What Really Happened at Nicea?
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V Demig 61311511311 Xterature Nmem. Edited by Professor George
E AR LY CHR I ST I AN L I T E RAT UR E P R I ME R S . T H E A P OS T OL I C FAT H E R S AND T H E AP OL OGI S T S O F T H E S ECON D E NT U R Y - 1 80 C D . , A . 95 T H E FAT H E R S OF T H E I R E N U R Y D 1 80- 2 T H D . C T , A 3 5 T H E - 2 — . P O T E E EE H E 0 N I C N R K T R S D . S G F . III A , A 3 5 75 I n re aration p p . - - P O T E H E R D 2 0. S N I N E T I N T S . C L A FA A . 3 5 59 V dEmI 61115 113 11 xterature n mem g 3 fi fi . d ited b P ro essor GE OR E P G . FI H E R D E S . D y f , . T H E MAR 1 2 1914 P OS T -N I CE N K FAT H E R G R E E S . o E A A KS ON E V G OR GE . C . R . J N E W Y O R K : N D C O M P A N Y D . A P P L E T O N A , I A N D B O N D S R E E . -
ABSTRACT the Apostolic Tradition in the Ecclesiastical Histories Of
ABSTRACT The Apostolic Tradition in the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret Scott A. Rushing, Ph.D. Mentor: Daniel H. Williams, Ph.D. This dissertation analyzes the transposition of the apostolic tradition in the fifth-century ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. In the early patristic era, the apostolic tradition was defined as the transmission of the apostles’ teachings through the forms of Scripture, the rule of faith, and episcopal succession. Early Christians, e.g., Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen, believed that these channels preserved the original apostolic doctrines, and that the Church had faithfully handed them to successive generations. The Greek historians located the quintessence of the apostolic tradition through these traditional channels. However, the content of the tradition became transposed as a result of three historical movements during the fourth century: (1) Constantine inaugurated an era of Christian emperors, (2) the Council of Nicaea promulgated a creed in 325 A.D., and (3) monasticism emerged as a counter-cultural movement. Due to the confluence of these sweeping historical developments, the historians assumed the Nicene creed, the monastics, and Christian emperors into their taxonomy of the apostolic tradition. For reasons that crystallize long after Nicaea, the historians concluded that pro-Nicene theology epitomized the apostolic message. They accepted the introduction of new vocabulary, e.g. homoousios, as the standard of orthodoxy. In addition, the historians commended the pro- Nicene monastics and emperors as orthodox exemplars responsible for defending the apostolic tradition against the attacks of heretical enemies. The second chapter of this dissertation surveys the development of the apostolic tradition. -
The Importance of Athanasius and the Views of His Character
The Importance of Athanasius and the Views of His Character J. Steven Davis Submitted to Dr. Jerry Sutton School of Divinity Liberty University September 19, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Research Proposal Abstract .............................................................................................................................11 Background ......................................................................................................................11 Limitations ........................................................................................................................18 Method of Research .........................................................................................................19 Thesis Statement ..............................................................................................................21 Outline ...............................................................................................................................21 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................27 Chapter II: Background of Athanasius An Influential Figure .......................................................................................................33 Early Life ..........................................................................................................................33 Arian Conflict ...................................................................................................................36 -
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Issue 85: The Council of Nicaea: Debating Jesus’ Divinity Debating Jesus' Divinity: Did You Know? Interresting and Unusual Facts about the Council of Nicaea Compiled by Steven Gertz, D. H. Williams, and John Anthony McGuckin All Aboard? The Council of Nicaea lives on in the imagination of the Church, both East and West. In this photograph taken in 1925, Russian Orthodox patriarchs prepare to board a train for St. David's, Wales, to celebrate Nicaea's 16th centenary. In Rome that same year, Pope Pius XI planned a party of his own in the Vatican basilica, declaring Nicaea a formative event for the Catholic understanding of the nature of Christ. Protestants too have honored Nicaea in their own way. Anglicans, among others, recite the Nicene Creed in church every Sunday, and many Protestants (perhaps unknowingly) celebrate Nicaea in their hymns. One of the most beloved is Reginald Heber's "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty," which ends with a rousing "God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity." Written for Trinity Sunday, the hymn was set to music by John B. Dykes, who named the tune "Nicaea." Wipe Out Those Arian Barbarians Theodosius the Great may have dealt a death blow to Arians in the Roman Empire at the Council of Constantinople (381), but the heresy got a new lease on life among the barbarian Goths. Particularly influential was Theodoric the Great (d. 526), a ruthless military tactician (he murdered his rival) who adopted Arianism as his religion and built numerous Arian churches in Raverina, Italy. When the Byzantine Emperor Justinian recovered Ravenna in 535, he resolved to erase any Arian influence from the city. -
The Hellenistic Archives from Tel Kedesh (Israel) and Seleucia-On-The-Tigris (Iraq)
The Hellenistic Archives from Tel Kedesh (Israel) and Seleucia-on-the-Tigris (Iraq) Sharon C. Herbert Photograph and drawing of a bulla from Kedesh showing Aphrodite represented as a naked figure bathing (fig. 7, no. Aph 1). Scale 4:1. 65 n January 1930, a University of Michigan team excavating in IIraq at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, the eastern capital of the Hel- lenistic Seleucid kingdom, uncovered a cache of clay sealings that now reside in the Kelsey Museum (McDowell 1931, 26). These are pieces of clay or bitumen, which carry impressions of individuals’ seal rings. Such items, commonly known as bul- lae, were used to close and notarize papyrus documents in the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Early Roman eras. The Michigan team’s 1930 finds proved to be the first of two private archives located beneath the second/first century BCE block of Parthi- an houses excavated in their six seasons at Seleucia. The sealings from the two archives came to a total of 166 pieces (McDowell 1935, vii, 10–14).1 Seventy years later another Michigan team discovered a roughly contemporary archive (open from 200 to 145 BCE) of more than 2,000 seal impressions at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee of modern Israel (Herbert and Berlin 2003, 51–53). Meanwhile, an Italian team excavating at Seleucia in the 1960s and 1970s found a large public archive building of Hellenistic date containing upward of 25,000 sealings (In- venizzi 1985; Bollati and Messina 2004); these carried dates of between 257 and 154 BCE (Messina and Mollo 2004, li). -
Council of Seleucia and Its Aftermath (359-360) Copyright 2018 Glen L
Harmony 2.7-Council of Seleucia and its aftermath (359-360) Copyright 2018 Glen L. Thompson This document is provided for personal and educational use. It may not be used for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright holder. Last updated 3/28/18 27 September, 359 - The Council of Nicomedia is rescheduled for Seleucia 2.39.1 But I must now give an account of the other Synod, which the emperor’s edict had called for in the east, as a rival to that of Ariminum. 2.39.2 It was at first determined that the bishops should assemble at Nicomedia in Bithynia; but a great earthquake had nearly destroyed that city, preventing their being convened there. 2.39.3 This happened in the consulate of Tatian and Cerealis, on the 28th day of August. They were therefore planning to transfer the council to the neighboring city of Nicaea. 2.39.4 But this plan was again altered, as it seemed more 4.22.1 During about the same period, the Eastern 2.26.4 After a time, at the suggestion of the accusers of convenient to meet at Tarsus in Cilicia. Being dissatisfied bishops assembled to the number of about one hundred Eudoxius, Constantius ordered the synod to be held at with this arrangement also, they at last assembled and sixty, in Seleucia, a city of Isauria. This was during Seleucia. This town of Isauria lies on the seashore and is themselves at Seleucia, surnamed Aspera, a city of the consulate of Eusebius and Hypatius. the chief town of the district. -
Nisibis As the Background to the Life of Ephrem the Syrian
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 8, 179-235 © 2005 [2009] by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press NISIBIS AS THE BACKGROUND TO THE LIFE OF EPHREM THE SYRIAN PAUL S. RUSSELL ST. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE ABSTRACT1 This paper is an attempt to collect together what is known about Nisibis before and during the life of Ephrem the Syrian (306-373). It is important to see him against the backdrop of the place that formed him rather than the place in which he spent the final years of his life, so it is to Nisibis that we should turn for insight into Ephrem’s basic thoughts and concerns. I hope that this information may stir readers to reflect on Ephrem as a child of his birthplace and to see him in a slightly different light than before. Even of Nisibis, which was clearly the central place in the eastern part of the Mesopotamian shelf, we have 1 I would like to thank the anonymous readers from Hugoye as well as Dr. Daniel Stoekl Ben Ezra of Hebrew University, Dr. David G. K. Taylor of Oxford University, Dr. James Russell of Harvard University, Adam Becker of New York University, Dr. Mark Dickens of Cambridge University, Dr. Edwin Yamauchi of Miami University of Ohio and Dr. Glen Bowersock of Princeton University for supplying me with information and suggestions that were helpful in filling in gaps and giving a clearer shape to this paper that had been electronically damaged as well as being incomplete. Please accept my apologies if this list is incomplete. -
The Seleucids: a Background Sketch
CHAPTER TWO THE SELEUCIDS: A BACKGROUND SKETCH The establishment of the Seleucid Empire, 312-261 B.C. As a Macedonian adventurer, Seleucus had essentially only one title to his new kingdom, that of right by conquest, in succession to the conquering Alexander; though in Iran he had some shadow of a claim in preference to other alien pretenders through his marriage to Apama. Yet even there his only subjects with a real interest in upholding his authority were the Macedonians and Greeks who had helped him to establish it, and whose own prosperity and hopes of survival were bound up with his fortunes. They were relatively few in numbers, while the lands he ruled by 302 stretched from the Euphrates to the Jaxartes, with great ethnic and geo graphic diversity. To hold these wide regions he pursued Alexan der's policy offounding cities (or refounding as cities ancient towns or villages), to be peopled mainly by Hellenes and to serve as strongholds and points of dominance-along the main highways, at frontiers, and in places of economic importance. These new cities, "nests of an immigrant population devoted to their founder" 1, were centres of Greek habits and culture, each a polis, i.e. "a self governing community of free, land-owning citizens equal before the law", who spoke and wrote Greek, maintained Greek institutions, and diverted themselves in Greek ways. The most notable of Seleucus' foundations during these years was Seleucia-on-the Tigris, established to rival ancient Babylon, and destined to be come the eastern capital of the empire. -
The Historical Context of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
The Historical Context of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Mario Baghos Associate Lecturer in Patristic Studies and Church History St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College (Sydney College of Divinity) http://sagotc.academia.edu/MarioBaghos http://www.sagotc.edu.au/about/profile/ This paper gives a brief outline of the historical context within which the Nicene- Constantinopolitan Creed was formulated. It will begin by giving a background to the first ecumenical council held at Nicaea in 325 AD, which will include an assessment of the theological dimension to Christian councils, beginning with the Apostolic council of Jerusalem which became a paradigm for the synods held before the council of Nicaea. This latter council was marked by an important change in format, namely that it was convoked by a Roman emperor, Constantine the Great (r. 306-337), which means that part two of this paper will analyse the historical circumstances that influenced an emperor of Rome – which had up to this point in time persecuted Christians – to convoke a Church council. It will then address the response of the holy fathers of the Nicene council to Arius’ subordinationist christology; a response which took the form of the first part of the creed that we read today in the churches. Focusing especially on the clause in the creed that extolls God the Son as “of one essence with the Father” (ὁµοούσιον τῷ Πατρί),1 the paper will demonstrate how it was the spirit of Nicaea that compelled great saints of the Church such as Athanasius the Great (c. 293-373) to maintain, in the wake of the Arianisation of the Roman empire after Constantine, that Christ is truly God. -
The Early Church Under the Pagan Empire, to the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Were Given at Kenyon College, Year 325
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Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia
A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. SECOND SERIES TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH PROLEGOMENA AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. VOLUMES I–VII. UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D., PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. AND HENRY WACE, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. VOLUME IV ATHANASIUS: COUNCILS OF ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA T&T CLARK EDINBURGH __________________________________________________ WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 448 Introduction to de Synodis. ———————————— (WRITTEN 359, ADDED TO AFTER 361.) The de Synodis is the last of the great and important group of writings of the third exile. With the exception of §§30, 31, which were inserted at a later recension after the death of Constantius (cf. Hist. Ar. 32 end), the work was all written in 359, the year of the ‘dated’ creed (§4 ἀπὸ τῆς νῦν ὑπατείας) and of the fateful assemblies of Rimini and Seleucia. It was written moreover after the latter council had broken up (Oct. 1), but before the news had reached Athanasius of the Emperor’s chilling reception of the Ariminian deputies, and of the protest of the bishops against their long detention at that place. The documents connected with the last named episode reached him only in time for his postscript (§55). Still less had he heard of the melancholy surrender of the deputies of Ariminum at Niké on Oct. 10, or of the final catastrophe (cf. the allusion in the inserted §30, also Prolegg. ch. ii. §8 (2) fin.). The first part only (see Table infra) of the letter is devoted to the history1 of the twin councils. -
The Growth of Greek Cities in the First Millennium BC
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC Version 1.0 December 2005 Ian Morris Stanford University Abstract: In this paper I trace the growth of the largest Greek cities from perhaps 1,000- 2,000 people at the beginning of the first millennium BC to 400,000-500,000 at the millennium’s end. I examine two frameworks for understanding this growth: Roland Fletcher’s discussion of the interaction and communication limits to growth and Max Weber’s ideal types of cities’ economic functions. I argue that while political power was never the only engine of urban growth in classical antiquity, it was always the most important motor. The size of the largest Greek cities was a function of the population they controlled, mechanisms of tax and rent, and transportation technology. © Ian Morris. [email protected] 1 The growth of Greek cities in the first millennium BC Ian Morris (Stanford) 1. Introduction Greece in 1000 BC was a world of villages. Most people lived in communities of just a few dozen souls; even the largest settlement, Athens (Figure 1), was probably just 3,000 to 4,000 strong. But at the millennium’s end, the Greek east Mediterranean boasted some of the largest cities in pre-industrial history. Alexandria, Antioch, and Seleucia-on-the- Tigris probably each had 250,000-500,000 inhabitants. Figure 1. Sites in the Aegean mentioned in this chapter In this chapter I discuss the size of Greek cities and the implications of their growth. I identify three major transitions: 2 Figure 2.