Outside of the Bible our
information on how the early church functioned is very limited. I will focus on
what the Bible says and then supplement it with historical documents, mostly
primary documents written by people who mostly were pagan witnesses. I want to
focus on the first century as that is the time frame we are studying although I
may have to bring in accounts from just a little later. The letters to the
church at Corinth are very important to our understanding of what a New
Testament church was really like and how it functioned. We will explore it
together and I invite your comments, suggestions, and even your disagreements
as I learn a great deal as I study the Bible.
Pliny the Younger was the governor
Bithynia in what we know today as Turkey, geographically Asia Minor. He wrote a
letter about Christians to the Emperor Trajan around 115AD. Here is the content
of what we have today. Paul could not go to Bithynia but Peter may have gone
there.
Acts 16:7 After
they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit
suffered them not.
1Peter 1:1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
Here is one translation from the
Latin between the two men.
“Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan
It is my practice, my lord,
to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better
give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never
participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is
the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not
a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of
age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon
is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it
does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even
without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be
punished.
Meanwhile, in the case of
those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following
procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who
confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with
punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that,
whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy
surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly;
but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be
transferred to Rome.
Soon accusations spread, as
usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents
occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many
persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they
invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine
to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with
statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are
really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do--these I thought should be
discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians,
but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some
three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They
all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.
They asserted, however,
that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were
accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to
Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not
to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to
return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their
custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and
innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict
by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political
associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what
the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I
discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.
I therefore postponed the
investigation and hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me to
warrant consulting you, especially because of the number involved. For many
persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be
endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the
cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and
cure it. It is certainly quite clear that the temples, which had been almost
deserted, have begun to be frequented, that the established religious rites,
long neglected, are being resumed, and that from everywhere sacrificial animals
are coming, for which until now very few purchasers could be found. Hence it is
easy to imagine what a multitude of people can be reformed if an opportunity
for repentance is afforded.
Trajan to Pliny the Younger
You observed proper
procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced
to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to
serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are
denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation,
that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by
worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall
obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to
have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of
precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.”(1)
Corinth was in Greece, over a
thousand miles to the west of where Pliny was writing from in present-day
Turkey. Corinth, Greece, had been an important commercial center with a rich
and long history but was captured and destroyed by the armies of Rome in about
146BC. Julius Caesar founded a Roman colony there in 44BC and brought in Roman
colonists. It became an important administration and trade center. There were
many religious cults and temples based there including one to Aphrodite, the Greek
version of the Roman Venus, who is also the Greek version of the Babylonian Ishtar,
Astarte, and the Ashtoreth of the Bible.
Paul traveled to Corinth in his
missionary work as you can see in Acts 18.
Now, let’s go backward in time
about 60 years to see what the Holy Spirit of God has preserved for us as a
primary source, two letters to the Corinthian church.
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