Before Constantine, After Joseph Smith | Graydon F. Snyder, Ante Pacem: Archeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine

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Few recent books substantiate the major claims of Restoration faith as well as Graydon Snyder’s Ante Pacem. A professor at Bethany Theological Seminary, Snyder convincingly shows that the early church had structures and cultic forms remark ably similar to those of Latter-day Saints. This, of course, is not his purpose; he is not an apologist for Mormonism and never once mentions the Latter-day Saint faith. Rather, his aim is to describe the early church through archeological evidence dated before the era of peace initiated by Constantine in A.D. 313 (hence the title Ante Pacem). 

Snyder sifts through the vast accumulation of archeological evidence now available from that period—data that has not been lost or eradicated, as many scholars have assumed. He defines archeology in a broad sense as nonliterary remains; consequently, his study includes not just excavations and ground plans of buildings, but sculpture, frescoes, sarcophagi inscriptions, funeral tablets, papyri, and graffiti. He summarizes in English a vast fund of re source materials hitherto available only in French and German monographs. Focusing on the approximate date A.D. 180 — which he believes is when a distinctively Christian culture began to emerge — Snyder’s book helps fill the time gap be tween the New Testament writings and formation of “orthodoxy” during the age of Constantine. Geographically, Snyder concentrates on Roman Christianity, where remains are far more massive and accessible than anything from the Greek-speaking world before the late fourth century (pp. 168-69). The following conclusions might interest Latter-day Saints. 

1. The Absence of Cross and Crucifix 

Snyder confirms contemporary findings that the cross is not found in the symbolism of the early church; instead, early Chris tians preferred to see Jesus as a strong, victorious Christ who gave substance to their hope for surcease from Roman tyranny and who overcame illness, suffering, and death (pp. 15, 27-29, 165). Snyder emphasizes that “there are no early Christian symbols that elevate paradigms of Christ’s suffering . . . or even motifs of death and resurrection” (p. 14). Only after the state recognized Christianity could the cross be used for redemptive purposes (p. 29). Latter-day Saint author Robert Wells correctly argues that the Church should not be faulted for its failure to use the cross as a symbol. Speaking for Latter-day Saints in general, he says, “We remember Him as resurrected and glorified, having overcome death. We see Him as a strong, masculine, healthy savior of mankind, not an emaciated and suffering one” (We Are Christians Because . . . , Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985, p. 24). 

In early art Christ was not the redeemer from guilt through his suffering on the cross, but rather a young heroic deliverer who rescued his followers from desperate circumstances of death and de humanization (pp. 165-66). Only after Constantine was the image of Christ “changed from the youthful [beardless] wonder worker to the royal or majestic Lord. At that time, Jesus shifted more to a bearded, elderly, dominant figure.” Snyder further suggests “that the price for orthodoxy was the ultimate loss of this attractive young Jesus” (p. 165). 

2. The Communion of the Saints

And yet early Christianity was not as centered on youthful vitality as the above portrayal might indicate. Snyder notes that before the time of Constantine, Christianity was as much a “cemetery” religion as it was a “house-church” religion that met in the home, hall, or marketplace. “In the cemetery they celebrated their kin ship with the Christian special dead [saints of a later period] and with each other” (p. 83). This gathering was highly social and included an agape meal (which Snyder differentiates from the Lord’s Supper, as illustrated below). Here, “prayers were addressed to the dead on behalf of the living” (p. 83). Rather than encouraging necrophilia, the church’s cemetery rites emphasized the triumph of life over death. This recognition of special kinship with the dead can be likened to the ethos Latter day Saints have established through temple ordinances and sealings. 

3. New Light on an Old Issue: Are Mormons Christians? 

In the struggle between the two major forms of early Christianity—the “urban” and “cemetery” factions—the urban authorities won, and the preeminence of saints (usually worshipped in catacombs at the edge of the town) gave way to the authority of bishops in the city churches (pp. 165-66). According to Snyder, con trolling the cult of the dead paved the way for orthodoxy, which was more a political compromise than a doctrinal development (pp. 123, 165). This discussion helps illuminate how orthodoxy and heresy should be perceived today and clarifies the relative position of Mormonism to traditional Christianity. Here, Snyder supports Walter Bauer’s thesis in Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (Philadelphia: For tress Press, 1971)—that Christianity was not initially a uniform orthodoxy from which heretical movements deviated. Says Snyder, “Heresy was that variety of Christianity that was repressed rather than the factor that eroded pristine orthodoxy” (p. 8). In other words, through pluralistic competition, orthodoxy became the heresy that won—coercively, I might add. 

4. “Families Are Forever” 

The most widespread portrayal in early Christian art is the orante symbol—usually a female figure in a Roman toga with arms extended upward in praise. Snyder challenges the usual interpretation of this figure as the soul of the departed praying to God. Rather, he believes that it represents filial piety, corresponding to its use in the surrounding pagan environment. For the Christian it also expressed the security and joy found through adoption into a new family, the church. The deceased were thus part of a family that extended blood relationships (p. 20). This seems to parallel both Latter-day Saint genealogical concerns and the concept of incorporation into the “blood” of Israel by adoption. 

5. Christianity as a Lay Religion 

Snyder finds little evidence of clergy or even hierarchy in the early church: “There was leadership, but clergy were not divided from laity” (p. 166). Mass had not yet become a spectator phenomenon; religious act and religious actor were one. Social class structures were unimportant in the Christian “small-group caring and hospitality . . . [that offered] deliverance from the personal and social entrapments of “life” (p. 169). Later, however, the post Constantinian church compromised and altered this earlier pristine vision. 

6. Adult Baptism 

The initiatory rite for the early church was baptism, undoubtedly limited to adults (pp. 166-67). Since the baptistries Snyder analyzes have pictorial representations of Jonah being cast into the sea, swallowed by the fish, and spewed out up on dry ground, we can presume that baptism was by immersion, with its attendant overtones of death and rebirth (pp. 32, 40). There is also evidence that the remains of two pools could well have been baptistries suit able for immersion (pp. 102, 117). 

Most of Snyder’s findings corroborate the Latter-day Saint view of the early church. However, a few of the archeological findings challenge Restorationist views — specifically, the sacrament of communion. Snyder traces two different kinds of suppers: the cemetery agape that was more a social meal eaten in the presence of the departed souls, and a second meal of remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice held in the urban centers. In the cemetery religion, the dead were believed to be vitally present, especially on death anniversaries, and were invited to partake spiritually of the meal (p. 18). If we compare the “cemetery” religion and the cult of the dead with Mormon temple rituals, many of which center around the deceased, and insist that a restored church recapitulate essential features of the early church, we might expect the Mormon temple ceremony to include some kind of agape sup per. But before Latter-day Saints take this suggestion seriously, they should note that the cemetery meal reverencing the special dead developed into a cult of the saints and a mass celebrated atop their bones. 

Latter-day Saints claim that the Reformation did not go far enough and that what was needed was a Restoration — a return to the practices of the early church before the “apostasy.” On the whole, this book supports that claim and supplies specific evidence of several practices that are remarkably similar in both Latter-day Saint and pre-Constantinian Christianity. 

Ante Pacem: Archeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine by Graydon F. Snyder (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1985), 169 pp., $19.95.