The principle of authority and the criteria of orthodoxy in the early church

Abstract

"In earliest Christianity, at the time when the apostles were alive and the documents of the NT were still in the process of production, the discrimination between true and false belief and teaching was a matter of living activity in the church. According to the testimony of the NT, even though Christians regarded the writings of the OT as their authoritative Scriptures,' they also accepted the teaching of the apostles as being invested with the Lord's authority. In Acts 2:42 we read of Christian converts who "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching."' The church is said, in Eph 2:20, to be "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." Peter exhorts the readers of his second letter (3:2) "to recall ... the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles." In his warning against the heretics, Jude wants his readers to "remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold" (Jude 17). "