Christianity by the Century: Second Century CE (100 – 200 CE)

Rapid change and innovation often accompany chaos, and the second century CE was no exception. The devastating losses in the first century—the death of Jesus, the defeat of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Temple—left them with an enormous void to fill, with room for new ideas, thinkers, and leaders.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the uncertainty of the times, we can also see a common thread through all of this innovation of a pullback towards the ancient authority of Hebrew scriptures.

To understand the significance of the new ideas coming forth, we need to realize that all Jews, regardless of their views of Jesus, had fought valiantly to defend their very identity as the people of God. Their covenant with God grounded their very existence. They all needed new answers. Therefore, defenders of Jesus and his mission needed to take care that they didn’t divorce themselves from his ancestral and divinely appointed authority. He had to be seen as fulfillment, not a break from, ancestral prophecy.

But they also needed new answers to painful and urgent questions that showed no sign of abating. More Roman-Jewish wars broke out in the early second century, with the final one—the Bar Kokhba War (132-135 CE)—creating a definitive break with existing traditions.  With yet another devastating loss, all Jews were banned from Jerusalem, their holy city. The Romans renamed it Aelia Capitolina, turning it into a Roman colony. Jews were forbidden from entering on pain of death, and mass enslavement and displacement of the Jewish population followed.

How could Jesus be the fulfillment of Jewish scripture and prophecy in context of the complete annihilation of Judea?

Alexandria, A Melting Pot of Ideas

Amidst this tumult, Alexandria, Egypt, emerged as a haven for Jewish thinkers.  Already a magnet for philosophers, scientists, and religious thinkers, many displaced Jews fled there; followers of Jesus were among them.  His followers also had no clear answers, with some wishing to separate from Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah, while others wanted to preserve their ties. Meanwhile, non-Jews were increasingly drawn to Jesus’s message. In this Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christ-following—and perhaps Zoroastrian—melting pot, new forms of reflection flourished and fresh creative ways of seeking order in the world emerged.

The Secret Revelation of John—with its Jewish emphasis on Genesis, its Christ savior, its philosophical response to Greek philosophy, its oblique opposition to Rome, its Egyptian sciences, and its reference to Zoroastrian demons—is an excellent example. Its author, who wrestled with deep theological and philosophical questions, developed the first full Christ-centered account of creation and salvation.

Other writings by unknown authors of the time that may have originated in Alexandria include Thunder: Perfect Mind, which explored the concept of the divine feminine, and the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, which takes on the perspective of Jesus but responds to philosophical questions of the day.

Despite the new Christ-centered writings, there was still no such thing as “Christianity” in a unified sense—no central church, no single creed, no hierarchical clergy, and no fixed canon. Jesus’ followers were forced to grapple with a new understanding of his teachings, and of their place in the world, that would set the groundwork for Christianity to come.

Valentinus (100-180), a prominent teacher, also developed elaborate cosmologies and spiritual ideas about the world from Alexandria. He, like others, moved on to Rome. Elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean area, creative new gospels, epistles, revelations, and “Acts” of apostles, all seeking to explain Jesus as divine and a present messiah began to appear.

Marcion (85–160 CE) stands out as a striking example of originality in tension with his struggle to hold onto ancient authority. His vision of a wholly good God even in the context of the second-century horrors contrasted sharply with what he perceived as the Hebrew God of harsh judgment and warfare. To maintain his tenuous ties with early Judaism, he claims that the Hebrew Bible wasn’t wrong; it just needed to be read literally. Unfortunately, though, his arguments only served to widen the rift between Jews who followed Jesus and those who did not.

Debates and struggles

Irenaeus (130–202 CE) marks the beginning of a different direction for a new way of thinking about Jesus’ legacy. All true Christ-followers, he insisted, must confess a single creed. Belief outweighed understanding for him. In his move toward monarchical tradition, he insisted that the movement’s survival depended on a common creed, canon and clerical authority.  Thus, he argued that all true believers should agree on the same doctrinal points, with one uniform system.

Debates over such issues were far from abstract. They were charged with the weight of persecution and loss. Ignatius of Antioch was martyred in 108 CE; Polycarp in 155; and Blandina of Lyon in 177. Those who sought gnosis over belief generally rejected martyrdom as redemptive, insisting instead that spiritual maturity was a truer strength. (Only many centuries later would the diverse “gnosis-seekers” be grouped under the label “Gnosticism.”)

Theological quarrels often reflected shared anguish: the trauma of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the loss of their homeland, and the Antonine Plague (165–190 CE), which devastated the empire. From North Africa, Tertullian (155–240 CE) countered Marcion’s ideas, calling his notion of a wholly good God irrational, amid the brutality of the times. Radical or not, Marcion’s vision persisted.

Another fault line from the second century concerned the role of women. We know from Tertullian’s protests that women were active in leadership within Christ groups. The movement led by Montanus and his prophetesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, in Asia Minor championed female authority and claimed direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit without male sanction.

The Gospel of Mary, one of several new gospels that appeared in the second century, is notable even today for its bold assertion of Mary’s leadership among the male disciples. It portrays Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s most visionary disciple, and the gospel itself also captures the mood of the century. Though it was probably written in the second century, it composes a new story of the first century Mary Magdalene in role of leadership among the male disciples of Jesus. Peter and his brother Andrew argue with Mary’s “strange ideas,” which sound quite a bit like some of the other innovative thinkers of the second century. But in the story, Peter also disdains the idea of female leadership, another topic of second-century debate. The book concludes with the disciple Levi chastising his fellow male disciples for not remembering the most important part of Jesus’s message and encouraging them to go out and preach the gospel.

Nearly every idea that later came to define “Christianity” first took shape in this large mixing pot of second-century searching, questioning, and debating.

Conclusion

As history teaches, change creates reactions, which in turn cause further reactions. These actions and reactions will play out more visibly within the context of Roman response in the next century. But the second century should be remembered for its diversity and its extraordinary creativity wrapped in the language of continuity, originating many of the underpinnings of key thoughts and arguments in the centuries to come.

As mentioned earlier, nearly every teacher and writer of the time insisted on faithfulness to the covenantal relationship between God and God’s people established by the ancient Hebrews—even as they forged entirely new ways of understanding God, scripture, and salvation. Out of catastrophe and displacement, followers of Jesus found themselves compelled to ask new questions and imagine new answers. The result was an astonishing variety of thought, practice, and leadership—perhaps the richest diversity in all of Christian history.

This is the seventh in a series of Bible and Beyond blog posts, Christian History by the Century, focusing on the key developments that influenced Christianity, century by century. Beginning with the fifth century BCE, we have traced historical events and ideas that influenced future generations of those who came to identify themselves as Christian.