PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Dictionary of the Apostolic Church — Volume 2
James Hastings · 991,000 words · 974 reading sections
Section 901
5. Christians in the army. — The extant literature of the Church down to the close of the 2nd cent, betrays no sense of military service as incompatible with Christianity ; it is discouraged rather than disparaged, when it is noticed at all. Neither then nor afterwards did the Church ever decline to baptize a soldier, …
914 wordsSECTION 902Section 902
Another technical regtilation must have restricted for a time the number of Christians in the legions. Although the ancient practice of admitting only Koman citizens to the army had been relaxed, no slaves were allowed into the ranks ; the penally of death was inllicted upon any who managetl to • Probably, as A. C. Mc…
1,063 wordsSECTION 903Section 903
It is premature to speak of a ' rigorist party ' even in tlie days of Marcus Aurelius, when Chris- tian soldiers were serving freely in the legions, but from the remonstrances and taunts of the pagan patriot Celsus (170-185), which we overhear in the pages of Origen (c. Cels. viii. 73 f.), it is fairly obvious that he …
1,000 wordsSECTION 904Section 904
• Maximilianus (see below, p. 669). When the proconsul asks, 'Quis tibi hoc persuasit?' he replies, 'Animus meus, et is qui me vocavit.' t Gibbon {Decline and Fait o/ the Botttan Empire, ch. xv.) holds that * by the mention of the emperors (Severus and Caracalla) it is evident that Tertullian composed his treatise de …
914 wordsSECTION 905Section 905
aeV.Wo'«l'">.«'h"el'h^'^dles a^^ ^^^i^^ any bow iig in and uiiconipronusiiig ^ ■«"";• [l^'^jh^j Christianity is a holy war the house ol R'™'."°' •.r"t"*'=„^atechiiinen at baptism t.akes the againstidolatry in whid theca e^hu.^ ^_^^ ) and biU?y .:j;^e?'^' wh^lh^^g^ =>dmi.ted into the Christian faith who belongs to '…
1,143 wordsSECTION 906Section 906
* When Ulfilas came to translate the OT for the warlike Goths in the latter half of the 4th cent., he is said by Philostorgius {Ht! ii. 5) to have left out the books of the Kings, 'since they are merely a story of military deeds, and since the Gothic tribes, who were particularly fund of fighting, required to have thei…
1,069 wordsSECTION 907Section 907
The second of the great African fathers ad- mired Tertullian and on this point agreed with him. Cj')irian, in A.D. '246, invites his friend and fellow-rhetorician Donatus {Ep. 1. 'adDonatum,' 6)t to look at the state of the world : ' roads ren- dered impassable by brigands, seas infested with pirates, wars waged on eve…
1,045 wordsSECTION 908Section 908
But the 3rd cent, witnessed the rise of didiculties for Christian soldiers on a serious scale, which pro- duced a certain reaction against the service. Some part of the repugnance obviously felt by Christians for military service may have been due to the fact that jlitlir.aism was one of the favourite religions among t…
1,195 wordsSECTION 909Section 909
Again, what were Christians in the array to do when they were ordered to take part in the arrest and even in the execution of Christian civilians during a persecution ? This task often fell to soldiers. Indeed, it was one of their temptations to harshness and extortion (see above, p. 653). Christians who desired to avo…
981 wordsSECTION 910Section 910
• The antesiimani were the picked men who fought in the front rank, originally in front of the standards (see Livy's account, xxii. .'i). Calvin tises the same met.iphor in liis note on 1 Ti 1'8 (' jniliti<te nomine subindicat eertandum esse. Atque in universum piis id convenit : proprie tamen Christianis doctoribus, q…
1,150 wordsSECTION 911Section 911
It would be unjust to infer that the Christian soldiers who were not martyred Avere necessarily of inferior quality to their fellows. The Romans were not a persecuting people. Except on special occasions + of popular fury, they did not as a rule force the issue even on civilian Christians, and in the army, particularly…
961 wordsSECTION 912Section 912
t Or, * in pace ' may refer to periods when no actual war was proceeding;, and when it was less dishonourable and dantrerous to leave the army. A Roman army in peace built bridtres and roads, and did general repairing work, besides police-duties. light, as the Western Church would be anxious at this ]ierio(l to leiul …
1,385 wordsSECTION 913Section 913
• ' Only '—because intentional homicides were to he kept from ironiniunioii for twenty years {Ep. ccxvii. 5G). The soldier gets olf with three. 672 WAR he, however, does not venture to brand military service as uncliristian. Asceticism led then and afterwards to extravafjant and heretical develop- ments, but Basil h…
902 wordsSECTION 914Section 914
(6) Tile correspondence with Marcellinus, the Imperial com- missioner, and with Boniface elaborates Augustine's judgment on war from a Christian standpoint. In a long letter {Ep. cxxxviii.) to the former on various doctrinal and practical difficulties, including the question of the compatibility of the Sermon on the Mo…
947 wordsSECTION 915Section 915
LiTEBATrRE. — In 190S Karl Kautsky published a monofrraph on l)er Uraprunfj des Christentums (Stuttt^^art), a so-called 'historical investigation,' in which (especially p. 384 f.) heat- tempted to prove that Jesus had been a Messianic lea<ler of revolt, who had really been put to death for His seditious and fanatical G…
1,019 wordsSECTION 916Section 916
2. In Eph 5'-" the Church is said to be cleansed by the w,-isliing (or laver, rif XoiTpi^) of water with the word, baptism being regarded as the seal and symbol of a spiritual experience which is mediated by f.aith in the gospel. '3. The writer of Hebrews (9") says that water was used along with blood — either to prev…
1,016 wordsSECTION 917Section 917
Didache, an early Christian manual, expatiates on the way of life and the way of death. The phrase seems to suggest the active, practical aspects of religion — God s dealings with man, man's conduct towards God and his fellows. The commandments, worship, prayer, holiness, repentance, all have an ethical side and are ev…
1,005 wordsSECTION 918Section 918
The knowledge of agriculture certainly goes back to pre-Seuutic times, for grind-stones belong- ing to that period have been discovered (cf. the present writer's Lutest Light on Bible Lands, London, 1913, p. 213). Several varieties of wheat are grown in Palestine, of which the most common is the Triticum spelta. Two ot…
991 wordsSECTION 919Section 919
In Mt 6'-', Jn 17'», 2 Th 3», 1 Jn 5'', expositors difl'er on the question whether the inflected forms are from the masculine 6 rof-qpSs or the neuter to TTOfvpSv. Only in regard to the last-mentioned passage is the personal reference to Satan placed 676 WIDOWS WIDOWS beyond doubt by v." j hence the rendering of KV…
1,062 wordsSECTION 920Section 920
When 1 Ti 5''^" was written the question of the Church's relation to widows — in Ephesus at any rate — had become a serious problem. There were at least two pressing questions, viz. (1) the wi.se administration of the Church's financial resources, .and (2) the clear enunciation of the ba.sal prin- cijiles of Christian …
985 wordsSECTION 921Section 921
• Tliis plirase can mean eittier (1) a nidow who lias been only once married, or (2) a widow who has been tailhful to one man, t e. who was not Ruilty of pre-nuiitial or viduary (orrncation or ot conjugal infidelity. To the present writer the latter mean- ing is far more likely. face of it concerned mainly with Church…
1,079 wordsSECTION 922Section 922
All these questions, more or less connected with one another, occur at once to the mind ; but in the NT no direct answer to them is to be found. The NT writers were not in any sense psychological analysts ; their object was to describe their re- ligious experiences and to induce them in others. Their psychological equi…
1,063 wordsSECTION 923Section 923
iiriev/iia., on the other hand, denotes an eager longing or craving, which may pass out of control and become irdflos, an overmastering passion. The WILL WILL 67'J verb iniBviiiu is used only of iivjin. It occurs out- side the Gosiuls six times in a bad sense, twice in a good sense, and twice neutral ; in tlie Cios…
1,301 wordsSECTION 924Section 924
It is thus quite clearly, though perhaps even j-et not explicitly, recognized that will is something more than an impulse or a series of impulses, good or bad. It is the expression of the self, which, when bad, needs to be changed by an operation which has an external origin. Yet it is manifested in constant clioices a…
930 wordsSECTION 925Section 925
of prhnum mohile, the all-embracing sphere by which the other spheres are controilcil and set and kept in motion. The miiturity of man's will is thus an attainment, not an emlowiiient. It acta pro|ierly only when it is roused and directed by Divine grace. The necessity for its exercise will never be sujierseded ; but t…
914 wordsSECTION 926Section 926
1. In his Historical Commentary on the Galatians (p. 349 ff.), Kainsay argues that there are clear indications that St. Paul is alluding to the customs of Greek law. He maintains that a Greek will was (a) public and (6) irrevocable. It was ' con- firmed'(3'^) when it had passed through the Re- cord Office of the city ;…
969 wordsSECTION 927Section 927
Literature. — W. Ramsay, art. 'Vitrum ' in Smith's DGRA-, London, 1876; G. M. Mackie, Bihle Manners and Customs, do., 1898, p. 95 f. ; C. Warren, art. ' House ' in HDB. J. STKAHAN. WINE.— See ABSTINENCE, DRUNKENNESS, EU- CHARIST, Temperance. WING (TTT^pul).- The term occurs but five times in the NT : three times in …
1,173 wordsSECTION 928Section 928
But the Wisdom books, as a preparation for the gospel, raised difficulties which they could not solve, and thus pointed forward to the revela- tion of God in Christ ; through them also contact was made with the Greek world ; Judaism and Hellenism met together over the pages of the LXX, especially in its sapiential port…
1,017 wordsSECTION 929Section 929
then to the twelve ; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep ; then he appeared to James ; then to all the apostles ; and last of all, as unto one born out of due time, he ajipcared to me also ' (1 Co lo^"). 'That was absolutely the …
1,010 wordsSECTION 930Section 930
Yet, while the Apostle rebukes and resists the superficial aocpla of the Corinthians, he also has his wisdom by which he relates the fact of Christ and ' the word of the cross ' to his general view of the world : 'unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, [we preach] Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of Go…
1,062 wordsSECTION 931Section 931
WISDOM OF SOLOiMON WISDOM OF SOLOMON 685 li^lit of the Cross broke upon him, his method was chiingeil, and tile fruit appoareil, and that not only in specilically religious rosuUs, hut also in the social reforms that the old method (directly as it had sought them) failed to produce. Amiel, who will not he su.-pecle…
1,009 wordsSECTION 932Section 932
2. The language. — Although the Greek, whence the remaining te.vts which we possess are in the main derived, is exceedingly ambitious and at times eloquent, the liter.iry form of large portions (especially chs. 1-9) in which the Hebrew parallel- ism is observed indicates that Greek is not the originiil language in whic…
1,108 wordsSECTION 933Section 933
so the Israelites were able to run (piS) on that sea-bed.' In many cases, however, the phrase employed shows clear signs of mistranslation, but restora- tion of the original is ditticult ; examples are 1'"'' ' thinking him a friend they melted,' where the sense requires something like 'they summoned him'; 7* 'I was re…
908 wordsSECTION 934Section 934
On the other hand, it is probably later than the LXX translation of the Pentateuch, since it ex- hibits certain technicalities which are likely to have been introduced by that work, e.g. oXoKavrujxa, TTodrjp-qs, ^^i\ajfi6^t x^'po'roiT^Toj' for 7'^N, /SSeXtry/Aara for n2i'in, etc. Yet where passages of the Penta- teuch …
1,135 wordsSECTION 935Section 935
Besides this, it seems surprisin" that an author of such marked ability should employ a jiscudonym, • tvKivrrrov ^uToi', of which the original seems to be nK3 i"V ; Exodus liahha, 15, in a similar context, misread nyj. The Armenian has this right, phait gtgheUik. 688 WISDOM OF SOLOMON WISDOM "OF SOLOMON and in par…
910 wordsSECTION 936Section 936
5. Value of the work. — From the point of view of intellectual ability the work is incomparably superior to the rest of the Apocrypha ; besides containing many brilliant aphorisms it displays a capacity for continuous and consistent thinking which is rare in Semitic products. As an ex- pounder of Scripture the author e…
1,022 wordsSECTION 937Section 937
2. The Dlyine Witness. — Throughout the apostolic writings runs the conviction that God is constantly witnessing in various ways to the truth of the gospel. In Ac 14' 15' miracles are taken to be the means by which the preaching of Christ among the Gentiles is so attested (cf. Gal 3'). But it is chiefly through the wor…
1,138 wordsSECTION 938Section 938
1. The religions equality of woman with man before God is clearly asserted by Paul : ' as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus' (Gal S'-''- ■'*). The mutual…
904 wordsSECTION 939Section 939
The details of Church life which we gather from the Pauline Epistles, particularly as to the Church at Corinth, amply confirm what has been said (e.g. Ph 4^^*, 1 Co 1"; the numerous salutations to women in Ro 16). Paul speaks of Phoebe as a 'deaconess' of the Church at Cenchrece (Ro 16'), in terms that suggest her abil…
1,031 wordsSECTION 940Section 940
4. The limitations of apostolic Christianity in regard to wromen were such as were inevitable from its historical origin and eschatological outlook. Tlie Jewish training of Paul, for exanlple, accounts for much in his attitude, stich as the argument that women should be veiled 'because of the angels' (1 Co 11'"). The e…
1,045 wordsSECTION 941Section 941
Clement usesXivos 11 times. In 9 of the passages it is simply equivalent to ' word ' in the ordinary sense. IJut he twice introduces a quotation from the OT with the phrase ' For the holy X670S says' (ad Cor. 13, .56), and there the sense seems to ap- proach closely to that attached to the word in the quotations from t…
909 wordsSECTION 942Section 942
WOEK WOKLD 0',»." WORK. — This article deals with tlie special sense in whicli tlie word is employed in the N'l' of the office of the preacher of the gospel. (For other senses see Business, Labour.) Popular opinion tends to rey:ard spiritual ministry as the spontaneous activity of a certain temperament re- quiring n…
924 wordsSECTION 943Section 943
2. The temporal conception of the world.— The temporal conception of the world as a swrulitm, a cycle of history, complete within itself yet related to a before and an after, is distinctively expressed by aiuii>, or in contrast with the ' world to come,' as actually it always is, by 6 atwv oDtos (1 Co 1-" 2''- '• ' 3'*…
1,001 wordsSECTION 944Section 944
Such indications of the penetration of Hellenic influences into Jewish thought explain, from a historical point of view, the use of xiir/xos, both as term and as concept, in the apostolic writings, (a) Primarily the Cosmos is the rerum natura, the sum of terrestrial things, without moral reference. Occasionally the con…
920 wordsSECTION 945Section 945
For the sake of clearness the various uses of «o(r>ios may be thus tabulated, with the proviso that at certain points classi- fication cannot be more than tentative. (a) *c6(7^os = adomment (1 P 3-'). (6) = (metaphorically) a universe (Ja 3^. (c)=oiitovp.evri, the 'world-wide abode of mankind (Ro 18, Col 18, 1 P 59…
905 wordsSECTION 946Section 946
WORLDLINESS.— To elucidate the conception of worldliness in the apostolic writings, we must start from the primary truth that the world is God's world. His by creation aud sustenance, Ijy sovereign purpo.se and control (see artt. Unity and World). There is in tho.se writings no hint of an absolute dualism and, conseque…
1,122 wordsSECTION 947Section 947
(6) The second chief element in the worldly temper is what St. John calls ' the vainglory of life' — the delusive satisfaction, the baseless sense of security (atheistic) or of superiority (egoistic) which the attainment of worldly desire engenders. Confidence in the stability of material conditions and circumstances a…
981 wordsSECTION 948Section 948
And as the root of the evil is man's unresponsive- ness to the higher realities, there must the remedy be aji])lied. The apostolic Epistles abound, in- deed, in exhortation to the severance of all corre- spondences with the lower environment that are unnecessary, or are found in experience to be harmful. But always the…
1,014 wordsSECTION 949Section 949
'These thoughts, though found in these books themselves, did not lind expression till a later age.' * ' Clement of Rome has the idea of Christ as "the high-priest of our otierings," but the iileas of the heavenly Priesthood of our Lord, and the " Lamb standing as slain " of the Apocalypse, found only very isolated expr…
999 wordsSECTION 950Section 950
The elements of such worship — prayer and praise and instruction — combined to make what Duchesne in a happy phrase calls * a Liturgy of the Holy (Jhost after the Liturgy of Christ, a true liturgy with a Keal Presence and communion,' ** In one form or another they passed into the later offices, beginning with vigil ser…
916 wordsSECTION 951Section 951
It contains also quotations from a wonderful prayer of intercession and thanksgiving {qq.v.)^ and a close parallel to the later Hanctus. Ch. 34 : * For the Scripture saith ; Ten thousands of ten thou- sands stood by IJirn, and thousands 0/ thousands ministered unto Him : and they cried aloud. Holy, holy, holy is the L…
1,009 wordsSECTION 952Section 952
This finds emphasis in the constant teaching of the need of purification for participation in holy rites. This is expressed in He 10^'- : ' Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, .and our body washed with pure water.' In other words, devotion must be…
1,212 wordsSECTION 953Section 953
2. Writing materials. — In Goethe's Faust the hero offers a wide choice of materials for the docu- ment which Mephistopheles demands : ' Die Herrschaft fiihren Wachs und Leder . . . Erz, Marnior, Pergament, Papier? Soil icli mit Griffel, .Meissel, Feder schreiben?' In the Apostolic Age there was a similar variety of …
1,001 wordsSECTION 954Section 954
The notion that the Jews from the first wrote their sacred books upon leather rolls is not con- firmed by evidence satisfactory to historical science. As a matter of fact, we know that the use of papyrus reached Phcenicia as early as the 11th cent. B.C., and accordingly the books in roll form referred to in the OT (Jer…
1,208 wordsSECTION 955Section 955
ro2 WRITING "WRITING Asia Minor, and is therefore not to be rejjarded as a discoverj'of the lirst or hiter Cliristian centuries. Still, the relatively late appearance of the codex in art, and especially in art of Christian origin, hardly justilies us, the present writer thinks, in assum- ing that parchment MSS in th…
952 wordsSECTION 956Section 956
T h ese esti m ates are of course merely approx im ate, and are meant to give but a general impression. Moreover, they are made on the assumption that only the recto of the roll was used. Occasionally, however, from motives of thrift, lack of space, or the like, the verso also — that on which the fibres ran vertically …
1,053 wordsSECTION 957Section 957
In the Christian writings of the 1st cent, there is nothing — not even a specific term — to indicate that the codex, i.e. a construction of parcliment or papyrus sheets in the form of a modern book, was the vehicle of the autographs, or the first copies, of the Christian writings. In the Epistle of A risteas, a Jewish …
1,019 wordsSECTION 958Section 958
Devices to indicate pauses [paragraphus, double dot, larger and smaller spaces) were in use by the 1st cent. B.C., but as a rule were not used at all, or used but sparingly, in the Christian papyri of the 1st cent. A.D. — a circumstance that naturally brought in its train numberless possibilities of misreading and of m…
1,041 wordsSECTION 959Section 959
To 3. (a) Exegesis of Rev 6^^- : T. Zahn, Einleitung in das NT, iA [Leipzig, 1900] 599 f. (Zahn regards * the book on the hand of God ' as a codex, and interprets the adjectival phrase thus — 'written within and sealed without,' so taking otrta-Oev \vith KaTeo-f^paynT/ie'voi') ; cf., as against this, Birt, BuchroUe, p.…
902 wordsSECTION 960Section 960
LrrERATURK. — Cojnin. oil Acts by R. J. Knowlingr {EGT, 1900), T. M. Lindsay (1S84-85), H. A. W. Meyer (Eng. tr., 1877), in Inc. ; C. von Weizsacker, Apostoiic A;ie, ii. [18!t5] 331 t. ; E. Hatch, Organization of the Early ChnUian Churches^ 1881, p. 63 f. ; J. H. A. Hart, '1 Peter.' in Eiri', 1910, in loc. ; N. J. D. W…
945 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.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.