Hence it is said that we reject the gods. And we admit that we do reject such supposed gods as these, but not the God who is most true and the Father of justice and temperance and the other virtues and who is unalloyed with evil.

This God we do venerate and worship, and also the Son who came from him and taught us these things, and the company of the other good angels who follow him and are like him, and also the prophetic Spirit. We honour them with reason and in truth, and hand on ungrudgingly to everyone who wishes to learn exactly what we were taught.-St Justin Martyr(1st Apology VI)

#St_Justin_Martyr
#Trinity

This passage in St Justin Martyr's apology clearly speaks of Christians worshipping the true God in contrast to the false gods of the Græco-Roman world.

St Justin mentions this God as Father, then also the Son and in last place, the Holy Spirit. Yet in this declaration of the worship of the true God by Christians, St Justin adds in "and the company of the other good angels".

This statement has been a cause of debate in early Christian studies. On one hand, it seems angels are also worshipped amongst the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

On the other, it could be more of a statement to say that the Son is surrounded by Angels as their commander.

Or perhaps, it could mean given that the reference to angels precede the reference to the Spirit...the Holy Spirit is of the same status as angels or is even lower than them.

But perhaps we don't need to entertain these options. What if the reference to angels here are connected to angelmorphic characteristics given to the Son and Spirit?

In Dialogue 85 with Trypho, St Justin invokes Psalm 148:1-2 as referring to angels ordering the gates to be lifted up for Christ to enter. He refers to Christ here as the "Lord of the powers". Powers here is referring to angels.

Elsewhere however, powers can be references to the powers of the Holy Spirit. In Dialogue 87, St Justin does this, tying Isaiah 11:1-2 with the idea of the sevenfold power of the Holy Spirit. This sevenfold powers also rested on Jesus during His Baptism(Dialogue 88) which will in turn be tied to the powers of the Spirit bestowed on the Church.

Given that Power can refer to both angelic beings and attributes of the Spirit, which Christ Himself also possesses at His Baptism, could it be as Bogdan Bucur concludes, "the Logos and the Spirit are, for Justin, the same reality, which presents itself in a complex and paradoxical relation of simultaneous unity and multiplicity, and with definite angelomorphic traits."?

Here I have to personally say Bucur doesn't really resolve the issue. According to Minns and Parvis(pg.93), "likeness" here is moral likeness rather than anything ontological in nature.

This would mean that the reference is clearly to angelic beings who are not God. But then as Bogdan Bucur notes...the grammar here is such that the Angels have to be included in here as objects of worship alongside the Triune persons.

So what solution could be provided here? Is St Justin confused due to his understanding of Powers as both referring to the Powers of the Spirit and angels, which the Son then possess also?

Or does St Justin imply that angels are actually venerated and worshipped alongside the Triune persons?

Sources & Further Reading:
Justin, Philosopher and Martyr Apologies(Dennis Minns & Sara Parvis)

Angelomorphic Pneumatology Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses(Bogdan G. Bucur,pg.146-155)

Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit(Anthony Briggman, pg21-22)

#St_Justin_Martyr
#Trinity
#Angelogy
#Early_Christian_Studies

Mark 15
43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.

44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.

45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.

#Bible_verse
#Mark

Do this in remembrance of me (1 Cor. 11:24)

Paul represents this memory as something that is passed on: “I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you” (1 Cor 11:23, my trans.), which highlights something of the traditional and testimonial character of Christian faith.

A memory has been shared with us by centuries of Christian practice. We access that memory only through the agency of others. We remember the head through the ministry of the body, and this contributes to our sense of identity. It leaves no space for an individualistic account of the Christian life. My very knowledge of Jesus has been brokered through the body.-Grant Macaskill(Living in Union with Christ: Paul's Gospel and Christian Moral Identity,PDF pg.65)

#NT_Studies
#Corinthians
#Eucharist
#Reformed

Ritual, and ceremonial things move not God, but they exalt that devotion, and they conserve that order, which does move him ... though they be not of God's revenue, yet they are of his subsidies, and though they be not the soul, yet are the breath of religion.(John Donne)

#Anglican
#Liturgy

“For next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God, since also he became man for our sakes, that, becoming a partaker of our sufferings, he might also bring us healing"- St Justin Martyr, 2nd Apology, 13

#Soteriology
#Christ
#St_Justin_Martyr

But many not improperly call this the resurrection of the martyrs; whether they have risen for themselves is another question, for us beyond a doubt they are risen.

You have heard, nay, yourselves have seen, many cleansed from evil spirits; many also, after touching with their hands the garments of the saints, delivered from the infirmities under which they suffered: you have seen the miracles of old time renewed, when through the coming of the Lord Jesus, a fuller Grace descended upon the earth; you see many healed by the shadow, as it were, of the holy bodies.

How many napkins are passed to and fro? How many garments placed on these holy relics, and endowed by the mere contact with the power of healing are reclaimed by their owners. All think themselves happy in touching even the outer-most thread, and whoever touches them will be made whole. St Ambrose, Ep. 77.9 (NPNF 2.10.438).

#St_Ambrose_Milan
#Veneration_saints

Luke 1:32-33: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.

For who else is there who can reign uninterruptedly over the house of Jacob for ever, except Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of the Most High God, who promised by the law and the prophets that He would make His salvation visible to all flesh; so that He would become the Son of man for this purpose, that man also might become the son of God?

And Mary, exulting because of this, cried out, prophesying on behalf of the Church, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath taken up His child Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, Abraham, and his seed for ever.”- St Irenaeus, Adversus Heresies III, X

#Biblical_commentary
#St_Irenaeus
#Luke
#Mariology
#Soteriology

If, then, the first Adam had a man for his father, and was born of human seed, it were reasonable to say that the second Adam was begotten of Joseph.

But if the former was taken from the dust, and God was his Maker, it was incumbent that the latter also, making a recapitulation in Himself, should be formed as man by God, to have an analogy with the former as respects His origin.

Why, then, did not God again take dust, but wrought so that the formation should be made of Mary?

It was that there might not be another formation called into being, nor any other which should [require to] be saved, but that the very same formation should be summed up [in Christ as had existed in Adam], the analogy having been preserved-St Irenaeus, Adversus Heresies, III, XXI, X

#St_Irenaeus
#Christ
#Soteriology

For behold they that hold the Place are charged by them that love God with making it a den of thieves, and with madly making the Holy Place a house of merchandise, and a house of judicial business for themselves to whom it was unlawful to enter there. For this and worse than this is what we have heard, most beloved, from those who are come from thence.

However really, then, they seem to hold the church, so much the more truly are they cast out. And they think themselves to be within the truth, but are exiled, and in captivity, and [gain] no advantage by the church alone. For the truth of things is judged…-St Athanasius, fragment

#St_Athanasius_Alexandria
#Church

Mark 4:37-39: And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

For the world is like the sea to us, my brethren, of which it is written, ‘This is the great and wide sea, there go the ships; the Leviathan, which Thou hast created to play therein. We float on this sea, as with the wind, through our own free will, for every one directs his course according to his will, and either, under the pilotage of the Word, he enters into rest, or, laid hold on by pleasure, he suffers shipwreck, and is in peril by storm.-St Athanasius, Festal Letter XIX

#St_Athanasius_Alexandria
#Biblical_Commentary
#Mark
#Soteriology

Shout-out to the one madman who said "The World"

Pre Nicene Liturgical Soteriology

In times of old, as written in the Pslams, there is the idea that in the Temple, one performs ritual before Yahweh, celebrating together with angels and being saved in Yahweh's immediate presence.

As Psalm 50:2-3 states:

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty God shines forth.
Out God comes,
He does not keep silence, before him in a devouring fire, round about Him in mighty tempest.

And Psalm 96:6:

Honor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary

Of particular interest as well are Psalm 118:24:

This is the day on which God has acted, a day for us to exult and rejoice

Verses 26-27 makes it explicit that this place is the Temple, giving the liturgical rites of ancient Israel an eschatological tone.

Naturally, when Christ came, this liturgical mindset did not disappear. Rather, the liturgical mindset now is centralized around Him.

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#Early_Christian_Studies
#Liturgy

In St Melito of Sardis, one sees how these tendencies centralized around the Temple in the time of David finds its end in Christ. His Peri Pascha is generally agreed to be a disclosure taking place in celebration of Pascha.

Reflecting on Christ's Sacrifice, he implores all to come to the Pascha to witness and find remission of sins in Christ. To be healed and raised up to the presence of the Father(PP 47;100; 102; 103; 104.).

Part of this clearly has a liturgical function. Especially when one of the end goal of Christ's Sacrifice is to "make us a new priesthood, an eternal people personal to Him"(PP 68). The similarities with Jewish tradition is noted by Stuart Hall in his translation(pg.37). The resonances with the Temple theology of the Psalms mentioned also shouldn't be missed.

One might perhaps say that since Melito explicitly says the OT types are no longer precious(PP43-45) once the reality comes. So the liturgical cultic mindset of old must be cast aside.

However the fact that Melito's exegesis of Exodus is saturated with cultic language would indicate that this isn't what he intends. These can be found through terms borrowed from Pagan mysteries such as Moses performing a mystery(PP15), the Pascha itself as a mystery to be performed(PP16) and describing this as initiation.

In Asia Minor during Melito's time, there is also a sense of competition between competing Pagan mystery cults. One example is an inscription warning the therapeutai of Zeus not to participate in the mysteries of Sabazios, Agdistis, and Ma.

These markers give rise to the likelihood that Melito is alluding to Christian Baptism as somehow being embedded in the anointing of houses by the blood of the Passover lamb.

Thus, Melito's comments about the OT types no longer being precious would seem to be more "that the old model is “useless” and “abolished” and “void” and “worthless” only insofar as it is not reincorporated into the comprehensive reality of the crucified Lord."(T.J Lang, pg.296)

Given this, in Melito one can see how liturgical Soteriology plays out. Christ acted in both Exodus and in the era of the NT. He and the Church are ultimately the fulfillment of the Exodus.

Just as Moses and Israel partake in mystery performances and cultic initiation during the Exodus, Christians now partake of this mystery through Baptism and the celebration of Pascha where the mystery is performed culticly. Where one comes into the presence of God, to be Saved by Him and to worship in His presence just as it was in the temple of old.

Melito is ofc just one Pre Nicene author who shows a mindset of Liturgical Soteriology. But for the sake of not droning on for too long, I will end things here.

Further reading + Sources:

Pre-Nicene Christology in Paschal Contexts The Caseof the Divine Noetic Anthropos, Dragos‌ Andrei Giulea(Chapter IV & VII)

Mystery and the Making of a Christian Historical Consciousness: From Paul to the Second Century, T.J Lang(Chapter 7)

Melito of Sardis On Pascha and fragments, Stuart George Hall

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#Early_christian_studies
#Liturgy
#St_Melito