← LineageEra Spotlight for · Monday, 19 August 2024
This week
Apostolic Fathers
AD 100 – 150 · The generation that knew the apostles or their immediate students.
The first Christians who weren't Christians by birth. The apostles were dead or dying when this generation was being formed; they grew up hearing about Jesus from people who'd touched him and heard him talk. None of them wrote a gospel. They wrote letters — to congregations in trouble, to bishops they'd never met, to the emperors who were starting to notice.
Why it matters
- ·Monepiscopacy: one bishop per city, presbyters and deacons under him.
- ·No Eucharist apart from the bishop or his delegate.
- ·Christ is fully God and fully man — Docetism rejected.
- ·The Old Testament is Christian scripture (against Marcion).
James the Just
1–62
Called 'brother of the Lord' in the New Testament (Galatians 1:19; Mark 6:3) — Catholic and Orthodox tradition reads this as kinsman or step-brother through Joseph's prior marriage; most Protestants read it as a literal sibling. Either way, leader of the Jerusalem church for some thirty years. Presided at the Apostolic Council (Acts 15); martyred c. 62 by stoning under high priest Ananus per Josephus and Hegesippus.
Luke the Evangelist
1–84
Physician and companion of Paul, traditional author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. Identified by Irenaeus as 'a follower of Paul'.
Mark the Evangelist
5–68
Companion of Paul and Barnabas, then 'interpreter' of Peter at Rome (per Papias). Traditional author of the Gospel of Mark and founder of the church of Alexandria.
Clement of Rome
35–99
Bishop of Rome late in the 1st century. Author of 1 Clement to the Corinthian church c. AD 96 — the earliest surviving Christian document outside the New Testament.
Daily reading
Book of the day
The Apostolic Fathers
Clement of RomeA reading pick tied to today's figure, quote, era, or event. Best first collection for Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Hermas, and Papias in one place.
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