Amazing Rando
June 14th 2005, 12:44 PM
Here's a paper I just turned in for a seminary course. Hope it's nice and controversial! :grin:
I tried my best to format it for Tweb, but couldn't figure out the best way to render footnotes, so I just put all the footnotes and citations at the end of the paper.
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Nor Will They Train for War Anymore: Isaiah 2:1-5 in Writings of the Early Church
Seven centuries before Jesus, Isaiah of Jerusalem was given a messianic vision of the establishment of the kingdom of God. He saw the advent of God’s ultimate rule of the earth as being an era of utter peace, justice, and shalom. His remarkable vision included scenes of transformative peace, including the expectation that those who formerly were enemies will be reconciled, and those who used to kill one another will be united. This vision did not just encompass human relationships, but those in the natural world as well (Isaiah 11:6-9)!
In the midst of this expectation of a better time, one specific passage stands out above the rest. Isaiah writes:
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
5 Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Isaiah 2:1-5 (which is also strongly echoed if not directly cited in Micah 4:1-3) reflects the belief in a time when wars will cease, and instruments of destruction will be turned into implements of production, harvest, and healing. This vision certainly sounded other-worldly in its original context. At the time of his prophecy, Israel and Judah were facing extinction at the hands of the Assyrian army, God’s judgment for the house of Jacob’s covenantal infidelity, and the hope of peace and justice must have been terribly far from the people’s minds.
Yet in the centuries immediately after Christ, the early church was captivated with the prophet’s vision. Author after author borrowed a phrase, a sentence, or this entire passage from Isaiah to illustrate the new ethic of peace and nonviolence that characterized the lives of Christian disciples. As we shall see, many even linked the typological fulfillment of this passage with the coming of Christ and the birth of the “holy nation” of Christians living as citizens of the kingdom of God.(1)
The first Christian author to explicitly cite Isaiah 2:1-5 is Justin Martyr, in approximately 150 CE. In chapter 39 of his First Apology, he attempts to show the validity of the Christian faith by appealing to the action of the Holy Spirit through prophecy fulfillment. He explains:
And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks as predicting things that are to come to pass, He speaks in this way: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And that it did so come to pass, we can convince you. For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God; and we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.(2)
After citing Isaiah’s prophecy, Justin here explicitly connects its fulfillment with the peaceable actions and teachings of Christ’s apostles, who not only no longer murder and wage war on their enemies, but willingly suffer martyrdom as a witness to their faith. Justin also repeats this affirmation in a similar context in his Dialogue with Trypho.(3) His statement here affirms two essential beliefs common to the leaders of the early church, namely that murder and warfare are expressly forbidden for the followers of Christ, and second, that the shalom-filled lives of the Christians are evidence that the words spoken by Isaiah had indeed come to pass through the work of the servant-king Jesus.
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, shares Justin’s sentiments. One of the targets of his Against Heresies, the followers of Marcion, charged that the God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures was a lesser and inferior god than Jesus’ Father in the New Testament. To refute this claim, Irenaeus pointed to the use of the Hebrew prophetic literature by the Christian writers of the New Testament, and to the ultimate fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies by Jesus. Of particular note to this study is his use of the Isaiah 2 prophecy:
But from the Lord's advent, the new covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He shall rebuke many people; and they shall break down their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall no longer learn to fight."(4)
Of note in this first quotation is first, the affirmation that the Lord is the inauguration of the new covenant, and second, that his law has already “gone forth over the whole earth,” and that this law is to be identified with the word of the Lord in Isaiah 2. He continues:
If therefore another law and word, going forth from Jerusalem, brought in such a [reign of] peace among the Gentiles which received it (the word), and convinced, through them, many a nation of its folly, then [only] it appears that the prophets spoke of some other person. But if the law of liberty, that is, the word of God, preached by the apostles (who went forth from Jerusalem) throughout all the earth, caused such a change in the state of things, that these [nations] did form the swords and war-lances into ploughshares, and changed them into pruning-hooks for reaping the corn, [that is], into instruments used for peaceful purposes, and that they are now unaccustomed to fighting, but when smitten, offer also the other cheek, then the prophets have not spoken these things of any other person,
but of Him who effected them. This person is our Lord… (5)
In this section, Irenaeus creates a hypothetical situation in which the accusations of the Marcionites can be substantiated. The evidence to support or deny their view would be in the results lived by the recipients of the prophecy. If they live peaceful, loving lives, then the accusations of the Marcionites are refuted. As proof of this outcome, Irenaeus lifts up, as Justin before him had done, the practical results of the Christian convictions on the lives of believers. Two notable conclusions can be drawn from this affirmation. First- he describes the de facto behavior of the Christians of his day. They have turned their war instruments into tools of cultivation, are “unaccustomed to fighting,” and literally offer the other cheek when they are struck. Second- Irenaeus tells us that the peaceable lives of Christian believers demonstrate that the prophet was indeed typologically speaking of Jesus Christ.
The late 2nd century bishop of Carthage Tertullian was likewise familiar with passage, and used it frequently throughout his work to illustrate the effects of the “law of Christ.” He sought to establish a supercessionist hermeneutical framework with regard to the Mosaic Law and the ethic of Christ. After quoting the Isaiah passage in a treatise against Jewish objections to Christianity, he notes:
Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices,--the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates? For the wont of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the glaive, and to pluck out "eye for eye," and to inflict retaliatory revenge for injury. But the new law's wont was to point to clemency, and to convert to tranquility the pristine ferocity of "glaives" and "lances," and to remodel the pristine execution of "war" upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of "ploughing" and "tilling" the land.(6)
Whatever we may think of his attitude regarding the Hebraic Law, it is clear from this passage that he believes that with Christ, a new era has begun, which is marked not by retaliatory vengeance and retributive justice, but by “tranquility” and “clemency.”
Tertullian also wrote against Marcion and employed much the same strategy as that done by Irenaeus before him. He cited messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, and pointed out their fulfillment in the peaceful and enemy-loving lives of the Christians, whom he regarded as the true inheritors of the prophetic fulfillment. One exemplary passage, utilizes Isaiah 2 to just this effect:
The gospel will be this "way," of the new law and the new word in Christ, no longer in Moses. "And He shall judge among the nations," even concerning their error. "And these shall rebuke a large nation," that of the Jews themselves and their proselytes. "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;" in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace the dispositions of injurious minds, and hostile tongues, and all kinds of evil, and blasphemy. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," shall not stir up discord. "Neither shall they learn war any more," that is, the provocation of hostilities; so that you here learn that Christ is promised not as powerful in war, but pursuing peace…
Verily the apostles have annulled that belief of yours. (7)
Countering Marcion’s assertion that the Hebrew prophets had been inspired by some lesser god, Tertullian takes this ancient prophecy of hope in YHWH and applies it to what has already been accomplished through Jesus Christ. In explicating this passage from Isaiah, he hopes to show the remarkable continuity between the Old Covenant and the New, and to refute those who posited an inferior god. In Tertullian’s view, this continuity is evident in the lives of the Christians of his era, who do not “lift up sword” or “learn war” anymore.
These are but some of the examples of the citations of this particular prophecy by leaders of the early church.(8) What then can be concluded from this study? Extant documents from the leaders of the early church are unanimous in their belief that this prophecy had already been fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ and the followers who patterned their loving, peaceful existence off his life and teachings. The forcefulness with which they argued for the prophetic fulfillment of “all things” through Jesus Christ is quite evident in these brief selections from their work. Jesus has come, they assert, and the “last days” are indeed upon us. The word of the LORD has indeed gone out from Zion, as the prophet declares, and Christians are a people who must convert swords, spears, guns, nuclear weapons, and all other implements and agents of death into life-giving resources. The authentic follower the Way of Jesus will join with the faith and practice described by the early church, and refuse to train for war anymore.
Endnotes:
(1)Hornus, Jean-Michel. It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight: Early Christian Attitudes Toward Violence, War, and the State. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press (1980), 85. In this short essay, I am indebted to Hornus’ research. He provided this essay with the jumping-off point and citations from the early church to explore in more detail.
(2)Justin Martyr. First Apology, Chapter 39. Quoted from: http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html
(3)Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 109-110. http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html
(4)Irenaeus. Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter 34, section 4. Quoted from: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-62.htm
(5)Ibid.
(6)Tertullian. An Answer to the Jews, Chapter 3. Quoted from: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian08.html
(7)Tertullian. Against Marcion, Book 3, Chapter 21. Quoted from: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian123.html
(8)Origen is another example of an early church father who believed this prophecy had been fulfilled through the coming of Christ. See Against Celsus, Book 5, Chapter 33 for one further example.
I tried my best to format it for Tweb, but couldn't figure out the best way to render footnotes, so I just put all the footnotes and citations at the end of the paper.
------------------
Nor Will They Train for War Anymore: Isaiah 2:1-5 in Writings of the Early Church
Seven centuries before Jesus, Isaiah of Jerusalem was given a messianic vision of the establishment of the kingdom of God. He saw the advent of God’s ultimate rule of the earth as being an era of utter peace, justice, and shalom. His remarkable vision included scenes of transformative peace, including the expectation that those who formerly were enemies will be reconciled, and those who used to kill one another will be united. This vision did not just encompass human relationships, but those in the natural world as well (Isaiah 11:6-9)!
In the midst of this expectation of a better time, one specific passage stands out above the rest. Isaiah writes:
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
5 Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Isaiah 2:1-5 (which is also strongly echoed if not directly cited in Micah 4:1-3) reflects the belief in a time when wars will cease, and instruments of destruction will be turned into implements of production, harvest, and healing. This vision certainly sounded other-worldly in its original context. At the time of his prophecy, Israel and Judah were facing extinction at the hands of the Assyrian army, God’s judgment for the house of Jacob’s covenantal infidelity, and the hope of peace and justice must have been terribly far from the people’s minds.
Yet in the centuries immediately after Christ, the early church was captivated with the prophet’s vision. Author after author borrowed a phrase, a sentence, or this entire passage from Isaiah to illustrate the new ethic of peace and nonviolence that characterized the lives of Christian disciples. As we shall see, many even linked the typological fulfillment of this passage with the coming of Christ and the birth of the “holy nation” of Christians living as citizens of the kingdom of God.(1)
The first Christian author to explicitly cite Isaiah 2:1-5 is Justin Martyr, in approximately 150 CE. In chapter 39 of his First Apology, he attempts to show the validity of the Christian faith by appealing to the action of the Holy Spirit through prophecy fulfillment. He explains:
And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks as predicting things that are to come to pass, He speaks in this way: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And that it did so come to pass, we can convince you. For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number, and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God; and we who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.(2)
After citing Isaiah’s prophecy, Justin here explicitly connects its fulfillment with the peaceable actions and teachings of Christ’s apostles, who not only no longer murder and wage war on their enemies, but willingly suffer martyrdom as a witness to their faith. Justin also repeats this affirmation in a similar context in his Dialogue with Trypho.(3) His statement here affirms two essential beliefs common to the leaders of the early church, namely that murder and warfare are expressly forbidden for the followers of Christ, and second, that the shalom-filled lives of the Christians are evidence that the words spoken by Isaiah had indeed come to pass through the work of the servant-king Jesus.
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, shares Justin’s sentiments. One of the targets of his Against Heresies, the followers of Marcion, charged that the God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures was a lesser and inferior god than Jesus’ Father in the New Testament. To refute this claim, Irenaeus pointed to the use of the Hebrew prophetic literature by the Christian writers of the New Testament, and to the ultimate fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies by Jesus. Of particular note to this study is his use of the Isaiah 2 prophecy:
But from the Lord's advent, the new covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He shall rebuke many people; and they shall break down their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall no longer learn to fight."(4)
Of note in this first quotation is first, the affirmation that the Lord is the inauguration of the new covenant, and second, that his law has already “gone forth over the whole earth,” and that this law is to be identified with the word of the Lord in Isaiah 2. He continues:
If therefore another law and word, going forth from Jerusalem, brought in such a [reign of] peace among the Gentiles which received it (the word), and convinced, through them, many a nation of its folly, then [only] it appears that the prophets spoke of some other person. But if the law of liberty, that is, the word of God, preached by the apostles (who went forth from Jerusalem) throughout all the earth, caused such a change in the state of things, that these [nations] did form the swords and war-lances into ploughshares, and changed them into pruning-hooks for reaping the corn, [that is], into instruments used for peaceful purposes, and that they are now unaccustomed to fighting, but when smitten, offer also the other cheek, then the prophets have not spoken these things of any other person,
but of Him who effected them. This person is our Lord… (5)
In this section, Irenaeus creates a hypothetical situation in which the accusations of the Marcionites can be substantiated. The evidence to support or deny their view would be in the results lived by the recipients of the prophecy. If they live peaceful, loving lives, then the accusations of the Marcionites are refuted. As proof of this outcome, Irenaeus lifts up, as Justin before him had done, the practical results of the Christian convictions on the lives of believers. Two notable conclusions can be drawn from this affirmation. First- he describes the de facto behavior of the Christians of his day. They have turned their war instruments into tools of cultivation, are “unaccustomed to fighting,” and literally offer the other cheek when they are struck. Second- Irenaeus tells us that the peaceable lives of Christian believers demonstrate that the prophet was indeed typologically speaking of Jesus Christ.
The late 2nd century bishop of Carthage Tertullian was likewise familiar with passage, and used it frequently throughout his work to illustrate the effects of the “law of Christ.” He sought to establish a supercessionist hermeneutical framework with regard to the Mosaic Law and the ethic of Christ. After quoting the Isaiah passage in a treatise against Jewish objections to Christianity, he notes:
Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices,--the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates? For the wont of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the glaive, and to pluck out "eye for eye," and to inflict retaliatory revenge for injury. But the new law's wont was to point to clemency, and to convert to tranquility the pristine ferocity of "glaives" and "lances," and to remodel the pristine execution of "war" upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of "ploughing" and "tilling" the land.(6)
Whatever we may think of his attitude regarding the Hebraic Law, it is clear from this passage that he believes that with Christ, a new era has begun, which is marked not by retaliatory vengeance and retributive justice, but by “tranquility” and “clemency.”
Tertullian also wrote against Marcion and employed much the same strategy as that done by Irenaeus before him. He cited messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, and pointed out their fulfillment in the peaceful and enemy-loving lives of the Christians, whom he regarded as the true inheritors of the prophetic fulfillment. One exemplary passage, utilizes Isaiah 2 to just this effect:
The gospel will be this "way," of the new law and the new word in Christ, no longer in Moses. "And He shall judge among the nations," even concerning their error. "And these shall rebuke a large nation," that of the Jews themselves and their proselytes. "And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;" in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace the dispositions of injurious minds, and hostile tongues, and all kinds of evil, and blasphemy. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation," shall not stir up discord. "Neither shall they learn war any more," that is, the provocation of hostilities; so that you here learn that Christ is promised not as powerful in war, but pursuing peace…
Verily the apostles have annulled that belief of yours. (7)
Countering Marcion’s assertion that the Hebrew prophets had been inspired by some lesser god, Tertullian takes this ancient prophecy of hope in YHWH and applies it to what has already been accomplished through Jesus Christ. In explicating this passage from Isaiah, he hopes to show the remarkable continuity between the Old Covenant and the New, and to refute those who posited an inferior god. In Tertullian’s view, this continuity is evident in the lives of the Christians of his era, who do not “lift up sword” or “learn war” anymore.
These are but some of the examples of the citations of this particular prophecy by leaders of the early church.(8) What then can be concluded from this study? Extant documents from the leaders of the early church are unanimous in their belief that this prophecy had already been fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ and the followers who patterned their loving, peaceful existence off his life and teachings. The forcefulness with which they argued for the prophetic fulfillment of “all things” through Jesus Christ is quite evident in these brief selections from their work. Jesus has come, they assert, and the “last days” are indeed upon us. The word of the LORD has indeed gone out from Zion, as the prophet declares, and Christians are a people who must convert swords, spears, guns, nuclear weapons, and all other implements and agents of death into life-giving resources. The authentic follower the Way of Jesus will join with the faith and practice described by the early church, and refuse to train for war anymore.
Endnotes:
(1)Hornus, Jean-Michel. It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight: Early Christian Attitudes Toward Violence, War, and the State. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press (1980), 85. In this short essay, I am indebted to Hornus’ research. He provided this essay with the jumping-off point and citations from the early church to explore in more detail.
(2)Justin Martyr. First Apology, Chapter 39. Quoted from: http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html
(3)Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 109-110. http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html
(4)Irenaeus. Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter 34, section 4. Quoted from: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-62.htm
(5)Ibid.
(6)Tertullian. An Answer to the Jews, Chapter 3. Quoted from: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian08.html
(7)Tertullian. Against Marcion, Book 3, Chapter 21. Quoted from: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian123.html
(8)Origen is another example of an early church father who believed this prophecy had been fulfilled through the coming of Christ. See Against Celsus, Book 5, Chapter 33 for one further example.