First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

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First Christian Voices

concern in the early church as many were communicating false teachings about Jesus. To ensure the proper doctrine about Jesus Christ, the Apostolic Fathers relied on the leaders of churches to gather believers together to read and learn about Him. In fact, the primary role of the leader of a church in the second century was to ensure that everyone properly understood that Jesus is God. As you read about how the Apostolic Fathers communicated about Jesus, you will inevitably recognize ideas from the New Testament. For example, you will recognize from your reading of the Gospel of John that Jesus is the eternal Word. He has two natures as fully God and fully human as we learn from the Apostle Paul’s letters. He established a new covenant as the Hebrew author writes. The Apostolic Fathers were faithful to communicate the true nature of Jesus because they knew that false teachers could lead believers astray. It was just as important to them as it was to the authors of the New Testament. The Apostolic Fathers learned that the best defense against such false teaching was clear communication about Jesus Christ, God the Son. Finally, in this chapter you will observe several Christological typologies. Typologies are simply references to how the Old Testament prophesied about Jesus through different types. A type could be figures like Isaac and Moses, animals like the calf or lamb, or anything else that helped early Christians understand that Jesus was not someone new. Indeed, He was foretold even during the days of the prophets.