BS 2410 .H46 Henson, Hensley, 1863-1947 Apostolic Christianity Edition Imported by ,„ , ^T^r NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY ,56 FIFTH AVENUE : NEW YORK APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY NOTES AND INFERENCES MAINLY BASED ON S. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS BY H. HENSLEY HENSON, B.D. FELLOW OF ALL SOULS' COLLEGE, OXFORD INCUMBENT OF S. MARy'S HOSPITAL, ILFORD CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF S. ALBAN's RURAL DEAN OF SOUTH BARKING METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, STRAND LONDON 1898 TO ARTHUR L. STRIDE, Esq., J.P. THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED IN TOKEN OF SINCERE RESPECT AND AFFECTION AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF MANY PERSONAL KINDNESSES PREFACE THE charm of Apostolic Christianity is unique, and its importance supreme. Partly, it may not be questioned, the natural but irrational dis- position to exalt the past at the expense of the present explains the lofty estimate of the earliest Church which most modern Christians have formed, and an actual study of the extant memorials of the first century will, to this extent, chasten and modify that estimate. Chiefly, however, the interest of thoughtful men in the first beginnings of the Divine Society arises from a just conviction of the solemn importance of the subject. It is felt on all hands that the Christianity of history, and especially the Christianity of contemporary history, is a very dif- ferent thing from the Christianity of the Apostles : there is an uncomfortable suspicion in many minds that the proportions of the Faith have been deranged, that the intrinsically greater things have fallen into the background, and the intrinsically lesser things have usurped their prominence. The Church, the Ministry, the Sacraments, the Creeds — these have, in many minds, seemed to crowd out of view more ultimate and august realities ; and so powerful is the vague, almost unconscious, resentment of the human conscience, that a wide and ever-widening breach has silently discovered itself between religious viii APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY men and organized religion. On all hands it is observable that Christian men are quietly with- drawing themselves from all formal religious observances. They neither attend public worship nor receive the Blessed Sacrament, nor outwardly concern themselves with religious affairs. It would be a grave error to suppose that these people are in any definite way opposed to Christianity. Most of them have a real respect and admiration for Jesus Christ, and a vague but confident belief that if only religion were what He intended it to be, if only the Church were again what it was in the Apostles' times, they would eagerly profess themselves disciples. During the years that I have lived in East London and " London over the Border " I have often heard vehement denunciations of the Church, of the clergy, of the Sacraments, and of the Bible, but I can only recall a single instance in which the stream of invective was directed against the Founder of Christianity, and then it provoked very manifest repugnance. Largely, it must be admitted, this attitude is reflected and, by an inevitable reaction, stimulated by the so-called religious romance of the day. Scarcely anybody reads the New Testament : the current notions about the Gospel and the Apostolic age are largely based on the productions of Marie Corelli, Mr. Hall Caine, and writers of that type. Religious sentiment and emotion are developed by a thousand devices, while the prevail- ing conception of contemporary Christianity is often a strange and various product of ignorance, prejudice, and delusion. Yet I cannot escape the conviction PREFACE ix that there is a more legitimate foundation for the dehberate and sustained aHenation of so vast a multitude than mere sentiment on the one hand and mere mistake on the other. The causes of this quiet repudiation of definite external religious observance are not altogether obscure. Probably few realize the gravity of the fact that, through the rapid growth of the cities, the main stream of the national life is now running, with an ever increasing volume, in urban channels. Life in a great city affects powerfully and distinctively the development of character. I am far, indeed, from suggesting that the urban influence is necessarily or even generally bad ; but I am very sure that in certain directions that influence is hostile to religion. The passion for amusement pathetically testifies to the deep weariness of routine, which the city-worker chained from day to day to his office-stool, or penned behind his counter, feels so acutely. Even the religiously-minded men feel this revulsion against restraint : the mass, consciously or unconsciously, are swept along by it. The services of Religion are found too long and too dull. Only on the condition that they become "bright," "popular," above all, short, will they be attended. The result is disastrous on the public worship and on the preaching. I am convinced that an unconscious effort to match the tastes of the giddy and emotional urban folk, far more than any real religious conviction or any innate bent towards anarchy, lies at the root of the ritual eccentricity which now distresses many sober-minded Churchmen, and perplexes the Bishops. It is melan- X APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY choly to observe that Religion, which should grapple with and bring under discipline that frivolity which is the inevitable effect of urban life, rather aspires to conciliate and use it. The Decline of the Pulpit is not less serious. Here, no doubt, special causes have contributed. The Oxford Movement was very largely a reaction against the arid and tyrannous Evangelicalism which oppressed the national conscience at the beginning of this century. As the Pulpit had been unduly magnified by the earlier movement, so it was unduly minimized in the later. More- over, the Tractarians widened the area of clerical interests. Church History was no longer eschewed, though its study was severely conditioned by eccle- siastical presuppositions. Ritualism opened a new and delightful world to the weaker members of the Anglo-Catholic party. The Sermon was habitually depreciated. It was made to symbolize human self- assertion as against Divine Grace : it stood for " Protestantism " as against the " Catholic Church." It is still the fashion in " High Church " circles to affect a great contempt for preaching : and commonly the Sermon in " advanced " Churches faithfully re- flects the humble theory which may be supposed to have governed its composition. It may be held for certain that an excessive care for religious cere- mony is incompatible with a high standard of preaching. The human mind cannot with impunity multiply its interests. A close and affectionate study of Ritual will leave little margin of time or mental power for those critical, historical, and theo- PREFACE XI logical studies which are the indispensable conditions of serviceable preaching to modern congregations. A worthier obstacle to the Pulpit has been the immense increase of parochial duties. Whether this increase is wholly satisfactory may be doubted : whether the time and energy bestowed on the raising of money for a thousand objects, in the organizing of amusements, not always of the highest kind, could not be better employed, may well be questioned : yet, at least, it must be conceded that the motives which have led to that distracting multiplicity of parochial engagements, which threatens to make pastoral charge wholly incompatible with intellectual self-respect, are high and unselfish motives. Here I refer to the subject merely in its bearings on the lamentable Decline of the Pulpit, to which I have adverted. Of late years there has been a consider- able Increase of " Home Missions." Almost every parish of any size is subjected every few years to the Ordeal of a " Mission." The enormous demand for preachers has induced many of the more earnest and eloquent clergy to cultivate an emotional and declamatory type of preaching, which, though im- mediately effective and generally popular, is not free from very obvious and considerable perils. I think there are signs that the standard of Pulpit perform- ance has been appreciably lowered by the develop- ment of " Mission preaching." Finally, the Sermon may have suffered by the competition of the religious newspaper and the religious book, though it may be doubted whether the readers of such are not generally the most assiduous auditors of Sermons. xii APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY Personally I think the influence of the press has been indirect. The best work is now rarely put into Sermons : it is reserved for publication. This is a natural, but a highly undesirable practice. It has often occurred to me that there is a con- nection between the facts just stated and the grave difficulty which is now felt in obtaining suitable candidates for the Christian Ministry. No doubt the serious decline in clerical incomes has influenced parents in choosing careers for their sons ; but there is compensation in the thought that poverty, though it may hinder some from entering Holy Orders, will purify the motives of many who, with the full knowledge of the distresses that await them, yet put their hand to the plough of the Divine Service. A more serious loss is inflicted on the Church when young men of intellectual gifts and high character turn away from Ordination because, under existing circumstances, they cannot hope for an adequate sphere for the exercise of their best powers. As matters stand now a musical voice is a better recommendation than academic distinction, a know- ledge of athletics and theatricals outweighs habits of intellectual industry, and a solemn sense of the awfulness of religion. If indeed it be the case that the Church has no use for the higher gifts of mind and character, then it is nothing astonishing that her Ministry has little attraction for the gifted and devout. The higher the standard of Ministerial Duty the more attractive will the Ministerial Life be found ; but no thoughtful and earnest man can readily accept a career, of which the principal tasks will be purely mechanical. PREFACE xiii However this may be, the broad fact now stares the clergyman in the face that his principal instru- ment of teaching is breaking in his hands ; the Pulpit seems to be discredited in the general mind, it is certainly ignored in the general practice. Therefore since teaching has always been and must remain the chiefest function of the Christian Ministry, the clergyman is driven to adopt various expedients by which to recover some opportunities for fulfilling his duty. Informal lectures, books written in a sufficiently popular style to secure the interest of average men, private conferences of one sort or another — these and similar methods are resorted to as substitutes for the Sermon. These pages represent one modest attempt to bring before laymen in their homes subjects which had been better treated in Sermons, but which, since they will neither listen to Sermons nor read them, must be treated otherwise or not at all. Urban life not only stimulates a passion for amusement, it also directly ministers to the cynical, sceptical disposition, which, not less than frivolity, obstructs the way of Religion. English people of the middle and lower classes, so far as I have observed, are not as a general rule well disposed towards definite infidelity ; but they seem to be falling into a vague unbelief, which does not care enough about spiritual things to positively contradict, but which tacitly rejects the teachings of the Gospel. There is a widely-extended distrust of the good faith of the clergy in matters of Religion. It is thought that language is used in the pulpit which does not xiv APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY correspond with any actual convictions. The de- structive aspects of Biblical criticism are becoming generally known, and something like contempt is not rarely expressed at the unrelaxed hold on the least defensible views which the clergy, in too many cases, display. With this contempt it is difficult not to feel a measure of sympathy. The timidity of the clergy scarcely respects the boundaries of Christian principle when it insists on ignoring the conclusions of Biblical Science. The manly attitude of S. Paul condemns such nervous dishonesty : — " Therefore seeing we have this Ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not ; but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."* The most urgent necessity of the present juncture seems to be the recovery of public confidence in the clergy. As one step, and a considerable one towards that end, I have urged, as well by example as by precept, the general adoption of the Revised Version in the public services of the Church. Without deny- ing or minimizing the faults of that Version, I submit as an absolutely incontrovertible proposition, that for all the purposes which a Version of the Bible exists to serve, it is the best Version in existence. To go on using an inferior Version, when a superior is accessible, is not in my deliberate judgment to be reconciled with pastoral integrity. I need say no * 2 Cor. iv. T, 2. PREFACE XV more to explain my use of the Revised Version in this volume. Urban life, it must be added, tends always towards sensuality. In the first century this was certainly the case ; by many melancholy and scandalous tokens we know that in this respect the nineteenth century can claim no exemption from the same burden. Personally I am convinced that the most formidable obstacle to Christianity at this moment is the wasting and furtive viciousness which, in many forms, corrupts our city population. Drunkenness is a lesser evil than sensuality ; it is neither so degrading to the character, nor so deadening to the soul. Weizacker speaks of "the gigantic war which Christendom in general, and Paul in particular, had to wage with immorality." The same formula might be employed to express the duty of the modern Church. Unhappily it does not express the actual procedure of the Church as a whole. Frivolity, cynical scepticism, sensuality — these notes of urban life are always recognizable. Two millenniums of Christianity have not altered the inveterate characteristics of great cities. Apostolic Christianity — as Professor Ramsay has reminded us — was almost exclusively urban. Hence the study at every point suggests parallels to contemporary ex- perience, and it is literall}/ true to say that the least archaic period of ecclesiastical history is the most remote. The Apostolic Age has been of late years made known to us by the labours of many brilliant and indefatigable students. The effect of their work is xvi APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY a new revelation. The first beginnings of Christianity are now understood, as they have never been under- stood before. The conflict of the critics over the documents has incidentally brought together a mass of information about the first century, which enables the English student at the end of the nineteenth century to appreciate the standpoints and sympathize with the difficulties of the Christians of Jerusalem and Corinth, to whom the Apostles preached. Unhappily the rank and file of English Churchmen are still suspicious and fearful of the new knowledge. They read their New Testament, or neglect to read it, with the paramount conviction that it is all a solemn and blessed miracle, which has no real con- nection with actual, normal human experience. To such I respectfully address this volume. The history of its origin is briefly this. I read the Corinthian Epistles with classes of men both in Barking and in Ilford, and found it serviceable to put together into separate addresses the leading subjects dealt with by the Apostle. These were found helpful, and I was urged by many, both laymen and clergy (to whom my notes were submitted), to bring the whole into connected form and publish it. This account of the origin of this book will, perhaps, go some way towards explaining some sufficiently obvious faults of arrangement and style. This volume, it is hardly necessary to explain, is not addressed to scholars, nor does it attempt an exact or continuous interpretation of the Corin- thian Epistles, on which, nevertheless, it may be called in some sense a commentary. I have through- PREFACE xvii out endeavoured to be honest and clear, not greatly regarding a certain looseness of arrangement if only the broad outlines of the subject could be plainly marked. I have not scrupled to draw practical inferences ; and though I have tried not to read into the first century the ideas of the nineteenth, yet I have everywhere assumed the continuity of eccle- siastical life. I fear that repetition has not been as successfully avoided as I could wish. Partly this arises from the circumstance that the first four chapters were originally composed as a thesis independently of the rest of the book, which, as I have said, was in the first instance designed for public delivery. This also may explain a certain difference of style. References have only been given when it seemed to me desirable to indicate to the reader either the authority for an opinion which might seem novel, or the direction in which fuller information might be obtained. I have given the Greek text of quota- tions from the New Testament wherever it seemed to me that anything turned upon an exact rendering of the original. Histories of the Apostolic Age abound, and there are numerous commentaries on the Epistles to the Corinthians. Many of these I have used. It will be manifest on every page how much I owe to the works of Renan, Weizacker, Godet, Ramsay, Hort, and Bishop Lightfoot. Perhaps I may be permitted to make special mention of two authors — the one a great preacher of the fourth century, the other a great preacher of the nineteenth — S. Chry- xviii APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY sostom and F. W. Robertson. Both have taught me much ; both considered the Corinthian Epistles of S. Paul from the standpoint of men set to teach civilized people under urban conditions; and both, therefore, enter into the Apostle's mind more deeply than more learned exegetes. If this little book shall induce in anyone a desire to know something more about the great subject of which it treats, my labour will not have been thrown away. To me it has been a labour of love, from which I rise with the conviction that in the Apostolic Age the latest Christian century must find its guidance. In reverting to first principles the Church must recover that Christian allegiance which she has now so largely forfeited. We are haunted and burdened by the idiosyncrasies of the later history. We are slaves to the fourth century, or to the Ages of Faith, or to the Reformation, or to the Zeitgeist of our own generation. Hence our impossible demands, our obdurate divisions, our desperate rivalries. Behind all that long apostasy we call Church History is the Age of the Apostles, when the mind of the Spirit was reflected in the life of the Society with a fidelity which has never since been witnessed. There we may discover the original principles of Christianity, return to which is the supreme spiritual necessity of our time. CONTENTS Part I. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA, OR LOCAL CHURCH PAGE L Influence of the Synagogue on the Organization OF THE EcCLESIA . . • • • 3 II. Limits to Autonomy of the Local Ecclesia . 7 III. Discipline of the Religious Assemblies . . 16 IV. Moral Discipline of the Local Ecclesia . . 34 Part IL PRELIMINARY DATA CHAP. I. The Epistles of S. Paul II. The Founding of the Church in Corinth III. The Letter from Corinth . 41 54 66 Part III. DOCTRINE AND THE SACRAMENTS I. The Historic Christ 81 II. The Resurrection . . 94 III. The Corinthian Heretics . 107 IV. The Apostolic Creed . 120 V. Baptism .... . 134 VI. The Holy Communion . 150 XX APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY Part IV. ORGANIZATION AND PRACTICE CHAP. „ I. The Church II. The Ministry III. PUBLIC Worship IV. THE Gift of Tongues V. Miracles VI. The Christian Prophets VII. Women in the Church VIII. Apostolic Finance . IX. Conclusions PAGE 187 201 , 214 . 227 . 239 . 252 . 266 . 282 APPENDICES I. S. Paul's Teaching in Corinth II. Apostolic Succession III. Confession . IV. Celibacy 297 300 306 312 TWO DISCOURSES I. THE ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY BAPTISM IN LARGE Urban Parishes . • ' ' II. THE social Influence of Christianity ^ ■ 319 336 Part I. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA OR LOCAL CHURCH I. INFLUENCE OF THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ECCLESIA IL LIMITS TO THE AUTONOMY OF THE LOCAL ECCLESIA III. DISCIPLINE OF THE RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLIES IV. INTERNAL DISCIPLINE OF THE LOCAL ECCLESIA B THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA OR LOCAL CHURCH I. INFLUENCE OF THE SYNAGOGUE ON THE ECCLESIA. THE Church of Christ received from the Divine Founder no rigid and detailed constitution. Neither the faith, nor the government, nor the discipline of the Christian society were defined in advance. The Apostles, to whom the task of founding the Church was given, were assured the presence of the guiding '■'Spirit of Truth" and sent out into the world to learn by experiment and failure the right methods of organization. The conditions under which they went about their work were difficult and various. In Palestine they acted under the over- mastering influence of ancestral Judaism : when the Gospel had spread beyond the limits of Palestine it advanced still on Jewish lines. The synagogues of the Hellenistic Diaspora became the first preaching centres of the Christian Faith in Gentile lands, and the earliest models of Church organization. More- over, the fact that without exception the Apostles were Jews, and particularly that the most active missionary of them all, Paul of Tarsus, was a Rabbinist of distinction, tended to strengthen the 3 6 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY schoolroom of Tyrannus served to shelter the new Christian community which organized itself as a rival synagogue outside the limits of Israel. These conspicuous examples were undoubtedly typical of the common procedure. Everywhere outside the Jewish synagogue was formed a rival, organized on the same lines and preserving unaltered the same aspect. The influx of Gentile converts must have quickly affected the organization of these Christian synagogues. New conditions of existence involved new problems, and the solution of those problems necessitated extensive modification of the original Jewish model. The history of the Church in Corinth enables us to follow the course of development. The conditions under which that Church took shape were thoroughly representative. Originating in a secession from the Jewish synagogue, it rapidly attracted the Gentiles, until it became predominantly non-Jewish. The society to which the Pauline Epistles are addressed is clearly composed mostly of converts from heathenism. Apostolic discipline represents a compromise between the tradition of the Jewish synagogue and the needs of the Gentile disciples. The compromise was gradually reached, for the needs to which it was adapted only revealed them- selves gradually, but throughout this was its character — an adaptation of the original Hebrew system to the changed circumstances and wider functions of a Christian Ecclesia. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA II. LIMITS TO AUTONOMY OF THE ECCLESIA. The original Christian Ecclesia, as it is pictured in the Corinthian Epistles, was by no means destitute of the machinery of government. Whether there existed a ministry in the traditional Christian sense may be fairly questioned. The idea of a free republic rather than that of a society governed by an ordained ministry is suggested by the Apostle's language : yet this freedom was neither absolute nor unrestricted. Large, indeed, were the powers of the Corinthian Ecclesia, but they were subjected to four important authorities. These must be carefully considered. I. Laws of Christ The supreme and ultimate authority was the commandment of Christ. It is certain that at the time when the Corinthian Epistles were written (probably in A.D. 57) the Evangelic tradition had not been committed to writing. The oral Gospel, agreeing, we may believe, in the main with the can- onical narratives, varied considerably in detail. Yet wherever it could be adduced, the Authority of the Divine Founder was final. Thus in the discussion on the right of the Christian ministry to maintenance by the Church. S. Paul, after advancing arguments drawn from the practice of the older Apostles, from the analogy of common life, from the practice of contemporary Judaism, reaches the climax of his reasoning in the words, ''^ Even so did the Lord ordain 8 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospeir * Whether we understand these words as a free rendering of Christ's language addressed to the Twelve, according to the first Synoptic,! to the Seventy according to the third,t or as a separate " logion " which has no place in the Canonical Gospels, it makes no matter. The Apostle evi- dently adduces the authority of our Lord as closing the question. Similarly, when dealing with the difficult subject of domestic ties, which had been submitted to his judgment by the Corinthians, S. Paul sharply distinguishes his own authority from that of Christ. " Unto the married I give charge, yea not /, but the Lord, . . . but to the rest say I, not the Lordy% At that early stage, when the memory of the Life of the Founder was yet fresh in Christian minds, the authority of Christ, the Lord, as He was emphatically styled, was conceived as immediate as well as final. Discipleship resolved itself into the frank and affectionate recognition of that supreme and operative Lordship. While the tra- dition of the Founder was recent and powerful, the lesser authority of the Christian society played but little part in the history ; but manifestly, as the years passed, that tradition tended to grow weaker, and as it waned the ecclesiastical power, properly so called, continuously waxed. * I Cor. ix. 14. t S. Matt. x. 10. \ S. Luke X. 7, 8. §1 Cor. vii. 10-12. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 2. Mosaic Law and Old Testament. S. Paul certainly regarded the Christian Ecclesia to be subject to the Jewish law so far as it dealt with morals. He assumes among his converts a complete acceptance of the Jewish Scriptures. His quotations from the Old Testament presuppose in his readers a familiarity with the sacred writings. Undoubtedly the Greek Version of the Canon was generally known throughout the sphere of the synagogue, and its acceptance was naturally transferred from the syna- gogue to the society, which found in the synagogue its origin and its model. Examples of an appeal to the Scripture are numerous in the Corinthian Epistles. Fornication is condemned by a reference to the Book of Genesis. " The twain, saith he, shall become one Jlesh."^ The Mosaic rule, " Thou shall not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn," is applied to the case of the Christian minister claiming mainte- nance from the Ecclesia which he serves.! The history of Israel supplies precedents of warning or encouragement. Indeed, the Apostle ascribes to the Corinthian Church the character of sacred distinc- tion which belonged to the chosen people. To his thinking the Ecclesia succeeded to the position which the synagogue had forfeited. | The ex- periences of ancient Israel are the heritage of the spiritual Israel of Christian believers. ''For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, how that our fathers * I Cor. vi. 16 = Genesis ii. 24. t i Cor. ix. 9. X cf. Gal. vi. 16, where S. Paul calls the Church "the Israel of God." lo APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY were all under the cloud, and passed through the sea. . . . Now these things were our examples . . . now these things happened unto them by way of example : and they were written for our admonition^ upon whom the ends of the ages are coine!'^ The silence of women in the religious assemblies is based on the Mosaic law, by which we must understand the Rab- binic tradition in which S. Paul had been trained. " Let the women keep silence in the churches : for it is not perinitted unto them to speak ; but let thein be in subjection, as also saith the law!^ f These direct references to the Jewish law by no means adequately express the extent of the restric- tion on Christian liberty involved in the Apostle's assumption that the Church was the true successor of the synagogue, and as such subject to the moral rules, not only of Scripture but also of the established Rabbinic tradition. 3. Apostolic Authority, Moreover, the Church was subject to the Apostolic Authority, and in S. Paul's hands that authority was neither narrow in range nor feeble in exercise. It is evident that the Apostle claimed for himself over the Churches which he founded an authority supreme within the limits of his apostolic com- mission, divine in essence, independent, therefore, of external control, and unaffected by human judg- ment, which could be exercised either in person, or by letter, or by a duly accredited envoy. S. Paul * I Cor. X. I, 6, II. t I Cor. xiv. 34. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA ii dwells much on his own authority, and resents, almost passionately, the attacks upon it, which were both frequent and vigorous. He planted the Church [eyw ecpvreuara, iii. 6] ; in so doing he was indeed a fellow-worker with God. [Oeov yap eo-fxev crvvepyol, iii. 9.] He is the wise master-builder [cro^o? apxtreKTcov, iii. lo], who has laid the one foundation [Oe/uLeXtov] on which all the rest must build, either well or ill. He repudiates human judgment as indifferent, and indeed irrelevant, in the case of one who holds a Divine Commission to be the servant of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God. [ovroog ^juLag Xoyi^ea-Ooi) ai/0po)7rog, w? vTrrjperag ILpicrrou Kai oiKovojULOvg jULVcrTrjplo)]/ Oeov, iv. I.] This, indeed, might be said of all Christian ministers, but he was the spiritual father of the Corinthians, and as such could claim over them an unique authority. He addressed them not merely as a tutor [-TraiSaycoyos:], but as the father who " in Christ Jesus had begotten them through the Gospel!' (iv. 14, 15.) This authority he would exert in gentleness, but if necessary with severity, [r/ OeXere ; ei^ pa/3S(p eXOot) TT/oo? i^yua? ; rj ev ayairr] Trvev/uaTL re TrpaoTrjTog ', iv. 21.] His relation of Founder authorized him to claim from the Corinthians a provision for his maintenance [/uLrj ovk exojmev e^ova-iav cpayeiv Kal TTieiv, ix. 4], but this right he had not exercised, preferring not to associate his preaching with any personal claims, however legitimate, (ix. 15-17.) The " traditions " [TrapaSoareLg] which he had delivered to the Corinthians were binding upon them. (xi. 2.) In case of doubt as to their application the reference 12 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY lay to him, and from his decision there was no appeal. He was the channel through which the Evangelic History had reached them, and he neces- sarily determined its practical bearings. He speaks by way of command rather than of exhortation or advice, and though he is careful to separate his personal opinion from his inspired decision, it does not appear that he would tolerate any disregard of the less authoritative utterance. In the second epistle, which has much the appearance of a personal "Apologia," S. Paul dwells at length* on his position towards the Churches of his own foundation. He evidently considers himself exclusively charged with their spiritual oversight, and pathetically declares that besides his normal sufferings at the hands of persecutors and opponents, ^' there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the Churches^ f As the Churches grew more numerous, and were scattered over a wider area, the Apostle found himself compelled to exercise his episcopal functions by means of messengers and of letters. To this necessity the Church owes those incom- parable compositions, the Epistles of S. Paul, which, originally called forth by special emergencies, were made the vehicles of eternal truth, and rapidly secured among Christians the supreme position which they merited, and which in the next century caused them to take rank as inspired Scripture. M. Rcnan has pointed out that the idea of utilizing epistles I as instruments of government was not * Especially 2 Cor. x. 7-16. f 2 Cor. xi. 28. X R^NAN, S. Paul, p. 228. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA. 13 original, but borrowed, in common with so much else, from the practice of the synagogue. In S. Paul's hands, however, the Epistle became, as we have said, not merely a means of ruling congregations, but also of teaching religion. Finally, in the administration of discipline within the local Churches S. Paul held himself to be supreme. He issued his sentence from a distance, and determined both the character and the duration of punishment. But to this point we shall recur at a later stage of our inquiry. 4. General Custom of Ecclesia. The local Churches were self-governing, but not independent. The general custom of the Christian society was held to be binding on particular con- gregations. This recognition of the unity of the Church was seriously threatened at Corinth, where tendencies to ecclesiastical individualism were un- usually strong. The behaviour of women in the religious assemblies was a case in point. It appears that some of the Corinthian women ventured to appear unveiled in the congregation, and actually usurped a share in the conduct of service. S. Paul's Rabbinic training rendered such licence particularly abhorrent to him ; his good sense warned him that the gravest offence, possibly leading to a rupture of Communion, would be given to the Churches of Judaea. Moreover, he had but too good reason for suspecting the moral effect of such perilous liberty upon the Corinthian community. He con- demns the conduct of the women as an unwarrantable 14 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY departure from the general practice of the Christian society. He concludes the discussion about veiling with this brusque observation : " But if any man seemeth to be contentious [^fXoVei/co?], we have no such custom \(Tvvi]^eLav\ neither the Churches of God^^ * and he closes his prohibition of the public prophesy- ing of the women still more peremptorily. " What ? was it from you that the Word of God went forth ? or came it unto you alone ? " t The Apostolic Church was assuredly not "congregational" in the modern sense, any more than it was " presbyterian " or " episcopal " : the notion of an external unity, superior to local particularism and restraining it, did certainly exist ; and in the autocracy of the Apostles over the Churches which they planted was the principle of the later episcopal regime. In face of the evidence of the Acts and the Pastoral Epistles it seems difficult to deny that the notion of trans- mitting ministerial authority by a formal act of ordination was established in the earliest Church. From these premisses the conclusion of episcopacy would seem to be as logically irresistible as it has been historically evident. Official Ministry. Thus the local Churches in the Apostolic period were held together in a loose, but not ineffective union. The task of maintaining order within those little communities must have devolved upon officials. The synagogue, upon which the Christian Ecclesia was modelled, had its duly ordained officials ; it is barely conceivable that these could have been dispensed with in the new societies. * I Cor. xi. i6. t I Cor. xiv. 36. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 15 It is not, indeed, necessary to assume that in those early days there existed the sharply defined " orders " of a later age, but that some ministry existed, how- soever designated or regarded, seems to be proved by the Pauline Epistles. Possibly, as Weizacker suggests, the earliest converts became the first ministers.* In their houses would the little con- gregation of converts ordinarily come together, and their claim to the submission of their brethren would be largely based on the substantial services which they rendered to the common cause. It must, however, be conceded that the regular ordained ministry was, in Apostolic times, dwarfed by the exceptional ministries which then principally engaged the attention of the Church. The diffusion of extraordinary gifts rendered the maintenance of order extremely difficult. At Corinth it is probable that the circumstances were exceptional, but every- where in the Apostolic age the " deacon," the " presbyter," and the " episcopos " count for little beside the " apostle," the " prophet," the " speaker in a tongue." It is remarkable that neither when rebuking the disorders which disgraced the Agape, and even the Eucharist, nor when regulating the procedure of the normal religious assemblies at Corinth, does S. Paul address himself to those who, on the hypothesis that an ordained ministry existed in that Church, must have been primarily responsible for the disorders and the natural agents of reform- ation. * Vide Apostolic Age^ vol. ii. p. 320; cf, also Hort, Christian Ecclesia, p. 117. I6 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY III. DISCIPLINE OF THE RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLIES. I. Domestic, The religious assemblies were either domestic or public. To the former none but the baptized had access; the latter appear to have been open to the entrance of the heathen [aTrto-roz, I Cor. xiv. 22], and perhaps were designed with a view to their conversion. The domestic assemblies were the Agapae or Love-feasts, and the Lord's Supper.* At this early time these were united, the Agape forming a preliminary to the more solemn rite.t Later, probably as a consequence of the persecutions, the Agape was wholly discontinued, and the Holy Communion transferred to the early morning. This arrangement, originating under the pressure of calamity, speedily commended itself as convenient, and from the second century until the nineteenth the practice of celebrating the Holy Eucharist in the evening has been abandoned. That grave disorders had made their appearance in the Corinthian Church is evident from S. Paul's letter. The Corinthians carried over into their Agapae the licentious and ostentatious habits of their prae-Christian life. The Apostle's indignant language conveys a melancholy picture of excess and anti- social arrogance. The Corinthians, when they came together for the Agape, drew apart in cliques, severed from one another by doctrinal differences or by variant customs. The mutual dislike and suspicion of these * S. Jude 12. t S. Peter xi. 13. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 17 factions destroyed the harmony and threatened the unity of the Ecclesia. More scandalous, however, was the ostentatious gluttony of the wealthier members, and the evident hunger of the poorer. It would seem that at Corinth everyone brought with him not — as was the later and more creditable practice — a contribution to the common provision, but his own supper. The rich ate to excess, the poor had little or nothing ; and when in due course the Agape was succeeded by the Mysteries of the Eucharist the awful profanity of drunken communicants might be observed. " When therefore ye assemble yourselves together y it is not possible to eat the Lord's Supper : \]LvpiaKov SeiTTVov cpayeiv] for in your eating each one taketh before other his own supper : and one is hungry and another is drunken. What ? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the Church of God Sji rfjg €KX\r]G-[ag tov Oeov KaTa(ppov€iT6\ and put them to shame that have not ? " After rehearsing the history of the Institution of the Eucharist, and pointing out in terms of the greatest solemnity the guiltiness of the Corinthians, the Apostle concludes, " Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat^ wait one for another. If any man is hungry let him eat at home : that your coming together be not unto judgment^ [tVa ^u] elg Kpi/uLa crvi/epxw^^f ^ Cor. xi. 20, 21 ; 33, 34.] 2. Public. Quite distinct from the Agape and the Lord's Supper, which followed it, was the public service of the Church. The former were domestic and social, C i8 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY the latter was public and didactic. It may safely be asserted that the ordinary service of the synagogue provided the model upon which the public service of the Ecclesia was formed. The reading of the Old Testament, probably in the Septuagint Version, and in fixed portions or lessons, the recitation and singing of the Psalms, the offering of prayer, and preaching were common to both. Very early the practice was introduced of reading the Apostolic Epistles, and, when the Evangelic tradition had been committed to writing, the Gospel narratives,* S. Paul instructs the Colossians not only to read in the public assembly of the Church the Epistle which he had addressed to them, but to forward it to the Church of the Lao- diceans for similar public reading, and to receive in exchange the Epistle from Laodicea.t The arrange- ment of the congregation customary in the Jewish was reproduced in the Christian synagogue. In both women were present, and joined in the singing and the " Amen " ; but in neither were they permitted to appear unveiled, or to take any prominent share in the service. It appears that the men prayed un- covered, according to the general custom of the Greeks. The practice of veiling the head in token of reverence and penitence, which certainly prevailed among the later Jews, did not perhaps obtain in the Apostolic age.:}: Possibly there was a formal allocation of seats to the " unbelievers " who attended these assemblies, such as was customary in the next century. These arrangements, borrowed from the syna- * S. Mark xiii. 14. f Col. iv. 16. X I Cor. xiv. 1 6. THE APOSTOLIC FXCLESIA 19 gogue, were necessarily modified by the conditions under which the Christian Ecclesia existed. On the one hand, the extraordinary diffusion of x^P'-^t^^^'Tay on the other hand, the rapid expansion of the society by the admission of converts from heathenism, neces- sarily affected the constitution and order of the Ecclesia. The fourteenth chapter of the first Cor- inthian Epistles throws a strong light on the subject, and must, therefore, receive the close attention of the student of Apostolic Christianity. S. Paul evidently combats an exaggerated estimate of the socially valueless x^P^(^l^(^) described by the ambiguous expression, speaking yXcoa-cru or yXwcrcrai^. He contrasts it very disadvantageously with the XapLcrixa of 7rpo(prjT€La. The basis of his judgment is the assumption that the measure of worth is the power to edify. " He that speaketh in a tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the Church. Now I would have you all speak with tongues, but rather that ye should prophesy : and greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret^ that the Church may receive edifying'' (z/z/.4,5). Here it may be noticed that the Apostle evidently contemplates the very widest diffusion of xapfo-yuara. There is no suggestion of an official ministry, charged with the conduct of " Divine Service." S. Paul as- sumes the possibility, and even the desirableness of an arrangement by which, without confusion, every member (no doubt, every adult male member) of the Ecclesia should lead the public devotions. He rebukes the disorderly exercise of the xaplcrfxara : he does not deprecate all exercise. " What is it, 20 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY then, brethren ? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation" There was no agree- ment beforehand as to the nature and order of the religious exercises, nor yet any settled principle by which the exercise of the x«P^'^M«Ta might be directed and restrained. The Ecclesia tended to present to view a scandalous spectacle of disorder and competitive display. The Apostle lays down the broad principle, ''Let all things be done to edifying',^ and proceeds to apply the rules of the synagogue to remedy the confusions of the Church. The Rabbins required that the reading and interpret- ing of the Scripture should be orderly, the ministers succeeding one another in due rotation.* So in the Ecclesia. " If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that in turn : and let one interpret : but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church: and let him speak to himself and to God. And let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. [^fa/cpii/eVwo-ai/.] But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence." It would seem that the prophets formed a distinct class, and sate together in the assembly. But they were not officials. The prophetic inspiration might come upon any member of the Ecclesia, and its character was "discerned" or recognized by infallible tokens. Once admitted into the category of the prophets, the position seems to have been permanently retained. S. Paul refused to allow the strength of the prophetic impulse to be * LiGHTFOOT, Works, xii. 542. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 21 pleaded as an excuse for breaking up the order of the worship. Disorder could not be justified : it involved an insult to the Author of all order. '' For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted : and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace : as in all the Churches of the Saints'' * The Apostle takes for granted that his counsels, con- ceived in the interests of order, will be affirmed by the genuine prophets. He boldly proposes such affirmation as a test of genuineness. "If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that Ihey are the comma7idment of the Lordr {v. 37.) The ideal which he offers to the Corinthians unites the highest appreciation of the Xct/ofo-yuara with the keenest jealousy of disorder- " Wherefore, my brethre7i, desire earnestly to pro- phesy, and forbid fiot to speak with tongues. But let all things be done decently and in order." [iravTa Se €V(r)(r]ijL6v(joy?], or an idolater [ei^ft)XoXaT/^^;9], or a reviler [Xo/(^o/30?], or a drunkard [/ote^t/o-o?], or an extortioner [apTraf], with such a one no^ not to eat. For what have I to do with judgijig them that are without \tov<; e^co] ? Do not ye judge them that are within [tol/? Icro)], whereas them that are without God judgeth ? Put away [efapare] the wicked man from among yours elves r'^ This language is explicit. S. Paul, distinctly repudiating the notion of passing judgment on non-Christians, enumerates six offences as involving loss of communion, and, as a consequence of loss of communion, cessation of social intercourse. These offences are: i, fornication; 2, covetousness ; 3, idolatry ; 4, reviling ; 5, drunkenness ; 6, extortion. A little further on in the Epistle he repeats in a more rhetorical shape his enumeration of offences * I Cor. V. 9-13. 26 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY fatal to Christian fellowship.* To the six sins already mentioned he adds four: adultery, effeminacy, sodomy, theft. These, however, would seem to be really in- cluded in the shorter enumeration. Thus the more general iropvoi would seem to include the particular variety jmoixol, and less obviously the darker types of sensuality. " Thieves " might be included in " ex- tortioners." The Apostle names the varieties of sensuality in an ascending scale of gravity. Forni- cation was in the actual experience of the Corinthians aggravated by religious connections, and became idolatry. It might involve also a grave social offence as adultery ; nay, lust had yet darker developments — it passed into those offences which the usage of Christendom abhors as " unnatural." Clearly the immediate needs of the Corinthian Ecclesia are the governing influences in these Corinthian catalogues. Crimes of violence are altogether omitted ; crimes of sensuality are elaborately enumerated. In the Epistle to the Galatians S. Paulf sets down a long list of fifteen "works of the flesh," but the passage is obviously rhetorical, and need not be further coxisidered. 2. Procedure. The disciplinary procedure is sufficiently indicated in the passage quoted above. The whole Ecclesia was specially convened, and the guilty member set forward in the midst. A solemn invocation of Christ, conceived as actually present, for the Apostolic * I Cor. vi. 9, lo. t V. 19. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 27 Church literally believed the promise in the Gospel,* introduced the formal treatment of the case. Probably the commandment of the absent Apostle was read aloud in order that the greatest possible authority might attach to the action of the Church, and the sentence was pronounced in his name. The formula of excommunication may be recognized in S. Paul's Epistle. The offender was delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, t Assuming with most authorities that the sequel to the case of the incestuous Corinthian is to be found in the second Epistle,J we can learn that unanimity was not necessary in order to pass sentence of ex- communication. A majority sufficed. § This, indeed, was the case in this instance. S. Paul's severity did not commend itself to all the members of the Corin- thian Ecclesia. His decision was resisted by a minority, but the sentence of the majority was accepted as final. The offender, declared excom- municate, manifested every token of genuine repent- ance. Indeed, his sorrow was so extreme as to threaten despair. So the Apostle intervened in the * S. Matt, xviii. 20. t 2 Cor. ii. 5-1 1. X Weizacker {Apostolic Christianity, vol. i. pp. 349-353) argues that the connection between the excommunication in the first Epistle and the absolution in the second is untenable. But his reasoning is weakened by an obvious desire to magnify the opposition to S. Paul's Apostolic authority in Corinth. The matter is not of importance so far as the argument in the text is concerned. § Godet repudiates the notion of a formal sentence by vote of the Ecclesia as absurd; but his reasons are not convincing. {Cor. i. 228-9.) 28 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY interest of mercy. In the second Epistle he urges the penitent's restoration, and undertakes to ratify the action of the Corinthians in rescinding the excom- munication. We may conclude that the restoration of the offender^ was not less public, solemn, and formal than his expulsion. 3. Sentence, What ought to be understood by the apostolic formula of excommunication? M. Renan under- stands the language of S. Paul in the Corinthian Epistle quite literally. "II ne faut pas en douter: c'est une condamnation a mort que Paul prononce."t There is much to be said for this view. The case of Ananias and Sapphira, recorded in the Acts, may be adduced in support of it, nevertheless it cannot be accepted without modification. Under the circumstances of the Apostolic Church mere exclusion from the Christian society was a very serious matter. The sentence extended not only to the religious assemblies from which the ex- communicate was banished, but also to the friendly and almost indispensable intercourse of society. Christianity drew the line very sharply between the Church and Pagan society: to be excluded from the Church was to be an outcast from all men. * Probably the penitent was restored to communion by the laying on of hands. The exhortation in i Tim. v. 22, " Lay hands hastily on no one," may be, with large probability, referred to " the act of blessing by which penitents were received back into the communion of the faithful." It is so understood by Dr. Hort {Christian Eccksia^ p. 214) and by Bishop EUicott {Pastoral Epistles^ p. 83, 5th ed.). t S. Paul, p. 392. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 29 The excommunicate Christian was the object of general abhorrence. The terrors of superstition were added to his actual misery. He had been publicly " delivered to Satan for the destruction of the fleshy The terrible formula was no merely con- ventional phrase, of which the meaning had been quietly worn away by familiarity.* It was a new formula, expressing at once the Christian belief in the power of evil, and the apostolic authority in the spiritual sphere. Thrust outside the protected area of the Church, the excommunicate lay exposed to every spiritual adversary. Even S. Paul held the prevailing doctrine that the heathen deities were demons, (i Cor. x. 20.) We may be sure that the Corinthian converts held it far more strongly. What must have been the mental and spiritual anguish of the wretch thus abandoned to the vengeance of the idol-demons, whom he had deserted in order to join that Church which now disowns him? It is not difficult to believe that, as a matter of fact, excom- munication was often followed by disease and death. The consequences which followed the desecration of the Eucharist at Corinth would follow expulsion from the Church. '■^ For this cause many among you are weak and sickly^ and not a few sleep!' \ The "destruc- tion of the flesh" would bear a terribly literal mean- ing ; and the connection between excommunication and physical disaster, once established in the general mind by some striking examples, would tend to justify itself by means of the fears it provoked. * LiGHTFOOT, vol. xii. p. 475. t I Cor. xi. 30. 30 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY It has been hitherto assumed without hesitation that the delivery unto Satan and excommunication were identical, but this identity has by no means been generally maintained, and we must therefore not pass away from the subject without giving some reasons for our position. M. Godet insists, with great positiveness, on dis- tinguishing between excommunication, which was an act of the local Ecclesia, and this sentence of delivery to Satan, which w^as exclusively an Apostolic acL The latter might or might not be added to the former, and it alone carried with it a physical penalty. The Corinthians, indeed, by prayer might have obtained at God's hand the destruction of the excommunicate,* and they were blameworthy in not doing so ; but what their prayers might have effected the authority of the Apostle could inflict. " La seule difference entre ce chatiment qu'a d6cr^t^ I'apotre et celui que les Corinthiens auraient du rdclamer d'en haut, c'est que I'^glise s'en serait remise k Dieu pour le mode d'^xdcution, tandis que Paul, en vertu de sa position spirituelle sup^rieure i celle de I'^glise, se permet de determiner le moyen dont le Seigneur se servira, car il connait la pens^e du Seigneur."t (ii. i6.) Weizacker, on the other hand, takes for granted that excommunication involved (according to the belief of the Apostle) the dreadful physical conse- quences implied by " delivery unto Satan." " Exclu- sion from the Church was not, however, all that was involved. Paul associated with that the idea derived • I Cor. V. 2, atpeip, equal to destroy, according to M. God^. t GODiiT, CorinthienSf vol. i. p. 232. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 31 from the old institution of the ban, that the excom- municated person would necessarily die. He would be given over bodily to Satan for destruction, and the sentence of the Church thereby only effected what he himself effected who took part unworthily in the Lord's Supper, and who was in consequence punished with sickness and death."* It is not disputed that the Church borrowed from the synagogue the procedure of excommunication. That procedure involved a graduation of penalties. Lightfoot has described the disciplinary system of the Jews in his " exercitations " on the Corinthian Epistle. t We learn that excommunication was in three stages of advancing severity, (i) Simple ex- communication, which was called Niddui, in which there was not absolute cursing, and which lasted thirty days. During that time the excommunicate might make his submission and receive absolution. (2) Excommunication with a curse, Shammatha, which involved the publication of the offence in the synagogue, and also lasted thirty days. (3) Anathema, which was the final sentence. "And this is much more heavy than either Niddui or Shammatha. For in this is both excommunication, and cursing, and the forbidding the use of any men, unless in those things only which belong to the sustaining of life. And they anathematize not, but when a man hath hardened himself against the bench once and again." Lightfoot himself concludes that "delivery unto Satan" was not excommunication, but "a miracu- * Weizacker, Apostolic Age, vol. ii. p. 379, Eng. Trans, t Lightfoot, Works ^ vol. xii. p. 466, fol. London, 1823. 32 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY lous action, namely, of the real delivery of this (incestuous) person into the hands and power of Satan, to be scourged by him, and tormented by him with diseases, tortures, and affrightments." We should rather conclude that the more dreadful conse- quences of Christian excommunication did but reflect the superiority of the Church over the synagogue ; the graduated system of Jewish discipline was adopted by the Church, and in the Church necessarily received a more mysterious and dreadful character. In the case of the incestuous Corinthian, the Ecclesia had not even taken the first step in the disciplinary process. S. Paul, to mark at once his horror of the crime and his indignation at the laxity which condoned it, insists upon the final sentence of Anathema, i.e., delivery unto Satan for the destruc- tion of the flesh. His language appears to convey this. The exceptional circumstance of his absence from Corinth is not to interfere with the formality of the proceedings. The Ecclesia is to meet, and his sentence, conveyed beforehand in the Epistle, is to be considered precisely equivalent to a declaration from him actually present. That there was a graduated system of discipline in the Apostolic Church is evident from several passages in the Epistles. The passages in the Epistle to the Thessalonians and the Galatians are of especial value in illustrating the language of the Corinthian Epistles. Excommunication of the milder, preliminary type is suggested by 2 Thessa- lonians iii. 14 : ''And if any man obeyeth not our word by this epistle, note that man, that yc have ?io company THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 33 with him to the end that he may be ashamed. A?id yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a bf'othej-y The extremest possible condemnation is suggested by the language in Galatians i. 8, 9 : *' But though we^ or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anatheyna. As ive have said before, so say I now again, if any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye 7'eceived, let hijn be anathema'^ In the Epistle to Titus * we find the following very specific injunction : ^'A man that is heretical after a first and second ad^nonition refuse: knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being self -condemned!' This injunction seems to be directly suggested by the words of our Saviour, which must be regarded as the charter of the Church's discipline, and which may possibly have been committed to writing at the time when the Pastoral Epistles were written. It is, indeed, true that our Lord contemplated " offences against the brethren," while S. Paul treats of heresy (which his excommunication of Hymenaeus and Alexander compels us to understand in the technical sense), but the transference of the discipline from the sphere of conduct to that of opinion would present no difficulty to one who held S. Paul's view as to the nature and claims of the doctrine he preached. The Dominical injunctions in S. Matthew xviii. 15-17 run as follows: ^^And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show hi^n his fault between thee and him alone : if he hear thee thou hast gained thy brother. But if he * iii. 10, II. 34 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of tivo witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the Church, and if he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican!' The elaborated discipline of the later Church followed the lines here laid down. Finally, the Apostolic conception on the one hand of the organized powers of evil, and on the other of the Church, appears to require the association of spiritual abandonment with the fact of exclusion from the Christian Society. A passage from the Colossian Epistle will sufficiently illustrate this. The Apostle exhorts to thankfulness for the inestimable gift of the Gospel. " Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inhe^'itance of the saints in light : who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love'' The Church was a protected sphere, an asylum of safety in a demon-ridden world, over which Satan wielded empire. To be thrust out from the Church was to be exposed without defence to the assaults of Satan. ARBITRATION IN THE ECCLESIA TO REPLACE LAWSUITS. Interposed between the discussion of the Corinthian scandal and a fervid denunciation of impurity is a paragraph dealing with the subject of lawsuits. The disgraceful inactivity of the Ecclesia in the matter of the incestuous communicant indicated a THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 35 singular inability to grasp the full greatness of its own position. The same fact lay at the root of the practice, which had reached discreditable pro- portions, of carrying disputes between Christians before heathen tribunals. The members of the Church in Corinth were mostly drawn from the humbler ranks of a Greek commercial community. They belonged to the race and to the class in which petty disputes about property have the greatest importance and evoke the keenest interest. This litigiousness was bad in itself as tending to strengthen a hard, grasping disposition, directly opposed to the spirit of Christian fraternity. It was scandalous in effect, as leading to a public exhibition before the heathen of the domestic bickerings of the disciples of Christ. It was distinctly perilous as bringing Christians into close contact with the heathen life, out of which Christianity had drawn them, and as establishing in their minds a mean estimate of the authority of the Ecclesia. The language of S. Paul reveals a very keen perception of all these mischiefs. He lays particular stress on the implied insult to the Ecclesia, and the evident breach of fraternity. The analogy of the synagogue is plainly paramount in his mind. The Jews, under the tolerant sway of the Roman Empire, were permitted to retain their own judicial institutions, and among these were reckoned the synagogues. It is not uninteresting that at Corinth the judicial independence of the Jewish community in reference to certain classes of questions had been publicly asserted by a Roman proconsul.* * Acts xviii. 15. 36 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY The Christian Ecclesia in Corinth owed its origin to a rupture within the Jewish synagogue,* and bore the aspect, and, probably, advanced the claims of a rival synagogue. The Roman Government at this early period drew no distinction between Jew and Christian. The privileges of the synagogue might be appropriated by the Church. This, in effect, is what the Apostle aimed at. From his standpoint the Jewish synagogue in rejecting the Gospel had fallen into apostasy and forfeited its claim to be regarded as a synagogue. To that claim the Christian synagogue was rightful heir. Lightfoot thinks that S. Paul's language directly contemplates the judicial arrangements of the synagogue, and the antecedent probabilities point in that direction. In every synagogue there were three tribunals, known respectively as the Bench of Three, composed of duly ordained elders, the "Authorized" or " Mumchin," whose members com- monly held this office by some special patent from the Sanhedrim, and "the Bench not Authorized," of which the members were elected by the litigants. The first of these courts dealt with ordinary suits, the second confined itself to ritual matters, and the third had the range and the limitations of a board of arbitrators. It is to this last, according to Lightfoot, that S. Paul refers in the Epistle. "To this very ordinary bench among the Jews the apostle seems to have respect in this place, and to prescribe it to the Corinthians for a means of ending their differences, which was easy, common, and void of * Ibid. 5-8. THE APOSTOLIC ECCLESIA 37 cost and charges. The Bench of Mumchin one may not unfitly call rovg avOepryjimivovg, such as were deputed by authority : this Bench consisting of . . . those that were not Mumchin, he calls e^ovOevrjimevovg, not * vile ' or * contemptible/ but such as were * not authorized.' He exhorteth, therefore, that if at any time suits arise among them, concerning pecuniary or other matters, they by no means run to heathen courts, but rather choose some private men among themselves, as judges and arbitrators in such matters." * This may well have been in the Apostle's mind, but it is obscured by the indignation which shapes his actual language. "Dare [roX/xa] any of you, kavmg a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous^ and not before the saints ? or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye umvorthy to judge the smallest matters [Kpirtiplcov eXaxtcTTcov] f Know ye not that we shall judge angels f how much more thi7igs that pertain to this life [jStcoTtfca] f if then ye have to judge things pertaining to this life [/Sicotiko, Kpirrjpia], set them to judge zvho are of no account hi the Church, [roi'? e^ovOevij/uevovg ev Ti €KK\i]cria TovTOvg KaOl^ere.] I say this to move you to shame. Is it so that there cannot be foimd among you one wise man, who shall be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you [oAw? rJTTtj/uLa vjulIv] that ye have lawsuits [KpljuLara] one with another* Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be * Works, xii. pp. 484, 485. 38 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY defrauded? Nay^ but ye yourselves do wrongs and defraud, and that your brethren!' Whether or not this language is to be understood as actually instituting a tribunal in the Ecclesia for the adjudication of suits between Christians, certain it is that it became the authority upon which such institution justified itself in the next century. The change of attitude towards Christianity which speedily took place on the part of the Empire, and led to the settled policy of persecution, destroyed the protection which had resulted from identification with Judaism, and rendered all Church organization hazardous and difficult. Less and less must dis- cipline have been a matter of fixed rules and courts, more and more must it have taken the character of moral influence. As the theory of the Church developed, the practical effect of Church censures increased. Tertullian's well-known description of Christian worship may be adduced. The discipline was not the less effective for being purely moral : its sanctions were found in the convictions of the com- munity. " Nam et judicatur magno cum pondere, ut apud certos de dei conspectu, summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est, si quis ita deliquerit, ut a communicatione orationis et conventus et omnis sancti commercii relegetur."* * Apol. 39. Part II. PRELIMINARY DATA CHAPTER I. THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL THE Epistles of S. Paul form the principal authority upon which the student of Apostolic Christianity must build his theory ; and we must, therefore, begin our present inquiry by briefly describing the nature and importance of those primary documents, with two of which we shall be in this volume mainly concerned. The exceptional character of the Apostle's writings was recognized from the first. An example is found in the second Corinthian Epistle. " His letters, they say, are weighty and strong ; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account." These words are the judgment of hostile contem- poraries upon S. Paul. How far they may express a real contrast between the personal insignificance and the literary ability of the Apostle we can hardly now appreciate. Probably they have the measure of truthfulness which belongs to malicious but successful caricature. S. Paul was not physically imposing,* * The Acts of Paul and Thekia (a second century document) con- tains a description of the Apostle which, in Prof Ramsay's opinion, "seems to embody a very early tradition." It is not flattering. Onesiphorus goes out to meet S. Paul. "And he saw Paul coming, a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows, with a rather large nose, 41 42 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY nor did his speech possess the characteristics of the most generally approved eloquence. So far his adversaries may be allowed to have the advantage of him. But even they were compelled to admit that ^' his letters were weighty and strong." [/3ap€iai K. larxvpai] Their reluctant admission inadequately represents the high estimate of these writings, which has from the earliest times obtained among Christians. The importance of these Epistles is by no means sufficiently indicated by the fact that they form not less than one-fourth of the New Testament. They include the earliest of existing Christian documents : the whole series were written between the years 52 and 6y of our era. They have been subjected to the rigorous examination of keen and learned, and not always friendly criticism for many years, and we may certainly say that the general result has been to confirm the traditional theory of their authorship. " I must needs believe that all the Epistles of S. Paul which have come down to us as his are genuine." This is the deliberate conclusion of a very learned and acute scholar. Professor Sanday, and if any object that he is a Christian, I will content myself with replying, first, that his Christianity never, as far as I know, interferes with the honest exercise of his critical faculty ; and next, that his favourable opinion of the Pauline Epistles is shared by all competent bald-headed, bow-legged, strongly built, full of grace, for at times he looked like a man, and at times he had the face of an angel." Conybeare and Ilowson have put together the traditional conception of S. Paul's appearance. — Fide Life and Epistles, chap, vii., end. THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 43 critics with regard to four, by most with regard to seven, and by many with regard to ten out of the thirteen ascribed to the Apostle in the Canon. The Pastoral Epistles* are admittedly the most disputed and the most disputable members of the series, but Professor Ramsay's t recent and most interesting discoveries of the actual relations which existed between the Roman State and the Apostolic Church have gone far to strengthen their position. It may be useful to have before us the list of undisputed and practically undisputed Epistles. Undisputed are the Epistle to the Romans, the two to the Corinthians, and that to the Galatians ; practically undisputed are the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Epistle to the Philippians, and that to Philemon. The rest are disputed, but not very successfully. We may be content with the position of most English critical scholars that no real case has been made out against any of them.:J: In the present state of opinion the • " There are features of the Pastoral Epistles which legitimately provoke suspicion. To the best of my beliefs however^ they are genuine^ and that not merely in parts : the theory of large early interpolations does not work out at all well in detail." — YLoKT^/tidaistic Christianity^ p. 130. t Vide Church in the Roman Etnpire, pp. 245-251. "Incidentally we may here note that the tone of the Pastoral Epistles in this respect (persecution) is consistent only with an early date. It is difficult for the historian of the Empire to admit that they were composed after that development of the Imperial policy towards the Christians which occurred . . . under the Flavian Emperors." X Weizdcker admits Romans, i, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, i Thess., Philippians, i.e. , six epistles, is doubtful about Colossians and Philemon, and rejects the three Pastoral Ep., 2 Thess., and Ephesians. — Vide Ap. A^e, p. 218. Harnack admits all the Epistles except Ephesians, which he marks 44 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY private Christian appears to have good reason for accepting with confidence the traditional theory of the Church. These thirteen letters (for the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is sometimes reckoned as a fourteenth Pauline letter, is agreed on all hands to be the work of an unknown writer of the Apostolic age), includ- ing the oldest Christian documents, have formed and must always form the starting point, and the founda- tion of whatever knowledge we can obtain as to the beginnings of Christianity. They are the principal, because the primary witnesses to the truth of those facts of the life of Christ, and of that presentment of the character of Christ, which together form the basis of the Christian Religion. The four Gospels are alike anonymous and undated ; the letters of S. Paul, of which the date is well known, and the authority cannot be denied, form a most valuable test by which to appraise the historical worth of those sacred narratives. We shall see, in the course of our inquiry, how far the Epistles to the Corinthians confirm the statements of the evangelists. Again, all Christians are agreed in deferring to the authority of the Apostles. The most ignorant member of the smallest and youngest sect appeals to that tribunal not less than the most cultivated member of the most venerable Church. The Creed of Christendom as doubtful, and the Pastorals. He thinks that the latter were based on genuine Epistles of S. Paul. His chronology is remarkable. He places S. Paul's conversion in the same year as the Crucifixion, A. D. 30, and his death in A.D. 64. — Vide die Chronologie dcr alt lit., p. 233, fol. Leipzig, 1897. THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 45 lays emphasis upon the " Apostolic " character of the Catholic Church. It cannot then be a matter of indifference to us what the Apostles actually taught and ordered in the Churches which they founded. And we shall not well learn this from the lips of controversialists, or the assertions of partisans. We must not pile together texts, and so wring from the New Testament some kind of assent to the doctrines we already have decided to maintain. We must rather let the Epistles tell their own tale, and bear their own witness in their own way. The practice of writing doctrinal Epistles may have been suggested to S. Paul by "the so-called Epistles of Jeremiah and Baruch and the Epistles at the beginning of 2 Maccabees.* The Old Testament contains at least one specimen of such compositions in the letter sent by the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon.! Probably the practice grew out of the necessities of experience. The rapid success which followed the missionary labours of the great Apostle had scattered little Christian communities over a great part of the Roman Empire. How were the new converts to be spiritually governed except by means of letters? S. Paul himself says that he was burdened with ^'anxiety for all the churchesTX That anxiety found * Sanday, Bavipton Lectures, p. 335, note. t Vide R]£nan, 3". Paul, p. 228. "La correspondance entre synagogues existait deja dans le judaisme ; I'envoye charge de porter les lettres etait meme un dignitaire attitre des synagogues." This whole chapter gives a most interesting view of the circumstances under which the Apostle wrote, and the actual conditions of the Churches to which he wrote. X 2 Cor. xi. 28. 46 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY expression in the Epistles. From the circumstances of their origin these documents derive both loss and gain. On the one hand, they often deal with questions which were at the time of urgent importance, but which have long ceased to be so. Thus in the Corinthian letters great space is taken up with two discussions, on the eating meat sacrificed to idols, and on the due exercise of miraculous gifts, neither of which have any direct reference to modern needs> although it must be allowed by all that the Apostle so handles these subjects as to provide principles of Christian conduct, which can never be wholly without relevance to Christian needs. Directly^ how- ever, these questions do not any longer concern us, and it is difficult to induce the careless reader to interest himself in them. Doubtless we have in this circumstance the explanation of the fact that some of S. Paul's letters — how many we do not know, but certainly several — have perished. One such letter is referred to in the first Corinthian Epistle. " / wrote unto you in my epistle'' {y. 9), says S. Paul, but we cannot refer to the passage for the Epistle no longer survives. In the closing verses of the Epistle to the Colossians we perhaps have another lost letter mentioned. " Whe7i this epistle hath been read among you^ cause that it be also read in the church of the Laodiceans ; and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea,"* The Epistle to Laodicea, however, has perished, unless the supposition be correct that it is to be identified with the Epistle to the Ephesians. There is an expression in the second Epistle to the * Col. iv. 16. THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 47 Thessalonians which seems to indicate that several letters had preceded that Epistle, which is probably the earliest in date of all the existing letters save its predecessor to the same Church. " The salutation of mey Paul, with mine owtt hand, which is the token in every epistle : so I writer* '''Every epistle'^ seems to indicate certainly more than one. The emphasis laid on the Apostle's autograph! appears also to show that the practice of forging letters was included among the weapons of his adversaries. Earlier in the same Epistle S. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians not to '''be troubled either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as fro7n us" We may take for granted that the lost letters dealt with matters of temporary though urgent importance, and so speedily fell out of use among Christians, and then, in the troublous days of persecution, perished altogether. We may admit that the study of the surviving Epistles is hindered by the aspect of obsoleteness, which in some places they present. The gain, however, predominates over the loss. We owe to the practical exigencies out of which they came that practical tone, that sound insight into the actual conditions of temporal existence, that faithful portraiture of primitive Christianity which charac- ♦ 2 Thess. iii. 17. t Renan, S. Paul, p. 233, "Pour eviter les fraudes nombreuses auxquelles donnaient lieu les passions du temps, I'autorite de I'apotre et les conditions materielles de I'epistolographie antique, Paul avait coutume d'envoyer aux Eglises un specimen de son ecriture, qui etait facilement reconnaissable ; apres quoi, il lui suffisait, selon un usage alors general, de mettre k la fin de ses lettres quelques mots de sa main pour en garantir I'authenticite." 48 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY terize these writings, and add so greatly to their interest and value. We may say with confidence that S. Paul was not unconscious of the importance of his Epistles. That he intended them for public use is evident from such passages as that which I have already quoted from the Colossian letter, and from the solemn adjuration which is added at the end of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. '' / adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the brethren!' (v. 27.) He clearly believed him- self to be writing with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. He knew himself to be inspired. This is evident from the careful distinction he draws between his own unassisted judgment, and the judgment to which he was led by the Spirit. The seventh chapter of the first Corinthian Epistle provides some very suggestive examples of such distinction. The different expressions employed by the Apostle deserve careful notice. " This I say by way of per- mission, not of comma7idmentr {v. 6.) " Uftto the married I give charge, yea not /, but the Lord!' {v. 10.) " And so ordain I in all the churches!' (v. 17.) " Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord : but I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress!' (vv. 25, 26.) "She is happier if she abide as she is, after my judgment : and I thifik that I also have the Spirit of God!' {v. 40.) Such careful language does manifestly annihilate theories of verbal inspiration ; but it does not less manifestly claim for the Apostle's language when not thus guarded a special authority. THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 49 " Paul declares that he does not teach of himself, and that he is but the organ of Him who has con- fided his mission to him. This is what he means to say when at the head of some of his letters he calls himself 'Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God! He puts his writing under the guarantee of Him who intrusted him with it."* Largely, indeed, these Epistles are polemical, concerned with the calumnies of bitter personal antagonists, and the false teachings of dangerous heretics. The language faithfully reflects the vehe- mence of the writer's fear, or indignation, or joy, or affection. We know that S. Paul was wont to dictate his letters. Where, contrary to custom, he writes with his own hand he calls attention to the fact. " See with how large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand'' he writes to the Galatians. Similarly, in the little epistle to Philemon, we find : " / Paul write it with mine own haiid, I will repay itr But, in this instance, there was an obvious motive for emphasizing the personal liability for the debt of Onesimus which the Apostle under- took. In one instance the amanuensis interpolates his own name. "/ Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the Lord''\ is almost abruptly intro- duced into the salutations with which the Apostle concludes the Epistle to the Romans. Two results may be attributed to this practice of dictation. On the one hand, much would depend on the ability of the amanuensis to take down fully and accurately the utterances of S. Paul. " One might * GODET, Intro, to N. T., p. 123. f Rom. xvi. 22. E 50 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY take down the Apostle's words verbatim ; then we should get a vivid, broken, natural style like that of Romans and First and Second Corinthians. Another might not succeed in getting down the exact words; and then when he came to work up his notes into a fair copy the structure of the sentences would be his own, and it might naturally seem more laboured." It has been plausibly suggested that the habit of the amanuensis may explain those differences in the " cast and structure of the sentences " which are apparent in the later Epistles, and have done yeoman's service to the cause of destructive criticism in the hands of the Germans. On the other hand, as has been already hinted, speech is a much more facile instrument of expression than writing. The astonishing irregularity which marks the glowing eloquence of the Apostle is easily explicable if the language be regarded as the unrestrained outpouring of his thoughts as they rushed to his lips clothed in the words which first presented themselves to his mind. There is precisely the aspect which we might expect to find in a speech, but which surprises us in an essay. The Epistles were carried to their destination by disciples in whom S. Paul had confidence. Some- times the messenger is mentioned and specially commended to the Church. "/ commend unto you Phoebe our sister'^ occurs in the Epistle to the Romans.* Probably she was intrusted with that letter. ''All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto yoUy the beloved brother and faithful minister * xvi, I, THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 51 in the Lord : whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our estate, and that he may comfort your hearts : together with Onesimus the faithful and beloved brother that is one of you!'* We may conclude that Tychlcus was the bearer of the Epistle to Colossse ; we know that Onesimus carried a private letter to Philemon, the master from whom he had in former days run away under discreditable circumstances. We must remember that communications were easy within the Roman Empire. Railways and telegraphs were indeed unknown ; but roads were excellent, and there was a regular and efficient system of posts. It is probable that in the matter of material civilization the Roman Empire of S. Paul's day has not found its equal until the present century.! Finally, we must remember the necessary limita- tions of the witness which Epistles, prompted by practical emergencies, and often directed to con- ditions of life and thought which were transitory, and have in fact long since passed away, can yield to the great subject of Christianity. If we expect to find in S. Paul's Letters a methodical and detailed exposition of the Christian Creed, we shall certainly be disappointed. The Epistle to the Romans most nearly corresponds to our idea of a theological treatise, and even in that instance the corres- pondence is not very close. Still less shall we find in these letters a complete system of Church polity. If we look to discover in them the model * Col. iv. 7-9. t Gibbon, Decline an.i /-'a /, chap. ii. 52 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY of any existing ecclesiastical system, we shall certainly find them contradict our expectations. S. Paul was writing to Christian people, and he takes for granted their acquaintance with and belief of the Christian Faith. What the Christian Faith involves in the matter of articles of belief it is not hard to discover by legitimate inference from the Letters ; but it is nowhere expressly stated, except, indeed, with reference to certain fundamental truths, upon which the Apostle is led to insist by the necessities of polemical argument. So with regard to Church government. We may infer with more or less probability what the system was, but it is nowhere formally declared. The Church at that early period was taking shape, and the agents which influenced the final result were neither few nor simple. Certain elements existed which were derived from the ultimate authority of our Lord ; certain principles were accepted which derived their origin from no inferior source ; there was an intense conviction of the presence and guiding action within the Christian Society of the Holy Ghost ; there existed in S. Paul a singularly rich, strong, original character : in his converts a wealth of material, almost infinitely diverse in quality, and subjected to the formative influence of the most various forces. The Epistles reveal the process of settlement, of definition, of development which created the Catholic Church of Christian History. The source and character of the process are thus described by the great Apostle in a passage from the Epistle, which will form the principal authority in our present inquiry : — THE EPISTLES OF S. PAUL 53 ^' Now there are diversities of gifts ^ but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations^ and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings^ but the same God who worketh all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spii'it to profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; aiid to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit ; to another faith in the same Spirit ; and to another gifts of heali^tgs in the one Spirit ; and to another workings of miracles ; a7id to another pro- phecy ; and to another discernings of spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; and to another the i^iterpr ela- tion of tongues : but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit^ dividing to each one severally even as He will."* We may add that among the numerous results of that Divine Energy working in the Christian Society none bear their origin more plainly impressed on them, none have exercised a wider and more beneficent influence in succeeding ages, none have more fully secured the ratifying accept- ance of the general Christian conscience than these letters of S. Paul, which even the enemies of Christianity must acknowledge to be '^weighty attd strong^'* and which Christian students in every age, and never more confidently than in this, have believed to be inspired. * I Cor. xii. 4-1 1. CHAPTER II. THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH IN CORINTH IT needs but to glance at the map to see at once that the city of Corinth must have been one of the most important of the ancient world.* It " stood on the high road between Rome and the east, and was therefore one of the greatest centres of influence in the Roman world." With its two ports — Lechseum on the west, and Cenchreae on the east — Corinth was a meeting place of merchants, wealthy with the exchange and commerce of nations, luxurious with the lavish luxury of wealth, profligate with the shamelessness of luxury. Its importance, both political and commercial, was long standing. It provoked the envy of monarchs and the more malignant jealousy of mercantile rivals. The greatest disaster of Corinthian history had its origin in " mer- * Grote, History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 224. " Corinth in ancient times served as an entrepot for the trade between Italy and Asia Minor, goods being unshipped at Lechceum, the port on the Corinthian Gulf, and carried by land across to Kenchreoe, the port on the Saronic ; indeed, even the merchant vessels themselves when not very large were conveyed across by the same route." For a descrip- tion of the remains of the ancient city see Diet, of the Bible, art. "Corinth." Stanley has a picturesque account of the outward aspect of the city in S. Paul's age: v. Corit-Jhians, p. 5. 54 THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 55 cantile selfishness," which was strong enough to overcome in the Roman mind that admiration for all things Greek, which generally influenced the attitude of the Republic towards the communities of Hellas.* In the year 146 B.C. the Consul Mummius had besieged and taken Corinth. The sack of the city was memorable both for its ruthless character, and for the considerable effect produced by the transference to Rome of the numerous art- treasures of the greatest centre of Greek life. " The town was stripped of everything of value, and the works of art, pictures, statues, and ornaments of every description were collected for transport to Italy. Much, however, was spoilt by the greedy and ignorant soldiers, and Polybius — who had lately returned from a similar spectacle at Carthage — saw some of the finest pictures thrown on the ground and used as dice-boards. . . . Corinth was then dismantled and burnt, and remained a mere village until its restoration in 46 by Caesar." f The sack of Corinth had taken place about two centuries before the arrival of S. Paul, but the memory of disasters lingers long, and we know that there existed in the restored city some relics — temples or other public buildings — which had escaped both the fierce- ness of the flames and the violence of the plunderers, surviving to perpetuate the tradition of the great overthrow from which they had emerged. We have * MoMMSEN, Provinces of the Roman Empire, vol. i. p. 257. "In the treatment of Corinth mercantile selfishness had, after an ill- omened fashion, shown itself more powerful than all Philhellenism." t Shuckburgh, Hist, of Rome, p. 525. 56 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY a parallel in our own history. Rather more than two centuries have elapsed since the Great Fire of London in Charles II.'s reign; but the memory of that immense conflagration is still green among us. We may detect a reference to the sack of Corinth in S. Paul's description of that fire of the Divine Judgment, which will consume everything that is not precious and solid. " But if any man buildeth 07i the foundation goldy silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble ; each mans work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire ; and the fire itself shall prove each man's zvork of what sort it is."* For a century Corinth remained in desolation, and then a new era in its history began, when "the greatest of all Romans and of all Philhellenes, the dictator Caesar," made "the atonement for the sack of Corinth" by re-founding the city as a Roman colony. This was in the year 46 B.C. S. Paul came to the new city in the year 52 A.D. In this com- paratively short period of 98 years the growth of Corinth had been extremely rapid. " The Greek merchants, who had fled on the Roman conquest to Delos and the neighbouring coasts, returned to their former home. The Jews settled themselves in a place most convenient both for the business of com- merce and for communication with Jerusalem. Thus, when S. Paul arrived at Corinth after his sojourn at Athens, he found himself in the midst of a numerous population of Greeks and Jews. They were probably far more numerous than the Romans, though the city * I Cor. n\ 12, l^. THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 57 had the constitution of a colony, and was the metro- polis of a province."* Corinth, moreover, was associ- ated with the famous Isthmian games, which every second year attracted a vast concourse of Greeks. It seems probable that, during his residence in the city, the Apostle actually was present during the games :t it is certain that he was both interested in them and familiar with the rules under which they were carried on. Many allusions to athletics may be found in his Epistles. It will suffice to quote one from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. He com- pares the Christian to an athlete contending in the foot-races which were the favourite contests of the ancient Greeks. " Knozv ye not that they wJiich nut ht a race rim all, but one receivetJi the prize ? Even so run that ye may attain. And every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible croivn ; but we an incor- ruptible. I therefore so rtin^ as not uncertainly ; so fight /, as not beating the air ; but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected!^ % The visitor to the site of ancient Corinth will be able to trace the remains of the Posidonium or sanctuary of Neptune, the scene of the Isthmian games. "The exact site of the temple is doubtful, and the objects of interest, which Pausanias describes as seen by him within the enclosure, have vanished ; * CONYBEARE and HowsON, xii. t " It may be confidently concluded that he was there at one of the festivals. {Ibid. c. xx.) X I Cor. ix. 24-27. 58 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY but to the south are the remains of the stadium, where the foot-races were run ; to the east are those of the theatre, which was probably the scene of the pugiHstic contests ; and abundant on the shore are the small green pine trees, which gave the fading wreath to the victors in the games."* Religiously Corinth enjoyed an evil prominence as the centre of " the abandoned and unclean worship of Aphrodite, to whose temple more than a thousand priestesses of loose character were attached." This circum- stance may explain the anxious and reiterated emphasis on the duty of purity which marks the Epistles to Corinth, and the constant association in S. Paul's thought of idolatry with sensuality. The record of the founding of the Christian Church in Corinth is contained in the i8th chapter of the Book of the Acts. ''After these things {i.e., the visit to Athens and disputation there with the philosophers) he departed from Athens and came to Corinth. A7id he found a certain Jew named Aqiiila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla^ because Claudius had commaftded all the Jews to depart from Rome!' We may notice the reference to Imperial history. The Roman historian Suetonius, who, though writing at a later date, probably reproduces the words of a contemporary document, states that this edict of Claudius was occasioned by disturbances at Rome led by one Chrestus, by whom we must understand the leader of the Chrestians or Christians, whom the ill- informed Romans supposed to be still living. The narrative proceeds: — ''And he came unto them; and • Diet, of the Bible, art. " Corinth." THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 59 becatise lie was of the same trade^ he abode with them, and they zvrought; for by their trade they were tent- makers" We have here an interesting indication of the strict Rabbinic influences under which S. Paul had been brought up. The Rabbis strongly insisted that every boy ought to be taught a trade. " He that teacheth not his son a trade, doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief" is a saying of Rabbi Judah. We may learn from the Epistles how great store the Apostle set by the independence which his ability to earn his own living secured to him. He made the Gospel without charge to his converts. He took advantage of no man. " Ye yourselves know]' he said to the Ephesian presbyters, " that these hands minis- tered unto my necessities^ and to them that were with me,"^ Following his custom in every city where the Jews were numerous, S. Paul first addressed himself to the authorities of the synagogue. Doubtless the scene in Pisidian Antioch was repeated in Corinth. '-^ After the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying. Brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say 07i!'\ The Apostle at first met with considerable success. The earlier stages of his preaching con- tained little that would offend the prejudices of his hearers, while his fervent loyalty to the spiritual destiny of Israel, his profound knowledge of the Scriptures, and his earnest eloquence would go far to conciliate the most suspicious. A change, however, happened when he passed on to the central element of his message. " But when Silas and Timothy cam: * Acts XX. 34. t Ibid, xiii, 15. 6o APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY down from Macedonia, Paul was constrained by the Word {avveix'^ro to.) \6yw), testifying to the Jews that Jesns was the Christ!' It is not easy to connect the arrival of S. Paul's companions with his increased energy in preaching. It has been suggested that they brought a supply of money, and so enabled the Apostle to leave tent-making and give himself up wholly to his preaching. It is certainly true that the Philippians did minister to S. Paul's necessities, for he gratefully acknowledges their bounty in his Epistle to them (iv. 15); but it seems difficult to reconcile this sense with the structure of the passage in the Acts. We may learn from S. Paul's own account of his preaching at Corinth that it presented marked features. '^ And /, brethrefz," so he writes to the Corinthians, " when I came nnto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery of God. For I determined not to know any- thing among you, save fesus Christ, and Him crucified. A nd I was with you ht weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and tny preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demojt- stration of the Spirit and of power : that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of me7i, but in the power of God." ({\. 1-5.) Perhaps the Apostle looked back with half-regret- ful feelings on his disputation at Athens, when he had laid aside the manner of an apostle in order to contend in the character of a sophist with the sophists of the Athenian schools. '* It would appear," observes Professor Ramsay, " that Paul was disappointed and perhaps disillusioned by his ex- THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 6i perience in Athens."* Certainly his insistence on the crucifixion of the Messiah would be as offensive to the Jews as it was ridiculous to the philosophers. We are not surprised to learn that opposition mani- fested itself, and soon took a violent form. The Apostle was little disposed to conciliate or com- promise with the Jews. '^And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook out his raimefit, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your ow7i heads ; I am cleafi : from henceforth I will go u?ito the Gentiles. A?id he departed thence, and went into the house of a certain man named Titus fustus, 07ie that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the ruler of the syjiagogue, believed i7i the Lord with all his house ; aiid many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized!^ The open breach with the synagogue must have taken place sooner or later, wherever the Gospel was preached in the synagogue ; here in Corinth the process was carried through by the Apostle him- self. The house of the converted proselyte became the first independent Christian Church ; for the first time the connection with the venerable system of Judaism was repudiated ; Christianity stood out in its true character as a new religion. This important event took place amid circumstances of great dis- turbance and difficulty, which, however, eventually turned out to the furtherance of the Christian cause. S. Paul had clearly gauged the critical character of his action, and braced himself for conflict. He was inwardly strengthened by renewed assurance of the * .S". Paul, the Traveller a?id (he Roman Citizen, p. 252. 62 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY Divine Protection. "And the Lord said tmto Paul ifi the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : for I am with thee, and no mart shall set on thee to harm thee : for I have much people in this city. A nd he divelt there a year and six months, teach- ing the Word of God a^nong them'' We can imagine how bitter were the feelings with which the Jews regarded the seceders from the synagogue. Corinth had easy communication by sea with Palestine. We may be sure that the malignant enemies of S. Paul at Jerusalem exerted their influence to stimulate and organize the opposition against him in Corinth. An opportunity for action was provided by the arrival in the city of a new proconsul of Achaia. " Bnt when Gallio was proconsid of Achaia, the fews with one accord rose np against Paul, a?id brought him before the judgment seat, sayifig, This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paid was about to open his mouth, Gallio said tmto the fezvs, If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of ivicked villany, O ye fews, reason ivould that I should bear with you : but if they are questions about %vords and names and yotir own law, look to it yourselves ; I am not minded to be a judge of these matter s^ " It is clear," observes Professor Ramsay, " that Gallio's short speech represents the conclusion of a series of inquiries, for the accusation, as it is quoted, does not refer to words or names, but only to the law. But it is reasonable to suppose that the Jews put their accusation at first in a serious light, with a view to some serious penalty being inflicted ; and Gallio, on probing their allegations, reduced the THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 63 matter to its true dimensions as a question that concerned only the self-administering community of 'the Nation of the Jews in Corinth.'"* The governor's action gave great satisfaction to the Greeks of Corinth, with whom the Jews were probably extremely unpopular. A demonstration of public feeling was made in the very presence of the proconsul. " T/iey air {i.e., the Greeks) ''laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogtie, and beat hint before the judgment seat'.' Even this violence did not disturb the placid mind of Gallio. He ''cared for none of these things!' Shortly afterwards Paul himself left Corinth, and sailed for Syria. It is curious that precisely at this time, when his relations with the Jews were so strained, and when he had himself conducted an open secession from their synagogue, we should read of his performing a ritual act required by Jewish law. He shaved his head in Cenchreae ; for he had a vow. Perhaps he was already preparing for his encounter with the intensely Judaistic Church of Jerusalem, in which he knew himself to be the object of general suspicion, and not a little positive hostility. He was acting on that conciliatory principle which he had laid aside in the conflict with the Corinthian Jews, but which marked his conduct at Jerusalem. " / am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" is his own account of himself The episode before the proconsul's judgment seat illustrates the neutral attitude which, in the earliest period of Church History, was maintained by the Roman Government * S. Paul, pp 258-9. 64 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY towards Christianity. At the same moment the sharpest contrast was presented between the fanati- cal hatred of the Jews and the impartial justice of the Empire. The impression made by the contrast on S. Paul's mind is reflected in the Epistles to the Thessalonians, which were written during his resi- dence in Corinth. In no other of his letters does the Apostle write with such bitterness of his own nation. '' Ve also suffered the same things of your 0W71 countrymen even as they'' {i.e., the Christians of Judaea) '^ did of the fews; who both killed the Lord fesus and the prophets, and drave out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men ; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved ; to fill tip their siiis alway : but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost!' * This is the language of deep indignation. S. Paul has clearly come to the decision that there is no hope of working through the Jews or with them. His separation of the disciples, and organization of an independent con- gregation in the house of Titus Justus, was but the expression in act of the sentiments he expressed in the Epistles to Thessalonians. On the other hand, he gained a new estimate of the spiritual value of the mighty organization of the Empire which had rescued him from his adversaries and authorized the existence of the Church. We may truly say that "the residence at Corinth was an epoch in Paul's life." His view of the Roman Government as the providential agent for enabling the preaching of the Gospel is ambiguously expressed in the second * I Thess. ii. 14-16. THE CHURCH IN CORINTH 65 Thessalonian letter, in which he speaks of the re- straining force which at present checks the " mystery of lawlessnessl' and the removal of which will be the signal for the great catastrophe of the second Advent.* In the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans his language is definite and clear: — " The powers that be are ordained of God!' f We gather from the Epistles to the Corinthians that the Church in Corinth was mainly composed of Gentiles. The name of " Sosthenes our brother " is associated with the Apostle's in the opening verse of the first Epistle ; and it is natural to conjecture that he may be identical with the ruler of the synagogue, whom the rabble beat before Gallio's judgment seat ; but there is nothing beyond the identity of names to show that so conspicuous a success had been vouchsafed to the Church. The general drift of the Epistles prohibits the notion that any large proportion of the Corinthian Christians were Jews ; yet the numerous references to Scripture and to the system of Judaism make it certain that knowledge of both was general in the Church. Probably Titus Justus, whose name sufficiently indicates that he belonged to the Italian colony, and who is expressly described as a proselyte, was representative of many. The core of the Church in Corinth, as in most of the great cities of the Empire, was found in the Greek proselytes, who possessed the Scriptures, and attended the worship of the synagogues of the Dispersion. * 2 Thess. ii. 7. f Rom. xiii. i. CHAPTER III. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH AFTER his acquittal before the tribunal of l\ Gallio, or to speak more exactly, his escape from trial through the imperturbable neutrality of the proconsul, S. Paul yet tarried mafiy days in Corinth;* then, solemnly bidding farewell to the Church, he started on a leisurely journey to Syria by way of Ephesus. While he was visiting Caesarea, and making a general visitation of the Churches which he had founded, there came to Ephesus a learned and eloquent Alexandrian Jew, named Apollos. Ignorant of the Gospel history, ^'knowing only the baptism of John',' Apollos " was mighty in the Scriptures" and his reasonings were entirely favour- able, so far as they went, to Christianity. Happily Priscilla and Aquila (who had left Corinth in S. Paul's company) had remained at Ephesus when the Apostle went forward to Caesarea, and from them Apollos learned " the zvay of God more carefilly!' He professed himself a Christian, and in that character was formally commended by the Ephesian brethren to the kindly reception of the Corinthian Church. His influence at Corinth rapidly * Acts xviii. i8. 66 THE LETTER FROM CORINTH 6j extended ; especially in controversy with the parent synagogue his labours were rewarded by great success, ^' for he pozveifully confuted the fews, a^id that publicly^ showing by the Scriptures that fesiis was the Christy While he was thus active at Corinth S. Paul had returned to Ephesus and entered on a lengthened ministry there, which, though marked by many crises of danger, resulted not only in the firm foundation of the Church in Ephesus itself, but also in the wide extension of Christian influence in the province of Asia. Shortly after S. Paul's settlement in the city ominous reports reached him from Corinth. The servants of Chloe brought tidings of divisions among the Christians, divisions which were only the more offensive since they sheltered themselves under the authority of justly venerated names. Apollos arrived from Corinth, and his tidings were in the main confirmatory of these reports. Especially, he had to tell of grave departures from the law of Christian purity. The heathen laxity in which the Corinthians had grown up, and by which they were surrounded, was assert- ing itself most manifestly among the baptized. S. Paul wrote a short Epistle on the subject of purity; this Epistle is referred to in the first of the canonical writings, but has not survived. Hearing further reports he determined to visit Macedonia and Achaia on his journey to Jerusalem, where his presence was required in the matter of the general collection for the poverty-stricken Christians of Judaea, which he had agreed to make among the Gentile converts, and which he designed to serve 68 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY as an assertion of unity. With this plan in view he sent on in advance two of his most trusted disciples — Timothy and Erastus — with instructions to organize the collection against his own arrival, and to rectify the disorders at Corinth.* In the interval, however, there arrived in Ephesus a depu- tation from the Corinthians, composed of three members — Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicusf — and charged with a letter from the Church. To this Corinthian letter S. Paul made answer in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and we are able to discover from the latter the outline of the contents of the former. The Corinthians appealed to S. Paul for direction on five matters of practical importance. The answers of the Apostle are marked by a tone of authority, which makes it evident that he regarded himself as the supreme ruler of his converts in spiritual matters. I. The first and, from some points of view, the most important question in the letter had reference to the subject of marriage. It is discussed and answered in the seventh chapter of our Epistle. The actual inquiry had reference to celibacy. Was it a legiti- mate state? Under what limitations and for what reasons was it to be commended? It is not very obvious to the modern reader why such an inquiry should have been made ; but a little reflection, and a study of S. Paul's reply, make it evident that the subject was * Acts xix. 21, 22. t I Cor. xvi. 17, "And I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus," It will be observed that the names are obviously Gentile. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH 69 both urgent and difficult. The relations of husband and wife within the married state were rendered extremely complicated by the advent of Christianity. How far did the heathen husband's authority extend over the Christian wife? How far was the heathen wife to be considered subject to the Christian hus- band ? Did the marriage hold good when one of the parties became Christian ? What was the posi- tion of the children ? Might new marriages between Christians and heathen be rightfully contracted ? How was the Christian doctrine of the spiritual equality of the sexes to be reconciled with the subordination of wife to husband in the married state ^ What about divorce ? The question of the Corinthians was neither simple nor unimportant : it dealt with real difficulties : and it is not too much to say that the highest interests of society were at stake in S. Paul's treatment of it. Moreover, in ancient as in modern times, though far more powerfully, there has worked in devout minds that ascetic principle, which assuredly true in itself, does easily lend itself, and has constantly lent itself to the most disastrous errors. Was the single state religiously preferable to the married? T/zat, S. Paul answers, must be determined by considerations of expediency * His own opinion was that in view of the approaching Advent of Christ, an event which would be preceded by great catastrophes, and in view of the claims of the religious life, it was better to remain single : but * C/. Eph. V. 22-33. This passage cuts up by the roots the idea that S. Paul believed in the superiority of the single life in itself. His own example sufficiently proves that he regarded it as superior in some circumstances and for some work. 70 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY he refused to advance beyond that position. That there was any inherent spiritual superiority in the unmarried state he would not allow. The false asceticism which degraded marriage found in S. Paul the most uncompromising antagonist. Unmarried himself, it is yet to him that we owe that sublime doctrine of marriage which makes it the symbol of the highest and holiest fellowship, which consecrates it as inherently spiritual, and associates it for ever with the very centre of Christian discipleship. II. The second question dealt with a practical matter of great urgency. S. Paul answers it in the eighth and tenth chapters of the Epistle. Ap- parently there were three inquiries : — 1. Was it permissible to buy and eat the meat publicly offered for sale in the market-place, although it was known that according to custom the sellers had offered it to idols ? S. Paul replies in the affirmative. " Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat, asking no question for con- science sake : for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof!' * 2. Was it permissible for a Christian to join with his neighbours in the feasts, which were held in the heathen temples, and formed, perhaps, the principal social gatherings t It seems probable that S. Paul has preserved the actual language of the Corinthian letter. " Now co7tcer7iing things sacrificed to idols : we hiow that we all have knoivledge : lue know that no idol is anything in the luorld, that ' nil thi?tgs are lawful! " These * X. 25, 26. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH ;i phrases were perhaps much on the lips of the Corinthians, especially of those who called them- selves the ''strong'' members, and regarded with ample disdain their more scrupulous brethren. S. Paul returns to the Corinthian question a twofold negative. Under existing circumstances their liberty to feast in heathen temples would hurt the con- sciences of many, and so break the supreme law of charity. " It may be true, as you say, that * meat will Jiot commend tis to God ' .• that ' neither if we eat not are we the worse : nor, ifive eat, are we the better ' .* but your point of view is wrong : you treat the subject purely in its selfish aspects." '* Take heed lest this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if a man see thee which hast know- ledge sitting at meat in a7t idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols ? For through thy hiowledge he that is weak perisheth, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And thus, siftnitig against the brethren, and zvounding their co7tscience when it is weak, ye sin against Christ!' How the petty ritual point grows in S. Paul's hands into a nobler thing, is transformed until the whole issue is lifted out of the controversial atmosphere of Corinth and judged at the foot of the Cross ! On the other hand, the Apostle condemns the practice of attending idolatrous feasts as involv- ing positive disloyalty to our Lord. * He apparently * Cf. I Cor. X. 19-21, with i Cor. viii. 4. Godet reconciles these apparently contradictory statements thus: — "Jupiter, Apollon, Venus assurement ne sont pas des etres reels : mais Satan est quelque chose. D'arriere toute cette fantasmagorie mythologique se cachent des puis- ;2 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY believed the heathen gods to be demons — a belief which was general in the early Church, and there- fore any participation in the heathen worships was a homage of Satan, and apostasy from Christ. " What say I tJieii ? that a tiling sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything ? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God : and I would not that ye should have conmuaiion with devils^ 3. Finally, might a Christian accept a private invitation to dinner in the house of a heathen friend, although the meat set on the table would probably have been " ofi^ered to idols " ? Yes, replies S. Paul, he may go, but if his attention is directly called to the idolatrous character of the meat, so as to raise the question of religious principle, he must decline to partake of the meat. " If one of them that believe not biddeth you to a feast, and ye are disposed to go : whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, This hath bee7i offered in sacrifice, eat not, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake.'' (x. 27-28.) Such is S. Paul's treatment of this question, which for so many ages has ceased to be urgent in the Christian Church, save where the Corinthian conditions are reproduced among the newly-founded Churches in heathen lands. For missionaries the subject has a direct and living sances malfaisantes, qui, sans etre des divinites, n'en sont pas moins tres-reelles, tres-actives, et qui sont parvenues a fasciner Timagination humaine et a detourner sur des etres de fantaisie le sentiment religieux des nations paiennes : de la les cultes idolatres, cultes addresses a ccs puissances diaboliques et non pas a Dieu." — Corinthicns, ii. p. 106. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH 73 interest, and even for other Christians, the members of an ancient Christian Church, the Apostle's teach- ing has a real value. I have sometimes reflected that under changed forms the inquiries of the Corinthians in the matter of idolatry still need answer. Many- devout disciples are distressed in conscience by the apparent necessity under which they are placed to accept and in a measure support an order of social life which they are convinced is poisoned with injustice. They are fearful of incurring guilt by maintaining a system which involves the practice known as sweating, and in their anxiety they are sometimes prepared to attempt very perilous economic and moral experiments. I suggest that the Pauline principles might apply. "Whatsoever is sold in the shops, buy, asking no question for conscience sake. . . . But if any man say unto you. These goods are manufactured under disgraceful conditions, the work-people are oppressed and the materials are adulterated or inferior, buy not, for his sake that showed it, and for conscience sake." HI. The Corinthian letter raised another question, which again, at first, strikes us as rather trivial, but which, on investigation, is found to be of real im- portance. How ought women to behave in the religious assemblies? Were they to be veiled? Might they take part in the conduct of worship? We must remember that Christianity effected a great change in the position of women. It was by no means easy to determine the practical application of that equality in Christ on which all Christians were agreed. Moreover, there were considerable perils 74 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY involved in any sudden extension of liberty to persons who were quite unaccustomed to its possession. In the profligate atmosphere of ancient Corinth these perils were obvious and grave. We shall have to return in a later chapter to the question of the conduct of public worship in the Corinthian Church, and I do not propose to anticipate here the discussion which will more properly be undertaken there. It will suffice to state that the Apostle insisted with some show of indignation that in the public assemblies the Christian women should be veiled, and that they should take no part in the actual conduct of the devotions. "'Let the women keep silence in the churches : for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but let them be in subjection^ as also saith the law!'* IV. The Corinthian Church was richly endowed with spiritual gifts, but the sense of order was frail, and the temper of responsibility inadequate. The public assemblies became scenes of confusion, almost of conflict. The need of some regulations wherewith to check anarchic tendencies and to ensure a more edifying conduct of the common devotions was apparent. It is sufficiently evident that the Corinthian letter included a request that the Apostle would deal with the subject. The discussion of spiritual gifts forms the climax of the Epistle. The beautiful description of the Church under the metaphor of the natural body has passed into the very texture of Christian thought ; the appended hymn on the glories of charity or love has taken its place in Christian literature as the unequalled unity of * I Cor. xiv. 34. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH 75 inspired thought and graceful though glowing language.* We owe both to the anarchy of the Corinthian assemblies. The fourteenth chapter con- tains the Apostle's actual rulings ; incidentally it enables us to gain view of the Apostolic Church in real life. We refrain from commenting on it here, because we shall have to deal with the whole subject in a later chapter. In putting forward the principles which ought to control the exercise of spiritual gifts, S. Paul makes a significant appeal to those members of the Corinthian Church who claimed to be most richly endowed with these graces, '•y/" any man tJiinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take k)wzvledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commajidment of the Lord!' {v, 37.) V. The Corinthian letter appears to have made reference to " the collection for the saints " which S. Paul had pledged himself to organize throughout the Churches which he founded. In the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle for polemical reasons is led to give an account of the circumstances under which he had done this. He is defending the cause of Christian liberty against the Judaizing fanatics who sought to impose on the Gentile Churches the yoke of the Mosaic law, and he narrates the history of his relations with the " chief est apostles'' ''fames and Cephas and fohn, they who zvere reputed to be * Kenan's enthusiastic description of this thirteenth chapter is worth quoting: — " Emporte par un souffle vraiment prophetique au dela des idees melees des aberrations qu'il vient d'exposer, Paul ecrit alors cette page admh-able, la seule de toiite la litterainre Chrctienne qui puisse etre comparce aux disc ours a e Jesus.'' — S. Paul, p. 408. 76 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY pillars!' These unquestioned leaders of the Church had not insisted on the imposition of the Jewish law. On the contrary, " whe?i they perceived the grace that was given unto " S. Paul they had readily consented to an arrangement by which, while they themselves undertook the conversion of the Jews, he should ''go unto the Gentiles^' one condition only they had insisted upon, and that S. Paul was more than willing to fulfil, ''only they would that we should remember the poor ; which very tiling 1 was also zealous to dor It is very evident that the success of this collection was earnestly desired by S. Paul.* It would cut the ground from under the feet of those who persistently accused him of disloyalty to the Mother Church of Jerusalem, and it would bring home to his Gentile converts the reality of their communion with their Jewish brethren. Yet he was clearly anxious as to the reception which his efforts would obtain at Jerusalem. He requests the prayers of the Roman Christians on his behalf, and his words convey the impression that he had misgivings as to the future. " Now I beseech yon, brethren, by onr Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together wUh vie in your prayers to God for me ; that I may be delivered from them that are disobedient in Judcea, and that my ministration luhich I have for ferusalem may be acceptable to the saints ; that I may come unto you in joy through the will of God, and together with you find rest.''^ That S. Paul's misgivings were justified by the event is manifest from the narrative in the Acts of his visit to • Fide HoRT, Romans and Ephcsians, pp. 40-44, f Rom. xv. 30-31. THE LETTER FROM CORINTH T] Jerusalem, a visit which led to his arrival in Rome as a state prisoner. We conclude, then, that the collection was regarded both by S. Paul and by the Corinthians as a matter of considerable importance. They inquire by what methods the money is to be collected and for- warded, and this is the Apostle's answer : " Now concernmg the collection for the saijits, as I gave order to the churches of G alalia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of yoic lay by him i?t store, as he may prosper, that 710 collectioiis be made when I come. And when I arrive, whomsoever ye shall approve by letters, them will I send to carry your boufity nnto ferusalem : and if it be meet for me to go also, they shall go with me.''^' We learn from the second Epistle that the Corinthians were not so zealous in this matter as S. Paul had expected them to be. No less than two chapters — the eighth and the ninth — are devoted to the subject, and the embarrassed tone of the Apostle is very apparent. He courteously dwells on the liberality of the Corinthians, but he re- minds them that " he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly',' and that " God loveth a cheerful giver!' S. Paul's answer to the Corinthian inquiry con- tains the earliest reference to the observance of the ^^ first day of the week!' We learn from the record of the Acts that the Christians of the Apostolic age were accustomed to receive the Holy Communion on that day. At Troas it is related that "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them^ * xvi. 1-4. 7^ APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY intending to depart on the morrow : and prolonged his speech until midnight!"^ It does not indeed appear that S. Paul intended the Corinthians to make their weekly contributions at the religious service, his language seems rather to suggest that each one should set aside his alms at home, and bring the total to the common fund on the Apostle's arrival ; but this in no way detracts from the significance of the reference. The ^' first day of the week" is mentioned as a matter of course; that was the obvious day which would suggest itself to every Christian mind when any matter connected with religion was in question. The explanation of this prominence, at once unquestioned and complete, points to the supreme event which was associated in Christian thought with the first day of the week. That event — the resurrection of Christ — stamped a character of greatness and joy upon the day, and en- dowed it with the name which has continued in use throughout the history of the Church, and remains the favourite name in the usage of disciples among themselves, — "the Lord's Day." Incidentally it is worth noticing that the Apostle provides a very remarkable piece of collateral evidence for the historic truth of that Article of the Creed, which perhaps may be described as the foundation of all the rest, " On the third day He rose again!' * Acts XX. 7. Part III. DOCTRINE AND THE SACRAMENTS CHAPTER I. THE HISTORIC CHRIST THE Corinthian Epistles were written before the canonical Gospels ; they may represent, therefore, an earlier stage of the tradition about our Lord. By carefully studying them we shall be able to discover what was the original account of Jesus Christ, which was circulated in the Church. If they confirm the history as it is presented in the four Gospels, we certainly have added, and that in no slight measure, to the strength of the reasons which justify our acceptance of that history. Manifestly the inquiry which we have in hand touches the very centre of our religion. Everything depends on the validity of our belief that the Founder of our religion was, what the Creed asserts that He was, the Son of God ; that being thus of divine origin and essence. He yet was very man ; that His death on the cross was no mere martyrdom glorious with the barren majesty of un- equalled fortitude, but an event, powerful for our salvation ; that His resurrection was no fair dream of ardent friendship, unable to reconcile itself to the extinction of the hopes which had grown round His person, but a fact able to bear the weight of Christian faith. The truth of Christianity stands or falls with G 8i 82 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY the truth of Christ's history. In the four Gospels we have a record of our Lord's life on earth, which for eighteen centuries has been accepted as a true record. This century, however, has brought that record under the scrutiny of a vigilant and rigorous criticism. Attention has been directed to the discrepancies in detail between the synoptic evangelists, to the remark- able difference between the history as presented by those writers and the history as presented by the author of the fourth Gospel. The discrepancies, even when the harmonists have tried their hardest, are real ; the difference between the first three Gospels and the fourth is manifest to every student. Yet, in spite of these, I do not think any impartial person will deny that there is left upon the student's mind an impression at once distinct and absolutely unique. The personality of Jesus looks out upon us from the Gospels, commanding, inscrutable, severe, yet beyond all parallel winning, tender, and pathetic. That personality constitutes the abiding charm of those writings. It is the secret of the power of Christianity. It is the magnet of souls, drawing out to itself the in- voluntary homage of the good, the pure, the just in every age and in every land. The question proposes itself and presses for answer. Is the impression left on us by the Gospels a just one? Is the personality of Christ, presented in those writings, a creation of pious fancy, or is it a transcript from actual ex- perience? In a word, are the Gospels in the main true? The inquiry which we have now in hand will help us towards the answer. If we can show that the Gospels do certainly present the earliest form of THE HISTORIC CHRIST 83 Christ's history, that, whatever else may be said about the picture of our Lord which they contain, this at least must be conceded, that it is the original picture, the first, the oldest ; that in the Gospels we have no later growth, no developed tradition, but in its essential features the same version of the life of Jesus as that which on the morrow of His death was accepted by the converts to Christianity — then, I submit, that we shall have advanced a long way towards the affirmative answer to the momentous questions we have proposed. Supposing, then, for the sake of our argument, that we had no other documents from which to form our conception of the history of Christ than these Epistles to the Corin- thians, what should we know about that history? Or, to state the same thing in other words, what account of Christ did S. Paul give to the Corin- thians ? Let me remind you that both the Corinthian letters were written in the year 57, that S. Paul had been at least for twenty years a professed disciple of Christ, that his knowledge of Christ's history must have been acquired at the time of his conversion, and that, therefore, the version of that history which these Epistles assume must have been current within the first eight or ten years after our Lord's crucifixion.* It cannot, I think, be reasonably disputed that whether w^e learn much, or whether we learn little from these writings about our Lord's life on earth, what we learn is certainly the original version of the history. We turn now to the Epistles themselves. * This is probably an under-statement of ihe facts. 84 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY The most casual reader must be impressed by the prominence of Christ in these Corinthian letters. Unless my counting is at fault our Lord is m.entioned by name sixty-nine times in the first Epistle, fifty- six times in the second. There are, besides, numerous references to Him more or less direct. He is referred to under two names, ''Jesus" and ''Christ''; often both names are combined, "Jesus Christ;' or " Christ Jesus." The title which is most commonly assigned to Him is "Lord"; except in quotations from the Old Testament, it would seem that wherever "the Lord" is mentioned, Christ is referred to. In one place he is emphatically described as the " 07ie Lord" of Christians; and in another the recognition of His Lordship is referred to as the test of discipleship. The contrasted for- mulas in the following passage would seem to have been actually current in Corinth. The one, perhaps, was the battle-cry of the synagogue ; the other, the rejoinder of the Church. " / give you to understand^ that no man speaking in the Spirit oj God saith, Jesus is anathema ; a?id 7io man caft say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit!'* Two events in Christ's History are specifically dwelt upon — His Crucifixion and His Resurrection. " We preach Christ criccijied, u?ito Jews a stumbling- block, and unto Greeks Joolishness."-\ S. Paul is fully conscious of the unpopularity of the fact upon which he constantly insists. " / determined not to know anytJdng amoJig you, save Jesus Christ, and Hi^n crucijied" X This fact emerges again and again in the * I Cor, xii. 3. t ^^tti- J- 23. X Ibid. ii. 2. THE HISTORIC CHRIST 85 Apostle's thought. Does he urge the necessity of purity, and the jealous exclusion from Christian society of all that endangers purity? It is the death of Christ which supplies the basis of his appeal. " Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lamp, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ!' " Ye are not your own ; for ye were bought with a price : glorify God therefore i?i your body^ * Does he seek an argument which shall bring home to the ''strong'' members of the Corinthian Church the real meaning of that proud insistence on their liberty to which they clung? He finds it in the Death of Christ. " Through thy knoiuledge he that is weak perishcth, the brother for whose sake Christ died!'] Does he seek an explanation of that affliction which shadows his apostolate? It is here that he finds it. The Apostles are "always bearing about in the body the dying of fesus, that the life also of fesus may be manifested in our body." I Will he confess the motive of his passion for souls ? It is still the Cross. ''For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that One died for all, there- fore all died ; and He died for all, that they which live should no lojiger live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died arid rose a gain!' % Do the Corinthians require an explanation of the con- trast between his lofty insistence on obedience, and his harassed, feeble personality? He will yet point them to the paradox of Christ's Passion. " Seeing * Ibid. V. 7, 8; vi. 19, 20. + Ibid. viii. ii. :;: 2 Cor. iv. 10. § Ibid. v. 14-15. S6 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY t/iat ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me : who to youward is not weak, but is powerful in you : for He was crucified through weakness^ yet He liveth through the poiver of God"* Now this insistence on the fact of the Crucifixion would be inexplicable if it stood alone ; but is not so much explicable as obvious when it is combined with the fact of the Resurrection. Regarded in the light of the triumph of Easter, the tragedy of Good Friday receives an interpretation which invests it with resistless attractiveness. " Wherefore we hence- fo7'th know no man after the flesh ; even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more."\ The Crucifixion is no longer merely or mainly the central Infamy of human history ; it is a Pageant of Divine Love ; it is the stepping forth into the vexed life of the Race of the Divine Helpfulness. " God was in Christ recon- ciling the world unto Himself not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation^ % The Resurrection is affirmed with a solemnity and caution not inade- quate to its crucial importance. The Apostle does not hesitate to stake on it the truth of Christianity. " If Christ hath 7iot been raised, your faith is vaifi ; ye are yet in your sins."^ The testimonies collected together in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle arc too important to be cursorily noticed here ; we must consider them separately in the next chapter. The Institution of the Eucharist is related in the * 2 Cor. xiii. 3. f /dt(i(. v. 16. t /d/(t V. 19. § I Cor. XV. 14. THE HISTORIC CHRIST 87 eleventh chapter, and so close is the parallel with S. Luke's Gospel that it leaves us in little doubt as to the source from which the Evangelist drew some of his materials. The form of the account as it stands in the Epistle suggests that in liturgical use it had already established itself. Reserving to a later stage in our inquiry the discussion of this subject, we may here pause to notice that the Apostle follows exactly on the lines of the Gospels in giving so great prominence to the closing scenes of our Lord's life. We learn that Christ was a Teacher, whose authority, indeed, is final in the Church. Twice, at least, S. Paul quotes the very words of Christ, and it is interesting to note that while in both instances the words are fairly representative of His teaching, in -neither do the canonical Gospels contain the actual words attributed to our Lord. In treating of marriage the Apostle lays down this rule on the authority of Christ :— " That the wife depart not from^ her husband, aitd that the husband leave not his wife:' Again, in arguing the right of the clergy to the sup- port of their flocks, he adduces as the final considera- tion this precept of Christ that " they which proclaim the gospel should live of the gospeir It is worth noticing that in the farewell speech to the Ephesian presbyters attributed to S. Paul in the Acts, there is another saying of Christ quoted which also is not found in our Gospels. He bade the presbyters " remember the ivords of the Lord fesus, hozv He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive!' (xx. 35.) 88 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY We learn incidentally that Christ had ''brethren'' and '' apostlesl' of whom twelve occupied a position of exceptional importance. One of these is mentioned by name, apparently as holding a certain recognized pre-eminence amongst them — Cephas. We also learn that one of Christ's brethren bore the name '' James!' " Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer^ even as the rest of the apostles^ and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?"^ It is evident that all these were well-known persons, whose authority no Christian would dream of disputing. In the testimonies of the Resurrection we find the following: — ''He appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve . . . the7i He appeared to Jayrtes ; then to all the apostles'.' \ In the second Epistle we are able to discover that within the apostolic college there was recognized a certain gradation of authority. Some were regarded as superior to the rest, if not in position yet certainly in influence. "/ reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chief est apostles." \ We learn from the Epistle to the Galatians, which, you will remember, was written about the same time as the Corinthian Epistles, and is, like them, of un- disputed authority, that these " chief est apostles" were "fames and Cephas and fohn." Moreover we have in these Epistles no obscure indications as to the character of the Historic Christ. It is assumed that the Corinthians are familiar with His self-abnegation. " Ye know the grace of our Lord fcsiis Christ, that, tJiougJi He ivas rich, yet for your sakcs lie became poor, that ye through His poverty • 1 Cor. ix. 5. t Ibid. XV. 5, 7. % 2 Cor. xi. 5. THE HISTORIC CHRIST 89 might become lichy* It is evident that the Christ of history was, in worldly circumstances, a poor man. His character was as notorious as his poverty. "/ Paul myself intreai you by the meekness and gentleness of Christl'\ says the Apostle. So far we have been concerned mainly with state- ments of fact, and I do not think anyone will deny that the agreement between the Gospels and these Epistles is, so far as it goes, complete. The Gospels confirm and explain the allusions in the letters, and are in the process themselves confirmed and explained. Now we may turn to the position assigned to Christ in these Epistles, and inquire how far it matches with the declarations about Himself which in the Gospels are attributed to our Lord. Here we should expect a large measure of variation ; for here the idiosyn- crasy of the Apostle would be free to assert itself. We shall find, however, that even here the witness of the Epistles to the Gospels is decisively favourable. We notice that great emphasis is laid by S. Paul on the Divine Sonship of Christ. God is described as the Father of Jesus Christ ; the description seems to carry with it a version of the Divine character. " The God and Father of the Lord fesus. He who is blessed for evermore^ knoweth that I lie not." % So Christ is called " the image of God',' in whose ''face " men may perceive " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" I Would it be possible to find a better comment on these expressions than these words from the fourth Gospel : — " No man hath seeii God at any * Ibid. viii. 9. t Ibid. x. I. :;: 2 Cor. xi. j I , § 2 Cor iv. 4-6. 90 AfOSTOLtC CHRISTIANITY time ; the 07ily begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him^* Christ is pre- sented in the Corinthian Epistles as a Divine Being, the object of Christian worship. The first Epistle is addressed not only to the '' saifits" at Corinth, but also to "^// that call upon the name of our Lord fesus Christ in every place!' To have the " mind of Christ" is to '^ know the mind of" God.f His name is united with that of God the Father in the Bene- dictions with which the second Epistle opens and concludes. S. Paul prayed to Him in tribulation and was strengthened. He is the Judge of the world before Whose Tribunal all men must be made manifest,\ In His ''day'' the spirit of the sinner who has done penance for his sin shall be saved. § He is \ki^ '' one foundation" of discipleship.|| He is the model which Christians must imitate. H He governs the Church with sovereign authority, allot- ting to every man his place, determining for every office its functions. He is the Head of the mystical Body into which Baptism admits, and in which the Holy Eucharist sustains men.** His grace is ineffably great ; His dignity is supreme. Unworthily to receive the Holy Communion is to be ''guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord!' Yet while so awful He is ever near at hand in watchful mercy. He will arrange the journeyings of S. Paul as well as afflict with fearful penalties the unrepenting sinners. No quota- tions can adequately express the intense conviction * S. John i. i8. t I Cor. ii. i6. :J: 2 Cor. v. lo. § I Cor. V. 5. I Ibid. iii. II. % Ibid. xi. I. *• Ibid, xii. THE HISTORIC CHRIST 91 of Christ's nearness which penetrates these Epistles. S. Paul naturally turns to Him for guidance, comfort, and strength. Nay, the astounding mystery is declared as a matter so surely established in the Christian consciousness as to be the very common- place of discipleship that Christ inhabits the Christian. " Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is ill you? unless indeed ye be reprobated* The numerous references to the Holy Spirit are not less impressive, and they also tend in the same direction. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, no- where formally defined, everywhere underlies S. Paul's language, and the Epistles conclude with a formula which is definitely Trinitarian. " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all" Now compare this version of Christ (if I may be permitted the expression) with the version presented in the four Gospels. Can it be truthfully said that there is any substantial discrepancy between them ? Is it not rather manifest that the agreement is remarkably close .-* Christ, as He is described in the Gospels, did claim to be the Son of the Father, the Light and Life of men, the Judge of the World, the King of the Kingdom, the Founder of the Church, the Model of Disciples. And you will not fail to notice that the parallel is particularly close with the Fourth Gospel. Whatever may be said — and I admit that much may be said — as to the form and language of that Gospel, I cannot question, with the Epistles of S. Paul before me, that the substance * 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 92 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY is genuinely evangelic. We are led to the conclusion that the original version of Christ's life, the version that within eight years of His Death was set before the converted Pharisee, from whose extant writings we may still learn it, was essentially the same as that which for so many centuries has been the Baptismal Confession of Christendom, which has long been known in the Church as the Apostles' Creed. If the evidence cannot prove the truth of the Creed, it certainly can prove its original character, and in an historical question to get the original version of the facts is to get all the assurance of truth you are able to get from historical inquiry. At the very beginning of Christian History the inquirer encounters the Problem of Jesus. The paradox which amazes, perhaps also offends him, is there already, before tradition has been swelled by myth and fable. He must find some other ex- planation of the Divine element in Christ's history than the obvious one of legendary expansion. Legend takes time to grow ; myth does not spring up in a night ; fable echoes faith, but cannot create it. The war of the critics over the documents cannot touch the facts of the Life of Christ. They are certified, so far as they can be certified, by the independent authority of the Pauline Epistles. Profoundly diverse in so many things, in this the nineteenth century finds itself at agreement with the first. The one changeless element in Christian History is the Person of Jesus. From It all grace proceeds ; to It all problems come for solution. It reconciles the contradictions of experience, and THE HISTORIC CHRIST 93 creates unity of faith out of the chaos of opinions. For the Person of Jesus is both Divine and Human, since in Its indissoluble Oneness meet the perfect Nature of God, and the perfect nature of man. Yes, amid the shifting sands of speculation, here is the Rock. The Historic Christ, Who loved the society of little children, and felt no shame to be the Comrade of the strayed and exiled ones of the earth, Whose fierce anger rushed forth in anathema upon hypocrisy, and pride of place, and selfishness of class. Whose stainless purity shamed into silence His embittered foes, Who wrestled in strong prayer beneath the olives of Gethsemane and prayed for His murderers in the Hour of His Agony, the Cross of Whose Passion is clothed with Eternal Glory — the Historic Christ remains when the last word of criticism has been spoken, the Alpha and Omega of Christian Faith, the only sure Foundation of Human Hope. CHAPTER II. THE RESURRECTION MRENAN has observed that the Resurrection . was of all the Christian dogmas the most repugnant to the Greek mind. We owe to the fact this memorable fifteenth chapter of the first Corinthian Epistle, perhaps the most important chapter in the Bible. It is evident that there were persons in Corinth who stumbled at this doctrine. ''How say so7ne among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?'' asks S. Paul. The objectors do not seem to have questioned Christ's Resurrection ; to do that would have been to stultify their position as Christians, but they denied the general Resurrection which — as the Apostle urged with unanswerable force — was really involved in the fact of Christ's rising. They may be compared with those heretics — HymencBus and Philetus — whose ''profane babblings " are censured in the second Pastoral Epistle, and who are described as "men who concerniftg the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already''* Among the Jews the Christian doctrine created no difficulties. The belief in resurrection and immortality was no new thing. " Within the Old Testament period, and even within Old Testament literature the gloom of Sheol begins to lighten, while between the Maccabean age and • 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18. 94 THE RESURRECTION 95 the birth of Christ the * larger hope ' had become a permanent dogma of Judaism."* The doctrines of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body were firmly held by the Pharisees, and their influence was generally supreme within the sphere of Judaism. Gibbon does not overstate the fact when he says that "the immortality of the soul became the prevailing sentiment of the synagogue under the reign of the Asmonean princes and pontiffs." The narrative of the Acts illustrates the different attitude of Jews and Greeks towards the message of the Resurrection. S. Paul could count on the sympathy of the Pharisees when he urged this doctrine. On one occasion he availed himself of that sympathy in order to avert a judicial condemnation. " When Paul perceived that the one part (of the Sanhedrim) were Saddticees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brethren^ I am a Pharisee, a so7i of Pharisees ; touching the hope a7id resurrectio7i of the dead I am called ifi qtiestion." f The result of this appeal abundantly justified the Apostle's expectation. The assembly was divided, and the " scribes of the Pharisees part " openly espoused his cause. On the other hand, the Greeks received the announcement of Christ's Resurrection with con- temptuous incredulity. Of the Athenians we read that " when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked'' X The prominence given to the Resur- rection in the preaching of S. Paul is apparent on the face of the history of the Acts. The Athenian philosophers, indeed, supposed that the '' Resur- * MONTEFIORE, H. Z., p. 455. f Acts xxiii. 6. % Ibid. xvii. 32. 96 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY rection " was the name of a separate Deity. " Certain of the Epiciireaft a?id Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said. What would this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange gods : hecatise (adds the historian) he preached fesus and the resurrection"^ Festus, also, was impressed with the Resurrection as the principal subject of S. Paul's teaching. He described his apostolic prisoner to King Agrippa as one who was not accused of any evil things, but whose enemies " had certain questions against him of their own religion^ and of one fesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive."] The case was not different with the older Apostles. They, indeed, were the original eye-witnesses, and their incommunicable function was to declare the fact of Christ's Resurrection. " We are witnesses" said S. Peter to Cornelius and his friends, " of all things wJiich He did both in the country of the fews a7id in ferusalem ; whom also they slew, hanging Him on a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drifik with Him after He rose from the dead."X It is important to notice the emphasis laid on the testimony of the Apostles. The record of the Gospels represents the followers of Christ as entirely destitute of any expectation that He would rise from the dead. Some of them were actually bearing in their hands the spices with which they designed to bury His Body, when they were encountered by tidings of the empty sepulchre and * Acts xvii. i8. t Ibid. xxv. i8, 19. X ^^>^i' x. 39-41. THE RESURRECTION 97 the vision of angels. The obstinate incredulity of S. Thomas refused belief to all testimony save that of his own senses. We may be sure that the Apostles were not more sceptical than the other disciples, nor disciples than the unbelieving Jews. From the first the belief in Christ's Resurrection was advanced on evidence which was considered to be irresistible, and was, in fact, generally accepted as such. S. Paul sets down in his Epistle to the Corinthians a list of testimonies which had been delivered to him soon after his conversion, and which he strengthens by the addition of his own personal testimony. He is care- ful to disclaim any originality for this summary of the Gospel. " I delivered unto yoti first of all that which also I received^ The expressions are identical with those adopted by the Apostle when treating of the Eucharist. " / received {irapkXa^ov) of the Lord that which also I delivered (TrapeScoKo) unto you P (xi. 23.) The kindred substantive to the verb here rendered to "deliver to" anyone is used by S. Paul in the second Thessalonian Epistle, where it is represented in English by the famous word " tradition," i.e.y some- thing delivered to somebody. " So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions (irapaSoa-ei^) which ye were taught, whether by word or by epistle of ours!"*' Now S. Paul expressly says in the Galatian Epistle that he did not make the acquaintance of the older Apostles until some time had elapsed after his con- version. " After three years I weiit up to ferusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried zvith him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save fames, the Lord's * 2 Thess. ii. 15. H 98 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY hrothcrr (i. 19.) It is significant that in the Hst of testimonies the only names mentioned are those of Cephas and James. This coincidence corresponds with the probabilities of the case in assigning the origin of this " tradition " which S. Paul delivered to the Corinthians to his visit to Jerusalem three years after his conversion. This visit may be reasonably ascribed to the year 38 of our era, that is, precisely eight years after the Crucifixion of our Lord. In Jerusalem, then, the scene of the alleged fact, where, if the statement were false, overwhelming evidence must have been at hand to demonstrate its falseness by the very men who had companied with Christ during His life, and had been panic- stricken by His Death — within eight years of the supposed occurrence, S. Paul received the following statement : — " TJiat Christ died for our sins according to the Sc7'ipt2ires ; and that He was buried ; and that He hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures ; and that He appeai'ed to Cephas ; then to the twelve ; then He appeared to above ^00 brethrefi at once ; then He appeared to James ; theft to ail the Apostles^ S. Paul, in rehearsing this "tradition," inserts a comment and makes an addition. Of the 500 brethren, he says, " the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep^ Is it extravagant to infer from these words that S. Paul had known many of these brethren, and learned from their own lips the glorious Fact of which they had been specta- tors ? He adds to the list his own testimony. ^' And last of all, as u?ito one born out of due time, He appeared to me aiso,'* That vision of the Risen Lord was THE RESURRECTION 99 supremely important to S. Paul. Not only had it been the cause of his conversion, but it was the basis of his Apostolic authority. He could meet the insulting questions of his judaistic opponents with confidence. " A7n I not free ? am I not an Apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord?^' It does not fall within the purpose of this inquiry to examine the evidences of the Resurrection ; it is sufficient to show that in the Apostolic Church the fact of the Resurrection was presented to men as claiming their belief reasonably. It was matter of legitimate questioning ; it challenged inquiry ; it required proof; it possessed — so the Apostles maintained and so the Church believed — overwhelming proof. It may be permitted to remark that— apart from the refusal to allow any evidence as adequate to prove the Resurrection — the evidences which satisfied S. Paul remain to-day unshaken by centuries of questioning and criticism. But what were the Corinthians taught about Christ's Resurrection ? What was the understanding of the Fact which obtained in the Apostolic Church ? The fifteenth chapter, which opens with the traditional testimonies to the fact, proceeds to expound the doctrine of the Resurrection. ''But now hath Christ been raised fi'oin the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in CJwist shall all be made alive. But each in his own order ; Christ the first-fruits ; the7i they that are Christ's at His coming!' Our Lord is the true representative of the race in its spiritual, as 100 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY Adam in its natural capacity. In His case the law is first operative, which shall in due course be operative in all His brethren. The Resurrection is not so much miraculous as natural ; the working of the law, which is ultimately to work universally. S. Paul proceeds to argue the moral necessity of the Resurrection. The practice of baptizing for the dead assumed the life beyond the grave, in which the sacrament, thus vicariously received, could prove its efficacious virtue. ''Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?'' Con- siderable doubt has been expressed as to the meaning of this " baptism for the dead." The difficulty hardly so much arises from any obscurity in S. Paul's language as from an unwillingness on the part of students to admit the existence in Apostolic times, and, apparently, under Apostolic auspices, of a practice which seems plainly superstitious. We do not share that unwillingness, and, therefore, do not perceive the difficulty. M. Renan, perhaps, goes too far in his explanation of the Corinthian usage. "The faithful," he says, " called to mind their excellent ancestors, who had died without having known the truth which saves. A touching practice — baptism for the dead — was the consequence of this feeling. They believed that in being baptized for those of their ancestors, who had not received the sacred water, they conferred on them the merits of the sacrament ; thus they allowed themselves to hope that they would not be parted from those whom they had loved." We cannot think that the practice had so wide an THE RESURRECTION loi application. Rather we should suppose that it was limited to the case of those who being desirous of baptism were cut off by death before they could receive the Sacrament This view is confirmed by the testimony of S. Chrysostom, who relates, not without expressions of contempt, the custom of certain Christians. "After a catechumen was dead they hid a living man under the bed of the deceased, then coming to the dead man they spoke to him and asked him whether he would receive baptism, and he making no answer the other replied in his stead, and so they baptized the living for the dead." The reason of their action is stated by Epiphanius. They feared "lest in the resurrection the dead should be punished for want of baptism." While we may agree with Dean Stanley in regarding this " baptism for the dead " as a " curious relic of primitive superstition," we shall maintain that the idea underlying the practice was a true one. S. Paul only appeals to the custom as an indication of the necessary assumption of the Resurrection which the Corinthians were making. He goes on to urge the kindred witness of all hardship borne for the sake of righteousness, nay, of all effort after righteous- ness. " W/ij^ do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? I protest by that glorying in you, brethren^ which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If, after the manner of 7nen, I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me ? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!' Loyalty to righteousness is an act of faith in that life beyond the grave, in which righteousness shall be seen to be 102 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY victorious. Here in this strange world, where the wicked flourish as the bay tree and the heroes of self-sacrifice sink unregarded into their graves, the servant of Righteousness must " endure as seeing Hiniy Who is invisible!' But a host of objections were urged, are still urged, in the name of reason, of physical science. ''BiU someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do they come ? " There are many in these days who object to the doctrine of the Resurrection its incompatibility with what are con- veniently called the " laws of nature." S. Paul, as Christ had done before him,* points to the significant analogy of nature. " Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened^ except it die ; a?id that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind ; but God give th it a body even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own. . . . So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corrup- tion ; it is raised in iiicorruption ; it is sown in dishonour ; it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weak- ness ; it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spiritual body!' * Cf. Archbishop Temple's Bampton Lectures, pp. 196-7 (London, 1884). "It is quite possible that our Lord's Resurrection may be found hereafter to be no miracle at all in the scientific sense. It fore- shadows and begins the general Resurrection ; when that general Resurrection comes we may find that it is, after all, the natural issue of physical laws always at work. . . . We may find that even in the language of strict science " He was the first-fruits of them that slept," and that His Resurrection was not a miracle, but the first instance of the working of a law till the last day quite unknown, but on that last day operative on all that ever lived." THE RESURRECTION 103 The idea of " a spiritual body " takes the doctrine of the Resurrection out of the category of the physical, and relieves it from all objections which proceed on the materialist supposition. The best comment on the phrase is provided by the Evangelic accounts of Christ's Resurrection. Evidently the Body of the Risen Saviour was an enfranchized, glorious Body ; no longer was It subject to the limiting conditions of terrestrial existence. It over- passed all physical impediments, coming and going in perfect obedience to the Will of Christ, recogniz- able as Christ's and yet different, so that only by an effort of awakened attention could the likeness be perceived. Read the last chapter of S. Luke's Gospel in connection with this fifteenth chapter of the Corinthian Epistle : remember that S. Luke probably drew from his great master, S. Paul, much of his knowledge of the Evangelic History, that the account of Christ's Risen Body may be regarded as correspondent with S. Paul's conception of the facts, and, therefore, as providing the basis of his doctrine of the spiritual body. You recall the experience of the two disciples with whom our Lord conversed on the way to Emmaus. "// came to pass, when He had sat down with them to meat, He took the bread and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. A nd their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sights* Our Lord Himself was the Author of the Pauline doctrine, when— as S. Matthew relates — He rebuked the coarse carnal notions of the Sadducees. ''Jesus answered and said tin to them, Ye * S. Luke xxiv. 30. 104 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY do erVy not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven'' * Such is the argument of the Apostle. ''Now this I say, b7'ethre7i, that flesh and blood caitnot inherit the ki?igdoin of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruptiofir In the silence of death the subtle alchemy of God shall work the great transformation ; the carnal, perishable element shall be purged away, and the emancipated spiritual element alone survive. So death shall not be the final disappointment of Christian Hope, as the Corinthians, misled by their expectation of an immediate Advent of Christ, had been disposed to think, but a stage of preparation for the ultimate state of blessedness. ''Behold, I tell you a mystery," cries the Apostle, kindling with his sub- lime theme : " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twi?tkling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the trumpet shall sounds and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed!' Yes ; the great transformation out of the material into the spiritual is the essential thing ; whether by death or by some unknown process apart from death. " We shall be changed. For this cor- ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, afid this mortal shall have put on iuimortality , then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, whej'e is thy victory? O death, wJicre is thy sting ? The sting of death is sin ; * S. Matt. xxii. 29, 30. THE RESURRECTION 105 and the power of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!' S. Paul catches up into his impassioned speech the famous utterances of the prophets. Isaiah* had described the bHss of that great dehverance when the Lord God should have ^^ swallowed up death for ever'' ; and Hoseaf at a still remoter period had spoken even more wonder- fully. "/ will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death ; O deaths where are thy plagues ? O grave^ where is thy destruction?'' The prophets were stirred by the thought of great national deliverances ; the Apostle borrows their language to express a nobler victory. The faith in the Resurrection, firmly built on the conviction that Christ had actually risen from the- dead, was the source of that high courage which marked the primitive Christians, and was so splen- didly conspicuous in the life of S. Paul. A new grandeur attached to life in the world when it was set free from servitude to physical conditions. ^'We know that if the eai^thly house of our tabernacle be dissolved^ we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!' % The humblest duties acquired a certain sanctity in view of the assurance of immortality. Among the Gentile converts there was, at first, a tendency to turn aside from the common tasks of life in order to reflect without distraction on the approaching glories of the Day of Christ. This tendency was, indeed, contrary to the mind of the Apostle, by * Isaiah xxv. 8. f Hosea xiii. 14. +2 Cor. v, i. io6 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY whom — in the Epistle to the Thessalonians — it was severely rebuked. Few things are more impressive than the calm, practical counsel with which S. Paul concludes the famous chapter we have been con- sidering. He passes from his ecstasy of praise to the plain duties of the hour. " Wherefore, 7ny beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abound- ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord!^ Have not those strong, simple words sounded to many, standing beside the open grave into which has just been lowered the mortal remains of their best beloved, as a true message of God, restraining the bitterness of grief, hallowing the stroke of calamity, proclaiming the everlasting greatness of duty in the very face of Death? Otherwise considered, human labour — all the vain strivings of men, their splendid ambition, their sublime aspirations, are perishing and worthless ; but from the empty tomb in the counsellor's garden streams on all honest work a new and nobler light. Henceforth all honest work is transacted ''in the Lord]' and believers know (even as the tears fall for dear ones gone) ''that their labour is not in vain in the Lord" CHAPTER III. THE CORINTHIAN HERETICS THE Revisers have made use of two words to render into English the Greek aipea-ig. It is a "heresy" or a "faction." Thus in i Cor. xi. 19 the first is placed in the text, the last in the margin as an alternative rendering. " For there must be also heresies [margin, factions] among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Perhaps " faction " does best render the sense of the Greek word, although in this passage the distinction is so clearly drawn between " divisions " or " schisms " and " heresies " or '^ factions I' as to compel us to understand something more than the mere breach of unity. S. Paul seems to argue back from the external divisions to graver differences which they expressed. " For, first of all, zuhen ye cojne together in the chtirch, I hear that divisions exist among you; and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies among you!' It will be worth while to notice the New Testament usage of this word which here is rendered '''heresy" or ''faction!' Literally the word simply means '■'choosing''; then it is applied to the thing chosen, and so is used to describe opinions which men adopt with no better authority than their 107 io8 APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY own preference. Thus in the so-called second Epistle of S. Peter we read of ''false teachers, who sJiall privily bring in destructive heresies^' or (as the margin reads) "sects of perdition," by which we understand private opinions of their own tending towards perdition. This is nearly the later ecclesi- astical sense of heresy ; more commonly in the New Testament the word is used to signify any body of men holding a particular opinion. Thus we read in the Acts of " the aLp€CTL