Skip to main content

Writings of the Early Church

 1st Century:  The apostolic writings. The letters and gospels of the eye witnesses of Jesus.  Forms the New Testament

2nd C.  The early church fathers:  the letters and essays of students of the Apostles, and leaders of the early church

Late 2nd C and 3rd C.  

Writings of philosophers who had strayed from Christian teaching and inserted their own philosophy.  The Gnostic Gospels.  The Gospel of Truth.  The Gospel of Phillip.  Gospel of the Ebionites - who portrayed Jesus as fully human.  The Gospel of Peter

Later writers who wanted to make something influential and so would ascribe their writings to a Apostolic author, even though it was much later.  It often incorporated later thinking into its writing.:  The Gospel of Thomas.  The Gospel of Judas

Church fanaticists who, out of an extreme fervor or reckless mockery, penned absurd works meant to mimic authentic apostolic writings.  The Infant Gospel of James, full of wild stories such as an adolescent Jesus cursing another boy to death and Mary giving birth by teleportation.  rejected by Ireneus.  the Gospel of Mary. 

4th - 6th C.  Deliberate fabrications and fakes written by later authors but meant to resemble authentic texts.  Presented as hoaxes where someone tries to become influential by "discovering a lost ancient text."  The Gospel of Nicodemus, the Acts of Pilate.

At this time there emerged a second tradition of fantastical writing of miracles.  For example, the miraculous works of saints, who became a sort of comic book style superhero.  Also ascribing miracles to early gospel characters and events in Jesus' life.  The emergence of the Holy Grail, the miracles of the Roman spear of Longinus, the travels of Joseph of Arimathea etc.  The Pseudo Gospel of Matthew. a fictitious account of the nativity story full of fantastical elements such as dragons and sentient donkeys.

The Gospel of Barnabas - 15C forgery.
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Story of Prestor John

 Prestor John was a largely medieval invention, a figure taken from Biblical beginnings and then elevated beyond proportions to a mythic hero that would save Christendom. The story of Prestor John takes place in two parts. The first part begins in the Apostolic age, in the Gospel of John.  In John 21, Jesus has been telling Peter that he should prepare for a martyr's death.  Peter then asked about John, who was the author relating the story. In verse 22, Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. However, Jesus did not say that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?”  The apostle John seems to write to dispel a rumor that Jesus told him he would not die until Jesus returned.  In fact, though many of the apostles were martyred for Christianity, John himself was not a mart...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tom Wadsworth - The Early Church Didn't have Worship Services

Why the Early Church Didn't Have Worship Services  Origen, ca 230 AD.  "We object to building altars, statues, and temples because we have learned from Jesus Christ the true way of serving God." Wadsworth's thesis is that modern Christianity has changed from the original practices of the Early Church.  We have adopted the communion sacrament as a "sacrifice", that takes place on an Altar, officiated by the pastor, who is now a Priest.  And all of this happens within a dedicated church building that is the modern equivalent of a Temple, with its sanctuary.  Rather than edifying our fellow believers in Early Church Assemblies, we now gather in these temples to participate in a "worship service." He says that Christianity, through its history, has in effect re-created the temple practices of historic Judaism. Irenaeus:  We make an offering to God of the bread and the cup of blessing.  And then when we have perfected the offering, we invoke the Holy Sp...
Post a Comment
Read more

How were the Gospels written: mere speculation

 Let's start by setting the stage for the Early Church.  In the mid 30s AD, Jesus was crucified by the Romans.   Jesus was resurrected and appeared to many people, including his disciples.  This happened both in Jerusalem and in Galilee, on the road to Emmaus and elsewhere. Peter preached his message in Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost.  From there, new Jewish/ Christian believers dispersed to their home towns including Antioch, Ephesus, Rome. Peter remained a prominent leader in the Jerusalem church, along with James the Lord's brother and, interestingly, accompanied by John Mark.  Tradition tells us that other of the apostles embarked on missionary journeys.  For example, Phillip met the Ethiopian and traveled to north Africa.   Matthew was said by Papias (the Bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia ca. AD 130) to have written the Oracles or Saying of Jesus in his native Aramaic.  This was probably a work in progress during the time he ...
Post a Comment
Read more