It is evident from these particulars that Abrasax was the name of the first of the 365 Archons, and accordingly stood below Sophia and Dynamis and their progenitors ; but his position is not expressly stated, so that the writer of the supplement to Tertullian had some excuse for confusing him with " the Supreme God.

Praxeam, I ) that a Roman bishop did send some conciliatory letters to the Montanists, but these letters, says Tertullian, were subsequently recalled.

Tertullian too seems to write of these meals, though what he describes is not quite clear.

Many of the writings of these Gnostics, and a large number of excerpts from the writings of Valentinus, existed only in quotes displayed by their orthodox detractors, until 1945, when the cache of writings at Nag Hammadi revealed a Coptic version of the Gospel of Truth, which is the title of a text that, according to Irenaeus, was the same as the Gospel of Valentinus mentioned by Tertullian in his Against All Heresies.

In addressing the charges, Tertullian plans to show the hypocrisy that surrounds these charges, demonstrating that those crimes exist among the pagan prosecutors as well.

In his attempt to make the Romans acknowledge their engagement in these acts, Tertullian hopes to demonstrate that Christians behave much differently from what they are accused of and that the charges should not hold.

Though these stories are considered historically questionable by modern scholars, Christianity must have reached Armenia at an early date as persecutions against Christians in 110, 230, and 287 were recorded by outside writers Eusebius and Tertullian.

The Church Father Tertullian wrote, " And wherefore does this conclusion of the gospel affirm that these things were written unless it is that you might believe, it says, that Jesus Christ is the son of God?

The encyclical then addresses specific actions in light of these passages, including abortion ( quoting Tertullian, who called abortion " anticipated murder to prevent someone from being born "), and euthanasia ( which John Paul II calls " a disturbing perversion of mercy ").

It is evident from these particulars that Abrasax was the name of the first of the 365 Archons, and accordingly stood below Sophia and Dynamis and their progenitors ; but his position is not expressly stated, so that the writer of the supplement to Tertullian had some excuse for confusing him with " the Supreme God.

The question is indeed curious whether Marcion knew these three letters and rejected them as Tertullian says, since in 1 Timothy 6: 20 " false opposing arguments " are referred to, with the word for " opposing arguments " being " antithesis ", the name of Marcion's work, and so whether it is a subtle hint of Marcion's heresy.

* Tertullian. org: The Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles ( 1923 ) J. M. WILSON, D. D.

Christians believe that God has established a new covenant with people through Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles, and other books collectively called the New Testament ( the word testament attributed to Tertullian is commonly interchanged with the word covenant ).

Tertullian ( c. a. d. 160 – 225 ) wrote that when it was discovered that a church elder had composed a pseudonymous work, The Acts of Paul ( which included a purported Pauline letter, 3 Corinthians ), the offending elder “ was removed from his office ” ( On Baptism 17 ).

Joseph is referenced in apocryphal and non-canonical accounts such as the Acts of Pilate, a text often appended to the medieval Gospel of Nicodemus and The Narrative of Joseph, and mentioned in the works of early church historians such as Irenaeus ( 125 – 189 ), Hippolytus ( 170 – 236 ), Tertullian ( 155 – 222 ) and Eusebius ( 260 – 340 ), who added details not found in the canonical accounts.

Preachers of the early church include Peter ( see especially Acts 2: 14b – 36 ), Stephen ( see Acts 7: 1b – 53 ), Tertullian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzus.

* Theodore of Mopsuestia, Prologue to the Commentary on Acts at The Tertullian Project

The Acts were first mentioned by Tertullian.

Apollinaris further taught, following Tertullian, that the souls of men were propagated by other souls, as well as their bodies ( see traducianism ).

Both Tertullian and Gregory of Nyssa were church fathers who were married.

Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus were among the greatest early Christian apologists who engaged in critical analyses of unorthodox theology, Greco-Roman pagan religions, and Gnostic groups.

The Early Church Fathers including Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine state the Greek word is ambiguous and the women in 1 Corinthians 9: 5 were women ministering to the Apostles as women ministered to Christ ( cf Matthew 27: 55, Luke 8: 1-3 ), and were not wives, and assert they left their " offices of marriage " to follow Christ and to preach.

Tertullian used it somewhat differently – all victims of the arena were sacrificial in his eyes – and expressed the paradox of the arenarii as a class, from a Christian viewpoint:

" It is noteworthy that all of the images so mentioned by Tertullian and Clement were common Greco-Roman depictions used by non-Christians ; but Christians adopted them for their own use, even giving a specifically Christian significance to some of them.

( For example, Tertullian taught that Christians should never flee from persecution, and that widows who remarried were committing adultery ; both teachings contradicted the epistles and actions of the Apostle Paul.

Tertullian mentions a 1st-century AD case in which trees were used for crucifixion, but Seneca the Younger earlier used the phrase infelix lignum ( unfortunate wood ) for the transom (" patibulum ") or the whole cross.

The best-known defender of the New Prophecy was undoubtedly Tertullian, who believed that the claims of Montanus were genuine beginning c. 207.

During the Christian era, two prominent Berber churchmen were Tertullian and St. Augustine.

Plutarch, however claims that the children were already dead at the time, having been killed by their parents, whose consent — as well as that of the children — was required ; Tertullian explains the acquiescence of the children as a product of their youthful trustfulness.

Tertullian took a euhemerizing approach in explaining why the gods of the Romans kept multiplying ; they were all, he said, merely people ( homines ) with birthplaces ( civitatibus, in quibus nati sunt ) and tombs ( sepulti ).

As early as the time of Tertullian, some homilists were likening the Jewish people to a " new Cain ", asserting that they would be " fugitives and wanderers ( upon ) the earth ".

Early Christian writer Tertullian claims that the first circus games were staged by goddess Circe in honour of her father Helios, the Sun god.

Christianity reached Armenia at an early date ; persecutions against Christians in 110, 230, and 287 were recorded by the outside writers Eusebius and Tertullian.

The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the native Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers as Tertullian and Origen in the first years of the 3rd century, although the first Christian communities probably were established some decades earlier.

According to the disapproving Tertullian, there were originally just two factions, White and Red, sacred to winter and summer respectively.

Bernard theorizes that the majority of all believers were Oneness adherents until the time of Tertullian, who died circa 225, and was the first notable Church figure to use the term Trinity to describe God.

The North African Tertullian ( c. 160 – c. 225 ), writing of the apostles, indicated that he was obliged to believe that apart from Peter, who was certainly married, the apostles were continent.

In his De praescriptione contra haereticos, Tertullian mentioned continence as one of the customs in Mithraism that he claimed were imitated from Christianity, but does not associate it specifically with the clergy.

The literal conclusion from what is written in the New Testament is that Jesus ' siblings were children of Mary and Joseph, as accepted by some members of the early Christian church, possibly held by Tertullian and later labelled as " Antidicomarianites " (" Anti-Mary ") by the orthodox.

Many early Christians, including Tertullian, Chrysostom and Augustine, believed that fossils were the remains of animals that were killed and buried during the brief duration of the Flood.

The Church Fathers, witnessed by the Muratorian Canon, Irenaeus ( c. 170 ), Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian, held that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke.

The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described " all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ ".

There have been many works attributed to Tertullian in the past which have since been determined to be almost definitely written by others.

Marcionism was denounced by its opponents as heresy, and written against, notably by Tertullian, in a five-book treatise Adversus Marcionem, written about 208.