studyguide Flashcards
The Christian Bible for roughly the first 150 years consisted of:
The Jewish Scriptures, usually in the Septuagint Version.
Ebionites
Early Jewish Christians - emphasized poverty, dietary rules, and Mosaic law. Adoptionist Christology. Rejected Paul’s authority. James is their hero.
Didachē: modes of leadership
Prophets Bishops Deacons Apostles Teachers
Apologists
Defenses of Christianity addressed to its critics and persecutors.
Ways of protecting orthodoxy from Gnostic heresies.
Catholicity; The explicit traditions of the apostolic churches; The Rule of Faith; The integrity and mutual consistency of the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures, which Tertullian called the “New Testament.”
Labarum
A military standard adopted by Constantine after his vision, featuring a vexillum (flag or drape) usually bearing three dots or circles and always surmounted by a Chi-Rho symbol.
Great Persecution in 303. Diocletian and Galerius.
Ended in 311. Augustus, issued an edict of toleration when he was mortally ill, asking Christians to pray for his recovery and for the welfare of the Republic.
Constantine’s model for a Christian church
Basilica
Sacrificati
Any persons who had obeyed the universal edict to sacrifice to the gods.
Libellus
An official, witnessed, and signed document certifying that the subject had sacrificed to the gods.
Lapsi
Christians who had obeyed the universal edict to sacrifice to the gods.
Confessores
Christians who had refused to sacrifice and were undergoing trial and would have persevered even unto martyrdom. Not set free when the persecution ended.
Libellatici
Christians who had fraudulently obtained a libellus without sacrificing to the gods.
Tertullian: Prescription of the Herectics
Jerusalem (the Judeo-Christian tradition)
Athens (i.e., philosophy)
Tertullian: Prescription of the Herectics
The Church
The Academy (Plato’s school in Athens, representing Platonism in general)
Tertullian: Prescription of the Herectics
Christians (i.e., orthodox Christians, not Gnostics!)
The Gnostics (‘heretics’)
Tertullian: Prescription of the Herectics
The Porch of Solomon
The “Painted Porch” (Stoa poikilê), i.e., the Stoics
Trinitarian in composition of the creed. Nicene Creed
Triple immersion in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Publicly Confessing the creed - final step in Easter baptism.
Meaning of Gnostics as “heresies”
In Greek the word hairesis meant “sect” or “faction,”. Sign of error and false prophets within the church. Highly diverse, esoteric nature of Gnosticism contrasting with Catholicity. Apostolic faith must be one - image of one God.