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New Testament 102
7 February 2013
The Beginnings of Christianity The study of religion not only entails understanding ancient teachings and manuscripts; an all encompassing understanding of religion, Christianity in particular, includes the origins of the religion itself. It is for this reason interest in the setting in which Christianity grew is of most importance. Religious beliefs of the Jewish people, widespread hellenization, philosophy and the history of the Jewish people (after 70 AD), were the main contributing factors to the rise of Christianity. Alexander the Great was accredited with the spread of hellenization throughout the Middle East. As a boy, Alexander was greatly influenced by his tutor, Aristotle; a well known Greek teacher and philosopher. As a result, when Alexander the Great became king at the age of 20, and conquered Jerusalem and Egypt, he encouraged the spreading of the Greek culture. The “conquered” areas were thus influenced by a change in their culture and the interplay of ideas between cultures was evident in the unification of a common language, currency, tax structure, architecture, entertainment, art, and philosophy. This spreading of the Greek culture throughout the newly conquered territories was referred to as hellenization which ultimately made for cultural syncretism among the inhabitants. With a more unified territory in place, due to hellenization, the peoples were inclined to move toward a more common belief system, and later the Romans continued to build on this idea of unifying one massive empire as a result. It is interesting to note that the early writings of the Bible were in the Greek language. Again, an example of how hellenization was unifying people through a common language that they eventually shared in the holy book the Bible. Hellenization, Greek mixing with existing culture, changed “the world” and ultimately helped to set the stage for the development of Christianity. Alexander the Great’s influence of Greek world views were evidenced in the study of Greek philosophies, which did appear to impact the thinking of the time, and ultimately appeared in the Bible. For example, Platonism (from Plato) was a distinction between temporal and the eternal world. This philosophy encouraged the belief that there are two realities one “here” and another of a more spiritual nature in which more true forms exist. This philosophy of Platonism was apparent in the Christian view of heaven, which encouraged belief in another level of being. Platonic influence was most evident in the passages of Hebrew, in the book of the New Testament. Stoicism (Zeno’s philosophy), taught that there was a universal soul, and were all pulled toward a utopian future. Stoicism, stressed the concepts of happiness, peace and justice in the end. One who followed the teachings of stoicism may have been one who was content to suffer while enjoying a quiet joy because the universal soul had a conscious and was aware of right and wrong. This philosophy was particularly appealing to the community, at the time, because of wide spread suffering and later did influence the style of writing of the Bible for this particular audience. In the book of Romans and the letters of Paul in particular, there is an apparent stoic influence, due to the fact that Paul was drawing on the teachings of the time. Indicated in this book are the stoic concepts of conscious use of imagery including illusions to love, joy peace kindness and gentleness. The third philosophy being studied at the time was that of Epicureanism. Epicureanism is not evident in the Bible for the simple reason that it did not encourage the belief that God cares for us. This philosophy taught that we live in a universe of fixed laws therefore, encouraged the study of science. Epicureanism also pushed for a live for the moment type of mentality, due to the fact that God did not care, there would be no repercussion for unacceptable behavior. Epicureanism did not promote Christian values and was therefore not a highly respected philosophy nor were its teachings evidenced in the Bible. Jewish religion at the time of Christ clearly influenced the beginnings of Christianity. There are many commonalties between the two religions and many still apparent, today, in Christianity were clearly influenced by the Jewish religion. For example, both Jewish and Christian faiths share the belief in one God, although the Jewish people call their God “Yahweh,” both are monotheistic. The Jewish people believed in one holy book the Torah and likewise Christians have one holy book the Bible. Also, in common were central places of worship. For the Jewish people there was the temple and for Christians a church. Both religions believe that God is an actor in history; this is why Christians pray for the sick. Importantly, are the convictions that both religions share and that places much importance on individual thoughts and actions. Interestingly, early Christians were a sub group with in the Jewish community. Because of the commonalities these two religions share it is evident that Christianity arose from the Jewish religion. After the death of Alexander the Great and much turmoil in the area of Palestine, of most interest was the Roman invasion of Palestine. Here the Romans came to Jerusalem and laid siege to the city until it was weakened and thus entered and destroyed everything, including the Jewish temple in the year 70AD. As a result, the Jewish people scattered out from their homeland and became a minority in other cultures. This created a time of much turmoil and chaos. Ultimately, it was the faith of the Jewish people that held them together. However, it was difficult for them as they were considered as being different and endured much suffering. This disbursement of the Jews was the context in which the Christian faith came from because the people were looking for hope and direction. The homeland of the Jewish people was gone and their identities were now in question and Christianity which offered relief from suffering and a new sense of belonging or identity and was clearly a religion that came from the Jewish tradition. The charismatic leader of the Christian faith, Jesus, was Jewish. In conclusion, there were four main factors contributing to the beginnings of Christianity: Hellenization of the culture, philosophy; being the teachings predominant at the time, the beliefs of the Jewish people and importantly the disbursement of the Jewish people from their homeland in 70AD.