Four distinct eras in Christianity from Paul to the Council
of Nice.--The epistles of Paul and the works of the fathers
changed to suit each era.--The dishonesty of the times.
From the time Paul commenced his labors, to the latter part of the
second century, we can trace three eras or periods in the state and
character of Christianity, as marked and distinct as the various strata
of the earth which indicate the different ages of their formation.
First, the Pauline; second, the Philo-Alexandrian, which includes the
time of the first three Gospels; third, the Incarnation, which includes
the fourth Gospel. As we approach the end of the third century, we may
include a fourth period--that of the Trinity.
We have stated elsewhere, that the distinguishing feature between
the Logos of Philo and the Christ of Paul was, that the former was
coexistent in point of time with the Creator or Father, while in case of
the latter, there was a time he did not exist. There was still another
difference: the Logos was begotten in heaven, but Christ was born on
the earth, of earthly parents. Through the influence of the Alexandrian
Jews, who had been converted to Christianity by the preaching of Paul,
the Christ of Paul was made to give way, in time, to the Logos of Philo.
This change can be traced in the forgeries which are found interlarded
through the epistles of Paul, and the writings of the early fathers. We
trace the gradual and stealthy departure from the first to the second
stages of Christianity in the use of terms in Paul's epistles which were
employed among the Gnostics and others in the early part of the
second century. The epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians have been
pronounced by able critics to be spurious, because of some verse which
have an Alexandrian look; when it is easy to discover that these verses
are mere insertions into the original text. The term _pleroma_, or
_fulness_, was a favorite phrase among the Gnostics, and now we find
it scattered here and there through the epistles: "For it pleased the
Father, _that in him_ should all fulness dwell." (Col. i. 19.) "For in
him dwelleth all the _fulness_ of the Godhead bodily." (Col. ii. 9.)
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head
of all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all." (Eph. i. 22, 23.) "And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth all knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fulness of God." (Eph. iii. 19.) The preexistence of Christ, and his
rank as God, is now openly avowed. "For by him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all
things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist." (Col. i. 16, 17.) Here the Christ
of Paul disappears, like the great Apostle himself. The works of the
fathers are now mutilated by the same ruthless hand, to maintain the new
phase which Christianity is forced to assume. "Ignatius, who is called
Theophorus to the church which is at Ephesus in Asia, deservedly happy,
being blessed through the greatness and _fulness_ of God the Father, and
_predestinated before the world began_, that it should be always unto an
enduring and unchangeable glory; being united and chosen, through actual
suffering, according to the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our
God, all happiness by Jesus Christ and his undefiled grace." (Epistle
to Eptsiceris, sec. 1. 17.) The balance of this section, which will be
cited in a subsequent page, was added in the third or fourth century,
when Christianity put on its fourth phase. "For this cause they were
persecuted also, being inspired by his grace, fully to convince the
unbelievers that _there is one God_, who hath manifested himself by
Jesus Christ his Son, who is his _eternal Word_, not coming forth from
_silence_, who in all things was well pleased in him that sent him." *
(Sec. 8.)
* The word silence is a word which grew in use among the
Gnostics long after the time of Ignatius, and affords
unmistakable proof of the fraudulent interpolation.
Valentinianus, a Gnostic of the second century, held that
there is a certain Dyad (twofold being), who is
inexpressible by name, of whom one part should be called
Anhetus, unspeakable, and the other Silence. The word, in
the connection in which it is found in the passage from
Ignatius, speaking about what related to a later age, has
been the occasion of much discussion: some contending that
it has reference to the Silence of Valentinianus, which
proves the passage spurious; others, that it relates to the
erroneous opinions of heretics anterior to Valentinianus.
What heretics! (See Chevalier's Apostolical Gospels, note
6.)
Such passages as we have cited, and others of a like nature which might
be cited, have led critics to the conclusion that the writings which
contain them are forgeries; but if examined in _connection with the
texts_, it will be found that they are interpolations, forced into the
places they fill. As the writings of Paul now stand, they present Christ
in two distinct characters or aspects: his own as the Son of Man, from
which he never wavered; and the other that of Philo. All through his
epistles we find passages which inculcate doctrines with which he
combated during his whole life. All that is essential to, or that is
embraced in, the writings of Philo, as to the nature of the Logos, may
be found in the epistles of Paul. We will give a few examples which we
gather from the work of Jacob Bryant, and found among the notes of Adam
Clarke in his Commentaries on St. John.
Philo. "First begotten of God."
COLOSSIANS i. 15. "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born
of every creature."
HEBREWS i. 6. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into
the world, he saith, "And let all the angels of God worship him."
PHILO. "By whom the world was created." Hebrews i. 2. "Hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds."
1 Corinthians viii. 6. "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, _by whom
are all things, and we by him_."
Philo. "_The most ancient of God's works, and before all things_."
2 Timothy i. 9. "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
Philo. "_Esteemed the same as God_." PHILIPPIANS ii. 6. "Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Philo.
"He unites, supports, preserves, and perfects the world."
COLOSS. i. 17. "And he is before all things, and by him all things
consist."
Philo. "Free from all taint of sin, voluntary and involuntary."
Hebrews vii. 26. "For such an high priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens."
Philo. "_The Logos the foundation of wisdom._"
1 Corinthians i. 24. "But unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
COLOSS. ii. 3. "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge."
Philo. "_Men being freed by the Logos from all corruption, shall be
entitled to immortality_"
1 Corinthians xv. 52, 53. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." "For this corruptible
must put on in-corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."
Inconsistency cannot be claimed to be one of the faults of Paul; but if
we place these passages by the side of those in which he declares,
in unmistakable language, his belief in the nature of Christ, we must
either admit inconsistency or fraud. The influence of Paul had lost much
of its force before his death in A.D. 66; and when Hadrian assumed the
government of the empire, A.D. 117, the Pauline era had nearly ceased.
Speaking of the great Apostle, Renan says: "After his disappearance from
the scene of his apostolic struggles, we shall find him soon forgotten.
His death was probably regarded as the death of an agitator. The
second century scarcely speaks of him, and apparently endeavors to
systematically blot out his memory. His epistles are then slightly read,
and only regarded as authority by rather a slender group." (_Life of
Paul_. page 327.)
But the same author tells us, on the same page, what history confirms,
that Paul, in the third century, wonderfully rises in the estimation of
the church, and resumes the place from which he had been deposed.
There is a good and obvious reason for the change. During this interval
between the fall and rise of his influence, his epistles had been
subjected to the most glaring forgeries, in order to make them conform
to the Philo-Alexandrian ideas which in the mean time prevailed.
It is to be remarked at this place, that the Logos idea of Philo
encountered difficulties, when applied to the person of Jesus. It could
not be denied that he was the son of Mary; but it might be, that he was
not the son of Joseph. He is therefore born not of man. The influence of
a divine energy is substituted. No sooner is this new feature introduced
into the second stage of Christianity, than new ideas prevail, and are
found scattered through the works of the fathers. "And the princes of
the world know not the virginity of Mary, and him who was born of her,
and the death of the Lord: three mysteries noised abroad, yet done by
God in silence." "Where is the wise and where is the disputer? Where is
the boasting of those who are called men of understanding? For our
God, Jesus Christ, was born in the womb of Mary, according to the
dispensation of God." (Ignatius to Eph. sees. 18, 19.)
The foregoing are mere specimens. Christ is now the Son of God; but
for a time he is all humanity. He grows from infancy to manhood, and
manifests in himself the appetites and infirmities which belong to the
flesh. His mind develops early; but, as with other mortals, it grew and
expanded as he advanced in years. But the time came when "the heavens
were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove, and lighting upon him." (Matt. iii. 16.) He was there proclaimed
by a voice from heaven, to be the Son of God. Here is something Paul
never heard of. The new Logos of the gospel, like the Logos of Philo,
was without beginning, from everlasting; but from this point they
diverge.
The Logos of the Alexandrian was not an _hypostasis_, or a person, but
a divine emanation or spirit; of a nature unconceivable, which hovered
over the earth, but never touched it. The new Christ descended from
heaven as a spirit, took up its mysterious abode in the human form,
where it dwelt until its ministry was complete, when, with the body
which contained it, it encountered death--went down into the grave--but
on the third day broke the chains of death, and triumphantly ascended
into heaven, from whence it came.
The tendency of the minds of men at that day towards the discussions of
metaphysical and unintelligible subjects, soon led to endless disputes,
growing out of this new feature of the Christian faith. How this
mysterious union of God and man could and did exist, and when and how
it was dissolved, were questions which caused much angry feeling and
acrimonious discussion among Christians, which continued through the
second, and even to the fourth century, when, according to the learned
author of the "Decline and Fall," they died out by "the prevalence of
more fashionable controversies, and by the superior ascendant of the
reigning power." (Gib-bon, vol. I. p. 257.)
The idle and profitless disputes of the second era of Christianity were
forced, at a later day, to give way to those of the third. Cerinthus,
and other Gnostics, maintained that the Son of God descended on the day
of baptism in the form of a dove, and remained in its human receptacle
until the time of the crucifixion, when it took its flight, leaving to
the human form all the agonies and sufferings of death. If this were
so, there is no atonement: the Son of God has not offered himself as a
sacrifice. The Gnostics had the advantage of consistency. If Christ
was a creature, like other men, when the Spirit descended upon him, and
existed apart from the flesh, then death could only reach the body,
and when that was put to death, or about to be, and the Spirit lost
its tabernacle or abiding-place, it must again return to the celestial
abode.
The perplexities and interminable disputes, caused by such
unintelligible subjects, at last led to the third period in the
Christian religion: the doctrine of the _incarnation_. "The _Word_ was
made flesh and dwelt among us, who was not born of blood, nor of the
will of man, but of God." (_John_ i. 13, 14.) God took upon himself
the form of man, and was God in man. The Logos of Philo has become an
hypostasis, and walks upon the earth. The war with the Gnostics has
changed ground. The Son of God did not come down and take up his abode
in the mortal form of Christ, but was Jesus himself, and when he came
to suffer death there was no separation of divine and human natures, but
the real Son of God shed his blood, suffered, and died on the cross as a
sacrifice for the sins of our race.
The paternal solicitude of Irenaeus in support of this new phase of
Christianity is conspicuously displayed in the third book of his work
against Heresies. "But, according to these men, neither was the Word
made flesh, nor Christ, nor the Saviour (_Soter_), who was produced from
[the joint contributions of] all [the _AEons_]. For they will have it
that the Word and Christ never came into this world; that the Saviour,
too, never became incarnate, nor _suffered_, but that he descended
like a dove upon the dispensational Jesus; and that, as soon as He had
declared the unknown Father, He did again ascend into the Pleroma....
Therefore the Lord's disciple, pointing them all out as false witnesses,
says: 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.'" (Chap. xi.
sec. 3.) "As it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed
in the beginning with God, by whom all things were made, who was also
always present with mankind, was in these last days, according to the
time appointed by the Father, united to His own workmanship, inasmuch as
He became a man liable to suffering, [it follows] that every objection
is set aside of those who say, 'If our Lord was born at that time,
Christ had therefore no previous existence.' For I have shown that the
Son of God did not then begin to exist, being with the Father from
the beginning; but when He became _incarnate_, and was made man, He
commenced afresh the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a
brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had lost in
Adam--namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God--that we
might recover in Christ Jesus." (Chap, xviii. sec. 1.) The forgers are
again at their work. The ancient fathers must be made to subscribe to
the new creed. "For some there are who are wont to carry about the name
of Christ in deceitful-ness, but do things unworthy of God, whom you
must avoid as ye would wild beasts. For they are raving dogs, which bite
secretly, of whom you must be aware, as men hardly to be cured. There
is one physician, both carnal and spiritual, create and increate, God
_manifest in the flesh_; both of Mary and of God; first capable _of
suffering_--then liable to suffer no more." (_Ignatius to Eph_. sec. 7.)
"For whosoever confesseth not that Jesus Christ is _come in the flesh_
is Antichrist; and whosoever confesseth not his _sufferings upon the
cross_ is from the devil. And whosoever perverts the oracles of God, he
is the first-born of Satan." (Polycarp to Philippians, sec. 7.)
The above citations are a few of many others of a like character
scattered through the works of the fathers, inserted long after their
death, and evidently intended to combat the idea of Cerinthus and
others, that Christ did not suffer on the cross, and so it could not be
claimed that by his death he made an atonement for the sins of man. Both
of these fathers lived near the time of Paul, and believed the doctrines
he preached: "Ye are the passage of those that are killed for God; who
have been _instructed in the mysteries of the gospel with Paul_, who was
sanctified and bore testimony even unto death, and is deservedly most
happy; at whose feet I would that I might be found when I shall have
attained unto God, who through all his epistles makes mention of you in
Christ." (_Ignatius to the Ephesians_, sec. 12.) "For neither can I,
nor any other such as I am, come up to the wisdom of the blessed and
renowned Paul, who being amongst you, in the presence of those who then
lived, taught with exactness and soundness the word of truth; who in
his absence also wrote an epistle to you, unto which, if you diligently
look, you may be able to be edified in the faith delivered unto you,
which is the mother of us all." (_Polycarp to the Philippians_, sec. 3.)
Paul taught that Christ was born of woman, under the law; and Ignatius,
that he was "truly of the race of David, according to the flesh."
(Letter to the Eph., sec. 1.)
The letters of Polycarp and Ignatius seemed a kind of a free commons
where forgeries might be committed by all; and they have been so often
used for this purpose, in order to secure the authority of their names
to the doctrines of the day, that there is very little of the originals
left. All parties were engaged in the practice; and each charged his
adversary with doing the very thing that he was doing himself.
As we read whole pages in Irenaeus, charging his adversaries with
forgeries and false interpolations, we smile at the impudence and
audacity of the man, who has done more to pollute the pages of history
than any other, and whose foot-prints we can follow through the whole
century, like the slime of a serpent.
Speaking of the forgeries of this century, Casaubon says: "And in the
last place, it mightily affects me to see how many there were in the
earliest times of the church, who considered it a capital exploit to
lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order that
the new doctrine might be more readily allowed by the wise among the
Gentiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, were devised
for a good end; from which source, beyond question, sprang nearly
innumerable books, which that and the following age saw published by
those who were far from being bad men (for we are not speaking of the
books of the heretics), under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and of
the Apostles, and of other saints." (_Casaubon_, quoted by Lardner.)
Lardner is forced to admit "that _Christians of or the Enigmas of
Christianity, all sorts_ were guilty of this fraud--indeed, we may say
it was one great fault of the times." (Vol. iv. page 54.)
In an age where falsehood was esteemed a merit, the truth cannot be
expected. Before we close what we have to say on the third period of
Christianity, we cannot fail to notice what a wide gulf has grown up
between the religious faith of Paul and his followers, and those who
gave their assent to the doctrines of the fourth Gospel. But, wide as is
the gulf, those who call themselves Christians can stand on the opposite
banks and clasp hands as believers in a common faith. Why is this?
Skilful artisans, in the second century and subsequent ages, have been
busy in bridging over this vast abyss, by adding to and taking away
from what Paul taught, until to cross over is neither difficult nor
dangerous.