Confession first 2 centuries

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In a Catechist meeting a fellow Catechist stated that there was no Sacrament of Confession in the first 2 centuries, I disagreed with her strongly.
I have quotes from the Didache,the letter of Barnabas and Ignatius of Antioch showing that Confession of sins take place.
I wonder if my fellow Apologists out there have any more good arguments I could use.👍
 
robin_hood said:
In a Catechist meeting a fellow Catechist stated that there was no Sacrament of Confession in the first 2 centuries, I disagreed with her strongly.
I have quotes from the Didache,the letter of Barnabas and Ignatius of Antioch showing that Confession of sins take place.
I wonder if my fellow Apologists out there have any more good arguments I could use.👍
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When I was in RCIA, I was told the exact same thing! I think the confusion arises from the *form *of the sacrament. The current practice of private confessions with penitent and priest with a screen or face-to-face developed over time, but the authority of Christ’s ministers to grant absolution has existed from the very beginning of the Church and the grant of such authority by Our Lord is recorded very explicitly in Scripture. That’s what makes it a Sacrament, that it is an outward sign, INSTITUTED BY CHRIST, to give grace.

Hang in there, Robin. As Fr. Corapi says, “Always insist on Truth, especially in the Church.”
 
They must have not read the Bible Did they ever read James chapter 5, did James talk about forgiveness of sin? The Elders( Priests) did James talk about confessing our sins?

It was formalized to make it more anonymous over the years but it has always been.
Hmm didn’t Jesus even say, what sins you forgive are forgiven what sins you retain are retained?

These Catechists are sounding more like Protestants than Catholics. Maybe they need to read the Bible more and be a little more faithful to the Church.

In Christ
Scylla
 
PRIVATE Confession may not have been in existence, but the Sacrament of Reconciliation was.

At first, Christians would make their confessions in public, and the bishop would absolve them of their sins. As time went on:

a) the Bishops transferred this gift to priests, as it became harder and harder as the Church grew for the bishops to handle this responsibility alone.

b) the Confessions were moved into the private arena, because sometimes parishioners’ sins involved other parishioners that may not have been ready to confess. You can imagine the trauma and scandals this could create.
 
robin_hood said:
In a Catechist meeting a fellow Catechist stated that there was no Sacrament of Confession in the first 2 centuries, I disagreed with her strongly.
I have quotes from the Didache,the letter of Barnabas and Ignatius of Antioch showing that Confession of sins take place.
I wonder if my fellow Apologists out there have any more good arguments I could use.👍
Click to expand...
Can you post the ones you have…I need them for my collection!
 
scylla said:
These Catechists are sounding more like Protestants than Catholics. Maybe they need to read the Bible more and be a little more faithful to the Church.

In my study of the early Church it appears to me that personal, that is one-on-one confession, was rarely used in the beginning because all the believers at that time felt that for one to be baptized into Christ and to be come “new”, it was blasphemous to sin again which would require repentance. The early Church leaders were really hard-core!

In some parts of the world believers put off their baptism until they were near death because they knew if they committed what we call a mortal sin, they were damned forever. Yes the bishops and presbyters could forgive sins, but they didn’t as easily then. (Please remember during this time there was no New Testament for them to read, and most believers couldn’t read anyway.)

The churches became a little less rigid and soon after allowed a “sinner” to confess in the presence of the whole local church and a bishop. Thanks be to God before too long when the Gospels and other “writings” became more available we began to see confession similar to what we know today. This history can easily show that we humans are harder on each other than Jesus the Son of God was!
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Mike_Brick said:
In my study of the early Church it appears to me that personal, that is one-on-one confession, was rarely used in the beginning because all the believers at that time felt that for one to be baptized into Christ and to be come “new”, it was blasphemous to sin again which would require repentance. The early Church leaders were really hard-core!

In some parts of the world believers put off their baptism until they were near death because they knew if they committed what we call a mortal sin, they were damned forever. Yes the bishops and presbyters could forgive sins, but they didn’t as easily then. (Please remember during this time there was no New Testament for them to read, and most believers couldn’t read anyway.)

The churches became a little less rigid and soon after allowed a “sinner” to confess in the presence of the whole local church and a bishop. Thanks be to God before too long when the Gospels and other “writings” became more available we began to see confession similar to what we know today. This history can easily show that we humans are harder on each other than Jesus the Son of God was!
Click to expand...
Mike, I have one little problem with your analysis. It sounds like you are claiming that the written Gospels originated first, and Church Tradition, in this case Confession, sprang from these Gospels.

I would say Church Tradition developed on it’s own from the Apostles and early Church leaders.
 
From what I understand, early Christians confessed their sins to one another (just as James told us to) at the eucharist.

Imagine being a deacon when a man (or woman) stands up and says “Deacon, I (fill in the blank) with your wife last week. Please forgive me.”

Pretty inappropriate for church, don’t ya think?

Private confession started after a few episodes of this happened. That’s my theory anyway!😛
 
Before beating those Catechists with a stick with a nail in it, one might want to consider that they may be differentiating between private auricular confession which originated with the Irish Monks and the Sacrament of Penance or as we say today Reconcilation. It is unfortunate that they do not appear to have made that distinction clear to their students.
 
NotWorthy said:
Mike, I have one little problem with your analysis. It sounds like you are claiming that the written Gospels originated first, and Church Tradition, in this case Confession, sprang from these Gospels.

I would say Church Tradition developed on it’s own from the Apostles and early Church leaders.
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:o Thank you for making that observation, I failed to make myself very clear on that point. I absolutely agree with you that capital “T” Tradition, (the oral instruction from the Apostles and their immediate understudies), developed well before written NT scripture was widely available, and that Tradition has further developed, not changed over time. None the less, Tradition must be in accord with Scripture, not opposed to it, and in the case of confession’s development, it clearly was and is.

Thanks again & Happy New Year
 
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