THE CI-IURCH OF THE SUB-APOSTOLIC AGE: ITS LIFE, WORSHIP, AND ORGANIZA T/ON, JN THE LIGHT OF" THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. BY THE REV. JAMES HERON, B.A. ;Jonhon: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXVIII. [Alf i-ights reserved.] BUTLER & TAN:-.ER, THE SELWOUD PRINTING WORKS, FR0.\1 E, AND LONDON. PREFACE. OTWITHSTANDING the proverb qui s'excuse N s'accuse, a word must be sa.id by way of justi­ fying the publication of this book. Though several works of various· dimensions have appeared on the Didacht! in this country, there seemed not only abun­ dant room but occasion and need for such treatment of it as is here attempted. Some short treatises had been published dealing with special aspects of that ancient writing, such as Professor J. Rendel Harris's work, Tlte Teaching of t/ze Apostles and the Sibylline Books, and that of Dr. Taylor supplying illustrations from the Talmud ; both most valuable for their pur. pose, but confined to limited departments of the subject. Canon Spence's book is more general, but less thorough than those just named, and much progress has been made in the exposition of the Didacht! since it was written. The most comprehen­ sive discussion available to English readers is that iv PREFACE. by Dr. Schaff, entitled The Oldest Clmrclz Manual. Containing as it does, along with translations, the Greek text of the Teaching and of the related documents, embodying also an exhaustive analysis of the style and vocabulary, and being especially copious on the bibliography of the manual, Dr. Schaff's book is both useful and interesting. I would fain hope, however, that the present work, which has grown out of an independent study of the early literature, which has kept in view the most recent discussions on the Teaching, and which differs from any I am acquainted with in entering more fully into the questions touched and illustrated by that old writing, which are indeed all the important and in­ teresting questions of the early Church, will be found to have a sufficiently distinct purpose and raison d'etre of its own. The closing i;hapter on Church Organization has been prepared with much care, with a regard solely to the facts and what seemed the truest solution of them, and with the latest dis­ cussions on that topic constantly in view. In order to deal thoroughly and satisfactorily with the data which the early literature presents on this question, I have found it necessary to examine and test the theories by which it has been sought to explain and harmonize them,-the theories associated with the PREFACE. V names of Bishop Lightfoot, Dr. Hatch, Dr. Harnack, and Canon Liddon. The most recent hypothesis with respect to the origin of the Christian ministry is that put forward by Professor Milligan in Tlte Expositor for November, to the effect that the term "presbyter" did not signify office, but ·was, like "Reverend," a general term of hon­ our applied to religious officers. This view, however, seems distinctly at variance with the history of the genesis of the Christian office-bearers, and of their nomenclature as given in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Barnabas find a body of Christian adminis­ trators, called "elders," at Jerusalem (Acts xi. 30), and who, there can be no doubt, were mainly a transcript of the Jewish eldership. Shortly after having been in intercourse with " the elders " of the mother Church, these brethren have office-bearers called "elders" elected and solemnly appointed in all the Churches of Asia Minor hitherto founded by them (Acts xiv. 23). They are thus, according to the writer of the Acts, not only officials, but their official title, and as yet the only title by which they are known, is "elders." This is the title by which these office-bearers, whether at J erusalern or in Asia Minor, are habitually called in the Acts. It is employed to designate them ten times, while the term " bishop " VI PREFACE. occurs only once (Acts xx. 28), and then as another name for the "elders," and as descriptive of their functions. Nothing could be more manifest than that, in the terminology of the writer, the primary official title is "elder," and that of bishop only secon­ dary, and descriptive of work. When it is recognised, further, that the primary official title of the members of the Jewish Synedrion was "elders " ; that (as is pointed out in the following pages) these same Jewish elders were also, in a secondary way, called both " shepherds" and "bishops" or "overseers" ; and that precisely the same qualifications were required in the Jewish elder as those which, in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, the apostle demands in the Christian "elder" or "bishop "-as, that he should be the husband of one wife, blameless, having his children in subjection under him, while his election depended on the suffrages of the members of the synagogue-it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the Jewish was the original and archetype of the Christian functionary, and that the true history of the nomenclature is that indicated above. The use of the titles in the subsequent literature is in perfect harmony with the foregoing history. It is true that in I Tim. iii., and in Phil. i. r, the designation em­ ployed is "bishop," showing that by this time it, too, PREFACE. vii has become a familiar official title •for these function­ aries ; but in Tit. i. 5-9 it still occurs as second_ary to that of " elder" ; and in I Pet. v. I, 2, it appears, just as in Acts xx. 28, as descriptive of the work of those immediately before called "elders." In the Epistle of Clement of Rome the persons who have been thrust out of the episcopate are uniformly called "elders"-" duly-~ppointed elders "-while the title "bishop" occurs only once in the whole letter. In Polycarp:s Epistle these officers are known only as "elders," and are by this very title officially dis­ tinguished from the " deacons," who are here asso­ ciated with the presbyters, as elsewhere they are associated with the bishops. And, finally, when one of the presbyters rises above the others, and monopo­ lises the title " bishop," those from among whom he emerges continue to be known by the official title of "presbyters." The advice of Mephistopheles to the Student of Theology, in Goethe's Faust, is to be indifferent to thoughts and things, and to make words his chief concern. "Words, words alone are your best hope!" There is some danger of the discussion on the minis­ try in the early Church degenerating into a mere strife about words. It is therefore necessary to recall attention to the fact that, by whatever name or viii PREFACE. names they may have been designated-whether they were called bishops or presbyters, or both­ there was a plurality of these office-bearers in each congregation, and they were elected by the free choice of the Christian people. DUNDELA MANSE, BELFAST, December, 1887. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTORY . PART I. THE DIDACHE. CHAPTER I. TRANSLATION OF THE "DIDACHE" I5 CHAPTER II. THE DISCOVERY OF THE "DIDACHE" 34 CHAPTER II I. THE DESIGN AND CHARACTER OF THE "DIDACHE" 41 CHAPTER IV. THE "DIDACHE" IN THE EARLY CHURCH 47 CHAPTER V. THE AGE OF THE " DmACHE '' 73 ix X COl'\'TENTS. PART II. CHURCH QUESTIONS ILLUSTRATED BY THE DIDACHE. PAGE CHAPTER I. THE NEW TEST..\MENT CANON CHAPTER II. FAMILY AND SOCI..\L LIFE 105 CHAPTER III. CHRISTIAN UNITY AND CHARITY 117 CHAPTER IV. BAPTISM 129 CHAPTER V. THE EUCHARIST CHAPTER VI. THE LORD'S DAY 163 CHAPTER VIL CHURCH ORGANIZATION • A. THE ITINERANT MINISTRY. 193 i. Teachers 193 ii. Apostles 195 iii. Prophets 198 CONTENTS. xi .E'AGE B. THE LOCAL MINISTRY 200 I. The Natural History of the Local Officers 201 (a) The" Elder" 204 (b) The " Bishop" 206 (Dr. Hatch's view examined) I I. Were " Presbyter" and "Bishop" names of the same office-bearers? 218 (Dr. Harnack's view examined) III. Was Monarchical Episcopacy set up by the Apostles? . 238 (Bishop Lightfoot's view ex- amined) IV. Apostolical Succession 266 (Canon Liddon's view examined) V. Sacerdotalism 285 VI. Ministerial Support 291 VII. The Diaconate 294 INTRODUCTORY. T is told of the late Isaac Taylor that, when he I was a young man, his mother, observing him one day leaning pensively against the Corruption of mantelpiece, inquired what he was troubled Primitive about. He replied that he was thinking Chri5tianity; of the many evils which had come upon Christianity. As his mind matured, and his researches borne witness in Primitive Church history became more to by extended and profound, he saw no reason Isaac Taylor; to alter his opinion, or to regard the changes which were made on Apostolic Christianity as other than corruptions. In fact, no thoughtful person, with open mind, can look at the simple, spiritual religion of the New Testament, so little burthened with ceremonial trappings, so full of buoyant life and aggressive energy, so free and so expansive, and then contem­ plate the elaborate system of rigid sacerdotalism into which it was afterwards transformed, and perceive that, in being so modified, it was losing much of its early virtue as a regenerating and reforming power in society, without being impressed and saddened with the contrast. On such a question, at any rate, Renan may be accepted as an unprejudiced b R • • , y enan, witness ; and Renan describes the change as "the most profound transformation in history." B 2 THE SUB-APOSTOLIC CHURCH.