thread: 2006-09-08 : Picky-choosy religion, 3 views
On 2006-09-19, Valamir wrote:
Hey Sydney. Not talking about persecuting "non Christian's" at all. In fact, even talking about Christians and non Christians at this point in the history of the church is a total anachronism. I'm talking about Paul's instructions to his own church and his chastisement of his own followers when they stray...and also his own break from his own colleagues.
Hmmm...perhaps a bit more history would be valuable. Vincent if this is totally of no interest let me know...or feel free to give it its own thread or whatever.
Its important to realize that, while today Judaism seems rather monolithic, with the only difference being how closely one follows the laws, in Jesus's time there were dozens and dozens of Jewish sects. Some of the more famous to Christians are the Essenes and Maccabees. But there were tons. MANY of them actually incorporated Jesus's teachings during and after his life. The most famous of these would be the Ebionites (sp?) which centered around Jesus's brother James and his family after Jesus's death.
Of all of the various flavors of Judaism of the time, the largest and most influencial were the Pharisees and Sadducees. In fact, if you're a Christian you probably know those two as the persecutors of Jesus and almost always hear the two linked together. That's not really true and is another gift to us from Paul.
The Sadducees were the main power of the Temple in Jerusalem. They represented the established "main stream" Jewish power base and collaborated with the Romans in order to maintain and preserve their cultural identity. In exchange they were expected to keep the rabble rousers in line and out of the Roman's hair. During this time there were LOTS of rabble rousers (of which from their perspective, Jesus was just another wild eyed prophet from the wilderness).
The Pharisees were a sect of scholars who believe that God's law went well beyond just what was written and began a tradition of interpreting what was written in order to apply it to daily life. The Pharisees operated a number of schools in and around Jerusalem where they taught "wisdom, writing, and debating".
Paul was a Pharisee. Whether he was a full on Pharisee or just a guy who attended one of the schools for awhile depends on which version of his biography you like best. Paul ultimately went to work for the high priest of the temple (a Sadducee) as a servant / member of the Temple Guard (the guard being the group charged with suppressing the rabble rousers).
Chronologically, its highly likely that Paul would have been a temple guard at the time of Jesus's arrest. Its possible that their paths may have crossed. Such an occurance may help explain why Paul's version of Christianity focused so heavily on Jesus's death while the teachings of James and Peter and the Ebionites focused so highly on his life.
At any rate Paul eventually had a falling out with the Pharisees over matters of doctrine. The Pharisees were highly anti-gentile and very dedicated to enforcing Jewish Law...including circumcision...a big one. Paul, on the other hand, was all about converting the gentiles (to JUDAISM...not "Christianity" which didn't exist at the time), and recognized quite practically that the gentiles would be far easier to convert if you weren't attacking their penii with a sharp knife. They went their seperate ways and Paul, in typical Paul fashion, bore a grudge. He demonized the Pharisees in his letters and this is largely why today we tend to lump the Pharisees in with the Sadducees as enemies of Jesus.
In reality, there's a very good possibility that Jesus himself was a Pharisee, or at least studied in their schools. Jesus was also known to refer to Gentiles as "dogs" a common Pharisee designation. If he wasn't himself, its almost certain that many of those who flocked to hear him teach were. The actual teachings of Jesus were very compatible with the teachings of the Pharisees. Even Luke, in the Book of Acts is forced to admitt that it was a Pharisee who was among the strongest defenders of the "Way", as it was known at the time.
But its key here to remember what order the New Testament was actually written in. Chronologically the Gospels tell about the life of Jesus BEFORE Paul's missionary work. But in reality they were written long AFTER Paul's letters and long after Paul had put his stamp on things. Luke himself was a student of and big promotor of Paul. So alot of the stuff that made its way into the Gospels (such as Jesus's rivalry with the Pharisees and his own family) was inserted there by folks indoctinated by Paul who had had a falling out with both the Pharisees and the Ebionites. Similarly the passages that have been interpreted as Jesus bringing God to all people, not just the Jews, was likely also inserted in a similar manner in support of Paul's own mission work.
Ok, so if Paul and his followers were essentially just another flavor of Judaism in a SEA of flavors of Judaism. And if Paul's flavor wasn't even unique in featuring the message of Jesus as part of it...How come Paul's flavor gave birth to one of the world's great religions and most folks have never even heard of the Ebionites.
3 reasons:
First: Paul was widely traveled and well education. His letters can be held up as masterpieces of classical literature and arguement. In a day before the Age of Enlightenment where people were far more influenced by myth building than reason, Paul created a compelling mythology that appealed to the masses in a way that the Ebionites who portrayed Jesus as a man they all knew personally just couldn't compete with.
Second: one of the most important events in ancient history occured in 64AD (after Paul had died) the burning of Rome. Yes, this is the event of "Nero fiddles while Rome burns" fame. In reality Nero worked very hard against the fire, even joining the fire brigades himself. Before he went mad he was quite a good leader...but that's a digression.
To understand the importance of this event to Christianity you have to understand its importance as a world event. Rome was a city of 2 million people, half of them slaves (yes, this was the era of bread and circuses to keep the masses happy). 2 million people at that time in history was far far larger a city (relatively) in both size and importance than New York City is today. That's 2 million people in a time with no skyscrapers, no airconditioning, no refrigeration, and no modern conveniences of any kind...its a big honking deal.
3/4s of the city burned to the ground. 75% of the single most important city in the western world destroyed. Look at how our nation was galvinized by 9/11 and the toppling of a couple of buildings. How much more devastating is losing not just 2 buildings but three forths of the entire city. That's a BIG BIG deal. We're talking first century Front Page News here.
So where do the "Christians" come in. Well someone had to be blamed. And this obscure Jewish sect made for a perfect scape goat.
We should note that in the first century, Jews were actually a fairly significant people in the Roman Empire. As many as 1/10 of the total population of the Empire was Jewish and many more were fascinated by and dabbled in the monotheistic teachings of the Jews. Apparently the Jews were enjoying something of "Fad" status at the time. Even Nero's wife was into it along with many prominent Romans.
So clearly Nero couldn't just blame the Jews...the Jews had powerful friends. But this obscure sect of Jews...that even the mainstream Jews hated (thanks to Paul)...they had no patrons of consequence at all. No one would care, no enemies would be created by prosecuting them. They were about as nobody as nobody could be.
Interestingly...they very well may have actually BEEN responsible for the fire. See the fire started in the ramshackle wooden shops and stalls in the Forum...just the kind of place where the early Christians would have been doing business The early followers of Paul were largely drawn from the merchant class, Paul's churches being founded in all of the leading commercial centers in the Eastern Mediterranean. So its quite possible that in a "cow kicking over the lantern" kind of event it really was a Christian who burned down Rome.
Thing is, Roman law didn't distinguish between accidental fire and intentional fire (both were arson, punishable by death)...for good reason given how dangerous fire was.
Now throughout human history, executions for crime have been done publically to serve as an example. Whether its the gallows of the old west, the guillotine in revolutionary Paris, or the iron cages full of convicted pirates; public spectacle surrounding executions was an important legal lesson to the people.
But this is Rome. A Rome that through the games had been so desensitized to violence that no mere public execution would do. Plus this was the greatest catastrophe in the history of the Empire...vengeance needed to be much bigger. Christians were stuffed inside of animal carcasses and fed to the Lions in the Circus. Even more infamously, they were put inside of leather body suits, coated with pitch and used as human torches to illuminate dinner parties in Nero's private gardens. Yes...giant flaming human tiki torches...kind of puts our treatment of Iraqi prisoners in a bit of perspective, don't it.
Here's another little interesting tidbit...the gardens where all those Christian's were burned up...the Vatican...yup. There's a reason why the Church once it came to power centuries later set up shop in the Vatican...THAT'S how long the memory of this event lasted.
Now here's where it gets really GOOD. It was this event that popularized the term "Christian". Before this there was no such thing as a "Christian". The word may have been used (although there are some who say it was coined by Nero) but it had never been universally applied to a group of people identified by a common religion. Nope...there were no "Christians" until 64AD. After 64 AD the entire world knew them as the guys who got turned into human torches for torching Rome.
So...reason number two why Paul's little splinter sect of Jews lasted while the rest faded away...Nero made them famous...and gave them a world spanning identity. No longer was there a little group in Ephesus called the Ephesians and a little group in Galatia called the Galatians...now they were all Christians.
Tragedy creates community...and this single event more than any other turned the wide flung churches Paul had founded into a community that thought of themselves as a body. But it was still a JEWISH body. Paul, afterall, died a Jew just as Jesus had.
Third: a few years later the Romans raze Jerusalem to the ground. 70AD...not a stone was left standing on another stone...with a couple of exceptions like the now legendary wall of the temple. Finally Rome had had enough. The Sadducees had failed, time to do things the Roman way.
Most people don't realize that the Romans built a brand new city on top of the ruins and gave it a snazzy Roman name. Jerusalem as a center of the Jewish faith...gone...obliterated. And along with them most all of the Jewish sects.
Sadducees...totally gone.
Ebionites...gone...they had been centered in Jerusalem.
Most of the other rabble rousing sects were either hunted down, or went underground where they simply petered out.
So who survived?
...well...the Pharisees did. The Pharisees, and their compelling message of applying God's will to daily life evolved into the rabbinical tradition from which modern Judaism derives. Their emphasis on religious study and interpretation would form the foundation of a new tradition of scriptural commentary.
And...Paul's rag tag band of Jews survived...largely because, since he preached to the Gentiles, their churches were already scattered across the Mediterranean and not dependent on Jerusalem at all. With the power base of Judaism gone it wasn't long before this fringe Jewish sect completed its transition into a completely stand alone religion.
A religion founded by Paul...Paul who demonized the Pharisees because they disagreed with him on matters of doctrine...Pharisees who became the direct antecedent of modern Judaism...initiating 2000 years of wonderful relations between Christianity and Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus's followers were Jews. So how did Christianity evolve to hate Jews? Paul laid that foundation. Paul's followers made sure that his message got inserted into the Gospels which were largely written after Paul. Thanks, Paul.
