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[German Version] Probably from Syria, Anicetus was one of several presbyter-bishops in Rome who headed the various Christian house churches in the 150s and 160s. Like Clement I before him in the 1st half of the 2nd century ( Herm. 8.3 = Vis. II 4.3) and Soter and Eleutherus after him, he was responsible for the external relations of the city's Christians. Polycarp of Smyrna (Irenaeus Haer. III 3.4; Eusebius Hist. eccl. V 24.16f.; IV 14.5) and (c. 160) Hegesippus (IV 22.3) were therefore his guests when the…

[German Version] (Cletus), set the tone in one of the numerous Christian household churches in Rome in the 1st century. In the 2nd half of the 2nd century, when the monepiscopacy was forming in Rome, Anacletus's name was still present in Roman local tradition and was employed as a building block in the Roman bishop list (in Iren. Haer. III 3.3). At the end of the 170s, this list fictively retrojected the monepiscopacy into the past. In order to assure tradition, Linus, Anacletus and 10 others allegedly followed the Apostles in the Roman monepiscopacy (Eleutherus; Anicetus). Peter Lampe Bibli…

[German Version] presbyter-bishop in Rome between c. 166 and 175, responsible for external relations: his responsibilities included Christians traveling to Rome, organizing aid missions, and probably correspondence with the Corinthians (Dionysius of Corinth in Eus. Hist. eccl. IV 23.10f.). In the second half of the 2nd century, the presbyters in charge of external relations became increasingly more important than the other presbyters in the city, so that Anicetus and Soter became the forerunners of monepiscopacy in Rome. The Roman…

[German Version] were a 1st-century Jewish Christian missionary couple. Aquila was born in Pontus; he and his wife earned their living as tentmakers. Such independent tradespeople belonged to the lower classes; there is no evidence that they had a house or a substantial business. The fact that Prisca is sometimes named before Aquila shows that she was consider…

[German Version] According to the Muratorian Fragment (73f.), Pius was the brother of the author of the Shepherd of Hermas, who wrote between 120 and 150 ce. Like his brother, he was probably born as a slave ( verna) in the household of his master, sold to someone in Rome, and there given his freedom. He was a presbyter of one of Rome’s numerous Christian house churches. In the second half of the 2nd century, when Rome was developing monepiscopacy, Pius’s name, still part of the local Roman tradition, was used as a building block for the Roman bishop list (Iren. Haer. III 4.4; cf. 7.2), which a…

[German Version] bishop of Rome between c. 189 and 199; he was sympathetic to Praxeas and modalistic Monarchianism (Tert. Prax. 1; Ps.-Tert. Adversus omnes haereses 8). The monarchic episcopate in Rome first attained full development under Victor (Papacy). Victor excommunicated the Roman Valentinians around Florinus (Iren. Fragmenta syriaca 28 in Harvey, 457; Eus. Hist. eccl. V 15; 20.1), the Roman supporters of Montanism (Tert. Prax. 1), the Roman followers of Theodotus (anonymous quotation in Eus. Hist. eccl. V 28.6, 9), and – in the controversy over the date of Easte…

[German Version] I. New Testament 1. The historical figure. Peter, originally called Simon, was born around the turn of the era in a Jewish household in Bethsaida, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 1:44; Gal 2:14f.); his father’s name was John (John 1:42) or Jonah (Matt 26:17: Simon bar Jonah; the plural bar Yone [“brigands in the wilderness”] as a term for Zealots is not supported by Giṭ. 56ab and does not suggest that Peter had Zealot sympathies). Peter lived in Capernaum with his wife, his mother-in-law, and his brother Andrew all under one roof (Mark 1:16…