The Third century
In this century, the message of Jesus grew, spread, and matured. It was still an Early Christianity, very interesting because it had not yet been institutionalized as the official religion of the Roman Empire.
The persecutions, however, continued, producing countless martyrs. And because of the persecution, personal disinterest grew. In the next century, this personal interest will begin to set the tone and direction for the functioning of Christianity, which will face many battles starting in the year 325.
This period of history, which lies between the disincarnation of Jesus marking the beginning of Christianity and the 4th century when a “turning point” occurs, is called Patristics (from the word for father), because it is the doctrine of the Fathers of the Church.
The Fathers of the Church are the followers of the apostles. In the 2nd century, we had Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of John the Evangelist. In this century appears Hippolytus of Rome, who was a disciple of Irenaeus of Lyon, who was a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna, who was a disciple of John the Evangelist. The Fathers of the Church are simply a continuation of the apostles, hence Patristics.
Starting from the apostles, it was necessary to unify the message of Jesus. This was the intention of the Fathers of the Church: to make the message universal. Thus, since the previous century, it was the Catholic Apostolic Church, because it needed to know where it originated from. Catholic meaning universal, though not in the sense understood today, and Apostolic meaning from the apostles.
In this century, a broad new horizon opened because the Christian Church was already showing signs of hierarchy and structure. Some titles were created for individuals who had become important within Early Christianity such as bishop, deacon, presbyter.
Countless important figures emerged in this century. We will highlight only a few, those we consider most relevant: Cyprian, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Anthony the Great.
Before speaking of these notable figures of the century, it is important to recall that this study is merely a small portion of an ocean of information. As if we took a walnut and placed it in the ocean. The history of Christianity is the ocean; what we are addressing, the information we bring, is the walnut, just a “kickoff,” a small sample to encourage interest in our history.
Origen drew close to Neoplatonic philosophies. He was a Platonist par excellence, also a Christian, and an apologist. He defended the thesis called apocatastasis, meaning a doctrine of restoration. He said that while still in form, it was necessary to restore the form. This meant that we are in the flesh to purify ourselves, and when we return to the original world, the world of essences, we may be improved.
Alongside apocatastasis, he defended another thesis, palingenesis (a Greek doctrine), meaning the process of the transmigration of the spirit. Because we will not return to the world of essences only once; we go and return, from essence to form and vice versa. Origen was from Alexandria in Egypt, considered the cradle of spiritual truth. After knowledge left India, the secret doctrine settled in Egypt. As Egypt was immersed in spiritual knowledge, reincarnationist thought gained great strength there.
When Origen appropriated Christian concepts, he saw in them the proposal for the elevation of the soul, so that the individual could promote his process of spiritual liberation. He proposed already in this century that reincarnation was within natural laws. Origen became the great representative of the 3rd century, but his ideas would later be filtered.
Origen taught that there were three levels of interpreting the Gospel texts: literal, moral, and spiritual. For him, the Final Judgment was not as proposed by the Church because God was good, and according to apocatastasis and palingenesis, in the end all would be good angels. Even the cruelest person would eventually become good. He was essentially a spiritist of the 3rd century.
Origen was persecuted by Emperor Decius, another persecutor of Christians, and also by the Church itself in two councils, the Council of Nicaea and later the Second Council of Constantinople. There were also, already in this century, ecumenical councils (meetings of all churches), but not in the way we understand today.
Thus, for the Church, no palingenesis or apocatastasis. It was decided that God would carry out the Final Judgment. For the good, a heaven exists; for the evil, a hell exists. The Church then closed itself within this orthodoxy (its structured way of thinking).
Origen is the great representative of the thought of the Secret Doctrine united with Christianity. He is not on the outskirts of Christianity; he is at the core of 3rd century thought. He was well accepted and thus promoted the development of the Christian message. He made many disciples and his message spread, but later it was trimmed back.
Anthony the Great. Christians in this century were still simple people, workers, artisans. Worship took place in the catacombs. With the Roman Empire approaching, dogmas emerged. Some members of the existing Church felt the need to make a movement to return to practicing Christianity in its essence. Thus arose the Anchorites and the Cenobites.
An anchorite is someone who chooses to live a contemplative life in the desert, solitary, in prayer, a monk. Cenobites live a communal life in retreat, not in isolation. Thus, in this century, monasteries arose, places where people lived in community, isolated with a spiritual purpose closed in on itself.
Anthony was an anchorite. He left Christianity because he saw it as distorted, a corrupted society, and went to live alone. He gained many followers. Historians say that monasticism received a great impulse from Saint Anthony.
It was said that Saint Anthony became so pure that he could see Spiritual Entities, and disturbing entities came to test him. He was tested in sex, money, and power and remained firm. After that he said he had overcome all the illnesses of the world. The disturbing entities returned because he had not yet overcome his own vanity. This is a midrash, a type of narrative built within Judaism by rabbis and within history by those who became religious leaders.
Saint Anthony was highly respected for his elevated spirituality. He was a great reference, a great guide for all, a true encouragement for those who wished to live in isolation. Thus began the rise of convents, monasteries, and hermits.
Eusebius of Caesarea. He was important in both the 3rd and 4th centuries and was one of the most intelligent personalities of 3rd century Christianity. He wrote a remarkable work called Ecclesiastical History, where he narrates the entire period of Early Christianity, with much important information, from the apostles up to the 4th century when he died.
Eusebius of Caesarea made an important contribution to history because he was among the first to think about the formation of the Biblical Canon, which books would compose the Bible as an authoritative reference for Christians. Out of more than a hundred books, 27 books of the New Testament were chosen to form the Canon. The Catholic Bible has 46 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. The Protestant Bible has 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. The Church determined which books could be followed, although there are other books, very good ones. However, for the Church, anyone who read the apocryphal books (not authenticated by the Church) was committing heresy.
There existed the Hebrew Canon and the Alexandrian Canon. From the Jewish scriptures, a translation was made called the Septuagint, by 72 sages, forming what would be the Alexandrian Canon, created in Alexandria, Egypt. The Catholic Canon thus did not come directly from Jewish texts but from the Greek translation that itself came from the Jewish texts. That is why translations are not one hundred percent correct; we must be careful and look for the moral aspects because writings differ from language to language. And it was Eusebius who began this work.
Cyprian of Carthage. In 251, a council took place in the city of Carthage (a city of indescribable beauty), capital of Phoenicia, founded by the Phoenicians (today Lebanon), who became the masters of the Mediterranean seas. Eventually the city was taken by the Romans. In that council, where Bishop Cyprian became very influential, it was decided that divisions needed to end so that the Church could become one. That was the main goal of the council.
The Church structured its Canon based on the idea that Jesus had said to Peter, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,” meaning that everything outside of Peter, the rock, was heresy. In the 16th century, Protestants found a problem with this interpretation; for them Peter is not the rock, Jesus is the rock. Catholics remain linked to the Church and its first pope; Protestants remain linked to Jesus.
But there is a third interpretation of the same text, that the rock is neither Peter nor Jesus, but what Peter said to Jesus: “You are the son of the living God, the one who came to teach us, to save us.” This seems more coherent: Jesus is the son of God who came to the world to be our model and guide, the way, the truth, and the life. Thus, what is most common in these councils are theological discussions, some profound, others empty.
Three emperors marked the 3rd century: Septimius Severus, Decius, and Diocletian. All three were executioners and persecuted Christians. Tertullian, an important writer and Christian theologian of Carthage, said something curious: that the blood of martyrs was the seed of Christianity. The more Christians they killed, the more the idea spread, because the idea was not centered on a man but on Christ himself, the Gospel itself.
Emperor Septimius Severus, besides persecuting and killing Christians, ordered them to worship the sun god and to participate in the solstice festivals celebrating the birth of the sun god, a Roman festivity that also included adoration of Bacchus, god of wine, festivities, theater, and madness. As Christians refused to participate in this pagan celebration, a great massacre occurred under this emperor.
Later, the Church, wanting to end this festivity, proclaimed that Jesus would defeat the sun god. They placed the birth of Jesus on the day of the birth of the sun god. Instead of the sun god being born, the Divine Child is born. Because for the Church, God is Jesus made flesh. Jesus was assigned the date of December 25 to replace that pagan festivity. However, Jesus was not born on December 25, which can be proven by local historical and geographical evidence.
December is winter in Israel. There is no possibility that shepherds would have their sheep outside the caves, as they would freeze. When the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, they were in the fields with their sheep outside the caves; it was not winter. There are many disagreements about the date of Jesus’s birth, but the important thing is that Jesus was born.
Thus it was Emperor Septimius Severus who started this whole story. However, since the people could not be left without a festival, the celebration was pushed forward. Carnivals began to appear in southern France, in Venice, in Portugal, until arriving at the carnival we know today, which dates back to those pagan festivities of the time of Severus.
Emperor Decius revived characteristics of the 1st century under Domitian and Trajan. He restored pagan worship, and anyone who refused was killed. He instituted a true slaughter of Christians. It is estimated that up to the 4th century, about one million Christians were killed, and Decius was largely responsible.
Emperor Diocletian, at the end of the century, had a brilliant idea in some ways but one that later put the Empire in serious danger. He decided to divide the Roman Empire in two, East and West. In each empire, he placed an Augustus (divine) and a Caesar (executor), with Caesar subordinated to Augustus. Diocletian himself became the Augustus of the Eastern Empire, with Galerius as his Caesar (Galerius instituted the Edict of Tolerance before Constantine, though it was later forgotten). In the Western part, the Augustus was Maximian and the Caesar was Constantius Chlorus. Maximian’s son was Maxentius and Constantius’s son was Constantine.
Diocletian forced Christians to enlist and serve in the Roman army, but they refused to kill, as this was contrary to the teachings of the Gospel. For refusing this order, they were killed, and their houses and religious encampments were burned.
The end of the 3rd century may be called the great storm that would make room for Galerius and Constantine in the next century.