APOSTASY

APOSTASY. From the Greek “defection” (or literally “standing off”) and beginning with a political association (“rebel”), it came to mean an abandonment or renunciation of God and religion in the Septuagint (q.v.) (Josh 22:22; 2 Chr 29:19). Paul is accused of apostasy in Acts 21when he did not require Christian Jews to keep the Law of Moses. Another different reference to general apostasy is recorded in 2 Th 2:3–4, which reflects Jewish apocalyptic expectations (cf. Dan 11:36–37) of the end time. Apostasy from Christianity is considered an unpardonable sin in Heb 6:1–8. Theological justification for strictness in dealing with apostasy is given in 2 Clement 8: Since there is no repentance after death, it is important to keep the flesh pure and the seal of baptism undefiled (see also chs. 9, 17). Whether these references were a localized interpretation, tautological (i.e., one who is defecting cannot be simultaneously repenting), or the universal teaching in the 1st c. A.D., denunciations of apostates soon changed somewhat and appeared in a modified form. In the earliest Christian interpretation, apostasy-as murder or fornication-was accounted unpardonable sin (q.v.).

In the Shepherd of Hermas (q.v.), dated to about the same time as 2 Clement (mid-2nd c.), there are numerous references to the possibility of repentance after apostasy, although apostates are in the last instance labeled worse than unbelievers (Similitude 9.XVIII.1–4). Mandate 4.III speaks of repentance for sin after Baptism (q.v.), and the next section goes on to talk about second marriages. Sim. 8.VI explains the possibility of repentance with many examples illustrating that almost every, if not every, apostasy or sin may be absolved. Similarly, Sim. 9.XIII.6 f. describes the “rejected stones” who were apostate after fleshly things, and that they also have the possibility of repentance (9.XIV. 1–3). The Church continued to utilize the antithetical tension between Hebrews and Hennas, frequently requiring public penance of baptized persons guilty of apostasy. (See Confession.)