Note (return) — Chapter II

On account of the great differences among those who, in the first century, reckoned themselves in the Church of God, and called themselves by the name of Christ,152 it seems at first sight scarcely possible to set up marks which would hold good for all, or even for nearly all, the groups. Yet the great majority had one thing in common, as is proved, among other things, by the gradual expulsion of Gnosticism. The conviction that they knew the supreme God, the consciousness of being responsible to him (Heaven and Hell), reliance on Jesus Christ, the hope of an eternal life, the vigorous elevation above the world—these are the elements that formed the fundamental mood. The author of the Acts of Thecla expresses the general view when he (c. 5-7) co-ordinates τον του χριστου λογον with λογος θεου περι ενκατειας, και αναστασεως. The following particulars may here be specified.153