History of Christianity Special Topics -- HIST 3095 -- History is About: Humanity Identity Perspective History is not about dead people -- it is about us. What is History? One of the original humanities, the rules and method for its study, as we have it today, began in the Renaissance.!"#$%&' (historia)-- Greek for a finding out referred, in ancient Greek, to the discovery of causes. (!"#$% [histor] -- as a noun, means a wise man or one who understands how cause and effect operate, particularly in human affairs.) Over time, natural history was separated from human history and became part of what we now call science. Today it refers to the study of causes, or change, in human society, culture, thought, and events through time. To all other disciplines, history has the potential to add the human side, and the perspective of time. History is not about Facts (that would be boring) History, as a discipline, consists of: EVIDENCE INTERPRETATION The two must not be confused.
Education From educere -- to draw out. Education is about opening minds, not filling them with facts. The Syllabus The facts and information in this class are but the hardware of critical thinking. The goal is critical thinking. What Makes this Field Problematic The Webpage: homepage.mac.com/hermetic1/ Polarization (objectivity is hard to come-by) The Past is a Foreign Country Skills needed to master it. (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Classical History, Jewish History, Textual Criticism, Linguistics, etc.) Keeping up with different disciplines and schools (history, archeology, religious studies, theology, etc.) Popular images and assumptions (media, films, shock history, partisanship, etc.) What is often obscured is fact and the narrative -- what happened when.
What Makes this Field Exciting: There is far more evidence than most people realize. Getting into a very different culture and worldview. No matter what your current assumptions about Christianity the study of early Christianity will change your perspective. Coming to understand the roots of much of the modern western perspective. This course will focus on: Getting the basic narrative right. Acquainting you with the evidence of the primary sources. Discussions of method pertaining to the use of sources. Preparing you to judge what you read, see, and hear according to the facts and the evidence. The Professor and his biases. (We all have them, and we must be honest about them.) Your Name On the 3x5 Card: How You are Called (If other than your first name as the registrar knows you) Your major. Why you are taking this course. Anything I should know about you.
Backgrounds of Christianity part 1: the GRECO-Roman World Alexander the Great From 334 to 323 b.c.e. Alexander, the young king of Macedonia, established an empire that stretched from India to Egypt. Wherever Alexander went, he brought the Greek language and culture with him. HELLENISM: from Ellaj, the word for Greece, refers to this shift toward Greek language and culture. After the death of Alexander his empire was divided and lost territory.
ROME Beginning in 146 b.c.e. Rome began conquering the Hellenic world. By 63 b.c.e. Rome had taken control of Jerusalem, and by 32 b.c.e. Rome had control of Egypt. Rome was strong militarily, but not culturally. As Roman legions conquered the Hellenic world, Greek religion, culture, philosophy, and language conquered the Roman. (See p. 6 in Walker.) In 44 b.c.e. the Roman republic was shattered by the assassination of Julius Caesar. Civil unrest followed (the second triumvirate ), and order was restored when Octavian, Caesar s nephew and heir, gained absolute power (And received the name Augustus ) in 31 to 27 b.c.e. The Greco-Roman Cosmos: A Visible and Invisible world. Cosmos : from the Greek, kosmoj, for order. It referred to the order of all things whether material (as we think of it today) or spiritual. It included innumerable invisible creatures, from local spirits to the more powerful gods of Olympus. Ruling over all, according to Greek philosophy (and especially Middle Platonism), was a transcendent power called Mind (Nous/Nouj, in Greek, or Mens in Latin). The Nous was all-powerful, but essentially disinterested in human affairs. Beneath the Nous, however, there was plenty of room for local gods who did interact with humans, including the Greek pantheon. With the conquest of Greece, the more sophisticated system of gods of the Greeks was adopted by Rome and superimposed upon its own. Among all the literate or even semi-literate in the Greco-Roman world the Cosmos was usually conceived, physically, as a series of concentric spheres.
All power, or energy, or motion, were generally conceived as flowing from the outside, the realm of the Nous, inward toward Earth, via the invisible powers in between. Magic involved manipulating the power or the spiritual beings who controlled it, along the way. Astrology meant observing the patterns in the cosmos as power moved inward. (Remember, that there are always exceptions to these generalizations.) The cults of the emperor and of Rome Among the Romans particularly, the gods were associated with power. (usually flowing downward from the Mind. ) Where power was found the divine was found. Thus gods were gods because they had, or channelled, power. This permitted the Romans to recognize all local gods as the regional centers of power, and thus local religions could generally be absorbed into the Roman system. ( Syncretism ) However, since power itself is the substance of divinity, divine status may also be given to the Roman Empire (which has power), and specifically to the emperor (who has power.) Thus sacrifices, which released the power of the animals sacrificed to add it to the divine, could be offered to the emperor or to Rome generally. The offering of these sacrifices came to be seen as a civic duty, and a sign of loyalty to the state. Mystery Religions The official religious cults of Rome were highly political, and did not offer adherents much in the way of a personal, spiritual experience. Moreover, for many in the Empire, the experience of daily life was not an orderly and harmonious whole. (Walker, p. 8). Popular magic was one way of attempting to gain control over the invisible forces which controlled life. But there were other options: The Mystery Religions (some of which were connected with state religions) were so-called because they introduced initiates into secret knowledge by means of secret rites. (musthrioi) By joining, or being initiated into one of these religions one could find: personal religious experience, a sense of belonging, and usually a gateway to some form of eternal life in the presence of the gods. (Walker, p. 9) Often the mystery religions used rites or advocated behavior which ran counter to the Roman sense of morality. As these cults became more commonly accepted, and official, they were often toned down. They retained their demands for purity on the part of adherents, as well as specialized moral codes for the initiates. Isis and Osiris Isis and Osiris: taken from Egyptian mythology and heavily adapted by the Greeks. Anyone could participate in the processions. Initiates were specially chosen by Isis herself. The initiate was taken by a priest (a step above initiates) to the baths for washing accompanied by prayers, and was instructed not to eat meat or drink wine for ten days. The Initiation followed. Whatever happened there, it lasted from dusk to dawn and it was recalled by one initiate as a direct encounter with the gods above and the gods below. The initiate was given special dress, a special crown to wear and a torch to hold, and was presented to the crowds celebrating the feast of Isis while standing in front of her statue. After this the initiate could enter the secret places of the temples of Isis which were not reserved to the priests. The goddess could instruct the initiate of the first level to go through other initiations. Under the protection of Isis the initiate would have prosperity, protection from magic and fate, and possibly eternal life after death.
Atargatis of Hieropolis: The Syrian Goddess A largely altered form of the worship of a native, and local, Syrian fertility deity. Represented by the Galli : wandering, begging priests. Regular worship consisted of two daily sacrifices, one in silence to the god Hadad, the other with loud music, rattles, and singing, to Atargatis. Initiates were men who made pilgrimages to Hieropolis. Before departing, they shaved their heads including the eyebrows. Next they each sacrificed a sheep, skinned it, and knelt on the skin to pray. Apparently, after sleeping on the ground and drinking only water on the way to Hieropolis, the men could become minor initiates. The major initiates, the priests, or Galli, had to take an extra step: A procession occurred regularly in which established Galli danced and at least one of them led by flagellating himself Those initiates whom the spirit so moved could grab a sword set aside for such purposes and castrate themselves. From then on they dressed in women s clothing and were, officially Galli. On the Gospel of Mark: Considered to be the earliest!gospel," and thus the earliest account of the life of Christ. Written in Greek #as was the entire New Testament$ sometime prior to 70 c.e., and most likely after 60 c.e. #based upon language and content$. Possibly by!john Mark." #These are the current majority theories, not absolute fact.$ The genuine letters of the Apostle Paul are older and thus constitute the earliest record we have of the Christian Religion. The intended audience was probably a broad, Greek%speaking community, with a certain understanding of Judaism. Chapter 1, verse 1:!Christ" is the Greek word for!annointed one" or a person set aside for a special mission or task. This word equates to the Hebrew!Messiah" in actual usage. Remember that the original had neither chapters and verses nor punctuation. Remember also that there was no such thing as the!new Testament" or even the!bible" in the &rst century. We are dealing with a developing library of texts considered to have authority. It is not a!history" as we would think of it. The events are in rhetorical, not chronological, order. Read aggressively and prepare to address two questions in class discussion: 1. According to the text, who is Jesus? 2. According to the text, what did he come to do? #What was the mission?$ You must be prepared to support yourself with speci&c references to the text. Use the chapters and verses to do so. READ THE RSV VERSION #KJV or NKJV will be acceptable, however.$ Post hoc ergo propter hoc... (our favorite fallacy) After this, therefore because of this -- the error of assuming causation based upon chronological order. This fallacy is at the root of most discussions concerning Christianity and paganism or at least mystery religions to this day. It was common among Christians of previous centuries, particularly after the Reformation, as they attempted to prove that one another s form of Christianity was superstitious, borrowing from the pagans rather than the pure original form. (The pagans did this first, therefore... ) Recently it has become more commonly used to discredit Christianity entirely as borrowing from mystery religions (assuming that the latter are in fact older). The problem is that those who use it are ignorant of the historical context in which certain practices and forms of thought were common to all. (Offering of incense, chanted prayers, processions, etc.) Similarity does not determine causation. Consider: I have a receding hairline. George Washington had a receding hairline. Therefore I have gotten my receding hairline from George Washington. One thing to keep in mind is that mystery religions changed and adapted rapidly, while Judaism and Christianity were very resistant to adaptation. The Philosophical Schools Philosophy was not an academic discipline, and it was not a mere mental exercise. It was a way of life. Another way of dealing with the uncertainties of mainline Greco-Roman religion. Descend from the various philosophical schools of Greece, notably Socrates, via Plato and Aristotle, but there are numerous varieties. The key to being free from uncertainty in the cosmos was learning. The result was a recognition that reason ran counter to the belief that life was lived merely at the whim of the gods. A properly ordered life, observing the proper mental and physical disciplines, would lead to happiness and a freedom from the uncertainties of the cosmos. Philosophy elevated Greco-Roman religion to a consistent system, but it also was a means for circumventing it. These schools or traditions were the most common options for the educated elite at the time. Many of their basic tenets were well known to the populace, and formed part of the standard worldview. Their ideas form the only serious point of interaction between Judaism/ Christianity and the pagan world.
Examples: Stoicism: Beginning with Zeno (d. 263 b.c.e.) Taught of a creating god and a world spirit (pneuma, logos), which infused all things and gave them order. A virtuous life, freed from passions and lived by reason was the means to selffulfillment and happiness. Emotions were seen as the reason when out of control. There was no room for eternal life, but one could be delivered in this life from the hardship of uncertainty through the freedom of self-control and ascetic discipline. The language of stoicism most heavily infuses the Greek of the New Testament (as well as other Jewish writings of the time), along with the ideas of Middle Platonism. The concepts have been borrowed to explain the age-old doctrines of Judaism pertaining to a God that was both transcendent and ever-present (immanent). Epicureanism: Began with Epicurus (d. 270 b.c.e.) Taught a life of hedonism, or pleasure. This did not mean la vida loca, which was considered to be the exposing oneself to the unnecessary pain of desire. Pure pleasure was attained through an ascetic, contemplative, and properly celibate life. Little direct influence on Christian thought, but a great deal of interaction with the Christian movement of the second and third centuries. Christianity eventually drew converts from both of these schools who saw in its doctrines a more explicit understanding of the same concepts of divinity. It also drew fire from both schools who saw the eternal life doctrine of Christianity as a renunciation of their basic teachings. Middle Platonism Actually a synthesis of Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism. The predictable result of the blending of these schools was that there was plenty of room for disagreement about how the ideas should be arranged. In general, the Platonic idea of approaching the divine through contemplation and the transformation of one s perspective dominated. Aristotle s concept that the divine ideas infused creation, and that contemplation of creation could bring one closer to God was also a prominent feature. The language of Stoicism was often used, particularly in describing the need to convert to a philosophical life and leave behind the old life, if happiness was to be achieved. There was some room for eternal life based upon Plato s concept of the immortality of the soul. Although there were concepts which did not fit well with Judaism & Christianity, such as a strict division between body and soul, it must be said that this was a world in which the otherwise alien ideas of Judaism would make more sense than they would have before (or perhaps have since) to the outside population. The exact details of who influenced whom will always be debatable, but the dominance of Middle Platonism is clearly one key to the success of Christianity, particularly in the second and third centuries. Judaism Refers to the people known as the Children of Israel, or what was left of them, after a series of conquests and an exile in Babylon. In Babylon many of their teachings and writings were consolidated and organized, some showing clear Babylonian influence. Many of these would form the books called Old Testament by Christians. Upon their freedom, many Jews returned to their homeland, the historic Land of Israel, but many others remained in Babylon. Later they would spread throughout the Hellenic World. This leads to a distinction which has often been considered more important than it was in fact, between the Diaspora -- those Jews living outside of their hereditary land of Israel, and those living in their Land. The Diaspora Jews tended to be more Greek/Hellenized, while those in Israel tended to be more traditional. There are many exceptions. Nevertheless, the reality of the Diaspora is necessary to understanding both the nature of Judaism at the time, and the spread of Christianity. (This map needs a bit of qualification: the Jewish communities were denser in the East, as far as Babylon, than is suggested here.)
Categories: The basic distinctions made by the textbook are an acceptable place to start: Sadducees: The ruling class, traditional controllers of the Temple after Hellenization. More hellenized. Tended to be secular in outlook -- rejecting doctrines such as resurrection and eternal life. They favored the status quo, but calling them conservative as the textbook does would have really angered the Pharisees: those excluded from rule, but following the established traditions of Jewish life and teaching in the rabbinic schools. They were pious, zealous, and the mainline Jewish believers. Opposed the overhellenization of their religion, and were fierce opponents of the Sadducees. Most of the early Christian movement was drawn from their ranks (counter to the impression held by many Christians today.) They were also the original of rabbinic Judaism. Zealots: (The term is somewhat anachronistic) Refers to those militantly opposed to the presence of Roman rule. Essenes: Those who generally sympathized with the Pharisees on issues of piety and purity, but had withdrawn, for safety and ascetic discipline, to desert communities (such as Qumran, home of the Dead Sea Scrolls.) However: Current scholars of Second-Temple Judaism (Referring to the period after the Babylonian Exile and before the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e.) will object: These are only general, and somewhat artificial, categories which cover a much more diverse community with many divisions to be made even in the various groups. (The New Testament itself mentions other groups such as the Herodians. ) Qumran may not have been the Essenes mentioned by Josephus. Zealots only developed under that name after 66 c.e. Moreover, the Jewish community was far from purely Jewish in ethnicity -- many converts, and those on the way, the God-fearers were converting from the broader Hellenic community. They were part of the Jewish reality, but are often referred-to merely as Greeks in the New Testament and other early writings.d Note the three sacred spaces of Second Temple Judaism: Temple: located in Jerusalem, this is the only place where mainline, true, Jews (not Samaritans) could offer sacrifices to their God. Although this God was the transcendent, sole, and all-powerful creator, he was also assumed to have a mysterious local presence within the Temple. This was the place where heaven met earth. And the People of Israel were the conduit for the creator to deal with creation. Synagogue: gathering place, developed in Babylon while the Jewish people were cut-off from their Temple. The Law and the Prophecies were studied here, but it was also the designated place of ritual prayer for each local Jewish community. Preserved the old teachings while in exile, and expanded on them through a tradition of commentary (Talmud.) Home: the family household was also a place of worship on the Sabbath, and particularly for the feast of Pasach, or Passover. Not infrequently the same word is used for home and synagogue -- oikos, or house -- which makes reading books such as Acts, in the New Testament, confusing at times. The Jewish God Traditional Judaism claims not to worship one of the gods, but the God of Gods. The only one who created all things and chose to interact with a specific group of people (the Jews.) Other gods were only worshipped in error: this was mistaking lesser spiritual creatures for the Creator. This does not mean that they did not, at this time, venerate the graves of the dead or that they didn t believe in venerating the spiritual powers that served the one true God. It did mean that they were always in a dubious position when loyalty to Rome was questioned through the demand of making sacrifices to the Imperial cult. This also meant that those schools of philosophy which denied that the transcendent God took an interest in human affairs were at odds with the basic principles of Judaism.