Early Christian Teaching on Education and Formation

Ignatius, Epistle to the Philadelphians (Long Version) Direct teaching

...f desire, but out of regard for the propagation of mankind. Fathers, “bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and teach them the holy Scriptures, and also trades, so that they may not indulge in idleness. Now the Scripture says, “A righteous father educates his children well; his heart shall rejoice in a wise son.” Masters, be gentle towards your servants, as holy Job has taught you; for there is one nature, and one family of mankind. For “in Christ there is neither bond nor free.” Let governors be obedient to Caesar; soldiers to those that command them; deacons to the presbyters, as to high priests; the presbyters, deacons, and the rest of the clergy, together with all the people, soldiers, governors, and Caesar himself, to the bishop; the bishop to Christ, just as Christ to the Father. And thus unity is preserved throughout. Let not the widows be wanderers, nor fond of dainties, nor going from house to house, but let them be like Judith, noted for her seriousness; and like Anna, known for her sobriety. I do not ordain these things as an apostle: for “who am I, or what is my father’s house,” that I should pretend to be equal in honor to them? But as y

Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Direct teaching

...es; and wives, your husbands. Children, respect your parents. Parents, raise your children with the nurture and instruction of the Lord. Honor those who remain in virginity, as the priestesses of Christ; and the widows who maintain seriousness in behavior, as the altar of God. Servants, serve your masters with respectful fear. Masters, give orders to your servants with kindness. Let no one among you be idle; for idleness leads to need. I do not command these things as a person of any importance, though I am in bonds for Christ; but as a brother, I remind you of them. The Lord be with you!

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

You fathers, raise your children in the Lord, bringing them up with the Lord’s discipline and instruction. Teach them trades that fit and agree with the word, so that they do not become wasteful through idleness, go on without punishment from their parents, get freedom before their time, and stray from what is good. Therefore, do not be afraid to correct them and to teach them wisdom with firmness. For your correction will not kill them, but will rather preserve them. For Solomon says somewhere in the book of Wisdom, “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; so you will have good hope for him.” “You shall indeed strike him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from death.” And again the same Solomon says, “He who spares his rod hates his son”; and afterward, “Strike his sides while he is an infant, lest he become stubborn and disobey you.” Therefore, he who neglects to admonish and instruct his own son hates his own child. You should therefore teach your children the word of the Lord. Bring them into subjection with sharp stripes, and make them obedient from infancy, teaching them the Holy Scriptures, which are Christian and divine, and handing on to them every sacred writin

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...merly had such a wife; whether he has brought up his children in a godly way and raised them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; Ephesians 6:4 and whether his servants fear and respect him and all obey him. For if those who are immediately around him in worldly matters are rebellious and disobedient, how will others outside his family, when they are under his oversight, become obedient to him?

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

XI. You fathers, educate your children in the Lord, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

whether he has educated his children piously, and has brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;

Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Supporting witness

You shall not remove your hand from your son or from your daughter, but from their youth shall teach them the fear of God.

Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas Supporting witness

Thou shalt not withdraw thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their infancy thou shalt teach them the fear of the Lord.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians Supporting witness

Let your children be partakers of true Christian training;

Ignatius, Epistles of Ignatius Supporting witness

Ye parents, impart a holy training to your children.

Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians Supporting witness

and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear of God.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching

Readiness gained by earlier training helps a great deal in understanding the things that are needed. But things that can be understood only by the mind are the mind's special exercise. Their nature is threefold, depending on whether we consider their quantity, their magnitude, and what can be said about them. Reasoning that is made up of demonstrations plants clear faith in the spirit of the person who follows it, so that he cannot think that what has been proved could be otherwise. In this way, it does not let us give in to those who attack us by deceit. Therefore, in these studies the soul is cleansed from things perceived by the senses, and stirred up so that it can see the truth clearly. For nourishment, and training kept gentle, develop noble natures. And noble natures, when they receive such training, become even better than before in other ways, but especially in fruitfulness, just as happens with other living creatures. Therefore it is said, "Go to the ant, you sluggard, and become wiser than it," for it stores up much and varied food in the harvest against the harshness of winter. Or go to the bee, and learn how hard-working she is. For she feeds on the whole meadow and pr

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

For the life of Christians, in which we are now trained, is a system of reasonable actions — that is, of those things taught by the Word — an unfailing energy which we have called faith.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

And Christian conduct is the operation of the rational soul in accordance with a correct judgment and aspiration after the truth, which attains its destined end through the body, the soul's consort and ally.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

For it was necessary, owing to the different methods of education, to speak of the differences of belief among men, some of whom are more, others less fortunate in their belief;

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Supporting witness

and even philosophers pride themselves greatly in their efforts after the education of men.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Oration to Origen Background

But after he had thus carried us captive at the very beginning, and had shut us in, as it were, on every side, and after what was best had been accomplished by him, and when it seemed good to us to remain with him for a time, then he took us in hand. He was like a skilled farmer taking in hand a field that had never been worked, and was completely barren, sour, burned up, hard as a rock, and rough. Or perhaps it was not utterly barren or unproductive, but rather perhaps by nature very productive, though at that time wasted and neglected, stiff and hard to manage with thorns and wild shrubs. Or he was like a gardener taking in hand a plant that was wild indeed, and produced no cultivated fruits, though it might not be absolutely worthless. When he found it so, by his skill in gardening he could bring some cultivated shoot and graft it in, making a split in the middle, then bringing the two together, and binding the one to the other, until the sap in each should flow in one stream, and both should grow with the same nourishment. For one may often see a tree of a mixed and worthless kind made productive in this way in spite of its former barrenness, and made to bear the fruits of the

Tertullian, De Anima (On the Soul) Supporting witness

... by using arguments that both sides admit are valid, and that sometimes even fit with our system of belief. In this way, the truth has almost been shut out by the philosophers through the poisons with which they have infected it. Therefore, if we consider both kinds of mixing that I have just mentioned, and both are equally hostile to the truth, we see the urgent need to do two things. First, we must free the ideas that we hold in common with them from the philosophers' arguments. Second, we must separate the arguments that both sides use from the philosophers' own opinions. And we can do this by bringing every question back to God's inspired standard, except in simple cases that are free from the confusion of preconceived notions, where one may fairly accept mere human testimony. For sometimes we must borrow plain evidence of that kind even from opponents, when our opponents have nothing to gain from it. Now I am not unaware of how great a mass of writing the philosophers have gathered on this subject in their own commentaries. I know how many schools of thought there are, how many conflicts of opinion, how many rich sources of questions, and how many confusing methods of solvi

1 Timothy 4:6 Supporting witness

If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

Ephesians 4:13 Supporting witness

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Titus 2:12 Direct teaching

training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Colossians 1:28 Direct teaching

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

1 Timothy 4:8 Supporting witness

for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

...onomy 5. And so on. These things must be kept, along with whatever else is commanded in reading the Bible. And by Isaiah He commands us: "Wash yourselves, and make yourselves clean. Put away wickedness from your souls before my eyes. Learn to do good. Seek judgment. Rescue the wronged. Judge for the orphan, and justify the widow. And come, and let us reason together," says the Lord. And we will find many examples in other places also. For example, about prayer, Scripture says, "Good works are an acceptable prayer to the Lord." And the manner of prayer is described: "If you see the naked, cover him, and do not overlook those who belong to your own seed. Then your light shall break forth early, and your healing shall spring up quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall surround you." What, then, is the fruit of such prayer? "Then you shall call, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking, He will say, 'I am here.'"

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Oration to Origen Supporting witness

As for these human teachers, he advised us not to attach ourselves to any of them, even if all people considered them very wise. Instead, we were to devote ourselves to God alone and to the prophets. He himself became the interpreter of the prophets for us, and he explained whatever was dark or puzzling in them. For there are many things like that in the sacred writings. I do not know whether God is pleased to speak with people in such a way that the divine word does not enter completely bare and open into an unworthy soul, as many souls are, or whether every divine message is actually clear by its own nature, but seems obscure and dark to us because we have fallen away from God and, through time and age, have lost the ability to hear. But whatever the case may be, if some words really are mysterious, he explained all of them and brought them into the light, because he himself was a skillful and very discerning hearer of God. Or, if none of them are truly obscure by nature, they were still not hard for him to understand. Of all the men of the present time whom I have known myself, or heard about from others, he alone has studied the clear and shining oracles of God so deeply that h

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

Keeping, then, to our aim, and selecting the Scriptures which bear on the usefulness of training for life, we must now compendiously describe what the man who is called a Christian ought to be during the whole of his life.

Justin Martyr, Connection to Acts 2:42 Direct teaching

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Supporting witness

Therefore, first of all, we must make use of that passage: the law is spiritual, Romans 7:14. If they deny that it is spiritual, they are certainly speaking blasphemy. But if, to avoid blasphemy, they confess that it is spiritual, then let them read it spiritually. For divine things must be received in a divine way, and must certainly be upheld as holy. But a serious fault is marked on those who attach earthly and human teaching to sacred and spiritual words, and we must be careful not to do this. We must also be careful that, if anything commanded by God is treated as though it lessens His authority, then by calling some things impure and unclean, their institution may dishonor the One who appointed them. For in rejecting what He has made, He would seem to have condemned His own works, which He had approved as good. Then He would appear changeable in both cases, just as the heretics want Him to be: either because He blessed things that were not clean, or because He later rejected as not good creatures that He had blessed as both clean and good. And this great evil and contradiction will remain forever if that Jewish teaching is held onto. It must be removed with all our strength,

Victorinus, On the Creation of the World Supporting witness

Therefore, first of all, we must make use of that passage: “the law is spiritual,” Romans 7:14. If they deny that it is spiritual, they are certainly blaspheming. But if, to avoid blasphemy, they admit that it is spiritual, then let them read it spiritually. For divine things must be received in a divine way, and they must certainly be upheld as holy. But a serious fault is marked against those who attach earthly and human teaching to sacred and spiritual words, and we must be careful not to do this. We must also be careful that, if anything commanded by God is treated in such a way as to lessen His authority, then by calling some things impure and unclean, His appointment may dishonor the One who appointed it. For if someone rejects what He has made, God will seem to have condemned His own works, which He had approved as good. And He will be described as seeming inconsistent in both cases, just as the heretics want: either because He blessed things that were not clean, or because He later rejected as not good creatures that He had blessed as both clean and good. And this great evil and contradiction will remain forever if that Jewish doctrine is kept, and it must be removed with a

Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness

...have answered well enough the charges of the many crimes on which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have fully presented our case. We have shown how we can prove that what we say is true, from the trustworthiness and antiquity of our sacred writings, and also from the confession of the powers of spiritual wickedness themselves. Who will dare to refute us, not with skill in words, but, as we have made our demonstration, on the basis of reality? But while the truth we hold is made clear to all, unbelief meanwhile, even at the very time when it is convinced of the worth of Christianity, now well known both for its benefits and from the intercourse of life, takes up the idea that it is not really something divine, but rather a kind of philosophy. "These are the very things," it says, "that the philosophers advise and profess: innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, and chastity." Why then are we not allowed the same freedom and immunity for our teachings that they have, when we are compared with them in what we teach? Or why are they not also forced to the same acts, by refusing which our lives are put in danger, if they are so much like us? For who forces a phil

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...urn and live.” Ezekiel 33:11. And Joel the prophet declares the mercy of the Lord in the Lord’s own admonition, when he says: “Turn to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and gracious, and patient, and of great mercy, and repents with respect to the evil that He has inflicted.” Joel 2:13. He can show mercy. He can turn back His judgment. He can mercifully pardon the repenting, laboring, beseeching sinner. He can regard as effectual whatever, on behalf of such as these, either martyrs have besought or priests have done. Or if anyone moves Him still more by his own atonement, if he appeases His anger, if he appeases the wrath of an indignant God by righteous entreaty, He gives arms again, by which the vanquished may be armed. He restores and confirms the strength by which the refreshed faith may be invigorated. The soldier will seek his contest anew. He will repeat the fight. He will provoke the enemy. And indeed by his very affliction he is made braver for the battle. He who has thus made atonement to God, who by repentance for his deed and by shame for his sin has conceived more both of virtue and of faith from the very grief of his fall, heard and aided by the Lord, shall mak

Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness

This, then, to speak shortly, is what we expect and have learned from Christ, and teach.

Acts 18:25 Direct teaching

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

Hebrews 5:12 Supporting witness

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Hebrews 13:9 Supporting witness

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.