The Rise of Christianity

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The Rise of Christianity
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Judaism and the Empire

• 6 CE Emperor Augustus (a.k.a., Octavius Gaius
  Caesar) seized the Kingdom of Judah and changed
  its name under Roman rule to the province of
  Judea.
• Romans allowed Jews to worship yet treated them
  cruelly as a conquered people.

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Jewish revolt

• Jews strengthened their hope that the messiah
  would come to help them regain their freedom.
• Some Jews looked to Jesus of Nazareth as the
  messiah.
• Others organized a military revolt against the
  Roman army beginning in 66 CE.

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Era of the Second Temple ends

• 70 CE The Roman Army seize Jerusalem once again.
• The Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed.
• Thousands of Jews were killed in a Roman form of
  ethnic cleansing.

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Jewish Diaspora begins

• After another Jewish revolt was put down in 132
  CE, Roman officials banned Jews from Jerusalem
• Jews migrated throughout the Middle East and
  Mediterranean world

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Yeshivas emerged

• Jews studied the Torah, or the document
  containing Jews laws and writings
• Like the earlier era during the Babylonian
  captivity when synagogues formed, during this new
  period of migration institutions of learning
  began called yeshivas, where
• Rabbis assembled interpretations of the Torah
  into a book called the Talmud.
• The Talmud is the most important work about
  Jewish law.

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Jesus of Nazareth

• Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph about 6 CE.
• Jesus grew up in Galilee, a rural region of
  northern Nazareth surrounded by non-Jewish
  communities.
• 30-33 CE Jesus preached a new message to Jews at
  the Temple in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
• His popularity led to a group of followers called
  disciples to join Jesus in his travels.

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Jesuss message

• Jesus preached that people should turn away from
  sin and practice deeds of kindness.
• Jesus said that God was loving and forgiving
  towards those who repent sin.
• Jesuss disciples believed him to be the Messiah.
  They became known as apostles, meaning sent men
  proclaiming the arrival of Gods rule on earth.

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Jesus radical?

• Jesus called people to repent, to live each day
  as their last, to love even outsiders and
  enemies, to set aside not merely adultery,
  murder, and theft, but lust, hatred, and covetous
  desires.
• The new kingdom of God would not allow for any
  violence, for the least anxiety about wealth and
  social status.
• The blessed were not the successful, but the
  poor and humble, the pure in heart, those
  persecuted for righteousness.

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Jesus as a Threat to Public Order

• The notion that Jesus was the Messiah brought
  about many controversies and debates.
• Jesus challenged the rabbis of Judah for being
  hypocritical and overly sceptical.
• 33 CE Pontius Pilate, a Prefect under the
  Emperor Tiberius, arrested Jesus as a political
  rebel spreading sedition and had him crucified.

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Spread of Christianity

• After Jesus died, his body mysteriously
  disappeared from an in-ground tomb.
• Jesuss disciples claimed that Jesus appeared
  before them as a spirit and spoke to them, saying
  
• That he was the son of God and
• The way to salvation.
• Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) who accepted Jesus
  and his teachings became known as Christians.

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Christos

• Greek word for Messiah or savior

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Divergence Among Jews

• Jesuss disciples were devout Jews, like the
  Essenes who lived by the Dead Sea where they
  produced the Qumran scrolls. They studied
  suffering followed by divine vindication in the
  Old Testament.
• Greek-speaking Jewish communities began to
  separate from the many different sects of
  particular Jewish ascetic groups.

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Stephen

• Stephen became a leader in Jerusalem over a
  community of Greek-speaking Jews who questioned
  the Old Testaments sanctioning of animal
  sacrifice and temple rites.
• Stephen was stoned for this blasphemy.
• Orthodox Jewish sects called Pharisees and
  Sadducees of Jerusalem harassed and expelled
  Christians who fell under Stephens influence.
• Hence, Christians left Jerusalem and began to
  spread the word of Jesus to the Gentile world
  abroad.

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Paul

• Paul was a Roman soldier who grew up in Tarsus,
  spoke Greek, and converted to Christianity and
  spread Jesuss teachings, especially among
  Gentiles.
• Paul traveled widely and wrote a great deal.
• Paul became known as the greatest apostle or a
  missionary.
• Pauls letters were later added to become part of
  the Christian Gospels, or stories about Jesus and
  other early Christians.
• Paul lent his energy, domineering personality,
  and enthusiasm to the cause.

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Pauls influence on Christian beliefs

• Paul denied the assumption that a Gentile must be
  circumcised upon conversion, that he must observe
  the Sabbath, and the laws of Leviticus.
• Paul believed that monotheism cannot be based on
  the idea of permanently restricting a knowledge
  of one God to one race of people.

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Pauls Universal Church

• Paul believed that God chose the Jews and gave
  them the Old Testament Covenant.
• With Jesus the Messiah, however, Paul believed
  that God was now reaching out to all the world in
  the form of a human servant who died for humanity
  to expiate the sins of the world.
• Paul considered Jesuss death and resurrection as
  the pivotal point in world history, the hinge on
  which all things turn in the purpose of God.

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Antioch Compromise

• In Antioch, Syria, Jews observing traditional
  dietary laws and Gentiles not observing Jewish
  custom formed a Christian church together and
  agreed to a compromise
• Gentiles agreed to follow traditional Jewish food
  laws
• This compromise spread to churches throughout
  Asia Minor (Galatia, Cilicia, etc.)

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Peter

• The apostle Peter was supposed to have been the
  leader of the original 12 disciples.
• Peter supposedly traveled to Rome and founded a
  church in that city.
• Churches were formed to support communities for
  worship, fellowship, and instruction.

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2nd Century Gnosticism

• Rival groups of Gnostic Christians plagued the
  church throughout the Mediterranean.
• Gnostics criticized all the apostles except Paul
  as being compromisers with the old Jewish
  customs.
• Gnostics also criticized the Church for making
  too many concessions to un-educated converts who
  came from pagan religious traditions.

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Persecution

• Christians were not good citizens in the Roman
  Empire because
• They refused to honor the emperor as a god
• They rejected military service.
• Some Christians suffered capital punishment for
  their beliefs, becoming martyrs.
• Few people converted to Christianity due to these
  conditions until the early 300s.

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Christianity Grows in Influence

• Over time, Christian churches gradually grew in
  cities while rural areas hung on to the old
  polytheistic beliefs.
• The Roman Empire itself suffered strains and
  stresses, causing emperors to look for answers in
  new places.

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Emperor Constantine

• 312 CE Constantine saw a vision of a flaming
  cross in the sky while leading the Roman Army
  into battle.
• The words In hoc signo vinces appeared with the
  burning cross With this as your standard you
  will have victory.
• Constantine ordered his men to paint a cross on
  their shields, and he attributed his victory to
  the Christian God.

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Edict of Milan (312)

• Emperor Constantine ordered in the Edict of Milan
  that all religious groups should have freedom of
  worship.
• Constantine met with Christian leaders and
  ordered churches built in Rome and Jerusalem.
• Christianity grew in the western Mediterranean
  much as it had in the eastern Mediterranean.

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Theodosius

• 392 Emperor Theodosius banned the old religions
  and made Christianity the official religion of
  the state.

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Teachings of Augustine

• To make Christianity easier to understand among
  converts, Church fathers heavily influenced
  Christian doctrine.
• Augustine is supposed to have written the worlds
  first great autobiography called Confessions
  (398).
• City of God is another work that heavily
  influenced Christian thinking.

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Hierarchical Church Structure
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Patriarchs

• The were many bishops in the early church, but
  the bishops of the largest five cities of the
  Mediterranean were called Patriarchs
• Rome
• Constantinople
• Alexandria
• Antioch
• Jerusalem

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Council of Nicaea (325)

• Church leaders held many councils, but this
  particular council established influential
  doctrinal standards.
• Christians who disagreed with the Nicene creeds
  were labeled heretics.

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Roman Catholic v. Eastern Orthodoxy

• The patriarch of Rome (Pope) began to claim
  supremacy over the other patriarchs in the 400s.
• The other Patriarchs claimed equal authority to
  the Pope of Rome.
• Eventually, the church split between the Latin
  speaking west (Roman Catholic) and the Greek
  speaking east (Greek Orthodoxy).