CHHI 520 - History of the Christian Church I

1. What was the Oriental contribution to the First Century? The Jews were Oriental, as were the Assyrians and Babylonians. These foreign cultures influenced the Jewish people during their captivity. Paul, Peter, and even Jesus belonged to a church that had an Oriental culture.

2. What was the Greek contribution to the First Century? The Greeks made contributions to the First Century in Philosophy, Language, Culture, and Religion. Their major philosophers were Socrates (ignorance was the basic sin), Plato (reality consists of ideas, not matter), Aristotle (ultimate cause was god or gods - not the God of the Bible), Xeno (a stoic who thought it important to be without emotion), and Epicurius (pleasure is the ultimate good). Their language, which came into existence about 300 BC with Alexander the Great and ended about 300 AD, was Koine Greek. This was the common language of the marketplace and of Alexander. It was not the language of the philosophers. The Greeks contributed culture in the form of the Arts, sculptures, paintings, and music. Their religion was very pessimistic. They did not believe in heaven, God was not necessarily good, they were polytheists, and their worship was not particularly fun. Alexander's father, Phillip of Macedon, conquered the Greek states and brought the Greek kingdom into being from around 336 BC until 167 BC. In 167 BC, the Maccabbeans ran the Greeks out of Palestine and enjoyed a period of freedom and autonomy until 63 BC when Pompeii brought in the Romans.

3. What was the Roman contribution to the First Century? The Romans made contributions to the First Century in Government, Peace, Communications, and Religion. The Roman dynasty was set up in 63 BC. They had a very solid government with everything under control. They enjoyed a form of peace, called Pax Romana, which provided freedom to travel just about anywhere. It was under Pax Romana that Paul and the other missionaries did their work. Roman communications were also very sophisticated with roads, shipping lanes, and protection for traveling. The Romans were very liberal in religion. They recognized three types of religion. First, Pontifax Maxus (the Roman emperor was Chief Priest and the highest official in this religion) proclaimed that Caesar was Lord. Later, Pontifax Maxus was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and applied to the Pope. Second, the Romans adopted the Greek gods and simply renamed them. There were 9 Roman gods to match the 9 planets of their celestial system. Three, the Romans recognized mystery religions from the East, particularly from Persia. The most important was Cybile which called for members to be baptized with a sacrificed bull's blood. The Romans also accepted Isis from Egypt, Mithraism (god of light), and many others. Mithra had many similarities with Christ and became the strongest competitor to Christianity. Mithra celebrated a birthday on December 25. Mithraians believed in good and evil beings (i.e., the devil). According to their belief, Mithra had a type of miraculous birth, and they worshipped on Sunday. This wide acceptance of many religions was called Synchrotism. The Romans accepted religions if they had a home base, which is why Christians eventually ran into trouble. When they separated from the Jews, they no longer had a home base.

4. What was the Jewish contribution to the First Century? The Jewish contribution to the First Century was seen in their predominance. They had started out worshipping many gods. At the time of Mount Carmel with Elijah, they were worshipping God and Baal. So, Elijah told them to make a choice whom they would serve. The Jews were finally cured of worshipping many gods when they were in the Babylonian captivity. They had been taken from the land that they had captured, and they cried bitter tears. After Babylon, the Jews were very, very strict monotheists. Consequently, they had difficulty with the concept of the Trinity. Their chief contributions to the First Century were monotheism, a belief in a coming Messiah, high morals, the Old Testament, and Jesus.

5. How did Paul take advantage of all these things? Paul was all of the above, and he used all of them to his advantage. He was Oriental, a man of the East. He used the Koine Greek to write his letters for the New Testament. He was a Roman and a Jew. He had been a Pharisee, and he became a Christian.