Early Apologists and their

Fight Against Heresies

Before we mention the early Apologists (well-educated Christians who
defended the faith from heresies through their writings), let us briefly
acquaint ourselves with three prevalent heresies at the time of the
early Church.
1. Heresies Against the Early Church
• Aside from persecution, the proliferation of heresies
(false teachings) against the early church threatened
the unity and stability of the Christians. These false
teachings were perpetuated by the following groups/
sects in the early centuries:
1.1 Gnosticism
• [It] is derived from the Greek term gnosis which means knowledge.
The Gnostics, adherents of Gnosticism, claimed to have a special,
salvific type of knowledge. Philip Hughes (1979) elaborates:
It [Gnosticism] proclaimed its teachings, its rites and its practical
prescriptions to be divinely revealed and to have been transmitted and
preserved through some mysterious tradition. It offered itself as an
infallible means of salvation, operating usually through magical rites
and formulate, and it offered itself not to all men, but – and this was
one secret of the movement’s attraction – to the select band of initiate
few.
1.1 Gnosticism
• It addition, the Gnostics viewed the world of matter is evil and the
spirit alone is good. Thus, the human body, since it is matter, is
deemed to be defiled and evil. Even marriage was seen from this view
due to the mortal, bodily desires that accompany with it, like the
person’s sexual desires and pleasures.
• As a consequence, the bodily resurrection of Jesus was denied by the
Gnostics, and marriage was condemned. Bodily or worldly pursuits, as
long as it touches on the material, were also abhorred and despised.
1.1 Gnosticism
• In relation to Christianity, Henry Chadwick (1992) writes:
Most of the Gnostic sects claimed to be Christian; that is, to
represent the secret tradition which Jesus had taught the apostles in
private. They collected sayings of Jesus shaped to fit their own
interpretation (as in the Coptic Gospel of Thomas), and offered their
adherents an alternative or rival form of Christianity. Gnostic teachers
claimed that their dualism explained the origin of evil far better than
the orthodox view that the created world comes from a perfectly good
and all-powerful God.
1.1 Gnosticism
• In terms of practice and doctrine, the Gnostics truly differed even
came to a point of conflict, with the orthodox teachings of early
Christianity. In later centuries, they attracted followers to their group
and continued to perpetuate their false teachings. Their numbers
increased, “not so much driven by the resolve to moral perfection for
they were indifferent to it, but due to the determinism which assured
a small elect minority [Gnostics] of salvation.”
1.2 Marcionism
• It is named after its founder, Marcion (ca. 85-160). It is belief
was first a reaction to the “contradicting God” of the Old
Testament and New Testament. Adalbert Hamman (1993)
enables us to better understand when he described
Marcionism as “error of Marcion (second century) who
rejected the vengeful God of the Old Testament in favour of
the good God revealed in Jesus Christ.”
1.2 Marcionism
• In view of such idea, Philip Hughes affirms:
For Marcion there were two Gods, the lesser of whom was the
creator of the visible world. It is this god, Demiurge, who, jealous of his
own creature man, expelled him from Paradise and thereby began the
history of human sin and misery … Salvation is from the good God, who
sent Jesus Christ to save men from the bond of Demiurge, and who was
Himself really God but man in appearance only, for matter is essentially
evil, and so He could not take a body that was a reality.
1.2 Marcionism
• Marcion was an advocate of a loving God but he simply cannot
reconcile the “vindicative God” of the Old Testament, based on his
own interpretation. Eventually, he found himself deviating from the
true teaching of the Church. He absolutely equated the God of the
Old Testament as underserving God because of the wars, and conflicts
that were recorded in his name.
• He also reduced Jesus as simply divine, and attributed his humanity
as merely an appearance due to evil that is inherent in every matter –
an idea that he carried from Gnosticism. He made a radical call for the
prohibition of marriage “in consequence of his view of the body as
part of evil matter.”
1.2 Marcionism
• And in order to advance his own teachings and interpretations of
scripture, he formulated his own canon of scripture, “from which the
whole of the Old Testament was a priori excluded, for therein spoke
the God of justice, the creator of the universe, the Demiurge, who
was stranger to goodness and love.”
1.3 Montanism
• It made an important mark in the history of the Church when its
leader, Montanus (132 A.D), claimed a special inspiration from the
Holy Spirit.
The development of Montanist movement had an early phase,
then a period when it underwent modification by Tertulian, and finally a
stage decline after the Church had defeated it. The early phase began
about 170, when the recently baptized Montanus, in Phrygia,
proclaimed to his fellow-Christians, with ecstatic behavior and in
strange, obscure language, that he was the mouthpiece and prophet of
the Holy Spirit, who was now through him, to lead the Church to all
truth.
1.3 Montanism
• Hubert Jedin describes the development of such claim:
At first this message was received with some doubts; but when
two women, Priscilla and Maximillia, joined Montanus and in a similar
ecstatic manner uttered their prophecies, while Montanus himself
promised his adherents a higher place in the approaching heavenly
Jerusalem, a wave of enthusiasm swept away all hesitation.

• In the year 200, Montanism was condemned by Pope Zephyrinus,

putting a gradual end of the movement.
1.4 Manichaenism
• It was founded by Mani (ca. 216-276), a Persian priest who “had the
deliberate plan to unite in a new religion the best elements of the
old.” He retained the ascetical practice of Gnosticism and its attitude
on matter as evil.
• He preached that there is “a fundamental battle between good and
evil, with opposing forces struggling for the souls of humans,” and
“claimed that all the great religious teachers, Jesus included, had
come to teach people about the world of light and how they might
struggle toward it, largely by ascetical practices such as celibacy and
vegetarianism.”
1.4 Manichaenism
• Manicheanism rose to greater prominence when it won Saint
Augustine of Hippo as one of their members. But Augustine’s
conversion to the Christian faith turned him into an ultimate
adversary of Manicheanism and the great defender of Christian
practice and doctrine.
2. Christian Response: The Apologists
• After the time of the apostles, a new breed of dedicated Christian
men devoted their lives for the propagation and defense of the faith
through their writings. We refer them as apologists.
• Now, we may ask the question: How did the Christian apologists
respond to these distortions of doctrines and the division created by
such heresies?
• Let us list down a few names and mention their essential
contributions in defending the Christian faith.
2.1 Clement of Rome (30-100 A.D.)
• In Philippians 4:3, we read:
And I ask you also, true yokefellow, help these women, for they
have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement
and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

• Who was this Clement being referred to in Paul’s letter to the

Philippians? By general consensus, scholars and experts believe that is
it refers to Clement, the fourth pope of the Church (after the papacy
of St. Peter, Linus and Anacletus).
2.1 Clement of Rome (30-100 A.D.)
• As cited in A. Cleveland Coxe (1994), Eusebius wrote:
There is one acknowledged Epistle of this Clement (whom he has
just identified with the friend of St. Paul), great and admirable, which
he wrote in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church at Corinth,
sedition having then arisen in the latter Church. We are aware that this
Epistle has been publicly read in very many churches both in old times,
and also in our own day.
2.1 Clement of Rome (30-100 A.D.)
• With the above citation, there is no doubt that Clement of Rome
stood as an important figure after the time of the apostles. His
significance is better appreciated in his writings which seeks to
defend and propagate the Christian faith.
• His exhortation on the example of the martyrs as exemplars of
holiness and humility, his reminder to the Corinthians of the
commandment of love, and of ministers for the church as divinely
vindicated, and the admonition and call for repentance won him the
reverence and praise of being a great leader in the first century.
2.2 Polycarp of Smyrna (65-155 A.D.)
• Polycarp was in direct contact with the apostles, and therefore, our
direct link to the Lord’s disciples. In fact, we can discern the rich
influence of John, and Paul in his epistle.
• Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, wrote to the Church at Philippi on the
exhortation of virtue, the practice of love, hope, and patience, the
reminders for deacons, youths and virgins, and the duties of
presbyters, and all Christians. He was betrayed by a servant, asked to
denounce his faith in Jesus by his persecutors, refused to revile Christ,
stood unthreatened by torture and death, and embraced martyrdom
by being burned alive inside the stadium before a multitude of
people.
 2.2 Polycarp of Smyrna (65-155 A.D.)
• The following account narrates Polycarp’s martyrdom:
The proconsul was astonished, and sent his herald to proclaim
in the midst of the stadium thrice, “Polycarp confessed that he is a
Christian.” This proclamation having been made by the herald, the whole
multitude both of the heathen and Jews, who dwelt at Smyrna, cried out
with uncontrollable fury, and in a loud voice, “This is the teacher of Asia,
the father of the Christians, and the overthrower of our gods, he who has
been teaching many not to sacrifice, or to worship the gods. “ Speaking
thus, they cried out, and besought Philip the Asiarch to let loose a lion
upon Polycarp. But Polycarp answered that is was not lawful for him to do
so, seeing the shows of wild beasts were already finished.
2.2 Polycarp of Smyrna (65-155 A.D.)
Then it seemed good to them to cry out with one concent, that
Polycarp should be burnt alive … he [Polycarp] turned about and said
prophetically to the faithful that were with him, “I must be burnt
alive.”… Immediately then they surrounded him with those substances
which had been prepared for the funeral pile. But when they are about
also to fix him with nails, he said, “Leave me as I am; for He that
giventh strength to endure the fire, will also enable me, without
securing me by nails, to remain without moving in the pile … O Lord,
God Almighty, the Father of thy beloved and blessed son Jesus Christ ….
I give thee thanks that Thou has counted me worthy of this day and this
hour …. Amen.”
2.2 Polycarp of Smyrna (65-155 A.D.)
When he had pronounced his amen, and so finished his prayer,
those who were appointed for the purpose kindled the fire. And as the
flame blazed forth in great fury, we, to whom it was given to witness it,
beheld a great miracle … For the fire, shaping itself in the form of an
arch, like the sail of a ship when filled with the wind, encompassed as
by a circle of the body of the martyr…. At length, when those wicked
men perceived that his body could not be consumed by the fire, they
commanded an executioner to go near and pierce him though a dagger.
And on this, there came forth a dove, and a great quantity of blood.”
2.2 Polycarp of Smyrna (65-155 A.D.)
• The martyrdom of Polycarp was well recorded by ancient writers, and
was considered as one of the most inspiring stories of the early
Christians that defied human persecution and withstood the trial of
faith, even the fearful test of death.
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• Adalbert Hamman briefly describes the life of Ignatius of Antioch:
Coming from humble origins, Ignatius succeeded Evodius as
Bishop of Antioch, the largest city in Syria, at the beginning of the
second century, when the Church was fifty years old. Originally a pagan
and influenced by philosophy, he knew the procedure of Stoic diatribe
as well as the sophistication of Asian rhetoric …. He was arrested
around 110 and taken under a military escort to Rome. There he was
not beheaded, but thrown to the wild beasts for food.
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• As to his fight against heresies, Ignatius fought the Judaizers and the
Docetists. The Judaizers were “Christian who felt that all Christians,
Gentile coverts included, must follow the Jewish law. On the other
hand, Docetism “was the name given to the belief that Jesus did not
really have a body but only “seemed” to have one (in Greek, dokeo);
its adherents probably wanted to protect the divine Son of God from
the corruptibility of the flesh, but a Christ with a phantom body could
not suffer, die or rise.”
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• St. Paul already fought the Judaizers in his letter to the Galatians.
Ignatius, on his part, strongly cautioned the Christians in his Epistle to
the Magnesians against “Judaizing”:
For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, he is not
of God; for he has not received the prophecy which speaks thus
concerning us: “The people shall be called by a new name, which the
Lord shall name them, and shall be a holy people.” This was first
fulfilled in Syria; for “the disciples were called Christians at Antioch,
“when Paul and Peter were laying the foundations of the Church.
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the corrupt leaven, and be
ye changed into the new leaven of grace. Abide in Christ that the
stranger may not have dominion over you. It is absurd to speak of Jesus
Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has
now come to an end. For where there is Christianity there cannot be
Judaism.
• Such were the strong words against those who chose to remain
faithful to Jewish beliefs and traditions while embracing the Christian
faith! They would have felt criticized and condemned by Ignatius.
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• Ignatius, an ardent believer of his vocation to Christ, emphasized the
divine vindication of the Christians as the new people of God who
replaced the “corrupt” Jews through Christ’s passion, death and
resurrection; stressed the superiority of the Christian faith; pointed
out the contradiction of one’s confession to Christ while refusing to
let go of Judaism; and promised the destiny of every Christian “to
eternal life in Christ.”
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• With regards to Docetism, Ignatius, in his Epistle to the Trallians,
explained the errors of the Docetists:
For if they had been branches of the father, they would not have
been “enemies of the cross of Christ,” but rather of those who “killed
the Lord of glory.” But now, by denying the cross, and being ashamed of
the passion, they cover the transgression of the Jews, those fighters
against God, those murderers of the Lord; for it were too little to style
the merely murderers of the prophets. But Christ invites you to [share
in] His immortality, by his passion and resurrection, inasmuch as ye are
His members.
2.3 Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A.D)
• Like his comment against the Judaizers, he criticized the Docetists as
an “evil offshoot which produces death-bearing fruit, whereof if any
one tastes, he instantly dies because of their denial of the bodily
resurrection of Jesus, and his human appearance.
2.4 Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 A.D)
• Irenaeus was born in Smyrna, and “was in early youth acquainted
with Polycarp, the illustrious bishop of that city.” To the Christian
Church, St. Irenaeus of Lyons was best remembered as the apologist
who notably defended the Christian practice and doctrine in his great
work entitled, Adversus Haeresus (Against Heresies), which
condemned and refuted the theological and moral errors of
Gnosticism.
• He labored to dispel the exclusive claim of the Gnostics in receiving a
special revelation from God, in the following words:
2.4 Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 A.D)
Irenaeus attacked the Gnostics, but in a new and effective way.
Realizing that the Gnostics based much on their claims of secret
traditions reaching back to the apostles, Irenaeus turned this approach
on its head, insisting that he could trace what he taught back to the
apostles and could prove it because his teachings had public
verification, that is, they could be found in Scripture (here including the
Old Testament and at least the four Gospels and some other New
Testament books) and apostolic succession, that is, a succession of
bishops who could be traced to the apostolic age.
2.4 Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 A.D)
He himself had been taught by Polycarp, who, he claimed, had
been taught by John (presumably he meant John the Twelve), and thus
Irenaeus understood apostolic succession as something organic, a living
link to the first age of the Church. Thus, what had been the Gnostic
strong point, the secret traditions, now became its weak point. This
theological method, commonly called “Scripture and Tradition,” became
the standard approach for all the other early Christian theologians, who
insisted that what they taught was no more than what the apostles had
taught.
2.4 Irenaeus of Lyons (120-202 A.D)
• Irenaeus, therefore, was able to point out that what the Gnostics
preached as “salvific revelation by God” was not rooted in the
teachings of the apostles but a fruit of their intellectual distortions
and tailored to cater their own agenda as “exclusive recipients” of
God’s salvation.
• The Church owes a lot from Irenaeus for laying the ground of
“Scripture and Tradition” as an acid test for the veracity of the truth
against those who deviate from the Church, against those individuals
who protect and perpetuate their own interest in the guise of
religious devotion, and the pursuit of man’s salvation.
2.5 Justin Martyr (114-165 A.D)
• Cleveland Coxe traces Justin’s origin:
Justin Martyr was born in Flavia Neapolis, a city of Samaria, the
modern Nablous. The date of his birth is uncertain, but may be fixed
about 114 A.D…
• After his conversion from paganism, Justin Martyr found his peace in
the hope offered by the Christian faith. He was “impressed with the
extraordinary fearlessness which the Christians displayed in the
presence of death, and with the grandeur, stability and truth of the
teachings of the Old Testament.
2.5 Justin Martyr (114-165 A.D)
• From this time he acted as an evangelist, taking every opportunity to
proclaim the Gospel as the only safe and certain philosophy, the only
way to salvation”. His works – the two Apologies, and the Dialogue
with Trypho, earned him the merit as its genuine writer. Let us briefly
describe the brilliance of this apologists by describing his works
• The Apology of Justin opens with a Christian address to the Roman
Emperor Titus Aelius Adrianus Antoninus Pius Agustus Ceasar and
other Roman persons of nobility, power and influence for the demand
of justice from persecutions that Christians suffered. The later part is
dedicated in proving the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old
Testament in the life of the Christians centered on the practice of
Baptism, Eucharist and its weekly worship.
2.5 Justin Martyr (114-165 A.D)
• Then, Justin challenges the Roman authorities in the following words:
And if these things seem to you to be reasonable and true,
honour them; but if they seem nonsensical, despise them as nonsence,
and would against enemies. For we forewarn you, you shall not escape
the coming judgement of God, if you continue in your injustice; and we
ourselves will invite you to do that which is pleasing to God.
2.5 Justin Martyr (114-165 A.D)
• On the other hand, Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho about matters
pertaining to the Jews and the Christians. The dialogue starts with an
intellectual inquiry on their philosophies, progresses in its emphasis
on the primacy of Christ as the fulfilled prophecy, highlights the new
role of the Christians in God’s plan for salvation, and ends with an
exhortation for the conversion of the Jews to Christ in order to be
saved.
2.6 Tertullan (145-220 A.D)
• Quintus Septimius Florence Tertullianus is most remembered by his
strong character, and pure brilliance for the Church’s defense against
heresies.
• Uncertain about the details of his life, some historians claim that
Tertullian was born a pagan in Carthage, Africa while others maintain
that he was born from Christian parents. Either way, historians find it
difficult to categorically determine his roots. But when it comes to his
educational background, it is certain that he was “well-educated in
the law, rhetoric, and Greek.”
2.6 Tertullan (145-220 A.D)
• In fact, Joseph Kelly has an admirable portrait of the scholar in him:
He [Tertullian] was the first great Latin Christian writer, and he
wrote extensively. Consequently, he created much Latin theological
terminology, which in turn found its way into English, for example, from
the words “tri (three) and unitas (unity) he created Trinitas (Trinity). He
also used words such as substantia and persona, terms literary abilities
sometimes outstripped his arguments … His legal background found its
way into his theology; he was fond of arguing with heretics from a
legalistic viewpoint ….. Tertullian was the Father of the African Church.
2.6 Tertullan (145-220 A.D)
• He was truly a fighter against faulty reasoning and divisive, false
teachings. As a matter of fact, he produced a number of apologetical
writings against Marcion, against paganism and heresy, as well as
systematic exposition of Christian doctrine.
• But Tertullian deviated from the Church whom he dearly loved and
greatly defended because “around 206 he abandoned the Church for
Montanism.” Tertullan, the hero of Christians in Carthage, became the
villain of the Christian Church.
3. Conclusion
• The Catholic Church is not immune from attacks of heretic teachings,
and false claims by certain persons and groups. The time of the
Gnostics, Marcionists, Montanists and Manichaens proved to be an
ordeal of the veracity and wisdom of the teachings of the Church
throughout the centuries.
• From its end, the Catholic Church through its apologists grounded and
defended herself against heresies by making use of its teaching,
namely, the Apostolic Tradition, the Sacred Scripture and the
guidance of the Magisterium (the official office of the Church.
3. Conclusion
• Today, the Church is confronted with a new challenge in the midst of a
very pluralistic world and a growing culture of relativism and
subjectivism. Sad but true, truth at times becomes a matter of
personal judgement and a business of subjective preference, most
especially due to the contagious influence of mass media and the
internet.
• Thus, the Catholic Church today has continued to play its mission as
the instrument and vanguard of the truth and even if it appears to be
unpopular and its position for the truth is always consistent to be
guided by the Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition and Magisterium.
3. Conclusion
• Being a member of the Catholic Church, we are then called to
examine the basis of our belief, or even our own share of doubt and
unbelief, repel that which is heretical to our faith, while we show a
docile, listening heart to the truth. Let us guard ourselves from the
deception of relativism, and the temptation of pure subjectivism in
our choices. Let our commitment be dedicated to the truth. After all,
are we not all servants to the TRUTH?