Heresies Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Early Christian theology had the problem of reconciling the belief in only one God, taken over from Judaism, with the belief that both Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth and his father are God. One solution to this problem was Monarchianism, which means that God consists of only one person, or hypostasis. Dynamic Monarchianism, also called Adoptionism, may be Jewish in origin, but its first known exponent was Theodotus, a leatherworker from Byzantium c. 200 c.e. He taught that until Jesus’ baptism, he was only a man on whom Christ, a dynamis (power) of God, then descended. Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch until deposed by a council of bishops in 268 c.e., probably was also an Adoptionist.

Modalist Monarchianism, or modalism, means that Jesus, the (his) Father, and the Holy Spirit are different modes of the same person, or hypostasis. The first known modalist was Noetus, condemned by the elders of Smyrna or Rome c. 200 c.e. Noetus affirmed that Christ is the Father, who was born, suffered, and died, which Tertullian (c. 160–c. 220 c.e.) called patripassianism.

Sabellius, a Libyan, gained the trust of Popes Zephyrinus and Callistus I but was excommunicated by the latter in c. 217 c.e. Sabellius avoided patripassianism by proposing three modes of a divine monad, Father as creator, Son as redeemer, and Spirit as inspirer. It is uncertain whether Sabellius taught that each mode was replaced by the next so that Father, Son, and Spirit did not exist all at once, or taught an economic trinity as did Tertullian and others, that is that God existed first only as Father, but after the creation as both Father and Son, and as Father, Son, and Spirit after Pentecost.

Like Sabellius, Marcellus (c. 280–c. 375 c.e.), bishop of Ancyra, said that Christ did not preexist his birth, and his kingdom would end. Marcellus’s monad expanded to a dyad at creation, to a triad at Pentecost, but the triad would contract into the monad after judgment. Athanasius, allied with Marcellus in defending the idea that Jesus is “one substance” with God, later repudiated Marcellus, probably because Marcellus denied Christ’s eternity and because Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, Marcellus’s pupil, was accused of adoptionism. Marcellus recanted, conceding the Son’s eternity, but never three divine hypostases. The Orthodox Church accepted Marcellus’s followers.

Adoptionists and modalists seem antithetical but were lumped together, as were Paul of Samosata and Sabellius. After all, Photinus was Marcellus’s pupil. Pope Callistus was said sometimes to favor Sabellius (modalist), sometimes Theodotus (dynamic), and said: “ . . . after [the Father] had taken unto himself flesh, [he] raised it to the nature of Deity. . . . ” If, for Callistus, Jesus was not divine from birth, Callistus was adoptionistic. Modalists, who merged Father and Son, sometimes so sharply separated the divine Christ from the human Jesus that he seemed to be a “mere man,” as with Adoptionists.

Around 155 or 172 c.e., a mystic named Montanus claimed that the Spirit was speaking through him. He put himself into trances progressing to ecstatic states in which he spoke in tongues, interpreted by his followers. The Spirit’s message was that the Last Judgment would very soon take place in Pepuza in Phrygia. Other revelations commanded fasts, no sex even for married couples, seeking of martyrdom, and the inability of the church to absolve serious sins. Tertullian was the greatest Montanist but was unaware of Montanist women clergy, the principle of which he condemns.

Montanism was called the “New Prophecy,” but its goal was to restore the church’s original purity and gifts of the Spirit. In earliest Christianity, phenomena such as speaking in tongues and prophecy conferred spiritual authority. However, by 155 c.e. bishops replaced the authority of charismatic individuals, claiming apostolic succession. Each bishop received his authority from his predecessor in a chain leading back to an apostle. Montanists claimed revelations independent of bishops. Ironically, Montanus founded a tightly organized church, which had its own scriptures to supplement the Bible, a patriarch at Pepuza, “associates” between patriarch and bishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, who all received salaries supported by collections.

One pope nearly approved Montanism, but the mainline Christians in Asia Minor responded with councils, excommunications, and even exorcisms. The Last Judgment did not arrive as predicted by Montanists. Tongues, prophecy, and asceticism also declined. Montanism thus repeated the experience of the mainline church, except that Montanism disappeared by the early Middle Ages. One result of Montanus’s and others’ claims to special revelations supplementing the Gospels and the letters of the apostles was that the church formed a list of authoritative writings that eventually became the New Testament.

Montanists were sometimes called Sabellians, perhaps because Montanus claimed that both Father and Spirit spoke through him. Father, Son, Spirit, and Montanus might seem to be one person, especially since Montanus is reported to have said, “I am the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Montanus taught that the Father revealed himself to the Jews, the Son to the first Christians, and the Spirit to Montanus. This schema could fit Sabellius’s understanding of the Trinity as three temporary divine modes.

References:

Crown, Alan D., ed. The Samaritans. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr (Siebeck), 1989;
Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Doctrines. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1978.
Montgomery, James A. The Samaritans: The Earliest Jewish Sect: Their History, Theology, and Literature. Reprint, New York: Ktav, 1967;
Schoeps, Hans J. Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969.

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