Christianity in the Roman Empire: [PDF]

Christianity in the Roman Empire: Reformed Judaism to Official Religion T. Brice Pearce Brice is a senior History major, with a minor in Women’s Studies. His interests lie in Labor and Working Class History, Women’s History, and Ancient History. After IUP, Brice plans to attend graduate school studying Women’s History. This paper was originally written for R. Scott Moore’s “Spectacle in Antiquity” special topics course (HIST 402) in the fall semester of 2003.

Religion has alternately bound humanity together and torn it apart from the beginning of recorded history until the present day. Beginning in the first century CE, Christianity sprang out of the Judaic tradition and began to take a hold on the Roman world, then a firm grasp on the empire by the middle of the third century CE until eventually it became the vehicle for legitimization of medieval power. Today, Christianity is one of the world’s largest religions, with an estimated 1.7 billion followers worldwide.1 Its rise from inauspicious beginnings in reformed Judaism can be ascribed to many factors. What observable attributes of this belief system caused its pull on society, metamorphosizing into the defining cultural practice of western civilization during the Byzantine and Medieval periods? The development of Christianity happened in multiple locations and over two centuries; by the time it was adopted by Rome, its dogma had become so schismatic that the weakened empire was able to use multiple interpretations of its teachings to retain control over its divided empire. Tracing the rise of Christianity from its roots in Judaism to its conflict within the Roman Empire and finally to widespread acceptance and adherence within the fourth century will show how religion can change society, and how society responds to those changes. Before Judaism, monotheistic religions were almost non-existent in the literate world of the Mediterranean and the Near East. In fact, monotheists were often labeled

37

atheists, as they did not believe in the interrelationship of the plethora of gods and goddesses. There were four major religious bases in this area of the world at the beginning of the Common Era: The Greco-Roman world and its pantheon of gods; the Persian Empire, which had a strong Zoroastrian following; Buddhism and Hinduism as state religions in India; and Confucian philosophy in Chinese society.2 Israel was one of the first nation-states to emerge based solely on monotheistic religion (that of Judaism) and centralized worship (the temple in Jerusalem). The Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian Empires had dominated the Hebrew people before the Romans gained supremacy, and these societies left their influences on Judean culture of the time, especially in regard to religious legitimatization of the political sphere – with deified monarchs being the dominant system of political control. During the first century CE the Torah was in a period of review and reinterpretation, making Jerusalem a center for debate and the dissemination of ideas about Judaic law and showing that multiple interpretations about Jewish religious practice coexisted at this time. A disparity of ideology allowed pious Jews to question the path of their synagogues, thereby opening the door for a Christian following to begin in the Judean world. The Jewish state was subsumed by the Roman Empire in the first century BCE, provoking several responses from the Jewish community. The first set of reactions was military in nature, and arose several times before the destruction by the Roman legions of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Sadducees (conservative priests) then struck a compromise in order to retain some sovereignty, but the Roman governor controlled the choice of High Priest. The third answer was withdrawal from the public sphere, as evidenced by the Pharisees (liberal priests) and Essenes (communal, peace-loving scriptural scholars) – albeit in vastly different ways. Last, a spate of millenarian prophets (John the Baptist and Jesus, especially) begins to attain notoriety and push the belief that “some divine act of intervention” would “restore Israel’s fortunes and usher in a new age.”3 Jews of this time certainly knew that there would be a forthcoming change in religious structure, but the direction that it would take was uncertain. Jesus of Nazareth is the figure traditionally associated with the first teachings of what would come to be known as Christianity. The above-mentioned four responses within Judaism to the Roman occupation were all pressing issues at the time of Jesus’ nomadic ministry in the late 20’s and early 30’s CE. There is evidence for many associations that this prophetic figure may have held, putting him “in the company of Zealot resistance fighters,” and depicting him dichotomously “as an Essene wisdom teacher” and “an orthodox Pharisee.”4 Obviously, the historical character of Jesus of Nazareth had debatable associations within the rapidly changing society of his time. Jesus’ teachings included such ideas as “freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight

38

for the blind, to release the oppressed,”5 preaching to Gentiles (non-Jews), and the inclusion of women among his idea of the “oppressed.”6 All of these teachings alarmed the Sadducees, who were eventually able to influence a much more powerful group. Jesus as a political threat to orthodox Judaism (of the Sadducees) and the Roman rule in Palestine is evidenced by his trial in both the Sanhedrin (Jewish temple court) and in front of the Roman procurator in Jerusalem (Pontius Pilate). The situation of Jesus’ Roman trial, and the influence of the Sanhedrin as a local ruling authority, is documented in Chapter 23 of Luke in the Bible, saying: Then the whole gathering of them arose, and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, ‘We have established that this man is leading our nation astray; he forbids the payment of tax to Caesar and he is putting it around that he is the Messiah, a king.’ But Pilate questioned him, asking: ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ But he answered him: ‘You say it.’ Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds: ‘I find no crime in this man.’ But they declared even more insistently: ‘He is rousing the people to revolt with his teaching in the whole of Judea, stretching from Galilee even to here.’7

Ultimately, Jesus was crucified by the ruling Roman government around 30-35 CE, at the behest of subordinate Jewish local authority. The Sanhedrin had convicted Jesus of blasphemy, and under Jewish law the punishment for that crime was death. However, the Roman government had deprived the council of the right to issue a death sentence, causing their need for sanction from the Roman governmental infrastructure This action eliminated a religious rival for the Sadducees and a politically turbulent figure who troubled Roman control of the area.8 After his death, stories of his miraculous resurrection and ascension into heaven circulated widely, establishing a motive for his twelve main followers, or apostles, to spread his message and found an ideology that would slowly become a major influence in the Empire. The combination of Roman infrastructure, which maintained a reliable system of land transport and sea trade, and the proliferation of the Greek language throughout the eastern part of the Empire as a common language enabled the disciples of Jesus to spread his teachings quickly and found churches in many cities. The apostle Paul (formerly Saul) documented these places, with his letters to churches in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Phillippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica, around the time of 50 CE.9 It is in these letters (that encompass ten books of the New Testament) that Paul took on the ideas of Jesus, and his desire to proliferate them after his conversion. The main idea behind Christian thought of the time, or at least what Paul preached, is stated in Galatians 3:28 as, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”10 These were quite revolutionary ideas, owing to the hierarchical and misogynistic structures of polytheistic religions and governmental organizations of the

39

time. These factors led to the establishment of a large number of small churches throughout Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, beginning the widespread awareness of the new religious ideology. The phrase “male nor female” directs the focus to a path not often thought of in antiquity, equal opportunities for women. Some scholarship asserts that within the Early Church a “patriarchal framework continued to exist from antiquity through the Roman period;” in stark contrast to the opportunities open to women in the early Church.11 The relative measure of freedom enjoyed by women in the early church was a major factor in its appeal to the Mediterranean world. Women were seen as church leaders in many places: Lydia opened her home in Philippi as a church and missionary staging post to Europe,12 Priscilla and her husband taught, and Phoebe as a leader in the Roman church at Cenchrea – all documented by Luke and Paul.13 A trend began of embracing a celibate life, especially with women. Choosing celibacy allowed these women to remove themselves from patriarchal domination that was forefront in their daily life.14 Women were originally seen to fulfill the roles of deaconess, prophetess, and teacher within the early church. The Luke writer “shows no desire to confine women to roles that only involved providing material assistance,” but “also mentions women who prophesied and women who taught.”15 He mentions specifically Tabitha and Priscilla, in order to show “how the Gospel liberates and creates new possibilities for women … as part of the progress and effects of the Christian Gospel.”16 However, “it was equivalent to placing a theoretical time bomb under them. It was only a matter of time before the foundations of these traditional distinctions would be eroded to the point at which they could no longer be maintained.”17 Between the years of 66 and 70 CE, turbulence reigned in Palestine, due to a widespread Jewish movement in Israel for independence from Roman authority. Roman officials made no distinction between Christianity and Judaism at the time, with Christians suffering for the crimes of Jews and Jews punished for the misdeeds of Christians. With the persecution and subsequent execution of James by Sadducee leaders, the Christian community in Jerusalem began to migrate. By the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by General Titus in 70 CE, the Christian movement was no longer centered in Jerusalem.18 The relocation of the Nazarene disciples to Syria (Antioch, Damascus, Edessa) began the conversion of Semitic-speaking people in the region, and the alleged Saul/Paul conversion from persecutor to avid missionary and theorist happened on the road to Damascus.19 The missionary work of the Apostles and Paul spread the word throughout Greece and Asia Minor, Rome and even to Alexandria in Egypt, but Roman society was unenergetic to subscribe to monotheistic ideas.

40

There are many accounts, Christian and pagan, of the harassment and occasional martyrdom of early Christian believers and teachers. Evidence shows that the “imperial cult had become the focus of the persecution.”20 The imperial cult was the mechanism through which the emperor himself was deified by the state. It is also important to understand the use of the cult as a socially binding tool in newly conquered or culturally and ethnically diverse areas (through syncretism), and the threat posed by noncompliance of the general populace.21 Consequently, the followers of Christ and the cult of Caesar stood in opposition to each other, and this necessitated a response from the Imperial level. After the great fires in Rome in 64 CE, Emperor Nero supposedly turned the blame onto the Christians, as reported by Tacitus: No device prevailed, neither public largess, nor princely munificence, nor placation of the Gods to dispel the infamous suspicion that the fire had been started at the [Emperor’s] command. Therefore, to quiet the rumor, Nero cast the blame and ingeniously punished a people popularly called Christians and hated for their crimes.22

Titus took Jerusalem as a general in 70 CE, and razed the Temple, the center of Judaic religious worship and learning as well as much of traditional culture. This destroyed Jewish sovereignty and hastened the spread of Christian teaching among the Gentile population of the Empire. The questioning of Christians, set up by Emperor Trajan, that were followed throughout the second century are illustrated by Pliny: I have taken the following course with those who were denounced to me as Christians. I asked them whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I asked a second and a third time with threat of penalty. If they persisted, I ordered their execution, for I do not doubt whatever it was that they profess, certainly their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy deserved to be punished.23

These harsh penalties include the mass crucifixions at ludii (games), Christians versus gladiators and beasts in the Colosseum, and the rise of a new idea – martyrdom. Martyrdom was the celebration of death due to devotion to Christian ideals and its punishment under Roman common law. There were, however, two opposing effects brought into Roman society via Christianity and the concept of martyrdom. First, from the Imperial standpoint, the church lost a leader and susceptible pagans were dissuaded from subscribing to that belief structure. However, Christians were charged to remain faithful, even if they became a martyr for their efforts, bolstering righteous feelings from within the church to continue its mission.24 Martyrdom reappeared several times during the church’s rise to social standing and influence, with differing opinions from the church and the congregation.

41

Christians in the early Empire were stigmatized and persecuted, fostering the belief that suffering in the name of God or Jesus demonstrated piety and faithfulness. They also faced several other societal challenges, in dealing with rumors about the church, such as cannibalism, related mainly to the rite of communion, referred to as koinōnia (Greek: love feast or fellowship), in which the Last Supper with Jesus and his Apostles was celebrated by the equation of bread and wine with his body and blood. The widespread Christian use of words such as brother, sister, and love, combined with night meetings and a common social belief that lamps would be extinguished in order to facilitate orgies, also fueled charges of incest in the Christian community.25 There was also a large response to the Christian movement from within the Jewish community, focusing mainly on theological and ideological disparities. Christians of the time believed that the Jewish faith incorrectly interpreted the scriptures, “especially those concerning the Christ or Messiah.”26 Many went so far as to consider the practitioners of Judaism as “blind to the truth,”27 and that Judaic society as a whole was hostile to Christianity.28 Conversely, and in part as a response to Christian thought, Jewish mentality of the time focused on the Christian believers as “heretics,”29 and there was also “forthright critical comment on the life of Christ, with the claim that he was rightly condemned as a deceiver,”30 in accordance with text in the Pentateuch (Dueteronomy 13:1-15). By the end of the first century CE, the separation with Jewish Law and tradition was complete and the way was paved for Christian and Jewish opposition for several centuries, particularly virulent until around 600 CE. As with any religious text, dogmatic interpretations of Christianity varied greatly. For the Christian movement, the major variances depended heavily on geographic location, and obviously language as well. The main geographic regions of the earliest movements (before the emergence of the Great Church) were the main Roman centers of the Empire; separate ideological systems appeared in: Syria and Mesopotamia, Greece and Asia Minor, Alexandria and Egypt, and the Western Mediterranean. The growth of the Eastern tradition in Christianity can be traced to a few early bases. Within Syria and Mesopotamia, the influence of Aramaic texts and sources led to Syraic being chosen as the communicative language of the Christians in this region, which caused their dogma to be based heavily on the writings of the disciples of Jesus.31 The importance of the two major Roman cities within this region, both built on trade and cultural mixing, is clear. Antioch’s importance lay in the Roman governmental infrastructure’s presence there, making it the third largest city of the Mediterranean world and a place for ideas to intersect. However, Edessa may be even more important, due to its location on the silk trade routes, allowing matriculation of Christian thought into Armenia and Arabia.32 It is important to note the heavy influences of the time from

42

Semitic texts and psalms on Christian thought of the region, but this was based on the acculturation of the local populace more than the Jewish faith.33 As earlier mentioned, the Greek language was an important vehicle for the spread of Christian teachings. The apostolic tradition – spearheaded by James, Paul, Timothy and Titus, Peter, and possibly John and Philip – contributed to the rapid and early growth of Christianity in Greece and Asia Minor. Here one can find evidence of the well-known traditional household ekklesia (Greek: “those called out” or “assembly”) and an intricate network of church leadership, both male and female, enabling believers to form citywide communities bound together through literature. With most of the early Christian cannon written as letters to churches in the cities of the region (Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia, Thessalonica), and the rise of catholicity within the region, the importance of this provincial area to early Christian thought is imperative. These ideas and beliefs play heavily in the later form and shape of the Roman Church and subsequent dogmatic conflict.34 Greece and Asia Minor were a fertile ground for the dissemination of Christian thought and teachings. With the intellectual importance of the city of Alexandria, there comes evidence of some of the first ways in which Christianity began to reach the Greco-Roman mindset in the second and third centuries. The finest minds of the ancient world gathered here, and discussed and disseminated ideas with great rapacity. Christian subscription probably grew out of the large, semi-autonomous Jewish community within the city itself. There are stories of non-canonical texts circulating throughout the city, and even of a secret gospel of Mark detailing mysteries related from Jesus to his disciples – repudiated by Clement in the latter second century CE, which all influenced the transitioning view of Christianity within the Empire.35 The western Mediterranean, slowly declining as the center of Roman power, greatly influenced the spread of major Christian ideologies. The imperial culture was imposed on Christian belief systems with Christ at the head; creating a new civic order that repudiated Roman decadence and lasciviousness, as symbolized in the book of Revelations, depicting Rome as both a terrifying beast and a seductive harlot.36 With prominent use of the Greek koine vernacular, many early Christians were clustered into the same social categories as foreigners and those of the lower classes. It was not until the second century CE that Latin even became a popular language in the Christian movement – and subsequently increased in popularity with virtuous Roman citizens.37 These regional, lingual, and textual variances led directly into a period of tumultuous evolution for the Christian Church in the following centuries. At this time, the Christian Church was slowly formalizing, and a hierarchical structure of leadership was beginning to take shape, based mainly on the election/appointment of bishopric

43

positions. The increased number of intellectuals and wealthy patricians within the movement allowed Christianity to increase its presence within society, pushing it to the forefront of religious matters and created the religious repression, such as that evidenced in Trajan. Before the official adoption of Christianity as a state religion, there were several main schisms among the believers of the faith that greatly affect the views of the Roman world towards the religion, especially within the dogmas of Gnosticism and Catholicism. A blend of Christian thought, Hellenistic culture, Egyptian mysteries, and Platonic ideology, Gnosticism arose in the Roman Empire in the earliest years of the second century CE. It is thought to have emerged from the teachings of Simon Magus the Samaritan and then proliferated throughout Roman society by Valentinus. The numerous, but disparate, teachings focused on the ideal that believers were “set free from their imprisonment in material creation, as they ascend through the heavenly orders in salvation.”38 This signified the importance of the belief in the immortal soul, and a view of a hierocratic structure to Christianity. There is also evidence for more gender parity represented in the Gnostic tradition, perhaps based on the release from bodily existence. In fact, in the heretical (non-cannonized) gospel of Thomas there is strong wording in the closing phrases: Simon Peter said to them, “Mary should leave us, for females are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter heaven’s kingdom.”39

The writings produced within the Gnostic vein vary greatly in their scope, but the church response was quick to affirm “the danger that an alien thought-world might provoke losses for Christianity.”40 This shows that the polarization had already occurred in society, and that certain belief systems were able to take precedence over others. The Catholics stood in stark contrast to the Gnostics, believing heavily in the cult of public martyrdom and a tradition of arguments based on canonized scripture and apostolic tradition, although they interpreted essentially the same texts. In their efforts to refute Gnostic beliefs and teachings, Catholic authors did not succeed in their attempt at “stem[ming] the growth of Gnosticism, so much as to shape Catholic Christian identity within the Hellenistic philosophical context.”41 The prolific nature and popularity of the main writers of Catholic thought (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria and his successor Origen, and Bardasian with his early assertion of the trinity) influenced the direction of the established church greatly. Due primarily to this influence, eventually Catholicism emerged as the dominant ideology in the faith, but not for a few centuries. 44

Constantine, a major player in the Roman imperial struggles of the early fourth century CE, was prone to visions and the subsequent switching of gods in order to win military victories.42 According to popular opinion, before a battle in which he defeated his main rival Maxentius, he had one of his famous visions. In it, a voice told him to put the Chi (X) and Rho (P) symbols on the shields of his soldiers to ensure a victory. With the triumph of his armies, Constantine sought out the meaning of his illusory symbol, and was told by his men that it stood for Christianity. After his victory in 312 CE, Constantine began to donate money to Christian churches and eventually issued the Edict of Milan the following year, endorsing tolerance for all religious beliefs – monotheistic or polytheistic. In the writings of Lactantius, one can see the idea that the new support of Christianity is justified: Wherefore your Dignity should know that it is our pleasure to abolish all conditions whatever which were embodied in former orders directed to your office about the Christians … and that every one of those who have a common wish to follow the religion of the Christians may from this moment freely and unconditionally proceed to observe the same without any annoyance or disquiet.43

With this evidence and the restoration of church property (to the corporation, not individual), one can see that the rise of the Christian faith to prominence was set in torrid motion. With Constantine’s victory over Licinius in 324 CE, he was able to extend the joint rule of the Empire to the Christian Church. There were a few difficulties in becoming the first Christian Emperor. Constantine began to identify Christianity with old Rome and associated paganism with the barbarians of the army. The Christians gave up their objection to warfare, but still did not espouse militarization. And, of course, the deification of the ruler must subsequently cease; as Bainton says: “Constantine had to give up being [viewed as] a god.”44 Idealism reigned at this stage with the Christian bishops beginning to wonder if the Kingdom of God had come, and believing that the Empire and the church had discovered their ordained accord.45 But the Empire and the Church had a long road to climb yet and many schisms and controversies to endure. The mandatory adoption of Christianity by Roman citizens was debated and criticized heavily, after its official sanction in 393. Christianity’s power of survival and eventual rise to dominance in the Mediterranean-influenced world was hastened by its ability to be interpreted in many different ways. This is seen by the placement of the Roman Empire on top of the Church hierarchy - the Emperor, while no longer a god, was now a direct link to God. Roman

45

society was originally seen in great opposition to the Christian following, as seen in the laws of the time between Nero and Trajan, but eventually some embraced at least the name of Christianity through the dissemination of ideas into the Greco-Roman world. All of the transitions that Christian doctrine went through during this period were strongly related to the responses of the society at large. However, this amorphous nature within the dogmatic beliefs of Christianity came to cause problems later in the Empire, as it essentially becomes “ the nitroglycerine”46 under Roman society in the next decades. The troubles and schisms that Christianity will face in the near future will test the bonds between the Roman government, populace, and eventually the rest of Latin-influenced Europe. Perhaps it can be seen as such in relation to Christianity – that it is strong and binding when a state itself is weak and needs other framework to keep order.

1

McGrath, Alister E. An Introduction to Christianity. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. p. XV Irvin, Dale T. and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001. pp.3-4 3 Riches, John. “The Birth of Christianity.” Early Christianity. Ed. Ian Hazlett. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1991. p.31 4 Merkel, Helmut. “The Opposition between Jesus and Judaism.” Jesus and the Politics of His Day. Ed. Ernst Bammel and C. F. D. Moule. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1984. p. 129 5 The Bible. Luke 4:19 6 McGrath, p. 91-2 7 The Bible. Luke 23:1-5. 8 McGrath, p. 100 9 The Bible; New Testament book titles 10 This is the stated goal of Christian teaching, not necessarily the path that it was to follow. 11 Witherington III, Ben. Women in the Earliest Churches. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1988. p. 15 12 Ibid, p. 148 13 McGrath, 238-9 14 Irvin and Sunquist, p. 48 15 Witherington, p. 155 16 Ibid, p. 156 17 McGrath, pp. 240-1 18 Irvin and Sunquist, p. 50 19 Ibid, p. 57 20 Bainton, Roland H. Early Christianity. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1960. p. 22 21 Ibid. 22 Tacitus, Annals XV, 44. from Bainton, p. 87 23 Pliny, Epis. X, 96. from Bainton p. 88 24 Wagner, Walter H. After the Apostles: Christianity in the Second Century. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1994. p. 133 25 Ibid 26 Irvin and Sunqusit, p. 100. 27 Eugen Weber, The Rise of the Church. Produced Fred Barzyk. WGBH Boston in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, CA : Intellimation, 1989. 28 Horbury, William. “The Jewish Dimension.” Early Christianity. Ed. Ian Hazlett. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1991. p. 49. 2

46

29

Eugen Weber, The Rise of the Church. Produced Fred Barzyk. WGBH Boston in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, CA : Intellimation, 1989. 30 Horbury, p. 49. 31 Irvin and Sunquist, p. 57 32 Ibid, 58. 33 Ibid, 63. 34 Ibid, 66-7. 35 Ibid, 86-7 36 Ibid, 74. 37 Ibid, 76. 38 Ibid, 116. 39 Logion 114, quoted from The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus. Trans. Marvin Meyer. San Franciso, CA: HarperCollins, 1992. p. 65. 40 Rudolph, Kurt. “Gnosticism.” Early Christianity. Ed. Ian Hazlett. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1991. p. 193. 41 Irvin and Sunquist, p. 119. 42 Eugen Weber, The Rise of the Church. Produced Fred Barzyk. WGBH Boston in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Santa Barbara, CA : Intellimation, 1989. 43 Lactantius, XLVIII, 2-12. from Bainton, p. 160-1. 44 Bainton, p. 64. 45 Ibid. 46 Ibid.

47