The Spread of Christianity (5)

Christians in the Early Church

Assembling together on Sunday

Sunday gatherings were a firm tradition for the congregations in the early church.

Remarkably, one of the oldest reports of Sunday gatherings originates from a Roman governor by the name of Pliny the Younger. As governor of Bityhynia and Pontus, he had to deal with a large number of Christians. Somewhat shy with the situation, he wrote a letter to Caesar Trajanus. On the basis of what he had heard from Christians who had left the church, he wrote the following: “It was their custom to gather together on a fixed day before dawn to sing a hymn with each other before Christ as a God. They also bound themselves together with an oath, not to commit any crimes, not to rob anyone nor to commit any stealing, not to commit adultery, not to break any vows which they had made, and to return anything that had been pledged, if asked to do so. When that was done, they usually left one another, and then, later, to again come together for a meal, but then completely normally and without guilt” (Letters, Book 10, Letter #96, paragraph 7).

In that same letter, Pliny also said that Christianity had spread into all levels of society. “For many people of all ages, of all levels of society, yea both sexes are in danger to succumb to this contamination, even in the villages and in the countryside” (Letters, Book 10, Letter #96, paragraph 8.)

A holy life

These citations give a clear picture of the early Christians. They came together every week to pray, to sing, and to again dedicate themselves to a holy life. In addition to a gathering early in the morning, they held another gathering where they had a “love meal,” probably in connection with a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The wide spread in ages and generations as well as residences is an indication of a strong and living consciousness of evangelization among the early Christians. It is worthy to pause for a moment to note in the documents of the church fathers something of these early Christian gatherings.

Also the women

It is remarkable that for outsiders it was visible that Christianity was not only for men but also for women. The image projected for women in those times was downright negative and can best be summarized with the humiliating words of Demosthenes, an orator and politician from Athens (384-322 B.C.). He wrote without shame, “We keep mistresses for our pleasure, slaves to provide our daily care, and wives to grant us legitimate children and to be care takers of our households.” Christianity provided a break with this negative picture of the women. The gospel was also a message for women. They could also be “heirs of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). Luke points specifically to the fact that women also belonged to the first Christian congregations (Acts 1:14). The church fathers went even further in that direction.

When Athanasius (296-373 A.D.) spoke of the expectation of death among Christians, he also spoke specifically about women. They also join in the strife with death. “Not only men, but also women take up the strife against death. Satan has become so weak, that even the women who in the beginning were deceived by him, now mock with him as with a dead, impotent and powerless one” (The Incarnation of the Word, page 27). In the gospel the woman received again her worthiness as a creature according to God’s image which she had lost.

Historical context

In our present day there is regularly a wrong application made of this biblical known fact—an assumption that this gives grounds for women to hold office. If that is true, however, the texts of this canonical outline are taken out of their historical context. It was God’s purpose that, against the dark background of the Greek-Roman rule, the gospel would again give back to the woman her worthiness. Whoever will use this as justification for compromise in today’s culture reads too much into these texts. Rabbi John Duncan very sharply and pointedly said about this, “We cannot put this apostolic account behind us just to satisfy our own ideas” (Just a Talker, page 12).

Christians, however, may see in this restoration of the worthiness of the woman a token of God’s wise leading and care. God not only created man and woman after His image but will also re-create man and woman according to His image.

(To be continued)

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen