THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE FAITH
The scene of the following sketches of the life of a Christian of the first days is, generally speaking, laid in Rome; but much of what belonged to the Christian of the Roman congregation was common to the believer who dwelt in other great cities of the Empire.
The sketches in question deal with the following subjects:
LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN IN THE EARLY DAYS
There is no shadow of doubt but that in a comparatively short space of time the religion of Jesus was accepted by great numbers of the dwellers in the various provinces of the Roman Empire. This fact is abundantly testified to by contemporary writers, Christian and pagan.
The only other widely professed religion with which we can compare it—Mahommedanism—owed its rapid progress and the extraordinary numbers of its proselytes mainly to the sword of the conquerors. Christianity, on the other hand, possessed no army to enforce its tenets. It was not even the heritage of a people or a nation. The Jews, to whom in the first days of its existence it might have belonged, were very soon to be reckoned among its deadliest foes.
One powerful factor which influenced the reception of the new religion has been rarely dwelt upon, but it deserves more than a merely passing notice.
The news of the religion of Jesus, as by many channels it reached the slave, often a highly educated slave, the freedman, the merchant, the small trader, the soldier of the legions, the lawyer, the Roman patrician, the women of the varied classes and orders in the great Empire,—the news came of something that had quite recently happened; and not only recently, but in a well-known city of the Empire. It was a wonderful story, firmly and strongly attested by many eye-witnesses, and it appealed at once to the hearts of all sorts and conditions of men.
It differed curiously from all other religions of which the pagans of the Empire had ever heard. These other religions were very ancient; their cradle, so to speak, belonged to far-back days—pre-historical days, as men would now call them. This new religion really belonged to their own time. Its founder had talked with men quite recently. He had lived in a city they knew a good deal about.
There was no dim mist about its origin; no old legends had gathered round it—legends which few, if any, believed.
The story of the religion of Jesus, told so simply, so convincingly, in the four Gospels, had a strange attraction; it went home to the hearts of a vast multitude; it rang true and real.
We know that very soon after the date of the events of the Gospel story the numbers of the men and women who accepted it were great. From the pagan Empire we have the testimony of Tacitus, the most eminent of Roman historians. Writing some fifty years after the first persecution under Nero, A.D. 64, he describes the Christians at the time of that first persecution as “a vast multitude” (ingens multitudo).[40]
Still more in detail the younger Pliny, the Governor of Bithynia, writing to the Emperor Trajan circa A.D. 112–13 for instructions how to deal with the Christians, relates that the new religion had spread so widely in his province, not merely in the cities but in the villages and country districts generally, that the temples were almost deserted.[41] It is, of course, possible that the new faith had found especial favour in Bithynia; but such a formal and detailed representation from an official of the highest rank and reputation to the Emperor of what was happening in his own province, is a sure indication of the enormous strides which Christianity had generally made in the Empire when the echoes of apostles and apostolic men were still ringing in the ears of their disciples. S. John’s death only preceded Pliny’s letter to Trajan[42] by at most twenty years.
Among contemporary Christian writers we find similar testimony to the vast numbers of Christians in very early times. To take a few conspicuous examples:
Clement, bishop of Rome circa A.D. 95, writing to the Church at Corinth, speaks of “the great multitude of Christians” who suffered in the persecution of Nero, A.D. 64.[43]
Hermas, in his book termed the Shepherd, shows us that in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, circa A.D. 130–40, there was resident a large number of Christians in the capital, many of them well-to-do and wealthy citizens.
Soter, bishop of Rome, writing to the Church of Corinth,[44] shortly after A.D. 165, refers to the Christians as superior in numbers to the Jews, no doubt especially alluding to the Roman congregation mentioned.
In the Acts of the Martyrdom of Justin, circa A.D. 165, an undoubtedly genuine piece, Rusticus the Roman prefect asks Justin where the Christians assembled. In reply, Justin said, “Where each one chooses and can; for do you imagine that we all meet in the very same place?”
Irenæus in a very striking passage,[45] written circa A.D. 180, alludes to the size and importance of the Roman congregation. His words are as follows:
“Since, however, it would be most tedious in such a volume as this to reckon up the (Episcopal) succession of all the Churches, we confound all those who assemble in unauthorized meetings by indicating the tradition handed down from the apostles of the most great, the very ancient, and universally known Church organized by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul.”
The statements of Tertullian circa A.D. 195–200 are well known and are often quoted; and though they are probably exaggerated, still such assertions, although they are rhetorical rather than simple statistics, would never have been advanced by such a learned and weighty writer if the numbers of the Christians of his time (the latter years of the second century) had not, in many cities and countries, been very great.
In the works of Tertullian we come across such statements as the following:
“The grievance (of the pagan government) is that the State is filled with Christians; that they are in the fields, in the citadels, in blocks of houses (which fill up the cities). It grieves (does the government), as over some calamity, that both sexes indifferently, all ages, every condition, even persons of high rank, are passing over to the Christian ranks.”[46]
And again: “We are not Indian Brahmins who dwell in forests and exile themselves from the common life of men.... We company with you in the world, forsaking neither the life of the Forum, nor the Bath, nor Workshop, nor Inn, nor Market-place, nor any Mart of commerce. We sail with you, fight with you, till the ground with you, even we share in the various arts.”[47]
About fifty years after Tertullian’s writing just quoted, Cornelius, bishop of Rome, A.D. 251, in an Epistle addressed to Fabius, bishop of Antioch,[48] gives some official statistics of the Roman Church in his days.[49] Cornelius particularizes the classes of the various officials, together with the numbers of persons in distress who were on the lists of the Church receiving charitable relief. Scholars and experts, basing their calculations upon these official statistics, variously estimate the numbers of Christians in the city of Rome at from 30,000 to 50,000, the latter calculation on the whole being probably nearest to the truth.
Lastly, in this little sketch of the vast numbers of disciples who at a very early date had joined the Christian community, the changeless testimony of the Roman catacombs must be cited. Much will be found written in this work regarding these enormous cemeteries of the Christian dead. It is absolutely certain that in the second half of the first century these catacombs were already begun.
The words of the eminent German scholar Harnack may well be quoted here: “The number, the size, and the extent of the Roman catacombs ... is so great that even from them we may infer the size of the Roman Church, its steady growth, its adherents from distinguished families, its spread all over Rome.”[50]
The foregoing contemporary witnesses, including the testimony of the Church to the size and numbers of the Christian congregation, speak of the Roman Christians with two notable exceptions—the pagan Pliny and the Christian Tertullian. The others, including Clement of Rome, Hermas, Justin Martyr, Soter, Irenæus, Cornelius, are specially writing of Rome and the Christian portion of its population.
But, as has been already remarked, what was written of Rome in a greater or less degree applies to other great centres of population in the Empire, notably to such centres as Antioch and Ephesus, Alexandria and Carthage.
THE ASSEMBLIES OF CHRISTIANS
The Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other New Testament Epistles, bear witness to the favourable reception of the preaching of the new faith. Paul’s success in Macedonia, Achaia, in the province of Asia, and in Galatia had been extraordinary. Peter in his First Epistle addresses the converts already scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Paul again expressly mentions in a letter to the Roman Christians, that the faith of the Roman Church was spoken of throughout the whole world.
The story of the progress of Christianity was taken up by the pagan writers Tacitus and Pliny, and was dwelt upon by Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Hermas, Justin, Irenæus, and the other Christian writers of the first and second centuries already quoted.
Thus the great numbers of Christians in Rome and in other centres dating from primitive days, already dwelt upon with some detail, is a clear and indisputable fact.
Nothing did more for the progress and extension of the Christian religion than the constant meeting together, the assemblies of the various congregations of believers.
This was recognized from the earliest days. We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews (x. 25) a solemn injunction to Christians not “to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.”
Definite allusions to such “assemblies of believers” occur in the New Testament writings, in the Acts and in the Epistles, e.g. 1 Cor. xi. 20 and following verses, Jas. ii. 2–4.
The importance attached to these meetings of believers by the rulers and teachers of the Church of the first days, is manifest from the chain of reminders and injunctions to the faithful which exists in the contemporary writings we possess of leading Christians, dating from the latter years of the first and all through the second and third centuries.
The words they heard, and the matters decided upon at these gatherings, more or less coloured and guided the life and conduct of Christians in the world. From the first the Sunday meeting seems to have been obligatory; but these meetings of the brethren were by no means confined to the general assembly on Sunday. So we read in the Didaché (the Teaching of the Apostles), a writing probably dating from the latter years of the first century: “Thou shalt seek out every day the company of the Saints, to be refreshed by their words.”[51] “Let us,” writes Clement, bishop of Rome (circa A.D. 95), “ourselves then being gathered together in concord with intentness of heart, cry unto Him as from one mouth earnestly, that we may be made partakers of His great and glorious promise.”[52]
So S. Ignatius (circa A.D. 107–10) in his Epistle to the Ephesian Church[53] writes: “Do your diligence therefore to meet together more frequently for thanksgiving to God, and for His glory; for when ye meet together frequently the powers of Satan are cast down, and his mischief cometh to nought in the concord of your faith.”
In his letter to Polycarp he says: “Let meetings be held more frequently.”[54]
Barnabas (circa A.D. 120–30): “Keep not apart by yourselves, as if you were already justified; but meet together, and confer upon the common weal.”[55]
Justin Martyr—in his first Apology, written in the middle of the second century—describes these meetings of the brethren with some detail.[56]
A very striking passage occurs in a writing of Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch, addressed to his friend Autolycus. Its date is between A.D. 168 and A.D. 181. The power which these meetings of the brethren exercised over the life of Christians is described as follows:
“As in the Sea there are Islands ... with havens and harbours in which the storm-tossed may find refuge, so God has given to the world, which is driven and tempest-tossed by sins, assemblies ... in which survive the doctrines of the truth, as in the island-harbours of good anchorage; and into these run those who desire to be saved ... and who wish to escape the wrath and judgment of God.”[57]
OF WHOM WERE THESE ASSEMBLIES OF BELIEVERS COMPOSED?
From the very first days, it is certain that the assemblies or congregations of the Christians were made up of all classes and orders of the people. The lower classes, including slaves, freedmen, artisans, small traders, no doubt were in the majority; but from the beginning, persons of position, culture, and even of rank were certainly reckoned among them.
In the days of the apostles we hear of many such. Among the earliest believers were reckoned a Nicodemus, a Joseph of Arimathea, a Barnabas, a Sergius Paulus. In Acts vi. 7 mention is made of a great company of the priests obedient to the faith. Chapter x. tells us of the centurion who sent for S. Peter. Paul himself and Stephen were men of high culture. Priscilla the wife of Aquila and the Phoebe of Rom. xvi. 1 were evidently persons of considerable means. Others might be named in these categories. S. James (ii. 14) in his picture of one of these meetings alludes to the presence of the rich among the worshippers. Tacitus speaks of a lady of distinguished birth (insignis femina) who evidently belonged to the Christian ranks; and very shortly after, some near connexions of the imperial house of Domitian were persecuted for their faith.
Pliny, when he wrote to Trajan, tells him how many of all ranks in the province of Bithynia had joined the Christian sect.
Ignatius in the early years of the second century, writing to the Roman Church, gives utterance to his fear lest influential members of the Church should intercede for him, and so hinder his being exposed to the beasts in the amphitheatre games.
Roman Christians of wealth and position are clearly alluded to by Hermas in the Shepherd (Comm. x. 1), and he assumes the presence of such in the Roman congregation (Simil. i. etc.)
In the famous dialogue of Minucius Felix, circa A.D. 160, the speakers belong to the higher ranks; these under thinly disguised names were probably actual personages well known in their day. The scene and story of the writing, the class of argument brought forward, all evidently issued from and were addressed to a highly cultured circle.
In the writings of Justin Martyr, dating from about the middle of the second century, are various references to the presence of wealthy and cultured persons in the Christian congregation of Rome.
Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, whose pictures of Christian life belong to the latter years of the second century, bear ample testimony to the same fact. Clement even wrote a special treatise entitled, What rich man can be saved? in which he refers not to pagans whose conversion to Christianity was to be aimed at, but to those who were Christians and at the same time wealthy.[58]
Tertullian again and again refers to the presence of the rich and the noble in the Christian Churches, in such passages where he speaks of thousands of every age and rank among the brethren—of officials of the Empire, of officers of the imperial household, of lawyers, and even of men of senatorial rank. In his passionate appeals, too, he singles out fashionable ladies, and dwells on their costly dress and jewels.
But the most striking proof of the presence of many high-born and wealthy members of the Christian Brotherhood in this congregation dating from primitive times, after all exists in that wonderful City of the Dead beneath the suburbs of Rome which is now being explored.
These Roman catacombs, as they are termed, in the large majority of cases in the first instance began in the villa gardens of the rich, and were, as time went on, enlarged by their owners in order to offer the hospitality of the tomb to their poorer brothers and sisters.
As we shall see in our chapter dealing with these all-important memories of early Roman Christianity, as cemetery after cemetery is examined we come upon more and more relics in marble and stone which tell of great and powerful Roman families who had thrown in their lot with the despised and persecuted people who had accepted the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and who, in common with the slave and petty tradesman, shared in the hard trials of the Christian life, and welcomed the joys and solace of the glorious Christian hope.
These striking memories of the Christian dead, who in life bore great names and possessed ample means, date from the first century onward. One of the more famous of these very early catacombs, the cemetery of Domitilla, was the work of the members of the imperial family—of near relatives of the Emperor Domitian.
Indeed the composition of the meetings of the Christian Brotherhood varied very little from the days of Peter and Paul to the era of the Emperor Constantine. The numbers of these assemblies, however, increased with strange rapidity. There were, of course, in primitive times but few of these assemblies. By the end of the third century there were in the city of Rome some forty basilicas, each with its separate staff of ministers and its individual congregation.[59]
WHAT WAS SAID AND DONE IN THESE ASSEMBLIES AND MEETINGS OF THE BRETHREN
Justin Martyr in his first Apology, which was written, before A.D. 139, gives us a good picture of one of these primitive Christian assemblies in Rome. The early date of this writing enables us to form an accurate idea of the outward procedure of one of these most important factors in the Christian life in the first half of the second century.
Justin has been explaining the nature of the Eucharist; he then goes on to say: “We continually remind each other of these things. And the rich among us help the poor, and we always keep together; and for all things which are given us, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the ‘Memoirs of the Apostles’ or the writings of the Prophets are read, as time allows; then when the reader has done, the president (of the assembly), in an address, instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of the good things (which had formed the subject of the address). Then we all rise and pray; and when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability; and the people assent, saying, Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given; and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
“And they who are well-to-do and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows, and those who through sickness or any other cause are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the stranger sojourning among us—in a word, takes care of all who are in need.
“Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly.”
Justin goes on to explain the reason of the choice of Sunday, dwelling especially on the fact of Jesus Christ having risen from the dead on that day.
Such is a sketch of the framework of one of these primitive meetings of the Christian Brotherhood, drawn by an eye-witness some time in the first half of the second century, at most thirty or forty years after S. John’s death.
It is a little picture of a gathering composed of all sorts and conditions of men and women, of slaves and freedmen, of artisans, tradesmen, and soldiers, with a certain admixture of cultured and wealthy persons, drawn together in the first instance by the pressure of the burden of the awful sadness of life, by a belief, hazy at first, but growing clearer and more definite every day, as the congregation listened to these teachers who dwelt on the words and acts of the Divine Redeemer who had visited this earth for their sakes.
For they came together to hear more of the Redeemer who had sojourned so lately among men. They listened while the Christian teacher who presided over the gathering explained the historic words, the commandments and promises of that pitiful, loving Master who had entered into their life; they would then partake of the mystic Eucharist feast together; and as they partook of the sacred bread and wine as He had bidden His followers to do in memory of Him and His death and suffering for their sakes, they would feel He was indeed in their midst, and that new life, new hope were theirs.
The dogmatic teaching in these early assemblies was very simple, but strangely sublime. It was given in a language every one could understand. It went home to the hearts of all—of the wise and unlearned alike. The story of the Gospels, the wonderful words of the Master—were at once the text and subject of every sermon and exposition.
We have among our precious reliquiæ of the earliest days enough to show us what was the groundwork of this primitive teaching.
An atonement had been made by the Divine One who had come among men; He had suffered for them, and by His suffering had redeemed them. In all the earliest Christian writings which we possess, this great truth is repeated again and again. With adoring gratitude the Christian Brotherhood loved and worshipped Him. Jesus Christ was the centre of all their hopes—the source of their strange, newly found happiness.[60]
Very briefly we will quote a very few of these important dogmatic sayings pressed home to the believers when they met together.
Clement of Rome—circa A.D. 95:
“Let us fix our eyes on the blood of Christ, and understand how precious it is unto His Father, because being shed for our salvation.”—Ep. i. 7.
“Let us fear the Lord Jesus whose blood was given for us.”—Ep. i. 11.
“Jesus Christ our Lord hath given His blood for us, by the will of God ... His life for our lives.”—Ep. i. 49.
Ignatius of Antioch—circa A.D. 107–10.
“It is evident to me that you are living not after men but after Jesus Christ who died for us, that believing on His death ye might escape death.”—Ep. ad Trall. 2.
“Him (Jesus Christ) I seek, who died on our behalf; Him I desire, who rose again (for our sake).”—Ep. ad Rom. 6.
After relating the passion of the Cross, Ignatius went on to say: “For He suffered these things for our sakes (that we might be saved).”—Ep. ad Smyrn. 1, 2.
“Even the heavenly beings, and the glory of the angels, and the rulers visible and invisible, if they believe not in the blood of Christ (who is God), judgment awaiteth them also.”—Ep. ad Smyrn. 6.
“Await Him ... the Eternal, the Invisible, who became visible for our sakes; the Impalpable, the Impassible, who suffered for our sake, who endured in all ways for our sake.”—Ep. ad Polycarp, 3.
Epistle to Diognetus,—early in second century,—an anonymous writing:
“He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the Holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal.”
“For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other One was it possible that we, the wicked and the ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God?”
“Oh sweet exchange! Oh unsearchable operation! Oh benefits surpassing expectation! that the wickedness of many shall be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!”
“Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life, and having now revealed the Saviour who is able to save even those things which it was (formerly) impossible to save, by both these facts He desired to lead us to trust in His kindness, to deem Him our Minister—Father—Teacher—Counsellor—Healer—our Wisdom, Light, Honour, Glory, Power and Life.”—Ep. ad Diog. ix.
Shepherd of Hermas—written circa A.D. 140.
“He Himself (the Son of God) then having purged away the sins of the people, showed them the paths of life, by giving them the law which He received from His Father.”
Epistle of Barnabas—written circa A.D. 120–50:
“For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling.”—Ep. Barnabas, v.
“If, therefore, the Son of God, who is Lord (of all things), and who will judge the living and the dead, suffered, that His stroke might give us life, let us believe that the Son of God could not have suffered except for our sakes.”—Ep. Barnabas, vii.
“Thou shalt love Him that created thee, thou shalt glorify Him that redeemed thee from death.”—Ep. Barnabas, xix.
Justin Martyr—writing between circa A.D. 114 and A.D. 165:
“Isaiah,” wrote Justin, “did not send you to a laver, there to wash away murder and other sins; but those who repented were purified by faith through the blood of Christ, and through His death, who died for this very reason.”—Dial. with Trypho, xiii.
Writing of Jesus Christ, Justin comment