The Bishop’s Shadow Court: Christian Arbitration and Episcopal Justice before Constantine

This article examines the origins of episcopal adjudication before the reign of Constantine. Rather than treating imperial legislation as the beginning of Christian judicial authority, it argues that bishops were already resolving disputes within Christian communities during the second and third centuries. Beginning with Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 6 and continuing through the evidence of the Didascalia Apostolorum, the study demonstrates that early Christian communities developed a structured system of non-state dispute resolution grounded in ecclesial authority, voluntary participation, communal discipline, and reconciliation. Constantine did not create episcopal justice; imperial legislation recognised and transformed an institution that had already emerged within the life of the Church.