appears that
30
See a parallel interpretation in Theodoret of Cyrrhus Interpretatio Epistulae ad
Philippenses (PG 82.560). Theodoret is an author who deserves further investigation.
31
Translation from Saint Chrysostom. Homilies on Galatians, Ephesians . . . Timothy
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, i.13; Edinburgh 1889 = 1979), 441.
32
Remarkably, Chrysostom continues by stressing the fact that from the deacons
the same requirements are made!
33
Cf. W. Mayer, The Provenance of the Homilies of St John Chrysostom: Towards a New
Assessment of Where He Preached What, diss. Queensland 1996; Ead., John Chrysostom:
Extraordinary Preacher, Ordinary Audience, in M. Cunningham and P. Allen (eds.),
Preacher and Audience: Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics (Leiden 1998)
10537.

ecclesiastical office

227

Chrysostoms main concern about ministry is always at hand: those

who lead the community (however you call them) should be teachers and guides, as the famous preacher convincingly argues in his
De Sacerdotio.34 But it does not mean that he or his contemporaries
were unaware of the consequences of the transition from the apostolic to the post-apostolic age. It has been the purpose of this contribution to show that this historical awareness of the Fathers with
regard to the Apostolic Age is more important than it seems at rst
sight.

34
Cf. a.o. H. Drries, Erneuerung des kirchlichen Amts im vierten Jahrhundert:
Die Schrift De Sacerdotio des Johannes Chrysostomos und ihre Vorlage die Oratio
de fuga sua des Gregor von Nazianz, in Bleibendes im Wandel der Kirchengeschichte
(Tbingen 1973) 146.

URBS BEATA JERUSALEM:

SAINT AUGUSTIN SUR JRUSALEM
Antoon A. R. Bastiaensen
Le psaume 132 (133 dans le psautier hbreu) est un canticum graduum,
destin tre chant par les plerins juifs en route vers Jrusalem
et le Temple de Dieu. Dans ce cantique des montes sexprime la
joie qui rgne dans le cur de tous ceux qui, ensemble, sont en
marche vers la ville sainte. Le psaume glorie donc les liens fraternels entre les plerins. Tout court quil est, il a fait fortune, surtout
le premier verset: Voyez! Quil est bon, quil est doux dhabiter en
frres tous ensemble!. Ce verset, dans la version des Septante: Ido
d t kaln t terpnn ll t katoiken delfow p t at; et
dans la traduction latine: Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum habitare
fratres in unum, a charm aussi les chrtiens grecs et latins: ista . . .
verba psalterii, iste dulcis sonus, ista suavis melodia, ainsi Augustin, mu,
dans son commentaire du psaume 132.1 Les commentateurs chrtiens aussi voyaient le psaume, dans sa qualit de chant de plerins,
en rapport avec la ville de Jrusalem. Rien dtonnant donc quil
tait souvent cit en rfrence aux renseignements des Actes des
Aptres sur lglise primitive de Jrusalem, o les chrtiens navaient
quun cur et quune me et, dans un esprit de communion fraternelle, mettaient tout en commun.2
Augustin aussi, dans un passage de son commentaire du psaume
132,3 se rfre la description des Actes. Ce verset psalmique sur
les frres qui veulent tre ensemble tait, dit-il, le son dune trompette de lEsprit Saint. Il na pas t entendu dans le pays des juifs,
mais bien au dehors, selon le mot du prophte Isae que ceux qui

Psal. 132,2 (CCSL 40,1927).

Act. 2,4446; 4,3235.
3
Ce commentaire, dat probablement de 407, a t lobjet de plusiers tudes:
celles de L. Verheijen, rassembles dans Nouvelle approche de la Rgle de saint Augustin,
I, Bgrolles en Mauges 1980; II, Louvain 1988; voir aussi A. Solignac, Le monachisme et son rle dans lglise daprs lEnarratio in Psalmum 132, dans Homo
Spiritalis. Festgabe fr Luc Verheijen OSA zu seinem 70. Geburtstag, d. par C. Mayer et
K. H. Chelius, Wrzburg 1987, 327339.
2

saint augustin sur jrusalem

229

navaient pas aperu ont vu et que ceux qui navaient pas entendu
dire ont appris,4 cest--dire nous, les chrtiens. Mais ne nous trompons pas. Tous les juifs ne se sont pas perdus. Pensez aux aptres,
aux ls des prophtes, aux cinq cents qui ont vu le Seigneur aprs
sa rsurrection, aux cent vingt qui taient ensemble aprs la rsurrection et lascension et sur qui descendit lEsprit Saint; pensez
ceux qui vendaient leurs biens et en dposaient le prix aux pieds
des aptres, qui navaient plus rien en propre, mais possdaient tout
en commun, et ainsi navaient quun cur et quune me. Ce sont
eux, habitants de la Jrusalem terrestre, qui, les premiers, ont entendu
le mot du psaume: Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum habitare fratres in
unum. Nous lavons entendu aussi, mais aprs eux; nous sommes les
posteri, les descendants, qui aussi il a t donn dentendre cette
caritatis exsultatio, ce chant dallgresse de la charit.
Dans les pages suivantes nous nous proposons de passer en revue
quelques ides dAugustin sur la ville et lglise de la Jrusalem terrestre et sur la Jrusalem den haut, la cit cleste.
1. Le sort de la ville de Jrusalem
Augustin parle plusieurs fois du sort de la ville de Jrusalem, surtout dans ses commentaires des psaumes. Ainsi dans son explication
des psaumes 125 (126) et 149, o il envisage la Jrusalem cleste en
opposition la Jrusalem terrestre, ville dchue, dont la fonction
avait t dtre prguration: une fois venu ce qui tait nouveau et
permanent, ce qui tait vieux et transitoire est pass.5 Augustin, ici,
passe sous silence la part de culpabilit que les habitants ont prise
la dchance de leur ville. Mais en dautres textes il les rend responsables. Ainsi dans son commentaire du psaume 73(74), o il
dclare que, lorsque Tite investit Jrusalem, des milliers de plerins
se trouvaient dans la ville pour la clbration de la pque juive et
prirent avec les habitants. Ctait, dit-il, leur propre faute, car les
juifs avaient tu le Christ. O ils ont tu le Christ, ils ont t tus
eux-mmes, . . . dans le mme temps de fte . . .; juste au moment
o prissait la ville des juifs, ils clbraient la pque et des milliers
du peuple taient prsents pour la clbration; ce moment et en
4
5

Is. 52,15.
Psal. 125,1; 149,5 (CCSL 40,1844 et 21812182).

230

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

cet endroit Dieu les a punis: des milliers et des milliers prirent et
la ville fut dtruite.6 Dans son commentaire de la premire ptre
de Jean il dit: On sait que tous les meurtriers (interfectores) du Christ,
cest--dire les juifs, ont t expulss de cette ville; l o demeuraient
des adversaires furieux du Christ (saevientes in Christum), habitent maintenant des adorateurs du Christ; cest pourquoi les juifs hassent
Jrusalem, parce que les chrtiens y sont.7 Une information semblable est donne dans le commentaire du psaume 124(125): Tous ceux
qui habitaient dans cette Jrusalem terrestre ont t expulss par la
guerre et par la destruction de la ville: cherchez un juif dans la ville
de Jrusalem, vous nen trouverez pas.8
Ces textes dAugustin retent lopinion commune des chrtiens
que la Jrusalem juive avait perdu sa raison dtre et tait dnitivement
morte. LAncienne Alliance avait fait place lAlliance que Dieu
avait conclue avec le nouvel Isral, lglise chrtienne. Les juifs rcalcitrants avaient caus leur propre perte et la destruction de Jrusalem.
Pour les chrtiens, lincrdulit juive, la iudaica perdia, tait voisine
de mauvaise foi: ils ne sexpliquaient pas que les juifs se refusaient
reconnatre ce qui, leurs yeux, tait une vrit dvidence.
Il reste pourtant un passage curieux dans un des sermons dAugustin.
Il exhorte ses auditeurs la conversion et la vigilance en leur
reprsentant le danger de catastrophes imprvues: Nous avons la
nouvelle de graves tremblements de terre dans les rgions de lorient;
. . . Jrusalem juifs, paens et catchumnes, tous ont t baptiss;
on dit quils taient bien sept mille; le signe du Christ (cest--dire
la croix) se montrait sur les vtements des juifs baptiss.9 La chronique de Marcellinus Comes donne le mme renseignement, part
la division des habitants en trois catgories et le dtail piquant de
juifs, portant la croix sur leurs vtements.10 Dans la version dAugustin
la fantasie est de la partie, mais, prise en soi, elle est en contradiction avec ses propos sur labsence de juifs parmi les habitants de
Jrusalem. Nous ferons bien de ne pas attacher trop dimportance
linconsquence. Du reste, larmation quil ny avait plus de juifs

Psal. 73,3 (CCSL 39,1007).

Ep. Io. 2,3 (SC 75,158).
8
Psal. 124,3 (CCSL 40,1837); comparer Psal. 62,18 (CCSL 39,805).
9
Serm. 19,6 (CCSL 41,258).
10
Chron. an. 419 (d. Th. Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores
Antiquissimi 11, Berlin 1894, 74).
7

saint augustin sur jrusalem

231

Jrusalem ne correspondait pas la ralit. En eet, aprs lcrasement de linsurrection de Simon Bar-Kochba en 135 les juifs avaient
t expulss de Jrusalem et disperss aux quatre vents, mais bientt on trouva un modus vivendi qui leur permettait un accs discret
la ville.11 Au quatrime sicle Grgoire de Nazianze, dans un de ses
discours, faisait allusion la prsence juive dans la ville.12 Augustin,
manquant dinformations prcises, se laissait guider par la tradition
anti-judaque, quitte proter aussi de renseignements plus ou
moins fortuits.
2. Lglise de Jrusalem prototype et modle des communauts chrtiennes
Pour la pense chrtienne Jrusalem tait jamais la ville lue, la
ville de Melchisdec, roi de Salem/Jrusalem, la ville de David et
de Salomon, la ville du Temple, la ville quaimait Jsus-Christ. Ctait
aussi la ville do, remplis de lEsprit Saint, partirent les aptres et
les premiers dles, pour porter le feu et la lumire en tout lieu.13
Jrusalem est lorigine du salut, et Augustin ne cesse darmer,
comme une sorte de contrepoids contre le jugement ngatif sur lattitude du peuple juif, que cette origine tait juive, centre sur la communaut de Jrusalem compose daptres, de disciples et de milliers
dautres juifs qui croyaient sur leur parole.14 On comprend quAugustin
sindigne des donatistes, qui disaient: Nous ne sommes pas en communion avec cette ville o a t tu notre roi, o a t tu notre
Seigneur. Il commente: Ils hassent la ville dans laquelle a t tu
le Seigneur . . . Lui pourtant, il a aim cette ville et sest mu sur
elle.15 La discussion concernait le fait, soulign par Augustin, que la
11
Cfr. M. Simon, Verus Isral. tude sur les relations entre chrtiens et juifs dans lempire
romain (135425), Paris 19642, 127130.
12
Oratio 6,18 (PG 35,745).
13
Psal. 30,2, Serm. 3,9 (CCSL 38,219); Serm. 116,6,6 (PL 38,660).
14
Voir les passages cits note 13 et Psal. 93,8 (CCSL 39,1310); Psal. 101, Serm.
1,15; Psal. 132,2 (CCSL 40,1436; 1927); Serm. 77,3,4 (PL 38,484485); Catech. 23,42
(CCSL 46,166167); Epist. 186,8,31 (CSEL 57,6970).
15
Ep. Io. 2,3 (SC 75,157159); voir aussi Petil. 2,104,239 (CSEL 52,152155) et
Ep. ad cath. 10,2526 (ibid. 259261). Lattitude ambige dAugustin vis--vis des
juifs est dcrite avec dlicatesse par F. van der Meer, Saint Augustin pasteur dmes
III, Colmar et Paris 1955, I 139141 (traduit du nerlandais, Augustinus de zielzorger. Een studie over de praktijk van een kerkvader, Utrecht et Bruxelles 1947, 7778). Un
jugement nuanc, qui cherche corriger les opinions censes trop dures, est donn
par Th. Raveaux, Adversus IudaeosAntisemitismus bei Augustinus?, dans Signum
Pietatis. Festgabe Cornelius Petrus Mayer, d. par A. Zumkeller, Wrzburg 1989, 3751.

232

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

foi chrtienne, selon les instructions du Christ, stait rpandue de

Jrusalem dans le monde entier, et que, par consquent, les adhrents
de cette foi devaient honorer Jrusalem partout et quil ne leur tait
pas permis de fonder des communauts gographiquement limites,
comme les donatistes avaient fait. Le souvenir de Jrusalem, ville
aime de Jsus, devenait ainsi un argument dans une discussion dogmatique avec des dissidents.
Mais lattention des auteurs chrtiens se concentrait surtout sur le
caractre de la communaut de Jrusalem. Elle se distinguait par
lharmonie parfaite de ses membres qui possdaient tout en commun et navaient quun cur et quune me. Cette unit admirable
de lglise primitive de Jrusalem tait propose en modle de conduite
pour les autres glises, mais elle servait aussi dargument dans les
discussions dogmatiques sur les relations intratrinitaires. Cest sur cet
emploi thologique que nous nous arrterons en premier lieu.
Depuis le troisime sicle une tradition stait forme sur ce point.16
Dans sa rponse Celse Origne disait, propos du Dieu des chrtiens, que le Pre et le Fils taient un, et que cette unit se retait
dans lattitude de lglise de Jrusalem o tous ceux qui croyaient
navaient quun cur et quune me.17 Au commencement du quatrime sicle Eusbe de Csare armait que, si les dles de Jrusalem
avaient tout en commun, plus forte raison le Pre et le Fils, origine et prototype de toute lhumanit, possdent tout en commun.18
En occident Hilaire, dans sa discussion avec les ariens, voyait dans
une mme perspective lunit physique du Pre et du Fils et lunit
morale de lglise de Jrusalem.19 Ambroise dfend contre les ariens
lgalit du Pre et du Fils en proclamant: Si les dles nont quun
cur et quune me, . . . si homme et femme sont une seule chair, . . .
si nous, les humains, sont un dans notre nature humaine, . . . alors,
le Pre et le Fils, ayant la mme nature et la mme volont, ne
seraient-ils pas un dans leur divinit?.20 Augustin prsente plusieurs
fois une argumentation semblable. Dans son commentaire de lvangile de Jean il conclut: Si la charit pouvait faire une me de tant
16
Sur ce sujet de thologie historique on peut consulter M.-F. Berrouard, La
premire communaut de Jrusalem comme image de lunit de la Trinit. Une
des exgses dAct 4,32a, dans Mayer et Chelius (n. 3) 207224.
17
Cels. 8,12 (GCS 3,299).
18
Marcell. 2,2,18,38 (GCS 14,38).
19
Trin. 1,28 (CCSL 62,2526); 8,5.7 (CCSL 62A,318319).
20
Fid. 1,2,1718 (OOSA 15,62).

saint augustin sur jrusalem

233

dmes et un cur de tant de curs, quelle ne sera pas, puisque

Dieu est suprieur lhomme, la charit entre le Pre et le Fils?.21
Et ailleurs dans le mme ouvrage: Jrusalem il y avait tant de
milliers de personnes, et ils navaient quun cur, tant de milliers
de personnes, et ils navaient quune me, savoir en Dieu. Combien
plus Dieu lui-mme est un?.22 Dans sa correspondance la mme
comparaison apparat.23 Dans la plupart des cas le raisonnement se
dirige contre larianisme et porte sur la foi en un seul Dieu en trois
Personnes.24
Mais ce qui frappe surtout, cest la conviction que lglise de
Jrusalem, par la communion fraternelle de ses membres, tait un
modle pour la conduite des autres chrtients. Cette conviction date
des premiers temps. La Didach et lEpistula Barnabae dj prescrivent
au chrtien de partager tout avec son frre et de navoir rien en
propre.25 Clment dAlexandrie loue galement ce communisme
chrtien.26 Origne renvoie lexemple de lglise de Jrusalem pour
recommander lunanimit et la lutte contre la discorde.27 De la mme
manire il inculque le commandement daimer le prochain comme
soi-mme, de vendre ses biens et den donner le prix aux pauvres.28
En occident Cyprien a accueilli le passage dActes 4,32 dans sa collection de textes bibliques comme attestation du commandement de
la charit.29 Il y renvoie aussi dans son trait sur la bienfaisance et
laumne et dans sa correspondance pour recommander la charit
et lunanimit au sein des communauts.30 Ambroise dans son interprtation allgorique de la Bible vise de prfrence la maturit spirituelle du chrtien individuel. Lglise de Jrusalem, ses yeux,
prgure la tranquillit dme et lharmonie intrieure. Il explique
le verset psalmique 47(48),5: Les rois de la terre se sont rassembls

21

Eu. Io. 14,9 (CCSL 36,147148); mme raisonnement en 18,4 (ibid. 181182).
Eu. Io. 39,5 (CCSL 36,347348).
23
Ep. 238,2,13 (CSEL 57,542543).
24
Ep. 170,5 (CSEL 44,625626); Ep. 238,2,16 (CSEL 57,545546). Voir aussi
Serm. 229G (= Morin Guelferb. 11),5(6) (d. G. Morin, Miscellanea Agostiniana 1;
Rome 1930, 477478) et Coll. Max. 12 (PL 42,715).
25
Did. 4,8 (d. F. X. Funk, Tubingue 1901, 12); Barn. 19,8 (ibid. 92).
26
Quis dives salvetur 31,6 (d. P. M. Barnard, Texts and Studies 5,2; Cambridge
1897 = Nendeln 1967, 24).
27
Hom. in Ezech. 9,1 (SC 352,296); voir aussi Comm. ser. in Mt. 35 (GCS 38,68).
28
Comm. in Mt. 15,15 (GCS 40,392).
29
Test. 3,3 (CCSL 3,91).
30
Eleem. 25 (CCSL 3A,71); Ep. 11,3,1 (CCSL 3B,59).
22

234

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

et se sont runis (transierunt in unum) en ce sens que ces rois sont

ceux qui dominent la chair et nont quun cur et quune me,
comme nous lisons propos de la multitude des croyants; ils se sont
runis, non pas en un lieu, mais en un sentiment et en un programme de vie.31 Et de la bien-aime du Cantique des Cantiques,
reprsente comme colombe, il donne cette interprtation: Elle est
lme parfaite, pure et spirituelle, qui nest pas trouble par les passions corporelles, . . . qui est limage de la concorde et de la paix,
comme lcriture nous raconte de la multitude des dles qui navait
quune me et quun cur.32
Parmi les latins personne na exploit comme Augustin le thme
de lglise de Jrusalem. Comme nous avons vu au dbut de cette
tude il y renvoie dans son commentaire du psaume 132(133). Dans
ce commentaire il voit la pratique des dles de Jrusalem se continuer dans la forme de vie des moines dans leurs monastres. Il explique les emprunts grecs monachi et monasteria, drivs de monos, seul,
unique, en ce sens que ceux qui vivent ensemble dans un monastre sont comme une seule personne, tout fait comme les habitants de Jrusalem, qui navaient quun cur et quune me.33 La
vie religieuse apparat chez Augustin couramment en relation avec
la conduite de lglise de Jrusalem.34 Parfois la mention sert un but
apologtique. Dans sa polmique avec le manichen Fauste Augustin
souligne que les manichens nont pas le monopole de lascse: Nous
avons tant de communauts, o les frres nont rien en propre mais
tout en commun, . . . par le feu de la charit ils refondent (conant)
les choses temporelles et les transforment en une me et un cur
attachs Dieu.35 Dans un passage de De civitate Dei il oppose la
sobrit traditionnelle des anciens romains la pratique moderne des
moines qui renoncent leurs possessions et vivent en communaut
de biens.36 Un autre contexte est celui de la prdication. Dans un
31

Psal. 47,7 (OOSA 8,232).

Is. 7,59 (OOSA 3,100).
33
Psal. 132,23.6 (CCSL 40,19271928 et 19311932; voir aussi Psal. 132,12
(ibid. 1934), sur les vrais religieux, qui vivent ensemble, non pas en apparence, mais
en ralit.
34
Une longue liste de textes dAugustin sur ce sujet est prsente en traduction
nerlandaise par T. J. van Bavel, Ooit een land van kloosters. Teksten van Augustinus over
het kloosterleven, Heverlee-Louvain 1999. Il fait observer (270) que des textes bibliques cits par Augustin, les deux passages des Actes sont de loin les plus frquents.
35
Faust. 5,9 (CSEL 25,281).
36
Civ. 5,18,23 (CCSL 47,153154).
32

saint augustin sur jrusalem

235

long sermon le jour de lan Augustin combat toute sorte dinuences

paennes, parmi lesquelles ladoration des anges comme Michel et
Gabriel. Les anges eux-mmes refusent cette adoration, ainsi le prdicateur, qui poursuit avec une argumentation curieuse: si lon veut
honorer avec des sacrices des hommes angliques, qui vivent comme
les premiers chrtiens de Jrusalemcest--dire les moines, ils
refusent ces sacrices et disent quil ne faut sacrier qu Dieu seul:
si des hommes angliques ragissent ainsi, plus forte raison les
anges eux-mmes.37 Et plus dune fois il met en rapport les passages des Actes et la vie monastique telle quelle stait dveloppe
avant et durant son piscopat.38
Enn et surtout, la pratique de lglise de Jrusalem est devenue
pour Augustin une rgle de vie trs concrte. Sa conversion avait
t aussi une conversion la vie asctique, mais dans sa forme cnobitique, en socit, non pas comme ermite dans le dsert. Aprs son
retour en Afrique il avait vendu ses biens et avec un groupe de compagnons, parmi lesquels son ami Alypius, il stait tabli Thagaste
et sy tait adonn la pratique de lascse. Ordonn prtre
Hippone il vivait avec des frres lacs en une communaut religieuse.
Devenu vque il transforma la maison piscopale en une demeure
commune o il vivait avec les autres clercs dHippone en une forme
de vie monastique. Encore simple prtre il avait rdig pour les frres lacs un Praeceptum qui recueillait les lments de son enseignement oral aux frres. Le Praeceptum sinspirait de la rdaction, de la
main dAlypius, dun Ordo monasterii pour la communaut de Thagaste
quil avait lui-mme fonde. La combinaison des deux textes, approuve aussi par Alypius, est la premire rdaction de la rgle de saint
Augustin.39 Une rdaction fminine tait destine aux communauts de moniales. Une autre rdaction servait, avec les changements
ncessaires, pour la communaut des clercs dans la maison piscopale dHippone. Le texte fondateur pour tous ces monastres tait
celui des Actes: il ny avait dans la multitude des croyants quun
cur et quune me. Une infraction la rgle de la communaut
des biens porta lvque vers la n de lanne 425 rendre compte,

37

Serm. Dolbeau 4,48 (d. F. Dolbeau, Paris 1996, 127128).

Ainsi Psal. 80,21 (CCSL 39,1133); Mon. 21,25 (CSEL 41,570).
39
L. Verheijen, La Rgle de saint Augustin I. Tradition manuscrite. II. Recherches historiques, Paris 1967: voir II, 208.
38

236

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

devant une assemble nombreuse, de la conduite des clercs de la

maison piscopale: Vous savez tous . . . que nous vivons dans notre
maison . . . de manire imiter autant que possible les saints dont
il est dit dans les Actes des Aptres: Nul ne disait sien ce qui lui
appartenait, mais entre eux tout tait commun.40 Grce aux recherches de Verheijen nous disposons dune bonne dition du Praeceptum,
la rgle originelle, crite pour les frres lacs dHippone.41 Le dbut
est eloquent: Nous ordonnons que vous, qui vivez dans le monastre, observiez les points suivants. En premier lieu, puisque cest pour
cela que vous vous tes rassembls, dtre unanimes et de navoir
quune me et quun cur envers Dieu. Vous ne devez pas dire
vtre ce qui vous appartient, mais entre vous tout doit tre commun. Votre suprieur doit distribuer chacun vivres et vtements . . .
suivant ses besoins. Car ainsi vous lisez dans les Actes des Aptres:
Ils avaient tout en commun et chacun tait distribu suivant ses
besoins.42 Il est vident que pour Augustin la pratique de lascse
ne concide pas avec la vie rmitique, mais avec une vie en socit,
se rglant sur lexemple de lglise de Jrusalem, o les croyants
navaient quune me et quun cur et possdaient tout en commun.
3. La cit cleste
La rexion thologique de lglise ancienne sur la Jrusalem cleste
a trouv son expression naturelle dans le rituel liturgique de la ddicace dune glise. loquent entre tous est, chez les latins, lhymne
de loce Urbs beata Jerusalem,43 crit vers 800 en septnaires trochaques, forme prosodique de grande allure, chrie des potes chrtiens:

40

Serm. 355,2 (Stromata Patristica et Mediaevalia 1; Utrecht et Bruxelles 1950,

124).
41

Verheijen (n. 39) I, 417437. comparer aussi Van Bavel (n. 34), 6, 10, 13,

211.
42

Les premiers rdacteurs dune rgle monastique avaient t les orientaux Basile
de Csare et Horsiesius de Tabenne en gypte, qui avaient aussi relev lexemple de lglise de Jrusalem (cfr. Solignac [n. 3], 333). Augustin a peut-tre pris
connaissance de ces deux rgles par les traductions de respectivement Jrme et
Run dAquile.
43
Pour la rdaction originelle on se rfrera au texte annot de ldition de
A. Lentini, Te decet hymnus. Linnario della Liturgia horarum, Cit du Vatican 1984,
251.

saint augustin sur jrusalem

237

Urbs beata Ierusalem,/dicta pacis visio,

Quae construitur in caelis/vivis ex lapidibus,
Et angelis coornata/ut sponsata comite,
Nova veniens e caelo,/nuptiali thalamo
Praeparata, ut intacta/copuletur Domino.
Bienheureuse la ville de Jrusalem,/qui sappelle vision de la paix,
Qui est construite au ciel/avec des pierres vivantes,
Qui est escorte danges/comme une jeune marie de ses compagnes,
Et qui vient du ciel, rgnre,/pour la chambre nuptiale
Pare, pour que, intacte,/elle soit unie au Seigneur.

Le texte renferme quatre ides. Le nom hbraque de Jrusalem est

expliqu comme Jeru-schalem, vision de paix. La ville se construit
ici-bas avec des pierres vivantes. Mais, en mme temps, elle descend
du ciel, purie. Ainsi elle sunit, immacule, au Christ son poux.
Ces thmes sont emprunts la Bible de lAncien et du Nouveau
Testament, qui est remplie de prdictions et dimages de la cit
cleste. Les livres prophtiques et sapientiaux reprsentent Isral
comme jamais lpouse bien-aime de Dieu. Dans les visions du
Second Isae est annonc le temps de la restauration de la ville de
Jrusalem. Lange Gabriel prdit Marie que son ls Jsus rgnera
sur la maison de Jacob pour les sicles et que son rgne naura pas
de n. Lptre aux phsiens parle du dessein ternel de Dieu et
nomme les dles une construction qui grandit en un temple saint
dans le Seigneur. Les grands thmes de lptre aux Hbreux et de
lApocalypse sont la nouvelle et meilleure alliance, ltablissement
dnitif du royaume cleste, lapparition de la cit sainte, la Jrusalem
nouvelle, qui descend du ciel de chez Dieu, pare comme une jeune
marie pour son poux.
Ces textes et leurs commentaires apparaissent dinnombrables fois
dans les crits chrtiens. Un relev exhaustif tant impossible citons
quelques grands auteurs. Pour Origne44 la Jrusalem cleste est ds
maintenant la ville de Dieu sur la terre. Celui qui ne vit pas selon
la chair, mais selon lEsprit est une pierre vivante dans la construction de cette ville. Le procs sopre dans lme du croyant: peu
peu sachve en lui la descente den haut de la Jrusalem cleste.

44
La pense dOrigne sur la Jrusalem cleste est trs bien prsente dans la
dissertation de F. Ledegang, Mysterium ecclesiae. Beelden voor de kerk en haar leden bij
Origenes III, Nimgue 1992. Je renvoie I, 322.348360.

238

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

La n viendra quand la cration raisonnable entire sera unie au

Christ pour tre jamais son pouse bien-aime. Linterprtation du
nom de Jrusalem comme Jeru-schalem rasiw tw ernhw visio pacis,
vision de paix, prsente dj par Philon45 et Clment dAlexandrie,46
voque pour Origne le mot de Paul sur Jsus qui a fait la paix par
le sang de sa croix (Col. 1,20). La construction de la Jrusalem nouvelle sachve dans ltablissement de la paix parfaite dans la cit
cleste, o Dieu sera tout en tous (1 Cor. 15,28). Deux particularits sont noter. Origne souligne que la fondation de Jrusalem
tait la ruine de sa devancire, Jbus, avec ses habitants, les Jbusens;
ceux-ci, interprts spirituellement, sont les puissances mauvaises que
le dle doit combattre et dfaire. Plus importante encore est lopposition JrusalemBabel/Babylone. Jrusalem, la cit des saints,
soppose Babel/Babylone, la cit des impies. Babylone est le symbole du mal, dabord cause de lorgueil de ses habitants qui, selon
le rcit de la Gense, btissaient une ville avec une tour qui devait
slever jusquau ciel, orgueil que Dieu punissait en confondant leur
langage (do le nom de Babel, sgxusiw confusio confusion), ensuite
cause de la ruine de Jrusalem cause par le roi de Babylone et
de lexil du peuple juif Babylone (4 [2] Regum 2425), enn,
cause de la description, dans lApocalypse (1718), de Babylone, la
cit du mal, qui nira par prir.
Origne a fait cole, en occident aussi. Nous nous occuperons
quelques instants de la pense de deux tmoins de la tradition occidentale, Hilaire et Ambroise, pour nous concentrer ensuite sur les
ides dAugustin. Chez Hilaire laccent porte sur la Jrusalem cleste,
le corps du Christ, qui est lglise du temps prsent seorant datteindre sa destine, cest--dire laccomplissement au ciel. La construction de cette ville dure jusqu la n des temps. La construction une
fois acheve, la Jrusalem cleste sera la ville de la paix et la demeure
de toute la parent de Dieu et de Notre Seigneur Jsus-Christ.47
Ladversaire de cette ville sainte est Babel/Babylone, la ville du mal
et de la confusion des langues.48 Pour Ambroise, fascin par limage

45
De somniis 2,250 (d. P. Savinel, Les uvres de Philon dAlexandrie 19; Paris
1962, 224).
46
Stromateis 1,5,29,4 (SC 30,66).
47
Psal. 64,2 (CSEL 22,234); 67,30 (ibid. 306); 121,25 (ibid. 571573); 2,26 (ibid.
5657); 145,7 (ibid. 858).
48
Psal. 136,5 (CSEL 22,726727).

saint augustin sur jrusalem

239

de Jrusalem, ville cleste, lglise est cette ville, la rsidence du nouveau peuple qui se pare des vtements de la Loi et des Prophtes,
qui avaient t la parure du peuple ancien.49 La reprsentation est
tantt celle dune ville acheve, tantt celle dune ville en construction. Acheve, elle est lpouse bien-aime du Cantique (8,4[5]), admire par ses enfants, les lles de Jrusalem, qui sont les mes des
justes de lAncien Testament et les puissances clestes: les deux catgories paraissent tantt ensemble, tantt spares.50 Parfois la construction de la ville est mise en relief par la mention des voyageurs
en route: aux puissances clestes sajoutent les humains qui sont appels, tant ceux qui ont dj atteint la perfection que ceux qui y tendent.51 Sjournant sur la terre, la Jrusalem cleste est une maison
spirituelle, la mre de tous, lpouse du Christ, resplendissante, sainte,
immacule, sans tache ni ride.52 Et, chantant les louanges de la virginit, Ambroise, ct dautres rminiscences bibliques, allgue le
mot sur la Jrusalem cleste, ville sainte o rien de souill ne
sintroduit.53 Il connat aussi linterprtation du nom de Jrusalem
comme vision de paix: la paix et le repos sont les marques de la
Jrusalem cleste.54 Et nous trouvons chez lui, comme chez Origne
et Hilaire, lopposition entre Jrusalem et Babel/Babylone: cette dernire porte le nom de confusio, confusion, et les Babyloniens sont
les indles, qui nont pas accs aux mystres de la foi.55
Pour Augustin le thme de Jrusalem, ville sainte, est inpuisable.
Dans un passage de son modle de catchse De catechizandis rudibus
il prsente un rsum de sa pense. Le rgne terrestre, la Jrusalem
juive, tait la prguration du rgne cleste, la Jrusalem den haut,
la ville glorieuse de Dieu, dont le nom hbraque Jerusalem signie
vision de paix. Citoyens de cette ville sont les hommes sanctis,
du pass, du prsent et de lavenir, et les esprits sanctis, les anges
qui ne se sont pas levs contre Dieu. Roi de cette ville est JsusChrist, Verbe de Dieu, prince des anges, et, dans sa condition
humaine, prince des hommes: ils rgneront tous ensemble avec Lui

49
50
51
52
53
54
55

Psal. 118 13,15 (OOSA 10,72).

Psal. 118 19,27; 22,38 (OOSA 10,306 et 422).
Fug. 5,31 (OOSA 4,104).
Luc. 2,88 (OOSA 11,226228); Luc. 7,99 (OOSA 12,166168).
Virgin. 5,28 (OOSA 14,1,219220).
Ep. 18(70),13 (OOSA 19,186).
Psal. 1,22 (OOSA 7,22) et Psal. 118 2,2728 (OOSA 9,114116).

240

antoon a. r. bastiaensen

dans une paix ternelle.56 Nous reconnaissons les thmes familiers:

la construction dans le sicle prsent, concidant avec la construction de la ville cleste, qui signie et ralise la vision de la paix.
Augustin a en plus, comme Ambroise, la double citoyennet, des
anges et des humains. En nombre dautres textes ce complexe de
thmes revient. En De Genesi ad litteram la ville de Jrusalem est notre
mre au ciel, vision de paix, tant que nous sommes sur la terre objet
de notre dsir et de notre espoir, ds maintenant ralit pour les
anges, nos futurs concitoyens.57 Commentant le psaume 9 (910), le
prdicateur voit la Jrusalem terrestre comme la prguration de
lglise au ciel; cette glise est le sjour de ceux qui jouissent en paix
de la vie des anges; nous autres mortels rsidons galement dans
cette glise, si, dans lattente de notre tablissement dnitif, nous
louons convenablement ds cette vie le Seigneur de lglise.58 Un
autre commentaire rappelle Origne par une double opposition entre
lancienne et la nouvelle Jrusalem. Ns dans le pch la suite de
la faute dAdam nous appartenons lancienne ville, mais en tant
que membres futurs du peuple de Dieu la nouvelle ville. Lancienne
ville est la ville des Jbusens qui doit tre dtruite. Elle est surtout
Babylone, la ville du mal, issue de Can, oppose Jrusalem, la
ville du bien, issue dAbel. prsent les deux communauts sont
entremles, mais le jour viendra o les bales seront spares du
bl.59 Dans un passage dun autre commentaire nous trouvons la
mme opposition des deux villes: Jrusalem, la vision de la paix
contre Babylone, la ville de la confusion; Jrusalem est la communaut des bons anges et des vrais dles, Babylone des mauvais anges
et des indles.60 Ailleurs Augustin souligne que la Jrusalem cleste
hberge nos concitoyens, les anges; nous sommes encore dans un
pays lointain, mais nous aspirons la rencontre dans la sainte cit.61
Le commentaire de lavant-dernier psaume rsume loquemment les
ides familires: Cette Jrusalem cleste, notre mre, nous a enfants; elle est lglise des saints; elle nous a nourris; en partie elle est

56

Catech. 20,36 (CCSL 46,160).

Litt. 12,28 (CSEL 28,1,423); rapprocher aussi Psal. 134,26 (CCSL 40,19561957).
58
Psal. 9,12 (CCSL 38,64).
59
Psal. 61,78 (CCSL 39,778780).
60
Psal. 64,2 (CCSL 39,823824); rapprocher aussi largumentation serre de
Psal. 136,1 (CCSL 40,1964).
61
Psal. 121,2; 125,1 (CCSL 40,1802 et 1844).
57

saint augustin sur jrusalem

241

encore ltranger, dans notre monde, en partie elle est la maison, au ciel; pour autant quelle est au ciel elle est le bonheur des
anges; pour autant quelle est dans notre monde, elle est lespoir des
justes.62
Nous constatons que le thme Jrusalem apparat maintes fois
chez Augustin sous tous ses aspects. une exception prs, comme
avait dj not Congar.63 loppos dAmbroise, Augustin ne semble jamais reprsenter la ville cleste comme lpouse bien-aime du
Seigneur. Je ne vois pas dautre explication cette absence que la
rserve gnrale, dicilement explicable, dAugustin lgard du
Cantique des Cantiques.64 Dautre part, il donne beaucoup de relief
deux motifs traditionnels. Le premier est celui des deux villes,
Jrusalem et Babylone, trait longuement dans le magnum opus de la
Cit de Dieu.65 Lautre concerne la double citoyennet de la ville
cleste, qui connat deux catgories dhabitants, celle des anges rests dles et celle des hommes appels la batitude ternelle. De
ces derniers les uns sont arrivs au terme de leur voyage, les autres
sont encore en route. Un jour les deux groupes ne feront quun et
conjointement avec les anges seront en compagnie de leur Seigneur
Jsus-Christ, quand il se soumettra Dieu et Dieu sera tout en tous.

62
Psal. 149,5 (CCSL 40,2182); comparer aussi lexpos dans le catchisme
dAugustin, Enchir. 15,56 (CCSL 46,7980).
63
Y. Congar, glise et cit de Dieu chez quelques auteurs cisterciens lpoque des croisades, dans Mlanges tienne Gilson, Toronto et Paris 1959, 178179.
64
Voir Anne-Marie La Bonnardire, Le Cantique des Cantiques dans luvre
de saint Augustin, Revue des tudes Augustiniennes 1 1955 225237; voir 227. comparer aussi les tudes rcentes de F. B. A. Asiedu, The Song of Songs and the
Ascent of the Soul. Ambrose, Augustine, and the Language of Mysticism, VC 55
2001 299317; voir 306ss. et de A. Genovese MSC, Note sulluso del Cantico dei
Cantici in SantAgostino, Augustinianum 41 2001 201212; Evoluzione e precisazione nelluso agostiniano del Cantico dei Cantici, ibid., 509516; S. Agostino e il
Cantico dei Cantici. Tra esegesi e teologia (Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 80), Rome
2002.
65
Cfr. J. van Oort, Jerusalem and Babylon: a study into Augustines City of God and
the sources of his doctrine of the two cities (Supplements to VC 14), Leiden 1991 (traduit
du nerlandais, Jerusalem en Babylon. Een onderzoek van Augustinus De stad van God en
de bronnen van zijn leer der twee steden (rijken), La Haye 1986).

This page intentionally left blank

INDEX OF REFERENCES
A. Biblical
Exodus
32.6

17

Leviticus
1718

16

3 (1) Kings
14.6

4 (2) Kings
245

238

Psalms
9(910)
18(19).5
47(48).5
73(74)
109(110).1
124(125)
125(126)
132(133).1
134(135).7
149

240
115, 197
2334
229
37
230
229
208, 212, 2289,
234
136
229

Song of Songs
8.4(5)

234, 241
239

Wisdom

92

Isaiah
2.3
33.16
49
52.7
52.15
60.17

237
115
22
7
115
2289
223

Jeremiah

Gospels

2, 30, 45, 513,

57, 63, 702, 78,
81, 8992, 94, 99,
101, 121, 131, 203,
214

Matthew
3.12
4.20
5.32
8.20
10.1
10.515
10.40
11.1
13.17
13.55
14.19
14.29
16.18
16.19
18.18
19.9
19.21
22.30
23.34 .
26.23
26.269
28.910
28.1620
28.16

90, 97, 118, 200

45
204, 208
16
215
30
204
8
30
91
111
1516
210
136
137
137
16
135, 204
215
8
13
18
112
8
30

Mark

5, 37, 90, 97, 113,

118
208
137
37, 110, 111
204
3
37
13
13
18
13
13
13
11
523
52

1.18
3.17
6.3
6.713
6.30
12.357
14.18
14.20
14.224
14.22
14.234
14.24
14.26
16.920
16.1718
Luke

2, 13, 8890, 97,

118, 200

index of references

244
1.3
4.18
10.1
10.212
10.16
10.17
10.2537
16.11
22.1617
22.1720
22.1719
22.20
24.30
24.34
24.35
John
1.17
4.142
6.11
13.514
13.16
13.20
13.23
13.26
14.6
16.7
16.25
20
20.29
21.114
21.424
Acts of the Apostles

1.1
1.13
1.1526
1.20
1.216
1.23
25
2.111
2.426
2.42
2.446
2.44
2.46

35
131
22, 198
204
8
198
132
91
12
1112
26
18
13, 14
112
14
2934, 72, 89,
90, 97, 107, 109,
118
130
134
1516
214
9
134
30
13
130
155, 157
107
112
109
71
109
23, 1314, 3840,
45, 51, 91, 94,
97, 99, 113, 139,
149, 197, 198,
199, 228, 234,
2356
35, 142
104
33
34
113
198
121
61
1314
14, 15, 26
228
135, 209
14, 15, 26

3.116
4
4.13
4.325
4.323
4.32
4.345
4.35
5.111
5.15
5.16
6
6.14
6.5
7
8
8.1
8.440
9.3641
1011
10
10.28
10.478
11.19
12
12.6
14
14.4
14.14
15
15.121
15.10
15.1617
15.1920
15.20
15.26
15.29
17
18.1217
19.11
19.12
20
20.612
20.7
20.11
21.8
21.25
22.289
23.23
25.11
27.3

214
204
207
204, 209, 21112,
228
208
135, 209, 233
203
209
214
51, 61
51
39, 116, 2212,
226
221
104
122, 124
14, 122, 202,
221
113
104
210
197
122
125
125
14
689
69
122
3, 99
3, 99
38, 1245
116
38
389
16
16
124
16
39
35
51
51
223, 224, 225
19
14, 18, 19
14, 18
104
16
39
40
40
40

index of references
27.316
27.356
27.35
27.43
28.1617
28.301
Paul

40
19
14, 19
40
40
40
12, 7, 8, 10, 31,
43, 445, 889, 91,
92, 94, 97, 99, 101,
120, 121, 142, 149,
1534, 198, 209, 210,
211, 213, 216, 218,
2223

Romans
13.1112
15.16
15.1819

38
1
52

1 Corinthians
1.1
2.6
3.9
3.1015
4.9
4.16
5.1
7.2931
9.1
1011
10
10.34
10.4
10.7
10.11
10.16
11.1
11.2034
11.201
11.22
11.23
11.24b25
11.25
12.8
12.28
12.31
15.1 .
15.5
15.7
15.28
16.12

149
119, 128
10
132
136
134, 211
16
38
4
1718
131
17
136
17
38
17, 18, 27
134
17
17
17
9
12
18
210
60, 133
57
9
112, 198
110, 198
238
18

245

2 Corinthians
1.1
5.20
6.12
8.23
10.8
11.2
11.323
12.15
12.25
12.10
12.12
13.3
13.10

149
3, 7
7
3, 6
4, 7
10
149
154
151
4
53
7, 130
7

Galatians
1.1
1.10
1.1112
1.15
1.19
2.3
2.8
2.9
2.11 .
2.1114
2.11
2.12
2.1213
2.14
4
4.14
4.2131
6.14

113
151, 154
213
151
7
110
17
2
110, 136
26
37, 116
198
16
125
16
131
7, 8
131
135

Ephesians
1.1
2.15
2.20
4.1112
4.24
5.1820
6.1117
6.12

149
209
130, 138, 207
222
209
19
216
213

Philippians
1.1
2.25
4.5

224, 225, 226

3
38

Colossians
1.1
1.20
3.10

149
238
209

index of references

246
1 Thessalonians
1.5
2.7
2.13
2.19
3.13
4.1517
4.17

52
4
7
10
10
38
10

Pastoral Letters

38, 45, 889

1 Timothy
3.8
4.6
4.14

223, 225, 228

225
226

2 Timothy
1.10
2.3
4.5

149
216
225

Philemon

86, 91, 97, 99

Hebrews

89, 91, 94, 98, 99,

101, 237
131
133
215
208
208
224

3.1
4.14
11.13
11.37
13.16
13.17
James

1 Peter
2.11
2.21
5.1

89, 91, 92, 94, 98, 99,

101
21516
135
224

2 Peter
1.1618
2.1214
2.13
3.1
3.2
3.8
3.10
3.1516

378, 89, 91, 98

38
20
18
38
219
38
20
38

Letters of John

30, 91, 94, 97, 99,

101

Jude

378, 91, 94, 97, 99,

101
37, 111
37
18, 20
37, 219

1
3
12
1718
Revelation
1.910
23
4.7
1718

30, 312, 92, 94, 97,

99, 101
201
31, 32
90
238

91, 98, 99, 101

B. Non-Biblical

Acts of John 14, 22, 99, 109

Acts of Paul 35, 945, 101, 103
Acts of Peter 22
Acts of Thomas 14, 212, 23, 111,
157, 198
Adamantius 45
al-Biruni 154
al-Nad m 144
Ambrose 51, 215, 232, 2334, 2389,
240, 241
Ambrosiaster 578, 2223, 224
Anaphora of Addai and Mari 224, 25,
64
Anaphora Ioannis Sabae 25
Anaphora of St Peter 25
Anaphora Syriaca Duodecim Apostolorum
25, 64
Anaphora S. Thomae Apostoli 25

Anthony 214
Apocalypse of James (NHC V.4)
11011
Apocalypse of Peter 97, 98, 99
Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII.3) 1089,
114
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles 9,
56, 64, 149, 206
Apocryphal Gospels 64, 103
Apocryphal literature 2836, 40,
90, 94, 100, 144, 151, 180, 184,
206
Apocryphon of James (NHC I.2) 30
Apophthegmata Patrum 209, 216, 217
Apostolic Constitutions 220
Aratus 39
Athanasius 59, 86, 87, 209, 210
Athenaeus 42

index of references

247

Augustine 35, 58, 59, 602, 86, 146,

14950, 156, 21112, 214, 215,
218, 22836, 23941

Gregory of Nazianzus 41, 231

Gregory of Nyssa 41
Gregory Thaumaturgus 45, 203

Pseudo-Barnabas 86, 95, 99, 101,

233
Basil 41, 206, 20910, 218, 236

Hegesippus 195, 199200, 201, 202

Hermas 86, 87, 917, 99, 101,
103
Herodotus 4, 13
Hilary 60, 232, 238, 239
Hippolytus 910, 956, 108, 152
Historia monachorum in Aegypto 214
Horsiesi 2078, 21415, 236

Cassian 2067
Chronicon Paschale 49
Church orders 9, 64
Clement of Alexandria 32, 41, 44,
45, 99100, 101, 102, 103, 107,
108, 133, 195, 198, 199, 203, 206,
233, 238
Clement of Rome 86, 91, 92, 93, 99,
101, 219, 223
Pseudo-Clementines 14, 110, 152, 157
Cologne Mani Codex 13947, 14956
Concilium Laodicenum 217
Cyprian 334, 57, 233
Diatessaron 143, 157
Didache 1415, 16, 18, 21, 22, 23,
267, 86, 87, 99, 220, 233
Didascalia Apostolorum 779, 813, 85,
220
Doctrine of Addai 198
Epiphanius 22, 312, 47, 49, 812,
834, 152, 202, 206
Epistula Apostolorum 24, 6870
Epistulae Senecae ad Paulum et Pauli ad
Senecam [quae uocantur] 346
Eusebius 32, 34, 43, 49, 57, 667,
746, 912, 93, 98, 100, 101, 103,
107, 194203, 232
Pseudo-Eusebius 50
Euthalius Diaconus 45
Evodius 156
Gennadius Scholarius 49
Gospel of Basilides 102
Gospel of the Egyptians 100, 102, 103
Gospel of the Hebrews 99, 101, 110
Gospel of Mary (BG 1) 11213
Gospel of Matthias 102
Gospel of Peter 30, 703, 102, 103
Gospel of Philip (NHC II.3) 113
Gospel of Thomas (NHC II.2) 91, 102,
110, 11112, 114
Gospel of Truth (NHC I.3) 90, 103
Gospel of the Twelve Apostles 102
Gregory the Great 214

Ignatius 86, 91, 92, 133, 199

Inscriptions 6, 61
Irenaeus 9, 43, 55, 57, 746, 88,
8994, 95, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103,
106, 108, 11529, 195, 203, 205,
219
Jerome 32, 34, 35, 60, 93, 208,
21213, 217, 218, 222, 223, 224,
225, 236
John Chrysostom 41, 58, 21011,
217, 218, 2212, 2257
John of Damascus 47
John Moschus 22, 217
Josephus 4, 195, 199, 2012
Julius Africanus 200, 202
Justin Martyr 910, 22, 55, 56, 91,
92, 115, 202, 203
Kephalaia 152, 1545
Koran 152
Letter of Mary to Ignatius 43
Letter of Peter to Philip (NHC VIII.2)
1045, 106, 107, 108, 109
Manichaean Psalm-Book 1489
Marcellinus Comes 230
Martyrdom of Polycarp 43
Methodius of Olympus 206
Mishnah 6, 11
Muratorian Fragment 2834, 95, 969
Origen 9, 41, 46, 557, 1013,
1289, 1308, 195, 1978, 201,
206, 21617, 223, 232, 233, 2378,
239, 240
Papias 901, 92, 199
Philo 195, 203, 238
Photius 42

248

index of references

Pistis Sophia 112

Pliny the Younger 18
Polycarp 91, 92
Preaching of Peter 99, 102, 103
Protevangelium Iacobi 99, 102
Ptolemy 434, 108
Qumran Scrolls 10, 200
Regula Magistri 133
Rule of St Augustine 212, 2356
Rule of Basil 210, 218
Rule of Pachomius 208, 212
Scholia Londinensia to Ars Gramm. of
Dionysius Thrax 42
Scholia vetera to Carmina of Pindar
42
Secret Book of James (NHC I.2) 111
Secret Book of John (NHC II.1; III.1;
IV.1; BG 2) 1068, 109
Secret Gospel of Mark 100
Severian 50

Socrates Scholasticus 50, 76, 801,

206, 217
Sozomen 76, 217
Sulpicius Severus 5960
Tertullian 88, 935, 96, 99, 100,
103, 196, 197
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 1
Theodore of Mopsuestia 2245
Theodore of Studios 217
Theodore of Tabennisi 208
Theodoret of Cyrrhus 205, 210,
21314, 226
Turfan fragments 148
Urbs beata Ierusalem 2367
Victorinus 32
Vita Pachomii 208
Wisdom of Jesus Christ (NHC III.4 and
BG 3) 106, 107

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Abgar 197
Abraham 110, 168, 174, 175, 179,
189, 195
Adam 179, 190, 191, 193
Africa 60
Agape 14, 15, 17, 24, 26, 69, 78, 82,
168, 191, 217
Alexandria 48, 199, 213
Alienship (xeniteia) 21516, 217
Ambrose 62, 240
Andrew 2932, 34, 48, 71, 97, 148,
197
Angel/Angels 7, 32, 69, 106, 1323,
145, 156, 192, 221, 235, 237,
23941
Anthony 59, 60, 204, 207, 214
Antioch 3, 5, 16, 18, 26, 43, 48,
197, 199, 214
Apollonius of Tyana 54
Apostle/Apostles 110, 14, 304, 37,
40, 4150, 6385, 93, 94, 95, 97,
99, 100, 103, 1045, 108, 112,
11314, 11538, 139, 146, 14752,
1534, 1567, 165, 166, 178, 181,
182, 183, 189, 190, 191, 193,
1969, 201, 2048, 21920, 221,
222, 225, 229
Apostolic Doctrine 467, 11529,
133, 138, 220
Apostolic Life 46, 1346, 20414
Apostolic Succession 9, 115, 11920,
1323, 134, 1967, 199, 219,
220
Apostolic Tradition 9, 434, 47, 66,
67, 746, 85, 86103, 105, 109,
115, 119, 120, 127, 1308, 220
Apostolikoi 47, 206
Apotaktikoi 47, 206
Apparition 556, 69, 71, 72, 104,
105, 106, 110, 112
Arians/Arianism 2323
Ascetics/Asceticism 47, 5960, 203,
20418, 2346
Asclepius 534, 61
Asia Minor 32, 6668, 70, 76, 120,
197, 199, 209
Athens 39, 199
Audians 814

Augustine
2356

59, 602, 86, 205, 21112,

Baptism 14, 21, 99, 125, 217, 221,

222
Baptism of Christ 169, 198
Baptists 1425
Barnabas 46, 48, 94, 122, 125,
198
Basil 205
Basilides 119
Besa 208
Binding/Loosing 137, 138
Bishop/Bishops 9, 26, 2930, 324,
46, 47, 84, 109, 115, 119, 1324,
137, 146, 157, 199, 200, 214,
2226
Buddha 153
Canon 2, 86103, 147
Carpocrates 55, 116
Cerinthus 119, 120, 203
Charismata 5960, 210, 211, 214,
218
Christ an apostle 131, 153
Christ, postpaschal speeches 68,
1058, 114
Church 10, 110, 142, 1467
Circumcision 38, 116, 125, 144
Clement of Alexandria 49, 168
Clement of Rome 101, 199
Cochaba 200
Community of goods 135, 204, 205,
207, 208, 21112, 213, 2289, 232,
2334, 2356
Constantinople 24, 34, 46, 48
Conversion 204, 235
Corinth 17, 26, 223
Cult of the Saints 5962
Cyprian 193
Cyprus 48
Daniel 174, 178, 179, 189, 192
Deacon/Diaconate 18, 26, 33, 109,
2214, 2256
Demiurge 119, 120
Demons 52, 534, 557, 59, 60, 213,
216

250

index of names and subjects

Devil 60, 135, 138, 213

Dionysius the Areopagite 46, 199
Donatists 2312
Easter 6485
Ebionites 22, 90, 118, 152, 203
Ecclesiastical oce 1378, 21927
Edessa 22, 197
Egypt 146, 203, 217, 225
Elchasai/Alchasaios/Elchasaites 144,
152
Elijah 166, 192, 209
Enoch 144, 151
Ephesus 22, 67, 118, 198, 223
Eucharist 1127, 69, 78, 83
Eve 179, 191, 193
Exorcist/Exorcism 525, 222
Ezekiel 192
Fast 29, 31, 66, 703, 76, 779,
813, 97, 216, 222
Female apostle 910, 134
Gabriel 69, 235, 237
Gnostics/Gnosticism 9, 10, 21, 90,
10414, 118, 1234, 127, 128,
1445, 155, 197
Greece 93
Heretics/Heresy 47, 55, 79, 81, 93,
95, 103, 11516, 118, 11927, 194,
197, 201, 2023
Iconography 15893
Ignatius 43, 46, 133
Incarnation 93, 152
James (apostle, son of Alphaeus)
34
James (apostle, son of Zebedee) 34,
135, 148, 199, 201
James (brother of Jesus) 1617, 34,
37, 389, 11012, 113, 125,
199200, 201, 202
Jerusalem 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 14, 34,
165, 191, 2012, 22841
Jerusalem, Church of 2, 3, 6, 14, 16,
18, 34, 84, 110, 113, 139, 195,
199200, 2045, 206, 209, 21213,
21718, 2289, 2316
Jerusalem Council 1617, 389, 78,
116, 1245
Jerusalem, Heavenly 23641
Jesus family 199201

Jewish Christians 14, 110, 116, 118,

125, 140, 144, 145, 166, 183, 200
Jews/Judaism 1, 58, 1112, 18, 26,
389, 40, 4950, 72, 814, 118,
1212, 124, 125, 144, 193, 197,
198, 199, 2012, 221, 22831
John (apostle and evangelist) 2934,
67, 76, 89, 90, 97, 100, 1068,
109, 113, 118, 120, 1212, 135,
137, 148, 192, 193, 197, 199,
214
John the Baptist 45, 193, 198
Jonah 163, 164, 165, 168, 169, 173,
174, 175, 176, 178, 179, 183, 189,
190, 191, 192
Judas (brother of Jesus) 37, 94, 201
Judas Iscariot 131, 138, 193
Judas Thomas 21, 110, 11112, 113,
198
Kiss 113
Laity 137
Last Supper 18, 267, 78
Law, Jewish 14, 16, 38, 110, 118,
119, 121, 1223, 125, 126, 131,
143, 144, 191, 195, 239
Linus 199
Liturgy 1127, 6385, 87, 100, 235
Luke 19, 30, 89, 97, 101, 118, 193,
199, 214
Magic 545
Mani/Manichaeans/Manichaeism 8,
13957, 234
Marcion/Marcionites 45, 889, 91,
94, 97, 98, 116, 119, 120, 144
Mark 89, 118, 192, 214
Martin 5960
Martyr/Martyrdom 56, 57, 60, 70,
124, 136, 184, 192, 193, 197, 199,
201
Mary Magdalene 11213
Matthew 71, 89, 118, 214
Matthias 198
Mesopotamia 10, 68, 81, 140
Michael 235
Miltiades 98
Miracle 46, 5162, 165, 168, 176,
179, 191, 192, 206, 210, 214, 221
Missionary activity 1, 3, 7, 14, 21,
26, 34, 526, 106, 107, 111, 140,
142, 145, 146, 157, 1978, 199,
206, 21011, 218, 221

index of names and subjects

Mohammed 152
Monastery 20910, 21112, 217,
234, 2356
Monasticism/Monks 46, 203, 20418,
234, 2356
Montanism 90, 94, 98, 103
Moses 1, 110, 130, 168, 174, 175,
178, 189, 191, 193
Mount of Olives 104, 105, 106
Nestorius/Nestorians 23, 24, 25
Nicolaitans 203
14/15 Nisan 645, 66, 72, 75, 83
Origen
203

1012, 1289, 1308, 197,

Pachomius 208
Palestine 5, 10
Papias 901, 199
Paraclete 90, 147, 149, 150, 1537
Parousia 40, 67, 21415
Passover/Pesach 11, 13, 15, 26,
645, 679, 723, 77, 79, 815,
229
Paul 12, 5, 68, 10, 1618, 19,
267, 31, 346, 3940, 51, 74, 76,
100, 116, 118, 119, 120, 122, 131,
134, 142, 14850, 151, 1534, 157,
179, 180, 190, 192, 193, 197, 199,
200, 2223
Paul of Thebes 207
Peter 2, 14, 16, 34, 37, 38, 51, 689,
701, 74, 76, 89, 1045, 1089,
111, 11214, 118, 121, 122, 125,
131, 1358, 148, 164, 165, 168,
173, 174, 175, 178, 179, 180, 181,
189, 191, 192, 193, 197, 199, 202,
210, 214, 222
Philip (apostle and/or evangelist) 67,
104, 122, 193, 221, 222
Polycarp 43, 46, 90, 120
Polycrates 678, 73, 74
Power of keys 137
Presbyter/Priest 67, 90, 119, 1323,
146, 221, 2236
Prophet/Prophets (OT) 78, 45, 60,
97, 115, 118, 122, 130, 131, 133,
134, 136, 138, 151, 192, 205,
2078, 209, 237, 239
Prophet/Prophets (NT) 220, 222
Prophet (Mani) 139, 152

251

Quartodecimans 6585
Qumran 200
Revelations 12, 29, 31, 34, 1045,
1068, 109, 111, 112, 114, 123,
140, 145, 1501, 152, 154, 155,
156
Rock 136
Rome 34, 35, 40, 47, 66, 746, 91,
93, 97, 118, 119, 120, 159, 183,
184, 197, 199, 202
Rule of Faith 67, 93, 94
Sabbath 1819, 701, 143
Sabellianism 223
Salvation History 9, 117, 118, 1224,
1267, 129
Samaritans 1
Seneca 346
Seventy(-two) disciples 22, 146, 157,
198
Shenoute 208
Simon the Magician 55, 192, 202
Stephen 39, 601, 122, 124, 193,
201, 221
Syria/Syrian Christianity 9, 215, 68,
70, 72, 79, 111, 112, 198, 21314
Syzygos 145, 1556
Teacher 1324, 138, 146, 150, 157,
220, 222, 2267
Temple 192, 202, 228, 231, 237
Thaddaeus 22, 198
Thecla 148
Therapeutae 203, 213
Thomas (apostle) 72, 148, 197
Timothy 19, 199
Titus (disciple of Paul) 17, 199
Trinity 2323
Unanimity 34, 39, 135, 212, 221,
2289, 2326
Unleavened Bread 22, 82
Valentinus/Valentinians 90, 93, 98,
108, 119
Victor 667, 746
Virginity 214, 239
Visions 89, 108, 145, 1512, 192,
193, 210
Zoroaster 153

INDEX OF GREEK AND LATIN WORDS

gph 217
ggelow 3
delfw 150, 216
postllv 3, 8
postol 4, 1501, 1545
postolikw 4150, 206
pstolow 210, 14, 45, 99, 131,
134, 14852, 225
gnna 1412
di 131
diakonv 221
diakona 221, 225
dikonow 221, 223, 2256
kklhsa 142, 146
n 131
piskop 34, 219
pskopow 33, 220, 2236
eaggelistw 3
elogv 1516
eloghtw 15
eloga 15
exaristv 1516
exarista 1516

pstiw 37, 47
prajapstolow 45
presbeutw 3
presbterow 220, 2236
prolambnv 17
sunpresbterow 224
szugow 145, 1556
szuj 145
sunagvg 145
xrisma 60
xeirotona 221
Xristianw 206
benedicere 1516
benedictio 1516
cenobium 207
condiscipulus 301
301

discipulus

ecclesia 146
episcopatus 34
episcopus 304

kayolikw 47
kann 100
kruj 3
khrssv 1, 3
krason 22

frater

mayhtw 30
monaxw 112

monachus 207, 234

monasterium 234

naklhrow 88
now 1556

nauclerus 88

216

gratia 60
gratiarum actio 1516
gratias agere 1516

scriptura
jenitea 214, 21516

91

INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS

A. Adam 147, 148, 153, 154
B. Aland 30
K. Aland 30
S. Alkier 52, 53
C. R. C. Allberry 148
P. Allen 220, 221, 225, 226
P. Amidon 81
P. Antin 213
F. B. A. Asiedu 241
J.-P. Audet 15
I. Auf der Maur 211
D. E. Aune 32
J.-M. Auwers 96
M. Avi-Yonah 200
H. Bacht 205, 207
P. Bacq 117
P. Bagatti 176
A. Bailly 88
J. N. Bakhuizen van den Brink 10
H. Baltensweiler 17
H. U. von Balthasar 166
G. Bardy 66, 133
P. M. Barnard 233
T. D. Barnes 194
G. J. M. Bartelink 4, 41, 51, 216
A. A. R. Bastiaensen 211
W. Bauer 30, 52
F. C. Baur 54
T. J. van Bavel 211, 212, 234, 236
H. I. Bell 217
A. Bengsch 117
A. Benot 92, 117
K. Berger 3
G. Berger-Doer 172
P.-A. Bernheim 200
M.-F. Berrouard 232
H.-G. Bethge 104
H. D. Betz 2, 149
H. W. Beyer 16
K. Beyschlag 127
W. A. Bienert 200
P. Billerbeck 11
F. Bisconti 164
A. Blaise 33
Y.-M. Blanchard 89, 91, 92, 93
F. Blass 20
G. G. Blum 220

M. Blumenthal 206
L. Bocciolini Palagi 35, 36
J. den Boeft 51, 159
A. Bhlig 140, 145, 153
M. Bonnet 14, 22
A. Boon 207, 209, 215
B. Botte 23, 26, 96
G. Bovini 160
F. Bovon 198
E. Bradshaw Aitkin 141, 142
H. Brandenburg 160
J. N. Bremmer 108, 109, 111
F. E. Brightman 25
R. van den Broek 144
J. A. Brooks 99
P. Brown 146
N. Brox 66, 74, 75, 76, 80, 115,
117
J.-A. Bhner 7
H. Burckhard 98
F. C. Burkitt 25
C. Burton Gulick 42
P. T. Camelot 43
H. von Campenhausen 9, 31, 88, 92,
93, 94, 137, 138, 215
P. Canivet 213
R. Cantalamessa 66, 67, 68, 82
J. A. Cerrato 95
H. Chadwick 56, 57
S. Champerius 214
K. H. Chelius 228, 232
F. G. Chesnut 195
B. Chilton 200
archimandrite Chrysostomos 48
L. Cirillo 141, 142, 143, 149, 151
S. Clackson 146
G. W. Clarke 33
W. K. L. Clarke 209
L. Cohn 203
C. Colpe 152
A. Concolini Mancini 141
Y. Congar 241
R. H. Connolly 25
H. Conzelmann 16, 38
C. A. Credner 30, 33
D. Crossan 71
M. Cunningham 226

254

index of modern authors

N. A. Dahl 96, 98
J. Danilou 166
F. W. Danker 52
P. R. Davies 200
A. Debrunner 20
C. de Clercq 26
F. Decret 140, 146, 149
B. Dehandschutter 43, 219
F. W. Deichmann 160
H. de Lubac 130
J. P. de Menasce 150
V. de Sarasio 214
E. de Stoop 146
A. de Vog 207
I.-M. Dewailly 41, 42
A. Di Berardino 222
S. Dockx 19
B. Dodge 144
H. Drries 227
F. Dolbeau 235
A. Donati 164
R. B. Donna 33, 34
M. A. Donovan 119
L. Doutreleau 43, 115
A. B. Drachmann 42
J. Dresken-Weiland 160
H. J. W. Drijvers 199
J. D. G. Dunn 1, 16
F. Dvornik 34, 41, 48
W. Eck 35
M. J. Edwards 54
A. Ehrhardt 30, 31
B. D. Ehrman 38, 86
R. Eisenman 200
J. K. Elliott 24, 36
R. E. Emmerick 147
R. B. Eno 137
C. A. Evans 200
A. Faivre 41
S. Felbecker 96
E. Ferguson 96
G. Ferrarese 124
A.-J. Festugire 214
K. M. Fischer 40
J. Fitzmyer 39
F. J. Foakes Jackson 4
J. Fontaine 59, 60
J. E. Fossum 1, 152
I. Frank 92
K. S. Frank 133, 136, 138, 205
D. Frankfurter 151

A. Frst 36
F. X. Funk 233
H.-G. Garon 113
I. Gardner 141, 155
O. Gebhardt 97
A. Gelston 23
A. Genovese 241
A. Gerhards 96
K. Gerlach 69, 71, 77
C. A. Gieschen 8
L. Ginzberg 110
J. Gnilka 13
M. Goodman 54
E. J. Goodspeed 219
R. M. Grant 194
S. L. Greenslade 224
R. A. Greer 61
J. Gribomont 213
I. Gruenwald 145
L. Guerrier 68
A. Guillaumont 215
A. Guillou 150
J.-N. Guinot 225
J. Hackett 48
T. Hgg 54
E. Haenchen 38, 39, 113
A. Hnggi 64
G. M. Hahneman 88, 96, 97,
98
C. Halm 59
A. Harnack 4, 5, 6, 54, 88, 94, 97,
144, 1978, 217
H. W. Havelaar 108
M. Hayek 24
C. Hedrick 111
C. van Heertum 144
C. J. von Hefele 26
B. Hemmerdinger 115
M. Hengel 5
P. Henne 93, 94, 96, 97
R. Hennings 224
A. Henrichs 141, 143, 148, 154
R. Henry 42
W. Herding 213
C. J. den Heyer 116
A. Hilgard 42
A. Hilhorst 51
C. Hill 68
G. Hill 49
J. Hills 68
P. Hofrichter 24

index of modern authors

H. Holstein 41, 117, 206
F. J. A. Hort 12
G. B. Howard 25
P. Humbertclaude 209
E. Hunter 146
B. Jeanjean 223
J. Jeremias 13
J. Jervel 39
H. J. de Jonge 96
M. Jordan-Ruwe 163
M. Jugie 49
E. Junod 1978
J.-D. Kaestli 96, 98
J. A. Kelhoer 53
J. N. D. Kelly 41, 221, 224
W. Klasen 98
T. Klauser 164
G. Klein 2
H.-J. Klimkeit 142, 148
C. H. Kneepkens 51
J. Knox 88
G. Koch 160, 161, 164
H. Koch 76
L. Koenen 141, 142, 143, 148,
154, 156
H. Koester 96, 112
T. Korteweg 30, 33
K. Koschorke 109
B. Kotter 47
S. N. Kramer 1
S. Krauss 5
A.-M. La Bonnardire 241
M.-J. Lagrange 29, 302, 92,
95
K. Lake 4, 57
P. J. Lalleman 109
G. W. H. Lampe 22, 30, 33
R. Lane Fox 194
J. Lawson 92, 93
B. Layton 143
A. Le Boulluec 100
H. Leclercq 26, 29
F. Ledegang 138, 237
L.-T. Lefort 208
A. Lentini 236
J.-M. Leroux 211
H. G. Liddell 17
L. R. LiDonnici 61
H. Lietzmann 6, 14, 22, 29, 96
J. M. Lieu 145

255

S. N. C. Lieu 140, 141, 145, 146,

153, 154
J. B. Lightfoot 4, 5, 43
A. Lindemann 38, 219
R. A. Lipsius 22
M. Lochbrunner 221
E. Lohmeyer 13
B. Lohse 82
C. H. E. Lommatzsch 130, 134,
138
H. E. Lona 219, 223
L. T. A. Lori 216
J. Ludwig 137
G. P. Luttikhuizen 30, 40, 105, 108,
109, 111
V. Macdermot 113
R. MacMullen 53
W. F. Macomber 23
G. Maier 89
H. Manders 24
F. Mann 41
M. G. Mara 70, 222, 223
A. Marjanen 113
C. Mayer 213, 228, 232
W. Mayer 220, 221, 225, 226
E. Mazza 15
L. M. McDonald 28, 88, 92, 96
N. B. McLynn 51
F. van der Meer 231
F. J. A. M. Meijer 19, 202
E. Meijering 124
C. Mercier 115
B. M. Metzger 12, 86, 89, 92, 96,
197, 225
M. W. Meyer 104
G. Mikkelsen 141
M. Mir 152
E. Molland 133, 134
T. Mommsen 230
D. A. S. Montserrat 146
G. Morin 205, 233
E. Morini 49
F. W. K. Mller 148
L. A. Muratori 28
R. Murray 9, 10
P. Nagel 148, 149
P. Nautin 92
E. Nestle 12
A. Nestori 160
J. Neusner 200
U. Neymeyr 223

256

index of modern authors

J. Nolland 38
R. Noormann 117
D. Noy 6
G. ODaly 61
H. Ohme 93, 96, 100, 102
J. van Oort 140, 141, 144, 145, 147,
148, 150, 153, 155, 241
E. Osty 12
E. H. Pagels 108
I. Pahl 64
J. Painter 110, 200
I. P. Panagiotakos 49
A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus 49
D. M. Parrott 106
S. J. Patterson 113
H. Paulsen 20
J. Pelsmaekers 172
J.-N. Prs 24
S. Petersen 113
L. Petit 49
L. Pietri 100
A. Pl 206
J. P. M. van der Ploeg 26
P.-H. Poirier 149
M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk 159
H. J. Polotsky 142, 145, 150, 153,
154, 155
E. Preuschen 86
R. M. Price 200
S. R. F. Price 54
A. Provoost 159, 160, 161, 162, 163,
172
H.-C. Puech 140, 147, 148, 149,
152, 153
G. Quispel 144
A. Raes 25, 26
I. E. Rahmani 24
E. C. Ratcli 25
J. F. Raulin 25
T. Raveaux 231
U. Real 173
J. C. Reeves 144, 151, 152, 153
F. Rehkopf 20
B. Reicke 15, 19
W. Reinbold 198
K. H. Rengstorf 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
M. Rveillaud 41
S. Richter 148
J. Ries 149
J. M. Robinson 111, 142

C. Rmer 141, 143, 145

J. Roldanus 216
W. Rordorf 15, 18
A. Roselli 141, 149
A. Rousseau 43, 115
M. J. Routh 29, 32
G. Rouwhorst 67, 68, 69, 72, 75, 77,
82
U. Rubin 152
K. Rudolph 142
L. V. Rutgers 166
J. Ruwet 99, 101
K. Sallmann 28
A. Sand 88, 89
W. H. van de Sande Bakhuyzen 45
P. Sanivel 238
K. Schferdiek 149
K. H. Schelkle 20
H.-M. Schenke 113
H. Schlier 10
U. Schmid 89
C. Schmidt 68, 82, 113, 142, 150
W. Schmithals 2, 6, 10
W. Schneemelcher 29, 110, 147, 149,
199, 200
G. Schllgen 64, 79, 220
H. J. Schoeps 152
C. Scholten 64
H. Schreckenberg 202
B. Schultze 137, 138
E. Schwartz 82, 194
A. M. Schwemer 5
R. Scott 17
J. N. Sevenster 36
X. A. Siderids 49
H. J. Sieben 41
M. Simon 231
M. Smith 100
T. V. Smith 109
G. F. Snyder 98
R. Sder 206
A. Solignac 212, 228, 236
A. Souter 222
C. Spicq 6, 52
K. Staab 50
R. Stark 53
O. H. Steck 8
B. Steimer 64, 79, 220
K. Stendahl 98
A. Stewart-Sykes 67
A. Strobel 82
G. G. Stroumsa 152
A. C. Sundberg 28, 96

index of modern authors

W. Sundermann 146
S. Swain 54
U. Swarat 89
H. B. Swete 225
T. Talley 64, 66, 69, 70, 75
M. Tardieu 140
J. E. Taylor 166
E. Testa 166
S. P. Tregelles 29
F. Tristan 166
D. Trobisch 96
K.-W. Trger 149
J. Tubach 143
A. Tuilier 18
J. Ulrich 201
W. C. van Unnik 100
J. Vaes 181
R. Valantasis 112, 141
P. Van Deun 49
A. Van Tongerloo 143, 155
L. Verheijen 211, 212, 228, 235, 236
J. Verheyden 96, 202
M. Vermes 146
P. Vielhauer 10
A. Villey 146, 149
B. Visotsky 145

257

W. Vlker 194, 217

A. Vbus 77, 213
H. Vogelstein 5
H. J. Vogt 133, 138, 223
G. Volkmar 33
W. de Vries 23
I. Wajnberg 68
M. Waldstein 106
P. Wendland 203
A. J. Wensink 152
M. A. Wes 202
B. F. Westcott 12, 29
G. Widengren 1, 2, 10, 153
G. Wiener 142
U. Wilckens 9
G. A. Williamson 194, 196, 197
J. Wilpert 160
R. McL. Wilson 29, 105
F. Wisse 106
J. Ysebaert 2, 3, 9, 14, 16, 17, 21,
32, 220
T. Zahn 29, 32, 97
K. Zelzer 28
A. Ziegenaus 92
J. Zizioulas 41
A. Zumkeller 212, 231