Bible Query - List of References
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This section mainly focuses on their contribution to dating books of the Bible, and some on Christian doctrine and Bible interpretation. See the Early Church section for more info on what they taught.
Q: When did Clement of Rome write 1 Clement, and why is this important?
A: We do not actually know, but it was written before 97/98 A.D.. Clement was a bishop of Rome, and probably the same Clement Paul knew in Phlippians 4:3. Based on chapter 1, 1 Clement was written after the church of Rome was established, and just after a persecution of the church. According to the Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1 p.2 it could have been written after the persecution of Nero ended, 68 A.D. However, most people are of the opinion that it was just after the persectuion of Domitian, who died 96 A.D. Thus, 1 Clement is dated 97/98 A.D.
This is significant because, with the possible exception of the Letters of Ignatius and Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement is the first Christian writing we have after the Bible was completed.
. 1 Clement quotes from Hebrews 1:3a,4,5,7,13b; 6:18 as well as mentions Hebrews 11:17 (which quotes Gen 21:22); Hebrews 10:37 (which quotes Habakkuk 2:3), Hebrews 12:6 (which quotes Proverbs 3:12), and alludes to Hebrews 13:17. Thus this proves that the Book of Hebrews was written prior to this time.
1 Clement chapter 47 also says the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians about having parties of Paul, Cephas, and Apollos.
1 Clement also provides extra-Biblical evidence that early Christians believed key doctrines we hold to today: that we are saved by the blood of Christ (chapters 7, 21, 49), that Jesus rose from the dead (chapter 24) as well as other doctrines.
The limitations of 1 Clement are that he gives an example of resurrection from the phoenix bird of Arabia, apparently not knowing that the phoenix was a myth. He also does not explicitly mention the Trinity or that Jesus is God. There is nothing in there similar to any verses in the (fairly large) Book of Revelation, perhaps indicately that John had not written Revelation by 97/98 A.D.
Q: What do we know about Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch?
A: Ignatius was one of the disciples of the apostle John, and Heron, Bishop of Antioch (died c.136 A.D.) was a disciple of Ignatius.
Ignatius was held prisoner and taken to Rome on a ship at a leisurely pace, where we was thrown to the lions on December 20th (of some year), under Emperor Trajan. We know that Trajan reigned from 97/98 A.D. to 117 A.D. Ignatius presented himself to Trajan, when Trajan was at Antioch in his campaign against the Parthians. However, Trajan had multiple campaigns against the Parthians, and it is not clear if it the 107 A.D. campaign or the 117 A.D. campaign. Since Ignatius probably wrote his last letters
Ignatius' writings are warm and personal. A distinctive of Ignatius is that he wrote of an Onesimus, bishop of Ephesus. Perhaps this was the same Onesimus mentioned in the book of Philemon, that that is not clear. A third distinctive is that Ignatius stressed the importance of church authority and obeying the bishops, though there is nothing that suggests the bishop of Rome was a pope.
Ignatius wrote seven genuine letters. We also have a Greek manuscript with eight additional letters, and the seven letters are in a much longer version. It is generally agreed that the "longer" Ignatius is spurious, as both Eusebius and Jerome both list the letters of Eusebius, and they only list the seven. The Ante-Nicene Fathers vol.1 p.47 also mentions that the longer versions appeared to support a kind of Arianism. As an example, the shorter versions says "the blood of God" while the longer version does not.
There is also a Syriac version (also called the Curetonian version) which is summaries of three of the letters. The Syriac Church also used a summary (and harmony) of the four gospels called the Diatessaron.
The significance of Ignatius is that he loved to say that Jesus is God, I am sure to the consternation of many Jehovah's Witnesses today. Muslims too could learn from this disciple of the apostle John.
The limitations of Ignatius are that all the church fathers all seemed to love to quote scripture extensively, - except for Ignatius. Perhaps he did not read scripture so much, if he could just go ask the apostle John.
Q: Who was Papias?
A: Papias was another bishop who was a disciple of John the apostle. He wrote many volumes, somewhere between 110 to 130 A.D. Unfortunately his writings have been lost, except for a short description by Eusebius (writing around 325 A.D.) Eusebius tells us that among other things, Papias says that the Gospel of Matthew was first written in Hebrew, Mark was the interpreter of Peter, and that Papias taught premillennialism. (Eusebius was an amillennialist.)
Q: What do we know about the Letter of Mathetes to Diognetus?
A: We only now two things about Mathetes: he mentions Christianity as being a new thing in the world (Chapters 1, 2, 9, and he said he was a disciple of the apostles in chapter 11. While some have thought this phrase could indicate a later time (all Christians in one sense are disciples of the apostles), this combined with saying Christianity is a new thing in the world indicates he probably really was a direct disciple of the apostles. Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1 p.23 gives a date of 130 A.D., and since Mathetes was a disciple of the apostles, that is probably about the best estimate.
The significance of the Letter of Mathetes to Diognetus is that here is another reference to the Son being given as a ranssom for us.
See the science section in the Bibliography for a list of references