Early Church Fathers

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding

Proverbs 3:5

Who were they?

• Apostolic Fathers
• Ante-Nicene Fathers
• Post-Nicene Fathers
• Desert Fathers

Apostolic Fathers

• Fathers who were contemporaries of the apostles, and were probably taught by them.
• They carried on the apostolic tradition and teaching.
• The few writings from this period that have survived are pastoral and practical rather than speculative.

Apostolic Fathers

• Their writings show they were zealous for the gospel exactly as the apostles had taught it, without alteration or addition, and were uninterested in forming new theological doctrine.

Apostolic Fathers

• Orthodoxy of the message was preserved by their desire to stay true to the gospel taught by the apostles, and by their diligence at rooting out and exposing any false doctrine—anything that disagreed with the apostle’s teaching—that cropped up in the early church.

Apostolic Fathers

• The Didache (The Teaching of the 12 Disciples - the earliest known work after the New Testament describing Christian worship).
• Ignatius, bishop of Antioch,
• Polycarp (who reportedly sat at the feet of St. John the disciple).
• Clement, Bishop of Rome (95 AD)

"Let us remind ourselves, we are struggling on the same arena, and the same conflict is assigned to both of us. Let us be kind and merciful."
St. Clement of Rome

"Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious His blood is in the sight of God."
St. Clement of Rome

"Being sober unto prayer and constant in fastings, entreating the all-seeing God with supplications that He bring us not into temptation, according as the Lord said, "The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak."
St. Polycarp

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• Between the last of the apostolic fathers (150?) and the council of Nicaea in 325 are those designated as the ante-Nicene church fathers.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• Unlike the apostolic fathers who were generally simple, uncultivated men, the Ante-Nicene Fathers included the first great Christian intellectuals.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• They sought a synthesis between biblical truth and the best of classical wisdom, employed the rigorous intellectual tools of Greek philosophy, and contributed to the clarification and development of Christian doctrine.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• They were the ones who chose those inspired books which best reflected the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in the formation of the canon of the New Testament, and were also involved in the interpretation of Scripture.
• Books of the Bible were officially canonized at the Council of Carthage in 397 AD

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, first proposed a canon of the New Testament in 180 AD.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• They tried to focus on staying true to the gospel as those before them had, but during the second and third centuries, spurious writings began cropping up claiming to be written by the apostles or to have equal weight to the established gospels.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• These late comers were all recognized by these church leaders as inauthentic—but it meant the ante-Nicene fathers spent a lot of their time defending the Christian faith from false doctrine.

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• They are, therefore, generally known as the Apologists and Anti-heretical Writers since virtually all of them wrote either treatises combating various Christian heresies or written defenses of Christianity addressed to the Roman government known as “apologies.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• Ignatius of Antioch
• Justin Martyr (pagan philosopher turned Christian apologist)
• Irenaeus (implacable foe of Gnosticism)
• Origen (arguably the greatest Scripture scholar of the Ante-Nicene period)
• Tertullian (the first writer to use the term "Trinity."

Ante-Nicene Fathers

• These men were not of that first generation who knew the apostles directly, but they knew those who did.

"But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead."
Justin Martyr

“You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.”
Tertullian

Post-Nicene Fathers

• The post-Nicene church fathers are probably the most famous of the early church leaders, not only because of the quantity of their writings but because the freedom the church gained after Nicea led to a golden age of literature and theology.
• This was the age of the theologian— and endless discussion on endless theological topics.

Post-Nicene Fathers

• Athanasius (tireless defender of Christ's divinity)
• Ephrem (the most poetic of all the Fathers)
• St. Basil the Great
• St. Gregory the Theologian
• St. John Chrysostom (called the "golden-mouthed for his excellent oratorical skills)

Post-Nicene Fathers

• St. Augustine
• St. Eusebius (the 1st church historian who wrote a history of the church from the birth of Jesus to 324 AD)
• St. Jerome (translated Greek Bible into Latin)
• St. Ambrose

Post-Nicene Fathers

• Three Fathers of the Church - Athanasius of Alexandria in his Letter of 367, Jerome in Bethlehem with the completion of his Latin New Testament in 384, and Augustine at the Council of Hippo in 393 - agreed that 27 Books were the inspired Word of God, and the Canon of the New Testament of the Bible was confirmed at the Third Council of Carthage in 397 AD.

"For God, to whom nothing is difficult, has created in us something which is difficult to explain; that is, free will... for part of the will desires that evil should be done, and again, part of it uses restraint and guards against evil."
St. Ephrem the Syrian

"At the arena, without even a roof to keep off the rain, the crowds stand there crazy, the rain pouring down on them, the wind blowing in their faces, and they think nothing of it. Nothing will keep them from watching the games! But to go to Church, a small rain shower, or the mud on the road, is a serious obstacle!"
St. John Chrysostom

"Grace is given not to those who speak their faith, but to those who live their faith."
St. Gregory the Theologian

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Why should we?

• Helps us understand the Word of God (authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit)
• Helps us know how to suffer and deal with martyrdom
• Helps us with personal piety

1. Understanding the NT

• Studying the Early Church helps to give us contextual clues about the culture at the time around the New Testament
• Furthermore, their understanding can help us clarify potential misinterpretations of New Testament passages.

2. Knowing how to Suffer

• The early christians dealt with suffering all the time. Their children had very high mortality rates. Many of the christians suffered the early death of a spouse.
• The Fathers knew that this world is passing away and therefore emphasized living for what things were important and eternal.

2. Knowing how to Suffer

• As our culture becomes increasingly opposed toward Christians, reading how the early Christians handled suffering and persecution will become increasingly relevant, helpful, and encouraging.

3. Personal Piety

• Finally, reading the Early Church Fathers helps us pursue holiness and live out our faith in this world.
• In fact, the writings of the Fathers are slam packed with practical exhortations for how we should live.
• Social aspects of Early Church Fathers