Trained in the schools of paganism and tutored by Greek philosophers, the 2nd century Christian "Apologists" produced texts superior to those which had gone before. To retain their credence in the enlightened, prosperous age of the Antonine emperors, these Christian theorists remained "philosophers" and used Greek logic and the style of the sophists to defend Christianity.

Significantly, their attempts to underpin Christian theology with "science" had little to say about a human Jesus, for whom they produced no fresh evidence. Rather, their appeal was that their hero was "just like" the ethereal superstars of the pagan pantheon and was therefore "respectable".

Their apologies were nominally addressed to the emperors. The earliest we know of were written during Hadrian's reign (Aristides and Quadratus, around 125-130). But in reality their tracts were directed at the brethren, stiffening Christian belief in the face of rational criticism – just like modern Apologetics!

Theophilus – "Christians because we're anointed with oil."

Bizarre! 2nd century Christian bishop did not know of Jesus!

"Theophilus to Autolycus – Book 1, Chapter 12 - Meaning of the Name Christian.

First, because that which is anointed is sweet and serviceable, and far from contemptible ... And what man, when he enters into this life or into the gymnasium, is not anointed with oil? ... Wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God."

Theophilus refers extensively to Jewish scripture and even to the prophecies of the Greek Sibyl but makes only passing reference to recent and unnamed gospels. For Theophilus the 'holy word' is nothing other than Jewish scripture.

Clement of Alexandria

Late 2nd-early 3rd century Greek Titus Flavius Clemens (he died about 215) was an educated and widely travelled pagan who converted to Christianity. Born in Athens, he studied and taught at the catechetical school in Alexandria, where Origen was his pupil. He probably died in Cappadocia.

Clement struggled to synthesise his new found faith with the platonic rationalism he had grown up with. All rational creatures, he reasoned, possessed 'the seeds of Truth' from God and this certainly included the philosophers of Greece. None the less, in his 'Protrepticus' ('Address to the Greeks') Clement sought to prove Greek thought inferior to Christianity.

Although Clement flirted with Gnosticism he was unwilling to accept that 'a secret knowledge' had been passed down from initiate to initiate It didn't save him from being condemned as a Gnostic and losing his sainthood in the 17th century. Perhaps one original idea that counted against him was the notion that "Jesus had reigned as King of Jerusalem"!

This bit of the Jesus story got edited out early on in the creative process. It is from Clement's Stromata 1.21:

"That the temple accordingly was built in seven weeks, is evident; for it is written in Esdras.

And thus Christ became King of the Jews, reigning in Jerusalem in the fulfilment of the seven weeks.

And in the sixty and two weeks the whole of Judaea was quiet, and without wars. And Christ our Lord, "the Holy of Holies," having come and fulfilled the vision and the prophecy, was anointed in His flesh by the Holy Spirit of His Father."

 

Tertullian

Tertullian of Carthage, the first Christian scholar to write in Latin, was an aggressive, sarcastic writer who actually opposed the use of philosophy in defending Christianity. He gave the Church in the west much of its language, including the word Trinity, and began its disposition towards blind faith and intolerance ("Prescription Against the Heretics"). He was also an active forger, writing many of the epistles so useful to Roman Catholicism.

After the chaos which followed the murder of Commodus, a fellow north African, the career soldier Septimius Severus (193-211), came to the throne. During his 18 year reign the African provinces became the recipients of considerable imperial patronage.

Opportunities for Tertullian's own advancement were mixed with fear. In 195 Severus had become embroiled in an expensive eastern campaign. After annexations in Parthia, Severus's son Bassianus (aka Caracalla) was accorded a triumph "over the Jews" (Historia Augusta: Life of Septimius Severus).

"Jewish manners" were not popular in official circles and when the emperor visited Alexandria in 202 he issued an edict forbidding Jewish proselytising and conversions to Judaism. Tertullian, anxious to demonstrate that his Christian religion was not a Jewish sect nor tainted by Judaism, edited the sacred texts and forged others (Clementines, Ignatians) to make the distinction clearer. For all his hysterics about "persecution" Tertullian continued in the sanctity business.

In his later years he became increasingly critical of Catholic compromisers and defected to the Montanists (a chiliastic cult which anticipated an imminent End Time) and thus ranks as a heretic himself.

Around the year 157, Montanus himself had run off with two other men's wives – Prisca and Maximilla – and taken up residence in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. There, he had groomed his priestesses as mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit. Induced into a trance-like states, the women shook violently and rambled incoherently. Disagreement with their ecstatic utterances was, it seems, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

And what the Christian witches prophesied was an imminent new Jerusalem, descending from the clouds with Christ at the helm, landing in Phrygia.

The extremist cult spread to north Africa where Tertullian was drawn to its strict asceticism and intolerance of those who had 'fallen into sin.' Oddly enough for an End Time movement, Montanism lasted several centuries. Then again, apocalyptic movements are like that.

Origen

Origen was a prolific writer who sought a synthesis of Christianity and Platonism. He was one of the very few early Christian scholars capable of working with the Hebrew script. When Origen examined the Jewish scriptures he recognized that there were significant differences between the Septuagint Greek translation, familiar to Christians, and the original Hebrew texts used by Jews. In consequence he created the Hexapla. This massive "parallel columns" document, comparing the Septuagint to other Greek translations and to the original Hebrew version, proved useful in arguments with the rabbis.

Better informed on scripture than most of the brethren, Origen was compelled to adopt an allegorical interpretation of the blood-soaked Jewish fables. In fact, he argued all scripture had both physical and allegorical meaning.

Origen was something of a loose cannon. Sin, he said, was ultimately only a lack of pure knowledge. Christ was a teacher rather than a redeemer and was certainly not equal to the Father. Satan himself might eventually be redeemed.

In both De principiis and in his famous Contra Celsus Origen insisted that the philosophic mind had a right to speculate within the Christian framework – a freedom of expression that would lead to his condemnation as a heretic.

Dealing with the Philosophers & the Soothsayers

Where would it all end if every philosopher was at liberty to tease out fine nuances of scripture or find his own compromise with paganism?

Where would it all end if every self-styled prophet received his own message and set of imperatives? The threat of "fresh truth" – implicitly of higher authority than that of dead Apostles – was all too apparent.

Catholic Orthodoxy developed in response to its rivals. The challenge, on the one hand, of independent-minded thinkers and on the other hand, of an apocalyptic movement, led by wild men of faith and fire, compelled the placemen of the Church to respond. They federated themselves into a common organisation, established an obligatory "apostolic" Catholic faith, and enforced that faith with an insistence upon episcopal supremacy, based on the fiction of "apostolic succession."

Sources:
Maxwell Staniforth, Early Christian Writings (Penguin, 1978)
L. Boyle, St. Clements, Rome (Collegio San Clemente, 1989)
Jean Ritchie, The Secret World of Cults (Harper Collins, 1991)
A. M. Renwick, The Story of the Chuch (Inter-varsity Press, 1958)
John Riches, The World of Jesus (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
Nicholas Carter, The Christ Myth (HRP, 1993)

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