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90-619: Some modern scholars identify the group, or groups, with God-fearers mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles , non-Jewish ( gentile ) sympathizers with Second Temple Judaism . A late 3rd century CE shrine in a wall of the ancient city of Oenoanda provides the strongest archaeological evidence for this cult. It is adorned with an inscription adapting a declaration of the Apollonian oracle in Didyma , describing

180-538: A Christian authorship. The notion of Tertullian being a priest is also questionable. In his extant writings, he never describes himself as ordained in the church and seems to place himself among the laity. His conversion to Christianity perhaps took place about 197–198 (cf. Adolf Harnack , Bonwetsch , and others), but its immediate antecedents are unknown except as they are conjectured from his writings. The event must have been sudden and decisive, transforming at once his own personality. He writes that he could not imagine

270-472: A Christian should abstain from the theatre and the amphitheatre. There pagan religious rites were applied and the names of pagan divinities invoked; there the precepts of modesty, purity, and humanity were ignored or set aside, and there no place was offered to the onlookers for the cultivation of the Christian graces. Women should put aside their gold and precious stones as ornaments, and virgins should conform to

360-401: A Hypsistarian. That, however, is no small task, for how does one, in the limitations of one's individuality, come to know what is most excellent? God-fearer God-fearers ( Koinē Greek : φοβούμενοι τὸν Θεόν , phoboumenoi ton Theon ) or God-worshippers ( Koinē Greek : θεοσεβεῖς , Theosebeis ) were a numerous class of Gentile sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism that existed in

450-486: A cleansing and preparation process which precedes the reception of the Holy Spirit in post-baptismal anointing ( De Baptismo 6). De Baptismo includes the earliest known mention of a prayer for the consecration of the waters of baptism. Tertullian had an ex opere operato view of the baptism, thus the efficiency of baptism was not dependent upon the faith of the receiver. He also believed that in an emergency,

540-515: A close relationship with God. Tertullian did not have a specific listing of the canon; however, he quotes 1 John , 1 Peter , Jude , Revelation , the Pauline epistles and the four Gospels . In his later books, he also started to use the Shepherd of Hermas . Tertullian made no references to the book of Tobit ; however, in his book Adversus Marcionem he quotes the book of Judith . He quoted most of

630-496: A dispute between the Church and a separating party, the whole burden of proof lies with the latter, as the Church, in possession of the unbroken tradition, is by its very existence a guarantee of its truth. The five books against Marcion, written in 207 or 208, are the most comprehensive and elaborate of his polemical works, invaluable for gauging the early Christian view of Gnosticism. Tertullian has been identified by Jo Ann McNamara as

720-483: A form of emphasising how unique that divinity is, without excluding the possibility that other divinities are unique in their way, too. The name Hypsistarioi first occurs in Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat., xviii, 5) and the name Hypsistianoi in Gregory of Nyssa (Contra Eunom., II), about 374 CE. Gregory of Nazianzus describes a syncretic Jewish-pagan group that does not worship idols, reveres lamps and fire, and worships

810-458: A great number of votive tablets and other inscriptions are evidence that referring to one or more gods as Most High ( Hypsistos , often as Theos Hypsistos 'god most high', or as Zeus or Attis , but frequently unnamed) was widespread. However, it is not certain that all of these inscriptions are actually related to the Hypsistarians. Indeed, calling a divinity "the highest" may just have been

900-477: A group mentioned by Augustine as founded by Tertullian. There exists differences of opinion on Tertullianists; Augustine seems to have believed that Tertullian, soon after joining the Montanists , started his own sect derived from Montanism, while some scholars believe that Augustine was in error, and that Tertullianists was simply an alternative name of North African Montanism and not a separate sect. Tertullian

990-481: A human form or change shape. He taught fideistic concepts such as the later philosophers William of Ockham and Søren Kierkegaard . The extent and nature of Tertullian's involvement to Montanism is now disputed by modern scholars. Montanism in North Africa seems to have been a counter-reaction against secularism. The form of Montanism in North Africa seems to have differed from the views of Montanus , and thus

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1080-483: A lawyer, based on his use of legal analogies and on an identification of him with the jurist Tertullianus, who is quoted in the Pandects . Although Tertullian used a knowledge of Roman law in his writings, his legal knowledge does not demonstrably exceed what could be expected from a sufficient Roman education. The writings of Tertullianus, a lawyer of the same agnomen , exist only in fragments and do not explicitly denote

1170-509: A long distance in the way of approach to it. Tertullian was a defender of the necessity of apostolicity. In his Prescription Against Heretics , he explicitly challenges heretics to produce evidence of the apostolic succession of their communities. Unlike many early Christian writers, Tertullian along with Clement of Alexandria used the word "figure" and "symbol" to define the Eucharist, since in his book Against Marcion implied that: "this

1260-469: A married couple. He believed that marital relations coarsened the body and spirit and would dull their spiritual senses and avert the Holy Spirit since husband and wife became one flesh once married. Tertullian has been criticised as misogynistic , on the basis of the contents of his De Cultu Feminarum , section I.I, part 2 (trans. C.W. Marx): "Do you not know that you are Eve ? The judgment of God upon this sex lives on in this age; therefore, necessarily

1350-450: A notorious schismatic. Since no ancient writer was more definite (if not indeed fanatical) on this subject of schism than Saint Cyprian, the question must surely be answered in the negative." In the time of Augustine , a group of "Tertullianists" still had a basilica in Carthage, which within the same period passed to the orthodox church. It is unclear whether the name was merely another for

1440-401: A period of tribulation, to be followed by a literal 1000-year reign of Christ. He attacked the use of Greek philosophy in Christian theology. For him, philosophy supported religious idolatry and heresy. He believed that many people became heretical because of relying on philosophy. He stated "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" Tertullian's views of angels and demons were influenced by

1530-463: A sect, the Hypsistarians, who, hemmed in between heathens, Jews and Christians, declared that they would treasure, admire, and honour the best, the most perfect that might come to their knowledge, and inasmuch as it must have a close connection to the Godhead, pay it reverence. A joyous light thus beamed at me suddenly out of a dark age, for I had the feeling that all my life I had been aspiring to qualify as

1620-620: A substitution for the Tetragrammaton (the name of God) or in direct relation to God (most often in the Psalms , Daniel , and Sirach ). This cult may have formed as the native Cappadocian cult of Zeus Sabazios integrated with the cult of Jahve Sabaoth practiced by the numerous Jewish colonies. The existence of Hypsistarians may have contributed to the astounding swiftness of the spread of Christianity in Asia Minor; yet not all of them accepted

1710-529: A truly Christian life without such a conscious breach, a radical act of conversion: "Christians are made, not born" ( Apol ., xviii). Two books addressed to his wife confirm that he was married to a Christian wife. In his middle life (about 207), he was attracted to the "New Prophecy" of Montanism , but today most scholars reject the assertion that Tertullian left the mainstream church or was excommunicated. "[W]e are left to ask whether Saint Cyprian could have regarded Tertullian as his master if Tertullian had been

1800-424: A uestris ad alienas religiones : Iudaei enim festi sabbata et cena pura et Iudaici ritus lucernarum et ieiunia cum azymis et orationes litorales, quae utique aliena sunt a diis uestris. Quare, ut ab excessu reuertar, qui solem et diem eius nobis exprobratis, agnoscite uicinitatem : non longe a Saturno et sabbatis uestris sumus! Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that

1890-576: A vow to the Most High God and illustrates a practice of prayer at dawn, which aligns with the oracle's description and possibly suggesting a form of henotheistic worship practice. More archaeological findings may be related to the presence of Hypsistarians. In what is now North Macedonia , the evidence for the presence of Hypsistarians includes three inscriptions from the Valley of the River Vardar , dated to

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1980-410: Is compared with the greatest of all evils". He argued that before the coming of Christ, the command to reproduce was a prophetic sign pointing to the coming of the Church; after it came, the command was superseded. He also believed lust for one's wife and for another woman were essentially the same, so that marital desire was similar to adulterous desire. He believed that sex even in marriage would disrupt

2070-414: Is debated which one he was referring to) when he challenged him on the Church forgiving capital sinners and letting them back into the church. He believed that the people who committed grave sins, such as sorcery, fornication and murder, should not be let inside the church. As a Montanist, he attacked the church authorities as more interested in their own political power in the church than in listening to

2160-670: Is described in the New Testament as "a worshipper of God" ( Acts 16:14 ); the Roman soldier Cornelius and the Ethiopian eunuch are also considered by modern scholars as God-fearers who converted to Christianity. In Paul's message of salvation through faith in Christ as opposed to submission under the Mosaic Law, many God-fearers found an essentially Jewish group to which they could belong without

2250-626: Is discussed by other theorists such as Benjamin H. Dunning. Tertullian had a radical view on the cosmos. He believed that heaven and earth intersected at many points and that it was possible that sexual relations with supernatural beings can occur. Tertullian's writings are edited in volumes 1–2 of the Patrologia Latina , and modern texts exist in the Corpus Christianorum Latinorum . English translations by Sydney Thelwall and Philip Holmes can be found in volumes III and IV of

2340-592: Is my body" should be interpreted as "a figure of my body". While others have also suggested that he believed in a spiritual presence in the Eucharist . Tertullian advises the postponement of baptism of little children and the unmarried, he mentions that it was customary to baptise infants, with sponsors speaking on their behalf. He argued that an infant ran the risk of growing up and then falling into sin, which could cause them to lose their salvation, if they were baptized as infants. Contrary to early Syrian baptismal doctrine and practice, Tertullian describes baptism as

2430-525: Is no pagan religion against which Christians may offend. Christians do not engage in the foolish worship of the emperors, that they do better: they pray for them, and that Christians can afford to be put to torture and to death, and the more they are cast down the more they grow; "the blood of the Christians is seed" ( Apologeticum , 50). In the De Praescriptione he develops as its fundamental idea that, in

2520-556: Is often considered an early proponent of the Nicene doctrine , approaching the subject from the standpoint of the Logos doctrine , though he did not state the later doctrine of the immanent Trinity . In his treatise against Praxeas, who taught patripassianism in Rome, he used the words "trinity", "economy" (used in reference to the three persons), "persons", and "substance", maintaining the distinction of

2610-602: Is said to have held to a view similar to the Protestant priesthood of all believers and that the distinction of the clergy and the laity is only because of ecclesiastical institution and thus in an absence of a priest the laity can act as priests; his theory on the distinction of the laity and clergy is influenced by Montanism and his early writings do not have the same beliefs. He believed in Iconoclasm . He believed in historic premillennialism : that Christians will go through

2700-416: The Acts of the Apostles , non-Jewish ( gentile ) sympathizers with Second Temple Judaism . The main argument in favour of this hypothesis is that the evidence yields very similar descriptions for these two groups, both in terms of space and time, and in terms of their beliefs and practices (worship of a "most high" god without images, rituals with fire and lamplight, observation of some Jewish laws such as

2790-499: The Apologeticus , addressed to the Roman magistrates, is a most pungent defense of Christianity and the Christians against the reproaches of the pagans, and an important legacy of the ancient Church, proclaiming the principle of freedom of religion as an inalienable human right and demanding a fair trial for Christians before they are condemned to death. Tertullian was the first to disprove charges that Christians sacrificed infants at

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2880-569: The Bosporan Kingdom , several inscriptions and enrollment lists from Tanais and manumission inscriptions in Gorgippia and Panticapaeum demonstrate the existence of Jewish and syncretic pagan cults. In Athens, around 20 votive plaques and altars dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos found on the Pnyx hill highlight a healing cult associated with Hypsistos, with most dedications made by women. Throughout Anatolia ,

2970-689: The Greco-Roman world , which observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism . The concept has precedents in the proselytes of the Hebrew Bible . Many of these Greco-Roman sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism, which had a monotheistic or henotheistic Pagan background, were worshippers of Caelus (the Roman name/equivalent to Yahweh ). Some modern scholars of Judaic studies, such as A. Thomas Kraabel , believe

3060-460: The Montanist sect and may have apostasized ; however, modern scholars dispute this. Scant reliable evidence exists regarding Tertullian's life; most knowledge comes from passing references in his own writings. Roman Africa was famous as the home of orators , and that influence can be seen in his writing style with its archaisms or provincialisms, its glowing imagery and its passionate temper. He

3150-603: The Old Testament including many deuterocanonical books , however he never used the books of Chronicles , Ruth , Esther , 2 Maccabees , 2 John and 3 John . He defended the Book of Enoch and he believed that the book was omitted by the Jews from the canon. He believed that the epistle to the Hebrews was made by Barnabas . For Tertullian, scripture was authoritative; he used scripture as

3240-712: The Sabbath or dietary regulations). Critics have argued that the similarities are too unspecific, or that either the Hypsistos worshippers or the God-fearers were not a coherent group. Contemporary Hellenistic use of hypsistos as a religious term appears to be derived from and compatible with the term as appears in the Septuagint , from a much earlier date. (Greek ὕψιστος ( hypsistos ) translates Hebrew עליון ‎ ( elyon ), meaning "highest". This term occurs more than fifty times as

3330-476: The anti-Jewish Adversus Iudaeos , Adv. Marcionem , Adv. Praxeam , Adv. Hermogenem , De praescriptione hereticorum , and Scorpiace were written to counteract Gnosticism and other religious or philosophical doctrines. The other group consists of practical and disciplinary writings, e.g., De monogamia , Ad uxorem , De virginibus velandis , De cultu feminarum , De patientia , De pudicitia , De oratione , and Ad martyras . Among his apologetic writings,

3420-511: The celebration of the Lord's Supper and committed incest. He pointed to the commission of such crimes in the pagan world and then proved by the testimony of Pliny the Younger that Christians pledged themselves not to commit murder, adultery, or other crimes. He adduced the inhumanity of pagan customs such as feeding the flesh of gladiators to beasts. He argued that the gods have no existence and thus there

3510-607: The 2nd century AD. Here there are two altars with reliefs of eagles and a statuette of an eagle, which have not been previously connected to the cult but are considered indicative. Out of twenty-five inscriptions in the region, nineteen are devoted to Zeus Hypsistos (another name for the Hypsistarian God) and six to Theos Hypsistos , showing the local significance and development of the cult. In Phrygia , numerous small rural altars decorated with agricultural motifs, such as ears of wheat and grapes, indicate local worship practices. In

3600-676: The 5th century. In the 2nd-century writings of Tertullian, paganus meant a "civilian" who was lacking self-discipline. In De Corona Militis XI.V he writes: The chronology of his writings is difficult to fix with certainty. In his work against Marcion , which he calls his third composition on the Marcionite heresy, he gives its date as the fifteenth year of the reign of Severus ( Adv. Marcionem , i.1, 15) – which would be approximately 208. The writings may be divided according to their subject matter, falling into two groups: Apologetic and polemic writings, like Apologeticus , De testimonio animae ,

3690-402: The 9th century ( De Paradiso, De superstitione saeculi, De carne et anima were all extant in the now damaged Codex Agobardinus in 814 AD). Tertullian's writings cover the whole theological field of the time – apologetics against paganism and Judaism, polemics , polity, discipline, and morals, or the whole reorganization of human life on a Christian basis; they gave a picture of

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3780-584: The Almighty ( Pantokrator ). They keep Sabbath and adhere to dietary restrictions, but they do not circumcise. Gregory of Nazianzus' description of this cult occurs in his eulogy for his father, who was a Hypsistarian before his conversion to Christianity: Τῆς μὲν γὰρ τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὰς θυσίας ἀποπεμπόμενοι, τιμῶσι τὸ πῦρ καὶ τὰ λύχνα· τῆς δὲ τὸ Σάββατον αἰδούμενοι, καὶ τὴν περὶ τὰ βρώματα ἔστιν ἂ μικρολογίαν, τὴν περιτομὴν ἀτιμάζουσιν. Ὑψιστάριοι τοῖς ταπεινοῖς ὄνομα, καὶ ὁ Παντοκράτωρ δὴ μόνος αὐτοῖς σεβάσμιος. For, on

3870-654: The Ancient Greek theatre of Miletus, some sitting places seem to have been reserved for the God fearer. In the Hebrew Bible , there is some recognition of Gentile monotheistic worship as being directed toward the God of the Jews . This forms the category of yir’ei HaShem / yir’ei Shamayim ( Hebrew : יראי השם , meaning "Fearers of the Name"/"Fearers of Heaven", " the Name " being a Jewish euphemism for Yahweh , cf. Psalm 115:11 ). This

3960-499: The Apologists in dating His 'perfect generation' from His extrapolation for the work of creation; prior to that moment God could not strictly be said to have had a Son, while after it the term 'Father', which for earlier theologians generally connoted God as author of reality, began to acquire the specialized meaning of Father of the Son." As regards the subjects of subordination of the Son to

4050-523: The Book of Enoch. He held that the Nephilim were born out of fallen angels who mingled with human women and had sexual relations. He believed that because of the actions of the watchers as described in the Book of Enoch, men would later judge angels. He believed that angels are inferior to humans, and not made in the image of God. He believed that Angels are imperceptible to our senses, but they may choose to take on

4140-426: The Christian life and that abstinence was the best way to achieve the clarity of the soul. Tertullian's views would later influence much of the western church . Tertullian was the first to introduce a view of "sexual hierarchy": he believed that those who abstain from sexual relations should have a higher hierarchy in the church than those who do not, because he saw sexual relations as a barrier that stopped one from

4230-561: The Epistles of the Apostle Paul . Tertullian's resolve to never marry again and that no one else should remarry eventually led to his break with Rome because the orthodox church refused to follow him in this resolve. He, instead, favored the Montanist sect where they also condemned second marriage. One reason for Tertullian's disdain for marriage was his belief about the transformation that awaited

4320-532: The Father belong also to the Son, including his names, such as Almighty God, Most High, Lord of Hosts, or King of Israel. Though Tertullian considered the Father to be God (Yahweh), he responded to criticism of the Modalist Praxeas that this meant that Tertullian's Christianity was not monotheistic by noting that even though there was one God (Yahweh, who became the Father when the Son became his agent of creation),

4410-772: The Father, let him dispute with the Jews or with those who are called Hypsistiani, between whom and the Christians there is this difference, that they acknowledge that there is a God Whom they term the Highest or Almighty, but do not admit that he is Father[.] Persius (34-62) may have had Hypsistarians in view when he ridiculed such hybrid religionists in Satire v, 179–84: [...] at cum Herodis venere dies unctaque fenestra dispositae pinguem nebulam vomuere lucernae portantes violas rubrumque amplexa catinum cauda natat thynni, tumet alba fidelia vino, labra moves tacitus recutitaque sabbata palles. But when Herod's birthday comes round, when

4500-548: The Father, the New Catholic Encyclopedia has commented: "In not a few areas of theology, Tertullian's views are, of course, completely unacceptable. Thus, for example, his teaching on the Trinity reveals a subordination of Son to Father that in the later crass form of Arianism the Church rejected as heretical." Though he did not fully state the doctrine of the immanence of the Trinity, according to B. B. Warfield, he went

4590-615: The God-fearers named in the New Testament (such as Cornelius the Centurion ) to be a fictional invention of the Acts of the Apostles . More generally, God-fearing has come to mean someone who is honestly religious. Since the mid-1980s, a growing number of scholars of Judaic studies and history of Judaism became interested in the subject of God-fearers and their relationship with Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity . According to

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4680-849: The God-fearers were exempted from paying the " Jewish tax " ( fiscus Judaicus ). Martin Goodman stated that Jews converted non-Jews by passively living by example. Non-Jews were given a choice on how to respond. But he notes that some Jews, like the Pharisees , were mostly interested in converting other Jews. The class of God-fearers existed between the 1st and the 3rd century CE . They are mentioned in Latin and Greek literature , Flavius Josephus ' and Philo 's historical works, rabbinic literature , early Christian writings , and other contemporary sources such as synagogue inscriptions from Diaspora communities ( Palestine , Rome , and Asia Minor ). In

4770-423: The God-fearers were only "partial" converts, engaged in certain Jewish rites and traditions without taking a step further to actual conversion to Judaism , which would have required full adherence to the 613 Mitzvot (including various prohibitions such as kashrut , circumcision , Shabbat observance, etc.) that were generally unattractive to would-be Gentile (largely Greek) converts. The rite of circumcision

4860-758: The Judaizers that demanded circumcision for Gentile converts , and opposed them; he stressed instead that faith in Christ constituted a New Covenant with God, a covenant which essentially provides the justification and salvation for Gentiles from the harsh edicts of the Mosaic Law , a New Covenant that did not require circumcision (see also Justification by faith , Pauline passages supporting antinomianism , Abrogation of Old Covenant laws ). Lydia of Thyatira , who became Paul's first convert to Christianity in Europe,

4950-764: The New Testament and early Christian writings , the Greek terms God-fearers and God-worshippers are used to indicate those Pagans who attached themselves in varying degrees to Hellenistic Judaism without becoming full converts, and are referred to primarily in the Gospel of Luke ( 7:1–10 ) and more extensively in the Acts of the Apostles, which describes the Apostolic Age of the 1st century . So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: "Men of Israel, and you that fear God (οἱ φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν), listen". Brethren, sons of

5040-617: The North African Montanists or that it means that Tertullian later split with the Montanists and founded his own group. Jerome says that Tertullian lived to old age. By the doctrinal works he published, Tertullian became the teacher of Cyprian and the predecessor of Augustine, a key figure of western theology. Thirty-one works are extant, together with fragments of more. Some fifteen works in Latin or Greek are lost, some as recently as

5130-475: The North African Montanists believed Catholic bishops to be successors of the apostles, the New Testament to be the supreme authority on Christianity and they did not deny most doctrines of the Church. Tertullian was drawn to Montanism, if he was, mainly because of its strict moral standards. He believed that the Church had forsaken the Christian way of life and entered a path of destruction. Tertullianists were

5220-560: The Old Testament. Scripture was a record of the earlier Tradition that should not be interpreted outside that tradition: scripture should not be cherry-picked and early interpretations should be preferred over later ones. Tertullian denied Mary's virginity in partu , and he was quoted by Helvidius in his debate with Jerome. He held similar views as Antidicomarians . J. N. D. Kelly argued that Tertullian believed that Mary had imperfections, thus denying her sinlessness . Tertullian

5310-453: The Son could also be referred to as God, when referred to apart from the Father, because the Son, though subordinate to God, is entitled to be called God "from the unity of the Father" in regards to being formed from a portion of His substance. The Catholic Encyclopedia comments that for Tertullian, "There was a time when there was no Son and no sin, when God was neither Father nor Judge." Similarly J.N.D. Kelly stated: "Tertullian followed

5400-455: The Son from the Father as the unoriginate God, and the Spirit from both the Father and the Son ( Adv. Praxeam , xxv). "These three are one substance, not one person; and it is said, 'I and my Father are one' in respect not of the singularity of number but the unity of the substance." The very names "Father" and "Son" indicate the distinction of personality. The Father is one, the Son is another, and

5490-409: The Spirit is another ( "dico alium esse patrem et alium filium et alium spiritum" Adv. Praxeam , ix)), and yet in defending the unity of God, he says the Son is not other ( "alius a patre filius non est" , ( Adv. Prax. 18) as a result of receiving a portion of the Father's substance. At times, speaking of the Father and the Son, Tertullian refers to "two gods". He says that all things of

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5580-458: The Spirit. Tertullian's criticism of Church authorities has been compared to the Protestant reformation . Tertullian's later view of marriage, such as in his book Exhortation to Chastity , may have been heavily influenced by Montanism. He had previously held marriage to be fundamentally good, but after his conversion he denied its goodness. He argues that marriage is considered to be good "when it

5670-502: The appellation God, in the sense of the ultimate originator of all things, to the Father, who made the world out of nothing though his Son, the Word, has corporeity, though he is a spirit ( De praescriptione , vii.; Adv. Praxeam , vii). However Tertullian used 'corporeal' only in the Stoic sense, to mean something with actual material existence, rather than the later idea of flesh. Tertullian

5760-405: The ceremonies of the lamps, and the fasts of unleavened bread, and the “littoral prayers,” all which institutions and practices are of course foreign from your gods. Wherefore, that I may return from this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us. We are not far off from your Saturn and your days of rest. Hypsistarians are probably referred to under

5850-504: The continuance of the prophetic gifts. Geoffrey D. Dunn writes that "Some of Tertullian's treatises reveal that he had much in common with Montanism ... To what extent, if at all, this meant that he joined a group that was schismatic (or, to put it another way, that he left the church) continues to be debated". On the principle that we should not look at or listen to what we have no right to practise, and that polluted things, seen and touched, pollute ( De spectaculis , viii, xvii), he declared

5940-524: The distinctions in the Acts of the Apostles, it is thought that they did not become gerim tzedekim , which required circumcision , although the evidence across the centuries varies widely and the meaning of the term may have included all kinds of sympathetic Gentiles, proselytes or not. There are also around 300 text references (4th century BCE to 3rd century CE) to a sect of Hypsistarians , some of whom practiced Sabbath and which many scholars see as sympathizers with Judaism related to God-fearers. In

6030-546: The eighth century, but most are of the fifteenth. There are five main collections of Tertullian's works, known as the Cluniacense , Corbeiense , Trecense , Agobardinum and Ottobonianus . Some of Tertullian's works are lost . All the manuscripts of the Corbeiense collection are also now lost, although the collection survives in early printed editions. Tertullian's main doctrinal teachings are as follows: Tertullian reserves

6120-413: The family of Abraham, and those among you that fear God (ἐν ὑμῖν φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν), to us has been sent the message of this salvation. Judaizing Gentiles and God-fearers are considered by modern scholars to be of significant importance to the growth of early Christianity ; they represented a group of Gentiles who shared religious ideas and practices with Jews, to one degree or another. However,

6210-436: The founder of Western theology ". He is perhaps most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term trinity (Latin: trinitas ). Tertullian originated new theological concepts and advanced the development of early Church doctrine. However, some of his teachings, such as the subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father , were later rejected by the Church. According to Jerome , he later joined

6300-406: The god as, "Self-begotten, un-taught, un-mothered, undisturbed, not permitting a name, many-named, dwelling in fire." Another inscription below the first dedicates a lantern to the Most High God. Another proof for the existence of the Hypsistarians is also found in the city of Oenoanda in the form of another epigraph close to the location of the shrine: the epigraph, dedicated by Chromatis, involves

6390-490: The guilt should live on also. You are the gateway of the devil; you are the one who unseals the curse of that tree, and you are the first one to turn your back on the divine law; you are the one who persuaded him whom the devil was not capable of corrupting; you easily destroyed the image of God, Adam . Because of what you deserve, that is, death, even the Son of God had to die." The critic Amy Place notes, however, that "Revisionist studies later rehabilitated" Tertullian. This

6480-504: The laity can give the baptism. According to James Puglisi, Tertullian interpreted that in Matthew 16:18–19 "the rock" refers to Peter. For him, Peter is the type of the one Church and its origins, this Church, is now present in a variety of local churches. He also believed that the power to "bind and unbind" has passed from Peter to the apostles and prophets of the Montanist church, not the bishops. He mocked Pope Calixtus or Agrippinus (it

6570-950: The lamps wreathed with violets and ranged round the greasy window-sills have spat forth their thick clouds of smoke, when the floppy tunnies' tails are curled round the dishes of red ware, and the white jars are swollen out with wine, you silently twitch your lips, turning pale at the sabbath of the circumcised. Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 AD) seems to refer to them in Ad nationes , I, xiii: Alii plane humanius solem Christianum deum aestimant, quod innotuerit ad orientis partem facere nos precationem, uel die solis laetitiam curare. Quid uos minus facitis? Non plerique affectatione adorandi aliquando etiam caelestia ad solis initium labra uibratis? Vos certe estis, qui etiam in laterculum septem dierum solem recepistis, et ex diebus ipsorum praelegistis, quo die lauacrum subtrahatis aut in uesperam differatis, aut otium et prandium curetis. Quod quidem facitis exorbitantes et ipsi

6660-435: The law of St. Paul for women and keep themselves strictly veiled ( De virginibus velandis ). He praised the unmarried state as the highest ( De monogamia , xvii; Ad uxorem , i.3) and called upon Christians not to allow themselves to be excelled in the virtue of celibacy by Vestal Virgins and Egyptian priests. He even labeled second marriage a species of adultery ( De exhortatione castitatis , ix), but this directly contradicted

6750-561: The name Coelicoloe in a decree of the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II (AD 408). Not all of the above-described evidence may actually relate to the cult of Theos Hypsistos as practiced by the Hypsistarians. The oracle text at Oenoanda is plausibly related to the Theos Hypsistos cult, but the concepts in it are also familiar from Orphism . Some modern scholars identify the group, or groups, with God-fearers mentioned in

6840-570: The necessity of their accepting Jewish Law. Aside from earning Paul's group a wide following, this view was generalized in the eventual conclusion that converts to Christianity need not first accept all Jewish Law (see Apostolic Decree ), a fact indispensable to the spread of the early Christians which would eventually lead to the distinction between Judaism and Christianity as two separate religions . Tertullian Tertullian ( / t ər ˈ t ʌ l i ə n / ; Latin : Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus ; c. 155 – c. 220 AD )

6930-876: The new faith, and small communities of monotheists, neither Christians nor Jews, continued to exist, especially in Cappadocia. A decree of the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II (AD 408) transfers the places of worship of the Coelicoloe , which may be the same as the Hypsistarians, to the Christians. The claim that Hypsistarians continued to exist until the ninth century relies on a mistaken interpretation of Nicephorus Const. , "Antirhet. adv. Const. Copr.", I, in Migne, PG, col. 209. After describing his difficulties with mainstream religion, Goethe laments that ...I have found no confession of faith to which I could ally myself without reservation. Now in my old age, however, I have learned of

7020-449: The one side, they reject idols and sacrifices, but reverence fire and lights; on the other, they observe the Sabbath and petty regulations as to certain meats, but despise circumcision. These lowly men call themselves Hypsistarii, and the Almighty is, so they say, the only object of their worship. Gregory of Nyssa gives the following information: But if he is inventing some other God besides

7110-480: The person who originally invested the consecrated virgin as the "bride of Christ", which helped to bring the independent virgin under patriarchal rule. Scholars in the past accepting the Montanist theory have also divided his work into earlier Catholic works and the later supposedly Montanist works (cf. Harnack, ii.262 sqq.), aiming to show the change of views Tertullian's mind underwent. The earliest manuscript (handwritten copy) of any of Tertullian's works dates to

7200-808: The popular opinion, Jews that lived in the Greco-Roman world during the Hellenistic and Roman period were not involved in active missionary efforts of mass conversion among Pagans , although many historians disagree. As Jews emigrated and settled in the Roman provinces of the Empire, Judaism became an appealing religion to a number of Pagans, for many reasons; God-fearers and proselytes that underwent full conversion were Greeks or Romans , and came from all social classes : they were mostly women and freedmen ( liberti ), but there were also artisans , soldiers and few people of high status, like patricians and senators . Despite their allegiance to Judaism,

7290-430: The primary source in almost every chapter of his every work, and very rarely anything else. He seems to prioritize the authority of scripture above anything else. When interpreting scripture, he would occasionally believe passages to be allegorical or symbolic, while in other places he would support a literal interpretation. He would especially use allegorical interpretations when dealing with Christological prophecies of

7380-409: The religious life and thought of the time which is of great interest to the church historian. Like other early Christian writers Tertullian used the term paganus to mean "civilian" as a contrast to the "soldiers of Christ". The motif of Miles Christi did not assume the literal meaning of participation in war until Church doctrines justifying Christian participation in battle were developed around

7470-408: The sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this? Do not many among you, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping the heavenly bodies likewise, move your lips in the direction of the sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of

7560-531: The week; and you have selected its day, in preference to the preceding day as the most suitable in the week for either an entire abstinence from the bath, or for its postponement until the evening, or for taking rest and for banqueting. By resorting to these customs, you deliberately deviate from your own religious rites to those of strangers. For the Jewish feasts on the Sabbath and “the Purification,” and Jewish also are

7650-712: Was a scholar with an excellent education. He wrote at least three books in Koine Greek ; none of them are extant. Some sources describe him as Berber . The linguist René Braun suggested that he was of Punic origin but acknowledged that it is difficult to decide since the heritage of Carthage had become common to the Berbers. Tertullian's own understanding of his ethnicity has been questioned: He referred to himself as Poenicum inter Romanos ( lit.   ' Punic among Romans ' ) in his book De Pallio and claimed Africa as his patria . According to church tradition, Tertullian

7740-551: Was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa . He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and was an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy , including contemporary Christian Gnosticism . Tertullian was the first theologian to write in Latin, and so has been called "the father of Latin Christianity ", as well as "

7830-455: Was an advocate of discipline and an austere code of practise, and like many of the African fathers, one of the leading representatives of the rigorist element in the early Church. His writings on public amusements, the veiling of virgins, the conduct of women, and the like, reflect these opinions. His views may have led him to adopt Montanism with its ascetic rigor and its belief in chiliasm and

7920-778: Was developed by later rabbinic literature into the concept of Noahides , i. e. Gentiles that follow the Seven Laws of Noah , which rabbinic writings assigned to the Noahic Covenant . The Greek and Latin terms that refer to God-fearers ( theosebeis , sebomenoi , phoboumenoi , metuentes ) are found in ancient literature ( Greek , Roman , and Jewish ) and synagogue inscriptions discovered in Aphrodisias , Panticapaeum , Tralles , Sardis , Venosa , Lorium (in Rome ), Rhodes , Deliler ( Philadelphia ) and Miletus . Judging from

8010-471: Was especially unappealing and execrable in Classical civilization because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising nude in the gymnasium and in Roman baths , therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their foreskins . Hellenistic and Roman culture both found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive. The Apostle Paul in his letters fiercely criticized

8100-498: Was raised in Carthage. Jerome claimed that Tertullian's father held the position of centurio proconsularis ("aide-de-camp") in the Roman army in Africa. Tertullian has been claimed to have been a trained lawyer and an ordained priest. Those assertions rely on the accounts of Eusebius of Caesarea , Church History , II, ii. 4, and Jerome 's De viris illustribus ( On famous men ) chapter 53. Tertullian has also been thought to be

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