Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online
The BEEC aims to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and to update the history of scholarship.
The BEEC addresses a range of traditions, including iconographic, martyrological, ecclesiastical, and Christological traditions, as well as cultic phenomena, such as the veneration of saints. The history of the transmission of texts and the attention to recent scholarship will play an important role. The BEEC focuses on early Christianity from a historical perspective in order to uncover the lasting legacy of the authors and texts until the present day.
Currently over 885 articles are available. The encyclopedia will consist of over 1100 articles. Planned completion is expected in 2024.
Also available in print as Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity..
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Preface
Early Christianity is a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon – if we can even refer to it as a single phenomenon at all. Since the publication of W. Bauer’s groundbreaking study Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum in 1934, the scholarly world has come increasingly to the conclusion that the variety of early Christian groups was not the result of the disintegration of a single, original form of Christianity over the course of several centuries but rather that variety has always been at the heart of what we call early Christianity. By sheer coincidence, several texts from which this pluriformity can be deduced were discovered in the Egyptian desert: texts including the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Judas, Gospel of Mary as well as the Secret Revelation of John, a Apocalypse of Peter, and the First and Second Revelation of James. Pluriformity can be also inferred, for example, from the Acts of Andrew. The text has been preserved in different languages and versions. Thus, there is no definitive “text”; there is a transmission of manuscripts in which an open, dynamic, and thus never-ending story is told in different versions and finally put in writing in different versions. The same probably applies to an early orthodox text rediscovered in a library in the 19th century, the Didache. “Orthodox” texts were also partially rewritten in the early 2nd century CE according to the insights a particular early orthodox community developed regarding liturgy, prayer, and order of life. It is only after the first centuries that the pluriformity of Christian community and beliefs decreased, giving way to a less varied mainstream Christianity. Renewed study of proto-orthodox authors, such as Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 140– 200 CE), proved that they were still familiar with the pluralistic Christianity of the first centuries.
And, in all its variety, early Christianity did not originate in a vacuum. It started as an intra-Jewish reform movement in Palestine, led by Jesus of Nazareth. Within one generation after Jesus’ ministry, it had spread over large parts of the Roman Empire, reaching Rome even before Paul. As more and more non-Jews joined the movement, Greco-Roman customs and ideas also came to play an important role. For this reason, early Christianity is just as connected with the Greco-Roman context within which it grew as with its Jewish roots.
Therefore, the label “Christianity” is itself not unproblematic. Although the term naturally has a long history in the tradition of the Christian movement, its use, for example, to refer to 1st-century CE followers of Jesus is nevertheless an anachronism given that the term is first mentioned in the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch (Magn. 10.1; 10.13; Rom. 3.3; Phld. 6.1), dated to the early 2nd century CE. One can also question the appropriateness of its use for a number of groups that are currently seen as belonging to the extended family of early Christianity. Far from implying that “early Christianity” was a unified or monolithic movement, therefore, this encyclopedia uses the term as an umbrella covering a wide variety of historical phenomena.
In creating the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, the editors have made a number of decisions with regard to its subject matter, scope, and structure. The first choice made was to focus on the most significant topics concerning early Christianity: the most important authors, texts, ideas, and places that played a role in the history of the development of Christianity. The articles included in the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity are based on exhaustive research, using both primary and secondary sources. While it is impossible to provide the user with a comprehensive survey of every detail in the growth of the Christian movement, an effort was made to cover the topics that would best provide the reader with a reliable map of the early Christian movement in its pluriformity and in its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts.
A second decision made was related to the time period. Any periodization is bound to be arbitrary to some extent, and thus prone to criticism. For the purposes of this encyclopedia, the editors decided that the end of the 6th century CE should be the cut-off point, as by that time Christianity was established as the orthodox, Catholic Church in both the West as well as in the East. The formative debates on the nature of God and Christ had been more or less settled, and the biblical canon had been selected and approved by church councils. In the West, the demise of the Roman Empire had led to a new political constellation, and in the East, the rise of the Byzantine Empire ushered in a new era. Late antiquity may not have a clear beginning nor a well-defined end, but it is clear that the 6th century CE belongs to late antiquity and ushered in the start of the Middle Ages. These terms are also modern labels, of course, and subject to debate. And yet the 6th century CE has the characteristics of a transitional age in the history of early Christianity and, as such, the editors decided to include it within the scope of the encyclopedia.
Two other choices were also important for the scope and form of the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: the choice to bridge the divide between the fields of New Testament studies and patristics, and the choice to add the history of scholarship of the entries. The fields of New Testament studies and patristics have, over the years, grown into two separate specializations, organized into two different disciplines with their own methodologies and scholarly traditions. This makes collaboration on a project such as this a complicated task. And yet, there is no logical reason to divide early Christianity into these two separate fields. For this encyclopedia, the period covered is seen as an organic whole in which a large number of developments took place that led to the formation of the Christian church as a recognizable entity, and to the formulation of the orthodox Christian creeds as guidelines for the faith tradition.
Writings from the Old Testament are only listed if their reception has been of fundamental importance in works of the Fathers in general. As a result, the book of Genesis is dealt with in entries on authors who wrote about the creation accounts it contains. The influence of Isaiah is so prominent that it warrants inclusion of the entry, but Jeremiah can, for the same reason, be left out. Jonah is included, since the prophet influenced patristic ideas on Christ, but Job is left out. The books that are not included as entries do, after all, occur in contributions on authors and writings that deal with them (see Augustine of Hippo, Adnotationes in Hiob). The editors decided as a rule not to include entries on genres and to leave the material side of early Christianity largely out of consideration. Obviously, material religion is important, but the focus of this encyclopedia is first and foremost on authors, texts, and ideas. Similarly, geography is not covered to the full – only the most prominent geographic entries are included, and regions that produced prominent authors or texts feature in the entries on those authors or texts.
The last decision was to include in each entry some discussion of the modern history of scholarship. Often, this historiographical discussion is included as a separate paragraph; sometimes it is interwoven with the description of the topic of the entry. Wherever relevant, we also include an overview of the historiography of the subject of a particular entry. If the subject of an entry has been extensively studied in the past, its historiography is included in a separate paragraph. In all other cases, the historiography is referred to where necessary. In several cases, no historiography was required, as only one or two studies on the particular subject have been published. Every effort has been made to reflect as objectively as possible the different positions scholars took on a text or theme.
It is impossible, even in a work as extensive as this, to cover all topics that could have been included. The electronic version of this encyclopedia will have more entries than the printed version, so if the reader needs information that is not available here, it may be found online.
A word of thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this work is most appropriate. The editors-in-chief are immensely indebted to all authors, section editors, and editors, just as they are at least as indebted to the Brill staff: André Haacke, Giulia Buriola, Jean-Louis Ruijters, Mariya Mitova, Ruud van der Helm, and especially Louise Schouten.
The editors of the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity hope that this encyclopedia will find its way into the libraries of universities, colleges, religious, and other institutions, as well as the studies of many individual scholars. It is our hope is that students of early Christianity who intend to research a particular subject will find their first information in the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity and will be able to proceed with their research on the basis of the information found here. The easily accessible digital version of the encyclopedia offers numerous options for browsing its content. May it prove to be a useful and inspiring tool for the study and further understanding of early Christianity.
Paul van Geest
David G. Hunter
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte
Abbreviations:
Primary Sources
Journals and Series
Lexicons
General
David G. Hunter, Boston College, United States
Paul J.J. van Geest, Tilburg University / Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands,
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Consultant Editor:
Angelo di Berardino, Augustinianum, Italy
Section Editors:
Juliette Day, University of Helsinki, Finland
Maria Doerfler, Yale University, United States
David Eastman, Ohio Wesleyan University, United States
Robin M. Jensen, University of Notre Dame, United States
Robert Kitchen, Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy, Sweden
Rebecca Krawiec, Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, United States
Jacob Abraham Latham, University of Tennessee, United States
Outi Lehtipuu, University of Helsinki, Finland
Christoph Markschies, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany
Bronwen Neil, Macquarie University, Australia
Karin Berber Neutel, Umeå University, Sweden
Geert van Oyen, University of Louvain, Belgium
Karla Pollmann, University of Tübingen, Germany
Joshua Schwartz, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Kristina Sessa, Ohio State University, United States
Tarmo Toom, Tartu University, Estonia
David G. Hunter is Margaret O'Brien Flatley Professor of Catholic Theology,Boston College, United States.
Paul J.J. van Geest is Professor of Church History and History of Theology, Tilburg University and Professor of Theology and Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online
The BEEC aims to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and to update the history of scholarship.
The BEEC addresses a range of traditions, including iconographic, martyrological, ecclesiastical, and Christological traditions, as well as cultic phenomena, such as the veneration of saints. The history of the transmission of texts and the attention to recent scholarship will play an important role. The BEEC focuses on early Christianity from a historical perspective in order to uncover the lasting legacy of the authors and texts until the present day.
Currently over 885 articles are available. The encyclopedia will consist of over 1100 articles. Planned completion is expected in 2024.
Also available in print as Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity..
Please contact our sales team for more information on prices and licensing.