Full Text for The Primitive Christians, part 2 (Text)

Qtnurnr~ttt m~tnln!lirttl :!InutlJly Continuing LEHRE UND WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLy-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. V November, 1934 No. 11 CONTENTS Die Theologie Karl Barths. w. Kemner •••••••••••••••••• The Primitive Christians. E. G. Sibler ••••••••••••••••••• Die chronologische Reihenfolge der Weissagungen im Buche Jeremias'. P. E. Kretzmann ••••••••..•••••••••••••••• Melanchthon and Luther's Translation of the New Testa- Page 817 829 835 ment. H. O. Keinath. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 842 The Church Reform of Henry VITI a Product of the Renaissance. Theo. Hoyer. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• 847 Sermon Study on Reb. 10, 32-39. Th. Laetsch. • • • • • • • • • •• 854 Der Schriftgrund fuer die Lehre von der satisfactio vicaria . • • • • • • • • • . . . • . . . . • . • • . . .. P. E. Kretzmann ••••••••••• 863 Sermons and Outlines ............................... 866 Miscellanea ........................................ 871 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches .... 879 Book Review. - Literatur ........................... 889 Ein Predlger mU98 nicht alleID welMla, alao dass er die Schafe unterweise, wle ole reebte OhrIaten BOllen eeln, BOndem auch danehen den Woelfen 1D6hreA, dass ole die 8chafe nicht angreUen und mit faacher Lehre verfuehren und Irrtum eln- fuehren. - LuIMr-. Es 1st keln Ding, daB die Leute mehr hel der Klrche behaelt dean die cute Predigt. - ApolQgu, Arl.~. If the trumpet give an uncertain BOund, who shall prepare b1meelf to the battle f 1 Cor. ,lJ,8. PubUshed for the Ev. Luth. Synod of lItissouri, Ohio, and Other States OOJ!l'OOBDIA PU'BLISBING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo. The Primitive Christia;n.B. 829 aat! \Battl) rourbe am 10. lJJlai 1886 in \Bafer gevoten. Sein mater roar SUtofeffor bH ::tf)eorogie in \Bern. Grr ftubierte bon 1904 viS 1908 5tl)eorogte in \Bern, \BerHn, ::tiibingen uno lJJlarvurg. mon 1908 viS 1909 roar cr .i;lUf~~ arbeiter an bel' ,{leitjcl)rift ,,~f)tiftricl)e illicIt" in lJJlarvurg, bann .i;lHfsgeiftrid)er an bel' refonnierten ®emeinDe in ®enf. mon 1911 big 1921 roar er qJfarrer in 6afenroH im ~cmton ~argau. 1919 etfdJien bie erfte ~uflage feine~ ~uf~ fef)en erregenDen aommentars 3um ffiiimerbtief. Grr rourbe barauf .i;lonotar, .profeffot fiit reformiette ::tf)eorogie in ®iittingen, einige :;'Saf)te fpnter orbentricl)et SUrofeffot in lJJliinfter, unb feU cinigen :;'Saf)ren ift er in \Bonn tntig. mon feinen 6d)riften fi·nb in biefem llluHat venu~t rootben: ,,5Da~ Illiott ®ottes unb bie ::tf)eologie", f cine Illu~legung bet mriefe qJauli an bie ffiiimer unb an bie qJf)Hippet, Fides (Juaerens Intelleotum, ,,~nfelms melDeis bon oet (':!;iften3 ®ottes", "IDie firc~1id)e SDogmatif", 1. manb: IDie l3ef)re bom Illiotte ®ottes. mon ben 6d)tiften feinet i\'reunbe finb aU nennen: Cl:b. ::tl;urnCl)fen: "SDag Illiott ®ottell unb bie ~ircl)e." i\'. ®ogatten: 1I@laube unb Offenbarung", ,,5Die teIigiiife Grntfd)eibung", ,,:;'Sllufionen, ®laube unb Illiitflicf;feit ll , "SDie Sd)ulb ber ~itcl)e gegen bie Illiert ll , "qJolitiid)e Grtf)U". )Btemen, ~elltfdjranb. )lB. S\) e m n e r. ~ II ~ The Primitive Christians. ( Ooncluded.) III. Ohristian scholars cannot dispense with the study of "classical" antiquity. I know few academic habits as wrong as that of calling every Greek and Homan Wl'iter a "classic." As if eleg'ance of form could be a counterweight to much of pagan content! Now Ohris- tianity confronted, overcame, absorbed, and finally destroyed classical paganism, although it labored for centuries, up to Oonstantine's Edict of Milan (313 A. D.), under the hardship of being a religio illicita, ·under the Homan Law. Was there persecution of the Ohristians be- f01'e the persecution of Nero, 64 A. D.? J ames, the brother of John, was executed in Jerusalem 44 A.D. (Zahn). About Pentecost, 58 A.D.,. the Homan authorities at Jerusalem saved Paul of Tarsus from the fury of the Jews. We refer once more to 1 Pet. 4, 12 ff. The Ohris- tians to whom Peter wrote were of the Diaspora, in the eastern prov- inces of the Roman Empire (Pontus, Galatia, Oappadocia, "Asia,"- the Roman province called so by the Romans, with Ephesus as capi- tal, - and Bithynia). Now, these Ohristian converts were suffering severe persecution when Peter wrote - persecution for what? For having a non-pagan religion? By no means. The orthodox Jews were safe and unharmed in their religion an:d worship, as guaranteed by edicts of Oaesar, Augustus, and Agrippa. The Jews did not worship Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Diana (not even at Ephe- sus), nor Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Oapitol, and they suffered 830 The Primitive Christians. no persecution whatever for their abstention. Now, why were the Christains to whom Peter wrote (before 64 A. D.) subject to persecn- tion ~ It seems clear that the new "Ohristians" (Messiah-believers) were maligned as disloyal to the Roman government. That is why Peter avows his loyalty in these words (chap. 2, 13 fl.) : "Subject your- selves [be obedient] to every human institution on account of the Lord, to the emperor as ~upreme authority or to proconsuls sent by him," etc. Now, why did the Ohristians sufler persecution ~ Indirectly it was stirred up by the orthodox Jews, but directly inflicted by the Roman officials in these eastern provinces. IIvgwalq (I, 4, 2) is a severe term. The Jews said: "These Ohristians are not loyal, they worship a ruler of their own, called 'Messiah,' or 'Ohrist'; no Roman official should permit this." This obloquy against the "Messiah-believers" was, I think, widely spread before the great fire at Rome, 64 A. D., and brought the Ohristians and their religion into the very focus of the empire's interest. Even about 180 A. D. we read in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, c. 28: U quasi Christiani monstra colerent, infantes vorarent, convivia incesta miscerent." And the pagan interlocutor says of Ohrist, the Orucified (c. 9,4): "et qui hominem surnmo sup- plicio pm facinore punitum et c1'1/'cis ligna feralia eorum caM-imo- nias fabttlatttr, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tl"ibuit altaria, ut id colant quod merentu.r." Now, Paul, writing to Rome, about 58 A.D. (Zahn), intimates nothing whatever of such a hostile attitude of the secular government towards the Olll'istians there, who clearly were vastly more numerous than those greeted by name in chap. 16. In the cosmopolitan capital on the Tiber countless "religions" were freely practised, especially that of Isis and Osiris. Seneca could write scorn- fully of the very worship practised in the temple of the Oapitoline Ju- piter. Of the Jews he said (cited by Augustine from Seneca, Dialogus de Superstitione) : U cum interim tLsque eo sceleratissimae gentis con- suetudo convalu6j'it, ut peT' OMNES rAM TERRAS recepta sit: victi victo- ribus leges dederunt." (De Civitate Dei, VI, 11.) Like Peter in the East, Paul wrote to the Ohristians at Rome that they should be loyal to the government. Nero ruled when Paul wrote this appeal: IIiJ.aa 'PvX~ 8~ova{aL, V1tsgsxovaat, v1to7:aaaia{}w, Rom. 13, 1 (Peter used both these last two terms). It is a curious fact that two profane authors, still studied every- where, tell UB much about the primitive Ohristians, Tacitus and his friend Pliny the Younger. I will now present the report of Tacitus (Annals, XV, 41 fl., of 64 A. D.). The great fire occurred July 19-24 of that year, beginning at full moon, when arson would be difficult. Nero was at Antium when the fire began. Tacitus (Ann., XV, 38) says that it was "uncertain whether the fire began accidentally or by crim- inal design of the emperor" ("forte an dolo principis incertum"). It began near the Oircus Maximus, where many shops contained inflam- The Primitive Christians. 831 mabIe material, and a high wind was blowing. No matter what Nero did to aid the sufferers, the rumor spread that he chanted the fall of Troy (Ann., XV, 39). Rome then had fourteen regiones, or wards; four remained untouched, three were swept to the ground, in the other seven only a few buildings remained. Even the temple of Vesta with the "household gods" (penates) of the Roman people was destro'yed (chap. 41). The Sibylline Books were duly consulted. Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpina were specially prayed to. Juno's figure was particu- larly sprinkled with water brought from the sea, married women held all-night services, and still the conviction prevailed that the fire was due to deliberate arson C quin IUSSU}.! incendium crederetur," XV, 44). "Therefore Nero, to do away the rumor, persecuted as defendants, and visited with the most exquisite penalties, those whom, as they were hated on account of their shameless practises (per jiagitia in- visos) the general public (vulgus) called Christians. The author of that name, Christus, during the reign of Tiberius, had been executed by the Procurator Potius Pilate, and the deadly superstition, checked for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea, the source of that evil, but also in Rome (per urbem), whither all abominable and shame- ful things flow together and are celebrated. Therefore first those who confessed [that tlley were Christians], then, through their informa- tion, a huge multitude was guilty, not so much through the charge of arson as on account of the hab'ed of the human race (odio generis humani) , and as they were dying, sport was added, so that, covered with the skins of wild beasts, they perished through the mangling of dogs or, nailed to crosses, were set on fire and, when the day was done~ were burned to illumine the night. Nero had offered his gardens for this show and was giving a chariot race, even standing on his chariot, mingling with the crowd. Hence pity arose (although towards guilty ones and those who had deserved the severest penalties), as though they were being destroyed not in the public interest, but for the cruelty of a single person." 1) 1) An Italian scholar, Carlo Pascal, in 1923 actually asserted that the Christians started the fire. I consulted a special work: Dr. E. Th. Klette, Tuebingen, 1907: Die Ohristenkatastrophe unter Nero, nach den Quellen, insbesondere nach Taoitus' Ann. XV, 41 sqq. He says, p. 117: "Die von den Juden geschuerte allgemeine Verfehmtheit der Ohristen in sittlicher und religioeser Beziehung, die Wi1' bei Tacitus oetont finden und durah weZahe die Olwisten fuel' Nero zu Optern emptohlen sein moahten, hat nach spaeterer vidfaeltiger E1'fahrung fuel' die Auffassung der zu Gerioht sitzenden Staatswuerdent1'aeger ihren zusammenfassenden Ausdruck stets in dem Namen 'Ohristianus' gefunden." Klette also cites from Roman Law, Paulus, Sententia, V, 211: "Qui saara impia nocturnave obcantarent, defigerent, fecerint faciendave cumverint aut crucibu8 suffiguntu1' aut bestiis obiciuntur, vel, si honestiores sunt, capito puniuntur. Magicae artis conscios summo supplicio adfici placuit, id est, bestiis obici, aut crucibus suffigi, ipsi autem magi vivi exuruntu1·." 832 The Primitive Christians. But let us turn to Pliny, the proconsul of Bithynia, and his re- port to the Emperor Trajan (Epp., X, 96) about 112 A. D., according to Fynes Clinton, Fasti Romani, 1844, still the most eminent authority for all scholars. This official letter of Pliny affords the best insight into the awful position of the Ohristians now available from ancient tradition. ,Ve hear of "the shameless practises connected with the name" (fiagitia cohaerentia nomini) as something familiar to all. Those who persisted in calling themselves Ohristians he ordered to be 1ed away to execution. "Those who denied that they were, or had heen, Ohristians, when, at my reciting the formula to them (prae- .eunte me), they called upon the gods and worshiped your image, which -on that account I had ordered to be brought in with the images of the gods with incense and wine, and besides cursed Ohrist, none of which it is said those can be forced to do who really are Ohristians, I thought should be acquitted." . . . "All both worshiped your image and the figures (simulacra) of the gods and cursed Ohrist. They stated that this had been the sum of their guilt or errol': that they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a chant to Ohrist in turn (invicem, antiphony?) as to a god and pledge them- selves by an oath, not to some crime, but not to commit theft or rob- bery or adultery, not to break their word, not to deny a deposit en- trusted to them; having done this, they had been accustomcd to withdraw and to meet again for taking food (the aya1r1}?), general, however, and harmless; and this itself they had ceased to do after :my edict, by which, according to your order, I had forbidden such dubs" (heta81'ias, in the quotation from Paulus, Sententia, above). "The more necessary I considered it to inquire from two female ser- vants (ancillis) who were called deaconesses (ministrae) what truth there was even by torture. I found nothing but wicked and immod- Dex ainette grollc ~xopfjet be§ ~rten muube§ aiefjt mit medjt Me ~ufmerffamfeit bieler IbdJriftforfcljer aUf fidj, ba fein ~udj fo bide (figentiimHcljfeiten entfjiHt, bie ifjm einen oefonberen meia bedeifjen, hie immer iniebex 3U neuem Ibtubium anfpornen. ~enn man Die tfjeo"