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Religious Ideas worth killing your Church Believers
The Study of Dissent in the Early Christian Church
by Robert D. Mock MD
May 4, 2000
Introduction to The Jerusalem Church after the Crucifixion of Jesus
The Risen Christ meets his Followers
Powers and Authority in the Church
Power Centers in the Early Christian World
The Power Battles of the Orthodox vs. Gnostics in the 2nd and 3rd century Christian Church
The Church Leaders most recognized in the first three centuries
This afternoon, I want to invite you to a time warp. We’re going to travel back two thousand years and peer through cosmic time lenses at our spiritual ancestors. This was the ‘golden years’ of Christianity. Is it not amazing how much nostalgia is evoking on the ‘beginnings’ of anything. Dreams are so high, idealism is in sharp focus. The olden days seem to have so much virtue. And so it seemed to the followers of the Galilean Rabbi, whose entry into Jerusalem in 34 AD caused so much commotion and social and religious polarization. After the events of this Passion week, the world would never be the same.
My search began in the late 80’s when I was researching a small but critical pathway of a family genealogical link lost in the hoary mist of antiquity. It referenced the family genealogy of a Dr. Benjamin Rush, a family physician in Colonial America whose claim to fame was because his name in on the page as a signer of Declaration of Independence. I have still not solved my Rush family link but Dr. Rush’s family tree showed me the stepping stones to trace my family to a man who has always peaked my curiosity, Joseph of Arimathea. Mentioned only on one occasion in the Biblical canon, Joseph seemed lost to all Biblical historians.
This search led me to Great Britain five years ago and to the Isles of Avalon. This is where the famed Glastonbury Monastery, one of the most revered religious sites in England, once stood for over 1500 years. It started with a small round wattle (stick) and mud church, which, according to Augustine the Great, the famed doctor of Law of the Roman Catholic Church, was built by ‘the very hands of our Lord.”
This search led me two years ago to search out the rest of the story of the Bethany family, Mary, Martha and Lazarus on a trip to the Rhine Valley in central and southern France, where they spent the last years of their lives. It led me to famed city of Rome, where I worshipped in the small Catholic Basilica of Pudentianna. There, on one of the seven-hills of Rome, the Vermillion Hill, in the basement of that church, are the restored rooms and bathhouse of the noble Pudens Senatorial family. Here is where Paul lived with his nephew and sister in law, Linus and Gladys, in the first Christian Gentile home church in Rome, the Britannica Palladium.
What have I learned in my search? A large part of my spiritual and religious history remains untold by most of the learned historians of the Christian church in the first and second century AD. I grew up thinking in Academy that we knew all there was to know about the early Christian church. Was it not there in the inspired canon? This led to the presentation to this forum in September, 1998 and February, 1999, two lectures: ‘What happened to the friends and family of Jesus?’ And ‘The Jerusalem Nazorean Church, the mother church of the Early Christian Church’.
The prior two talks were ones of insight and historical research in which I was able to put flesh and real life on these early believers of Jesus. I also learned that secular history does record and document bit and pieces of many of these early Christian’s lives. This talk, though, has been extremely troubling to me. It has forced me to immerse myself in the life, debate, and dissent in that broad, eclectic and varied group of people who called themselves Christians. It is this social context in which we will study this afternoon. Who were these people? What did they believe?
What was so troubling about this search? It led me to emotionally live, vicariously participate and then try to impassionately analyze the darkest era of Christian history. This was the era when Christian’s died for what they believed and they also killed for what they believed. This was the era when the hunted became the hunter. This was the era when religious ideology or self-righteousness allowed the religious victors to destroy their own ‘brothers in Christ’. The fervent of this era gave us the seeds of the holy wars. It was from the vanquished who fled to the Arabian desert, (remember this is where Paul lived and studied after meeting Jesus on the Damascus road.) that the roots of Islam was born. This era gave justification of the Jihad of the Moslem holy war as they penetrated into the sacred hinterland of Christendom, Spain. This era gave justification to the Christian holy war as the European Crusaders stormed into Jerusalem to slaughter the Moslem infidels, women and children alike. Genocide to the followers of Christ was mandated under the banner of Jesus. The religious verbal wars and the theological battles were not fought under pristine conditions of battling in the arena of ideas. These battles as we shall see were imbedded in the sociological concerns of power, greed, dominion and authority.
Before our study begins on the Early Christians in the 1st to the 4th century, let us review a little of the history of these people. The Jerusalem Nazoreans (followers of Jesus the Nazorean), under the leadership of James the Just, began its organizational formation just after Pentecost. This was the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. These people were changed people. This change began at the cross of Jesus on 33/34 AD on the eve of the Passover (Pesach) Sabbath (Shabbat). Their lives were radically altered. They did not receive a rejuvenation of their normal way of life. They had walked into a paradox. Concepts and ideology they could not understand, were starring them in the face. They studied together, prayed together, and resolved any personal and petty differences between themselves during the forty days of Omer that lay between Passover and Pentecost. They walked away out of this experience of Pentecost (Shavot), a powerful, vibrant community. What they worshipped prior, as a sacrificial ritual in the Temple of Jerusalem, now became a living expression of their spiritual life. This sacrificial lamb had become the Lamb of God and was now emblazoned upon their hearts. They had seen, they witnessed, and now they experienced. The power of that experience ‘jet propelled’ them and their spiritual philosophy of being a member of the kingdom of God, throughout the then known world within the next forty years.
How does one describe the life and times of the first followers of Jesus? It would be so simple to think of them as modern American Christians, or maybe European. We must then realize that this is seen as religious imperialism. That is imposing our religious ideas upon a prior culture of people who did not think or act like we do today.
Until 70 AD, the core leadership and spiritual guidance center was Jerusalem. That is a historical realtity. As such, they were nurtured within the context of Judaism. Christianity was seen as a sect or better stated, one of the major parties of Judaism. They competed within the arena of ideas of Judaism with the parties of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Some historians now feel they absorbed the party of the Essenes and gained the allegience of the Zealots plus the masses of the illiterate peasants of Jewish culture. All the Christian church authority was Jewish and all the major decisions of the church were made in Jerusalem. The believers worshipped in the Temple of Herod following closely the Mosaic customs of Torah teaching. Every seven years, during the Sabbatical Passover, Jews and the Nazorean followers of Jesus returned alike to Jerusalem to participate in the festivals of Passover and Pentecost. This great pilgrimage from all across the Mediterranean and the Euphrates valley can be traced historically to these seven year cyclical dates. These became the first Christian “General Conferences”/
Concluded in this study, it is my firm belief, that the followers of Jesus, under the leadership of James the Just the brother of Jesus, established an alternative non-sacrificial Temple service that was opposed to the Sanhedrin controlled sacrificial Temple service. The friction between these two ideologies precipitated the murder of James the Just by the Temple priests in 62 AD. Josephus suggest that from this point, Jewish society unraveled under the murderous intention of the Zealots and Sicarii (assassination squads) and propelled Jerusalem to her suicidal confrontation with Rome.
For those of you who would like to revisit this historical evidence, an appendix is included in the back of this seminar manual.
It is important to understand that the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple of Herod was as emotionally traumatic to the followers of Jesus, both the Jewish Nazoreans and the Gentile Christians, as it was to the Jews. The Temple was just as holy to the Jewish followers of ‘The Way’ and their Christian gentile proselytes as it was to the Jews.
All the apostles, the disciples, and even Paul were practicing Jews until their deaths or till the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus did not take away their Hebrew-Judaic heritage. Jesus did not abolish the Torah, but became the Divine manifestation of the Torah (Law). Jesus transformed their Jewish life and for the first time in history, the Hebrew-Judaic traditions, life, and customs became open to all men, gentile and Jews alike. This was the struggle in the Jerusalem Church, the religious concepts of James and Paul blended, by which the conditions could be set to allow Gentiles and Jews alike to worship and participate in the Kingdom of God.
Without the ‘Mother Church in Jerusalem’, a tremendous vacuum resounded throughout the Christian world. Jesus had sought to instill the authority of God, as dwelling within the hearts, of every member, of the community of Christ. Every Christian was to be a ‘Temple’ of God. Every Christian would have God’s words emblazoned within his heart. Every Christian would be a funnel for the Power of God. Every Christian would be adopted as a “son of God”. If the message of Jesus had been taken to heart, an ‘invisible’ church of God would have swept throughout the Roman Empire. A new Theocracy would have been instituted, with Jesus as the Head of the Church and God as the sole Authority.
Between 34 and 135 AD, the Christian Church was identified as a sect of the Jewish Faith. As a recognized religion in the Roman empire, Jews had full protection of the law and could travel freely anywhere across the empire on the extensive Roman road system. After the second revolt of the Jews in 135 AD by Bar Cachoba at Massada, all Jews were banned from Jerusalem and they became a symbol of the accursed and the rebellion.
After 135 AD, the Christian leadership of the church was in a dilemma. If they remain an identity as a sect of the Jewish people, they stood accused of religious beliefs they no longer believed, belief in a Temple sacrificial system and the rise of a Messiah that would throw off the yoke of the Roman power. Neither of these was conducive to the Christian faith. And so began the long and painful separation from their Hebrew-Judaic roots. The Gentile Christians began now to place religious and philosophical distance between themselves and the Jews. They began to abandon their historical roots.
They no longer could look for spiritual leadership from Jerusalem and no longer would they incorporate the Apostolic mission: go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. In fact, the Jews and the lost sheep of the House of Israel were to be shunted aside and ignored. They now had to court the minds and the hearts of the Roman and the Gentile Greek world.
For those inclined to watch for the cosmic influence of satanic influence, a student of history can see at this time a strange phenomenon develop. Let us not forget, Jesus taught a message of internal control, that is God communicating and speaking directly to the hearts of His people. They were to be a God-controlled and God-led people. Quickly, after this date we see authority control systems being set up. With the spiritual leadership vacuum in the Roman world, multiple hierarchies of Christian authority were beginning to be instituted. These became centers of power and control. They set up channels of authority, through men and not thorough Christ. They began to usurp God speaking directly to people and set up church leaders to represent and control the message of the Divine. This begins our study and it begins on Resurrection Day.
He again challenged their rational mind and asked them for something to eat. Can you imagine their expressions, as piece by piece, he consumed the fish they prepared for him. Ghosts do not eat in front of men. So this was not a metaphor or a symbolic experience. The concept of the finality of death was being challenged to its core. The concept that death could be transformed back into life became the living experience of the apostles. Of course, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. We have an external agent reversing time and the death process. But, by all appearances, Jesus raised himself from the dead. That this was witnessed and experienced, Peter would later testify, “(We) ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:40-41)
Tertullian, an orthodox writer, weighed in on the evidence with words which I feel is incredible from a medical point of view. What he claims is that Christ’s risen body was “this flesh, suffused with blood, built up with bones, interwoven with nerves, entwined with veins, which …was born, and …dies, undoubtedly human.” (Tertullian, De Resurrectione Carni 2, cited in Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg 4) His view was meant for a certain shock appeal for he insisted, “it must be believed, because it is absurd.” (Tertullian, De Carne Christi 5, , cited in Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg 5)
We must conclude though that the scientific inquiry was not totally conclusive for complete evidence was somewhat elusive. The whole post resurrection experience seemed to be an out of body experience playing in real time. Let us look at the evidence.
The Three Marys
First it happened on Sunday morning, when the women went to the tomb. These included Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James (Luke 23: 10) There they found the tomb empty and,
“they stood utterly at loss, all of a sudden two men in dazzling garments were at their side. They were
terrified…” they ran and “told the apostles. But the story appeared to them to be nonsense, and they would not believe them ” (Luke 24:4-5)
In the Matthew account, “It was daybreak on Sunday, when Mary of Magdala and the other Mary came to look
at the grave. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake;an angel of the Lord descended from heaven; he came to the stone and rolled it away, and sat himself down on it. His face shone like lightning; his garments were white as snow. At the sight of him the guards shook with fear and lay like the dead. The angel then addressed the women: ‘You’, he said, ‘have nothing to fear. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has been raised again, as he said he would be… They hurried away from the tomb in awe and great joy, and ran to tell the disciples. Suddenly Jesus was there in their path. (Matt. 28:1-10.)
Peter and John see the Tomb – Mary Magdalene stays behind
In the account of John, Mary of Magdala sees the tomb is open, runs and gets the disciples. Peter and John both run back to the grave-site, to check out the veracity of Mary’s story. Mary also returns to the tomb. They find an empty tomb.
“Then the disciples went home again; but Mary stood at the tomb outside, weeping. As she wept, she peered into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain”. After talking to them, she “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but did not recognize him.” She talks with what she thinks is the gardener. “If it is you, sir, who removed him, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.”. Jesus said, ‘Mary’ She turned to him and said, ‘Rabbuni’ (which is Hebrew for ‘My Master’). Jesus said, ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers, and tell them that I am now ascending. To my Father and your Father, My God and your God.’” (John 20: 1-18)
What would have happened if Mary had touched Jesus? Would he have just disappeared, or would her hands go through his body like a hologram? Did Jesus have to present himself to the Father in a spirit body, before He could return in a flesh and bones materialized body?
The Road to Emmaus
That same day, Sunday, about five hours later, seven miles from Jerusalem near Emmaus, Cleopas and another man, probably Luke, the author, were deep in dialogue about the resurrection with Jesus came up beside them and started talking to them.
If fear was in their heart as had been suggested, it would appear they would have check out this stranger, to see if he was an enemy. But “something kept them from seeing who it was.” (Luke 13-16) They had a lengthy discussion, including inviting Jesus to their house, preparing a meal, and after the blessing, when he broke the bread, “then their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.” (Luke 24:30-31)
Cleopas and Luke run, seven miles, to tell the other eleven disciples and the “rest of the company” their account of Jesus walking, talking and eating with them.
“As they were talking about all this, there he was, standing among them. Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost.” (Luke 24:36-37)
“Late that Sunday evening, when the disciples were together behind locked doors, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you!’ he said, and then showed them his hands and his side. So when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus repeated, ‘Peace be with you!’, and said, ‘As the Father sent me, so I send you.’ Then he breathed on them, saying, ‘Receive the Hold Spirit! If you forgive any man’s sins, they stand forgiven; if you pronounce them unforgiven, unforgiven they remain.’ (John 20:19-23)
Then in this account, because Thomas ‘the Twin’ doubted, Jesus returned again the next week.
“A week later his disciples were again in the room, and Thomas was with them, Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them, saying, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here; see my hands. Reach your hand here and put it into my side. Be unbelieving no longer, but believe.’ Thomas said, ‘My Lord and my God ! Jesus said, ‘Because you have seen me you have found faith. Happy are they who never saw me and yet have found faith.’ There were indeed many other signs that Jesus performed in the presence of these disciples, which are not recorded in this book,. Those here written have been recorded in order that you may hold the faith. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that through this faith you possess life by his name.” (John 20:26-31
“He showed himself to these men after his death, and gave ample proof that he was alive: over a period of forty days he appears to them and taught them about the kingdom of God. …as they watched, he was lifted up, and a cloud removed him from their sight. As he was going, and as they were gazing intently into the sky, all at once there stoodbeside them two men in white…” (Acts 1:3,9)
Well what is with all of these post-resurrection accounts. The Roman Orthodox Church solidified these into a modified literal account of the resurrection. The Orthodox account for the resurrection as we shall see later demands the concept that the flesh and blood human Jesus who was crucified on the cross arose as a flesh and blood human after the resurrection. Let us assume one thing. We have evidence of four eyewitness’ accounts. I will state from the beginning, I am a literalist. I believe in historical written accounts. If a person spends the time and energy to write about an event and support his account with verifiable historical data, I will believe the account. The only difference I would place, if I was there as an eyewitness, would my interpretation of that event be the same.
In all the accounts we have read, there appears to be extra-sensory, extra-body, anti-gravitational, and other-dimensional phenomenon going on that cannot be accounted for in normal life experiences. Why would any one of the gospel writers bring in any suggestion of any extra-sensory phenomenon unless they perceived it that way. Let us review this phenomenon:
· The women go to the grave and experience an earthquake. They then visualize an angel descending from above and open up an empty tomb. They are terrified. How many of you have seen artist’s pictures of Jesus’ resurrection? A radiant angel is rolling back the tombstone and a glorified Jesus is walking out of the door. Friends, the tomb was empty! Jesus was gone. There is no account of Jesus walking out of the tomb.
· The macho-burly Temple Guards placed there by the Sanhedrin were also terrified. Why would a squadron of military police tremble at the sight of one lone ‘angelic’ being, unless we are dealing with a supernatural power force.
· The women run back to the upper room and Jesus is suddenly standing (materializes) in front of them
· Peter and John return and find an empty tomb with Mary Magdalene following in observation.
· Mary stays behind when they leave, looks in the tomb and finds two beings which were not there moments before.
· Mary sees Jesus, talks to him, does not recognize his voice. Do you believe that? Of all the followers of Jesus, Mary Magdalene should have recognized the voice of Christ. He calls her name, and tells her not to touch him because he had not ascended to his Father.
· Two men at Emmaus, talk to a stranger, who could have been an enemy, yet do not recognize that this is Jesus.
· Jesus gives grace, breaks bread and disappears.
· Jesus materializes in the presence of 11 disciples and many others while the door is locked because of their fear. They are terrified.
· Jesus returns in one week to a locked room and materialized in the presence of the disciples but especially to Thomas, the Twin who doubted the prior week account.
· Jesus eats in their presence to prove he is flesh and bone. Note, it does not say ‘flesh and blood’.
· Thomas must physically handle each scar and put his hand, not on the scar in the side but ‘in his side.’
· Jesus ascends (levitates) and is shielded by a cloud. Anti-gravitational forces are at work here.
· Suddenly two men in white materialize next to them.
Have you every thought of the events after the resurrection in this way? Well, the friends
and disciples of Jesus living at that time did. As we shall see later, they gave many other accounts of this event also.
It appears that one of the first disagreements with the followers of Jesus was who saw Jesus first after the resurrection. How classical human! Who is first! Just prior to the crucifixion, Jesus had to deal with this issue, when the mother of James and John wanted them to be placed at the right and left hand of Jesus. Jesus’ rebuked her saying, “He that is first shall be last.” He promptly demonstrated in the Upper Room that the leader shall be the servant. Power, Greed and Control were not to be part of the ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
As soon as Christ had risen, we find a squabbling match going on between the followers of Jesus. Finding a church leadership and establishing a power and control structure was the first order of business. This was serious business.
This, though, was the first step in setting up a chain of command, which would be carried within the orthodox body of Christ’s believers to this very day. This was the first step of church organization. This was the first step to setting up church authority. This was the first step of defining who spoke ‘The Truth’. This was the first step of defining the Power and Control Systems, which we see within Jesus’ church to this very day.
This power struggle did not come without tension and friction. There were winners and losers. As such, some disciples we hear about distinctly in the rest of the biblical canon. Others, we never hear from again. Does this mean some of the disciples/apostles were orthodox and others were not? We also have to come to the conclusion, the group of believers that were silenced the most were the women. Think about it seriously, Mary, the mother of Jesus was never heard from again. She was lost to history. Every one of her reputed tombs (Ephesus and India) were empty.
The textual evidence is quite clear that Mary Magdalene and possibly the other Marys were the first to see the risen Saviour. Opps, this is a problem. All the Marys were woman. Let us go back and look at the Lucan account.
“they stood utterly at loss, all of a sudden two men in dazzling garments were at their side. They were terrified…”The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and they, with the other women, told the apostles. But the story appeared to them to be nonsense, and they would not believe them ” (Luke 24:4-5, 10-11)
Well, what did they tell them, that they had seen an empty tomb! Let’s now look at Matthew’s account. The angel then addressed the women:
‘You’, he said, ‘have nothing to fear. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has been raised again, as he said he would be… They hurried away from the tomb in awe and great joy, and ran to tell the disciples. Suddenly Jesus was there in their path. (Matt. 28:1-10.)
So now, we have visible sighting of Jesus by three women (and possibly more) as they went back to see the other apostles, who were male. We have males doubting the visual veracity of the testimony of three women.
One of these women, was Mary the mother of James. Who was James? This was James the Just, the nominated leader of the first church in Jerusalem of the followers of Jesus. This James the Just was the brother of Jesus. Therefore Mary the mother of James was Mary, mother of Jesus.
This is the same Mary would be transformed by the Roman Orthodox Church as a person born by “immaculate conception”. They would announce that she was a virgin at the birth of Jesus and remained a virgin the rest of her life, even though synoptic Gospel writers state that she and her children followed Jesus around during his ministry. This was the same Virgin Mary, whom they claim would later ascend into heaven while not seeing death, and now sits next to Jesus as the Mother Mary, the Queen of the heavenly court. The cult of Mary is one of the most important and powerful of the cultic phenomenon that permeated the culture of medieval Europe. The Marion cult is alive and well today with millions of followers worldwide.
Yet, the testimony of Mary, the mother of Jesus and James, according to the Synoptic Gospels, was not believed by the other disciples.
Well, what about Mark. Many believe his account is an earliest account of the Synoptic Gospels.
“When he had risen from the dead early on Sunday morning he appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom he had formerly cast out seven devils. She went and carried the news to his mourning and sorrowful followers, but when they were told that he was alive and that she had seen him they did not believe it.” (Mark 16:9-11)
Mary Magdalene was another story. She wasn’t even recognized by some as a good woman. Mary Magdala, to some, was a whore, a prostitute, and woman demon possessed. Mary from Magdala, to others, was a threat, because she was close to Jesus.
So it took two males, Peter and John to run to the grave site. To the later church authorities, it also was a form of who beat whom. “I saw it first!” What they saw was indirect evidence only, an empty tomb. Yet, when Cleopas and Luke, came to the Upper Room ten to twelve hours after the resurrection, planning to testify to the other disciples that they had seen and witnessed Jesus in the flesh, they were told,
“It is true: the Lord has risen; he has appeared to Simon.’ (Luke 24:33-34)
Why Simon Peter? What happened to John? Okay, he was not as fast a runner. It was not the testimony, it was who got there first! The facts are, Simon Peter did not see the Risen Saviour alone. What he saw was an empty tomb. If we believe the historical account, when Peter first saw Jesus, he saw him in the presence of many others. Yet from the second century onward, the church authorities began to state that only “certain resurrection appearances actually confirmed authority on those that received them” (Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg 8) These select appearances were the appearances to Peter and to the eleven. (Matt 28:16-20, Luke 24:36-49, John 20:19-23)
What is of interest, even though the eleven and many others saw Jesus, only the Eleven by the Orthodox Church were given authority of Apostleship. The women were excluded, Cleopas was excluded and even Luke, if he was truly the man who walked with Cleopas, was excluded from the inner circle of Apostleship. Nowhere in the texts of the Canon, does it state that Jesus saw Peter first and alone.
So today,
“The orthodox churches, that trace their origin to Peter, developed the tradition – sustained to this day among Catholic and some Protestant churches – that Peter had been the ‘first witness of the resurrection,” and hence the rightful leader of the church.” (Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg 8)
Power and Authority:
The concept of ‘who would be first’, in the ministry of Jesus, was dismissed by Jesus when approached by the mother of James and John. Whoever would be first, would in reality be the servant to the rest. This was a primary message at the Passover Seder, when Jesus washed the feet of Peter. Leadership in the church is a position of humility and servitude
According to the Orthodox account, after the resurrection, we find the followers of Jesus jockeying for power and authority. The historical context does depict that the succession of power was resolved during the days of Omer. During this preparation time for the feast of Pentecost, the personal hours of humble soul searching banded the followers of Jesus into a powerful cohesive unit. It was not Peter, who was nominated to lead the first church of the followers of Jesus, it was James the Just.
The Roman Christian Church has seriously carried the banner of what is called the Apostolic Succession. Riding on this is the whole authority system of the Catholic Church in the Vicar of Christ, the Bishop of Rome as the supreme leader, the Pope.
Yet most of modern Christendom still retain a vestige of the Apostolic authority. We recognize only the eleven disciples plus Mattathias as Apostles, and as such having greater religious authority. The Apostle Paul is recognized as an aberrant inclusion. All the other disciples virtually disappear from the historical church history. According to the Orthodox accounts, no one else was accepted as Apostles. If we move outside the books of the canon accepted by the Orthodox Christians, such as the literature of the Culdee Christians in Britain, we find that Joseph of Arimathea was accepted as the Apostle to the British. The Women were all virtually ignored, even though their historical testimony still remains.
When the central power authority of the Jerusalem Church was destroyed in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, other church centers sought to gain control. History depicts the winner to be the Roman church. This was not a forgone conclusion. For decades the churches in Alexandria, Egypt, Ephesus and Antioch, Syria were the most prominent churches. Alexandria was eventually destroyed, Ephesus and Antioch fell to the Persians while Rome’s power was in ascendency. The message that was left out, Power and Control were not meant to be a part of the Kingdom of God.
Let us look first at the major authority centers in the early Christian world.
The British Culdee Church - The Culdee Church was recognized as the primitive Christian Church founded first in Glasonbury, England. It was established by the ministry of Joseph of Aramathea, the Bethany family and close friends of Jesus. It is this story, we studied over a year ago in a Forum meeting titled, “What happened to the friends and family of Jesus/”
Their first converts were members of the Royal Silurian family, the largest and strongest tribal clan in southern Wales. Also the ancient Celtic Druidic priesthood joined the Christian movement by the hundreds, under the direction of the Arch Druid of Wales, Bran the Blessed, who was a convert of Joseph of Arimathea. The largest religious school system was created, the largest seminary was instituted and the most powerful missionary and evangelistic thrust in the early Christian church for the next two hundred years was nurtured and sponsored by the British Culdee Church. This truly is the ‘lost story of early Christian faith.’
Arguments of ‘primacy’, or who was the oldest or earliest Christian church settled in the 5th century, when the British church and her delegation to Rome were recognized as representing the oldest Christian community in the world.
The Celtic Christian Church – Europe proper, or Gaul, as the Romans knew it, became the mission of the Apostle Philip who worked in close closely with Joseph of Arimathea and the Bethany family. This region, predominately in France, was also under the influence of the Druidic religion and became known as the Celtic Christian Church. The Apostle Peter spend a good portion of his ministry in Gaul and it was from there when he went on his ill-fated trip to Rome when he was crucified.
The Bethany family returned from Glastonbury and lived out the remaining part of their lives, in missionary service to the people near the city of Marseilles, France. The ministry of the Celtic Christian Church was sponsored, for close to two centuries, by missionaries from the Culdee Church, in western Britain and Ireland.
The Roman (Western) Christian Church – The Roman church had two companies of believers, the Jewish Nazoreans, headed by Aquilla and Priscilla, who were driven out of Rome about 44 AD. Paul later lived with them in Corinth.
The Roman Christian Gentile Church was built upon the ministry of the Royal Silurian family in exile and house arrest in Rome, where Caradactus, the most feared British warrior was captured and taken to Rome. They lived in exile in the Brittanica Palladium, the home of Caradacus’ daughter, Gladys, and Rufus Pudens, Paul’s half-brother, who was a Roman senator. The Apostle Paul, while living in their home, during the time of his house arrest in Rome, nominated in 58 AD, Linus, Gladys’ brother, a British prince, as the first bishop of Rome. This is recorded in the Apostolic Constitutions.
The Egyptian Coptic Church – The Christian Church centered predominately in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the most fertile and active centers of early Christianity. This church was founded upon the ministry of John Mark, the nephew of Barnabus. After leaving Paul in Rome, he arrived in Egypt about 65 AD and completed his ministry in Egypt, which included writing the Gospel of Mark just prior to the fall of Jerusalem. Egypt was a haven for the Essenes in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC and later became a stronghold for the Christian Gnostics in the 2nd to the 4th centuries AD. It must be recognized that the Nazorean Jews were a prominent part of this community, as part of a large group of Jews who fled Jerusalem prior to its destruction in 70 AD.
The Coptic Church, for hundreds of years maintained its autonomy like the British Culdees and the Byzantine Church from the religious control of the Roman Church. Within the fertile soil of the Gnostic communities, the roots of monasticism took root, later to become absorbed back into the Roman church fold.
The Christian believers in India still carry a proud tradition of the ministry of the Apostle Thomas. Their church lived in isolation with the progression of the Roman Christians in the following centuries. Their religious beliefs, some scholars contend, carry a purer or more primitive form of the early Christian beliefs. The Gospel of Thomas gives also some hints of Gnostic beliefs in the hidden wisdom and secret teaching given by Christ to his disciples.
We are now in the era of the mid second century, between 150 AD and 200 AD. Prior to the beginning of the 3rd century AD, the New Testament canon was very fluid. The professed followers of Jesus wrote and used as various forms of authority, hundreds of gospels, each one telling the story of Jesus and His meaning to their lives. Obviously each gospel carried a different perspective, a different cultural influence, and possibly different religious heritage. You can be sure this was a very eclectic and variegated religious group.
During the days of Irenaeus of Lyon, Valentinian, Origin of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Ptolemy and numerous others of the early church leaders, many different gospels circulated throughout the Roman world. Besides the Hebrew canon, which was more than likely the Greek Septuagent Bible, we find also the books now part of the recognized biblical New Testament canon. There also were hundreds of other gospels which circulated throughout the various Christian churches. These included: the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Mary, the Apocryphon (“secret book”) of John, the Gospel to the Egyptians, the Secret book of James, the Gospel to the Hebrews, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Letter of Peter to Philip, the Apocalypse of Peter and numerous others. There were also manuscripts purporting to be secret teachings of Jesus and his disciples.
Up until fifty years ago, this diversity of theological opinion was not accepted or appreciated by the historical students of early church history. Most of our early understandings of the early Christians was influenced by the Ecclesiastical History of the Early Christian Church by Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea in the fourth century. Known as the ‘father of church history’, Eusebius had remarkable influence in the transition era of the hunted persecuted sect when it became the Imperial religion under Constantine the Great. Besides his history, it was Eusebius who collected the books of our present Biblical New Testament canon and published fifty copies to be sent throughout the Roman Empire.
This era was succinctly evaluated, by a Bart D. Ehrman in his book, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. Here he states:
“Eusebius had a providental view of history that allowed him to paint a rather sanquine picture of Christianity’s for three hundred years, a picture somewhat remarkable in view of the externalhardships and internal tensions that the religion actually endured. But Eusebius could detect the hand of God behind the scenes at every stage, directing the church’s mission and destiny. Believers were controlled and sustained by God’s spirit faced persecution with boldness, so that the church grew despite opposition, and “heresy” was quickly and effectively overcome by the original and apostolic teaching of the church’s vast majority, a teaching that was be definition “orthodox” (in that it was “right”). (Ehrman, Bart D., The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford, 1993, 4)
In the same manner that the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran revolutionized our understanding of the life and times of Jesus, so also a unique collection of scrolls found in Egypt radically changed our concepts about life and dissent in the early Christian church.
Many of the early Christian writings have filtered back into the archives of church scholars and historians in recent centuries, yet the biggest hoard of hidden documents was not discovered until December, 1945. An Arab bedouin, Muhammad ‘Ali al-Samman”, was digging for sabakj, a soft soil used for fertilized in the vicinity of the 150 plus caves honeycombed in the mountainous terrain of Jabal al-Tarif, near Naj ‘Hammadi in Upper Egypt. All of a sudden, they struck an earthen jar almost three feet tall. Dreaming of gold, he smashed the jar and out fell thirteen papyrus books, bound in leather.
The brother became soon involved in a blood feud when they avenged the death of their father. As such, they murdered and quartered the enemy of their father, Ahmed Ismail. Knowing police would be swarming their home, they put the manuscripts in the safe-keeping of the local priest al-Qummum Basiliyus Abd al-Masih. Curiosity and greed can never keep secrets and so Raghib, a local history teacher became involved, who sent a copy to Cairo for appraisal. Sold on the black market, soon the antique manuscript community and of coarse the Egyptian antiquities authorities and police were buzzing in interest. High drama and espionage played through the whole coarse of events, until one Codice was purchased, ten and one-half were confiscated and deposited in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, and the better part of the thirteenth codices, was offered for sale in America.
Along came Professor Gilles Quispel, respected historian of religion at Utrect, in the Netherlands, fronted for the Jung Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland. Quispel, realizing he had only a part of a codices, in 1955, he flew to Cairo. In the Coptic Library using photographs of the missing pages loaned to him, he was shocked to read, “These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin, Judas Thomas, wrote down.” (Gospel of Thomas 32.10-11, in NHL 118.) They soon traced the words to fragments of a Greek translation of the Gospel according to Thomas discovered in 1890. All in all, fifty-two documents were discovered a Nag Hammadi.
When were they written? The carbon dating of the papyrus used to thicken the leather bindings, give solid dates of 350-400 AD. Yet we know they were written in a Coptic script, an Egyptian script in the second century AD. Also, they were copies of older Greek manuscripts. Some had to be written in the 120-150 AD era for they were mentioned by the greatest of the polemic heresy hunters of the orthodox church, Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons (c.180). It was he who wrote a fairly definitive five volume set called, The Destruction and Overthrow of Falsely So-called Knowledge.(Irenaeus, (AD Against Heresies) Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses 3.11.9) Within his books, he quotes some of the books found in the clay jar found at Naj Hammadi.
Fifty years later, Hippolytus, a teacher and scholar in Rome (c. 230 AD) wrote another anti-heresy book, the Refutation of All Heresies. Once again, he was part of a self-appointed campaign using the persuasive power of the word to “expose and refute the wicked blasphemy of the heretics.” (Hippolytus, (Ref) Refutationis Onmitum Haeresium 1.)
Within another hundred years, 321 AD, the hunted became the hunter. The Christians who worshipped in the catacombs of Rome, tracked down by Roman authorities and used as human torches to light the Roman Coliseum while their friends became bait for the lion, now became the Roman authorities under the banner of Constantine the Great. Christianity became officially approved as an authorized religion in the Roman world. Possession of a book denounced as heresy soon became a criminal offense punishable death. Holding this book in my hand, the Gospel of Thomas, would not only expose me, but expose you to the threat of excommunication or death. All copies of such books were burned and destroyed. The monastery of St. Pachomius in Upper Egypt in the mid 400 AD was invaded, and no doubt a monk in anticipation, buried the jar containing the NHL, buried the fifteen codices, to remain in isolation for 1600 years.
For scholars curious about the growth and development of the body of believers, who called themselves followers of Jesus, now began to find answers to questions long asked when the Nag Hamadi Library was discovered. Until 1945, the most we knew about the heretics were what was written about them from those who were so adamantly opposed to their thinking and ideology. Who were these Christians? What did they believe? Why did they believe their beliefs? What caused them to be eventually banned, burned, expelled, excommunicated, tortured and destroyed in one of the greatest pogroms in religious history, the genocide of the Gnostic believers, the Nestorians, the Arians, the Marcions, and numerous others professed believers in Jesus in the 2nd to the 5th centuries. The darkest stains of Christianity came from this dissent and fervent within the body of the followers of Jesus in what was this glorious era.
This afternoon, we are going to discuss in a topical fashion, some of those ideas or spiritual Truths, God’s people were willing to kill over. This was serious business. What we now know, during the era between 150 and 350 AD, two hundred years, hundreds of different ideas about the nature of Jesus, the nature of Christ, the nature of God, the nature of man were actively debated and discussed throughout the then known world. At 150 AD, Orthodoxy did not exist. Yet, there would eventually be two polarizing ideologies, the good and the bad, the truth and the corrupt, the accepted and the non-accepted.
During the early years of Christianity, Orthodoxy was only a small part of the fertile mix of ideas circulating around all the churches of believers. Some would have us believe, the Orthodox were the dominant truth preservers of the early church. It is true, these early Christians were seriously trying to understand the mysterious events surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Unfortunately, as the extreme wing of each viewpoint gained prominence, all the ideas in the middle were swept to the radical fringe. Between 100-200 AD, there became two prominent ideologies, the Orthodox and the Gnostics.
Who were the Orthodox? Well, any definition has fuzzy edges, but the Orthodox Christian has evolved bit by bit into what we now know as the Roman Catholic Orthodoxy. Modern Christianity, whether Catholic or Protestant, and all their many subdivisions and denominations are probably more Orthodox today, than most Christians in the first and second centuries. As such, the orthodox believe:
First, the Canon of the New Testament is recognized and accepted as divinely inspired.
Second, they profess to an apostolic creed, a system of authority within the church.
Thirdly, each one espouse or affirm a particular form of church institution. (Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg xxxiii)
It must be recognized that each one of these three elements, the New Testament canon, did not fully emerge until after the end of the second century, or 300 AD. By then Orthodox Christianity had become a three ranked hierarchy, which included bishops, priest, and deacon. Before suggesting any objecting or approving ideas, we must consider that Seventh-day Adventists are recognized as having the most complex hierarchy of all modern Christian religions, five levels of authoritative structure: General Conference, Union Conference, Local Conference, Pastor and Church Elder.
It’s a fact, the Roman Christian Church, controlled and preserved the Christian creeds and concepts of their choice, for over one thousand years, from 300 AD till the Protestant reformation in the 16th century. A large portion of modern Protestant Christian beliefs and church hierarchy is in debt to the Roman Catholic Church. So to be orthodox, one would be recognized as a ‘straight-thinking’ Christian. The guardians of orthodoxy claim there is one ‘true faith’. Any idea outside of true faith is heresy. To Bishop Irenaeus, Orthodoxy, there was only one true church and outside that church “there was no salvation” (Irenaeus, (AH, Against Heresies) Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses cited in Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, New York, 1979, 1987 pg xxxiii)
Who were the Gnostics? There are two words in Greek for knowledge. Epistimi refers to the knowledge gathered by information gathering. On the other hand, the world Greek word, gnosis, is translated as knowledge with the sense of insight and understanding. . (Baring, Anne and Jules Cashfor, The Myst of the Goddess, Arkana, Penquin Books, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY10014, 1991 p. 618)
Our first question, what was this knowledge about? Ultimate Reality. Those who claim to know nothing about ultimate reality are called agnostics. (ie. not knowing) Then we have scientific knowledge or didactic knowledge basically called rational knowledge. (I ‘know’ medicine.) This is knowledge by the use of the mind or the brain. Yet the Gnostic did not appeal to rational knowledge for ultimate truth. To them, truth comes through observation or experience. (I know you. I know Jesus) To some, this is insight, called the ‘eye of the heart’ which was directly received without any religious authorities such as pastors or priests. . (Baring, Anne and Jules Cashfor, Ibid,) To others this is intuition.
It was the teachings of the Gnostics that the individual must discover the divine consciousness within themselves, that brought them into direct conflict with the Orthodox Christians, who believed that salvation came from a belief as interpreted by the Apostolic Authorities and belonging to the Church.
Their literature appears to be very early. According to Professor Gilles Quispel, whom we talked about earlier, claims that the Gospel of Philip, which he discovered, came directly from the Jerusalem Church under the leadership of James the Just, the brother of Jesus. This was part of the original Aramaic sayings of Jesus, written soon after 50 AD. (Baring, Anne and Jules Cashfor, Ibid, 624)
To the Gnostic, the essence of the ministry and the teachings of Jesus was how to awaken the soul to the Divine, the God in us and its ability to perceive things that are spiritual. The spiritual being was the person awakened out of a slumber to the real life in the Kingdom of God. This was to be a transformation of consciousness in which they had to face the inner world of their own soul with the act of metanoia, or ‘turning around’. (Baring, Anne and Jules Cashfor, Ibid, 618-619)
The Church Leaders most recognized in the first three centuries.
Linus, Bishop of Rome (c. 58 – 78) – 1st Bishop of Rome, a British prince appointed by Paul. He is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the 2nd Bishop appointed by and after Peter.
Clement, Bishop of Rome (c. 90-100) – 3rd Bishop of Rome, a contemporary of the Apostle John, who in his letter to the church of Corinth set the stage for the primacy of the Roman Church over all other Christian churches.
Victor, Bishop of Rome (c. 180), contemporary of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons.
Eusebius of Rome, the Historian of the Early Church, compiled the present canon, a friend and contemporary of Constantine the Great.
Pothinus, Bishop of Lyon (c. 150) died in a three foot cell of exposure at the age of 90. Succeeded by Irenaeus.
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (c. 180) , student of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (c. 165) aged and revered bishop of Smyrna, student of the Apostle John.
Tertullian, (c. 190), a talented Orthodox Church Father, who later repudiated his orthodox ways.
Hippolytus, (c. 225) a learned Greek teacher in Rome
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, (99)
Clement, Bishop of Alexandria (c. 180), revered father of the church who identified himself as orthodox, a contemporary of Irenaeus. Blended gnostic elements in his orthodox teachings. (68)
Justin, Christian Philosopher (c. 150-155) – ‘colleague ’ of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, died defending a Christian divorcee in court. (78)
The Gnostic Church Fathers – (Anti-Nicean Fathers)
Valentinus from Egypt, (c. 140) a gnostic poet who moved from Egypt to teach in Rome, claimed to learn Paul’s secret teachings from Theudas, one of Paul’s disciples.
Heracleon (c. 160), leading teacher of the Western School of Valentinians (115)
Marcus, (c. 150), a gnostic teacher, student of Valentinus, a contemporary of Irenaeus in the Christian community at Lyon, France.
Theodotus, (c. 140-160), gnostic teacher in Asia Minor.
Monoimus, gnostic teacher.
Theodotus, a gnostic teacher
Marcion, gnostic enemy of Tertullian,
Marcellina, gnostic teacher who traveled to Rome to represent the Carpocratian.
Valentinians – more mediatorial group who worshipped alongside with the orthodox
Carpocratians - believed in a masculine God, but allowed women in positions of leadership
Marcionites – believed in a masculine God, but allowed women in positions of leadership
Montanists - believed in a masculine God, but allowed women in positions of leadership
With this background, let us now dig into the fervent and dissent within the Early Christian Church.
Conclusion