resurrection. Other early Christians sought to resolve
the debate about the relationship between Jesus Christ
and God by asserting his humanity at the expense of his
divinity. A proponent of this view was Sabellius, a
Greek who served as a presbyter at Rome in the third
century, and after whom the heresy Sabellianism was
named. He was not the only Christian to speculate about
the relationship of Jesus Christ as Son to God as Father.
The Alexandrian priest Arius (see p. 143) believed that
the Son did not share the same substance (ousia) as the
Father, but was only ‘like’ him. His views were con-
demned at the council of Nicaea, which asserted in its
creed that the Son and the Father were ‘of the same
substance’ (homoousios).
(3)Debates about the relationship of Christianity to Juda-
ism. We saw in the last chapter that there was consider-
able debate among early Christians about the relation-
ship of their faith to Jewish tradition and custom. In the
middle of the second century Marcion, a Christian
teacher from Pontus in Asia Minor, advocated a radical
break with Judaism. According to Irenaeus, whose
opinion was quoted by Eusebius, Marcion argued
that the Christian god was superior to the Jewish god
of creation. Furthermore, he advocated that Christians
should reject the Jewish scriptures (the Christian Old
Testament) as well as Jewish laws, on the basis that
Jesus’ teachings had ushered in a new covenant that
annulled much that was found in the Jewish Bible.
(4)Debates about prophecy and the end of the world.
According to the canonical gospels, when Jesus
ascended to heaven after his resurrection, he promised
to return again. Some early Christians expected this
second coming (known as the parousiain Greek) to be
imminent. The New Testament contains Revelation,
which gives details of Jesus’ return and the last days of
the world. Revelationis the only book of prophecy toORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
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