The teaching was oral, as a rule, but it might be conveyed by means of didactic epistles, such as those contained in the NT or those of Clement of Kome and Ignatius, or works like the Didacho and the Shepherd of Hennas. In addition to a recital of the facts concerning the life, death, and resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ (Ro P'-, 1 Co IS'"-, Gal 4«-), there would be doctrinal explanations of tliese facts, such as those contained in Acts and the Epistles. Then there were authoritative accounts of such institutions as the Christian sacrament (1 Co 11-^'-). Instruction was also conveyed in ' hymns and spiritual songs' (Col 3"') and would include 'ad- monition' (1-*), exhortation (1 Ti 4" &^), and even reproof and rebuke (2 Ti 4^), the administration of which called for patience and longsull'ering on the part of the teacher.
(5) Historical development. — The place of teach- ing in the early Church underwent modilication in process of time. In the earliest stage it was some- what overshadowed by the supernatural gifts of prophecy and tongues. To the ordinary listener, the presence and influence of the Spirit were more evident in the revelations of prophecy or the ecstatic utterances of tongues than in the calmer discourse of teaching. Against the tendency to ascribe undue importance to glossolalia St. Paul had early to make protest in the interest of pro- phecy (1 Co 14). A second stage was reached when the early enthusiasm roused by prophetic and ecstatic speech cooled down and greater attention was given to the more systematic utterance of the teacher. The prophetic gift was sporadic, that of teaching was continuous ; the former came by momentary inspiration, the latter was the outcome of long experience ; and in the long run teaching won the day. The etiect of stricter oversight and completer organization tended (up to a certain point) to encourage it. The very directions given by St. Paul to the Corinthians for the orderly con- duct of their edihcation meetings gave to teaching a growing importance in the process of spiritual upbuilding. In the third stage (noticeable in the 2nd cent. ) the function of teaching became absorbed in the office of administration and leadership. The teacher outlasted both the apostle and the prophet, but was eventually subordinated to the bishop, who combined in his office the functions of ruling and teaching. In earlier times the apostles, prophets,
and teachers had autliority because they possessed gifts of insight and knowledge qualifying them to give directions in belief and practice. But, as the need for organizaticm and discipline increased pari passu with the decline of inspired utterance, teaching, at lirst overshadowed hj- ))rophecy, now became ab.sorbed by leadership, although it re- mained a permanent function in the ('hurch.
2. The content of Christian teaching.— The NT Epistles and the specimens of instruction preserved in Acts embody the content of Christian teaching during the 1st century. The amplihcation and modihcation of this primitive norm of belief and practice can be traced in the Didache, the Epistles of Clement and Ignatius, and the Shepherd of Hernias in the immediately succeeding years.
The detailed exposition and co-ordination of the contents of Christian teaching will be found in the various articles dealing with the suhjects concerned. All that can be attempted here is to characterize broadly the early Christian teachin" as a body of truth. Compared with the varie<l literature of the ancient world it was exclusively religious in character, and in contrast with the philosophic speculations of the Greek and Hellenistic schools it claimed to be a body of revealed truth. The Christian teacher did not so much unfold a philo- sophy of religion as expound and apply the truths embodied and revealed in Christ, lie taught ' in the name of Jesus ' (Ac 4'* 5^), he used the doctrines of the OT inasmuch as they bore witness of Christ, he repeated the teaching given by Christ with the formula 'Eemember the words of the Lord Jesus' (20**), he continued ' in the apostles' doctrine ' (2''-), and as occasion arose he applied the principles underlying the teaching of Jesus to the doctrinal and ethical problems that arose within the Church. In the later Epistles a conservative tendency is noticeable. The content of Christian teaching came to be fixed and authoritative. It was called ' the teaching ' (1 Ti 6', 2 Jn » ; cf. Rev 22«<'-) or the ' sound doctrine ' (2 Ti 4^). St. Paul early utters a warning to the Romans against departing from ' the doctrine which ye learned ' (Ro 16"), and later Timothy is called a good minister because he lia<l been 'nourished in (3ie words of the faith, and of the good doctrine' (I Ti 4*), and in which he had continued.
The general character of the content of the teaching may be inferred from the fact that it is described (1 Co 12*) as the 'word of wisdom' (\iyyoi ffo(plas) and as the 'word of knowledge' {\6yos ■yi/iicreais). The message of the teacher consisted of a discourse in which either ' wisdom ' or ' know- ledge ' {yfuxns) would predominjit.e according to the special nature of the gift of teaching bestow^ed. A difl'erence is to be noted between wisdom and gnosis. The former consisted in an acquaintance with ' God's wisdom ' (1 Co 1'^'), or the Divine pl.an of redemption, which St. Paul calls elsewhere ' the mystery of God ' (2'). O. PHeiderer describes it as ' the knowledge of elementary Christian truths in the simplest and most direct form of actual fact' (PanUnism, Eng. tr., 2 vols., London, 1877, i. 235). On the other hand, knowledge (gnosis) came by intuition and consisted of insight into truth through spiritual illumination. In Christian wisdom the truth was arrived at by the teacher's powers of observation and reasoning ; in the Christian gnosis the truth was bestowed as an immediate gift of the Spirit. The hrst enabled the teacher to explain the truth, the latter qualified him to interpret it. The knowledge of the teacher was largely an ex- perimental acquaintance with the process of human redemption thro\igh Christ (Ph 3'").