THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF
EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

The writings of the Church Fathers form a distinct body of literature which shaped the early Church and built upon the doctrinal foundations of Christianity recently established within the New Testament and by oral and ecclesiastical tradition. Christian literature in the period c. 100–c. 400 constitutes one of the most influential textual oeuvres of any religion. Written mainly in Greek, Latin and Syriac, patristic literature emanated from all parts of the early Christian world and helped to extend its boundaries. The works of Irenaeus, Origen, Hippolytus, Eusebius, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Ephrem, the gnostics, the Montanists and the Cappadocians are among the best-known examples of an extensive set of texts grappling with the theological issues at the heart of early Christianity – many of which still lie at its heart today. This History is the first systematic account of that literature and its setting for many years. The work of individual writers in shaping the various genres and forms of Christian literature is considered, and the volume also offers three general essays covering distinct periods in the development of Christian literature. These pieces survey the social, cultural and doctrinal context within which Christian literature arose and within which it was used by Christians. The book is intended for use by theologians and historians, providing a landmark reference work for scholars, teachers and students.

FRANCES YOUNG is Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham.

LEWIS AYRES is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University.

ANDREW LOUTH is Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at the University of Durham.

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

*

Edited by

FRANCES YOUNG

LEWIS AYRES

ANDREW LOUTH

Assistant editor: Augustine Casiday

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press, 2004

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2004

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface DanteMT 10.5/13 pt.    System LATEX 2_e    [TB]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
The Cambridge history of early Christian literature / edited by Frances Young, Lewis
Ayres, Andrew Louth.
p.    cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-46083-2
1. Christian literature, Early–History and criticism.   I. Young, Frances M. (Frances Margaret)   II. Ayres, Lewis.   III. Louth, Andrew.
BR67.C252004
270.1–dc22    2003055726

ISBN 0 521 46083 2 hardback

Contents

Contributors

LEWIS AYRES, Emory University

JOHN BEHR, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

SEBASTIAN P. BROCK, University of Oxford

HENRY CHADWICK, University of Cambridge (Emeritus)

JOHN DAVID DAWSON, Haverford College

SUSAN ASHBROOK HARVEY, Brown University

RONALD E. HEINE, Puget Sound Christian College

DAVID G. HUNTER, Iowa State University

ANDREW LOUTH, University of Durham

R. A. MARKUS, University of Nottingham (Emeritus)

OLIVER NICHOLSON, University of Minnesota

RICHARD A. NORRIS, JR., The Union Theological Seminary (Emeritus)

KAREN JO TORJESEN, Claremont Graduate University

MARK VESSEY, University of British Columbia

FRANCES YOUNG, University of Birmingham

Editors’ preface

The excellent Cambridge Histories have not so far included a scholarly compendium on the literature of early Christianity. This volume seeks to fill that gap, while taking note of new developments in the field, which make it particularly appropriate to undertake the production of such a volume at this time.

   This literature has traditionally been studied by students of Christian theology and Christian scholars with an interest in the doctrinal and organizational development of the Church. It has commonly been described using the adjective ‘patristic’, since these authors were considered the ‘Fathers’ of the Church, and introductory handbooks have been known as ‘Patrologies’. It is not intended to ignore the concerns of this clientele, though it is hoped that a wider readership may also turn to this volume as a standard work of reference. Increasing historical interest in the late Roman and early Byzantine worlds has made the subject much more interdisciplinary. Indeed, it could be argued that this material is simply a subclass of the literature of late antiquity, and a reference work should include the whole range of material. However, this would consign the material in this volume to a small section, and since it is a substantial and historically significant subclass, there is a case to be made for examining it in its own right, as long as the wider historical context, and the sharing of perspectives and concerns with non-Christian contemporaries, are made clear.

   This greater interdisciplinary focus has been particularly important, however, since it has meant that the material is now studied with a broader range of issues in mind. Feminists have challenged the designation ‘patristic’, and questions of social identity and social level have become important, together with issues such as the parting of the ways with Judaism, and the process of Christianization. ‘Heretics’ have been re-habilitated, and their motivations and ideas studied with greater sympathy, especially as they were history’s losers. New material, such as the Nag Hammadi find and the Tura papyri, have occasioned more intensive research. This material can no longer be presented simply as sources for the history of the development of Christian doctrine, important though that project remains.

   At the same time the hermeneutical questions raised in relation to New Testament interpretation have hardly begun to touch the field, so that questions of appropriation are ripe for consideration. Conversely, there has been an awakening interest in early Christian interpretation of Scripture, as perspectives other than the historical have opened up in biblical studies. These questions are of particular interest to the editors, and attention to them should have a considerable place in a volume of this kind. The adoption of the canon and the formative place it held in Christian thinking, as interpreted by the exponents in the Church, also have their background in the ancient veneration for literature and the place of rhetoric and literary study in the educational system.

   It is hoped that, given this overall context, this work will provide a major volume of reference, distilling the present lively developments in the subject area and essaying some pioneering directions. The policy adopted has not been to provide a comprehensive encyclopedia or dictionary, of which there are already recent worthy representatives, such as Dizionario Patristico e di Antichità Cristiane (1983–8), edited by Angelo di Berardino, translated into English as Encyclopedia of the Early Church and published in 1992, or Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, edited by Ferguson and others, and published in 1990. Instead of brief introductory articles in alphabetical order by an enormous variety of scholars, an attempt is made to provide a coherent focus, and to concentrate on the literature, its interpretation and significance, and its context, historical, social, philosophical. The work takes account of heterodox as well orthodox, heretic as well as bishop. It provides essays on the major figures and authors, and assesses the major schools of Alexandria, Antioch, Edessa and Nisibis. It discusses the major controversies, not abstracting the important Christological struggle from a context in which other issues were at stake, such as Origenism and asceticism. It embraces feminist and sociological approaches to the material.

   In some respects this work may replace the Patrologies, now thirty to forty years old, though without adopting the same style or pretending to offer comprehensive bibliographies. Some overlap in material and approach with Frances Young’s volume, From Nicaea to Chalcedon, may justly be suspected, but this should be complementary to that work: the A sections cover the literature of a much broader period and geographical location in relatively briefer compass, with the additional advantage of engaging a team of contributors with varied expertise, while the B sections of each Part enable the generation of a greater sense of perspective than was possible in a series of essays on individual authors, as well as giving an opportunity to explore new hermeneutical questions.

   This is meant to be a reference work, not necessarily a book to be read consecutively from cover to cover. Sections A and B are deliberately set up as different approaches to approximately the same material and some degree of overlap is to be expected, though in each period the A sections deal simply with extant material, surveying the literary deposit which has come down to us, while the B sections explore the contexts into which that material needs to be placed if it is to be understood in an informed way, including reference to significant works which are no longer extant and such fragmentary sources as contribute to reconstruction of those contexts.

   This is not simply a general history, but a literary history, seeking to take questions concerning the genre and rhetoric of the texts seriously. It is also meant to be not just a contribution to the study of the past and its ‘objective’ reconstruction – the long-standing project of modernist historiography – but also a contribution to the interpretation and present appropriation of texts from the past; in other words, a resource for theological thinking that goes beyond the simple repetition of formulae or the use of past labels for present controversies.

   This volume has been long in gestation. Its ‘onlie begetter’ was Frances Young, who designed the shape of the volume and commissioned the contributors. Soon, however, she was overwhelmed by the burdens of university administration, and the other two editors were invited to see the project through to completion. (In the final stages, the assistant editor, Dr Augustine Casiday, one-time research student at the University of Durham, proved invaluable in helping draw up the bibliography, preparing the chronological table, and compiling the index.) The final state of the volume is the responsibility of all three of us.

Abbreviations of patristic and other texts

AcPT = Acta Pauli et Theclae

AcJ = Acta Justini

Ad Nov. = Ad Novatianum

Adol. = Ad Adolescentes de legendis libris gentilium

Ad Phil. = Ad Philippense

Ad Serap. = Ad Serapionem

Afric. = Epistula ad Africanum

AH = Adversus Haereses

An. = De Anima

APet. = Acta Petri

Apol. = Apologeticum or Apologia

Apol. c. Hier. = Apologia contra Hieronymum

Apol. c. Ruf. = Apologia contra Rufinum

Ar. = Contra Arianos

Autol. = Ad Autolycum

Bapt. = De Baptismo

Barn. = Epistula Barnabae

Bibl. Cod. = Photius, Bibliotheca, cited by codex

Bon. = De bono mortis

BPud. = De Bono Pudicitiae

Carn. = De Carne Christi

Cast. = De Exhortatione Castitatis

Cat. = Catechesis

Cels. = Contra Celsum

CG = Contra Gentes

Chron. = Chronicon

I Clem. = Prima Epistula Clementis

II Clem. = Epistula Secunda Clementis

Coet. = Oratio ad sanctorum coetum

Comm. in Mt. = Commentarius in Matthaeum

CommPs. = Commentarius in Psalmos

Conf. = Confessions

Cor. = De Corona

CTheod. = Codex Theodosianum

Dan. = in Danielem

Dec. = De Decretis

Dem. = Demonstratio Praedicationis Apostolicae

Demetr. = Ad Demetrianum

Dial. = Dialogus

Did. = Didache

Diog. = Epistula ad Diognetum

EcProph. = Eclogae Propheticae

Enn. = Enneades

Ep(p). = Epistulae

Ephes. = Ep. ad Ephesios

ETh. = Ecclesiastica Theologia

Eun. = Contra Eunomium

Fug. = De Fuga

Graec. = Oratio ad Graecos

Greg. = Ep. ad Gregorium

Haer. = Refutatio omnium haeresium or Haereticarum fabularum compendium

HE = Historia Ecclesiastica

Herac. = Disputatio cum Heracleida

Herm. = Adversus Hermogenem

HExod. = Homilia in Exodum

Hom. in Jud. = Homilia in Judices

HR = Historia Romana

Idol. = De Idololatria

Idola = Quod idola dii non sint

Ieiun. = De Ieiunio

Il. = Ilias

In Eph. = In Ephesios

In Rep. = In Rempublicam

Inst. = Institutiones or Institutiones Divinae

Inv. = De Inventione

Io. = Commentarius in Ioannem

Ira = De Ira Dei

Laps. = De Lapsis

Laus. = Historia Lausiaca

Leg. = Legatio

Magn. = Ad Magnesios

Mand. = Mandata

Marc. = Adversus Marcionem or Contra Marcellum

Mart. = Exhortatio ad Martyrium or De Martyribus Palestinae

Med. = Meditationes

Mon. = De Monogamia

Mort. = De Mortibus Persecutorum

MPol. = Martyrium Polycarpi

Nat. = Adversus Nationes

NHC = Nag Hammadi Codices

Noet. = Contra Noetum

Od. = Odysseas

Opif. = De Opificio Dei

Or. = De Oratione or Oratio

Paed. = Paedagogus

Paen. = De Paenitentia

Pan. = Panarion

Pan. Or. = Panegyrica in Origenem

Pass. Perp. = Passio Perpetuae

Pass. Scil. = Passio Sanctorum Scillitanorum

Philad. = Ad Philadelphenos

Polyc. = Epistula ad Polycarpum

Praescr. = De Praescriptione

Prax. = Adversus Praxean

PrEv. = Praeparatio Evangelica

Princ. = De Principiis

Procat. = Procatechesis

Pud. = De Pudicitia

Q. = Quaestio

Ref. = Refutatio Confessionis Eunomii

Rep. = Respublica

Res. = De Resurrectione Carnis

Rom. = Ad Romanos

Ruf. = Adversus Rufinum

Scap. = Ad Scapulam

Scorp. = Scorpiace

Sim. = Similitudines

Smyrn. = Ad Smyrnaeos

Spect. = De Spectaculis

SpS = De Spiritu Sancto

Strom. = Stromateis

Syn. = De synodo or De synodis

TestDom. = Testimonium Domini

Tom. ad Ant. = Tomus ad Antiochenos

Trall. = Ad Trallianos

Trin. = De Trinitate

Ux. = Ad Uxorem

Val. = Contra Valentinianos

Virg. = De Virginitate

Vir. Ill. = De Viris Illustribus

Vis. = Visio

Other abbreviations

These abbreviations are used in the notes, and in the bibliographies, where publication details can be found.

Chronological table of early Christian literature

Featuring key writers, works and events

Map: The Roman Empire in the late fourth century AD