From the Feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed - Part 4

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Dear All,

 

We completed Part 3 with the following:

 

(p.13) " To join the " peculiar Christian society, " then, a candidate had to

repudiate his or her family, along with its values and practices. Justin Martyr,

called " the philosopher, " baptized in Rome around the year 140, says that he had

come to see himself as one who had been " brought up in bad habits and evil

customs " [21] to accept distorted values and worship demons as gods. He tells

how he and others had given up promiscuity, magic, greed, wealth, and racial

hatred:

 

We, out of every tribe of people...who used to take pleasure in promiscuity, now

embrace chastity alone; we, who once had recourse to magic, dedicate ourselves

to the good God; we, who valued above everything else acquiring wealth and

possessions, now bring what we have into a common fund, and share with everyone

in need; we who hated and killed other people, and refused to live with people

of another tribe because of their different customs, now live intimately with

them. [22]

 

(p.14) Every initiate, Justin adds, who " has been convinced, and agreed to our

teaching, " would pledge to live as a person transformed. "

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas) Chapter 1, pg. 13-14.

 

Notes:

 

[21] Justin, I 'Apology 61'.

 

[22] Ibid., 14.

 

Here now, is part 4.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

From the Feast of Agape to the Nicene Creed - Part 4

 

(p.14) Having changed his or her mind (which is the meaning of the Latin word

'paenitentia') about the past, the candidate could undergo the baptismal " bath "

that cleanses away its pollution. The initiate, often shivering beside a river,

undressed and went underwater, to emerge wet and naked, " born again. " And just

as any Roman newborn would first be presented to the father to accept--or

reject--before it could be embraced as a member of the family, so the newly

baptized would be presented before " God, the Father of all. " Now the initiate,

no longer called, as before, by his or her paternal name, would hear the

initiator pronouncing the name of the " Father of all, " of Jesus Christ, and of

the holy spirit. Then, clothed in new garments, the reborn Christian would be

fed a mixture of milk and honey, the food of newborn infants, and be brought in

to greet " those we call brothers and sisters " with a kiss. Now members of the

assembled community would invite the newcomer to share bread and wine in the

'eucharist' (literally, " thanksgiving " ), the sacred family meal. Justin says

that believers call baptism " 'illumination', because all who receive it are

illuminated in their understanding. " [23] These simple, everyday acts--taking

off old clothes, bathing, putting on new clothes, then sharing bread and

wine--took on, for Jesus' followers, powerful meanings.

 

As I began sometimes to participate in church services after decades of absence,

I experienced the power of worship in new ways. I had grown up nominally

Protestant, and thought of ritual as empty form, but now I saw how it could join

people of diverse cultures and viewpoints into a single community, and focus and

renew their energies. But, apart from these effects, (p.15) what do such acts

mean, and what does it mean to join such a community? These questions are not

easy to answer. Many people have tried to impute a single, definitive meaning

shared by all " early Christians " ; but first-century evidence--much of it from

the New Testament--tells a different story. [24] Various groups interpreted

baptism in quite different ways; and those who ate bread and drank wine together

to celebrate " the Lord's supper " often could not confine the meaning of their

worship to any single interpretation.

 

One of the earliest sources, for example, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles to

the Gentiles, shows that members of certain early groups of Jesus' followers did

not think of themselves as 'Christians'--as we think of 'Christians'--as

separate from 'Jews', but as God's people--by which some apparently meant Jews

who revered Jesus as the great interpreter of God's law, the Torah. Written in

Syria about ten years 'before' the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke,

[25] this writing, known as the Didache (Greek for " teaching " ), opens with a

succinct summary of God's law, along with a 'negative' version of the so-called

golden rule: " The Way of Life is this: First, you shall love the God who made

you, and your neighbor as yourself; and whatever you do not want to have done to

you, do not do to another. " [26] The Didache quotes other sayings that Matthew

and Luke, writing perhaps about ten years later, will also attribute to Jesus:

 

Bless those who curse you; pray for your enemies...love those who hate you....

If anyone smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Give to

everyone who asks you, and do not refuse--(p.16) although its editor adds a

prudent warning 'not' included in the New Testament: " Let your money sweat in

your hands until you know to whom you are giving. " [27]

 

Thus the Didache sets forth what the " way of life " demands, mingling the Ten

Commandments with sayings best known to Christians from Jesus' Sermon on the

Mount. Like many other pious Jews, the author amplifies these sayings with moral

warnings similar to those his contemporaries directed against what they regarded

as the everyday crimes of pagan culture, including sex with children, often

slave boys, abortion, and killing newborns:

 

You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not have sexual

intercourse with boys...you shall not practice magic; you shall not murder the

child in the womb, nor kill newborns...you shall not turn away the destitute.

[28]

 

Then, after warning them not to follow the " way of death " --the way especially of

the " advocates of the rich, " who " turn away the poor and oppress those who

suffer, and judge the poor unjustly " --the author, like Jesus in the Gospel of

Matthew, urges his hearers to " be perfect. " But, 'unlike' Matthew, the Didache

explains that " being perfect " suggests " bearing the whole yoke of the

Lord " --that is, obeying the whole divine law. [29] Also, unlike Matthew, this

anonymous follower of Jesus adds, more practically, " If you cannot [be perfect],

do what you can. "

 

The historian Jonathon Draper suggests that one early version of the Didache

reveals a group of Jesus' followers who were (p.17) still participating in the

life of the Jewish community in their home city in Syria. When members of this

group baptized newcomers, they understood baptism as their fellow Jews did then,

and still do today: as a " bath " that purifies outsiders--that is, Gentiles--who

seek admission to God's people, Israel. The point of this early and influential

manual, Draper shows, is to demonstrate how non-Jews may become part of God's

people; that is, to offer, just as the title promises, " the teaching of the

twelve apostles 'to the Gentiles'. " [30] The Didache provides these Gentiles an

exposition of the " way of life " set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures as Jesus

interpreted it, and then shows how Gentiles willing to follow that " way " may be

baptized, so that they, too, can share in the blessings of God's coming kingdom.

 

Beyond Belief (The Secret Gospel of Thomas)

Chapter 1, pg. 14-17

Elaine Pagels

Vintage Books, New York, U.S.A

ISBN: 0-375-70316-0

 

Notes:

 

[23] If, that is, we can take Justin's account as indicating common practice.

Scholars often have assumed that Justin described the practices of Roman

Christians--indeed, of all Roman Christians--but more recent study has modified

this assumption; see, for example, George La Piana, " The Roman Church at the End

of the Second Century, " 'Harvard Theological Review' 17 (1925), 214-277; then A.

Hamman, " Valeur et signification des renseignements liturgiques de Justin, "

'Studia Patristica' 13 (1975), 264-274; also Paul F. Bradshaw's incisive

cautionary remarks in 'The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship: Sources

and Methods for the Study of Early Liturgy' (Cambridge, 1992), 111-113.

 

[24] See Bradshaw's overview of the evidence and the problems in 'Search for the

Origins'.

 

[25] Here I am following the dating suggested by Jonathon Draper in, for

example, his article " Torah and Troublesome Apostles in the 'Didache'

Community, " in J. Draper, ed., 'The Didache in Modern Research' (Leiden, New

York, and Cologne, 1996), 340-363.

 

[26] Didache 1.2.

 

[27] Ibid., 1.3-5.

 

[28] Ibid., 2.2; 4.8. The view that Didache assumes Matthew is expressed by

Helmut Koester in 'Synoptische Uberlieferung bei den apostolischen Vater'

(Berlin, 1957), 159-241; and Bentley Layton, " The Sources, Dating, and

Transmission of the Didache 1:3b-2:4, " 'Harvard Theological Review' 61 (1968),

343-383. Christopher Tuckett agrees that parallels with Matthew and Luke are

best explained on the assumption that the Didache presupposes " the finished

gospels of Matthew and Luke, " 128, in " Synoptic Tradition in 'Didache', " in

Draper, 'Didache in Modern Research', 92-128. I find interesting, however, the

perspective Draper expresses, for example in " Christian Self-Definition Against

the 'Hypocrites' in 'Didache' VIII, " in the same volume, 223-243, and in " The

Jesus Tradition in the 'Didache', " in D. Wenham, ed., 'Gospel Perspectives V:

The Jesus Tradition Outside the Gospels' (Sheffield, 1985), 269-289.

 

[29] We do not know whether in this case following " the whole divine law " would

have required circumcision, but certainly it did require renouncing

idolatry--the worship of the gods--and probably also the practice of some

version of kosher food laws. In my interpretation here, I follow Draper, " Torah

and Troublesome Apostles, " 352-359.

 

[30] See also Draper, " Social Ambiguity and the Production of Text: Prophets,

Teacher, Bishops, and Deacons in the Development of the Jesus Tradition in the

Community of the 'Didache', " in C.N. Jefford, ed., 'The Didache in Context:

Essays on Its Text, History, and Transmission' (Leiden, 1995), 284-313.