Notes of the Overview of the Early Church Fathers: On the Trinity and Incarnation
Notes of the Overview of the Early Church Fathers: On the Trinity and Incarnation
Clement of Rome
· Born around 35 AD.· Died around 99 AD.
· 4th pope according to tradition.
· Bishop of Rome.
· According to Against Heresies by Irenaeus Book 3, Clement met the apostles. Paul mentioned a clement in his Epistles to the Philippians 4:3 but it could be someone else.
· We have one of his letters - the Epistle to the church in Corinth (First Epistle of Clement), it was almost canonized, written about 95 AD or around the time of the Gospel of John.
· Wasn’t canonized because he wasn’t an apostle himself but still was highly regarded.
· Corinthian church deposed their bishop in a sketchy manner and Clement heard about this and wrote a letter to them telling them that what they did was wrong and they should reinstate him. He references Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and claims Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit in Chapter 47.
· References Ezekiel 33
· References the Book of Wisdom which is non canonical to protestants and jews but it is deuterocanonical for Catholics.
· First person to quote the Book of Hebrews
· Letter focuses on OT figures.
· Barely mentions Jesus but mentions the Father a lot.
· Chapter 59 says Father is God alone so probably a unitarian.
· Chapter 53 and 17 says Moses talked to the Father not the Son on Sinai (contrary to later Christian writers)
· Chapter 33 and 27 says God created and not God through the Son as later church fathers claimed.
· Puts faith and grace above good works.
· Possibly had the Shepard of Hermas in his canon.
Ignatius of Antioch
· Probably born around 50 AD.· Martyred in Rome around 107-109 AD (although some say as late as 140 AD).
· 3rd bishop of Antioch.
· We have parts of his letters 7 to different churches that he wrote on road to Rome.
· Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians Chapter 3, has high view of church structure I.e. deacons then presbyters then bishops.
· Against the Jewish law.
· Against Docetism (that Jesus was not a man).
· Bishop is the avatar of Christ.
· Did not want to be saved from martyrdom to be an example for the churches.
· Epistle to the Ephesians Chapter 20, eucharist is medicine towards immortality. Has to be done under the bishop.
· Pro-Pauline
· Believed that Jesus was an incarnate being of some kind. Both Arians and Nicene church fathers claimed he supported their view. Epistle to the Ephesians Chapter 18.
Polycarp of Smyrna
· Bishop of Smyrna· Probably born around 60-70 AD.
· Martyred around 155 AD.
· Traditions says he learned from John.
· We have one letter of his – Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians.
· Have one letter about his martyrdom written shortly after his death.
· Set on fire and stabbed.
· Calls Paul blessed and glorious, Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians Chapter 3.
· Calls Marcion the first born of Satan.
· Chapter 12 perhaps can be interpreted as unitarian.
Justin Martyr
· Born around 100 AD.· Educated in different Greek philosophies such as Pythagoreans, Stoics, Platonists, Epicureans.
· Martyred around 165 AD.
· Perhaps the first Christian apologist.
· Wrote letters to Roman emperor to stop persecution of Christians.
· Wrote Dialogue with Trypho the Jew where he tries to convince Jesus is the Messiah.
· Evil comes from the human rebellion of Adam and Eve due to their free will.
· Cosmic source of evil is Satan and demons.
· One of the first Christians to say that punishment in hell is eternal.
· Really into Plato and Socrates.
· First Apology (around 150 AD) Chapter 59 says Plato read Moses.
· First Apology Chapter 66 says those who can receive the eucharist must be baptized and be in good standing with the church.
· Calls eucharist a sacrifice in Dialogue with Trypho Chapter 41.
· Quotes Mark, Matthew the most, Luke, John once, and Revelations.
· Never quotes Paul.
· Calls Jesus an angel in chapter 56 of Dialogue with Trypho.
· Says Jesus is second place and the “Prophetic Spirit” third in First Apology Chapter 13.
· Jesus is a God who is numerically distinct from the Father (who he calls, The Maker of All Things), Dialogue with Trypho Chapter 56.
· The Father is completely transcendent and unchanging (perhaps inspired by Platonic views), Chapter 60 of Dialogue with Trypho, such that it was Jesus who communicated with the Old Testament figures.
· Jesus is subject and subordinate to the Father, Chapter 56 of Dialogue with Trypho.
· Therefore, I believe he is a "unitarian" or at least not a trinitarian. Proto-Arian if anything.
· The Logos who is Christ is the first creation of God. Everything else is created by the Father through the Logos.
· Said some Christians in his own church did not believe Jesus was God i.e. only a man and this is an acceptable belief in Dialogue with Trypho chapter 48 but he did not agree with them.
· Called Jews “Christ-Killers”.
· Calls the New Testament “memoirs of the Apostles”
· His student, Tatian, wrote the Diatessaron which is the four Gospels synthesized into one story.
Irenaeus of Lyon
· Born 120-140 AD.· Probably the first church father who grew up as a christian.
· A disciple of Polycarp.
· Probably the first “theologian”.
· Stopped Easter schism (Quartodeciman controversy).
· Wrote, Against Heresies, which is targeted against refuting Gnosticism (therefore God of the NT and OT is the same and Jesus was really human i.e. contra Docetism).
· Quotes Paul a lot.
· Quotes from 21 out of the 27 books of the New Testament including the four gospels, acts, all the letters of Paul minus Philemon, first and second John and Peter, and Revelations, quotes Shepard of Hermas.
· Book 3 Chapter 1 against the idea of progressive revelation and also establishes the four gospels.
· Calls the NT "scripture".
· Book 2 Chapter 28 says the Father had more knowledge than the Son.
· Book 4 Chapter 20 says that the Son was the first creation but other passages can be read that Jesus is co-eternal (but not co-equal).
· Book 3 Chapters 6 and 9 and Book 1 Chapter 22 say the Father is the only God.
· So perhaps he was unitarian.
· Believed Jesus was the preincarnate Word.
· Both Arians and Trinitarians claim him.
· Perhaps supported theosis/divination.
· Book 1 Chapter 25 might suggest he was against icons i.e. iconoclast.
· Book 5 Chapter 31 says when Christians die they do not go to heaven right away they first wait in Hades then their bodies are resurrected. People do not go to heaven rather heaven comes to earth.
· Premillennialist, Book 5 Chapter 33 and 28
Tertullian
· Born around 160 AD.· Died around 240 AD.
· Probably the first church father to write in Latin and he was also fluent in Greek.
· “What does Athens got to do with Jerusalem?” Against Greek philosophy also in Apology Chapter 14 criticizes Socrates.
· Trained as a lawyer.
· We have 31 books of his.
· He followed Montanism (there were prophets after Jesus named Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla) and therefore was not canonized as a saint.
· First person to use the word “Trinity” Trinitas in his writings (but then again so did Arius).
· Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, Against Praxeas Chapter 4.
· Against Hermogenes Chapter 3, Against Praxeas Chapter 7 says Jesus was wisdom in God’s head but when God said, “Let there be light” the wisdom became external as the Word. Therefore, the Son had an origin in time. Similar to the Russian dolls. Similar to Zeus and Athena.
· Father is clearly greater than the Son, Chapter 16 and 9 of Against Praxeas.
· Against Praxeas Chapter 16 says when God in the OT does questionable things such as changing his mind its actually Jesus who is learning how to be God before his incarnation rather than the Father making mistakes and the Father is inaccessible to creation.
· Might be a materialist.
· God and the other person are one substance not consubstantial i.e. the substance is not separated.
· Somewhat between Unitarianism and trinitarianism.
Athenagoras of Athens
· Born around 133 AD.· Died around 190 AD.
· Platonist (perhaps Middle Platonist) and very familiar with other Greek philosophies.
· Wrote Legatio Pro Christianis (A Plea for the Christians) to Emperor Marcus Aurelius to stop the persecution of Christians against the charges of incest, atheism, and cannibalism.
· God is distinct from matter contra to Stoics, Plea Chapter 4, and we know God through logic or reason.
· Iconoclast perhaps in Chapter 15.
· God does not need sacrifices, Chapter 13.
· Jesus as the Word existed in God’s mind and came into being outwards similar to Tertullian, Chapter 10.
· Proto-Trinitarian/Arian.
· Maybe the first person to call Jesus, “God the Son”, Chapter 10.
· Persons are of the same essence but it seems that the Father is still at the top of the hierarchy.
Origen of Alexandria
· Born around 185 AD.· Died around 253 AD.
· His father was a christian martyr.
· Allegorical reading of the Bible ex: On First Principles Book 4 v16.
· Perhaps the first textual critic of the Bible.
· He was fluent in Hebrew.
· Made the Hexapla which was 6 OT translations in 6 columns for comparison.
· Origen was the first to propose the ransom theory of atonement in its fully developed form i.e. Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan in exchange for humanity’s liberation but it was a trick and Jesus was an incarnate divine being and was resurrected. This is was adopted by later fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa until Anslem proposed that the death was a satisfaction of God’s justice to repair the offense caused by human sin.
· Believed in universal salvation i.e. everyone will go to heaven. Book 1 Chapter 37 of his Commentary of the Gospel of John says Jesus is taking away the sins of all individuals at every moment but contradicts himself in the next chapter.
· Believed in the preexistence of souls.
· He was a “Neoplatonist”.
· Both Arius and Athanasius claim him.
· Extremely influential.
· His most famous works were On First Principles and Against Celsus but wrote probably a thousand works.
· Was a subordinationist. Against Celsus Book 8 Chapter 14.
· Son and Spirit as also divine such that they are a scale model of the Father.
· Believed in the doctrine of eternal generation of the Son and Spirit.
· Son is begotten eternally i.e. causation outside of temporal relationship.
· The Father is unbegotten and the existence of the Son is generated by him. On First Principles Book 1 Chapter 1 v6.
· All rational creatures (demons, angels, humans) have the logos within us but that is not The Logos.
· Only Christians have the holy spirit.
· Jesus had a human soul but that soul clung to the logos and became inseparable to it due to love and therefore cannot sin like a piece of metal eternally on fire cannot be cold. On First Principles Book 2 Chapter 6 v5-6.
· Against Gnosticism.
· Our souls are placed in bodies depending on how the preexistent soul behaved?!
· He’s honest that he’s giving it his best shot and he could be wrong.
· Had the Epistle of Barnabas, Shepard of Hermas, Books of Enoch, First Clement in his canon.
· Against Celsus Book 2 Chapter 9 says Jesus is a “God next to the God and Father of all things…” This is who God the Father was talking to in Genesis, he was giving the logos instructions on what to create. In the same way someone can be close to God through being a good person, the logos is connected to the human soul of Jesus but more intensely so the human Jesus becomes more divine through his moral perfection but the logos is always divine.
· It seems to be he is a proto-Arian/Nestorian.
· Against Celsus Book 3 Chapter 41 says logos and human nature intermix.
· He believed John was the most important gospel.
· Logos had its source from God’s wisdom when it says “In the beginning” in the prologue of John rather than it talking about time. Quotes Proverbs 8 to support this. Book 1 Chapter 23 of his Commentary on the Gospel of John.
· Next chapter says Jesus is not the Logos but when Jesus is called the Logos it is metaphorical.
· The Logos gives rise to the holy spirit.
· Jesus has full participation of the Logos but is not the Logos himself.
· Commentary on the Gospel of John Book 2 Chapter 2 says the in the prologue of John, it should be read as, the Word was with The God and the Word is divine since it does not have the article and therefore is an adjective.
· Same part says, only the Father is uncreated, the Father creates the Logos, then the Logos creates the Holy Spirit.
· Same part says the Logos is divine by participation not by essence.
Novatian
· Born around 200 AD.· Died around 258 AD.
· Was an anti-pope.
· Iconoclast.
· Against modalism.
· Against Unitarianism.
· Father is invisible but the Son is visible.
· Son is generated by the Father.
· Father cannot be contained in a space but the Son can.
· Proto-trinitarianism/proto-Arianism is required to be a Christian. On the Trinity Chapter 30.
· Next chapter says Logos was generated by the will of the Father rather than by necessity.
· Calls Jesus God but more similar to the way Tertullian, who he is influenced by, understood it.
· There was a time where the Logos wasn’t (i.e. was only in God’s mind).
· Jesus is not a second God in chapter 31 as he does not share all the same attributes as the Father and has his source in the Father.
Eusebius of Caesarea
· Born around 260-265 AD.· Died May 30th 339 AD.
· Very similar to Origen in theology. Student of Pamphilius of Caesarea who had Origen’s library.
· Close follower of Constantine the Great.
· Historian of the church. Wrote about the time of the apostles to his present time in a book titled, The Ecclesiastical History.
· Very familiar with Platonist thought.
· Probably the biggest source of information about the early church.
· Was a strong defender of Arius and wrote a letter to the bishop Alexander of Alexandria to let him back into the church. https://www.fourthcentury.com/urkunde-7/
· 321 AD. Arius travels to Caesarea and Eusebius holds a large council to try to declare Arius as orthodox.
· Yet, Eusebius signs the creed at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. despite its anti-Arian sentiments. He explains why https://www.fourthcentury.com/urkunde-22/ , basically has to reinterpret the word, “homoousia” through mental gymnastics to mean the reverse.
· 328 AD. Eusebius asks Constantine to readmit Arius as orthodox and he agrees but Alexander of Alexandria denies this request.
· 336 AD. Eusebius holds a council with Constantine present to excommunicate Athanasius.
· Athanasius becomes bishop of Alexandria after Alexander dies despite the fact he was too young for the job.
· Fun fact: Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia who was a hardcore Arian.
· Was against Biblical Unitarianism.
Arius of Alexandria
· Born around 256 AD.· Died around 336 AD.
· Constantine had all his writings burnt.
· Educated in Greek philosophy.
· 318 AD. Alexander of Alexandria teaches that the Son and Father are co-equal and co-eternal and this causes Arius to give a series of counter sermons.
· Same year, Alexander wants to sign a creed to condemn Arius.
· Arius is excommunicated and banished from Alexandria.
· Arius attempts to find allies as mentioned earlier.
· Similar to Origen in his theology.
· The only difference between trinitarians and Arians is that the Arians believed that Jesus was a lower divinity and was created in time while the trinitarians believed in the eternal generation of Jesus and that he was coequal and coeternal with the Father. the main difference between a biblical unitarian and an Arian is that Arians believe that Jesus preexisted creation similar to trinitarians but the unitarian believes that Jesus was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Arians would say that the Old Testament appearances were that of the Son not the Father similar to trinitarians but unitarians say it was an angel representing God. Both trinitarians and Arians say that the logos took on flesh and lived amongst us. Both Arians and trinitarians call Jesus God and use the word trinity. Arians are closer to trinitarians than to unitarians such as Paul of Samosata who believed that Jesus was born a human and became divine after his ascension into heaven.
· 325 AD. Eusebius tried to hold a council to say Arius is not a heretic but also gets excommunicated.
· A few months later is the Council of Nicaea.
· Says in his book, Thalia, the Father and Son are not of the same substance and the Son came into existence in time and the Son is God but not truly God in the same sense the Father is.
· Arius refuses to sign the creed at the Council of Nicaea and is excommunicated.
· Santa Claus did not slap him.
· 327 AD. Constantine’s sister allows for Arius to meet Constantine and becomes orthodox again.
· Constantine orders Alexander of Alexandria to let Arius back in but he rejects the request.
· 328 AD. Eusebius of Nicomedia who is reinstated as a bishop holds a council to allows Arius back and to fire bishop Alexander for being insubordinate to Constantine.
· Before this letter delivers, Alexander dies.
· The same day, Athanasius becomes bishop of Alexander despite his young age.
· Athanasius refuses to allow Arius back in.
· 332 AD. Arius complains to Constantine asking why he is not reinstated.
· Constantine excommunicates Arius again for asking and orders his works to be burnt.
· 335 AD. Constantine makes Arius orthodox again and tells Athanasius to let him back in.
· Athanasius sails to Constantinople to tell Constantine no.
· Constantine exiles Athanasius because of this.
· Arius returns to Alexandria and there is riots because of this.
· Constantine orders Arius to return to Constantinople where he recites the Nicaean creed to the emperor.
· Next day, Constantine tells bishop of Constantinople to allow Arius back in.
· That night, Arius dies on the toilet! Trinitarians say it’s God’s judgement while Arians say he was poisoned. He was 80 years old at this point.
Athanasius of Alexandria
· Born around 295-300 AD.· Died May 2nd 373 AD.
· Wrote On the Incarnation and Against the Heathens around 318 AD.
· Jesus is divine not by participation but by essence.
· Chapter 15 of On the Incarnation, Logos is the image of God and we are made after that image and therefore we can contemplate God but we got lost in this creation and became sinful so the Word himself who is also eternal had to come down and remind people of God and shows his deity through his miracles.
· Strong on theosis/divinization, “For He was made man that we might be made God.”
· Chapter 18 of the same book, the body is eating and doing the suffering but God the Word is not. Perhaps leans towards Apollinarianism as mind and soul are not mentioned.
· Jesus had to die to redeem the debt of death due to the fall of Adam and Eve but he resurrected so death is defeated.
· It had to be crucifixion because if it was sickness then that would not look good since he was a healer. It could not be suicide since that is cowardly and he could not run from death either since that would be cowardly and it had to be publicly so everyone knew he died. It had to be a bad death so people would know he is more powerful than death. It had to be in the air to cleanse the air from demons. Jesus had to become a curse for us so the curse might be lifted which is quoting Galatians.
· Never does he say that Jesus had to die to pay for the sins of humanity.
Hilary of Poitiers
· Born around 310 AD.· Died around 367 AD.
· Wrote the first comprehensive outline of what is and is not the trinity, called On the Trinity while in exile.
· Negative view on reason which is due to push back towards Arianism and had a high view mystery.
· Neoplatonist.
· Holy Spirit emanates from the father and the son.
· Fluent in Greek, Latin, and perhaps Hebrew.
· Known as the “Hammer of the Arians”.
· Met Athanasius while exiled for denying Arianism after the Council of Sirmium.
· Writes a letter calling the emperor, Constantius II, the antichrist for adopting Arianism.
· Julian who was the Caesar of the West allied with the trinitarians while his uncle Constantius II was fighting the Persians and refuses to send them troops.
· Constantius II dies and makes Julian the new emperor then Julian attempts to bring back paganism.
· He tried to bait the Arians and trinitarians against each other in a civil but does not work.
· Julian dies against the Persians and then there is a trinitarian Augustus in the west and pro Arian Augustus in the east.
· Hilary’s trinitarian theology is a balance between trinitarianism and Arianism but still anti-Arian imo. Book 1 paragraph 17 says Arian put too much distinction between Father and Son while Modalists put too less distinction.
· Book 3 paragraph 3 says Son is begotten before time and therefore has the same divinity as the Father but is a mystery.
· Book 2 paragraph 2 is doctrine of the trinity. Only 360 years too late.
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