A Short Course in Church History in under Five Minutes
[When we became Orthodox Christians, a friend who was a Baptist minister asked me why I did not become a Baptist. I answered, "I'm sorry. We wanted to be part of the ancient Church." He answered, "But we go all the way back to John the Baptist." I wanted to ask him if he had ever heard of Menno Simons, or if any church existed at all before Pentecost; but I didn't, because to say these things would not have been helpful. More recently, a young woman approached our Orthodox booth at a university to give us literature about getting saved. She said she belonged to the 'original' church, the Church of Christ ("that's why we don't have any denominational name"). I wanted to ask her if she had ever heard of the Campellites, but I didn't, because of course she did not know anything about her church's origins. Here in America we learn very little about Church history or history in general. This article was composed for friends who are curious if the Orthodox Church is a sect that broke away from Christianity sometime in the distant past. It is incomplete, of course: all of Church history in under five minutes. But perhaps it is a beginning for those who are interested in learning more.]
The first followers of Christian faith were friends and relatives of Jesus of Nazareth, who was born approximately 4 BCE in the village of Bethlehem in Judea. They listened to His teachings and followed him for three years as He walked around the territories of Galilee, Samaria and Judea (modern Israel). They also later testified to having seen Jesus alive again three days after He had been crucified by the occupying Roman government in Jerusalem, and buried. According to Paul of Tarsus, who wrote much of the Christian New Testament (“testament” means “eye-witness”), more than 500 people saw Jesus alive again after His death (1 Corinthians 15:6).
Four of Jesus’ original followers wrote short books called “Gospels” (in Greek, evangelia, meaning “good news”) about what they had seen and heard. Three of these—Matthew (also called Levi), Mark (also called John Mark), and John—were Jews who were among the first twelve disciples. Peter, the oldest disciple, dictated his gospel to Mark. A fourth, Luke, was a Greek doctor who was not among the Twelve but who knew Jesus, and who did considerable research in order to write his own account (tradition is that for a while Luke lived with Mary, Jesus’ mother, who was living with the Apostle John).
Scholars believe that the earliest of the Gospels (Mark) was written before the year 50 CE, while the latest (John) dates from around 95 CE. Three of the books (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are called “synoptic” Gospels (from the Greek meaning “one perspective”) because they are told from the same historical point of view. The fourth, John’s Gospel, is also a first-person account but is written in a more philosophical style and is concerned with deeper spiritual matters.
According to these accounts Jesus also had many other followers, including 72 whom He sent out to heal and to preach (Luke ch. 10). Besides these there were women who provided for the needs of the others, including Mary of Magdala, Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Susanna, and others (cf. Luke 8:2-3).
Luke later wrote a second book known as The Acts of the Apostles. This book describes the beginning of the Christian Church. Forty days after rising from the dead, Jesus appeared to His disciples, told them He was going to His Father, and then vanished into a cloud. Subsequently this event became known as “the Ascension.” Ten days later, 120 of Jesus’ followers were gathered together in a large room in Jerusalem on the Jewish feast-day of Shavuot (known in Greek as Pentecost, meaning “fifty days”) which falls fifty days after the Jewish feast of Omer (“First Fruits”)—the last day of the Passover cycle and the day on which Jesus was seen to have risen from the dead. This day became the “birthday” of the Church.
On this Pentecost feast-day Jesus’ followers experienced the sound of a strong wind, accompanied by fire which appeared to rest on their heads. Although some of them were illiterate, they immediately began to preach in many languages about Jesus’ resurrection (this event is described in Acts 2). While some 3,000 people were initially attracted to Peter’s preaching, they were soon persecuted by local Jews including a well-educated rabbi, Saul of Tarsus. However, Saul subsequently had a supernatural vision of Jesus and became an ardent follower. He was renamed “Paul” and became one of the most outspoken proponents of Christian faith, claiming that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah of the Jews and that He had come to give eternal life to all people. After spending several years in Damascus Paul began to travel, preaching salvation in Jesus Christ to non-Jews as well as to Jews. (The title “Christ” is Greek Christos, which translates the Hebrew mshkh meaning Messiah or “anointed one.”)
A large number of individual congregations of believers were now being founded by the twelve disciples, who began to be known as “apostles” (from Greek apostolos, “one who is sent out”). As before, there were also women Apostles, some of whom, like Lydia, used their homes to host the meetings of the first Christians (cf. Acts 16:14). At first the disciples together were known simply as followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:02), meaning the Way of Christ. Later their small congregations began to be known collectively as “the Church” (Greek ekklesia, “those called apart”).
The first church in which the followers were called “Christians” was at Antioch (Acts 11:26), where St. Peter was the overseer. Barnabas went to Tarsus to find Paul, and for a year Peter and Paul worked together there (Acts 11:26). The Bible says that at this time a “large company was added to the Lord.”
As the Apostles were overwhelmed with work, they appointed deacons (diakonoi) to help them conduct services of worship. Among these was Stephen, who was stoned to death by a hostile crowd accompanied by Saul before Saul’s conversion (Acts 6). Christian worship centered around the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, called Eucharist (evcharistia, translating Hebrew brkh meaning “blessing” or “thanksgiving”) which was conducted weekly and even daily. The Eucharist celebrated the resurrection of Christ and was accompanied by a communal meal similar to the Jewish ritual meal called chabura. The deacons helped with serving the meal and eventually, with conducting the prayers.
Because the first followers were nearly all Jewish, they celebrated Eucharist on Friday night/Saturday, similar to the prayers of Shabbat and Kiddush (Sabbath-day prayers) which are said by Jews even today. The Jewish evening prayers gave rise to the Christian evening prayers, later called “Vespers” from the Latin for “evening.” Christians continued the pattern of saying prayers seven times a day. But they also instituted the celebration of Eucharist on early Sunday mornings (the first day of the week), since this was when Jesus rose from the dead, and re-named this day Kyriake which means “the Lord’s Day.”
Moving to new districts and establishing new congregations, the Apostles then appointed overseers or “bishops” (Greek episkopoi) to guide the local churches. They also appointed Presbyters (Greek presbyteroi), accompanied by deacons, to minister to the people and to teach (cf. Philippians 1:1). The word “Presbyter” is still used today to refer to Orthodox priests, and it means “one who goes before,” or “one who intercedes” e.g. an elder or someone who prays on your behalf.
The Apostles traveled thousands of miles, talking with religious people and philosophers. Paul made a number of journeys across Asia, founding congregations in Israel, Asia Minor, present-day Greece, Italy and, according to some legends, perhaps even as far away as Britain and Spain. Peter went to Beruit, Phoenicia, Antioch, Sicily, Cappadocia, Ancyra and elsewhere. Andrew went to the Black Sea and to the regions of modern Ukraine and Russia. John went to the port city of Ephesus in Asia Minor and oversaw the church there until his exile to the island of Patmos. Thomas went to India. James traveled through Spain. Philip went to Asia Minor, Arabia, Syria and elsewhere. Matthew traveled through Macedonia, Syria, Persia, Parthia and Media, and Ethiopia. Jude also traveled to many regions of Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, finally remaining in Edessa. Simon the Zealot was in Egypt, Mauritania, Libya, Numidia, Cyrenia and Abkahazia, on the Black Sea. Mark evangelized in Egypt; and so on with the others.
How do we know that the Apostles really went to these places? There are three kinds of testimonies to these trips: First, they wrote about them (e.g. the Book of Acts). Second, legends of their travels, including ancient monuments, were preserved in the various countries and languages where the Apostles visited and may be seen even to the present time. Third, Christian churches still exist in those places and have always testified that they were founded by Apostles. Some examples are the churches in India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Armenia (the first nation to declare itself as “Christian”) and Georgia. Monuments in Ukraine recall Andrew’s visits and the prophecy that “light would shine forth from the hills” around Kyiv (Kiev). Among Hindu holy-men in the Himalyas today there are ancient legends about Thomas and about Jesus, and the earliest churches in India were known as Mar Thoma, “Saint Thomas.” Even the term for a “high Lama” among Tibetan, Mongolian and Nepali Buddhists—yeshe—is suspiciously similar to Jesus’ name in Hebrew (Yeshua’, “Savior”) and is thought by some to be the origin of the term.
Except for St. John, all the original apostles were eventually killed by hostile tribal people or by the Roman government. An attempt was made on John’s life by poison, but he did not die (interestingly, fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus recorded in Mark 16). After living for some time in Ephesus, he was exiled by the Roman government to the island of Patmos, where it is still possible to visit the cave in which he lived. Following the deaths of the Apostles the local churches continued to be governed by their bishops, under whom served the Presbyters, the Deacons, and Readers (those who kept copies of the Scriptures for use in the churches, and chanted them aloud at worship services).
Letters and other accounts have survived from some of the earliest bishops. Among these are Ignatius, who was Bishop of Antioch in Syria; Clement of Rome; Polycarp of Smyrna; and Hippolytus in Rome. Ignatius was a student of the Apostle John, and Polycarp claimed to be one of the children who sat on Jesus’ lap when He said “Let the little children come unto me” (Mark 10:13). These and other Christian documents from the 2nd century tell us how early Christians worshipped and believed. Some of these letters were regularly read in the Christian churches on Sundays, including the Didache (or “The Teaching of the Twelve”) which was supposed to have been originally composed by the Apostles; the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas and others.
At this time there was no set collection of Christian writings, but different documents were owned by different churches and were sacred to them. By the third and fourth centuries, however, forgeries began to appear which claimed to have been written by the first Christian disciples. These included fake “Gospels” of Peter, Mark, Mary the Mother of Jesus, and others. Most of these were writings which today are known as “Gnostic Gospels” from a sect of religious philosophers known collectively as Gnostics, meaning “Possessors of Secret Knowledge,” from the Greek words gnosis or “knowledge.” The latter took their primary influence from Hinduism, but claimed to have derived from “original” Christianity even though these “gospels” were not written for two to three hundred years after the genuine Christian gospels.
In order to distinguish themselves from Gnostics and from followers of other non-Christian sects and distortions of the Christian faith, the Christian churches began to call themselves “Apostolic”—meaning that they were founded by the original Christian Apostles and kept the original teachings of those Apostles. They also called themselves “Catholic” from the Greek term katholikos (“universal,” from Greek kat’, “according to” and holon, “the whole”) meaning that all Christians in the world had the same teachings and ways of worship; and that the Church had spread throughout the known world. The churches also called themselves “Orthodox,” from the Greek words ortho (“straight,” “correct”) and dokeo (“I teach”). The word Orthodox may also be derived from doxa (“glory”). Thus the meaning is “right teaching” or “right appearance.” Some scholars also trace the name to an ancient term meaning “right belief.” Eventually, putting all this together, the Christians called themselves the “One, Holy, Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
It was now obvious that the churches would have to clarify which books were authentically Christian and which were not. Thus the first lists of New Testament books appear in the fourth century. Early lists varied depending upon the region in which they were made, some including non-Apostolic books (like Clement’s letters) and others leaving out books (like the Apocalypse, i.e. Revelation) when they were unsure of the apostolic origin. Today, the claim is sometimes made that the book of Revelation was excluded on doctrinal grounds, but this is false. The issue was uncertainty about whether this last book of the New Testament was truly written by the Apostle and Evangelist John, which was the generally accepted view of the Church.
Interestingly, the churches did not make firm lists of the Hebrew Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. This was not necessary, because Christians universally used the same Scriptures which were used by Jews for over two hundred years. The Bible they used was the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible which had been translated around 200 years before the time of Christ in Alexandria, Egypt.
The Greek translation (known as the Septuagint, from the Greek for “seventy” because it was supposed to have been translated by seventy scholars) was necessary because, by the time of Christ, ordinary Jews could not read the Hebrew Bible. The conquest of Alexander the Great had introduced the Greek language many generations before. For this reason the Greek Bible became the standard which was used by the first Christians, including the Apostles, because it was used by the Jews.
This fact is important for later Christian history. The Hebrew Bible which is in use today by Jews (known as the TNKH or tanakh) was not undertaken until around the fourth century CE, when some Alexandrian Jews wanted to see the Law, Prophets and Histories in Hebrew once again. It was not completed until the eleventh century in Spain. There are significant differences between the modern Hebrew text and the Greek text, in part because some of the books which appear in the Septuagint were not written in Hebrew but in Aramaic, and so were not included in the new Hebrew text; and in part because of uncertainty by the Middle Ages about what certain Hebrew words meant (ancient Hebrew had no vowels, and so lent itself to misunderstanding).
Centuries later, the Protestant Reformers would translate from the Hebrew text—not the Greek text which was actually quoted by the Apostles—thus producing differences between their Bibles and those which were used by the early Christians, and leaving out a number of books which were important to early Christian worship. In fact, there are many examples in the New Testament of Christ or the Apostles quoting from the Septuagint, from books which do not exist in the Protestant Bible. Thus the Orthodox Bible today generally has 49 books in it (not 39) and, like the early Church, has 151 Psalms (not 150).
In the 4th Century the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great accepted Christian faith and legalized the churches. Eventually persecution of the Christians stopped and Christianity largely replaced the ancient Roman and Greek religions, especially in the cities. After some time it was formally adopted as the official faith of the Roman Empire. As the capital of the Empire was now relocated to the new city of Constantinople (built on the site of an ancient village known as Byzantium), the Church also located its largest cathedral there. The other largest Christian centers were in the ancient sites of the first apostolic preaching, including Rome, Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (Syria), and Jerusalem.
In the centuries which followed, Christian faith spread throughout the Roman Empire and even, from the sixth to ninth centuries, had a strong presence in China. However there were serious pressures on the Church to divide, largely along political lines. Roman ruling families resented the relocation of the capital city to Constantinople and a rivalry grew up between the two cities and the rulers who lived in them (Roman Consuls or sometimes, co-Emperors, or the “Emperor” in Constantinople and the “King” of Rome). Along with this rivalry there began to be a struggle for leadership between the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople (called “New Rome” by the government). This rivalry smoldered for nearly 1,000 years as the Bishop of Rome often made claims to be supreme, just as the ancient city of Rome had once been the most important city and the political center of the Roman Empire.
The Christian churches of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire as well as, or including, Judea, Egypt and Ethiopia, Syria, Persia and Armenia, did not agree that the Church should have a single bishop as its supreme head. Rather, the bishops of all the churches worked together and met in councils (called “Synods” and, in a few cases, “Great Councils” or “Ecumenical Councils”) in order to make decisions together. Eventually there were seven such “Ecumenical Councils.”
In the fifth century some of the churches in North Africa and in the East broke away from the others as a result of misunderstandings at the Fourth Ecumenical Council held at Chalcedon. These included the great churches of Armenia, Persia, Egypt (the “Coptic” church), India and Ethiopia. However, they continued to hold essentially the same faith. Today these are known as the “Oriental Orthodox” churches, and the differences are now recognized to have been simply problems in translation of terms rather than any significant difference in faith or liturgical practice.
Greater tension continued to exist over the issue of whether the Church could have a single head or ruler over all the other bishops. In the East, local churches were more or less independent and always used the local languages, translating from the original Greek. This encouraged reliance on the local Patriarchs, bishops and theologians. By contrast, in the West the Church was centrally organized around Rome and in time, compelled the churches everywhere to use Latin.
In the beginning the use of Latin in the West was helpful because uneducated people could understand Latin rather than the Greek of educated worshippers. But in succeeding centuries, the Gothic and tribal peoples to the north and west who were Christianized, could not understand Latin. This lent itself to distancing between the common worshippers and the clergy, and also to widespread heresies such as Arianism and Pelagianism in the West. Also, there were not many early theologians in the West—western theology relied chiefly on Augustine of Hippo—while there were many recognized and well-educated theologians in the Greek- and Syrian churches of the East.
Eastern theologians also began to find Western theology to be novel and non-traditional, especially the view of the Holy Trinity, which they felt had been distorted. The source of error was a copying mistake which left the Nicene Creed incorrect, first in Spain and later in all the Holy Roman Empire (after Charlemagne in the ninth century). This error implied that the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, was not truly God but only a kind of force or love-bond between the Father and the Son, proceeding “from the Father and the Son” rather than simply “from the Father,” as in the original Creed.
After many centuries, tension between East and West finally resulted in what is called the Great Schism in 1054. In a formal letter the Bishop of Rome anathematized (condemned) the Bishop of Constantinople and the eastern Churches. From the point of view of the other Churches, this meant that the Church of Rome had broken away from the original Orthodox Church.
In the centuries which followed, the Eastern Churches continued much as they always had without changing their teachings and without changing their ways of worship or organization. In the West, however, the churches had already changed dramatically in many ways. The Bishop of Rome (known as the Patriarch or “Pope” of Rome) became a political leader, even having a papal army. Doctrines and new practices were added to the Catholic faith which had not existed before: for instance, the idea that Mary was born without sin; the doctrine of Purgatory; the use of indulgences; the doctrine of Transubstantiation; and later, the doctrine of Papal infallibility.
In the meantime, Western rulers launched Crusades against the Muslims in the Holy Land. Within the West itself there was the Inquisition, in which during a period of several centuries thousands of people who were deemed to believe or teach wrongly—including scientists and philosophers, Jews and anyone who was thought to be “deviant”—were killed. The Orthodox Church has no equivalents of these atrocities, and in fact in the Fourth Crusade the Crusaders even attacked the great Church, Hagia Sophia, of Constantinople itself, destroying much of Christendom, from which Constantinople never recovered.
In 1517 in Germany, a monk named Martin Luther galvanized a massive protest against the Roman Papacy which became known as the Protestant Reformation. Chief issues were immorality and simony in the leadership of the Roman church, theological and liturgical innovations, and the fact that the Scriptures were forbidden to be translated into the local languages. Earlier protests had already begun in Hungary, England and even in France. Whole movements, such as the Lollards and Wycliffites in fourteenth-century France and England, had also called for translation of the Scriptures from Latin into modern languages. But now large movements against the papacy took place in France and Switzerland, Holland, England and Scotland (following Jean Calvin, Martin Bucer, John Knox and others). The English king Henry VIII forced the church in England to break from Rome, ostensibly because of theological issues but in reality because of Henry’s desire to divorce his wife, who had not borne him a male heir. This schism gave rise to the Church of England (Anglican Church).
The Anabaptist movement, which gives us Baptist churches today, traces its history separately in England and the Netherlands and in that sense does not prefer to be called “Protestant.” However, this movement, which called for re-baptism (“Anabaptist” from the Greek meaning “baptizing over again”) was also schismatic from the Church of Rome. In time other movements appeared, often based on private visions, new interpretations of Scripture, or unusual practices such as trembling or shouting in worship, wearing strange clothes or abstaining from marriage. These included the Puritans, Quakers, Shakers, and many others. Methodism, begun by the Anglican priest John Wesley, was originally a spiritual reform within the Church of England but finally broke away from it. Congregationalists broke away from the Calvinist (Presbyterian) churches, and Pentecostals broke away from the Methodists. In America the “Great Restoration” in the 19th Century resulted in Campbellites arguing with Stonites, so that the Disciples of Christ separated from the Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ. Today it is estimated that there are more than 34,000 different denominations, with many thousands more of independent “Bible” churches and other sects.
The leaders of most of these movements were sincere Christians who believed that they were restoring the Church to its “original” form. However, in fact they knew very little about the ancient Church. Lacking any kind of traditional understanding of the apostolic faith or ways of worship, they based everything upon their own interpretations of the Bible, which itself was incomplete. Sometimes their ideas were good, but sometimes they were completely foreign to the faith and practice of the ancient Church, or were even bizarre or heretical.
In light of these things, Orthodox Christians in America would like to point out to their Christian brothers and sisters these facts:
• The Apostles directed their followers to keep the traditions which were handed down to them (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 3:6). Orthodox churches have tried to do this faithfully, not changing anything in worship or in faith. This is the Tradition of the Apostles. It was never based on private interpretations or ideas.
• The Apostles and Evangelists wrote histories and letters which were collected by the Church and later put together as the “New Testament.” In doing this, the Church had to reject strange new writings which were not genuine. The decision about which books to include was based upon the Tradition of the Orthodox faith which had been carefully handed down. For this reason we can say that, without any doubt, the Church was not founded on the New Testament, but the New Testament was founded on the Church and its Tradition.
• The Orthodox Church still uses the Old Testament which was used by the Apostles. The Orthodox Old Testament contains books which were quoted frequently by Jesus by the Apostles but which do not appear at all in Protestant Bibles.
• Although the Orthodox churches have always translated Scripture and worship into the local languages, they also continue to read the Bible in its original Greek. This gives them a better understanding of its meaning. English-language Bibles suffer from many mistranslations, some of which simply do not make sense. Worse, some lead to distortions of the Christian faith. (An example of the latter is Romans 3:25-27, in which the word hilasterion, “seat of mercy” or “place of washing clean,” is mistranslated in many Protestant Bibles as “propitiation.”)
• Orthodox churches have preserved the ways in which the first Christians worshipped. This was passed down carefully through the centuries in the Orthodox Liturgical Tradition. We can compare this Tradition to the earliest Christian writings—works by Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Irenaeus, Cyril of Jerusalem, and others—and when we do so, we find few changes. The Orthodox Divine Liturgy includes many hymns which are found in the Scriptures. Scholars believe that some of these hymns, which are found in the New Testament, existed first in the Liturgy and were later quoted in the Sciptures. This is evidence that the Orthodox Tradition existed first among the Apostles and their followers, and only later appeared in the New Testament.
In conclusion, it is a fact of history that Christianity around the world ultimately derives from the first Church. This Church still exists in our midst. It is like a living Bible, showing us how the earliest Christians believed and worshipped. It is the fervent prayer of Orthodox Christians that all Christians will once more unite into this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
© Fr. Brendan Pelphrey
2011
