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ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY
Introduction to Christianity
The story of how Christianity emerged, spread, survived, and
ultimately was accepted as the official religion of the Roman Empire is one of
the most remarkable in history. Its origin among poor people from an
unimportant and remote province of the Empire, gave little promise of what
was to come. Christianity faced hostility of established religious institutions
of its native Judaea, and had to compete not only against official religions of
Rome, but also against mystery religions like Mithraism, worship of Isis,
Osiris, and Seraphis.
Highly sophisticated Hellenistic philosophies were
used by the educated classes like Stoicism and Cynicism. In addition,
Christianity faced opposition from the imperial Roman government and even
faced formal persecution. Yet Christianity achieved toleration and was finally
made the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 C.E. under the
Emperor Theodosius.
The tumultuous times of Jesus’ ministry saw civil war of Roman
leaders in the East and in the West; hatred of Roman rule in Palestine
among the Jews; famine, plague, crop failures, disagreement among the
Jews themselves, and cries of the world coming to an end. There was
probably at the time more differences of beliefs among the Jews then than
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there is today among Protestants in America.
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Some of the more well-
known Jewish sects were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes, but
these just made up a small percentage of the Jews, who were never many in
number.
The Problems of Reconstructing the Life of Jesus
Many problems confront historians attempting to gain a clear picture of
Christ’s life and teachings. Apart from sectarian prejudices and beliefs that
might affect the historians’ judgment, the sources present special difficulties.
Jesus did not write down his thoughts. To talk about the historical Jesus is
difficult for historians as we do not have any contemporary written sources
that give us his exact dates and the events in his life. The most important
evidence for Jesus is the Gospel accounts in the New Testament, but they do
not give much historical biographical details. It was not for centuries that
December 25th was picked as his birthday, but it was done to align with the
pagan festivals of the Roman gods Mithras and Apollo that people were
already honoring, and it also aligned with the Winter Solstice.
Today,
scholars have ascertained that he was probably born in early April, for Jesus’
parents were coming to Bethlehem for the census during Passover.2 Most
biblical scholars now set Jesus’ timeframe from 5 B.C.E. to 29 C.E., although
there is still debate on these dates. The story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem to
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The Dead Sea Scrolls attest to this.
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The New Testament is the only source for this.
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the Virgin Mary is probably known by most educated people world-wide, but
the visual display of the nativity scene was not incorporated into the Catholic
Church until the thirteenth century by St. Francis of Assisi. Gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh from the magi were part of the biblical story.
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We
do not have any contemporary accounts or portraits of Jesus. What appears
to be the earliest portrait of Christ was found in the catacombs where he has
short hair, and he was dressed in a Roman tunic as a shepherd. Other early
supposed-portraits of Jesus show him as Sol Invictus, a.k.a. the sun god
Apollo. The catacombs also show Jesus with his disciples, and he is
beardless and all of them are in the Roman costume with stripes on their
tunics. Until the Middle Ages, Christ was usually portrayed as beardless for
the ancient Romans regarded beards as the mark of barbarians.
Locations of the Biblical stories today
It is possible today to visit some of these sites mentioned in the Bible,
and believed by many Christians to be authentic. Kafr Kanna, is a village in
Israel today with an ancient claim to be Cana where in John 4:46 Jesus
miraculously turned water into wine.4 It is also postulated where the
wilderness was when Jesus was tempted for forty days and forty nights as
related in Luke 9:51 : “When the days drew near for him to be received up,
he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The road from Bethany, past the Mount
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Magi were the priests of the Persian Zoroastrianism religion.
Many people believe that this was Jesus’ own wedding to Mary Magdalene, as Jewish men were married by
eighteen, and especially rabbis or teachers.
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of Olives and Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City through the Eastern Gate is
easy to visualize as the terrain today outside the walls of Old Jerusalem still
has the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gesemene, and the Eastern Gate.5
Jesus’ ministry and message as articulated in the Synoptic Gospels
The various synoptic gospels were not just attempts at describing the
life of Jesus, but statements of faith by his true believers.6 Jesus’ last three
years of his life was the time that the New Testament concentrates on and
his gospel or good news is related. Most of his ministry was spent around
the Sea of Galilee area, where Jesus performed miracles, but doing so as a
Jewish rabbi. He talked about salvation, God’s forgiveness of sinners, and
the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Over time he gained followers, including the group of twelve that became
known as his disciples. The first four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
of the New Testament were not written by Jesus’ disciples, but their names
were attached to the writings much later. All were written well after the
death of Jesus. The earliest by Mark dates from circa 70 C.E. These
writings are not just attempts at simply describing the life of Jesus with
historical accuracy, but statements of faith by his true believers. Jesus’
apparent mission was to make it as clear as possible our relationship with
each other and with God that was to be cultivated. Speaking in Aramaic, the
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The Eastern Gate was altered under Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, when he rebuilt
the walls around Jerusalem.
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Matthew, Mark and Luke
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common dialect spoken in Palestine in these centuries, Jesus’ teachings
often took the form of parables. Aramaic was not a complex language like
Greek; therefore Jesus used terms available to him to explain the Kingdom
of God with analogies that would be familiar to his listeners.7 The most
radical part of Jesus’ message had no parallels in any other religion or even
in Judaism. If God is the loving father of his people, then all men are
brothers; and by extension all women are sisters too. Jesus specifically
included the poor, sinners, outcasts, women, and slaves in his messages.
These people were the disenfranchised and may be why early Christianity
had the most supporters from these groups. Jesus also had a special place
for women, and feminist scholars consider Jesus the first feminist. Women
mentioned in the Bible besides Mary Magdalene, were Mary and Martha of
Bethany (sisters of Lazarus), Joanna and Salome (women at the Tomb) and
Photina, the name later assigned to the woman Christ met at the Well. She
was a Samaritan who Jewish people detested at the time, and that is why
the parable of the Good Samaritan as mentioned in the Bible is considered
by Christians so powerful. Jesus’ Kingdom of God and what he precisely
meant by this has been debated both within churches and by modern
scholars. There is still no general agreement over these past two thousand
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As the New Testament was written originally in Greek, academic and religious debates
have used language differences as a rationale for disagreement.
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years, although most scholars argue that for Jesus the Kingdom of God was
an inner awareness of God in one’s own life, and a source of power already
available for those who recognized it. As this idea was difficult to express in
Aramaic, even while Jesus was present, many people seemed to have
assumed he meant an apocalyptic event, where there would be the sudden
appearance of God and the end of the world as we know it would occur.
Many today are convinced these times are imminent even as so many people
believed for thousands of years. Interpretations of the Book of Revelations
have been used by people to foretell the end of the world dozens of time.
Arrest, trial, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Jews during Jesus’ ministry and earlier had been advocating for a
violent overthrow of the Romans ruling Palestine, and their desire for a
replacement like Kings David and Solomon. Many Jews were just waiting for
a leader to begin a revolt. When the Roman authorities heard about a
charismatic leader of the Jews speaking about the imminent Kingdom of
God, they decided not to delay. Pontius Pilate arrested Jesus as a
revolutionary when Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples betrayed him
according to the Bible. Judas was paid thirty shekels of silver, the equivalent
of four months wages at the time for a skilled worker. Convicted on
trumped-up charges of blasphemy and treason to the Roman state, Jesus
was whipped and crucified. Crucifixion was the Romans punishment
reserved for traitors and slaves as it was an extremely painful form of
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execution. It usually took the victim several days to die of shock and loss of
blood. An ankle bone with a Roman nail through it of someone crucified
about two thousand years ago has been found by archaeologists. From the
biblical description, Jesus’ male disciples left him while he was dying and
only his mother and Mary Magdalene were present.8 After his death
according to the Bible “and Joseph [of Arimathea] took the body . . . and laid
it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great
stone to the door of the tomb.” (Matthew 27:59-60)9 Romans expected the
execution of Jesus to disperse his followers, but Christ’s resurrection
changed all that. Adherents of Christ’s message grew rapidly, and they were
originally called Nazarenes. There is a debate whether it was the Romans or
the Christians themselves that started to call themselves Christians. The
word comes from the Greek Christos, which translates into Hebrew as
messiah. It means anointed one, where one is sanctified with special oil.
Anointing with the holy oil was a major ceremony in creating a king in the
early days of the Judaic kingdoms, and the early Jewish kings were called
Messiahs. Christianity now became the only religion in the Mediterranean
world that was founded on historical events rather than legendary myths,
even though Jesus’ life and ministry are not documented in any other
primary sources other than the New Testament.
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As Christ’s crucifixion was initially considered a disgrace, it was rarely shown in early art. One of the earliest
renditions of this dates from circa 420 C.E.
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There are several possibilities that Christian scholars believe was this tomb. One is called the Garden Tomb, and
this is a strong possibility that this was the tomb when using scriptures to identify it.
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Paul’s Epistles and Missionary Work
The spread of Christianity was initially due mainly to the Roman citizen
Saul of Taurus., although some of the disciples and Jesus’ brother James
contributed to the establishment of this new religion. Saul was a welleducated Pharisee Jew who was an important player in the early persecution
of Christians until his own conversion five to six years after Christ’s death.
According to the New Testament, Saul’s conversion occurred on the road to
Damascus from Jerusalem circa 35 C.E. Stories of his conversion are not
consistent, but it is definitely believed that Christianity might have had only
a short life were it not for Saul’s conversion and missions. When Saul
converted to a believer in Christ’s message, he changed his name to Paul,
and he travelled far and wide across the Roman Empire establishing
churches in Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, and Rome. Scholars have constructed
maps of his journeys according to the Bible. It is Paul’s letters or epistles to
the various church communities in these areas that make up a good part of
the New Testament: Thessalonians, Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, and
Romans. These were written according to scholars circa 51-63 C.E., or
fifteen years after his conversion. Some call Paul the apostolic lone ranger,
preaching the message of Christ as he interpreted it. One of the places he
visited for upwards of three years was the Roman capital of Asia Minor,
Ephesus. There it is said that Paul’s preaching encountered much resistance
for it was an important tourist attraction for its huge temple to the Goddess
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Artemis, and considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Paul’s words were turning away tourists, and the merchants there selling
souvenirs, food, and lodging were not pleased with him. Paul was arrested
and put in jail for some time. While Paul had not known Jesus personally,
Paul was able to express Christian concepts in complex philosophical terms
using Greek. Up until recent scholarship, Paul has been considered the
author of nearly half of the New Testament. This is when Christianity spread
among powerful and well-educated urban people. Paul and one of Jesus’
disciples Peter persuaded James that a person did not need to be a Jew to
be a Christian, therefore allowing Gentiles to be Christians. This meant for
new Christians converts not having to adopt the Jewish dietary restrictions
and circumcision for adult men. Instead the baptism ritual and the
communal celebration of the “Last Supper” were the only requirements.
Paul and the Apostles all suffered ridicule and persecution. Some were
killed, and according to ancient stories, both Peter and Paul were killed in
Rome after spending time in the Mamertine Prison, which is still there in the
Roman Forum.
Destruction of the Second Temple and the Diaspora of the Jews
Meanwhile back in Palestine, circa 70 C.E. at the end of the Jewish
Wars, the Jews and Christians dispersed throughout the Mediterranean Basin
with the establishment of Christian communities in many towns. Pagus is
the Latin word for countryside, so that is why non-Christians came to be
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called Pagans as most all early Christians lived in urban areas. Rome’s
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. apparently destroyed the earliest
Christian records that were written in Hebrew and Aramaic.
Increased Spread of Christianity and Development of the Church
Within a little over a century Christianity spread to the greater part of
the Roman Empire. When Christianity began to spread, it was initially
treated by authorities as another mystery religion or even as an offshoot of
Judaism. Therefore, many of these early Christian adherents were surprised
when told if they were followers of Christ they could not also worship Isis
and Mithras. Many aspects of early Christianity had strong parallels to the
mystery religions: communal supper, baptism, resurrection of their god,
fasting, incense, and holiday celebrations. For the first century and more
after Jesus’ death, Christians used the Old Testament. In Timothy 3:16 in
the New Testament, where Paul is writing that the scriptures were divinely
inspired, he is writing about the Old Testament. Information on Jesus was
transmitted orally for many decades and only later was this knowledge
written down and became the New Testament, written in the Greek
language. The oldest complete copy of the New Testament is a fourth
century C.E. manuscript found in 1859 in Mt. Sinai Monastery of St.
Catherine’s. Indicative of the variety of tenets and practices within early
Christianity is noted when within a thirty to forty year period four different
gospels were written, and scholars today are aware of some of the
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discrepancies of information. Our oldest fragment is a piece of papyrus of
3rd century book of Matthew. It was not until 367 C.E. that the canon of the
New Testament we know today was established by the church, although by
the late second century the synoptic gospels and Paul’s letters were
available to some.
Persecution of the Christians
The extent of the persecution of the Christians has been a
controversial topic for historians. At first the Roman Empire government
thought Christians were part of the Jewish faith, and therefore protected by
Roman law. Judaism was a legal religion licensed by the Roman state, and
thus exempt from worshiping the emperor, exempt from military service,
and allowed to practice its monotheistic faith. By the reign of the Emperor
Nero (54-68 C.E.), Roman officials were aware that the new Christian
churches were composed of many gentiles as well as Jews. The Roman
officials now considered that Christians were no longer a legitimate part of
the Jewish religious community. When a fire broke out in the city of Rome
in 64 C.E. Nero blamed the Christians for arson, in order to put down the
rumor that he had done it to benefit himself. When Christians were arrested
they pleaded guilty not to arson, but to the crime of being Christians, i.e.
belonging to an illegal sect, and the penalty for such unlicensed association
was death. According to tradition, the first Christian martyr was Stephen
who was stoned to death for his beliefs. In Old Jerusalem today there is a
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St. Stephen’s Gate in his honor. During the second century Christians were
frequently victims of mob actions usually stimulated by some natural
disaster such as an earthquake or drought and attributable to the anger of
the Roman deities. Christians now became the new scapegoats instead of
the Jews. Christian refusal to participate in the worship of the Roman State
deities, in processions, festivals and gladiatorial games made them
increasingly unpopular. Interestingly, as the Christians also denied the
existence of the Roman pagan gods, the Romans accused them of being
atheists. Secret meetings of the Christians looked very ominous to
outsiders. The Christian Eucharist or communion, the partaking in the body
and blood of Christ, accusations of cannibalism surfaced too. Refusal to
worship the emperor and acknowledge him as a god was judged
treasonable. Nero said this refusal was sedition, and was a crime. Later
under the Emperor Trajan the Romans were still wrestling what to do with
the Christians. Consequently, Christians in the first two centuries faced
intermittent persecution, and were about as unpopular as communists were
earlier in America. The Romans even blamed the Christians for the moral
decline in their society. Some emperors became Christians themselves, but
these were usually new men from lower ranks from outside the area of the
City of Rome. Men from families who had long governed Rome still
venerated the gods of the Roman state.
Christians built miles of tunnels,
called catacombs in Rome that were used as underground cemeteries and
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refuge from persecution.
Persecution, however, helped spread Christianity.
Roman pagans seeing Christians going gladly to martyrdom wondered if
there might be something to the religious offerings and rewards that were so
powerful as to be stronger than death. Under the Emperors Diocletian (284305 C.E.) and Galerius, Christian churches were destroyed, Church officials
were killed, documents burned, and it hypothesized that about 100,000
Christians went to their death in these early centuries.
The Contributions of the Emperor Constantine
Under the Emperor Constantine who ruled the Roman Empire 307-337,
Christianity became officially tolerated (313 C.E.). There is a legend that
before an important battle, Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky
with the words “In this sign you will conquer.” When he was victorious he
decided that Christianity was a powerful religion and ended their
persecution. Scholars in Women’s History give credit to his mother Helen for
converting Constantine, but he did not officially become a Christian until he
was dying. The first council of the Christians was called by the Emperor
Constantine at the city of Nicaea; hence the Council of Nicaea.
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Constantine’s reign he also founded the Eastern Roman capital at
Constantinople, which is now Istanbul in Turkey. This Eastern Roman
Empire is now called the Byzantine Empire by historians.
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In 380 C.E. the
This is where so many tenets of the Christian religion were inaugurated, and where Constantine gave the
Christians the pagan temples for their own use, plus tax exemption.
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Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman
Empire.
The Development of the Various Tenets of the Christian Religion
Jesus does not seem to have foreseen a formal church structure for his
religious ideas. Early Christians found such a structure necessary, but it is
difficult to reconstruct the history of this time as written documentation is
scanty. By the second to third centuries more evidence is available. Local
churches were originally semi-independent headed by priests, Latin for
presbyters and Greek term for elders. They were commonly married. It was
only later that the Western or Catholic Church advocated celibacy. Deacons
and Deaconesses were assistants to the priests, and did the preaching and
baptisms.
The Role of Women in Early Christianity
The role of women in the early Christian Church was of paramount
importance. The earliest Christian churches were houses donated by
wealthy widows. Also, Paul did not convert pagans by himself, but was ably
assisted by mainly upper class women of Roman Society, who were wealthy
enough to be independent. Paul’s epistles to the Romans mention thirty-six
colleagues, sixteen of whom were women such as Prisca or Priscilla, and
especially Thecla. Thecla was ordained by Paul as a preacher of the gospels
and an apostle of Christ. In the Apocryphal Books is one called the Acts of
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Paul and Thecla. It was probably written in the second century, but was
considered an authentic document and even sanctioned by St. Jerome, who
translated the Bible into Latin. In 367 C.E. it was barred from the official
canon of the New Testament, although widely read in the first four centuries
of the Christian era. The Eastern or Greek Orthodox Church still regards
Thecla as an apostle, and her grave site in Damascus, Syria is an important
pilgrimage site not only for Christians, but for Muslims too.
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The Development of the Bishoprics, Dioceses, and the Papacy
Eventually as the number of Christians grew and they were officially
legal, the various churches within a city were headed by a bishop, whom the
priests of the individual churches had chosen. Bishops were considered
successors to the original apostles, through the Doctrine of Apostolic
Succession. The administrative headquarters of the bishops were known as
sees, and their areas of jurisdiction were known as dioceses, from the
Roman Civil Diocese. Once Christianity was legal and then officially
tolerated, the bishops of the five major cities of the Empire: Rome,
Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, became archbishoprics
or patriarchs. This made them leaders over the other bishops or bishoprics.
The Bishop of Rome claimed preeminence over the others because they
claimed that Rome was the capital of the Empire, and Peter (called first of
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There are numerous stories about her relationship with Paul and attempts by the authorities to make her a
martyr for not following the laws of the Romans.
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the Apostles) was supposedly the first Bishop of Rome. The other four
patriarchs or archbishops were not so sure about this claim. Antioch also
claimed Peter. It was not until the fifth century that the Bishop of Rome
gained the exclusive use of the title Papa, Latin for father or pope. It was
not until the eleventh century however that the Pope began to exercise real
power as head of the Roman Catholic Church in the West.
The Problem of Heresies
As Christ’s return began to seem less and less imminent, the need for
doctrinal precision grew, but Christian opinion was extremely diverse. Much
of the Christian doctrine was worked out only in reaction to a challenge.
Eventually the Christian Church developed its theology, including the idea of
a heresy, a version of Christianity that was not deemed orthodox as
established mainly by the high church authorities that met at the seven
ecumenical councils held in Anatolia. One of the most omnipresent heresies
was Arianism. It was developed by the fourth century Alexandrian Priest
Arius. For him the doctrine of the trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was
not canonical. Christ was not of the same substance as God who had
existed before Christ. Therefore, Christ could not be eternal with God and
coequal with God.
Many Christian bishops adopted Arius’ ideas, resulting in
a major breach in the Christian world. Arianism was condemned by the
Council of Nicaea called by the Emperor Constantine in 325 C.E. It was at
this Council that the Nicene Creed was developed, which legitimized the
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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as the same. However, this council did not put
an end to Arianism. Most all of the Germanic/barbarian tribes in Europe
converted to Arianism when they became Christians. Only the Franks were
Orthodox Christians, and this would be instrumental in the power politics of
the coming centuries, when the papacy would back the tribe that was not
Arian, the Franks. Gnosticism was another Christian sect that was also
deemed a heresy. The term derived from the Greek genosis meaning
knowledge. Gnostics believed that Jesus Christ came down to earth to
reveal the secret knowledge of God, not to die for our sins. This search for
knowledge of God was to be found in the writings of the apostles and
revealed only to true believers. After the discovery in 1945 of fifty-two
Gnostic texts in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, more information was gleaned about
this early Christian belief. Gnostics allowed women to be priests, lead
prayers, and baptize. They also believed that Mary Magdalene was an
apostle, and they believed in the bi-sexual nature of God. One Gnostic
hymn reads: “For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the
scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the
virgin. I am the mother and daughter.” Once Gnosticism was declared a
heresy, the baptism rite was changed from total immersion to sprinkling,
and women were excluded from the priesthood. “If it had been lawful to be
baptized by a woman our Lord and master would have been baptized by
Mary, his mother.” “Had Jesus intended women to perform these functions
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some of his apostles would have been women.” These last two quotes were
used to denigrate and exclude Gnosticism as a valid Christian sect.
Two
other heresies that surfaced during these early Christian centuries were
Donatism and Pelagianism. Donatism was a contemporary movement with
the Arian controversy, and was led by the Carthaginian Bishop Donatus. He
wanted to purify the Christian Church by invalidating sacraments
administered by priests who had done sinful acts. Pelagianism was of
English origin which denied the inherent sinfulness of man at birth or the
concept of original sin, thus denying mankind’s need for Jesus’ redemptive
sacrifice on the cross. To lay people as well as theologians these abstract
issues were of urgent and passionate concern. In the eastern part of the
Roman Empire, people of all levels debated their concerns, and what they
believed to be the orthodox Christian theology.