CANON CREED APOSTOLICITY Rome Carthage Alexandria Canon Creed

CANON • CREED • APOSTOLICITY Rome Carthage Alexandria

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity The need for a definition of the Christian faith: 1. The Church is spreading “We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you-cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum. We have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. ” Tertullian, Apology 37

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity 2. The Church is persecuted “If the Tiber rises to the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the sky is rainless, it there is an earthquake, a famine, immediately the cry rises, ‘The Christians to the lion!’” Tert

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity 3. The Church is divided “Those who are called Ebionites agree that the world was made by God; but their opinions with respect to the Lord are similar to those of Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law. As to the prophetical writings, they endeavor to expound them in a somewhat singular manner: they practice circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God. ” Irenaeus, Against Heresies. 1. 26. 2

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? what between heretics and Christians? Our instruction comes from ‘the porch of Solomon, ’ who had himself taught that ‘the Lord should be sought in simplicity of heart. ’ Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition!” Tertullian, Prescriptions VII

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity The Solution “Therefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church, those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth” Irenaeus, Adv. Her. IV. 26. 2

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity n The New Testament Canon

PERIOD DATES SOURCE ACCEPTED DISPUTED Apostolic Fathers 100 -140 Apostolic Fathers Four Gospels, Var. Pauline Let. None Early Patristic 140 -220 Church Fathers Four Gospels Acts 13 Pauline Let. 1 Peter 1 John Jude Revelation Hebrews James 2 Peter 2 -3 John Middle Patristic 220 -341 Origen Four Gospels Acts 13 Pauline Let. 1 Peter 1 John Revelation Hebrews James 2 Peter 2 -3 John Jude Eusebius of Caesarea Four Gospels Acts 14 Pauline Let. 1 Peter 1 John James 2 Peter 2 -3 John Jude Revelation Athanasius (Paschal letter of 367) Present Canon Synod of Rome (382) – Final Canon for West Present Canon Synod of Carthage (397) – Whole Church Present Canon Late Antiquity 367 -400

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity • Apostolic Tradition

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity “As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. ” Irenaeus, Adv. Her. I. 10. 2

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity “Tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolic tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere ” Irenaeus, Adv. Her. III. 2

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity “In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth ” Irenaeus, Adv. Her. III. 3

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity “The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in one, ’ and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, . . .

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity. . . according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess’ to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send ‘spiritual wickednesses, ’ and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory ” Irenaeus, Adv. Her. I. 10. 1

Canon • Creed • Apostolicity • Creed

Christological Formula: The Preexistent Christ • “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the crucified Savior” (ICQUS) • “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ” (Phil. 2: 5 -11)

Christological Formula: Creator and Christ • “We worship the God of the Christians, the one God, whom we hold to be the original creator of the entire world, of things visible and invisible, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the servant of God who was predicted by the prophets as the future prophet of salvation for mankind as the teacher of noble knowledge. ” Acts of Justin • “Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth-- as in fact there are many gods and many lords--yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. ” I Cor. 8: 5 -6

Christological Formula: Father – Christ - Spirit • “I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the creator of everything visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who was born from the Father before all the Aeons, through whom everything came into being, who became man, suffered, and rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven, and who will come in glory, to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Ghost. ” • “I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, and in the Holy Ghost, the holy Church, the resurrection of the flesh. ” 2 nd century Roman creeds

Christological Formula: Father – Christ - Spirit “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: I believe in the Holy Ghost: I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints: The forgiveness of sins: The resurrection of the flesh: And the life everlasting. Amen. Apostles’ Creed (ca. 215)

Christological Formula: Father – Christ - Spirit We believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; And in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father; God from God, Light from Light, Very God from Very God, begotten not made, of one substance (co-substantial) with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, was made man, suffered, and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and is coming to judge the living and the dead; And in the Holy Spirit. Council of Nicea (325)

Christological Language ousia ~ essentia essence; substance physis ~ natura hypostasi s ~ substantia nature; essence; physical manifestation subsistence; concrete reality prosopon ~ persona face, a legal person lit.

Christological Language ousia / physis hypostasis / prosopon ~ substanti a essence; substance ~ persona concrete individual reality prosopon & essentia become interchangeable with hypostasis & ousia