Matthew 28:16-20
“Inventing Orthodoxy through Heresy” in After Jesus: Before Christianity (Westar)
What’s the purpose of education? In our time, education transfers knowledge of thousands of facts about many subjects to someone who accumulates that knowledge over time. There’s a subtext about making children into good adult citizens about which we have various opinions, but the focus is information. In the first century education was about learning self-control. Males were educated about how to control their emotions – joy, grief, anger, jealousy, fear… People also learned skills that they needed for life and work – fishing, commerce, farming, household management, construction, spinning and much more. They learned skills by doing them from adults who already knew how to do them. These were formal or informal apprenticeships. But education was about becoming moderate and modest and under control at all times.
The earliest followers of Jesus lived immersed in this culture where the highest ideal was self control and it impacted the ways they thought and acted. When we think about faith communities, we associate them with believing the correct things. When we want to know more about a particular community, we ask “What do they believe? What is their doctrine?” We expect to learn a list of items they do and don’t believe about whatever they consider most important in life. Those who agree with the doctrine will be “orthodox.”
The first century religions didn’t care nearly as much about what people believed as about what they did. Various groups practiced “orthopraxy” or consistency in behavior. When we think about the teachings of Jesus, much of it is about how to act in the world: turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, share your bread, practice mercy and justice – not as ideas but as behaviors toward others. In today’s scripture we read that Jesus sent his students into the world to make students of others and to teach them how to live in the way Jesus lived. When we read the Didache, we learned that new followers first learned to behave in the way the community required and when they had shown that they had mastered the lifestyle, they were admitted to the community. The same is true of the many various religions and other groups in the first and second centuries.
Because it’s behavior that mattered, it was possible to be one of many groups that followed Jesus and believe a variety of different things about that. There was no established orthodoxy. Jesus didn’t leave a catechism of things to memorize as true. It wasn’t about what you thought about Jesus, it was about whether you lived in the way Jesus lived. And even though much of that behavior was counter-cultural in the Roman Empire (non-violent, merciful, inclusive), the prevailing emphasis on self-control still figures largely in their values.
In today’s chapter we learn that the variety of ways to think about being a follower of Jesus was called “hairesis”, a word we now translate as heresy. In the fourth century heresy began to be understood as we use it today – a thinking or belief about something that is wrong. By the fourth century Christianity had become mainstream and the Emperor decreed that everyone was Christian. When everyone is converted to that religion, they have to know what they think and do, so groups convened to decide what was right and what was wrong – orthodox or heterodox (heresy). In the first century, heresy just meant different.
Paul talks about various groups within the church in Corinth and admonishes everyone to agree with him. But he doesn’t tell them that only those who follow his teaching can be part of the community. Other first century authors talk about variety in the Jesus community as heresy, but not as right or wrong. There is certainly disagreement about what following Jesus means, but disagreement doesn’t disqualify people from belonging to the group. No one is cast out (or ex-communicated) for believing the wrong things.
Let’s look at two first century ways of understanding “salvation” as an example. First, the group that honored those who were martyred or killed for their association with Jesus. Paul died for his activity as a follower of Jesus. Peter died for his activity. Both are seen as heroes for being willing to die. In the first century death isn’t a choice. If Rome decides you die, you die. We think of martyrs as those who wouldn’t deny Jesus and live. Most first century executions weren’t really about believing in Jesus or denying Jesus. They were about needing scapegoats and so a Jesus community was murdered in the arena for entertainment. They don’t save their lives by denying the faith. But in a society which idolizes self-control, how you face that death matters. Heroes go to their death praising God with courage and with full control of their emotions. They act bravely and quietly and honor both themselves and God by refusing to fall apart or act foolishly as they die. One “heresy” or option in first-century thinking says this show of self-control guarantees them “salvation” or a reward in the next life with God. God is honored by their well-controlled response to death and so honors them.
Another groups saw less honor in martyrdom. They recommended that instead that Jesus followers try to avoid being killed. Fly under the radar of local authorities. Do everything you can to avoid notice so that you don’t become a target for public amusement. Rather than dying nobly in the arena, try to live long and prosper at home. It’s not your death that saves you according to these folks, but the knowledge about God that you acquire through Jesus that saves you. This is a pretty stark contrast in a society that sees education as self-control evidenced in courageous behavior. Jesus followers weren’t the only groups pointing to knowledge as the way to access a better world in the afterlife. Today we call these groups Gnostics, although they didn’t see themselves that way. We’re going to learn more about them in September. They also emphasize self-control but as a mental control and knowledge of higher ways of being which then guides the way you live. To them Jesus shared the secret knowledge which helped them understand and access God. They would be “saved” by what they knew, not by being martyred.
We’ve talked before about Thecla, memorialized in The Acts of Paul and Thecla. Thecla is a second century hero. She is converted by Paul (who of course didn’t live in the second century), decides to remain a virgin and teach about Jesus. She combines these two ways of thinking, which may explain why she was so popular for a while. Because she refuses to marry, she’s condemned to die as a martyr. But when they try to burn her, a thunderstorm drowns the fire. When they feed her to wild beasts, the beasts protect her. When she decides to baptize herself in a pool of seals, lightening strikes and kills the seals but not her. She faces martyrdom bravely, with self-control, but God refuses to let her die. Instead she lives to an old age and teaches many people what she knows about Jesus, making many converts. She combines martyrdom and knowledge, self-control in danger and in life. She is one of the many “heresies” or varieties of ways to follow Jesus. As we learn more about these variations, we can be looking for those who speak to us.