489 Early Church History 9: Early Church Orders

This is part 9 of the Early Church History class.

How did Christians organize themselves in the first few centuries? We're taking a break from theology and switching to focus on practical matters of church offices, church governance, church discipline, conversion, and charity. As it turns out we have a surprising amount of information about how early Christians did church not only from scattered quotes, but from a series of church manuals that have survived. In some ways these church orders sound eerily familiar to modern ears and in other ways, utterly foreign. See what you think.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7tCjuTbHx8&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=9&t=1892s

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—— Notes ——

Sources

• The Didache (100)[1]
• Apostolic Tradition (215) (Hippolytus?)[2]
• Didascalia Apostolorum (230)[3]
• Apostolic Church Order (300)[4]
• Apostolic Constitutions (380)[5]
• quotes from others like Justin, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, etc.

Church Orders are notoriously hard to date (composite documents). They don’t necessarily reflect the whole church and sometimes disagree with each other. They simply represent a snapshot of what Christians were doing in a particular time and place.

Joseph Lynch: “In the innermost circle were the people who were full members, the baptized faithful. Two groups were in the second circle: the unbaptized catechumens (“those under instruction”) who were seeking entry to the inner circle and the baptized penitents who had been expelled from the inner circle and were trying to get back in. The huge third circle held the non-believers (pagans and Jews), the former Christians (apostates), and the unacceptable Christians (heretics).”[6]

Bishops (Overseers)

• qualifications in 1 Timothy 3.1-7; Titus 1.7-9
• extraordinary honor as God’s representative
• 50 years old (if possible)
• learned (if possible) and skillful with words
• preach, administer communion, baptize, rebuke sin, restore repentant, visit the sick
• supported financially, but live moderately
• coordinate burying believers

Presbyters (Elders)

• qualifications in Titus 1.6-9
• functions