Lecture 17: The Emergence of Patriarchal Centers
• Rome’s authority eventually would be restricted to the West (at
least in the eyes of others), but in the 4th and 5th centuries, its voice
was widely acknowledged to be “first.” It was a primacy at least of
honor and, in many cases, of actual authority.Antioch and Alexandria
• Two patriarchal centers, Antioch and Alexandria, competed with
each other without directly challenging the primacy of Rome,
especially in the realm of thought. Their rivalry played a key role
in the theological controversies that divided Christians in the 4th and
5 th centuries.• Antioch, on the Orontes River in Syria, was where members of
the movement were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26) and was
the church that sponsored the first missionary work of Paul and
Barnabas (Acts 13:1–3). It was also the church where the issue of
the acceptance of Gentiles without demanding observance of the
Law was raised and vigorously debated (Acts 15, Gal. 2).
o Ignatius of Antioch’s letters (c. 107) indicate the prestige he
enjoyed as the bishop of that city. He wrote letters of instruction
and exhortation to churches across Asia as he traveled to his
martyrdom in Rome.o Other important figures in the city of Antioch were Paul of
Samosata, who was bishop there from 260 to 268, and Lucian,
who died as a martyr in the Diocletian persecution in 312.
Lucian was a biblical scholar and an influential teacher; among
his students was Arius.o The intellectual style of Antioch was Aristotelian, with an
emphasis on empirical fact and history. Although its biblical
interpretation used typology, it avoided the allegory that
dominated scriptural interpretation in Alexandria.o Antioch’s understanding of Jesus emphasized his humanity
(logos-anthropos) and tended toward adoptionism. In its
benign form, this position simply emphasized the realness of