Early Church Questions

[jeckert79]

I had a few questions regarding Church history, I have many Protestants challenging me on these issues and I’m not sure of the correct answers.

The early Church:

1.) When was the first Bible Compiled (St. Jerome 384AD?)?

2.) The council that decided on “cannon” or the books of the bible:
a) an “ecumenical” council?…
If not what kind of a council was it and who was apart of it?

 b) What was the council’s name?

3.) I assume the Christians that followed Christ eventually named themselves “Catholics” = Universal (open to anyone) is this true?

 a) What year did Christians name themselves Catholics?

4.) The Trinity was given its name in what year and at what council?

**Any websites that I can point my friends to on Church history?

Thanks in advance….
Joe

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Hi jeckert79

The Council of Laodicea, c. 360, produced a list of books similar to today’s canon. This was one of the Church’s earliest decisions on a canon.

catholicapologetics.org/ap030700.htm

The Canon of Scripture by Frederick Fyvie Bruce

The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by Frederick Fyvie Bruce

The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance by Bruce M. Metzger

The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th Edition) by Bruce M. Metzger

How We Got the Bible, by Neil R. Lightfoot

New Testament History by F. F. Bruce

amazon.com/Canon-Scripture-Frederick-Fyvie-Bruce/sim/083081258X/1/ref=pd_sexpl_esi/103-1604692-3197438

Around the year A.D. 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), **he made the first written mention in history of “the Catholic Church.” He wrote, “Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church” (To the Smyrnaeans 8:2). **Thus, the second century of Christianity had scarcely begun when the name of the Catholic Church was already in use.

Thereafter, mention of the name became more and more frequent in the written record. It appears in the oldest written account we possess outside the New Testament of the martyrdom of a Christian for his faith, the “Martyrdom of St. Polycarp,” bishop of the same Church of Smyrna to which St. Ignatius of Antioch had written. St. Polycarp was martyred around 155, and the account of his sufferings dates back to that time. The narrator informs us that in his final prayers before giving up his life for Christ, St. Polycarp “remembered all who had met with him at any time, both small and great, both those with and those without renown, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world.”

We know that St. Polycarp, at the time of his death in 155, had been a Christian for 86 years. He could not, therefore, have been born much later than 69 or 70. Yet it appears to have been a normal part of the vocabulary of a man of this era to be able to speak of "the whole Catholic Church throughout the world."

The name had caught on, and no doubt for good reasons.

ewtn.com/faith/teachings/churb3.htm

Matthew 28:18-20 (New International Version)

18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

newadvent.org/cathen/03449a.htm

Tertullian, coined the word “Trinity” around the year A.D. 200.

good article on trinity
newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm

The Trinity was formally defined around 325 AD at council of
Nicea.

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Trinity+council+defined+Nicea

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Apostles’ Creed

Traditional English Version
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.

creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm

 

[Tom]

Around the year A.D. 107, a bishop, St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Near East, was arrested, brought to Rome by armed guards and eventually martyred there in the arena. In a farewell letter which this early bishop and martyr wrote to his fellow Christians in Smyrna (today Izmir in modern Turkey), he made the first written mention in history of “the Catholic Church.” He wrote, “Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church” (To the Smyrnaeans 8:2). Thus, the second century of Christianity had scarcely begun when the name of the Catholic Church was already in use.

One very minor point, technically 107 a.d. is still the first century of the Christianity. Since the Church (and Christianity) on earth wasn’t established in the year 1 a.d. The first century of the Christianity did not begin until the His earthly ministry was complete. I know it sound petty, but it brings the Catholic Church into the first century, rather than the second century.

 

[Todd_Easton]

I assume the Christians that followed Christ eventually named themselves “Catholics” = Universal (open to anyone) is this true?

a) What year did Christians name themselves Catholics?

As other posters have said, the Church of Christ was commonly referred to as “the Catholic Church” by the time Ignatius of Antioch wrote his letters to the various local Churches about A.D. 107.

The earliest reference I have been able to find so far that Christians were commonly referred to as “Catholics” is The Paschal Canon of Anatolius of Alexandria, section XV, written about A.D. 270.