CHURCH.— The histoiy of the Church in the Apostolic Age may be treated under the follow- ing heads : (1) Sources, (2) Importance, (3) Name, (4) Origin, (5) Growth, (6) Conflict between Jewish
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and Gentile elements, (7) Character, (8) Relation to the State and other systems.
1. Sources. — Our sources of information are not nearly so full as ^ve might wish, but some of them are excellent ; and, although we are obliged to leave several important questions open, yet criti- cism enables us to secure solid and sure results. Our earliest sources are the Epistles of St. Paul, and the large majority of those which bear his name are now firmly established as his. Doubts still exist with regard to the Pastoral Epistles, but it is generally admitted that they contain portions which are by the Apostle, and at any rate they are evidence as to a period closely connected witli his age. Hebrews, whoever wrote it, is evidence re- specting a similar period. With the possible ex- ception of 2 Peter, all the other Epistles and the Apocalypse are sources. More full of information than the Pauline Epistles, though later in date, is the Book of Acts, now firmly established as the work of St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul. Those who fully admit this differ considerably in their estimate of the value of Acts as a historical document, but the trend of criticism is in the direc- tion of a high estimate rather than of a low one. Microscopic investigation and a number of recent discoveries show how accurate a writer St. Luke generally is. We have to lament tantalizing omissions much more often than to suspect serious inaccuracies. The Gospels give some help ; for Avhat they record explains many features in the Epistles and Acts.
Outside the NT, but within the 1st cent., we have the Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corin- thians and the Epistle of Barnabas, one represent- ing Gentile and the other Jewish Christianity. Within the first three decades of the 2nd cent., we have the writings of three men whose lives over- lapped those of some of the Apostles — Ignatius, Polj'carp, and Papias ; and to the same period probably belongs the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve. Something of considerable value may also be obtained from two writers near the middle of the 2nd cent. — Hermas and Justin Martyr ; and even so late as the last quarter of the cent, we can find apostolic traditions of great value in the writings of Irenseus. From outside the Christian Church we have good material, especially respect- ing the great crisis of the destruction of Jerusalem bv Titus, from the Jewish writer, Josephus ; and also some important statements from the heathen writers, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny, who were contemporary with Clement, Ignatius, and Poly- carp.
2. Importance. — The importance of the history of the Apostolic Church is very great, but it is sometimes misunderstood. The sources mentioned above tell us something about the beliefs, organiza- tion, and ritual of the first Christians ; and they are all very simple. It is sometimes sujsposed that if we take these simple elements and close our eyes to later developments, Ave get the essence of Christianity, free from unessential forms, and that this constitutes the importance of tlie primi- tive Church. It is the model to which all Church reformers ought to look, with a view to restoring its simplicity. Two considerations show that this estimate is erroneous. Essence without form is unattainable. Tiie Apostolic Church had forms which were the outcome of the conditions in which the Church existed. Some of those conditions changed very quickly, and the forms changed also. The restoration of the simplicity of the primitive forms will have little value or vitality unless we also restore the primitive conditions, and that is im- possible. Secondly, the sources do not tell us the whole truth. On some important points we can obtain nothing better than degrees of probability
because the evidence is so inadequate ; on other points there is no evidence, and we have to fall back on pure conjecture. If it had been intended that all subsequent ages should take the Apostolic Church as a model, then we might reasonably expect that a complete description of it would have been preserved. A sketch which has to be gathered piecemeal from dill'erent sources, and which, when put together, is incomplete both in outline and in contents, cannot be made an authori- tative example. ' Christianity is not an archreo- logical puzzle ' (J. H. Ropes, Apostolic Age, London, 1906, p. 20).
Nevertheless, the importance of this age is real and great, [a] The spiritual essence of Christianity may be said to consist in the inner relation of each soul to God, to His Christ, and to His Spirit, and in the inner and outer relations of all believers to one another. In the first age of the Church this essence existed in such simple vigour that it gave reality and life to forms which had not yet had time to become mistaken for essentials. About the simplicity of tliese beginnings there is no doubt ; it is an established fact ; but that does not pi-ove that this primitive simplicity is a binding authority for all ages, {b) This age produced the NT — the group of writings which has had greater influence for good than any which the world has ever known : a group of writings which reflects the ideas and habits of that age and must be inter- preted by a knoAvledge of those ideas and habits, (c) This age exhibits the first eti'ects which the gospel produced upon Jew and Gentile — two very difierent soils, which might bear very different fruits, {d) It is the first stage in the complex development of the Church and the churches ; and in order to understand that development, we must study its beginnings.