Polycarp vs. the Gnostics

Polycarp was a theologian and father of the Christian church in the mid 2nd century. It is recorded that he was a disciple of the Apostle John, and was ordained as Bishop of Smyrna by John himself. He is often remembered for his steadfast faith and witness in the face of his martyrdom in AD 160, but his extant writings are also notable for his battle against gnosticism. Eusebius records the following humourous events in Polycarp's life:



Appalled at the gnostic heretics he encountered in his waning years, he shouted out, "O good God! For what times hast thou kept me, that I should endure such things!"

He recalled that one time while traveling with John, the two entered Ephesus' city baths, and upon finding early gnostic Cerinthus there, both rushed out, exclaiming, "Let us flee, lest even the bath-house fall in, for within is Cerinthus, the enemy of truth!"

On a visit to Rome, Polycarp met the heretic Marcion, who called on Polycarp to 'recognise him' - to which Polycarp replied, "I recognise you... I recognise the firstborn of Satan."
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A a privately-produced film featuring Polycarp's life and death is set to come out in the near future; for more information on that, check out Polycarp: Destroyer of Gods.

Tatian on the Logos

 

The Logos has really become one of my favourite topics, and the Fathers of the Early Church are consistently a flowing source of insight on the Trinity. In the same vein as Tertullian's words, here is another interesting discussion on the subject. In his work Address to the Greeks, Tatian, an Assyrian theologian whose harmony of the four gospels was very popular in the 2nd century church, writes the following in a chapter entitled "The Doctrine of the Christians as to the Creation of the World":

        God was in the beginning; but the beginning, we have been taught, is the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the necessary ground (ὑπόστασις) of all being, inasmuch as no creature was yet in existence, was alone; but inasmuch as He was all power, Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible, with Him were all things; with Him, by Logos-power (διὰ λογικῆς δυνάμεως), the Logos Himself also, who was in Him, subsists.

        And by His simple will the Logos springs forth; and the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten work of the Father. Him (the Logos) we know to be the beginning of the world. But He came into being by participation, not by abscission; for what is cut off is separated from the original substance, but that which comes by participation, making its choice of function, does not render him deficient from whom it is taken. For just as from one torch many fires are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by the kindling of many torches, so the Logos, coming forth from the Logos-power of the Father, has not divested of the Logos-power Him who begat Him.

        I myself, for instance, talk, and you hear; yet, certainly, I who converse do not become destitute of speech (λόγος) by the transmission of speech, but by the utterance of my voice I endeavour to reduce to order the unarranged matter in your minds. And as the Logos, begotten in the beginning, begat in turn our world, having first created for Himself the necessary matter, so also I, in imitation of the Logos, being begotten again, and having become possessed of the truth, am trying to reduce to order the confused matter which is kindred with myself. For matter is not, like God, without beginning, nor, as having no beginning, is of equal power with God; it is begotten, and not produced by any other being, but brought into existence by the Framer of all things alone.

William Tyndale's Feast Day

        Yesterday, October 6th, was the 478th anniversary of the martyrdom of William Tyndale, one of history's greatest linguists. Giving up an exceptionally promising career in the field of language, Tyndale devoted his life to the creation and translation of the first modern English translation of the Bible. A master of Greek, Latin, German, French, Hebrew, and other languages, when he couldn't find an English equivalent for his writings, he would create new words and phrases - many of which we still use today. His first edition New Testament of 1526 could be bought for less than a month's wages, and had to be smuggled into England in bales of cloth due to the Bible's status as illegal in any language except for Latin.

        Betrayed by a friend to Catholic authorities, Tyndale was imprisoned in Vilvoorde Castle in Belgium, spending over a year of solitary confinement in the dankest, darkest cell imaginable - a vile, rat-infested hellhole where he did not hear one word of English. Tried by an ecclesiastical court and found guilty of heresy, he was handed over to secular authorities and burned at the stake in 1536.

     
        Over 75% of the King James Bible is straight from Tyndale, and many of the verbiage and phraseology found in the ESV, NKJV, and other versions can be traced directly back to him. Tyndale, along with Chaucer and and Shakespeare, are the men to whom we owe much for the modern English language.
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        Paul Pavao, via his "Christian History for Everyman" site, makes a compelling point regarding the martyrdoms of Tyndale and others:

       "If the Roman Catholic Church is just another denomination competing among others, then the slaughter of William Tyndale and others who tried to make the Scriptures available to everyone is forgivable as long as they acknowledge and repent of it. If, however, the RCC wants to claim that they are the lone preservers of apostolic truth, the one true church, then the many stories like Tyndale's prove their claim false."