Step 7 of 9 · The early Church
What did the earliest Christians believe?
In brief
The writings that survive from the generations after the apostles show communities that worshipped Christ, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, gathered on Sunday for the Eucharist, and were served by an ordered ministry. Later creeds sharpened the vocabulary; they did not invent the faith.
The 2-minute version
If you want to know what Christianity looked like just after the apostles, you do not have to guess. A small but important body of writing survives from the late first and second centuries: the letter of Clement of Rome, the church manual called the Didache, the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, and the works of Justin Martyr. Read without later labels, they show a faith centred on Jesus as divine and truly human; baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; a Sunday gathering for Scripture and the Eucharist, which Justin says was not received as common bread and drink; and bishops, presbyters and deacons. A Roman governor, Pliny, independently reports Christians singing a hymn to Christ “as though he were a god”. None of this answers every later question, and the vocabulary of the fourth-century creeds came later. But it answers the claim that the faith was invented at Nicaea.
The strongest objection
There was no single “earliest Christianity”. Jewish-Christian, Pauline, Gnostic-leaning and other groups competed, and the writings we call the Apostolic Fathers survived because their faction won and later wrote the history. They show one party's beliefs, not what “the earliest Christians” believed.
A response
Early Christianity was diverse, and rival teachers appear inside the New Testament itself. Diversity is not the same as equal antiquity, though: the writers who survived were not a fourth-century creation, and they appeal to continuity with the apostles in public, checkable ways.
In the sources we have, the major Gnostic systems are attested later than the apostolic writings they reinterpret. That said, this objection deserves a fuller answer than the site currently gives it, and it is marked as a gap.
The evidence
From Scripture
- Acts 2:42; 20:7 — The apostles' teaching, the breaking of bread, the first day of the week.
- Matthew 28:19 — Baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 — The Lord's Supper as received tradition.
- Philippians 1:1 — Overseers (bishops) and deacons.
From history
- Worship of Christ. A Roman governor's report to the emperor, about AD 112.
“on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a god”
- Baptism. The Didache's instruction, from the late first or early second century.
“baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water”
- Sunday and the Eucharist. Justin Martyr's description of Christian worship, mid second century.
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read”
- Ordered ministry. Ignatius of Antioch writes of bishop, presbyters and deacons; 1 Clement of bishops and deacons appointed by the apostles (see step 8).
Primary sources
4 sources for this step
- , Letter to Trajan on the Christians (Letters 10.96) — W. S. Davis, Readings in Ancient History (1912–13), via the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook.
“on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a god”
- , Chapters 7, 9–10, 14–15 — Translated by M. B. Riddle (ANF), via New Advent.
“baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water”
- , First Apology 65–67 — Translated by M. Dods and G. Reith (ANF), via New Advent.
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read”
- , Letter to the Smyrnaeans — Translated by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson (ANF), via New Advent.
Read the full case
What Did the Earliest Christians Actually Believe?
- Interactive guide Church Fathers Explorer
- Infographic Did Constantine Invent Christianity?
- Infographic Who Did the Earliest Christians Think Jesus Was?