Stephen Morris's Blog, page 6

October 3, 2022

If Christ Has Not Been Raised

Christ tramples down Death, pulling the human race–personified by Adam and Eve–up with himself from darkness and alienation from the Father into the glorious light of the glory of God. Even the icons of the Nativity of Christ anticipate the proclamation that “Christ is risen!”


If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless since you are still in your sins. Then even those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we only hope in Christ during this life, we are the most pitiful of all people. (1 Cor. 15:17-19)

The Christians in Corinth who thought they were the spiritual “elite,” the super-deluxe Christians who were extra spiritual and could speak tongues etc., apparently said there was no physical resurrection from the dead. They claimed to be the proof that all the benefits of the General Resurrection were already available and that nothing more could be added to what they had already received and demonstrated by their spiritual gifts. They seem to have thought that they would live to see the Second Coming and that others who died before that had totally perished.

The apostle disagreed with them. He taught that if there was no physical resurrection coming at the end of time, then the Christians were the most pitiful of all people because they spent their lives preparing for/expecting something that was not going to ever happen. If there is no General Resurrection coming at the end of time, that also means that St. Paul and the other apostles are liars and have offended God by preaching something that was not true. It also means that the Christians who have already died will never rise again. As St. John Chrysostom and others preached, the Christian faith is meaningless without the resurrection.


Therefore Christ is not to be hoped for in this life only, in which the bad can do more than the good and those who can do more evil are happier and those who lead a more criminal life live more prosperously.


Maximus of Turin, Sermon 96

If the dead will not be raised at the end of time, that means that Christ was not raised and if Christ was not raised, then then “new life” that the Corinthian elite claimed to be demonstrating is impossible. The elite in Corinth can’t have it both ways–either there is no resurrection coming and therefore their experiences are delusions or their experiences are legitimate and there will be a General Resurrection at the end of time.

Christ’s Resurrection and the General Resurrection of the dead go hand in hand. Neither exists without the other. Christ’s Resurrection is not complete until the entire human race is raised from the dead. The human race cannot be raised if Christ was not raised. Resurrection is the single most important proclamation of the Church; everything else is simply trying to make sense of the Resurrection. All theology is simply a struggle to understand the Resurrection and its implications.

Even the proclamation of the Incarnation is a result of attempting to understand the Resurrection. How could Christ be raised? Only God could overcome death. How could God die and enter Hades? Only if God had become human. Everything the Church says and does is built on the Resurrection.

Read previous posts about how celebrations of the Nativity anticipate the Resurrection here and here.

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Published on October 03, 2022 03:30

September 26, 2022

Then He Appeared to More Than 500

Christ appears to the Twelve and displays his wounds after the Resurrection as St. Thomas makes a prostration before him. (6th cent. mosaic from Ravenna, Italy.)



Christ died for our sins… was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve; and then he appeared at one time to more than five hundred brothers and sisters… then he appeared to James, indeed to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me…. (1 Cor. 15:3-8)

St. Paul quotes a brief statement of belief–a creed–which underscores that Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead. To underscore the reality of the Resurrection, the apostle reminds the Corinthians of the people who saw Christ after the Resurrection.

We would have no idea of these people who had seen Christ after the Resurrection if St. Paul had not mentioned them here; none of these appearances are mentioned in the Gospels or other New Testament texts except the appearances to “the twelve” and St. Paul’s description of his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. We have no record of a private appearance to Peter, who is referred to by his Aramaic nickname, Cephas. We have no record of a private appearance to the Apostle James. We have no record of a crowd of 500 people seeing the risen Christ. But we take the word of St. Paul that all these appearances happened.

Christian folktales developed as people told these stories and filled in some of the details. Most of these details simply underscore what we already know from the gospels: Peter is charged with looking after the other apostles, James is charged to look after the Jerusalem community, the 500–perhaps in Galilee, gathered by the apostles after the women at the tomb were told to send the apostles back to the countryside where Christ would meet them–were witnesses as the crowds who heard the Sermon on the Mount or were fed by the five loaves and two fish.

There are other stories of Christ meeting people after his Resurrection. Although there is no written record of these meetings in the New Testament, there is no reason to doubt that these meetings occurred; these meetings are just as likely as the meetings we would be unaware of if they had not been mentioned by St. Paul.

One of these other meetings that was not recorded in writing was said to have been when Christ met his Most Pure Mother on the morning of the Resurrection. Christ is said to have reassured his mother that it was truly him, not a phantasm or ghost. He also underscored the importance of St. Peter in the community.

Many of these appearances of Christ after the Resurrection–including those we know about in the New Testament, especially to St. Mary Magdalen and the other Myrhhbearing Women–became important to the Church as various people claimed to be apostles and began preaching messages that did not agree with what the core community believed. Fundamental to understanding who was an apostle was the question: Did this person meet Jesus after the Resurrection? Without such a meeting, the person’s claim to apostleship was unlikely to be recognized.

Read more about the importance of these post-Resurrection appearances in determining whether someone was an apostle or not here.

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Published on September 26, 2022 04:01

September 20, 2022

Keep Quiet?

This fresco in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (St. Sophia) in Kiev shows the apostles receiving Holy Communion from Christ. Although visitors and non-believers could attend Christian dinners and other activities, they were not allowed to attend the Eucharist. Only believers who had been properly instructed and baptized could attend the Eucharist because non-believers would not understand what was going on.


If the whole church comes together and everyone is speaking in tongues, and if then outsiders and unbelievers come in, won’t they say that you are all crazy? If, however, you are all prophesying …. the visitors will fall on their faces and worship God saying, “God is really in your midst!” (1 Cor. 14:23-25)

St. Paul is still dealing with the troublemakers at Corinth who boast that they are the spiritual elite because they can speak in tongues. The apostle points out that anyone visiting the Christian dinners will think the Christians are all crazy if they are all babbling in some way that no one can understand. But if they hear people prophesying, i.e. preaching well, that is more likely to bring them to conversion.

The unbelievers will think the Christians are just crazy people if they hear the Christians babbling on and on in tongues because they won’t understand anything that the tongue-speakers are saying.

This is the same reason that non-believers were not allowed to attend the celebration of the Eucharist: because they won’t understand what the Christians are saying, even if the Christians are saying words in a language that the non-Christians speak. Unless a person has been properly instructed and baptized before coming to the Eucharist for the first time, nothing they hear or see will make sense. The words “Body of Christ” and “Blood of Christ” will sound like cannibalism. The love of each Christian for the “brothers” and “sisters” will sound like incest. The exchange of a Kiss of Peace will underscore the appearance of incest because only family members were allowed to kiss each other.

None of these words and behaviors make sense without prior instruction, i.e. catechism. Therefore non-believers should be kept out of the celebrations of the Eucharist. (Besides, non-believers might be there as spies for the government, in order to arrest the Christians they see at the Eucharist.)

Addendum, based on a thoughtful question (see “replies” below):

How does this carry over into our contemporary situation? I think the question of who understands what is very complicated now. We live in the remnants of Christendom and presume people have a grasp of basic Christianity but I think that is not true—-many people have no understanding of even the most basic Christian teachings and no familiarity with even the most fundamental Biblical stories. We must redouble and even triple our efforts to teach and proclaim the whole Gospel, from its beginning in Genesis to its conclusion in the Apocalypse. I think we should refer to the great apologists of the second and third centuries: what did they think was of first importance in explaining to the non-Christian world and how did they proclaim it in a way the world could understand?

We have to have a better grasp of contemporary culture as well as contemporary language to do this. But we should not wait until we have the “perfect” message to share. We must begin now and do the best we can with what we have. What we cannot do is sit on our hands and expect someone else to do all the work!

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Published on September 20, 2022 03:29

September 12, 2022

Love vs. the Barbarians

The story of the Tower of Babel (depicted here in a 12th century mosaic in the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily) is about people losing the ability to communicate with each other. God punishes their arrogance with more than 70 languages and these many languages divide the human race into struggling, battling factions; it is the gift of many languages at Pentecost that makes these languages a reflection of harmony rather than a cause of division.


For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays and my mind is useless. What then? I will pray in the spirit and I will pray in my mind. I will sing praise in the spirit and I will sing praise in mind…. I prefer to utter five words with my mind so that I instruct others rather than utter an untold number of words in a tongue. (1 Cor. 14:13-19)

When St. Paul talks about love (agape) in this epistle, he wants his readers to understand that when we love/practice agape, we are participating in the Kingdom of God. When the gospels talk about love, it is always in the context of behavior: love is not a feeling or emotion but a way to behave. In this epistle, love is both a way to behave and a way to think; “strive for love” is both a way for the Corinthians to behave towards each other and an attitude towards each other that they should embrace.

If the Corinthians love one another, they should always want to support each other and build each other up. St. Paul points out that this attitude should be apparent in the way they pray together: it is better to say a few words that everyone can understand and that build up the community rather than lots and LOTS of words that mean nothing to most people.

The notion of “barbarian” is rooted in this inability to speak in a way that others can understand. The ancient Greeks thought that anyone who could not speak Greek and that they could not understand was simply making nonsense sounds and repeating “bar, bar, bar.” Hence, the term barbarian to mean someone who could not be understood. St. Paul implies that if the Corinthians do not pray with love, they are barbarians.

“I would rather speak five words that other people can understand.” Today, many preachers might take this to heart. Rather than say many fancy-sounding words that only a few can understand, it is better to preach in a way that everyone can appreciate. It is possible to talk about many sophisticated theological ideas in very simple language; one of my favorite guides to preaching suggests that a preacher never use words that are more than one syllable. That way the preacher avoids using fancy-sounding jargon and sticks to words that everyone knows. But using short words that everyone knows does not make a sermon boring. What makes a sermon boring are words that no one understands!

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Published on September 12, 2022 04:00

September 6, 2022

Love is Not Jealous

This icon shows monks climbing the ladder of virtues toward Christ and the saints. Most fall to their doom because they give in to temptations rather than heeding their guardian angels and struggling against sin. The monks reach the top of the ladder when they focus on love and Who it is that they are climbing toward.


Love waits patiently, it is kind; love is not jealous, love is not conceited, nor is it inflated… nor does it seek its own interests… it bears everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

This chapter which describes love is perhaps the chapter heard most often because it is read at weddings so often. St. Paul describes love in phrases that are short and simple, just as Plato describes love in a series of short sentences although Plato uses eros rather than agape as the word for “love.” Plato’s praise of love is part of an after-dinner speech in the Symposium and other authors who praised love after that usually made it part of an after-dinner speech as well. St. Paul’s praise of love is also in the context of an after-dinner reflection (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-34).

Much of what St. Paul writes in 1 Cor 13 also appears in Romans 12. Both chapters are describing what love looks like and how people behave who love one another.

“Love is not jealous.” That is especially important in a parish like Corinth that is torn apart by jealousy. The parishioners are jealous of each other’s spiritual gifts and abilities. They refuse to talk together or eat together. “Conceited” people brag about themselves and their gifts and their abilities, just as the Corinthians bragged.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent (a guide to monastic life but with much applicability to Christians who are not monastics) suggests that jealousy is the result of avarice (Step 17) or pride (Step 23). Avarice always wants, wants, want. It wants more. In Corinth, this creates jealousy because people wanted more spiritual gifts, they wanted what they saw other people had and felt jealous that they did not have these gifts as well. Pride gives birth to jealousy because if I am proud, I want the most and the biggest and most spectacular of the spiritual gifts; pride leads to jealousy if someone has what the proud person wants.

If the parishioners in Corinth claim to practice love, they have to first stop bragging about themselves and being jealous of each other.


The greater the love of God that the saints possess, the more they endure all things for him.

St. Augustine of Hippo, On Patience, 17

Older translations of the New Testament often used “charity” to translate agape.


A man with charity fears nothing for charity casts out fear. When fear is banished and cast out, charity endures all things, bears all things. One who bears all things through love cannot fear martyrdom.

St. Ambrose of Milan, Letter 49

Love (our behavior now), faith (in God and Christ now), and hope (about the General Resurrection, the Kingdom of God, and the Second Coming of Christ) support and complement each other. They define authentic Christian life.

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Published on September 06, 2022 03:54

August 29, 2022

If I Speak With the Tongues of Angels But Have Not Love

In addition to the Eucharist, Christians would meet for banquets known as “agapes” or “love feasts” in order to eat, pray, and share their goods together. This is a fresco of a female figure holding a chalice at an early Christian Agape feast, depicted in the Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and PeterVia LabicanaRome. Perhaps the woman with the cup is the personification of Agape-Love herself. The Patriarch Job is often called the Long-Suffering because of his many afflictions; he shown wearing a crown because he is described as a king in the oldest manuscripts of the Book of Job.


If I speak in the tongues of humans or even of angels, and do not have love, I have become sounding brass rather than a resounding cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy … and do not love, I am good for nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-2)

This chapter is a digression in the apostle’s instructions to the Corinthians, but it has become one of the most recognizable chapters in the New Testament. Chapters 12 and 14 of the epistle are about the Church but Chapter 13 is about the essential quality of Christian life: agape, translated simply as “love” is the clearest expression of Christian faith and practice.

St. Paul mentions angels a few times in this epistle (chapters 4, 6, and 11) but this is the only place where he refers to “the tongues of angels.” Perhaps he is thinking of the Testament of Job (written between 100 BC-100 AD), in which the daughters of Job are given the ability of ecstatic speech to make up for their not being allowed to inherit their father’s property on an equal footing with their brothers. The ecstatic speech of the daughters is described as the language of angels and cherubim.


Paul chooses speaking in tongues as his example because the Corinthians thought that it was the greatest of the gifts…. The tongues of angels are those perceived by the mind, not by the ear.

Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians

But this ecstatic speech is useless without love. Even prophecy, which St. Paul had earlier said was truly the greatest of the gifts, is useless without love.


Balaam prophesied even though he was not a prophet (Numbers 22-24). Even his donkey prophesied…. King Saul prophesied but was filled with an evil spirit (1 Samuel 16, 19).

Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles

Love is not just a quality of Christian life. Love is what is natural to divinity.


Since true charity loves all, if someone knows that he hates even one other person he should hasten to vomit up this bitter gall, in order to be ready to receive the sweetness of charity [Christ] himself.

St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 23.4

Many people have heard that there are four different words in Greek that are commonly all translated by the English word “love.” C.S. Lewis wrote a well-known book about these words, known as The Four Loves.

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Published on August 29, 2022 05:13

August 22, 2022

Are All Apostles? Are All Prophets?

Bishops preaching–or about to preach–in Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. Bishops, identified with both the apostles and the prophets, interpret the Scriptures and preside at the Eucharist; they serve as the principle of unity in the community and between communities that form the Church at large.



You are the Body of Christ, each member being a part God has arranged in the Church…. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? …. Avidly desire the greater gifts. (1 Cor. 12:27-30)

The gifts of the Holy Spirit have been hotly contested issues among the Christians in Corinth. Some people are proud that they have certain gifts–especially “tongues”–and look down their noses at other people who do not manifest these gifts. Some people are shut out of the community because they seem to be less “spiritual” than others. But the apostle insists that “tongues” is the least important of all the spiritual gifts and that–in any case–all the spiritual gifts are needed for the Body of Christ to function properly.

The gifts are not as easy to number and classify as some might think, either. To say that someone is a “prophet” does not tell us exactly how this person ministers to the community.


There are two types of prophets: those who predict the future and those who interpret the Scriptures…. There are also ‘prophets’ who are teachers, who teach children or young people.

St. Ambrosiaster, Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistles

St. Ambrosiaster points out that the apostles in each community, i.e. the bishop of a community, is also a prophet who must interpret the Scriptures. Being able to practice one spiritual gift does not exclude a person from other gifts at the same time.

Although the offices of prophet and apostle were similar or overlapped in some ways, they were also distinct. St. Ambrosiaster seems to presume the prophets were sedentary members of the community, staying in one place. On the other hand, in Syria authentic prophets were presumed to always be on-the-move and never stayed long in any one place. In fact, that was how a parish could distinguish between true and false prophets: the Didache (a handbook for local parishes from the same time as the New Testament) says that a true prophet would never stay in any one place for more than three days.

Not only are the gifts given for the well-being of any one particular community or parish. The gifts are given for the well-being of the Church as a whole.


The Corinthian church was not the whole body by itself but was part of a worldwide community of faith. Therefore the Corinthians ought to be at peace with the Church in every other place, if it is a true member of the body.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 32 on the Epistles of St. Paul

Although the gifts might be given to the parish in Corinth, they had to be practiced in a way that did not only benefit the parish in Corinth but the other parishes in every city. Nowadays, we might say that the parish on East 17th Street had to realize that the gifts of the people in that parish were also to benefit the people in the parish on West 25th Street, as well as the people in parishes across the country.

While all the members of the community have differing gifts and everyone has a role to play in their local parish as well as in the larger Church as a whole, there is one gift that everyone in every parish is called to embrace and practice. The greatest of the spiritual gifts that St. Paul wants everyone in each parish to strive for is love.

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Published on August 22, 2022 04:13

August 15, 2022

Can the Eye Say to the Hand, “I Don’t Need You”?

The depiction of the hand of God stood in the presence of God himself, as in this hand of God the Father seen above the Cross, clutching a wreath of victory, San Clemente, Rome, AD 1140–43. Read here for more about the Hand of God in ancient-medieval Jewish and Christian art.


For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, although many, are one body, so also is Christ…. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it for this reason less a part of the body? (1 Cor. 12:12-15)

St. Paul was not the only one to talk about the Church as if it were a body. St. Jerome wrote


The Church has real eyes: its teachers and leaders who see the mysteries of God in the sacred Scriptures…. The Church has feet: those who make official journeys of all kinds. The foot runs that the hand may find the work it should do. The eye does not scorn the hand, nor do the eyes, hands, and feet scorn the belly as if it were idle and unemployed.

Homily 85 on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

I think the best example of body imagery is what St. Augustine wrote:


Aren’t the hairs of your head certainly of less value than your other members? What is cheaper and more despicable and lowly than the hairs of your head? Yet if the barber gives you a bad haircut, you become angry at him for doing a bad job and cutting your hair unevenly. But you are not as concerned about the unity of the members of the Church as you are about the hairs on your head.

On the Usefulness of Fasting 6

How new was all this body imagery? Philosophers who were writing at the same time as St. Paul also used body imagery as a way to talk about society. Seneca wrote:


What if the hands should desire to harm the feet or the eyes the hands? As all the members of the body are in harmony with one another because it is to the advantage of the whole that individual members be unharmed….

On Anger, 2.31.7

A Roman fable told the story of hands, mouth, and teeth rebelling against the stomach, with the result that the whole body is harmed. (Livy, History of Rome 2.32.7-33.1) Other fables and philosophers compared political unrest to disease or self-harm (such as cutting).

Jewish writers like Josephus and Philo also used body imagery. “As in the body, all the members get sick if the principal members are inflamed….” and the high priest asks for blessings in order “that every age and every part of the nation be regarded as a single body, united in one and the same fellowship, making peace and good order their aim.”

A few decades after St. Paul wrote, St. Clement of Rome also write to the Corinthians. St. Clement also used body imagery to appeal to the Corinthians to embrace harmony and set aside discord.


Let us take our body as an example. The head without the feet is nothing; likewise the feet without the head are nothing: even the smallest limbs of our body are necessary and useful for the whole body; but all the members conspire and unite in subjection, that the whole body may be saved.”

1 Clement 37

I highly recommend Raymond Collins’ commentary on First Corinthians in the Sacra Pagina series.

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Published on August 15, 2022 04:16

August 8, 2022

Charismatic Gifts? Healing and Prophecy

In this manuscript illumination, Miriam leads the women singing in joy on the shore of the Red Sea after God’s victory over the Egyptians. There are seven women prophets of Israel — Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Esther, and Huldah. These women were inspired by God to tell the Truth, especially when no one wanted to hear it.


There are allotments of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are allotments of services, but the same Lord; and there are allotments of activities, but the same God who works all things in all…. to [some], gifts of healings in the one Spirit… to another prophecy…. One and the same Spirit activates all of these, allotting to each one, as he wills, his or her own gifts. (1 Cor. 12:4-11)

The Apostle Paul is concerned with divisions among the members of the parish in Corinth, especially those who said that certain roles in the community or certain spiritual gifts were more important or more valuable than others. He stresses that all spiritual gifts are given by the same Spirit. All are equally valuable, equally important.

Gifts of healing were a major focus of the residents of Corinth. There was an important sanctuary of Asklepios, the Greek god of healing, in Corinth; he was one of the most popular gods in the ancient world and his shrine at Corinth brought many visitors, hoping to be healed, to the city. People hoping to be healed would usually sleep in the god’s shrine, hoping for a miracle or a dream that would tell them how to be healed. Ritual baths were important at the shrine as well. St. Paul tells the Corinthian Christians that all healing is given by the one Spirit of God and the ritual bath of baptism is the true source of authentic spiritual health-salvation. He wants them to realize that Christ and the Spirit of God–not Asklepios–were the true healers.

Prophets and prophecy are often misunderstood as simply being able to foretell the future. Real prophets were keen observers of people and the world. They were skilled preachers and poets. They were focused on God. Because a prophet was all of these–a skilled preacher, a keen observer, focused on God–they were able to speak the Truth when no one wanted to hear it and to describe what would happen if they continued to deny the Truth and the Reality that they were trying to escape. Prophets were also able to describe what God would do because God was faithful and had made certain promises to his people. A prophet might not always realize how True everything they said was–just as a poet says more than they realize in a poem. The prophets in the Corinthian parish were preachers and teachers who were supposed to build up the community, not tear it down and create divisions.

St. Paul and early Christian preachers were eager to remind people that these gifts were given to both men and women, the old and the young. The record of the Acts of the Apostles described how these gifts were manifest among the early Christians in various places. The most important gift, given to all Christians, is the Holy Spirit himself.


Not everyone has all of these gifts –some have one, and others have another. But we all have the the Gift who is himself the one who gives these other gifts; that is to say, the Holy Spirit.

St. Agustine of Hippo, On the Trinity 15.

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Published on August 08, 2022 03:54

August 1, 2022

Who Can Say “Jesus is Anathema”?

St. Basil the Great (died AD 379) offers the prayers of the Eucharist at the altar. The Church at prayer was thought to be the clearest revelation of the Holy Spirit. Typically, the scroll in his hands indicates the first few words of the prayer the priest says quietly for himself at the offertory of the Eucharist.


You know that as Gentiles you were marched away to mute idols, however you were led. For this reason I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says “Jesus is anathema!” and that no one can say “Jesus is Lord!” except by the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 12:1-3)

“Anathema” was sometimes used by pagans to mean an offering was no longer available for human use but it was used in the Old Testament to mean a thing was cursed (Deut. 7:26) and therefore should not be touched. In Christian use, the word “anathema” came to mean an idea or opinion or person was outside the broad range of acceptable theological ideas or ethical behavior considered appropriate for Christians. “Arius is anathema” was common after the first ecumenical council at Nicea in AD 325.

Each slogan–Jesus is anathema/Jesus is Lord–is only two words long in Greek: anathema Iesous and kyrios Iesous. Evidently differing factions of the Corinthian parish used these slogans to identify themselves. Why would a Corinthian Christian say, “Jesus is anathema?” Presumably, this was what the Roman authorities wanted the Christians to say when they were arrested and asked to deny Christ. Perhaps some in the Corinthian parish who had gnostic tendencies used the phrase to denigrate the earthly Jesus because they thought “spiritual” experiences were more important; this might explain the hostility between those with certain “spiritual gifts” or “spiritual experiences” and the rest of the parish that St. Paul deals with in other portions of his epistle.

“Jesus is Lord!” was probably a quote from the baptism service in which a new believer affirmed their faith in Christ and was immersed in the water to die and rise with Christ. This affirmation-confession of faith was impossible without the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It has become a quick summary of classic teaching about the Holy Trinity to say that the Father is revealed by the Son and the Son is revealed by the Holy Spirit while the Holy Spirit is revealed by the Church. (Readers might be interested to read Vladimir Lossky’s thoughts on this here or here.)

Shameless self-promotion: However, the Holy Spirit was not always recognized as a distinct person apart from Christ or the Father. For an easy-to-read description of how the Holy Spirit was recognized and the Holy Trinity proclaimed, see Chapter 3 in my introduction to church history, which is also available here.

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Published on August 01, 2022 04:22