MidTerm

Question 1

Pliny the Younger

Answer 1

governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD. He wrote to Trajan for guidance on dealing with Christian.

Question 2

Aelia Capitolina

Answer 2

What Hadrian renamed Jerusalem around AD 135.

Question 3

birkat haminim

Answer 3

the 18 benedictions or shmoneh Esreh prayer. Introduced by rabbis around 90 AD.

Question 4

The Nazarenes

Answer 4

• This is what Jews called Christians
• Observed the Mosaic law
• Believed in the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus
• Used the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew
• Mourned for the unbelief of their brethren
• Hope for a future resurrection and earthly rule of Christ.
• Had no antipathy for Paul or Gentile Christians who did not observe the law.

Question 5

The Ebionites

Answer 5

• From the Hebrew word for “poor”
• Tertullian thought they derived their name from a man named Ebion.
• Used a Hebrew gospel, now lost, that was probably a corruption of the gospel of Matthew.
• Jesus was the messiah, but was a mere man, born of Mary and Joseph
• Jesus’ Messianic calling came at his baptism by John
• Circumcision and keeping the whole ritual law is necessary for salvation.
• Paul regarded as a heretic and his writing rejected.
• Christ will return to initiate an earthly millennial reign in Jerusalem.

Question 6

Cerinthus

Answer 6

➢ From Egypt
➢ Circumcised, probably a Jew
➢ Went to Asia Minor, founded a school and attracted disciples
➢ Teaching were a mixture of Gnostism, Ebionism, Judaism, and Chiliasm
➢ One supreme being, but he did not create the world
➢ The world was created by angels, who also gave the law
➢ Jesus was a mere man. The Christ or Holy Spirit came upon him at his baptism
➢ At his passion the Christ departs from Jesus and he suffers alone.

Question 7

The title “Fathers”

Answer 7

was customarily used for early Christian writer

Question 8

Ecclesiae Scriptores

Answer 8

(a term coined by Jerome) “ Writers of the Church” applies to writers who don’t meet all of the above criteria.

Question 9

Doctors of the West

Answer 9

• Ambrose
• Jerome
• Augustine
• Gregory the Great

Question 10

Doctors of the East

Answer 10

• Basil the Great
• Gregory of Nazianzus
• John Chrysostom
• Athanasius (add to the Eastern Fathers by the Western Church)

Question 11

Characteristics of the Apostolic Fathers

Answer 11

Certain Elementariness
Lack of clarity on the doctrine of Christ
Lack of Clarity on the death of Christ
Salvation is thought of as future rather than present
Faith meant hope
No clear teaching on the Sacraments

Question 12

Use of Scripture in the Apostolic Fathers

Answer 12

➢ The church used the LXX as its canonical text for the OT
➢ The idea of a NT canon was developing but was not yet fully clear.
➢ The preponderance of quotations in the AF come from the OT, but the NT was frequently quoted as well.
➢ One may also see the influence of apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books
➢ The first Christians literature was hortatory. Encouraging Christians to be faithful in a hostile world

Question 13

Genres in the Apostolic Fathers

Answer 13

Epistles, Homily, Apocalypse, Apology, Martyrology, Catechesis

Question 14

Reasons for theological clarity in the Apostolic fathers.

Answer 14

➢ The novelty of the gospel
➢ The influence of pagan upbringing. Ritschl argued that a Jewish upbringing was necessary to understand the NT message.
➢ They didn’t have the advantage of temporal distance
➢ Lack of education
➢ Lack of clarity on the canon. Dependence upon oral tradition may have led to lack of uniformity.

Question 15

the Didache

Answer 15

➢ The date of writing is uncertain, but scholars have dated the composition of the text in various stages between AD 70 and 150.
➢ Certain saying in Ch. 1-6 and specific literguical traditions in 7-10 may predate AD 70, but that doesn’t mena they were collected before that time

Question 16

letters of Ignatius

Answer 16

➢ The letters of Ignatius were written from two cities along his route—Smyrna and Troas
➢ Four of the letters were written from Smyrna
• To Rome
• To Trailes
• To Magnesia
• To Ephesus
• Each letter acknowledge an envoys
➢ Three other letters were written in Troas
• To Philadelphia
• To Smyrna
• To Polycarp
• Each letter is careful to note the news of peace which has come to the congregation at Antioch.

Question 17

1 and 2 Clement

Answer 17

➢ Written from the Christians of Rome to the Christians at Corinth
➢ The epistle was a response to the deposition of elders by a group of younger aspiring leaders.
2 Clement is an early Christian homily

Question 18

The Epistle of Polycarp

Answer 18

➢ Written in response to the Philippians’ request for copies of the letters of Ignatius

Question 19

Martyrdom of Polycarp

Answer 19

➢ Oldest written Christian account of martyrdom outside of the NT
➢ Eyewitness account (15:1) written not long after the event

Question 20

Epistle of Barnabas

Answer 20

➢ The text divides into two parts
• 1-17 serves as a refutation of the Jewish understanding of the OT
• 18-20 Come from a separate tradition on the two ways

Question 21

Epistle of Diognetus

Answer 21

Date—AD 117-310

Purpose—to defend the Christian faith

Question 22

Shepherd of Hermas

Answer 22

➢ Apocalyptic in genre

➢ The document seems to have taken shape over an extended period of time

Question 23

Who are the apologists, and what did they write about?

Answer 23

➢ Diognetus (Mathetes)
➢ Athenagoras
• A Plea for the Christians, addressed to Marcus Aurelius
• Tries to establish common ground—Christians are monotheists just like the best of the pagan philosophers and the emperor himself

➢	Justin Martyr
•	He refutes the charge of atheism, 
•	Christians live moral lives.
•	Pagan religions worship demons
•	Christians before Christ

Question 24

Theophilus of Antioch

Answer 24

• Wrote to Autolycus (3 Vol.) around 180 AD
• Answering disparaging remarks Autolycus
• Disputed the pagan notion that matter is eternal
• First Christian writer to enunciate a doctrine of creation ex nihilo “creation from nothing.”
• Identifies the divine Logos as the agent of creation.
• Said that God emitted the logos just before creation

Question 25

Spermatikos logos

Answer 25

The Logos eternally generated from the Father “like fire kindled from fire.”

Question 26

Quadratus

Answer 26

Bishop of Athens

Question 27

Montanus/Montanism

Answer 27

Montanism was not originally a departure from faith, but a morbid overstraining of the practical morality and discipline of the early church. It was an excessive supernaturalism and puritanism against Gnostic rationalism and catholic laxity” (Schaff).
➢ The movement began mid-second century, during the reign of Antoninus Pius
➢ It started in Phrygia where Montanus began to experience religious ecstasy.

Question 28

Maximilla and Priscilla

Answer 28

two women connected with him who also prophesied

both of whom left their husbands

Question 29

Chiliasm

Answer 29

Cerinthus

Question 30

The Demiurge

Answer 30

Gnostic-Valentinus

belongs to Kenoma

Question 31

Irenaeus

Answer 31

Bishop of Lyons
His most important work is his refutation of Gnosticism in 5 books, against Heresies. This was completed between AD 177-190

Question 32

Valentinus

Answer 32

➢ The most influenctial of the gnostic system

➢ He was excommunicated and settled in Cyprus, ythos or Abyss.

Question 33

Gnosticism

Answer 33

➢ Since Gnostics denigrated matter, and therefore the body, as evil, they adopted either a sever asceticism, or an antinomian libertinism.
➢ Their hyper-spiritualism often caused the Gnostics to reject the sacraments or any outward means of grace

Question 34

Pleroma

Answer 34

➢ The total aggregate of these aeons
(fullness).
They constitute the spiritual world
one must return to it for redemption

Question 35

Aeon

Answer 35

30 entities that make up the Pleroma come in antithetical pairs, each with a male and female partner.

Question 36

Against Heresies

Answer 36

Write by Justin Martyr before Ad 140 against Valentinus

Question 37

Sophia

Answer 37

The lowest of the aeons.a female aeon, feels alienated from the Father and wants to reunite herself immediately, so she jumps into the depths of the Father and brings forth an inchoate substance (matter) from herself alone.

Question 38

Bythos

Answer 38

Abyss
contained within itself a feminine principle called Sige, “Silence.”
begins a process of evolution through the emanation of the Aeons.

Question 39

Kenoma

Answer 39

world of emptiness.