Church History 281-325

 THE MONARCHIAN PROLOGUES 

TO THE GOSPELS

These Latin prologues were placed at the beginning of the four Gospels as a short commentary of subject matter to which the author of the prologue wished to call the reader’s attention. There has been some debate over the dating of the Prologues: some say they appeared as early as A.D. 200 (Vetus Latina) or as late as the A.D. 400’s. All are agreed, however, they are of Monarchian origin and serve to demonstrate the dominance of the Monarchian Faith in the early centuries of Christianity especially in the West, where Latin was the dominant language—as opposed to Greek. It must be acknowledged that at the time these Latin Gospels were in use, the Monarchian Prologues were considered orthodox. Monarchianism, as we have seen, believes that God is of only one essence (homoousios), and that, therefore, the Father and the Son are in fact one and the same Deity in different ways of being, or modes of being. The prologues preceded the Gospels in many Latin manuscripts.  They are presented here in the order which their very contents insist, namely, the canonical order typical of the Latin tradition before Jerome’s Vulgate: Matthew, John, Luke and Mark. This order militates against a date later than the third century.

The English Translation of the Latin Matthean Prologue:

of Christ, who was working from the beginning. God is Christ, who was made from a woman, who was made under the law, who was born from a virgin, who suffered in the flesh, who fixed all things on the cross so that, triumphing over them for eternity, rising in the body, he might restore both the name of the Father to the Son in the Father’s and the name of the Son to the Father in the Son’s, without beginning, without end, showing that he is one with the Father, because he is one. … not be silent that the economy of God at work must be diligently understood by those seeking to do so.

The English Translation of the Latin Johannine Prologue:

This is John the evangelist, one from the twelve disciples of God, who was elected by God to be a virgin, whom God called away from marriage though he was wishing to marry, for whom double testimony of his virginity is given in the gospel both in that he was said to be beloved by God above others and in that God, going to the cross, …, placing the first sign which God did in a wedding … since Christ says: I am the alpha and the omega.

The English Translation of the Latin Lucan Prologue:

after all the perfection of God come in the flesh was made manifest, … from the beginning of his human nativity, so that he might demonstrate to those who thoroughly seek, insofar as he had apprehended it, that, by the admitted introduction of a generation which runs back through a son of Nathan to God, the indivisible God who preaches his Christ among men made the work of the perfect man return into himself through the son, he who through David the father was preparing a way in Christ for those who were coming. … we have avoided public curiosity, lest we should be seen as, not so much demonstrating God to those who are willing, but rather having given it to those who loathe him.

The English Translation of the Latin Marcan Prologue:

Mark, the evangelist of God and in baptism the son of the blessed apostle Peter and also his disciple in the divine word, performing the priesthood in Israel, a Levite according to the flesh, but converted to the faith of Christ, wrote the gospel in Italy, showing in it what he owed to his own race and what to Christ. For, setting up the start of the beginning with the voice of the prophetic exclamation, he showed the order of his Levitical election so that he, preaching by the voice of the announcing messenger that John the son of Zechariah was the predestinated one, might show at the start of the preaching of the gospel not only that the word made flesh had been sent out but also that the body of the Lord had been animated in all things through the word of the divine voice, so that he who reads these things might realize not to be ignorant to whom he owes the start of the flesh in the Lord and the tabernacle of the coming God, and also that he might find in himself the word of the voice which had been lost in the consonants. Furthermore, both going on with the work of the perfect gospel and starting that God preached from the baptism of the Lord, …, and to understand the divine nature of the Lord in the flesh.

Alexander

As the differences between the Monarchian bishop of Alexandria (Alexander) and one of his Subordinationist presbyters (Arius by name), over the person of Jesus Christ, spilled over into the rank and file of Christians throughout the empire, it was Hosius that hand delivered letters from Constantine to these men, urging peace between them. No doubt, upon returning from his mission, Hosius convinced the Emperor that the situation had gone beyond the ability of mere individuals to correct, and a council should be called. The purpose, then, of the council, called by Constantine at the urging of Bishop Hosius, was to bring the empire back to a place of peace.

As the differences between the Monarchian bishop of Alexandria (Alexander) and one of his Subordinationist presbyters (Arius by name), over the person of Jesus Christ, spilled over into the rank and file of Christians throughout the empire, it was Hosius that hand delivered letters from Constantine to these men, urging peace between them. No doubt, upon returning from his mission, Hosius convinced the Emperor that the situation had gone beyond the ability of mere individuals to correct, and a council should be called. The purpose, then, of the council, called by Constantine at the urging of Bishop Hosius, was to bring the empire back to a place of peace.

Arius (A.D. 250 or 256–336), who was an ascetic North African Christian presbyter and priest in Alexan-dria, Egypt, of the church of Baucalis, and was of Libyan origins. Arius, who was tall, lean, learned, morally exemplar, a fine orator, and inclined to be disputatious, was educated in a theological school of Antioch under the distinguished scholar Lucian. This school was noted for its emphasis upon (1) the historical and inductive method of religious investigation, (2) the unity and transcendence of the Godhead. Combined with these was a tendency to regard Christ as a created being, subordinate to the Father, a view that affected Arius.

His teaching on the Godhead was the belief that God is One Sentient Being and that Jesus is His first creation; as such Jesus is His Son and may be called “God” in the second sense, and by association; mostly the Holy Spirit is viewed as the Spirit of God and not another person from Him. However, some Arians see Jesus as the archangel Michael, or even Gabriel. (Many groups who are Arians call themselves Unitarians.) 

Arianism’s claim to monotheism is that the Father is the only true God, and, therefore, excludes Jesus of Nazareth from the Godhead in any real sense. In the Arian belief, Jesus is the first created being of God. (Modern institutionalized Arians are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, followers of Armstrongism, and the Way International.)

Baukalis is a section in Alexandria, Egypt where St. Mark was reported to have been martyred. It is also where Arius (Greek: Ἄρειος, AD 250 or 256–336) was a Christian presbyter and priest. Coptic Church tradition holds that the city of Alexandria was evangelized for the first time by St. Mark. The first Christians there built a church for Mark at Baucalis. Later, Partriarchs of Alexandria were elected at the Church of Baucalis, as the oldest church in the city. Arius, son of Ammonius, was a popular priest appointed presbyter for the district of Baucalis in 313. After his condemnation in 321, Arius withdrew to Palestine with the support of Eusebius of Caesarea. 

Eusebius became bishop of Caesarea (in Palestine) about 313. When about 318 the theological views of Arius, a priest of Alexandria, became the subject of controversy because he taught the subordination of the Son to the Father, Eusebius was soon involved. Expelled from Alexandria for heresy, Arius sought and found sympathy at Caesarea, and, in fact, he proclaimed Eusebius as a leading supporter. Eusebius did not fully support either Arius or Alexander, bishop of Alexandria from 313 to 328, whose views appeared to tend toward Sabellianism. Eusebius wrote to Alexander, claiming that Arius had been misrepresented, and he also urged Arius to return to communion with his bishop. But events were moving fast, and at a strongly anti-Arian synod at Antioch, about January 325, Eusebius and two of his allies, Theodotus of Laodicea and Narcissus of Neronias in Cilicia, were provisionally excommunicated for Subordinationist views. (Encyclopedia Britannica)