The Christian Survivor

The Christian Survivor

Robert Crotty The Christian Survivor How Roman Christianity Defeated Its Early Competitors 123

Robert Crotty University of South Australia Adelaide, SA Australia ISBN 978-981-10-3213-4 ISBN 978-981-10-3214-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3214-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958469 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #22-06/08 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Contents 1 What Really Is Religion?... 1 1.1 Culture... 2 1.2 Cultural Relativism... 3 1.3 The Need for Order... 5 1.4 Culture Meets Genetics.... 5 1.5 Culture and Religion.... 6 1.6 Multiculturalism and Religious Pluralism... 10 1.7 Analysis of Religion... 12 1.8 Religious Myth... 13 1.9 Ritual... 14 2 The Study of the Jewish Past... 17 2.1 The Search for an Historical Israel... 17 2.2 Moves to a Text-Based Approach.... 18 2.3 Literary Israel... 19 2.4 Historical Israel.... 21 2.5 Biblical Israel... 23 2.6 Judah in the Persian Period.... 24 2.7 Yahweh the High God... 26 2.8 The Society of Yehud.... 27 2.9 Scribal Activity.... 28 2.10 Hellenisation.... 30 2.11 The Hasmoneans... 31 3 The Study of the Christian Past... 35 3.1 Literary Jesus... 35 3.2 Historical Jesus.... 39 3.3 Biblical Jesus... 44 4 The Roman Context of Early Christianity.... 47 4.1 The Roman Republic... 47 4.2 Augustus, Imperator... 48 v

vi Contents 4.3 Roman Society... 49 4.4 Roman Religion... 51 4.5 The Roman Empire Moves into the East... 52 4.6 Galilee... 54 4.7 Herod the Great... 55 4.8 Judea Under the Empire... 56 5 The Jesus Movement Communities in Palestine... 59 5.1 James the Brother of the Lord... 60 5.2 Successors After the Death of James... 65 5.3 The Nazaraioi... 66 5.4 Peter and The Twelve... 69 5.5 Stephen and the Hellenists... 70 5.6 Conclusion... 72 6 Christianity in Rome.... 73 6.1 Jews in Rome... 73 6.2 The Jesus-Movement in Rome... 74 6.3 From Jewish Jesus-Movement to Roman Christianity in Rome... 75 6.4 The Autonomy of Christians in Rome... 77 6.5 The So-called Neronian Persecution... 79 6.6 The Flavians... 80 6.7 Clement and San Clemente.... 81 7 The Roman Connection of Peter... 89 7.1 The Tropaion... 89 7.2 The Archaeology of San Pietro.... 90 8 The Isaac Tradition.... 95 8.1 The Genesis Text... 96 8.2 The Wider Context of the Binding Story... 98 8.3 An Historical Context for the Tradition... 99 8.4 A Synchronic Reading of the Tradition... 101 8.5 The Testing Aspect of the Tradition.... 102 8.6 From the Vantage Point of Christianity... 103 8.7 An Extended Version of the Aqedah?... 107 8.8 Later Christian Writing... 109 8.9 The Growth of the Story.... 111 8.10 The Roman Christian Myth... 112 9 The Gospel of Mark... 115 9.1 Roman Historiography... 116 9.2 The Synoptics.... 118 9.3 The Roman Traditions... 118

Contents vii 10 The Nine Markan Roman Traditions... 123 10.1 The Title.... 123 10.2 Tradition One... 124 10.3 Tradition Two.... 125 10.4 Tradition Three... 153 10.5 Tradition Four.... 162 10.6 Tradition Five... 168 10.7 Tradition Six.... 173 10.8 Tradition Seven... 177 10.9 Tradition Eight... 182 10.10 Tradition Nine... 188 10.11 Conclusion to the Nine Traditions... 193 11 The Christian Gnostics... 197 11.1 The Texts from Nag Hammadi... 198 11.2 The Gospel of Mary... 200 11.3 The Gospel of Judas... 200 11.4 Gnostic Jesus-Movement Communities.... 201 11.5 Gnosis... 202 11.6 The Great Invisible Spirit... 203 11.7 Adam and Eve... 203 11.8 The Gnostic Jesus.... 204 11.9 The Search for Gnosis... 205 11.10 The Gnostic World... 207 11.11 Gnostic Salvation... 208 11.12 The Departure of Jesus... 209 12 Roman Christianity Returns to the East... 213 12.1 Capernaum and Nazareth... 213 12.2 The Cenacle in Jerusalem... 215 13 Sources for a Study of Paul... 221 13.1 Paul in the Acts of the Apostles... 222 13.2 The Letters of Paul... 226 13.3 Galatians.... 226 13.4 1 Thessalonians... 230 13.5 I Corinthians.... 232 13.6 Philippians... 238 13.7 Philemon... 242 13.8 2 Corinthians... 243 13.9 Romans.... 244 13.10 Valentinus and Marcion Reconsidered... 250 13.11 Collection of the Letters of Paul.... 252 13.12 Conclusion... 254

viii Contents 14 The Three Pauls... 259 14.1 The Literary Paul... 259 14.2 Historical Paul... 260 14.3 Biblical Paul... 266 14.4 Conclusion... 266 15 Johannine Christianity: John of Patmos... 269 15.1 John of Patmos... 269 15.2 The Book of Revelation... 271 16 John s Gospel in Western Asia Minor... 277 16.1 The Book of Seven Signs... 279 16.2 Independent Gnostic Treatises... 285 16.3 The Gnostic Discourses... 285 16.4 The Roman Christian Insertions... 286 16.5 Three Stray Traditions... 287 17 The Roman Gospels of Matthew and Luke... 295 17.1 The Gospel of Matthew... 295 17.2 The Gospel of Luke... 303 18 Later Roman Influence on Christianity... 309 18.1 2 Thessalonians... 310 18.2 Colossians.... 311 18.3 Ephesians... 312 18.4 The Pastorals... 314 18.5 Titus... 315 18.6 1 Timothy.... 317 18.7 2 Timothy.... 318 18.8 1 Peter... 319 18.9 Jude... 320 18.10 2 Peter... 321 18.11 The Three Letters of John... 324 Conclusion... 331 Bibliography... 345 Index... 353

Introduction There have been a number of books, written in the past few decades, that have aroused a new interest in the history of early Christianity. Some have dealt with the origins of Christianity (with Christianity usually defined as a Jewish sect), the biographies of main characters and the historical reliability (or unreliability) of the Christian writings. Further, interest has focussed on the spread of Christianity from Jesus to its establishment first in Palestine and then to its entry into Asia Minor, Greece and finally Rome. In many ways, this sort of book followed the trajectory presented in the Acts of the Apostles, the second volume appended to the Gospel of Luke, although both parts were probably not written by the same author. Acts traces the outward movement of Christianity from Jerusalem to Judaea to Samaria and then to the ends of the earth, by which was meant Rome and its Empire. Certainly, when in the fourth century CE the renowned Church historian Eusebius wrote his Historia Ecclesiastica, this was the outline he followed. For him, Church history moved seamlessly from Jesus via the Twelve Apostles outwards to Rome and then rose to its highpoint during the reign of Eusebius master and sponsor, Constantine the Great, the fourth century CE Emperor. Most Early Church Histories, even up the present time, follow this template adding references and explanation together with archaeological and geographical details. Some of these books on early Christianity have limited their scope to the first generation of Jesus and his followers. This is typical of the literary genre called the Third Search for the Historical Jesus. Highly reputable scholars have attempted to do what earlier counterparts had failed to do and to produce an historically acceptable Jesus of Nazareth. This historical construction, ambitiously including actual words spoken by Jesus, would then, purportedly, explain the complexities of gospel teachings. From this historical Jesus, the spread of Christianity could be gauged in a logical manner. However, the latter description of a spread would depend on the historical identification of Jesus. Semi-popular texts have flourished on the outskirts of the Third Search for the Historical Jesus. These texts were not all written by biblical experts, and some made elementary mistakes. They tended to bring the debate on the historical Jesus down to a simple formula: Is it easier to believe the orthodox version of Christianity ix

x Introduction ( Jesus was both human and divine, worked miracles, healed people, walked on water, changed water into wine, was crucified, came out of the tomb and ascended into heaven ) or a version along the following lines proposed by some of the Third Searchers ( Jesus was a man of royal Davidic lineage, married Mary Magdalene, had children, was crucified but managed to escape from death, retreated to France with his family (or the family emigrated without him) and the secret of the royal bloodline continues in the line of French royalty even today ). Many readers opted for version two. It was more believable, and there was the intriguing trace of a conspiracy theory that added mystery. But it has to be said that it is not so easy to interpret the gospel stories with the confidence exhibited by some of these Jesus Research scholars so that they can thereby extract history from the gospels. We will see that the gospels were never intended to be historical statements and the methods of these scholars are often not well founded. We can outline three central points in this discussion of a Jesus- Tradition. First of all, after the death of Jesus, what did exist was a Jesus-Tradition. This Jesus-Tradition would have only gradually reached any sort of regular shape; it would have been expanded, corrected and amended over time after the death of Jesus. This would have taken decades. It would seem that the earliest followers of Jesus incorporated only pivotal Jesus events, elaborated as the years passed, in their first formulations of the Jesus-Tradition: his Last Meal, his death by crucifixion, his Visions to disciples after his death. Further details would have been supplied to fill out the sparse catalogue of events particularly by reflection on the Hebrew Scriptures prophecies and thought-patterns (e.g. the Virgin Birth, the details of the crucifixion taken from the Psalms and Isaiah). 1 The belief that the Jesus events had been foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures was a very early presumption and the basis for this methodology. Second, there would have been input into the narratives of the Jesus events by comparing those events with much later communities and their troubles. It was presumed that the events of Jesus were a paradigm for what would follow for his disciples. This produced the memory of Jesus sayings: some remembered with all the faults of memory, some constructed on the idea of what Jesus might have said, had he been confronted with this situation. At some stage, there would have been 1 The collection or canon of Hebrew Scriptures contains, in its present layout, three major sections. 1. The first section is usually called the Torah (its Hebrew title, usually translated as Law ) or the Pentateuch (which means five scrolls or a five-part book in Greek). These five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 2. The second section of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Nevi im or Prophets, includes the following books: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and The Twelve Prophets. Not all of these would pass muster for what we commonly understand as prophetic books. 3. The third section of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Kethuvim or Writings, includes the following books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

Introduction xi the gathering of such sayings of Jesus (such as the early Greek text of sayings attributed to the apostle Thomas, various collections of parables and teaching metaphors) and the collection of events such as miracle stories, cures, exorcisms. These sayings and events would have developed within a catechetical and kerygmatic life situation of the early Jesus-movements, where there was a need to instruct both newcomers and more mature members. Some of these collections may have been oral, perhaps diligently remembered by memory strategies, and some written. Third, the sayings and events of the Jesus-Tradition began to take on a more fixed form, both in oral tradition and in writing. Such amorphous compendia of traditions, oral and written, constituted a more identifiable Jesus-Tradition, and we can identify certain elements in it: A pool of Jesus sayings, formed from a number of separate collections The sayings in the Greek Gospel of Thomas Birth stories of Jesus Collections of Jesus miracle stories Passion, death and burial Stories of Jesus Visions of Jesus after his death; empty tomb stories would have been later appended. Not all of these would have existed side by side in any one place or time. Not all of them would have had the same format. They would have been a large and growing tradition about Jesus sayings and narratives concerning the events of his life, which would have tended to move further and further away from what we would call history or ipsissima verba. The contention underlying this book is that Christianity was founded not on historical evidence or eyewitness reports but on these loosely arranged traditions, making up as they did the Jesus-Tradition in separate but related collections. Accordingly, different groups received, interpreted and manipulated different collections after the time of Jesus death. They had been stimulated by the traditions about the events of his life and, to a varying extent, by the stories of his death and resurrection as well as the sayings related to him, to formulate written statements which defined their attitude to him. We can name these separate groups as Jesus-movements. There were a number that flourished, as we will see, in Palestine. But this book is more interested in the Roman Jesus-movement. At a much earlier date than other Jesus-movement groups, it detached itself from Judaism and, by the end of the first century CE, it saw itself as Christian, separate from Judaism and acknowledged as separate by other Jews and by the Roman authorities. Roman Christianity, due to extraordinary historical changes in the Mediterranean world, was able to compete with Greek, Asia Minor and even Palestinian Jesus-movement groups, and it would have enormous influence on earlier extant forms of the Jesus-movement. By the fourth century CE, Roman Christianity had become the one survivor and thereby the victor, the dominant variant of all

xii Introduction Jesus-movement groups. It superimposed itself over all the other Jesus-movements. Its Jesus-Tradition was the official Christian Jesus-Tradition. Most Christian groups in the world at the present moment are Roman Christian in their thought and practice. Their teachings do have some differences, but they are variants on Roman Christianity; there are differences in Christian ritual, but they are variants of the ritual deriving from the community established in Rome in the first century CE. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Reformed Churches and Pentecostal Churches (including outliers such as Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah s Witnesses) are linked in following the main direction of the Roman Church after it was established by the time of Constantine. When people today refer to the original Christian teaching and practice, they are referring to the Roman Jesus-Tradition. This book will endeavour to chart the emergence of Christianity as it was formed, first of all, by a conglomeration of Jesus-movement groups and a sect of Judaism. Then, it will look at its Palestinian forms, its Asia Minor and Greek forms and finally the Roman Christian variant. At that point, this book will record what happened when history reversed direction West to East. The Roman Empire became the world leader and Roman Christianity, having originally derived from the East, returned to the East and overran the Palestinian and other forms. Only Roman Christianity was left standing. What value does this enterprise have? For a long time, the inhabitants of Planet Earth saw themselves as the centre of the universe. Then, Copernicus and Galileo showed that this was not the case. The Earth was a lowly planet revolving around the Sun in a solar system, and in more recent times and more recently, it has become common knowledge that the solar system is only one of perhaps billions of similar galaxies. For a long time, the human inhabitants of Earth saw themselves as the high point of life on the Planet Earth. The lower forms of life microscopic, plant, animal existed to service human life. Charles Darwin demonstrated that this was not the case. Human life had taken the same evolutionary trail as all other forms of living things on Earth. The journey was defined by evolution, the change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations due to natural selection. It was more accident than design that brought humans to dominate the planet. Having advanced beyond the idea that the Earth is the centre of the universe and that humans are the appointed species to dominate the world, we find that, for a long time, Christians have presumed that their religion, and usually their own variant of Christianity, is the one, true faith. This book will explain that the Christianity that we have today has not been the sole contender for the title of Christian religion. There are many Christianities of which one has survived; beyond Christianity, there are many other valid religions. In short, the Earth is not the centre of the entire universe, humankind is the not the sacrosanct pinnacle of living beings, and Christianity is not the definitive and final form of religion.

Introduction xiii Notes The text for Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica can be found in: Henderson, J. (1932), Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press: Cambridge and London. Further information on the Search for an Historical Jesus is provided in Chap. 3. The text used in this book will be normally the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). However, on occasions, the NRSV has been edited to highlight any significant words by using upper case and, in a few instances, by amending the translation where it is felt that the translation of the Greek has been betrayed. What are considered expansions (additions, corrections, explanations) to the original text have been indicated by the use of italics. Wherever a literary structure is indicated within the text by means of headings, letters and numbers or layout, this is done to allow the reader to see the text in the way in which the author/editor intended.