Bercot Emails
Below
you can read the emails that I exchanged with “David W. Bercot”
editor of “A Dictionary of Early Christian
Beliefs”
Josiahs Scott,
Josiahs@trueconnection.org,
www.TrueConnection.org
Compiled
12/30 – 1/1/10; Revised 5/3/10; 2/19/11
Table of Contents
Josiahs Scott’s First Email to David Bercot 1
David Bercot’s First Email Back to Josiahs Scott 2
Initial Email 2
Main Email 2
David Bercot’s Second Email Back to Josiahs
Scott 3
Initial Email 3
File Attachment:
letter-2009-12-Josiahs Scott-#2.doc. 3
Josiahs Scott’s Second Email to David Bercot 6
From:
Josiahs Scott [mailto:josiahs@trueconnection.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009
6:46 PM
To:
'customerservice@scrollpublishing.com'
Subject: things that I have
written about “A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs”
I wanted to provide an opportunity for the people at Scroll Publishing
to respond to some things that I have written about “A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs”
so that I can do my best to represent your work as clearly and accurately as
possible.
Please especially see this urgent link:
http://www.trueconnection.org/DivorceAndRemarriageBook.com/appendix/ExtraNotesonChurchHistory.html#Tertullian_MisquotedHeretic
And also this link:
http://www.trueconnection.org/BibleStudies/Bibliography_and_Glossary.html#ADictionaryofEarlyChristianBeliefs
Thank you ahead of time if you can possibly promptly send me any
clarifications before others may be directed to reading these things.
Josiahs Scott
(352) 222-5471
www.TrueConnection.org
From:
Scroll Publishing Co. [mailto:scroll@embarqmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
12:31 PM
To: josiahs@trueconnection.org
Subject: Notes on the
"Dictionary"
Hi Josiah,
Thanks for contacting me in advance
about your comments on the "Dictionary." I plan to get back
with you later today with an explanation.
David Bercot
From:
Scroll Publishing Co. [mailto:scroll@embarqmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009
6:28 PM
To: josiahs@trueconnection.org
Subject: Tertullian quotation on
remarriage
Dear
Josiahs,
I have read and re-read the pages surrounding the quotation from Tertullian
about remarriage, and I now see that he is talking about remarriage after the
death of a spouse—not after divorce. Thank you so much for bringing
this to my attention. I plan to post a note about this correction on the
Scroll website.
To my knowledge, no one has ever contacted me before about that quotation (I
had forgotten it was even in my Dictionary).
As a result, I’ve never had the occasion to examine the quotation in more
detail.
The piece you wrote about this quotation reveals something that I had hoped
would not happen: people are using the quotations without going to the
Ante-Nicene Fathers and reading the quotations in their context.
The Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs
was never intended to be what its title implies: a dictionary or encyclopedia
of knowledge. The working title I had given the project was a Topical Index to the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
I didn’t know what title Hendrickson Publishers was going to use until
the book was ready to go to press. The title that Hendrickson gave the
work is no doubt more appealing, but it mischaracterizes the intent of this
work. Every quotation contains the volume and page number in the
Ante-Nicene Fathers where the reader can find the quotation and read its
context. The reason that information is there is that no
quotation—whether from Scripture, the early Christian writers, or
whomever—should be relied upon until the reader has searched out and read
the passage in its entire context.
I
had written an extensive preface to my Topical
Index to the Ante-Nicene Fathers that made this matter quite
clear. Unfortunately, the editors at Hendrickson decided to completely
eliminate my preface. I was able to implore them to allow me to have a
short preface, which was used in the final published work. However, I had
to omit a number of things that I felt were important for the reader to know so
that he wouldn’t misuse this work.
Again,
thanks for bringing this matter to my attention. I haven’t had a
chance yet to read your other link. I plan to read it later this evening
and get back with you tomorrow on it.
In
Christ,
David
Bercot
Sent:
Thursday, December 31, 2009 3:26 PM
To: josiahs@trueconnection.org
Subject: Explanation of my
methodology in preparing the Dictionary
Hi Josias,
I visited your website this
morning, and seeing the careful, thorough approach you take on things, I
felt you deserved a thorough explanation of why Tertullian and Origen are
included in the Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Since I
knew my explanation would be a bit long, I thought I would write the letter in
Word, rather than as an email.
If you have trouble opening the
file, let me know.
Thank you for the work you're doing
in helping other Christians search for God's truth in a spiritually and
intellectually honest way! Have a blessed day.
David Bercot
Note: I plan to make this
file attachment available on my webpage when I am able to
Hi Josiahs,
I wanted to get back to
you about the second link you sent me.
It concerns why the Dictionary of Early Christian
Beliefs includes quotations from men like Tertullian and
Origen. I can appreciate why at first
glance it would seem to make sense to include only quotations that are
“orthodox” or that are from “orthodox writers.”
In fact, when I embarked
on this project, I considered doing that very thing: including only quotations that I thought were
sound. However, I realized that I would
end up with a final work that would be just like everything else that had been
produced up to that point. The Roman Catholics
had published a collection of quotations from the early Christians—using
only those quotations that fit their theology.
There was another collection that had a strong bias towards Church of
Christ beliefs. And virtually every
denomination and church published books that quote from the early Christians
when the quotation fits their beliefs.
I realized that a digest
of quotations that fit what David Bercot thought to be orthodox would be of
little benefit to Christ’s Church.
So I decided to do what—to my knowledge—had never been
done: assemble a comprehensive (but
certainly not exhaustive) collection of pertinent quotations from the
pre-Nicene Christians on every significant theological, moral, ecclesiastical,
and lifestyle topic I could think of. I
would approach the project with as much objectivity and neutrality as I
possibly could. I would include
quotations that in my opinion were not representative of early Christian
thinking in general or that were simply wrong.
(An example would be the quotation you have mentioned from
Athenagoras). I would even include
quotations that various churches have used dishonestly to support their
particular doctrines.
This went against my flesh
and my own self-interests. However, if
David Bercot decides what is heretical or not, or what is worthwhile or not, or
what should be hidden because someone may misuse the quote, then what prevents
someone else from making that same judgment?
In fact, it’s the very reason why the early Christian writings
have been kept in the closet for so many centuries. Virtually every church takes issue with some
of their teachings. No, the Dictionary would have had little value if the reader could
not depend upon my absolute integrity to include every quotation that
has—or may have significance—on a particular topic. (Integrity doesn’t mean infallibility.
There may be relevant quotations that I overlooked, but no quotation has been
omitted because I didn’t like what it said.)
Does this mean, then, that
the writings of heretics should be included alongside the orthodox? Of course not. But since this is a topical
digest of early Christian (pre-Nicene) beliefs,
the ones who need to make the determination of who was a heretic and who was
orthodox are the early Christians themselves—not today’s
Christians. So my work does not include
any quotations from the gnostic writings or from spurious works rejected by the
early Christians. Nor does it include
quotations from works that are not authentic early Christian (pre-Nicene) writings.
What about Tertullian and
Origen? These two men definitely
represent special situations. Let me
begin with Tertullian.
Tertullian
Towards the end of his life, Tertullian adopted Montanist
teachings. It’s not clear whether
he ever actually left the church or not, but certainly the last four or five
works he penned are not representative of general early Christian
teaching. On the other hand, at least
half of Tertullian’s works have no Montanist influence at all. He was in no sense a heretic when he penned
those writings. So there would be no
basis to exclude them from the Dictionary. Solomon died in apostasy, but that
doesn’t mean we should remove Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of
Solomon from the Bible.
About another third of Tertullian’s writings show a
Montanistic influence, but nearly everything he says in those writings are
consistent with what other early Christians were saying. Montanism wasn’t a heresy in the class
of Gnosticism. The Montanists were in
most aspects orthodox in their teaching.
However, they believed that some of their prophets and prophetesses had
the gift of prophecy. They held to
extreme views on church discipline, marriage, and various ascetic
practices—supposedly revealed through prophecy. But other than those things, what the
Montanists believed was the same as what the other early Christians
believed.
So unless a statement of Tertullian is obviously a Montanist
teaching—and contradicts what the church in general
taught—I’ve included quotations from his works that reveal a
Montanist influence. Usually, the only
way a person can tell that these works were written during his Montanist period
is a statement he makes somewhere in the work about certain prophecies from
God. However, typically these Montanistic
references have nothing to do with the topic in the Dictionary
under consideration.
Finally, there are Tertullian’s final four or five works
that are extremely Montanistic and in which Tertullian attacks the positions
taken by the church as a whole.
Ironically, these writings often provide valuable information about what
the church believed and practiced in the early 200s. That’s because, in the process of
attacking the general practices, Tertullian describes what those practices
are. Tertullian’s views are off
base, but what he reveals is invaluable.
However, unless they shed valuable light on what the church as a
whole was practicing, passages from Tertullian’s writings that clearly represent
Montanistic teaching have not been included in the general entries in the Dictionary. Instead,
I have lumped them together under various subheadings and included them under
the topic, “Montanists.”
Origen
Origen stands in a different situation then Tertullian. Origen never left the church, is not
identified with any heretical movement, and died as an elder in the church at
Caesarea. Most of his writings are
completely consistent with what the early church taught and practiced. There would be no reason to exclude
quotations from most of his works from the Dictionary. However,
Origen liked to speculate on all sorts of theological topics, and I—along
with most other Christians—would feel that his speculations were
unsound. Thankfully, his unsound
speculations were rejected by the early church and never took hold. It is important to note that Origen never
taught these things as dogma. He
normally makes it clear that they are his opinions alone.
In those areas of speculation, quotations from Origen are only
significant for someone who is doing a study on Origen and wants to see what he
actually taught. For that reason,
quotations that represent Origen’s speculations are lumped together and
are listed under the topic, “Origen.” They are not included with other quotations
on general topics.
References to the Ante-Nicene Fathers
One of my determinations in preparing the Dictionary
was to present the quotations in such a way as to make them easy for the
average Christian to look up and find in the Ante-Nicene Fathers. The “scholarly” practice in
citing an early Christian writing is usually to give the name of the author,
then the title of the work (often in Greek or Latin, and often abbreviated),
then the section and chapter of that work.
So a citation from Irenaeus’ Against
Heresies will typically look something like this:
Irenaeus, Adv. Her., iii,
iv., ii.
To the average Christian, such a citation means
nothing—other than that the citation is from Irenaeus. So the average Christian would have no way of
ever looking up that quotation to see what the context is and to see whether it
has been quoted honestly.
Now, to a patristics scholar, the citation means that the
quotation is from Irenaeus’ Against Heresies,
and can be found in Book 3, Chapter 4, Paragraph 2. However, even for a scholar or for a
Christian with a set of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, that quotation is not going to
be easy to find. The table of contents to
the Ante-Nicene Fathers does not provide separate page numbers to each book within
Irenaeus’ lengthy Against Heresies. For someone not intimately familiar with his
work, it’s going to take some time to find that quotation. Most people, of course, will give up.
So in preparing the Dictionary
(which I had wanted to have titled A Topical Index to the
Ante-Nicene Fathers) I decided to break with academic tradition and
furnish the volume and page where each quotation can be found. I did this so that any reader with a set of
the Ante-Nicene Fathers can easily find the quotation for himself, read the
context of the passage, and make his own determination on whether the quotation
has been used correctly and honestly.
Summary
Whether you agree with the neutral position I took when preparing
the Dictionary, I hope you can at least now
understand why I prepared the Dictionary in
the manner that I did and why I included quotations from Tertullian and Origen
in the Dictionary.
Again, Josias, I appreciate your honest feedback and your
kindness in giving me an opportunity to explain why I did things the way I did.
God be with you.
David Bercot
From:
Josiahs Scott [mailto:josiahs@trueconnection.org]
Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010
9:26 AM
To: 'Scroll Publishing Co.'
Subject: RE: Tertullian quotation
on remarriage
I
greatly appreciate your kind and thorough replies to what I wrote, and the time
you took to answer these things. I am still meditating and praying through your
second email, but I have already updated both of these links below in light of
your first letter:
Extra Notes on Church History
(Appendix):
http://www.trueconnection.org/DivorceAndRemarriageBook.com/appendix/ExtraNotesonChurchHistory.html#Tertullian_MisquotedHeretic
Bibliography (Appendix):
http://www.trueconnection.org/BibleStudies/Bibliography_and_Glossary.html#ADictionaryofEarlyChristianBeliefs
After
having read what you wrote, and after having made some additions in light of
this, I am very thankful that we got to touch base and share some emails in
this way before bringing things to print.
Thank
you so much for writing back.
Josiahs Scott
(352) 222-5471
www.DivorceAndRemarriageBook.com
www.TrueConnection.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © Josiahs
Scott, All rights reserved (see below)
The only
reason I put this here is to avoid people misusing this work with bad motives.
This is officially copyrighted to protect it from those with money in mind, and
to preserve it for free distribution, especially in the unlikely event that
someone might think to make money off of it rather than maximizing its
distribution. You are permitted and encouraged to freely copy and redistribute this work in its entirety, via
standard copy machine or electronic documentation as long as you make no money
off of it. If you wish to reproduce this work on any larger scale, please
contact me at Josiahs@trueconnection.org.
You may also quote this document, by citing the reference as:
“[Name
of Bible Study]” By Josiahs Scott, www.TrueConnection.org
PersonalNotes
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