Chapter Four
Early Unitarians
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Christianity
The Apostolic Christians, as the true fol1owers of the fol1owers of
Jesus came to be known, peace be on him and them, produced a
number ofscholars and saints whose piety and learning is respected
and admired even today. Apostolic, or, as it is generally known,
Antiochene, exegesis of the Scriptures was historical, and, unlike
what is now the orthodox approach, looked not for a hidden al1e
gorical meaning in the text, but accepted the plain meaning of the
words spoken by the inspired Prophet. They were also critical of
holding sorne parts of the Bible to be of more value than the others,
They insisted on the One-ness of God and abhorred any dogma
which to the slightest degree savoured of tri-theism. They empha
sised the historical Jesus and avoided the use of the term'son' when
talking of him. They endeavoured to live as Jesus had lived and to
behave as he had behaved. As wel1 as living in the Holy Land,
many of them lived in North Africa. Sorne of the most important of
these followers of the fol1owers of Jesus were:
Iranaeus (130-200 AD)
By the time Iranaeus was born, Antiochene Christianity had spread
right across North Africa and up intoSpain and the South of France.
Mention is first made of him carrying a petition on behalf of
Pothinus, the Bishop of Lyons, to Pope Elutherus in Rome. In this
petition, a request was made to the Pope to stop the persecution of
Christians who did not agree with the doctrine of the Pauline
Church. Iranaeus was still in Rome when he heard that all the dis
senting Christians, including Bishop Pothinus, had been killed. On
his retum, Iranaeus succeeded Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons.