PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church — Volume 1
James Hastings · 1,014,604 words · 1012 reading sections
Section 901
Literature. — The only ancient Commentaries extant are those of Clement of Alexandria (on 1 and 2 John : extant only in Cassiodorus' Latin Summary [Clement, ed. Stahlin, iii., 1909]), CEcumenius, Theophylact, Augustine, and Bede. Among modern Commentaries may be mentioned those of F. Liicke^ (1820-56), J. E. Huther-i^i…
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Jaffa is now famous for its orange gardens and orchards, each of which has an unlimited supply of water. ' The entire plain seems to cover a river of vast breadth, percolating through the sand en route to the sea' (W. M. Thomson, loc. cit.). LrrERATtjRE.— E. Schiirer, HJP n. i. [18S5] 79-S3 ; G. A. Smith, HGUL, ls97, …
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650 JOSEPH US JOSEPHUS and interpreter in the headquarters of Titus. Thereafter he accompanied the victorious Titus to Rome, and settled down as a litterateur, enjoy- ing the esteem and the hounty of the Flavian Emperors, and devoting himself to the task of doing battle with spiritual weapons for the now politically…
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(c) Minor ivorJcs ; projected tvorJcs ; pseudonijmous wor^s.— Josephus hoped to supplement his Anti- qtdties by a narrative bringing down the history to the reign of Domitian— i.e. by an abridgment and continuation of the BJ (Ant. xx. xi. 3 [267]),* and he also projected an account of the Jewish faith and the Jewish La…
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Epistle of Aristeas. For the history of the Macca- bees he keeps close to 1 Mac. For the succeeding period he cites numerous documents, which, unlike the speeches, he did not invent but probably quoted verbatim (as found in a collection formed by AgTippa I. ?). For the facts of universal history he was indebted first t…
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6. Attitude to Christianity.— A question of the utmost importance is that of the attitude of Joseplius to Cliristianity. As he describes the period in such minute detail, we naturally ask whether he ever alludes to that powerful move- ment amongst his fellow-countrymen ; and his mention of the slaying of Juhn the Bapti…
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JOSEPHUS JOSHUA 653 Were this really the case, it would certainly be a fact of great importance, not only for our estimate of the Evangelist's credibility, but also for fixing the date of his works, which, on this theory, could not have been written till after the publication of the Antiquities (A.D. 93-94), i.e. th…
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A. Berendts, Die Zeugnisse vom Christentum im slavischen 'De Bello Judaico' des Josephus in TU, new ser., xiv. 4, Leipzig, 1906, ' Analecta gum slavischen Josephus,' in ZNTW ix. [1908], pp. 47-70, and 'Die iiltesten ausserchristlichen Nachrichten liber die Entstehung des Christentums,' in Mitteihtngen und Nachrichten f…
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2. Joy as a general characteristic of the Chris- tian life. — Joy appears in the NT writings as an outstanding characteristic of the Christian life in the Apostolic Age. In the Pauline Epistles especially it figures prominently. It is one of the three great ingredients of the Kingdom of God (Ro W) • it receives the sec…
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3. The joy of St. Paul.— To be distinguished from this general joy as a common ingredient of all Christian experience is the specific joy which belongs to the servant of God engaged in the work of his calling. Of this joy of ministering, the delight and satisfaction that accompany the suc- cessful discharge of the apos…
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' The statement of Josephus that Judsea was attached to the province of Syria and placed under its governor (Ant. xvii. xiii. 5; XVIII. i. 1, iv. 6) appears to be incorrect; on the contrary, Judaja probably formed thenceforth a procuratorial province of itself ' (T. Monimsen, The Provinces of the Roman Enijiire'^, Eng.…
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When we turn to the Epistle to the Galatians, we find the controversy accentuated. The Gala- tians had been ' bewitched ' by the Jewish emis- saries. They had relapsed from the simplicity of the gospel into the ceremonialism of Judaism. The authority of the Apostle had been disparaged and denied. St. Paul was evidently…
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Beyond these facts nothing certain is kno>vn of Barsabbas. It has been suggested that he was a brother of Joseph Barsabbas who was nominated to succeed Iscariot in the early days of the Jerusalem Church {Ac 1^), as Barsabbas is a patronymic son of Sabbas. If this be so, Judas had in all proba- bility, like Joseph, been…
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Judas left three sons, all of whom were leaders in the Zealot movement. Of these, two — Jacob and Simon — were crucified by Tiberius Alexander the procurator (A.D. 46-48), for leading a revolt (Ant. XX. V. 2), and the third, Menahem (also a ' Sophist ' — a word indicating a propagandist as well as a revolutionist), bec…
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(c) For the title Akeldama and its interpretation see separate article, s.v. It remains to remark that St. Peter's expression, as recorded in his address, and the apostolic prayer of ordination, for which he was probably responsible and the mouthpiece, breathe much more of the spirit of primitive Christianity in their…
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Carpocrates, who lived at Alexandria in the first half of the 2nd cent, (perhaps about a.d. 130-150), taught that the world was made by angelg who had revolted from God. The soul of Jesus through its superior vigour remembered what it had seen when with God. He was, however, an ordinary man, but endowed with powers whi…
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The opening words of the Epistle, 'Judas, a 660 JL^DGE, JUDGING (ETHICAL) JUDGE, JUDGING (ETHICAL) servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,' constitute a weighty argument in favour of the traditional view that it was written by Jude the Lord's brother. The attempt to treat this as em- bodjang a false claim deh…
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In similar strain St. Paul writes (Ro 14''), 'Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth.' The words are suggested by the relationship between the 'strong' and the 'weak.' The 'strong,' conscious of their freedom in Chi'ist, may despise the 'weak,' who still feel it their …
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See, further, artt. Judgment and Trial-at- Lav,-. LiTERATCHE. — C. GorB, Sermon on the Mount, London, 1897, ch. ix. ; J. B. Mayor, The EpiMe of St. Jame^'^, do. 1897, p. 221; IJ. R. Seeley, Erce Humo^^, do. 1S76, ch. ix.; J. Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory^, Oxford, 1889, vol. ii. oii- i- R. Martin Pope. JUDGMENT…
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Before leaving Jewish apocalyptic, two points must be more particularly noted as bearing on questions that will emerge later. The first relates to the personality of the Judge. In most writings it is God Himself who is represented as occupying the throne (Dn 7»- 1", En. i. 3-9, xc. 20, 2 Es 6« 7^^). Sometimes, however,…
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3. In the Apocalypse of John. — "We begin our study of the apostolic writings with the Apocalypse of John, not because it is the earliest of these writ- ings— in its present shape it cannot be dated before A.D. 95 — but because the description it gives of the events of the End is by far the most detailed, and because w…
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The Apostle's allusions to the Judgment are neither few nor ambiguous, yet Ave have to take account of the perplexing fact that, in those pass- ages where he gives a detailed programme of the End, not only is all reference to the great event omitted, but no place seems to be left for it. In 1 Th 4^^-^^ we read of a res…
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6. Only one other jioint, and that of minor im- portance, remains to be noted. Not a few early Christian writers speak of a descent of Christ into Hades and a preaching to the dead. In 1 P 3'®^- it is the disobedient of the days of Noah to whom Christ brings the message of salvation ; in Irenajus (IV. xxvii. 2) it is t…
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As Julius was the family name of the members of the Roman Imperial house, it was assumed by many of the vassal kings from the days of Julius Caesar onwards. It was borne by all the Jewish princes from Antipater, the father of Herod the Great. Josephus mentions a Julius Archelteus, son-in-law of Agrippa I. (Ant. XIX. ix…
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A. R. Gordon. JUSTIFICATION.— 1. Considerations on the his- tory of the doctrine. — Justification by faith formu- lates the distinctive principle of Protestantism. It has been a war-cry and word of passion, and embodies a spiritual and theological conflict. It claimed to be an advance on the Catholic idea, as more true…
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*The best ed. of the 'Decrees' of Trent is that of A. L. Richter and F. Schulte, Leipziir, 1S53. t For the recent ideas of Catiholic divines on justification see art. in CK. X For Luther's doctrinal position consult J. Kostlin, TAfe of Luffit'r, Enif. tr., London, 1883, and T. M. Lindsaj', Luther and the German Refor…
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3. The apostolic doctrine of justification. — The apostolic doctrine is characterized by a singular originality, comprehensiveness, self - consistency, and spirituality. Its systematic statement is elabo- rate, developing itself consciously along three lines — experiential, historical, speculative. A careful analysis i…
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found in Acts, the General Epistles, and Hel)rews. The relation of these to one another, and of them all to the Sjnoptic teaching of Jesus Himself, has to be adverted to. (1) St. Paul. — Justification is by God's grace (Ro 32-' 4«, Eph 2», Tit 3'), by man's" faith (Ac 13=^8, Ro 5M, by Christ's Death (Ro 5-'), by His R…
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(•2) St. James. — The Epistle of St. James em])hasizes two practical consequences of faith. (a) It works in the heart as a new law, ol>edience to the perfect, royal law of liberty (1-* 2^). The point here is the contrast between the external compelling force of the older Law and the internal impelling force of the new,…
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* Cf. the NT use of ' saint ' — one of the covenant-people, the potentiall}' holj' — of whom moral qualifications are asserted not as a fact but as a duty. See F. J. A. Hort, The First Epistle of St. Peter, I. l—Il. 17, London, 1898, p. 70. 670 JUSTIFICATION JUSTIFICATION^ unseen present visible, and by so doing un…
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iii. Spirituality and absoluteness. — Justifi- cation is a purely religious problem. The apostolic solution is purely religious. Its spirituality may be vindicated by reference to its source, its ground, its results. (a) Grace the source. — Justification presupposes the election of grace {q.v.), to which is traced its…
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* It is the permanent worth Of Luther's doctrine to have set forth these two points with passiODate cogency (The Liberty of the Christian Man). t Not the same as assurance of the love of God. to its actual attainment and possession. Faith in Christ as our righteousness can justify us because it is based on the one co…
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(c) Christ-in-us the result. — The feud between ' faith ' and ' works ' is an old one. Certain points are clear. It is not a question of sinners being j ustified by works whether 'legal' or 'good.' The impeni- tent are never justified. It is not a question of believers being justified by good works only. By his works t…
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(6) the inclusion in the idea of justification of a reference to man's relation to the world. The adequate reason of justification Ritschl maintains to be the fatherly love of God, not His judicial righteousness ; the condition of its human ajipropriation is faith, which does not directly include love to man, but impl…
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(1) Christ has the kej's of death and of Hades (Rev 1'^, RV). This power is Imperial, exercised fi'om without and from above. There are inter- esting parallels to this, apart from Scripture, in VOL. I. — i.T, literature, both earlier and later. When Istar de- scended to the land of no-return she called imperi- ously t…
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A closer inspection of the several passages will bear this out, at least as the actual im])lication of the NT usage, if not as the inherent etymological force of the word. In Lk 6^ God is said to be XP'n'^Tbs towards the unthankful and evil, and the statement serves to urge the preceding exhorta- tion : ' love your en…
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But there are other representations of Christ's Kingship. The most general view of His /3a<rtXe/o in the NT represents it as not already realized, but beginning at the Parousia (so O. Pfleiderer, PaulinisDi, Eng. tr., 1877, i. 268); and according to the programme sketched by St. Paul in 1 Co IS-'*^-, His reign is no pe…
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3. Believers as kings.— In Rev 1^ the AV runs : ' and hath made us kings and priests unto God.' This is based on the reading ^acCKeh, which must be abandoned for the better-attested ^acnXelav. But in 5^", where tlie same phrase occurs in the song of the angels concerning the Church (though here again there is a variant…
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St. Luke returns to the phrase ' the Kingdom of God,' and though in general outline the idea of the Kingdom is the same as in the two prior Gospels, there are one or two suggestions that St. Luke was beginning to realize that a consideralde period of history might precede the coming of the Son of Man to inaugurate the …
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But the phrase ' Kingdom of God ' might also be interpreted of the present life which Christians now live, in so far as this is governed by obedience to Him. The writers of the NT seem sometimes to regard Christians as already members of the coming Kingdom, living according to its laws, and enjoying even now in some me…
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5. Apostolic conception of the Kingdom. — If we now ask what ideas the writers of the Apostolic Age attached to the term ' Kingdom of God ' or ' of Christ,' the answer must be that for them as in the teaching of Christ in the Gospels it is a term to symbolize the inexpressible — that is to say, the future blessedness o…
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Literature. — A. Robertson, Regnum Dei, London, 1901 ; A. B. Bruce, The Kingdom of Go'di, Edinburgh, 1891 ; J. S. Candlish, The Kingdom o/ God, do. 1884; J. Orr, art. ' Kingdom ' in HDB ii. ; W. Sanday, ' St. Paul's Equivalent for the " Kingdom of Heaven " • in JThSt i. [1900] 481. WiLLOUGHBY C. ALLEN. KISH (B''p,Kiy…
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3. Implications of knowledge. — This Christian knowledge sheds its light on all the facts and aims of life. Thus individuals learn the outstanding features of their own characters (Ja 1-^), the sanctity of their lives as being the temples of God (1 Co 3^'^), the value of their bodies as members of Christ (6^'), and the…
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Christian knowledge came into conflict with the theosophical tendencies that were so prevalent in many ancient schools of thought. In this con- nexion St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians is of chief importance. The Apostle deals in this Epistle with claims that had been made by certain Chris- tians to a higher Christ…
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LiTKRATURE. — E. von DobscHiitz, Christian Life in th» J'riinltive Church, Eu';-. tr., London and N.Y., 1904; W. Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis, N.Y., LADY LAMB 681 1907, ch. iii. ; F. Delitzsch, Jeivixh Artisan Life in the Time of Christ, London, 1902, ch. ix. § 3 ; A. B. D. Alexander, The Ethic…
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The principal question then arising from the use of the conception in the Apocalypse is as to its relation to the future state. (1) The Lake of Fire may be regarded as a place of the final annihilation of evil. The force of the expression ' second death ' determines the writer's use of the conception. The ' second dea…
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word 'purchase.' {d) To Him is entrusted the eternal welfare of men, symbolized by the ' book of life' (21-^ ; cf. 3*), the history and significance of which may be traced in Is 4», Ex 32^^-, Ps SS^^SO'^ Ezk 139, ]\lal 3i«, Dn 12i, Enoch xlvii. 3, Apoc. Bar. xxiv. 1, Asc. Is. ix. 12, Lk 10-", Ph 4^). (e) Still, as in t…
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The generic term Xirxvos has been consistently rendered 'lamp' in the RV, 'candle,' which is erroneous, having been dropped (Rev 18'-^ 22'), and 'light,' which is indefinite, having been displaced (2 P 1"*, Rev 21-^). No information can be gathered from these passages as to the tj'pe of lamp. Although candle has been …
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The details of the founding of the Church of Lao- dicea have to be pieced together from allusions in the Acts and Epistles. St. Paul was not directly the founder. His words in Col 2\ ' I strive for 684 LAPIS LAZULI LASCIVIOUSNESS . . . them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,' imply …
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4. NT meaning. — In the NT, however, the term seems to refer exclusively to ' open, shameless im- purity,' It has plainly this meaning in Ro 13^^, 2 Co 1221, Qai 5W Eph 4W 2 p 2'-i«. It isone of the works of darkness, the fit climax of fornication and uncleanness ; it is a vice closely associated with banquetings and d…
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LAW. — 1. Introductory. — The subject of the Law formed one of the main problems, if not in- deed the main problem, of the Apostolic Church, inasmuch as it involved the fundamental relation of primitive Christianity to Judaism on the one hand and heathenism on the other. Later Judaism, on its Pharisaic side, had carrie…
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To tiais type of Jewish Christianity corresponds generally the religious standpoint of the Epistle which is ascribed to St. James. The letter shows so little of a distinctively Christian character, that Spitta has in all seriousness hazarded the theory of its being in reality a Jewish work in which the name of Jesus ha…
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It is remarkable that the two Epistles bearing the name of Peter do not refer to the Law. The Second Epistle obviously dates from a time when the question regarding the Law had given place to other controversies, and, at all events, it is con- cerned with a libertinism and a doctrine that lie beyond the purview of Jewi…
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As regards the proper signification of the term, however, the Law may be defined as the positive revelation of the Divine ordinance to the Israelites, who therein, as in the covena.nts, the promises, and the Temple service (Ro 9^), had a sacred privilege unshared by other peoples (cf. 2'^ 3'^). The law of God, which in…
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This estimate of the Law, so obnoxious to the Judaistic mind, the Apostle made good by an apjieal to experience as well as to Scripture and sacred history. His demonstration is given more especially in the Epistles to the Galatians and the Romans. In the latter he starts from experience, which shows that not only the h…
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Thus the Law produces a qualitative intensifica- tion of sin : sin becomes guilt. The evil done by those who have not the Law is relatively blameless. But the Law, which invests sin with the character of guilt, evokes wrath, i.e. in God (Ro 4"). Sin, how- ever, is not only qnalitativelj' intensified, but also quantitat…
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St. Paul, however, goes far beyond this purely juridical conception. He also represents our deliver- ance from the Law as a transaction ethically con- ditioned. From the mystical union with the 690 LAW LAW Crucified and Risen Lord comes a power which transforms and re-creates our nature, and thus enables us of oui-…
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(e) Survey. — When we survey the Pauline doctrine of the Law as a whole, we see that it is quite Avrong to attribute to the Apostle any form of antinomianism. Of the operation and ])urpose of the Law he doubtless uses language which could not but have a decidedly antinomian sound to the ears of a Jewish Christian. When…
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5. The Law in the Epistle to the Hebrews. — Paulinism was fully vindicated by the historical development that took place on the soil of Judaism. Not only did the Jews of the Diaspora harden their hearts more and more against the Pauline Christian mission, but those resident in Palestine, notwithstanding the conservativ…
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That the general religious attitude of Revelation is Jewish Christian may probably be infeiTed from such passages as IP 20» 21 '^ and 7*-*. But this does not imply that the work has a particularistic or an anti-Pauline standpoint ; the truth is, rather, that the book presupposes throughout the uni- versality of salvat…
900 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical reference work (1915–1916); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.