The Eschatology of the Second Century

Abstract

The purpose of the present essay is twofold: first, to set forth a general presentation of the doctrines of eschatology as they are to be found in the writings of the second century,' including, not only the works of those whom later history has looked upon as the theologians of that period, but also the less authoritative documents, some of which were either contemporaneously or later pronounced heretical-thus acquiring a view, if possible, of the faith of the great mass of Christians throughout the Roman Empire; and secondly, to suggest a solution of the problems involved in the following special questions: Is the eschatology of the second century a continuation of the primitive Christian eschatology? To what extent is it a new development, under new influences, Greek or Hellenistic, to which the church was subject in its new environment (gentile Christianity)? How are we to account for the phenomenon of Chiliasm ? Did Chiliasm represent the primitive Christian eschatology ? The importance of the eschatological question for the interpretation of the New Testament writings, and especially the Gospels, is now generally recognized. A similar importance is to be attached to the bearing which it has on the writings of the period following that of the New Testament literature. Granted that Christianity arose in the environment of apocalyptic Judaism, whose mental, moral, and spiritual atmosphere was charged with fervent messianic expectation, and that so strong was this influence upon the new religion that from at least one point of view its specific original content was simply the conviction of the nearness of the judgment and the identification of Jesus with the Messiah, then what became of this Christian messianic hope in the second century ? There is also to be considered the reflexive bearing of