The Church the Apostles Built

Once when I was visiting a Ma and Pa non-denominational church I had asked an important question - how their church started. The specific one I was visiting had an interesting story - started around 1980 by their charismatic pastor who had gotten his start doing bathtub baptisms in his house. He had felt inspired by the Holy Spirit with a divine revelation that he needed to start a church in small town USA. Because he had received a calling from the Holy Spirit, he held that his church was the true church, refounded after the physical church founded by Christ and His Apostles had gotten corrupted and failed. Filled with the Holy Spirit - his church was the true vine. Which seemed very odd to me - odd that the moment all of history was building toward, Christ’s incarnation and time on this Earth, would result in a physical church founded by Christ and His Apostles, only to fail within the first generation or so, to be refounded almost 2,000 years in the future exactly in the small little town I was living in all the way on another continent. Can you imagine how lucky I was? What were the chances?

For what it’s worth I did not return to that specific church.

Ask a modern Christian where his church came from and you will usually get a similar story. A church founded within the past 400-500 years. Ask the same question of a Christian of an Apostolic tradition - Armenian, a Copt, a Malabar Indian or a Ruthenian, and you get a name and a road: Bartholomew came here, Mark came here, Thomas came here. Christ did not leave us a book, he gave us twelve Apostles and a church. The apostles, for their part, did not leave behind a compiled bible and bullet point list of beliefs, but instead left us a tradition of teachings. They left behind particular churches in particular cities, with particular men to carry them on - and a guideline for choosing the next generations. This is the beginning of our “Apostolic Foundations” series. This is their story.

The Universal — Catholic — Church is perhaps best known for Peter, its first earthly head, and for the primacy that comes with him. But that leads to more questions than it settles: Where does the idea of Peter’s primacy come from in the Bible? Why does apostolic succession matter anyway? And what about the other eleven? This series takes up all of them. We begin, in this first part, with the apostles themselves — where they went, what they founded, and how their churches endured; the primacy of Peter and the meaning of succession come next.

Out of Jerusalem - Apostolic Spread

For a decade and more the Twelve kept close to home, preaching in Jerusalem and Judea — to Israel first. What broke that open was a killing: about the year 44, Herod Agrippa “killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:2), the first of the Twelve to die, and the persecution that took him drove the rest out of the city. From then on they continued scattering, each to his own country, to be Christ’s witnesses. Where each of them went we know mostly from historically written tradition, and the traditions vary — but they agree on the shape of the thing: twelve men and a few companions, walking in every direction until the known world had a church in it.

• Peter — Always listed first and generally accepted as the leader of the Twelve. He preached to the Jewish diaspora of Asia Minor (1 Peter 1:1), held the see of Antioch, and came at last to Rome, crucified there under Nero sometime between 64-66 AD. Originally named Simon, until Christ renamed him Cephas — Aramaic for “rock,” which comes into Greek as Petros and into English as Peter. The Roman church rests on his name and Paul’s.
• Paul — Technically not one of the Twelve; one of the greatest redemption stories in church history, he started as a great persecutor of the church, consenting to the stoning of St. Stephen (Acts 7:58–8:1), and became its greatest Apostolic writer - writing the most New Testament letters and simply becoming known as The Apostle. He was called late, on the road to Damascus, and made the apostle to the Gentiles: Cyprus, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome, a church planted in city after city. Given credit as a founder of the church in Rome for helping it expand greatly, even though it was already established prior to his first visit according to his letter to the Romans. Beheaded at Rome around the same time as Peter.
• James the Greater — Son of Zebedee, John’s brother, and the first of the Twelve to die — killed at Jerusalem about 44, the death that set the others moving. (Compostela and the Spanish mission are later devotion, not early record.)
• James the Just — Son of Alphaeus and known as brother of the Lord. The first church historian Eusebius records him as the first bishop of Jerusalem ( as evidenced by Acts 15 ), until his own martyrdom about 62. The liturgy that bears his name is the oldest that survives.
• Andrew — Peter’s brother, apostle of the Black Sea coasts and of parts of Greece, and the founder Byzantium claims — which is why Constantinople is counted an apostolic see. Known in the Orthodox tradition as the First-Called (Protokletos) — the first of the Twelve to follow Christ, and the one who then brought his brother Peter to him (John 1:40–42). Crucified at Patras on the X-shaped cross that bears his name.
• John — The beloved disciple and evangelist, who made Ephesus his own and kept the churches of Asia Minor. He wrote the Gospel that bears his name, and is traditionally associated with the John who authored Revelation. Exiled to Patmos, he alone of the Twelve died peacefully in old age, about 100.
• Philip — Apostle of Phrygia — an ancient region in west-central modern-day Turkey — who died at Hierapolis; his tomb was uncovered there in 2011, one of the best-attested apostolic graves in Asia Minor.
• Matthias — Chosen by lot to fill Judas’s place among the Twelve (Acts 1:26). Tradition sends him north to Colchis, in what is now Georgia, whose church claims Andrew as well.
• Mark — The evangelist and not technically one of the Twelve; a disciple of Peter and companion of Paul, founder of the church in Alexandria, martyred there about 68. The Coptic and Ethiopian churches trace their succession through him.
• Matthew — The tax collector turned evangelist; after preaching among his own people, remembered for going south toward Ethiopia — a mission the church in Alexandria would carry on.
• Thomas — The apostle who went farthest: through Persia and on to the Malabar coast of India, where the Saint Thomas Christians have borne his name for nineteen centuries. Killed near Mylapore about 72, run through with a spear.
• Jude Thaddeus — Or sometimes just known as Thaddeus. Apostle of Mesopotamia and Persia, known to the Syriac churches as Addai and counted, with Mari, among their founders; tradition has him martyred in Persia beside Simon.
• Simon the Zealot — Paired with Jude in the Armenian and Persian accounts, and with him in death; other traditions send him to Egypt or farther west. The evidence is late either way.
• Bartholomew — Apostle of Armenia with Thaddeus — the two honored as its first illuminators — and, tradition says, flayed for the faith at Albanopolis.

By most accounts all the Twelve but John were martyred, most of them in distant lands and within the first century. All of them started the process of spreading the Christian faith to the four corners of the world. As this process organically unfolded slight variances occurred from region to region. While the initial church had centralized structure and teachings, all coming from the same root and foundation which was Christ, they were limited by the technology of the time. They didn’t have email, or telephones. Even writing was difficult and expensive; having your own books and letters was a luxury item. Being able to write was a bona fide specialty. The result was predictably that as the faith spread to the far corners, minor variances occurred. Different languages were spoken. Different building styles utilized. Different analogies used to explain the same universal faith.

The Apostolic Rites

As churches spread sporadically to various cities, they would naturally form pockets of language-centric, geo-politically constrained groupings that did things and explained things similarly. The process was not organized but organic - and as a result messy. Cultures changed and coalesced, languages changed over time, and borders shifted constantly. But the churches, when founded, mostly endured. In modern times we call these sets of variances in worship style and specific traditions on explanations and viewpoints rites. There is a distinction between a rite, and a church that we will cover later. For now its important just to note that the two are not 1-1 and not mutually exclusive. A church ( Catholic, Orthodox ) can be composed of many rites, and various rites ( Byzantine for instance ) cross church borders. Its important also to note that a rite can have different liturgies or specific worship rubrics. For instance the Latin Rite Catholic church has a Traditional Latin Mass and a post-Vatican II (1962–1965) modern style of worship; but both are still part of the same Latin Rite.

There were several of these rites that survived to the modern times:

• Latin Rite - The largest practicing Christian rite in the world. The rite of the Western Churches of the Roman Empire centered around Rome. Coalesced out of a series of other rites and liturgies, some of which are still practiced today — the Ambrosian rite of Milan and the Mozarabic rite of Spain. It survives only in the Catholic church and is the only one that has not split and fractured into other rites.

• Greek Rite AKA Byzantine Rite - called so because it originated mostly in the urban world of Constantinople - previously called Byzantium before being built up and renamed by the Emperor Constantine. Constantinople from the fall of Rome in 476 until its conquest in 1453 was the undisputed cultural center of the Christian world — home to the Hagia Sophia, the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, and holding pieces of the True Cross along with uncountable other relics. Sometimes called Greek Rite to denote that it was the rite that coalesced from all the various, now lost to history, Greek speaking churches. The Slavic traditions are offshoots of this rite. The Byzantine Rite is a theological and academic offshoot of the Antiochean theological schools and was heavily influenced by the Cappadocian church fathers.

• Alexandrian Rite - Originating in one of the two ancient Christian academic centers, this rite still exists primarily in the Oriental Orthodox churches and also in the Catholic Church. It is the rite of the Coptic (Egyptian) and Ethiopian churches.

• West Syriac Rite - AKA Antiochene. Originating in the other ancient Christian academic center - Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians. It’s currently used by the Lebanese Maronite Catholic Church, the St. Thomas Christians of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, and various Oriental Orthodox churches.

• East Syriac Rite - AKA Chaldean or Persian. This rite was the main rite of the Church of the East - which for a time perhaps matched or exceeded the size and spread of Christians in the western world - even reaching as far as China. It was ultimately reduced to a mere shadow of itself by centuries of Muslim oppression that culminated in the devastating campaigns of Timur, whose armies left entire Christian cities executed and martyred. The church that first evangelized China and had millions of adherents now has less than half a million. This rite is also used by the St. Thomas Christians of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, one of the larger Catholic churches.

• Armenian - Originating in Armenia, the first nation to formally adopt Christianity, this rite is currently used by the Armenian Catholic Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church (Oriental Orthodox).

Each of these rites represents something important, a real living record of the ancient churches created by the Apostles: what they were taught, how those teachings were explained, how the various ancient Christian churches worshipped, and how they were organized. These churches and rites were already old before the Western biblical canon we use today was settled — first ratified by the North African councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397). Some of them even have different bibles that list different books.

The real question: which rite is right?

The question we are really looking to answer however lies a layer deeper. If from the beginning the church was divided — spread by twelve Apostles to the far reaches of the known world, in different languages and different rites — then how can an entity like the Catholic Church also call itself the “Universal” Church?

It can for several reasons. First is that the church, from the beginning was not divided, it was unified and centralized. On Pentecost, for instance, Peter and the Apostles spoke and every listener heard it in his own mother tongue. The church started as one centralized communion — one faith, one foundation in Christ — even as it was heard in many languages at once. It was only worldly limitations, no instant communication or mass transit, that resulted in the splintering based on geo-political and cultural lines.

And here is the more important part, even as Christianity continues to fracture - with modern charismatic & non-denominational churches in the west, and new schisms in the East - the Catholic Church has started living up to its name as the Universal church becoming a stronghold of Apostolic Churches and rites joined in communion. The Catholic Church, and only the Catholic Church, has the fullness of all the Apostolic rites and traditions that came out of the Apostolic age. And you can see it visually in the chart below:

How to read it

Read it left to right, as a rough timeline with colored ribbons indicating various rites that coalesced from the individual churches founded by the Apostles. The first column is the Twelve plus Mark the Evangelist and Paul, organized by where tradition says each one planted a church — a few churches claim more than one founder, and those are drawn as separate ribbons rather than merged - for instance Rome and Antioch both claim Peter as a founder so he has two ribbons coming out of his name. The second is the churches they founded; not all churches are listed, and some are grouped — for instance the “Asian” churches of Asia Minor. The goal was to list relevant churches, not comprehensively list all of them. From there each line runs on to the communion that carries it today: with convergences, divergences, and in a few unfortunate cases disappearances. The last column is who is standing where now.

Color is rite. Every ribbon’s color indicates its ritual family — Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Syriac, Armenian, or the Persian line of the East. Follow a color and you are following a way of praying as it travels down the centuries. A gray ribbon is a line that died out.

The panel beside the Catholic Church. Throughout the ages, various churches have returned to the main Catholic Church. When this happens it constitutes what is called a Sui Iuris Church: a church with its own properties, its own separate priests, and its own leadership, that has sought unity over division. These churches retain their autonomy and separateness, but still recognize the overall authority of the Pope as visible spiritual head of Christ’s Church on Earth. This red panel lists all the different churches and when they entered or re-entered union with the Catholic Church.

A gold ✦ marks a see of the pentarchy — the five great sees of the early Church. Three of them also carry 325: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, whose standing the Council of Nicaea took as settled in its sixth canon; Constantinople and Jerusalem were recognized as pre-eminent sees only later. Bishops of these sees were considered to have primacy over other Bishops and held greater prestige - holding a title such as Patriarch or Pope. They also served as semi-independent regional actors - holding all prerogatives within their territory. According to the Council of Nicaea, the Bishop of Rome held as his privilege universal prerogatives.

Tap for more info - Tap anywhere on the map and you will get a tooltip providing more details.

Things to Note - The Catholic Church is the only church that can claim to represent all rites established by the Apostles that are known and have survived to this day. And there are at least two ‘dead’ possible lineages that did not continue on in any form to this day - Christian North Africa and Christian Nubia - both of which died out as a result of Muslim occupation.

* The Maronite claim. Every other date in the Catholic band marks a return from a real separation. The Maronites hold that none ever happened — communion with Rome lapsed in practice through the centuries of Muslim rule and was formally renewed in 1182, the date most sources print — so where the others say “reunited,” the chart gives the Maronites the benefit of the doubt.

One thing missing from the above chart, is relative size and proportions for these Apostolic Churces relative to the rest of Christianity. We included those below:

Where this leaves us

That is the visible claim of this chart: the fullness of the apostolic rites — every tradition the Twelve carried out of Jerusalem — gathered today in a single communion. But a chart can only show that it happened; it cannot tell you why it should matter. Why does apostolic succession count for anything? Where does the idea of Peter’s primacy actually come from in Scripture, and what did Christ mean to build when he said, “on this rock I will build my church”?

Those are the questions the next part of Apostolic Foundations takes up — the biblical case beneath the diagram: the church that governs itself as one body (Acts 15), the rock and the keys given to Peter (Matthew 16), and the city whose twelve foundations carry the names of twelve named men (Revelation 21). The chart answers who and where. The next asks why.