_THE NEED OF MACHINERY FOR THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE
FAITH.--THE MACHINERY OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH._
"Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard from me among
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be
able to teach others also"--2 TIM. ii. 1, 2.
In this tenderly affectionate address we have a very early indication of
the beginnings of Christian _tradition_ and Christian _schools_, two
subjects intimately connected with one another. St. Paul having pointed
out as a warning to his "child" Timothy the cold or cowardly behaviour
of those in Asia who had turned away from him, and as an example the
affectionate courage of Onesiphorus, returns to the charge of which this
letter is so full, that Timothy is "not to be ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord," but be willing to "suffer hardship with the gospel
according to the power of God" (i. 8). "_Thou therefore_, my child,"
with these instances in mind on the one hand and on the other, "be
inwardly strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." In his own
strength he will be able to do nothing; but in the grace which Christ
freely bestows on all believers who ask it of Him, Timothy will be able
to find all that he needs for the strengthening of his own character and
for the instruction of others. And here St. Paul, in a way thoroughly
natural in one who is writing a letter which is personal rather than
official, diverges for a moment to give utterance to the idea which
passes through his mind of securing permanence in the instruction of the
faithful. Possibly it was in reference to this duty that he feared the
natural despondency and sensitiveness of Timothy. Timothy would be
likely to shrink from such work, or to do it in a half-hearted way. Or
again the thought that this letter is to summon Timothy to come to him
is in his mind (iv. 9, 21), and he forthwith exhorts him to make proper
provision for continuity of sound teaching in the Church committed to
his care. "The things which thou hast heard from me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to
teach others also." In other words, before leaving his flock in order to
visit his spiritual father and friend, he is to secure the establishment
of apostolic tradition. And in order to do this he is to establish a
school,--a school of picked scholars, intelligent enough to appreciate,
and trustworthy enough to preserve, all that has been handed down from
Christ and His Apostles respecting the essentials of the Christian
faith. There is only one Gospel,--that which the Apostles have preached
ever since the Ascension. It is so well known, so well authenticated
both by intrinsic sublimity and external testimony, that no one would be
justified in accepting a different Gospel, even upon the authority of an
angel from heaven. A second Gospel is an impossibility. That which is
not identical with the Gospel which St. Paul and the other Apostles have
preached would be no Gospel at all (Gal. i. 6-9). And this Divine and
Apostolic Gospel is the Gospel which has been committed to Timothy's
charge. Let him take all reasonable care for its preservation.
For in the first place, such care was commanded from the outset. Christ
has promised that His truth shall continue and shall prevail. But He has
not exempted Christians from the duty of preserving and propagating it.
He, Who is the Truth, has declared that He is ever with His Church, even
unto the end of the world (Matt. xxviii. 20); and in fulfilment of this
promise He has bestowed the Spirit of truth upon it. But He has nowhere
hinted that His Church is to leave the cause of His Gospel to take care
of itself. On the contrary, at the very time that He promised to be
alway with His disciples, He prefaced this promise with the command, "Go
ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, ... teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you;" as if His promise
were contingent upon their fulfilment of this charge. At the very moment
when the Church received the truth, it was told that it had the
responsibility of safeguarding it and making it known.
And, secondly, experience has proved how entirely necessary such care
is. The Gospel cannot be superseded by any announcement possessing a
larger measure of truth and authority. So far as the present
dispensation goes, its claims are absolute and final. But it may be
seriously misunderstood; it may be corrupted by large admixture of
error; it may be partially or even totally forgotten; it may be
supplanted by some meretricious counterfeit. There were Thessalonians
who had supposed that the Gospel exempted them from the obligation of
working to earn their bread. There were Christians at Corinth and
Ephesus who had confounded the liberty of the Gospel with antinomian
license. There was the Church of Sardis which had so completely
forgotten what it had received, that no works of its doing were found
fulfilled before God, and the remnant of truth and life which survived
was ready to perish. And the Churches of Galatia had been in danger of
casting on one side the glories of the Gospel and returning to the
bondage of the Law. Through ignorance, through neglect, through wilful
misrepresentation or interested opposition, the truth might be obscured,
or depraved, or defeated; and there were few places where such
disastrous results were more possible than at Ephesus. Its restless
activity in commerce and speculation; its worldliness; the seductiveness
of its forms of paganism;--all these constituted an atmosphere in which
Christian truth, unless carefully protected, would be likely to become
tainted or be ignored. Even without taking into account the proposal
that Timothy should leave Ephesus for awhile and visit the Apostle in
his imprisonment at Rome, it was no more than necessary precaution that
he should endeavour to secure the establishment of a permanent centre
for preserving and handing on in its integrity the faith once for all
committed to the saints.
"The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses." The
last three words are remarkable; and they are still more remarkable in
the original Greek. St. Paul does not say simply "_in the presence of_
many witnesses" (=enôpion= or =parontôn pollôn martyrôn=) but "_by means
of_ many witnesses" (=dia pollôn martyrôn=). In the First Epistle (vi.
12) he had appealed to the good confession which Timothy had made "in
the sight of many witnesses." As regards Timothy's confession these were
witnesses and no more. They were able for ever afterwards to testify
that he had made it; but they did not help him to make it. The
confession was his, not theirs, although no doubt they assented to it
and approved it; and their presence in no way affected its goodness. But
here those who were present were something more than mere witnesses of
what the Apostle said to Timothy; they were an integral part of the
proceeding. Their presence was an element without which the Apostle's
teaching would have assumed a different character. They were not a mere
audience, able to testify as to what was said; they were guarantees of
the instruction which was given. The sentiments and opinions which St
Paul might express in private to his disciple, and the authoritative
teaching which he delivered to him in public under the sanction of many
witnesses, were two different things and stood on different grounds.
Timothy had often heard from his friend his personal views on a variety
of subjects; and he had often heard from the Apostle his official
testimony, delivered solemnly in the congregation, as to the truths of
the Gospel. It is this latter body of instruction, thus amply
guaranteed, of which Timothy is to take such care. He is to treat it as
a treasure committed to his charge, a precious legacy which he holds in
trust. And in his turn he is to commit it to the keeping of trustworthy
persons, who will know its value, and be capable of preserving it intact
and of handing it on to others as trustworthy as themselves.
Some expositors interpret the passage as referring, not to the Apostle's
public teaching as a whole, but to the instructions which he gave to
Timothy at his ordination respecting the proper discharge of his office;
and the aorist tense =êkousas= favours the view that some definite
occasion is intended (comp. 1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6). In that case
the Apostle is here showing anxiety for the establishment of a sound
tradition respecting the duties of ministers,--a very important portion,
but by no means the main portion of the teaching which he had imparted.
But the aorist does not compel us to confine the allusion to some one
event, such as Timothy's ordination or baptism; and it seems more
reasonable to understand the charge here given as a continuation of that
which occurs towards the close of the first chapter. There he says,
"Hold the pattern of sound words which thou hast heard" (=êkousas=)
"from me;" and here he charges Timothy not merely to hold this pattern
of sound words fast himself, but to take care that it does not perish
with him.
This, then, may be considered as the earliest trace of the formation of
_a theological school_,--a school which has for its object not merely
the instruction of the ignorant, but the protection and maintenance of a
definite body of doctrine: That which the Apostle, when he was in
Ephesus, publicly taught, under the sanction of a multitude of
witnesses, is to be preserved and handed on without compromise or
corruption as a pattern of wholesome doctrine. There are unhealthy and
even deadly distortions of the truth in the air, and unless care is
taken to preserve the truth, it may easily become possible to confuse
weak and ignorant minds as to what are the essentials of the Christian
faith.
The question as to the earliest methods of Christian instruction and the
precautions taken for the preservation of Apostolic tradition is one of
the many particulars in which our knowledge of the primitive Church is
so tantalizingly meagre. A small amount of information is given us in
the New Testament, for the most part quite incidentally, as here; and
then the history runs underground, and does not reappear for a century
or more. The first few generations of Christians did not contain a large
number of persons who were capable of producing anything very
considerable in the way of literature. Of those who had the ability, not
many had the leisure or the inclination to write. It was more important
to teach by word of mouth than with the pen; and where was the use of
leaving records of what was being done, when (as was generally believed)
Christ would almost immediately appear to put an end to the existing
dispensation? Out of what was written much, as we know, has perished,
including even documents of Apostolic origin (Luke i. 1, 2; 1 Cor. v. 9;
3 John 9). Therefore, much as we lament the scantiness of the evidence
that has come down to us, there is nothing surprising about it. The
marvel is, not that so little contemporary history has reached us, but
that so much has done so. And what it behoves us to do is to make a
sober use of such testimony as we possess.
We shall be doing no more than drawing a reasonable conclusion from the
passage before us if we infer, that what St. Paul enjoins Timothy to do
at Ephesus was done in many other Churches also, partly in consequence
of this Apostolic injunction, and partly because what he enjoins would
be suggested in many cases by necessity and common sense. This inference
is confirmed by the fact that it is precisely to the continuity of
doctrine secured by a regular succession of authorized and official
teachers in the different Churches that appeal is continually made by
some of the earliest Christian writers whose works have come down to us.
Thus Hegesippus (c. A.D. 170) gives as the result of careful personal
investigations at Corinth, Rome, and elsewhere, "But in every succession
(of bishops) and in every city there prevails just what the Law and the
Prophets and the Lord proclaim" (Eus., H.E., IV. xxii. 3). Irenaeus, in
his great work against heresies, which was completed about A.D. 185,
says, "We can enumerate those who were appointed bishops by the Apostles
themselves in the different Churches, and their successors down to our
own day; and they neither taught nor acknowledged any such stuff as is
raved by these men.... But since it would be a long business in a work
of this kind to enumerate the successions in all the Churches," he
selects as a primary example that of "the very great and ancient Church,
well known to all men, founded and established by the two most glorious
Apostles Peter and Paul." After giving the succession of Roman bishops
from Linus to Eleutherus, he glances at Smyrna, presided over by St.
John's disciple, Polycarp, whose letter to the Philippian Church shows
what he believed, and at Ephesus, founded as a Church by St. Paul and
presided over by St. John, until the times of Trajan (III. iii. 1-3).
Again he says, that, although there may be different opinions respecting
single passages of Scripture, yet there can be none as to the sum total
of its contents, viz. "that which the Apostles have deposited in the
Church as the fulness of truth, and which has been preserved in the
Church by the succession of bishops." And again, still more definitely,
"The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world even to the
ends of the earth, has received from the Apostles and their disciples
the belief in one God, Father Almighty, etc.... Having received this
preaching and this belief, the Church, as we said before, although
dispersed about the whole world, carefully guards it, as if dwelling in
one house; and she believes these things, as if she had but one soul and
one and the same heart, and with perfect concord she preaches them and
teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For
although the languages up and down the world are different, yet the
import of the tradition is one and the same. For neither the Churches
which are established in Germany believe anything different or hand down
anything different, nor in Spain, nor in Gaul, nor throughout the East,
nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor those established about the central
regions of the earth.... And neither will he who is very mighty in word
among those who preside in the Churches utter different [doctrines] from
these (for no one is above the Master), nor will he who is weak in
speaking lessen the tradition" (I. x. 1, 2). Clement of Alexandria (c.
A.D. 200) tells us that he had studied in Greece, Italy, and the East,
under teachers from Ionia, Coelesyria, Assyria, and Palestine; and he
writes of his teachers thus: "These men, preserving the true tradition
of the blessed teaching directly from Peter and James, from John and
Paul, the holy Apostles, son receiving it from father (but few are they
who are like their fathers), came by God's providence even to us, to
deposit among us those seeds which are ancestral and apostolic"
(_Strom._, I. p. 322, ed. Potter). Tertullian in like manner appeals to
the unbroken tradition, reaching back to the Apostles, in a variety of
Churches: "Run over the Apostolic Churches, in which the very chairs of
the Apostles still preside in their places, in which their own authentic
writings are read, uttering the voice and representing the face of each
of them;" and he mentions in particular Corinth, Philippi,
Thessalonica, Ephesus, and Rome. "Is it likely that Churches of such
number and weight should have _strayed_ into one and the same faith?"
(_De Praes. Haer._, xxviii., xxxvi.).
This evidence is quite sufficient to prove that what St. Paul charged
Timothy to do at Ephesus was done not only there but at all the chief
centres of the Christian Church: viz., that everywhere great care was
taken to provide continuity of authoritative teaching respecting the
articles of the faith. It indicates also that as a rule the bishop in
each place was regarded as the custodian of the deposit, who was to be
chiefly responsible for its preservation. But the precise method or
methods (for there was probably different machinery in different places)
by which this was accomplished, cannot now be ascertained. It is not
until near the end of the second century that we begin to get anything
like precise information as to the way in which Christian instruction
was given, whether to believers or heathen, in one or two of the
principal centres of Christendom; _e.g._, Alexandria, Caesarea, and
Jerusalem.
St Paul himself had ruled that a bishop must be "apt to teach" (1 Tim.
iii. 2; comp. Tit. i. 9); and although we have no reason to suppose that
as a rule the bishop was the only or even the chief instructor, yet he
probably selected the teachers, as Timothy is directed to do here. In
the great Catechetical School of Alexandria the appointment of what we
should now call the Rector or senior professor was in the hands of the
bishop. And, as we might expect, bishops selected clergy for this most
important office. It forms one of the many contrasts between primitive
Christianity and heathenism, that Christians did, and pagans did not,
regard it as one of the functions of the priesthood to give instruction
in the traditional faith. The heathen clergy, if consulted, would give
information respecting the due performance of rites and ceremonies, and
the import of omens and dreams; but of their giving systematic teaching
as to what was to be believed respecting the gods, there is no trace.
It is more than probable that a great deal of the instruction both to
candidates for baptism and candidates for the ministry was from very
early times reduced to something like a formula; even before the dangers
of corruption arising from Gnosticism rendered this necessary, we may
believe that it took place. We know that the Gospel history was in the
first instance taught orally; and the oral instruction very soon fell
into something that approached to a stereotyped form. This would
probably be the case with regard to statements of the essentials of the
Christian faith. In Ignatius (_Philad._, viii.), Justin Martyr (_Apol._,
I. 61, 66), and in Irenaeus (_Haer._, I. x. 1) we can trace what may well
have been formulas in common use. But it is not until the middle of the
fourth century that we get a complete example of the systematic
instruction given by a Christian teacher, in the Catechetical Lectures
of St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, delivered, however, before his
episcopate.
But what is _certain_ respecting the earliest ages of the Church is
this; that in every Church regular instruction in the faith was given by
persons in authority specially selected for this work, and that frequent
intercourse between the Churches showed that the substance of the
instruction given was in all cases the same, whether the form of words
was identical or not. These facts, which do not by any means stand
alone, are conclusive against the hypothesis, that between the
Crucifixion and the middle of the second century, a complete revolution
in the creed was effected; and that the traditional belief of Christians
is not that which Jesus of Nazareth taught, but a perversion of it which
owes its origin mainly to the overwhelming influence of His professed
follower, but virtual supplanter, Saul of Tarsus.