2. The fulfillment of time But when the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law. (Galatians 4. 4) -Paul Early Christians among them did not believe that the time and place of the birth of Jesus were left to chance. By contrast, those Christians saw the hand of God preparing the advent of Jesus in all events before Christmas, and all the historical circumstances surrounding it. The same is true of the birth of the church, which is the result of the work of Jesus. God had prepared the way for the disciples, after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit might be interested witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1: 8). Therefore, the church was never a community devoid of any contact with the outside world. The first Christians were Jews of the first century, and it was like first-century Jews who heard and received the gospel. After the new faith was spreading, both among Jews living outside of Palestine as the Gentiles who lived in the Roman Empire and even beyond. Therefore, to understand the history of the church in its early centuries we must first take a look at the world in which the church was unfolded. Judaism in Palestine Palestine, the region where Christianity took its first steps, has always been a troubled land. In ancient times this was mainly due to its geographical position, which stood at the crossroads of two major trade routes linking Mesopotamia to Egypt, Arabia and Asia Minor. Throughout the history of the Old Testament, this narrow strip of land was coveted and invaded, sometimes by Egypt, and others by the great empires that arose in Mesopotamia and Persia. In the fourth century BC, Alexander and his Macedonian armies, a new contender entered the arena. By defeating the Persians, Alexander became owner of Palestine. Alexander died in 323 BC, and then followed years of political instability. The Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by one of Alexanders generals, took possession of Egypt, while Seleucus, of such origin, Syria became owners. Palestine again proved to be the bone of contention in the struggle between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. The conquests of Alexander had an ideological base. Alexander The purpose was not simply to conquer the world, but unite all humanity under one Greek civilization markedly hue. The result was Hellenism, which tended to combine with other purely Greek elements taken from the various conquered civilizations. Although the precise nature of Hellenism varied from region to region in general gave the eastern Mediterranean a unit that served first to the expansion of the Roman Empire and then the gospel. But for Jewish Hellenism was not a blessing. As part of the Hellenistic ideology was to equate and confuse the gods of different peoples, the Jews saw Hellenism a serious threat to faith in the one God of Israel. Therefore, the history of Palestine from Alexanders conquest until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD can be seen as the constant conflict between the pressures of Hellenism on the one hand and the loyalty of the Jews to their God and their traditions on the other. The highlight of that fight was the revolt of the Maccabees. First the priest Mattathias, and after three Jonathan, Judas and Simeon sons rebelled against Hellenism of Seleucus, who sought to impose pagan gods among Jews. The movement had some success. But John Hyrcanus, son of Simeon Maccabaeus began to conform to the customs of the surrounding villages and promote the Hellenistic tendencies. When some of the stricter Jews opposed this policy, the persecution began. Finally, in 63 BC, the Roman Pompey conquered the country and deposed the last of the Maccabees, Aristobulus II. The policy of the Romans were generally tolerant of the religion and customs of the conquered peoples. Shortly after deposition of Aristobulus, the Romans returned them to the descendants of the Maccabees some measure of authority, giving the titles of high priest and ethnarch. Herod became king of Judea by the Romans in 40 BC, was the last ruler with some Maccabean descent, because his wife was from that lineage. But even the Roman tolerance could not understand the obstinacy of the Jews, who insisted only worship their God, and revolted at the slightest threat to their faith. Herod did his best to introduce Hellenism in the country. To that end he built temples to Rome and Augustus in Samaria and Caesarea. But when he dared to put a golden eagle above the entrance of the Temple the Jews revolted, and Herod had to resort to violence. His successors followed the same policy Hellenizing, by building new cities in Hellenistic style and bringing Gentiles to live in them. Therefore rebellions occurred almost continuously. Jesus was a child when the Jews rebelled ethnarch against Archelaus, who had to resort to the Roman troops. These troops, under General Varus, destroyed the city of Sepphoris, the capital of neighboring Galilee of Nazareth and crucified two thousand Jews. It is this rebellion that refers Gamaliel by saying that Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the taxing, and drew after him a lot of people (Acts 5:37). The party of the Zealots, who bitterly opposed to Roman rule, continued to exist even after the atrocities of Varus, and played an important role in the great rebellion that erupted in 66 AD That rebellion was perhaps the most violent of all, and eventually led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when the Emperor Titus general, and after he conquered the city and demolished the temple. Amid such struggles and temptations, it should not surprise us that Judaism has become increasingly legalistic. It was necessary that the people had clear guidelines on what should be their behavior in different circumstances. The detailed provisions of the Pharisees did not intend to promote a purely external religion - but sometimes have had that result-but rather to apply the law to the circumstances in which the people lived day to day. The Pharisees were the party of the people, who did not enjoy the material benefits brought about by the Roman regime and Hellenism. For them it was important to ensure enforce the law even in the hard times they were living. In addition, the Pharisees believed in some doctrines not found support in the most ancient traditions of the Jews, such as the resurrection and the existence of angels. The Sadducees, meanwhile, were the party of the aristocracy whose interests led him to collaborate with the Roman regime. Since the high priest usually belonged to that class, the Temple cult Sadducees occupied for the central position that the Act was to the Pharisees. Furthermore, aristocrats and conservatives were the Sadducees rejected the doctrines of resurrection and the existence of angels, which they were mere innovations. Therefore, we must be careful not to exaggerate the opposition of Jesus and the early Christians to the party of the Pharisees. In fact, almost all of them were closer to the Pharisees, Sadducees. The reason that Jesus criticized them then they have not been bad Jews, but in their zeal to enforce the law to the letter is sometimes forgotten human beings for whom the law was given. In addition to these parties, which occupied the center of the religious scene, there were other sects and factions within Judaism of the first century. We have already referred to the Zealots. The Essenes, whom many authors attribute the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were a group of purists ideas away from all contact with the world of the Gentiles, in order to maintain their ritual purity. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, these Essenes, in addition to the traditional doctrines of Judaism, claimed certain secret doctrines which were forbidden to reveal to those who were not members of their sect. Moreover, this diversity of trends, parties and sects should not obscure two key points that all Jews hold in common: the ethical monotheism and eschatological hope. Ethical monotheism held that there is one God, and that God requires, even more than the proper worship, justice among human beings. The various parties could disagree about what that justice meant in concrete terms. But as to the need to honor the one God with all life, all agreed. The eschatological hope was another memorandum to the faith of Israel. Everyone from the Sadducees to the zealots, kept the Messianic hope, and firmly believed that the day would come when God would intervene in history to restore Israel and fulfill your promises of a kingdom of peace and justice. Some believed that their duty was to hasten that day by resorting to arms. Others said that such things should be left solely in the hands of God. But all agreed his gaze directed toward the future when Gods promises would be fulfilled. Of these groups, the fittest to survive after the destruction of the Temple was the Pharisees. Indeed, this sect had its roots in the time of the Exile, when the Jews could not go to the Temple to worship, and therefore focused his faith in the law. During the last centuries before the advent of Jesus, the number of Jews living in distant lands had steadily increased. Such people, who could not visit the temple, but on rare occasions, were forced to focus their faith in the law rather than in the temple. In 70 AD, the destruction of Jerusalem gave the coup de grace to the party of the Sadducees, and therefore Judaism that Christianity has known through most of its history-as well as Judaism that exists in our day comes from the Pharisaic tradition. The Judaism of the Dispersion As noted above, during the centuries preceding the advent of Jesus was a growing number of Jews living outside Palestine. Some of these Jews were descendants of those who had gone into exile in Babylon, and therefore in this city and throughout the region of Mesopotamia and Persia had strong Jewish contingent. In the Roman Empire, Jews had spread for various reasons, and already in the first century Jewish settlements in Rome and Alexandria were very numerous. In almost every city in the eastern Mediterranean had at least one synagogue. In Egypt, he came up to build a temple around the seventh century BC in the city of Elephantine, and there was another in the Nile Delta in the second century BC But usually these Jews of the dispersion or Diaspora! So they were called! not build temples in which to offer sacrifices, but rather synagogues in which the Scriptures were studied. The Diaspora Jewry is of utmost importance for the history of the Christian church, having been through it, as we shall see in the next chapter, the faster the new faith spread throughout the Roman Empire. Besides, that Judaism gave him to the church translating the Old Testament into Greek that was one of the principal vehicles of religious propaganda. This Judaism was distinguished from its congener in Palestine for two main features: use of the Greek language, and inevitably more contact with Hellenistic culture. In the first century there were many Jews, even in Palestine, no longer used the ancient Hebrew language. But, while in Palestine and throughout the region to the east of the country spoke Aramaic, Jews around the rest of the Roman Empire were scattered speak Greek. After the conquests of Alexander the Greek had become the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Jews, Egyptians, Cypriots, and even Romans used Greek to communicate. In some regions, especially in Egypt the Jews lost the use of the Hebrew language, and it was necessary to translate their Scriptures into Greek. That version of the Old Testament into Greek called the Septuagint, often abbreviated by the Roman numeral LXX. That name comes from number- -and an old legend that the king of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus ordered seventy-two elders tradujesen Hebrew Bible independently, and they all produced identical translations together. Apparently, the purpose of this legend was maintaining the authority of this, which was actually produced through centuries, by translators with different criteria so that portions are too literal version, while other broad liberties are taken with text. In any case, the importance of the Septuagint was huge for the early Christian church. This is the Bible quote most New Testament authors, and exerted an undeniable influence on the formation of the Christian vocabulary of the early centuries. Furthermore, when those first believers were spilled across the Empire with the gospel message, found in the Septuagint a useful propaganda tool. In fact, Christians made use of the Septuagint was just so effective that the Jews were forced to produce new versions of Aquila like and leave the Christians in possession of the Septuagint. The other hallmark of Judaism of the Dispersion was inevitable contact with Hellenistic culture. In a sense, one could say that the Septuagint is also a result of this situation. In any case, it is clear that the Jews of the dispersion could not avoid contact with the Gentiles, and they could do it to some extent their coreligionists in Palestine. The Jews of the Dispersion were obliged therefore to defend their faith at every step against Hellenistic culture of those people for whom faith of Israel was ridiculous, outdated or unintelligible. Faced with this situation, especially in the city of Alexandria, the Jews arose a movement which was the compatibility of the best of Hellenistic culture and the Hebrew religion. Already in the third century B.C. Demetrius told the story of the kings of Judah following the patterns of pagan historiography. But it was in the person of Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus, this movement reached its peak. Since the arguments of Philo -or other very processors alike were then used by some Christians in the city of Alexandria, it is worth summarizing here. What Philo tries to do is to show the compatibility between Platonic philosophy and the Hebrew Scriptures. According to him, since the Greek philosophers were educated people, and the Hebrew Scriptures are before them, it is assumed that any agreement between the two is that the Greeks copied from the Jews, and not vice versa. And then proceeds to show that Philo accordance interpreting the Old Testament as a series of allegories that point to the same eternal philosophers to refer more literally true. Philos God is absolutely transcendent and immutable style Ineffable One of Plato. Therefore, to relate to this world of transient and mutable realities, that God makes use of an intermediate being, which gives the name of Philo Logos (ie Word or Reason). This Logos, besides being the intermediary between God and creation is the reason there is in the universe, and that the human mind is involved. In other words, this Logos is what makes the universe can be understood by the human mind. Some Christian thinkers adopted these ideas proposed by Philo, with all its advantages and its dangers. As we see, in their spread throughout the Roman world, in his translation of the Bible, and even in their attempts to dialogue with Hellenistic culture, Judaism had prepared the way for the advent and spread of the Christian faith. The Greco-Roman world But in that spread the new faith had to break through political and cultural situations that sometimes he paved the way, and others serve him obstructions. To understand the Christian life in those early centuries, we must pause to explain, even in short terms, these political and cultural circumstances. The Roman Empire had given to the Mediterranean never before seen political unity. Empires policy was to encourage the greatest possible uniformity without excessive violence to the customs of each region. This was also before the policy of Alexander. In both cases their success was remarkable, as was slowly creating a common base that continues to this day. That common ground, both politically and culturally, was of enormous importance to the Christianity of the first centuries. The political unity of the Mediterranean enabled the early Christians to travel from one place to another without fear of being involved in wars or raids. In fact, when reading about Pauls travels we see the great danger of navigation at that time was the weather. Centuries before, the pirates who infested the Mediterranean were to be feared more than any storm. Roman roads, which connected to the most distant provinces, some of which still exist, were no strangers to the soles of the Christians who went from place to place carrying the message of redemption in Jesus Christ. As trade flourished, people went from one place to another, and so Christianity often became a new region, not led by itinerant preachers or missionaries, but by merchants, slaves and others who for various reasons were forced to travel. In this sense, the political conditions of the time were beneficial to the spread of the new faith. But there were also other aspects of the situation that served to challenge and threat to the early Christians. Since the Empire tried to achieve maximum uniformity among their subjects from various sources, part of the imperial policy was to foster religious uniformity. This was done by syncretism and emperor worship. Syncretism, which is indiscriminate mixture of religions, was characteristic of the Mediterranean from the third century BC Within limits, Rome impelled, as the Empire was concerned to think that their various subjects, but their gods had different names and attributes, in the end they were all the same gods. Roman Pantheon gods were added from the most diverse regions. (The word Pantheon means precisely temple of all the gods.) For the same roads that were traveling merchants and Christian missionaries were also traveling people of varied religions and all these religions intermingled and confused in the streets and forums cities. The religious syncretism was fashionable at the time. In such an environment both Jews and Christians seemed to be intransigent people, who insisted on their unique and distinct God of all other gods. For this reason, many saw in Judaism and Christianity a cyst that had to be removed from Roman society. But the cult of the emperor was the nerve center that sparked the chase. Often these persecutions were political, as emperor worship was one of the means which Rome used to build unity and loyalty of his empire. Refusal to render that worship was seen as a sign of betrayal or disloyalty within. Then, there are many cases where it is clear that, while dying a martyr for his faith, who condemned him did driven by feelings of political loyalty. Moreover, the syncretism of the time also showed in what historians today call mystery religions or simply mysteries. These religions have focused their faith in the old gods of Olympus Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, etc. but in other more personal gods. In previous centuries, before the syncretic, cosmopolitan spirit, everyone was a devotee of the gods of the country of his birth was unleashed. But now, amid the confusion created by the conquests of Alexander and Rome each had to decide which gods he would lend his devotion. Each of these gods of the mysteries had his own devotees, who were those who had been initiated. Usually, each of these religions are based on a myth about the origins of the world, or the story of the god in question. From Egypt came the myth of Isis and Osiris, in which the god Seth had killed and dismembered Osiris, then its members were scattered throughout Egypt. Isis, wife of Osiris, he had collected and brought new life to Osiris. But Osiris genitals had fallen into the Nile, and is for that reason that the Nile is the source of fertility for all Egypt. Also for that reason, some of the most ardent devotees of this cult mutilated themselves, cutting the testicles and offering sacrifice. Among the soldiers was very popular cult of Mithras, a god of Persian origin whose myths included a series of battles against the sun and against a mythological bull. In Greece existed since time immemorial mysteries of Eleusis, near Athens. The mysteries of Attis and Cybele included an initiation rite called taurobolia, in which a bull is killed and bathed the neophyte with his blood. Given the nature of these syncretistic cults, soon mingled with some others, to the point that today it is difficult to distinguish the characteristics or practices of one of them in particular. Moreover, these gods were jealous each other, as the God of the Jews and Christians, and so were those who were devoted to collecting mysteries, start making one after another of these cults. All these syncretistic tendencies, in which the old gods were intertwined with the mystery religions and the cult of the emperor, presented a strong challenge to early Christianity. Because Christians refused to participate in all this, they were often accused of unbelievers and atheists. Faced with such accusations, Christians could appeal to certain aspects of contemporary culture that seemed to support them. This chapter VII dedicate this section of our history. But for now let us note that there were two philosophical traditions in which the Christians found an arsenal nurtured to defend their faith. One was the Platonic tradition, and the other stoicism. Platos teacher, Socrates, was sentenced to die by drinking hemlock because he was considered incredulous and corrupting Athenian youth. Plato wrote many dialogues in his defense, and already in the first century AD Socrates was regarded as one of the wisest and fairest of antiquity. Now, Socrates, Plato, and the whole tradition from which they belonged, had criticized the pagan gods, saying they were human creation, and that according to the classical myths were more wicked than humans. Above all this, Plato spoke of a supreme, unchanging, perfect, it was the supreme goodness and beauty. In addition, both Socrates and Plato believed in the immortality of the soul, and in life after death. And Plato argued that beyond this material world and another passenger were invisible and permanent realities. All this was of great value and appeal to those early Christians who were persecuted and accused of being ignorant and naive. For these reasons, the Platonic philosophy exerted an influence on Christian thought still lingers. Something similar happened with stoicism. This philosophical school-something post-Platonism doctrines taught high moral character. According to the Stoics, there is a natural law imprinted in the universe and in human reason, and that law tells us how we should behave. If some do not see it or do not follow, that is because they are stupid, it is truly wise who knows the law and obey. Furthermore, since our passions are fighting our reason, and try to dominate our lives, the goal of the sage is to dominate your reason every passion, to the point of not feeling it. This state of not feeling any passion is apathy and its moral perfection according to the Stoics is. Again we can imagine the appeal of this doctrine for Christians, who were forced to repeatedly confront the corrupt practices of his time, and criticize them. Since the Stoics had done the same in his ideas and writings Christians found support for its defense and propaganda. As in the case of Platonism, this entailed the danger that came to confuse the Christian faith with these philosophical doctrines, and thus lose some of the uniqueness of the gospel. There were those who, in one aspect or another, succumbed to that temptation. But this should not blind us to the great value that these doctrines had on the first spread of Christianity. According to the apostle Paul, Christianity entered the world when the fullness of time. Maybe someone could understand this to mean that God provided them the way to those early Christians. And no doubt that much of what was taking place in the first century facilitated the progress of the new faith. But it is also true that those same events arising for the church difficult challenges that required tremendous courage and boldness. The fullness of time does not mean that the world was ready to become a Christian, as a ripe fruit ready to fall from the tree, but rather means that, in the inscrutable designs of God, it was time to send the Son into the world to suffer death on the cross, and spread to the disciples by the same world they too expensive to give witness to their faith in the Crucified.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 07:17:12 +0000
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