Christianity in the ante-Nicene period

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Christianity in the ante-Nicene period was the period in Christian history following the Apostolic Age (1st century AD) up to the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD). Although the use of the term Christian (Koine Greek: Χριστιανός) is attested in the Acts of the Apostles (80–90 AD), the earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Koine Greek: Χριστιανισμός) is attested by the ante-Nicene Father and theologian Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD).[1][2]

While the Jewish–Christian community was centered in Jerusalem in the 1st century AD,[6] Gentile Christianity spread widely in the 2nd century AD.[9] One stream of Gentile Christianity (so-called "proto-Orthodox Christianity") that emerged in this period in the persons and theological positions of the Apostolic Fathers would eventually become the international Great Church. Proto-Orthodox Christianity placed importance on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as saving humanity, and described Jesus as the incarnated Son of God come to Earth.[10][11] The 2nd and 3rd centuries AD saw a sharp separation between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity, with the latter being derived from the teachings of the Apostle Paul.[3][4] There was an explicit rejection of Second Temple Judaism and Jewish culture by the end of the 2nd century, with a growing body of anti-Jewish Christian literature. Many doctrinal variations in this era defy neat categorizations, as various forms of Christianity interacted in a complex fashion.[12]

A third major school of thought was Marcionite Christianity, a dualistic theological system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in 2nd-century Rome[13] and held that the Hebrew God of the Old Testament ruled upon the Jews by enslaving them to follow the Mosaic Law, while the Gentiles were saved through divine grace by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sent by an entirely different Supreme God.[17] A fourth major school of thought was Gnostic Christianity,[20] an elaborate theological system characterized by several emanationist cosmologies and the notion of a "divine spark" trapped in matter, which regarded Jesus Christ as a divine being sent by a supreme, Unknown God who pre-existed and was superior to the malevolent Hebrew God of the Old Testament (actually the Demiurge or false creator of the material universe),[24] and who brought salvation through direct, experiential "knowledge" (gnosis).[28]

During the ante-Nicene period, various local and provincial ancient Church councils were held during this period, with the decisions meeting varying degrees of acceptance by different Christian groups. Major Christian figures of the 2nd century who were later declared by the developing proto-Orthodox faction to be heretics were Marcion,[29] Montanus,[7] and Valentinus.[14][27] In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, after centuries of intermittent persecution,[5][30] proto-Orthodox Christianity experienced both pressure and recognition from the Roman State and developed a strong episcopal and unifying structure, leading to its legalization under the Emperor Constantine (313 AD).[30]

  1. ^ Walter Bauer, Greek-English Lexicon
  2. ^ Ignatius of Antioch Letter to the Magnesians 10, Letter to the Romans (Roberts-Donaldson tr., Lightfoot tr., Greek text)
  3. ^ a b c Wilken, Robert Louis (2013). "Divisions Within". The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 37–46. ISBN 978-0-300-11884-1. JSTOR j.ctt32bd7m.8. LCCN 2012021755. S2CID 160590164.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Ehrman, Bart D. (2005) [2003]. "At Polar Ends of the Spectrum: Early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites". Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 103–112. doi:10.1017/s0009640700110273. ISBN 978-0-19-518249-1. LCCN 2003053097. S2CID 152458823.
  5. ^ a b Goodman, Martin (2007). "The Persecution of Paul by Diaspora Jews". Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity. Vol. 66. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 145–152. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004153097.i-275.37. ISBN 978-90-04-15309-7. ISSN 1871-6636. LCCN 2006049637. S2CID 159412841.
  6. ^ [3][4][5]
  7. ^ a b c Trevett, Christine (1997). "The teachings of the New Prophecy". Montanism: Gender, Authority, and the New Prophecy (1st ed.). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–105. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511520587.004. ISBN 9780511520587.
  8. ^ a b Brakke, David (2010). "Imagining "Gnosticism" and Early Christianities". The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 1–29. ISBN 9780674066038. JSTOR j.ctvjnrvhh.6. S2CID 169308502.
  9. ^ [4][7][8]
  10. ^ a b Theokritoff, Elizabeth (2010) [2008]. "Part I: Doctrine and Tradition – Creator and creation". In Cunningham, Mary B.; Theokritoff, Elizabeth (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 63–77. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521864848.005. ISBN 9781139001977.
  11. ^ Hurtado, Larry W. (2004). "Early Pauline Christianity". Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 77–153. ISBN 978-0-8028-3167-5. LCCN 2003048048.
  12. ^ [3][10][4][7]
  13. ^ 115 years and 6 months from the crucifixion of Jesus, according to Tertullian's reckoning in the apologetical treatise Adversus Marcionem, XV.
  14. ^ a b c d Dunn, James D. G. (2016). ""The Apostle of the Heretics": Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion". In Porter, Stanley E.; Yoon, David (eds.). Paul and Gnosis. Pauline Studies. Vol. 9. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 105–118. doi:10.1163/9789004316690_008. ISBN 978-90-04-31668-3. LCCN 2016009435. S2CID 171394481.
  15. ^ Brakke, David (2010). "Unity and Diversity in Second-century Rome". The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 96–98. doi:10.2307/j.ctvjnrvhh.8. ISBN 9780674066038. JSTOR j.ctvjnrvhh.8. S2CID 169308502.
  16. ^ a b Logan, Alastair H. B. (2002) [2000]. "Part IX: Internal Challenges – Gnosticism". In Esler, Philip F. (ed.). The Early Christian World. Routledge Worlds (1st ed.). New York and London: Routledge. pp. 923–925. ISBN 9781032199344.
  17. ^ [4][14][15][16]
  18. ^ a b May, Gerhard (2008). "Part V: The Shaping of Christian Theology – Monotheism and creation". In Mitchell, Margaret M.; Young, Frances M. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1: Origins to Constantine. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 434–451, 452–456. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521812399.026. ISBN 9781139054836.
  19. ^ a b Kvam, Kristen E.; Schearing, Linda S.; Ziegler, Valarie H., eds. (1999). "Early Christian Interpretations (50–450 CE)". Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 108–155. doi:10.2307/j.ctt2050vqm.8. ISBN 9780253212719. JSTOR j.ctt2050vqm.8.
  20. ^ [18][8][16][19]
  21. ^ Litwa, M. David (2016) [2015]. "Part I: The Self-deifying Rebel – "I Am God and There is No Other!": The Boast of Yaldabaoth". Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 47–65. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467166.003.0004. ISBN 9780199967728. LCCN 2015051032. OCLC 966607824.
  22. ^ Fischer-Mueller, E. Aydeet (January 1990). "Yaldabaoth: The Gnostic Female Principle in Its Fallenness". Novum Testamentum. 32 (1). Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers: 79–95. doi:10.1163/156853690X00205. eISSN 1568-5365. ISSN 0048-1009. JSTOR 1560677.
  23. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Arendzen, John Peter (1908). "Demiurge". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  24. ^ [21][22][23]
  25. ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (2005) [2003]. "Christians "In The Know": The Worlds of Early Christian Gnosticism". Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 113–134. doi:10.1017/s0009640700110273. ISBN 978-0-19-518249-1. LCCN 2003053097. S2CID 152458823.
  26. ^ a b Huggins, Ronald V. (2000). "MARCION". In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 855–856. ISBN 9789053565032.
  27. ^ a b Bousset, Wilhelm (1911). "Valentinus and the Valentinians" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). pp. 852–857.
  28. ^ [14][18][25][26][19][27]
  29. ^ [4][14][26]
  30. ^ a b Freeman, Charles (2009). "Part 3: The Imperial Church – The Motives of Constantine". A New History of Early Christianity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 225–237. doi:10.12987/9780300166583-026. ISBN 9780300166583. JSTOR j.ctt1nq44w.29. LCCN 2009012009.
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