Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries

Contents.

LECTURE I
THE NEW TESTAMENT CONCEPTION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
The Promise of the Church (Ecclesia)		3
Jewish and Greek Meanings of Ecclesia		4
The Word has its Home in the Pauline Literature		5
It includes five great Thoughts		5
i.	Fellowship with Christ and with the Brethren	6-9
	St. Paul rings the changes on this Thought	7
	Fellowship with Christ manifested in “gifts” to the Church	8
	Fellowship among Believers implied in the early Names for Christians	9
ii.	Unity	10-15
	Church and Churches	10
	The Unity of the Church a primary Verity of the Christian Faith	13
iii.	The Church is a visible Community	16-24
	It can be seen in every Christian Community large or small for it is an ideal Reality	16
	This Ideal ought to be made manifest	18
	St. Paul’s way of manifesting the Unity of the Church of Christ	20
	His leading thought was “fellowship” (κοινωνία)	20
	How he grouped his Churches	21
	The great “Collection”	22
	The Methods of the Twelve	23
xviiv.	The Church has Authority	24-33
	The Promise of Authority made to St. Peter, to the Twelve and to the whole Company of the Believers	25
	How these Promises were interpreted by the primitive Church	32
	The Self-government and Independence of the Apostolic Churches	32
v.	The Church is a Sacerdotal Society	33-37
	The ideal Israel	33
	The sacerdotal Character belongs to the whole Membership	34
	Luther on the sacerdotal Character of the Church	35
	No Idea of a maimed Sacerdotalism in primitive Times	36
LECTURE II
A CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN APOSTOLIC TIMES
The local Churches in primitive Times met in private Houses		41
The Brethren had three Kinds of Meetings		43
i.	The Meeting for Edification	44
	The Service and the Arrangement of the Parts	44
	Almost unlimited Freedom in Worship	49
ii.	The Meeting for Thanksgiving (Eucharistic)	50
	The Details indistinctly given	50
	May be reconstructed	52
iii.	The Congregational Business Meeting	54
	It was the Centre of the Unity and the Seat of the Independence of the local Church	55
	It settled even the civil Disputes among the Brethren	55
	Every local Church was a little self-governing Republic	57
Leadership within the Christian Communities had a Distinctive Character, and implied Service and the possession of “Gifts”		62
Traces of a double Ministry, the prophetic and the local		64
These Ministries quite separate, but the Men composing them might belong to both		66
xviiLECTURE III
THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH
The Christian Community is a Body of which the Spirit of Christ is the Soul		69
The “Gift” to “speak the Word of God” the most prized		70
Its Complement was the “Gift” to “discern” or test those who “spoke the Word of God”		70
The prophetic Ministry was three-fold, Apostles, Prophets and Teachers		73
This three-fold Ministry is to be traced throughout the Church of the first and second Centuries		74
i.	Apostles were the Missionaries who founded the Churches	75
	Various Classes of Apostles	76
	Their Number increased during the earlier Decades	82
	The wider and narrower uses of the Word “Apostle”	85
	The special Character of Apostolic Work and Authority	87
	St. Paul as the Type of an Apostle	88
ii.	Prophets were found in every Christian Community, and sometimes wandered from one to another	90
	What Prophecy was	93
	Prophecy and Ecstasy	94
	Prophecy and visions	94
	Prophets were not Office-bearers	95
	They exercised a great deal of influence in matters of discipline, and had a unique place in the restoration of the lapsed	96
	Wandering Prophets and the Firstfruits	97
	Their Claims were to be tested by the “Gift” of Discernment	99
	False Prophets	100
iii.	Teachers, their special Work	103
The Prophets of the Old and of the Now Testaments compared		106
xviiiLECTURE IV
THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST CENTURY—CREATING ITS MINISTRY
Traces of several Types of Organization in the New Testament		113
The Seven of Acts vi. and the Jewish Village Community.		115
Elders in Churches outside Palestine		118
The Supremacy of James in Jerusalem, and a Series of Rulers who were of the Kindred of Jesus		119
Office-bearers in the Pauline Gentile Churches		121
The Prohistamenei and the Relation of Patron and Client.		123
The heathen Confraternities and their Organization		125
The Jewish Synagogues outside Palestine and their Organization.		129
The Christian Churches did not copy either the Synagogue or the Confraternities		131
They had an external Resemblance to both Synagogue and Confraternity		132
The Organization in the Pastoral Epistles		137
The Information given in the Pastoral Epistles is complementary to what is to be found in the earlier Epistles of St. Paul		148
Names for Office-bearers in early Christian Literature		152
Episcopus designates the Kind of Work done and is not the Name of an Office		153
The Meaning and Origin of the Christian “Elders”		153
The Churches in the first Century were ruled by a College of Presbyter-bishops who were assisted by a Body of Deacons		154
The Unity of the Church never forgotten in the Independence of the local Churches		155
Note on “Presbyter” and “Bishop”
Harnack’s Theory that Bishops were distinct from Presbyters from the first		157
The Witness of Clement		159
The Identity of the New Testament “Presbyters” and “Bishops”		163
xix LECTURE V
THE CHURCHES OF THE SECOND AND THIRD CENTURIES—CHANGING THEIR MINISTRY
The Ministry of the first Century was changed during the second		169
The Ministry in the Didaché		171
	The Congregational Meeting	173
	The Prophetic Ministry	174
	Elected Office-bearers	175
The Ministry in the Sources of the Apostolic Canons		177
	The smallest Christian Communities to be organized under Bishop or Pastor, Elders and Deacons	178
	A Ministry of Women	181
	The Reader and uneducated Bishops	182
	The Document shows a three-fold Ministry in a transitional Stage	183
The Letters of Ignatius		186
	Their Characters and Contents	187
	They plead for Unity through Obedience to the Office‑bearers	190
	The Organization they bear Witness to: a Bishop, a Session of Elders and a Body of Deacons, which form one whole	196
	They reveal a three-fold Ministry but not Episcopacy	198
	The Authority of the Bishop or Pastor limited	198
	The Powers of the Congregational Meeting	200
An unpaid Ministry explains how the smallest Body of Christians could have a complete Organization		200
The Organization of Bishop, Session of Elders and body of Deacons became almost universal within the Empire		204
The Reasons for the Change from a two-fold collegiate Ministry to a three-fold Ministry and the Paths by which the Change advanced can only be guessed		205
The Church has always the Power to change its Ministry		210

xxLECTURE VI
THE FALL OF THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY AND THE CONSERVATIVE REVOLT
The Work of Edification began to pass from the prophetic Ministry to the ordinary Office-bearers	213
The Causes which led to the Fall of the prophetic Ministry are not specifically known but may be guessed	217
The Need to make a combined Stand against Heresies	217
The Gnostic Treatment of Christianity	218
Marcion’s Canon, Creed, and Churches	219
Irenaeus voiced the Need which his Time felt	221
The Guarantee for Christian Truth is to be found in the Succession of Office-bearers in the Churches from the Times of the Apostles	223
Office-bearers were supposed to have a charisma veritatis	227
Effect of this on the prophetic Ministry	228
The Growth of a Desire to come to some Accommodation with the Empire	229
The Apologists	230
The Deterioration of Prophecy	233
Protests against the silent Movement in the Church	235
The Phrygian Movement the Centre and Exaggeration of what was affecting the whole of the Churches	236
Montanism properly speaking was conservative	238
Proof from Montanist Prophecy	239
The Break with the “great” Church	243
The Fate of the later Montanists	243
The Organization of the Churches after the Montanists were outside	244
What the Canons of Hippolytus tell us	245
A three-fold Ministry of Bishop, Elders, and Deacons	245
Qualifications, Choice and Ordination (which might be done by an Elder) of Bishops	246
Elders and Bishops were theoretically equal but practically very distinct	247
The two Meetings for public Worship	250
The Meeting for Exhortation	251
The Eucharistic Service	252
The Distribution of the Offerings	255
Comparison between the Organization of the Churches in the Beginning of the third Century and those of modern Times	259

xxiLECTURE VII
MINISTRY CHANGING TO PRIESTHOOD
In the Course of the third Century the Conceptions of the local and of the universal Church began to change	265
The Changes led in the End to the Idea that a local Church was a Body of Christians obedient to their Bishop and that the universal Church was the Federation of these obedient Communities	266
The Phases in this Change	266
The novel Position and Autocracy of the Bishop needed a Sanction which was found in the legal Fiction of an Apostolic Succession	278
The Idea first emerged in the Quarrels between Hippolytus and Calixtus	280
The Work and Influence of Cyprian	283
The Decian Persecution	287
The Lapsed	290
The “Authority” of the Martyr confronts the “Authority” of the Bishop	295
Cyprian’s Theory of the Position and Power of the Bishop	299
The Bishop is the Representative of Christ and has the Right to forgive Sins	305
Cyprian’s maimed Sacerdotalism: the Bishop a unique Priest and the Eucharist a unique Sacrifice	307
Cyprian’s Method of exhibiting the universality of the visible Church by Means of Councils	313
His Theory confronted by a Roman one which was in the End triumphant in the West	317
LECTURE VIII
THE ROMAN STATE RELIGION AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH
The Instrument for effecting the Grouping of federated Churches round the definite Centres was the Council or Synod	323
Sohm’s Theory of the Origin and Meaning of Synods	327
xxii The Synod was really the Application of the Congregational Meeting to a wider ecclesiastical Sphere	334
This democratic Principle of Organization confronted with an imperialist one; the two subsisted for long side by side	335
Councils became a regular part of the Organization of the Churches before the End of the third Century	336
The same Period saw other Changes	337
In the more compact Organization of the federated Churches the Roman Organization for the State pagan Religion was largely copied	340
The religious Reforms of Augustus	341
The Worship of the Emperors	342
The Organization of the Priesthood of the imperial Cult	348
This Organization copied within the Christian Churches	350
The Churches also copied the State Temple Service	353
The Church thus organized was still a Federation of Churches	358
Numerous and flourishing Christian Churches existed which did not belong to the Federation	359
After the Conversion of Constantine these outside Christians were vehemently persecuted by the State, which only acknowledged the federated Churches	359
APPENDIX
Sketch of the History of modern Controversy about the Office‑bearers in the primitive Christian Churches	364
INDEXES
Index of References to Contemporary Authorities, Canonical and Non-canonical	379
Index of Names and Subjects	386

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CONTENTS

Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries