Download The Greco-Roman World of Christianity

Two thousand years ago, a seemingly insignificant movement began. Misunderstood, ridiculed
and persecuted by the powerful of the day, this tiny group of “Jesus followers”, transformed by
the resurrection of their leader, empowered by the Holy Spirit, began a movement which today
is considered the world’s largest movement: Christianity.
How was it done? How did a handful of men and women using a hodgepodge of methods lead
to the conversion of the mighty Roman Empire? Are there lessons from this that the church can
learn today? Most significantly, are there similarities between the evangelistic challenges the
early Christians faced and the challenges we face in the world today? These are some of the
fascinating questions this class will be exploring this fall.
Sept 22
Sept 29
Oct 6
Oct 13
Oct 20
Oct 27
Nov 3
Nov 10
Nov 17
The Greco-Roman World of Christianity
The Uniqueness of Jesus in the Ancient World
The Cost of Discipleship - Martyrdom (Brad Strelau)
Creating a Caring Society: Compassion Evangelism (Andrew Demoline)
Creating a New Identity: Worship in the Early Church
Defending the Faith - Apologetics in the Ancient World
Strange bedfellows: Church and the Empire (Mike Klassen)
The 9-11 Moment of the Ancient World: Christianity and Rapid Change
From Rome to Home - the challenges of evangelism today
Week One:
The Greco-Roman World of Early Christianity1
The growth of Christianity did not occur in a vacuum, but rather is rooted in historical events, in
particular, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth and the event of his life, death, and resurrection.
After his resurrection, two thousand years ago, a seemingly insignificant movement began.
Misunderstood, ridiculed and persecuted by the powerful of the day, this tiny group of “Jesus
followers”, transformed by the resurrection of their leader, empowered by the Holy Spirit, began
a movement which today is considered the world’s largest movement: Christianity.
Questions:
• How was it done?
• How did a handful of men and women using a hodgepodge of methods lead to the conversion
of the mighty Roman Empire?
• How did the Roman Empire view this growing movement?
• Why didn’t they stop it?
• How did the church continue to grow in the midst of such a prevalent and smothering culture
as that of the Greco-Roman world?
• Are there lessons from all this that the church can learn today?
• Are there similarities between the challenges the early Christians faced and the challenges we
face in the world today?
• Are there practices that the early church carried out that today’s church needs to recover?
These are some of the fascinating questions this class will be exploring.
Introduction
You find yourself transported by a time machine (or Dr. Who’s phone booth) into a first-century
Jewish home in Jerusalem. Your host is part of the ruling class of Jews. What he shares with
you might be surprising.2
For starters, your host speaks Greek, some Latin, and Aramaic (which, for the sake of
imagination, you miraculously understand). His clothes are more Greek than Jewish, he
possesses Roman citizenship, claims to follow the God of the Jews, but really has no time for
the dietary laws…at least in a strict sense. In fact, looking at the table, the meal looks more like
a banquet you might receive in Athens or Rome, not in a Jewish home in the first century.
Silverware flashes, wine flows, and slaves busily move about attending to your every need.
1
Much of this lecture is drawn from two sources. Rikk Watts, The Christian Faith and the Ancient World in
Christian Thought and Culture (Vancouver: Regent Audio, 2005) and Rodney Stark, The Rise of
Christianity (New York: Harper One, 1996).
2
Drawn from James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the
Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 14-18.
You look around the room and can’t help but notice that the room is decorated with pagan art
from around the Mediterranean. Looking at your host’s library, you also notice a number of
pagan authors.
When he talks politics, his voice lowers a bit. Much of his concern is directed to the role of the
Sanhedrin in relationship to the every-growing influence of the Roman power. He mentions the
Jewish longing for independence, but then quickly changes the subject in case any of the slaves
overhear what he is saying.
How did he get to this place in life? Well, it’s a long story worth telling…
He recalls the time when Judea was a prosperous, powerful, independent kingdom under King
David and his successors. Sadly, all this came to an end when Israel was forced into exile under
first, the Assyrian Empire, and then the Babylonian Empire.
In fact, it was only when the Persians came on the scene that they were allowed to rebuild the
Jewish temple in Jerusalem. That said, their independence was limited and they remained a
client kingdom of the Persians for a long time, that is, until Alexander the Great began
conquering everything in sight!
One of Alexander’s successors set up what was called the Seleucid kingdom in the Near East
whereas another successor (Ptolemy), took control of Egypt. (He also ruled Judea for many
years until 198 BC, that is.) As a result, you look around and see the influences, such as the
cities of the Decapolis. If you wanted to do business, then Greek was the lingua franca of the
time. Everyone learned Greek, and along with this, people ended up learning (and appreciated)
everything Greek - including culture and philosophy.
Now as you look questioningly at your Jewish host, he sees your concern, but assures you that
there really is a way to take the best from the Greeks while not falling into the idolatrous
elements in the culture. With an air of pride, your host then informs you that the Jews during this
time even successfully revolted from the Seleucids and set up an independent kingdom. First
time this happened in centuries, he added.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), Rome came on the scene just
over 100 years ago, and had been chipping away at the Hellenistic kingdoms for some time
now. Finally, in the person of General Pompey, Rome came to Judea, and the Jews, recognizing
that they really stood no chance militarily against the Romans, became a semi-independent
client state of Rome.
Your host adds that though this arrangement was not ideal, it still has brought some good
benefits to the Jews.
Your host then turns to fill you in on the Romans now. In many ways, culturally, they drew a lot
from the Greeks. In fact, they really didn’t bring much culturally, but at least they held onto to
some of the good things found in Hellenistic culture. As a republic, they were influenced by
Greek philosophy. In fact, the politics of Rome was driven by what is called a patron-client
relationship. A patron could exercise authority and control over his clients. If you conquered a
people, then these people became your clients. The patron protected, but the clients served the
patron. You could see how this could get a bit messed up though. Over time, the power shifted
from senators in Rome to powerful generals like Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar.
Now, the Romans were different from other conquering empires. They made it their business to
incorporate the conquered people into Roman society (that is why I am a Roman citizen). Their
target, of course, was bringing the elite in a conquered people on board. If you get the elite on
board, then most likely the society will follow suit (such is the nature of the society).
Oh, one more thing you need to know about the Romans: they’re tenacious. You can defeat
them in battle over and over again, but they are never beaten. You can never ever get the best
of them.
And so, by 143 BC, Judea had voluntarily allied itself with Rome and as a result secured some
pretty important rights: Our religion was officially recognized. What’s more, we don’t need to
participate in Emperor worship, but could pay our annual tax to support the Jewish temple.
That’s not so bad, is it?
Now, your host turns to you with a smile. If you were me, what would you do? Fight against
Rome? Impossible. Would you resist a power that is impossible to resist? Or that for the most
part is tolerant of your beliefs and practices (though quite insensitive and lacking
understanding)? Only if you are a fool, he laughs and pours you some more wine.
The Christian Movement in the Greco-Roman World
The Ancient City
If we are to understand the conditions in which Christianity first took root, we need to get a
clearer picture of the Greco-Roman world, and in particular what life was like in the cities of the
Roman Empire.
The city was first and foremost, the home of the local deity and it was from the identity of the
local deity that the identity of the city was established.
It was the deity of the city which originally gave identity to the tribes, families and clans in the
city.
Any sense of the individual was only given to the aristocracy and was only recognized insofar as
individuals contributed to the polis.
In the ancient world, the entire society was organized in a tribal manner; everything in city life
was connected to the local deity.
In the ancient world, the basis of all religion was power and immortality (not ethics or
morality, for that was the realm of philosophy).
As the gods went, Roma was a force to be reckoned with.
To sum up, everything in the Roman world was characterized by religious observance.
If you hated the local gods or the Roman gods, then you were accused of hating
humanity.
These were the very crimes that Christians were accused of carrying out.
“Shortly after Pliny’s arrival in the city [Bithynia], a group of local citizens approached him to
complain about Christians living in the vicinity. What precisely the complaint was we do not
know, but from several hints in the letter it is possible to infer that the charge was brought by
local merchants, perhaps butchers and others engaged in the slaughter and sale of sacrificial
meat. Business was poor because people were not making sacrifices. Toward the end of the
letter, written after Pliny had dealt with the problem, he observed that the ‘flesh of sacrificial
victims is on sale everywhere, though up till recently scarcely anyone could be found to buy it.”
Robert Louis Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 15
What was life in a Roman City like then?
Not a splendorous thing. The Roman city was not a peaceful, spacious, multicultural affair.
Originally, the cities were founded as fortresses with the walled area rarely surpassing 2 square
miles. Within the city, life was nasty, brutish and short…and very, very cramped!
Crowded
Streets
The streets were only 8-10 feet wide, and in
most cases, there were just footpaths. Even
the famous roads of Rome such as the Via
Appia or the Via Latina were from 4.8 to 6.5
meters wide!
Sanitation
There were other poor devils who found
their stairs too steep and the road to these
dung pits too long, and to save
themselves further trouble would empty
the contents of their chamber pots from
their heights into the streets. So much the
worse for the passer-by who happened to
intercept the unwelcome gift!
One obvious issue connected to a dense
population in the ancient city was the state of
sanitation. Though historians have often
marvelled over the aqueducts, public baths
Jerome Carcopino
and public latrines, what is left out is the fact
that the latrines were often built next to public
baths, and that even modern sewerage,
garbage disposal and water systems would
be stretched under such conditions. Within the
ancient context, sanitation conditions were
horrible. Rome, like all ancient cities, was dependent on the use of chamber pots and pit
latrines. Often these pots were emptied out the windows onto unsuspecting pedestrians below.
Water was mostly kept in cisterns which quickly became stagnant and undrinkable. Filled with
feces and decay, the smell would be insufferable. No wonder the rich loved incense.
Average street had mud and open sewers, manure, human excrement and dead bodies.
Unsafe
It was only because of the constant influx of new inhabitants that kept the cities alive (otherwise
nobody would be left), and yet this
constant influx contributed to the
danger. Typically, in a city or
neighbourhood (even today), the
Night fell over the city like the shadow of a great
higher the turnover, higher the
danger, diffused, sinister, and menacing. Everyone
crime rate. So, as night
fled to his home, shut himself in, and barricaded the
descended in the ancient city,
entrance. The shops fell silent, safety chains were
people barricaded themselves
drawn behind the leaves of the doors….If the rich
inside, for at night the criminal
had to sally forth, they were accompanied by slaves
reigned.
The city would be divided into
ethnic quarters walled off from
each other and where suspicion
and hostility, tension, riots were
common.
who carried torches to light and protect them on their
way….Juvenal sighs that to go out to supper without
having made your will was to expose yourself to
reproach of carelessness…
Jerome Carcopino
In sum, Rodney Stark writes:
Any accurate portrait of Antioch in New Testament times must depict a city filled with misery,
danger, fear, despair, and hatred.” A city where the average family lived a squalid life in filthy
and cramped quarters, whee at least half of the children died at birth or during infancy, and
where most of the children who lived lost at least one parent before reaching maturity. A city
filled with hatred and fear rooted in intense ethnic antagonisms and exacerbated by a constant
stream of strangers. A city so lacking in stable networks of attachments that petty incidents
could prompt mob violence. A city where crime flourished and the streets were dangerous at
night.
This was a world where its inhabitants desperately and deeply longed for some kind of relief, for
any sign of hope, and indeed for salvation.
Now, into this world, Christianity stepped!
Christian Growth
Projected at 40%
per decade*
Year
Number of Christians
Percent of the population
40
1000
0.0017
50
1400
0.0023
100
7530
0.0126
150
40496
0.07
200
217795
0.36
250
1171356
1.9
300
6299832
10.5
350
33882008
56.5
*Based on an estimated population of 60 million3
In many ways, this transformation occurred in an environment not unlike that of the postChristian West today. (In fact, as we journey along, we will discover just how similar the age of
the early church is to our own.) How did it grow so large and influential that some forces within
the Roman Empire felt it necessary to increasingly persecute this movement while other forces
were eventually won over by Christ?
How did this happen?
Well, that’s what this class is going to be all about.
Here are a few influences of early Christianity on the Roman Empire:
3
Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity (New York: Harper One, 1996), 7
Christianity offered a radically different view of what it meant to be
human
Women
In the Greco-Roman world, the
population was constantly shrinking.
Why? There was an extreme shortage
of females! It was estimated that there
were 131 males per 100 females in the
city of Rome, 140 males per 100
females in Italy, Asia Minor, and North
Africa.
The issue, of course, was that women
were viewed as sub-human and
therefore more likely to die of
exposure. In fact, exposure and
causing the death of female babies
was legal (along with deformed males).
In a typical Roman family, seldom was
more than one daughter raised.
Letter from a fellow named Hilarion to his
pregnant wife, Alis:
“Know that I am still in Alexandria. And do not
worry if they all come back and I remain in
Alexandria. I ask and beg you to take good care
of our baby son, and as soon as I receive
payment I shall send it up to you. If you are
delivered of a child [before I come home], if it a
boy keep it, if a girl discard it. You have sent me
word, ‘Don’t forget me.’ How can I forget you. I
beg you not to worry.”
Abortion and forced abortion was also a major cause of death among women in the Roman
Empire. Sewers clogged because of female babies. Same with the rubbish dumps.
What’s more, whenever males outnumber females, something strange happens. Women begin
to be viewed as “scarce goods” and become enclosed into repressive sex roles. Whenever
women outnumber men, they tend to enjoy relatively greater freedom and power.
Look at the Christian context. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, extends personal greetings to
fifteen women and eighteen men. This would indicate a congregation that was predominantly
female.
Why were things so different?
Prohibition of gender selection, infanticide and abortion.
Women were more likely than men to become Christians
Girls married much later in Christian context
Women had greater say over who they married
Christian condemnation of divorce, incest, marriage infidelity and polygamy. Remarriage was
even discouraged
Christians, like pagans, prized female chastity, but for Christians, this applied both ways!!
Women held high offices in the church
Jesus and Paul both spoke out for women.
“Let us be clear. No movement on earth has been as supportive of women as has Christianity.”
Rikk Watts.
Children
• Until named by father, baby had no status.
• For Christians, life was God’s gift and children were made in God’s image. “Let the children
come to me.”
• Took care of not only their own children but also children of others.
• Outbred the pagans
Slaves
Slaves were non-human and a high percentage of slaves were sexual slaves (male and female)
Christian world was a radically different world for the slave:
Both the Jewish Torah and Christian teaching was more merciful towards slaves partly because
both Jews and Christians did not despise labour. Gen. 1 & 2. If you did not labour, you did not
eat.
For Christians, sex with a slave was seen as adultery (seen as human, made in the image of
God). On Christian graves, there was no distinction between slaves and free. And in Christian
circles, slaves and the free would partake of the Lord’s Supper together. Neither slave nor free
in Christ.
Many richer Christians let slaves go free at their own expenses
Conclusion
Christianity did not grow because of miracle working in the marketplaces (although there may
have been much of that going on), or because Constantine said it should, or even because the
martyrs gave it such credibility. It grew because Christians constituted an intense community,
able to generate the ‘invincible obstinacy’ that so offended the younger Pliny but yielded
immense religious rewards. And the primary means of its growth was through the united and
motivated efforts of the growing numbers of Christian believers, who invited their friends,
relatives, and neighbours to share the ‘good news.” Rodney Stark