Ancyra - Canon 22

Concerning willful murderers let them remain prostrators; but at the end of life let them be indulged with full communion.

This is a continuation of the previous canon but directed to those who murdered those born into the world.  Full communion was barred until their final hour was near.

One might ask how the differentiation could be made between the unborn and born to allow mercy for murdering the first but not the second.  There was and is a common conception that life does not begin until the first breath outside the womb.  Only at that point does the breath of life enter the baby.  This position was confronted by Tertullian.

Those who profess the truth care nothing about their opponents, especially such of them as begin by maintaining that the soul is not conceived in the womb, nor is formed and produced at the time that the flesh is molded, but is impressed from without upon the infant before his complete vitality, but after the process of parturition.  They say, moreover, that the human seed having been duly deposited ex concubiterin the womb, and having been by natural impulse quickened, it becomes condensed into the mere substance of the flesh, which is in due time born, warm from the furnace of the womb, and then released from its heat.  (This flesh) resembles the case of hot iron, which is in that state plunged into cold water; for, being smitten by the cold air (into which it is born), it at once receives the power of animation, and utters vocal sound.  This view is entertained by the Stoics, along with Ænesidemus, and occasionally by Plato himself, when he tells us that the soul, being quite a separate formation, originating elsewhere and externally to the womb, is inhaled when the new-born infant first draws breath, and by and by exhaled with the man’s latest breath.¹

While we may not agree with the consequences meted out, we can appreciate cultural issues in dealing with the different types of cases before them and coming to a just solution.


¹ ANF 3:205.

Ancyra - Canon 21

Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented.  Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater leniency, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees.


Abortions were well-known in the Roman empire.  Tertullian, near the end of the second century, described the practice and utensils in "A Treatise on the Soul" as one sometimes considered necessary by the populace:

But sometimes by a cruel necessity, whilst yet in the womb, an infant is put to death, when lying awry in the orifice of the womb he impedes parturition, and kills his mother, if he is not to die himself.  Accordingly, among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all, and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fœtus is extracted by a violent delivery.  There is also (another instrument in the shape of) a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: they give it, from its infanticide function, the name of ἐμβρυοσφάκτης , the slayer of the infant, which was of course alive.  Such apparatus was possessed both by Hippocrates, and Asclepiades, and Erasistratus, and Herophilus, that dissector of even adults, and the milder Soranus himself, who all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive.¹

Elsewhere, in "The Apology" he demonstrated the blood-thirstiness of the pagans as opposed to Christians.

How many, think you, of those crowding around and gaping for Christian blood,—how many even of your rulers, notable for their justice to you and for their severe measures against us, may I charge in their own consciences with the sin of putting their offspring to death?  As to any difference in the kind of murder, it is certainly the more cruel way to kill by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs.  A maturer age has always preferred death by the sword.  In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fœtus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance.  To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth.  That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed.²

Rightly, the early church denounced this behavior.  In the "Epistle of Barnabas," the author instructed believers:

Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.³

With this back drop, this canon is understandable in condemning those who took part in abortions though they be Christians now.  Former decrees had been given to separate the wrongdoers from the body for the remainder of their lives thus demonstrating the severity of the grievous sin.  The noteworthy concession of shortening this time to seven years demonstrates the great difference from the world of the grace and mercy from those who had the truth and used it rightly.


¹ ANF 3:206
² ANF 3:25
³ ANF 1:148

Ancyra - Canon 20

If the wife of anyone has committed adultery or if any man commit adultery it seems fit that he shall be restored to full communion after seven years passed in the prescribed degrees [of penance].

While adultery was and is a grievous sin before God, such is forgivable before God and the church after an examination of penance.  That adultery carries a lesser penance than idol worship is surprising on a natural level, since another person is directly wronged.  Yet, idolatry is whoring after other gods, and the Lord of Hosts is the one agrieved by the infraction, ergo the more severe penalty.

Ancyra - Canon 19

If any persons who profess virginity shall disregard their profession, let them fulfill the term of digamists.  And, moreover, we prohibit women who are virgins from living with men as sisters.

Digamy is defined as "a second marriage, after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife; deuterogamy."¹  The early church largely discouraged remarriage after losing a spouse; promoting the blessings of living as a single person dedicated to the Lord rather than being concerned with a spouse (1 Cor 7:27-28).

For any who had bound themselves to celibacy (i.e., perpetual virginity) but turned back, they were to take the same place as digamists for a time, since they had figuratively already married God but now physically sought to marry another.  And for any who declared their virginity, those of the opposite sex were not to live together as a brother and sister would.  This was simply a matter of preventing temptation before it started.


¹ digamy.  Dictionary.com.  Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/digamy (accessed: December 13, 2010).

ESV Study Bible Giveaway

A copy of the ESV Study Bible is being given away here at Pastoral Musings.  Leave a comment for a chance to win.  The winner will be providentially selected by a casting of lots (Proverbs 16:33)—or something like that.

Coming Soon to a Pump Near You

I saw this image and could not resist posting it.

Worship While You Work

[Martin Luther insisted] that the command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was simply a means whereby God established a form of external worship.  Adam and Eve were not intended to keep this commandment in order to earn their relationship with God but rather as a means whereby they might show their gratitude and love for God.¹  Similarly Gordon Wenham has observed in his writing on Genesis 1–2 that the activity of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is described using terminology and linguistic constructions similar to the account of the activity of the priests in the Tabernacle later in the Pentateuch.²  Faith therefore gives rise to freedom for vocation, which glorifies God by reflecting his glory.  Vocation is therefore a liturgical act.

Jack Kilcrease, "Kenosis and Vocation: Christ as the Author and Exemplar of Christian Freedom,"

Logia, Vol XIX, No. 4, 27.

¹ Luther's Works, American Edition, 1:104, 106
² Gordon Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in Proceeding of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, ed. Moshe Goshen-Gottstein (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1988), 19–37. Wenham mentions verbal parallels in Nm 3:7–8, 8:26, 18:5–6.

Ancyra - Canon 18

If any who have been constituted bishops, but have not been received by the parish to which they were designated, shall invade other parishes and wrong the constituted [bishops] there, stirring up seditions against them, let such persons be suspended from office and communion.  But if they are willing to accept a seat among the presbyterate, where they formerly were presbyters, let them not be deprived of that honor.  But if they shall act seditiously against the bishops established there, the honor of the presbyterate also shall be taken from them and themselves expelled.

There was a two-fold problem being addressed here.  First, the issue of duly appointed overseers not being recognized by the congregants.  Something was wrong with the appointing group, the overseer himself, the church body, or some of each.  Without particulars we have no way to intelligently speculate.  What we do know is that churches were expected to welcome the appointed since, according to Nicene canons, the overseer was to be from that church, and if none were qualified, one was appointed from the outside.  In either case, if something was discovered making the overseer unwelcome, the church evidently rejected him to find another.

Second, the overseer was going to another church with an established leadership and began interfering with and undermining authority.  With this in mind, we can see why the first church might have rejected him.  In any event, such an individual was to be stripped of any position and excommunicated.  As I noted previously of Nicaea - Canon 16, a leader is rejected for a reason, and the new church has every right and responsibility to investigate.

As to a rejected overseer, if he takes a place amongst the elders and serves in humility in that role, so much the better for all involved. The spiritually mature man will be able to serve, and the body will have the benefit of additional wise counsel.

Ancyra - Canon 17

Defilers of themselves with beasts, being also leprous, who have infected others,¹ the holy Synod commands to pray among the hiemantes.

Those who had engaged in bestiality and coerced others to do the same—spreading sin as one spreads leprous diseases—were left out with the weepers (Προσκλαίοντες, flentes; also called χειμάζοντες, hiemantes): those "who prostrated themselves at the church doors in mourning garments and implored restoration from the clergy and the people."²

Christians largely misunderstand the sinfulness of sin.  Planning or committing the act is grievous enough and are to be confessed before God for his cleansing righteousness (1 John 1:9).  When we engage in sin so that others are caught up in the same sin because of our actions, how much greater is the gravity of the situation.  The consequences of our sin can be harsh.  Though we are forgiven before the Lord, more individual care is needed to ensure a consistent walk by faith from true repentance.


¹ With the leprosy of this crime
² Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol 2, accessed at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.vi.xvii.html.

SBL Greek New Testament "Commercial"

The Society of Biblical Literature has published Greek New Testament edited by Michael W. Holmes of Bethel University; available both as a download for Logos software and in print.  I do not know enough of the textual critical fine points to determine how it compares with UBS4 or NA27, but those who have more education and experience seem to think it worthwhile.  And if this work is as good as his The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, it should be excellent.

Enterprising soul and Bible College of Queensland instructor, Mike Bird,  has used his talents to create this spoof commercial for the SBLGNT.