This post is part of an ongoing series examining Women in the Apostolic Fathers. Before engaging pericopes from the Apostolic Fathers regarding women, we first briefly introduce the writings from which this evidence comes. Given the length and scope of this paper, these introductions are necessarily brief (and insufficient for a comprehensive examination of theContinue reading “Women in the Apostolic Fathers: Introductions (Part I)”
This post is part of an ongoing series examining Ephrem the Syrian and early Syriac Christianity. While most analysis of Syrian madrashe has focused on its metrical form, authorship, origins, and liturgical setting, comparatively little attention has been paid to the contents of the madrashe. To form a fully contextualized understanding of Syrian madrashe, additionalContinue reading “Scripture in Ephrem’s Madrashe”
Use of the term “canon” has long been subject to debate within the study of early Christianity, as scholars often discuss precisely when the Christian New Testament canon came into existence. Among modern scholars three primary perspectives have emerged as to the meaning of canon. This post outlines these schools of thought.
This post is part of the ongoing series examining Early Christian Authority. Use of the term “canon” has long been subject to debate among those studying the formation of the New Testament. The word itself comes from the Greek kanonikos, the basic meaning of which is “of one rule.” So a canon is something thatContinue reading “ECA: The Canon Debate”
Most Christians, and I would dare say most Americans, know some basic things about the Christian New Testament. But many people don’t know (or don’t want to know) how the New Testament came into being. Some people seem to think that Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation fell from the sky in a nicely leather boundContinue reading “NT Canon: What You Need to Know”
This post is part of our ongoing series examining Early Christian Authority. The Second Epistle of Clement represents the oldest extant non-canonical Christian homily, a sermon that urges followers of Christ to recognize their debts to God and repent of their sins while displacing themselves from the sinful world and committing themselves to self-control andContinue reading “ECA: Second Clement”
This post is part of our ongoing series on Early Christian Authority. Polycarp of Smyrna remains one of the best attested figures of the early Christian Church. As bishop of Smyrna (cx. Rev. 2.8), recipient of a letter from the Ignatius of Antioch, and a martyr of the church, Polycarp stands apart as an exceptionalContinue reading “ECA: Epistle of Polycarp”
To “kick off” our Early Christian Authority Series, we begin with First Clement, which is the earliest non-canonical, specifically Christian, and still extant writing available to us today. First Clement claims to have been written from the Church at Rome to the Church at Corinth, and seems to have been written around 95-96 CE (thoughContinue reading “ECA: First Clement”
This post is part of an ongoing series outlining the formation of the New Testament canon. Before any sort of canonization could take place, the Apostolic[1] writings now included in the New Testament had to become viewed with some form of authority. The sources that scholars utilize most in determining the authority granted to theContinue reading “NT Canon: Apostolic Fathers”
Pursuing Veritas