Amillennialism in the Early Church
Unfortunately, it is a bit difficult for us to know precisely what the early church taught about eschatology for a few reasons. First, they don't appear to have written much on the subject. Second…
Passover and the Early Church
The quartodecimans (from the Latin for "fourteen") is a term that has been given to Christians in the second century who believed that Easter was to be celebrated on the same day as the Jewish…
Crucifixion of Women and Roman Citizens
According to Hengel ( Crucifixion , Fortress Press, 1977), Roman law allowed that Roman citizens could be crucified, but the penalty was rarely inflicted on Roman citizens. Where citizens were…
Simon the Magician
Simon Magus (a.k.a. Simon the Magician) is a very interesting character. The Bible records his encounter with Peter in Acts 8, and several early Christian writings tell of things that later happened…
Church Supported Arianism
The church officially refuted Arianism at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. Following Nicea, however, Arianism actually became the official position of the church during the end of the reign of the…
Nicaea 325 AD and Arius?
The number that attended Nicaea is disputed, however all but two voted against Arius. Constantine had invited all 1800 bishops of the Christian church (about 1000 in the east and 800 in the west)…
Historical Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead
On purgatory and prayers for the dead, I doubt that many Catholic theologians would argue that all the church fathers believed in prayers for the dead and in purgatory. That would be a rather odd…
Lent
Lent has traditionally been a time of fasting and spiritual preparation preceding Easter Sunday on the liturgical calendar. Our word "lent" comes from the Anglo-Saxon words "lencten" and "lenctentid"…
Paul's Execution
We have no biblical record of Paul's death. However, there are some mentions of it in the writings of the early church. For example, the apocryphal book The Acts of Peter and Paul mentions that both…
Paul's Influence
Paul in particular was quite instrumental in shaping western churches and Christianity, especially during and after the Reformation. Initially, of course, he was the apostle appointed to take the…
Calvinism a Catholic Invention
First and foremost, Calvinists believe that the Bible itself teaches the doctrines of grace, and of course the Bible predates all the church fathers including Augustine. Also, the Calvinistic…
Genesis of the Church
From a sociological and political perspective, generally the "Christian church" is undestood to be the people of God subsequent to Christ's first coming. That is, while it is still the same religion…
Old Hebrew
Actually, the Hebrew language was always in flux. There was no particularly rapid change or influence on the language in the first century that differed tremendously from changes in other time…
Roman Facilitation
The organization of the Roman Empire contributed to Paul's success in many ways. First, Roman roads enabled Paul to travel extensively over land, crossing large distances with relative ease. Romans…
New Testament Temple Worship
Actually it was Jordan who drew my attention to the "holy convocations." I think that from the time of Moses there was some kind of Sabbath meeting. I presume that such meetings were held locally in…
Paul's Martyrdom
According to church tradition as recorded in the Acts of Peter and Paul , Paul died a martyr's death, beheaded beneath a stone pile at Aquae Salviae near the third milestone of the Ostian Way. He was…
Apostolic Father
An "apostolic father" was a man who reputedly knew or even learned directly from an apostle. "Apostolic Fathers" (as a proper noun) usually refers to a group of authors whose writings we possess who…
Old Testament in First Century
Both were in regular use. The Hellenistic Jews would have been those most likely to use Greek translations, but there really wasn't a single identifiable "Septuagint." The Greek translations were…
Paul's Sainthood
In the modern Roman Catholic Church there is only one way to achieve "official sainthood" -- canonization. However, this was not the only method before circa 950 AD. Prior to this, there were two…
Old Testaments Scarce?
Certainly Old Testament texts were more rare in the first century than they are today because all copies had to be made by hand. Still, synagogues worked hard to gather and maintain the Scriptures.…
Church Fathers
All these men could be labelled under the broad category of "Church Fathers," the somewhat narrower category of "Early Church Fathers," and the even narrower category of "Early Apologists."
Who was St. Augustine?
I believe you could be referring to a "Did You Know" list of questions concerning St. Augustine found in Christian History: Augustine (Carol Stream IL: Christianity Today, 1987; Published in…
Pauline Multiculturalism
Paul was raised with a familiarity with both Jewish and Gentile culture. On the one hand, he was a devout and zealous Jew who studied under the famous rabbi Gamaliel in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3; Gal.…