Heirs of the Church: Papias

Papias, elder of Hierapolis in Phrygia, was a disciple of the Apostle John and a friend of Polycarp, and it is believed that he, too, died circa 155 A.D. He is highly spoken of by many of the later Fathers as being a man strong in the knowledge of the Scriptures – hearing of the Gospel in all its elements from those who had been disciples of the Apostles, such as Polycarp and Ignatius.

Heirs of the Church: Polycarp

 

Polycarp, elder of Smyrna, and the famous martyr who bore bold testimony before the Roman proconsul in Smyrna as an aged man, was, like Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostle John. We know little else about him but we believe, due to the lateness of his death, that he would have been a very young man when he came to faith (at the most conservative estimate, fourteen years of age – making him one hundred at the time of his death) and studied under the tutelage of the Apostle John. His birth, then, would have occurred shortly before or after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. – Polycarp thus representing the firstfruits of a new era: the end of the Temple worship for Jews – both believing and non-believing and the ultimate fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that men would “worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).

 

Heirs of the Church: Ignatius

Ignatius, elder of Antioch, is one of the most celebrated Fathers of the Early Church. A disciple of the Apostle John, Ignatius was an elder in that firstborn of all Gentile churches, where “the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). He was known for his fatherly wisdom and well-respected by many theologians in the following centuries - Eusebius, Origen, and Jerome included. He was associated with Polycarp, an elder of Smyrna and a fellow disciple of John.

Heirs of the Church: Clement

Clement, an elder of Rome, is viewed as one of the early successors to the eldership of Rome after the deaths of the Apostles Paul and Peter. He is known to have served along with Linus and Anacletus. He is accorded as being in association with the Apostle Peter most directly by Roman Catholic tradition. The Eastern Orthodox tradition states that he was one of the Seventy Apostles of Luke 10. Due to the heavily documented opinion of the Early Fathers, I have adopted the opinion of the Western tradition that Clement was an elder in Rome, serving together with Linus and Anacletus - and would have been too young during Jesus’ ministry - not to mention being disregarded due to his Gentile blood.

Heirs of the Church: Mathetes

Note: After an abortive attempt at looking at the writings of the Writings of the Early Church Fathers, I’ve determined that the best course of action is to start over. So, this is the start of a new series: The Heirs of the Church.

The Epistle to Diognetus is of unknown authorship, but the compiler of these works has ventured to christen him as Mathetes – that is, “a disciple” – based solely upon the claim of the author in one segment of the text, to be “a disciple of the Apostles.” Beyond this claim, there is nothing more that can be known about him save that he is a “teacher of the Gentiles” in his ministry. This betrays an early writing – a time when Jewish and Gentile believers, although united in faith, remained separate in practice and in obligation to the Laws which bound their respective peoples. [1]