Possibly Ephesians belongs to the same period. While emphasizing knowledge (p-''' 3'*), it gives the premier position to love, which surpasses knowledge and is its object (3'^). In 1 Peter the favourite word is ayadoTroita. In Ephesians the old sins of paganism recur — uncleanness, lascivious- ness, lusts ; in I Peter malice, guile, hj-pocrisies, envies, and evil-speaking. The life of paganism is Ayvoia, darkness, death : Christianity brings knowledge (Eph 4'^ 1 P V*), light (Eph 5^, 1 P 2«), and life (Eph 2'^-) or effective power (l'^ 3-"). In- cidentally we note the emergence of new faults — drunkenness (Eph 5'®), the habit of the aWoTpuirla- KOTTos, or meddling in other people's concerns (1 P 4'^), and extravagance of ornamentation in women (3^). Both 1 Peter and Ephesians show an advance on St. Paul in their appeal to the OT, which Jew- ish Christianity made the Bible of the Gentile world. The Pastoral Epistles exhibit the begin- nings of Gnosticism (q.v.) and the influence of the false teaching prevalent in Asia Minor (cf. Jude, which warns especially against a far-reaching licentiousness), the discrediting of prophecy and the conceiition of evae^eia. The Epistle of James, with which may perhaps be associated the Didache (although the date of the latter is uncertain), gives us the strong ethical ideal of Palestinian Chris- tianity ; its insistence on works does not imply retention of the Jewish code ; the ' law of liberty ' is a new law given by Christ, or ' the yoke of the Lord ' (Did.). Revelation is also Jewish-Christian in its standpoint, and presents some valuable cameos of church life in Asia Minor in the letter to the Seven Churches (see art. Apocalypse). It treats the Christian life on the broad basis of history, and recognizes the heroism of both Jewish and Gentile Christians in the world-conflict ; the proofs of Christianity are to be seen in ' the heroic virtues of martyrdom and virginity.' The Igna- tian Epistles, which also glorify martyrdom, are remarkably silent regarding the gross sins of paganism. They deal witii the contrast between Christian and non-Christian, the peril of nominal Christianity, and the duties of confession and Church unity ; they reflect the growing Church- consciousness which anticipates the later Catholi-
cism. The Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles clearly express the equal recognition of Jewish and Gentile Christians. The author, though a Jew, is ' denationalized ' in his stand- point, which yet is to be distinguished from St. Paul's in its generally mystical and idealistic nature. The spirit of his ethic is ' contemplative and exclusive' (Weizsiicker, ii, 397). Faith in Jesus as the Son of God is the condition of ' eternal life ' and the sonship of God ; while the Person of Christ involved a universal redemption. The truth of the new birth is Pauline ; w bile the view of sin as dvo/xia shows the Jewish veneration for the old Law ; even ' the new commandment ' is an old commandment (1 Jn 2") rightly viewed. The Christian life is characterized in a series of splendid generalizations — love, truth, light, with the anti- theses of death and hatred, sin, the world, and darkness. The ideal is the overcoming of the world, the spirit of which is independence of God. The distinction between deadly and venial sins, the recognition of false forms of faith, the presence of official ambition which resents all ecclesiastical development (in Diotrephes [3 Jn]), are features which point to a later and more regulated stage of Christian life than we find in the Pauline letters, with their advocacy of the unfettered action of the Spirit.
To sum up, the Christian life, as exhibited in the literature of the Apostolic Age and viewed in the manj' phases and fluctuations which were due to its environment, the immaturity of its professors, the development of speculative thought, the errors of undue asceticism and moral laxity, presents on the whole a fixed and established type based on ethical and religious principles, which were des- tined to live and to transform the world because they owed their origin to faith in the historical Son of God, who had opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
LiTEP.ATURE.— A. C. McGififert, Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1S97, and art. ' Apostolic Age ' in ERE ; E. von Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, Eng. tr., London, 1904 ; C. von Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age, Eng. tr., ii. [do. 1895J ; A. Harnack, Mission and Expansion 0/ Christianity-, Eng. tr., do. 190s; H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church History, do. 1909 ; J. Moffatt, LXT, Edinburgh, 1911 ; P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of St. Paul, London, 1911.
R. Martin Pope. CHRONOLOGY.-See Dates.
CHRYSOLITE [xpvabXiOo^, Rev 2po).— In modern usage the name ' chrysolite ' is applied to a trans- parent variety of olivine, used as a gem-stone and often called 'peridot.' The ancients applied the word to various yellowish gems. The LXX gives it as the equivalent of ii"^h^, which Flinders Petrie {HDB iv. 62u'') is inclined to identify with yellow jasper. The later Greeks gave the name chryso- lite to the topaz, which was unknown in earlier times. James Steahax.
CHRTSOPRASE (xp^oVpao-os, from xp^'^os, ' gold,' and wpaffov, ' a leek '). — This stone is the tenth foundation of the wall of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21-"). The name is now applied to an apple-green variety of chalcedony or hornstone, prized in jewel- lery and sometimes used for mural decollations. But this chalcedony was probably unknown to the ancients, and the xpi'^^'OTrpacros of the Greeks was 'not improbablj' our chrysoberyl ' (EBr^'^ vi. 321). The word is not found in either of the LXX lists of precious stones (Ex 28'"--'', Ezk 2S^^) with which the writer of Rev. was familiar. James Strahan,