Download File - JOHN J. HADDAD, Ph.D.

30 ◆ Christianity A SHORT GLOBAL HISTORY
others attacked some Jewish views and leaders for their narrowness, but
neither Paul nor Jesus hated Jews. Certainly one of the tragic losses
Christians sustained in the early centuries was the demise of Jewish
Christian communities. Jews had existed for centuries within Hellenistic
culture. In the work of people like Philo (c. 20 BC to AD 50) they had
found ways to make Jewish life more understandable to their Graeco-
Roman neighbors. Philo used Greek philosophical and religious categories
to explain ancient Jewish wisdom; his work was salvaged
primarily by early Christians who found it helpful in their attempts to
claim the good in Greek life and thought.
During this period Christian congregations developed their so-called
‘traditional’ and distinctive teachings. How to view Jesus presented a
series of conundrums. Paul broke the great Jewish confession called the
Shema – ‘The Lord our God is one Lord’ – into two pieces, one which
referred to God the Father and one which referred to Jesus Christ. A
daring division indeed. In the Gospel of John, Thomas calls Jesus both
‘Lord’ and ‘God’. Hymns or hymn fragments elsewhere in the New Testament
praise Christ with the highest names possible. Pliny the Younger
(c. 61–112) noted that Christians sang hymns to Christ ‘as to a god.’ His
investigations had uncovered that such a confession was a strong emphasis
in their worship.
Yet there was always a sense that believers in Christ confessed only
one God; talking about Jesus with such language struck some as odd or
even threatening. Wasn’t he primarily a human prophet and teacher?
Didn’t reference to him as God destroy monotheism?
From about 180 to 230 three significant Christian leaders spoke of a
single rule of faith shared by most believers, one that dealt with some of
these questions. Irenaeus (c. 115–c. 202), a native of Asia Minor
(Turkey) who was a missionary in Gaul (France), Tertullian (fl. 200) of
North Africa, and Origen (c. 185–c. 251) of Egypt and Palestine (Israel)
took similar positions. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father
created heaven and earth; the Son assisted. The Son, incarnate as both
God and man, was born of a virgin, died, was resurrected and ascended
to heaven in order that people might be saved. The Spirit comforts and
makes people holy who believe the good news of Christian faith.
The three leaders had different emphases. Irenaeus seemed most
interested in expressing broader views within his succinct account of
restoring humanity to God. Tertullian almost invented Latin words used
to describe how Father, Son and Spirit were one God and how Jesus