Council of Laodicea

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The Council of Laodicea was a regional synod , attended by about 30 clergy from Asia Minor . It took place between about 325 and 382.

Dating

The fact that the Council document has been handed down without an introduction, date and list of participants makes dating difficult. Terminus ante quem is around 430 when Theodoret mentions this council. Because the First Council of Constantinople (381) apparently referred to the text of the Council of Laodicea, this date can also be used as an upper limit. Terminus post quem is the term of office of Bishop Photinus of Sirmium , who received episcopal ordination around 344 and was condemned at the Council of Sirmium in 351; Can. 7 of the Council of Laodicea mentions Photinians as well as Quartodecimans and Novatians .

Contemporary historical context

Laodicea, Hierapolis and Kolossai, three cities in the Lycostal region, were already mentioned in the New Testament and therefore had Christian communities very early on. Laodicea was on an important trade route from Ephesus to the east, which however lost its importance in 330 when the capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople. Flavius ​​Josephus mentioned large Jewish communities in Sardis and Laodicea; The importance of the community of Sardis is impressively confirmed by archeology through the excavation of the ancient synagogue (2nd to 6th centuries AD). Construction work on the synagogue of Sardis took place after Theodosius II passed a law in 438 banning the construction of synagogues; this, as elsewhere, was obviously ignored. While there is no evidence of a Jewish community for Laodicea apart from the mention in Josephus, there are references to Jewish communities in the neighboring towns of Apamea, Acmonia, Hierapolis and Eumeneia. Apparently there were close relations between Jews and Christians, so both groups in Eumeneia used almost the same forms for grave inscriptions.

The Christian community of Laodicea is mentioned by Ignatius of Antioch . A notable figure was Bishop Sagaris of Laodicea, who died in the Diocletian persecution. At the First Council of Nicea , Laodicea was represented by Bishop Nunechios. There is little archaeological evidence of Christianity in Laodicea at this time, but inscriptions from the region north of the city ( Cadi , upper Tembris Valley, Temenothyrae) attest to the Christian presence. An inscription from Temenothyrae names the montanist bishop Diogas and a presbyteress (πρεσβυτερα). The density of montanist inscriptions shows that Temenothyrae was a center of movement.

If one asks how the great 4th century theologians who worked in the region felt about Judaism and "Judaizing" Christians, that does not seem to have been the focus of their interest. Basil of Caesarea , Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzen were primarily concerned with the defense against Arianism . Gregory of Nyssa once mentions that during the severe famine of 368 his brother Basilius had food distributed to the population, “including Jewish children.” Where Gregory of Nyssa dealt in his writings with teaching catechumens from Judaism, remained he was general and showed no local references. Bishop Asterius von Amaseia (around 400) worked in the Pontus region , who apparently knew about the Jewish holidays and addressed an audience that also knew these festivals and even celebrated them.

Important topics

The council dealt primarily with dogmatic questions and church organization. It laid down its decrees in the form of written rules in 59 or 60 " canons ". These are conspicuously short and could be excerpts from a lost, longer text. For example, they targeted:

  1. the restriction of the privileges of neophytes (neophyte (Greek-Latin newly planted) was used in the Old Church to describe the newly baptized, who wore white clothes from his baptism in Easter to Sunday Quasimodogeniti),
  2. the restriction of the powers of the lower clergy,
  3. the limitation of dealing with anything related to heresy ,
  4. the prohibition of women exercising the priesthood
  5. the fight against Judaists among Christians.

The following two canons show that the Sabbath had a special meaning for the Christians in Laodicea.

"On the Sabbath the Gospels are to be read along with the other scriptures."

- Can. 16 of the Council of Laodicea

Apparently there was a religious gathering of Christians on the Sabbath. Canons 49 and 51 together mention the Sabbath and the Lord's Day (Sunday) as particularly prominent days. Can. 16 presents some problems that are solved differently. Some assume, based on Can. 37 that Christians attended synagogue services on the Sabbath. Others believe that Christians of Jewish descent continued to celebrate the Sabbath as usual, reading from the Old Testament. Finally, Christians without a Jewish background could also have felt addressed by Jewish religious practice and copied it. Reading the Scriptures from the Old Testament seems to have been more natural for these Christians than reading from the Gospels.

“Christians should not live the Jewish way (ἰουδαίζειν) and do no work on the Sabbath; they are supposed to work that day. As Christians, they should honor the Lord's day and, as far as possible, not work on it. If it is found that they live in the Jewish way, the anathema of Christ should be pronounced against them . "

- Can. 29 of the Council of Laodicea

The threatened punishment is to be understood as exclusion from the Christian community ( communio ). Apparently it was popular to observe the Sabbath as the day of rest of creation; now, if work was ordered on the Sabbath, it was impossible to continue that practice. Sunday was understood as the beginning of the new creation and only took on the character of a day of rest in the course of the 4th century, supported by state legislation.

Biblical canon

There has been some confusion about the number of canons proclaimed by this council. Canon 59 limited Church readings to the "canonical" books of the Old and New Testaments . The 60th canon consisted of the corresponding list in the Biblical Canon . It contains 26 books of the New Testament, the Revelation of John is not included. The list of the Old Testament contains the 22 books of the Tanakh as well as the book of Baruch and the letter of Jeremiah . This 60th canon is missing from some manuscripts, which gives the impression that it was added later. Since such a list is necessary to comply with Canon 59, it would be useful to add it. As early as 350, Cyril of Jerusalem compiled a list matching the list of the council.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eckart Olshausen: Laodicea in southern Phrygia . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 648 .
  2. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 92.
  3. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 79.
  4. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, pp. 80-84.
  5. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 89.
  6. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 87.
  7. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 90 f.
  8. ^ Eckart Olshausen: Laodicea in southern Phrygia . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 648 .
  9. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 87.
  10. ↑ cf. Susan Haskins: Mary Magdalen . Myth and Metaphor. 1995 by Riverhead Trade
  11. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 94 f.
  12. ↑ FJE Bodden Hosang: Establishing Boundaries: Christian-Jewish Relations in Early Council text and in the Writings of Church Fathers . Brill, Leiden / Boston 2010, p. 96.
  13. ^ Council of Laodicea (about AD 363). Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bible-researcher.com