HIST 214 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Greco-Roman Mysteries, First Epistle To The Thessalonians, Epistle To The Philippians
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Mystery Religions
Phylosophical approaches to life; trying to answer people's problems
-
Called mystery religions because they share a common mechanism where an
initiate is transformed and saved (salvation)
Changes being of person - changes person from outside of religion to being
included into something bigger
○
Not mutually exclusive
○
-
Person symbolically or literally dying and then being resurrected from the dead
to represent what would happen to the adherents
-
Mythra, Sol Invictus, Isis.
Each of these religions are a way of people
○
Each one of these seeks to fix the needs of people on an individual basis
○
-
Response to worsening conditions in the empire
-
Christianity then one of several new religions out of East that seek to answer
Tendency within society accept and follow message during the early fourth
century
○
-
Sources
Imperial legal sources
-
Written Christian traditions
-
The bible
-
Jewish accounts
-
Oral traditions (eventually get written down)
-
What is Christianity?
Who gets to decide that?
How do texts get to us?
They are translated
-
Process of continuous recopying of the text itself
Problematic because there is human error
○
Inability of people to spend long hours of their day copying out exactly
word for word
○
The sources are biased and need to understand the context
○
There are competing narratives on how Christians behaving and what
Christianity truly means (example: the bible)
○
-
Process of Biblical Canonization
Texts are not originally meant to be read together
Written in response to certain circumstances at the time (different
communities, different questions, different problems) - this creates a false
narrative as they were never meant to go together
○
-
Artificial construct of texts that have been put together over time by different
people
-
Idea of biblical canon only gradually evolves
-
First list appears c. 140 (Marcion: Pauline letters and different Luke); list of 22
appears at the end of the 2nd century; current 27 listed by Athanasius in 367
(official approval with Council of Trent, 1546)
There is the creation of the printing press and the rise of Calvanism and
Lutheranism and people need to make Christianity more prominent and
decide on their values to compete with the other religions
○
-
Continued tinkering during early centuries (cf. 1 John 5:7 - 8)
-
Who wrote the New Testament?
Matthew, Mark, Luke & John (and James and Peter)?
Who were they? What do we know about them?
○
What do we write?
○
-
Paul (c. 55)
7 undisputed letters (1 Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, 1st and 2nd
Corinthians, Galatians, Romans)
All 7 of these articles were written by Paul and this is undisputed by
historians
§
○
Pseudoepigraphic: 1st & 2nd Timothy, Titus
Not written by Paul - judged the writing style and language style
(different vocabulary, grammatical structures, different
interpretations from the first letters to the second) - therefore it is
likely not the same person
§
○
Dubious: Ephesians, Colossians, 2nd Thessalonians
Demonstrates the importance of Paul in the Christian community
§
Showing the weight of Paul in their argument
§
Shows an early portrayal of Christian values and how they have
developed
§
Allows us to understand the debates and questions that are present
in the communities
§
○
Anonymous but ascribed to Paul: Hebrews
○
-
Gospels
Synoptic gospels
Mark (c. 65 - 70)
○
Matthew and Luke use Mark as a common source
○
Both the writers had copies of Mark with them - written in different
geographical areas; not written at the same time and shows that Mark was
circulating in different communities
○
Q used as common source by Matthew and Luke - passages in Matthew
and Luke that are not in Mark that they are using for inspiration and
weaving textual traditions into something new (a source that we no longer
have but we can find in Matthew and Luke - own source of information
they don't share)
○
M and L independent sources used
○
Focus on Jesus as Jewish apocalyptic messiah and impending Kingdom of
God (earthly)
○
-
John
C.90 -95 - reinterpretation of message (2 generations of Christians later)
○
Divinity of Christ
○
Abstract kingdom of God (Jewish Kingdom in God in Jerusalem has no
appeal - a kingdom in another dimension is more appealing)
○
East anti-Semitism (John 8:42-44)
Backlash against the early Christians by the Jewish community
§
Reason the Jews don't convert to Christianity because they are "the
children of the devil"
§
○
-
Heresy (means choice)
Versus orthodoxy
Can only have orthodoxy after you have an official organization
○
-
Divergent interpretations from the beginning
Not meant to be written for us, meant to be written for people at the time
○
-
Competing narratives
-
Christianities
Ebionites (early Jewish core foundations of Chritistianity; need to keep kosher,
etc.)
Christinity is seen to be Judiasim - keeping jewish traditions
○
Jesus = Jewish apocalyptic messiah
○
Direct followers of earliest converts
○
Reject Paul and later developments in Theology
○
-
Marcionites
Marcion, c. 144, Asia Minor
○
See the divide between core Jewish group and the way that it doesn't
match up with hellenistic Roman world
○
There is an effort to rewrite the story in a way that makes sense to the
people living in to mediterannean
○
Uses Paul as the basis of religion
○
Highly influenced by Pauline epistles and missionizing
○
Dualistic interpretation
Rejection of Hebrew god and teachings (who will win - Jewish god
misleading people. Jesus there to help them)
§
Primacy of Jesus and God from Pauline teaching
§
○
-
Gnostics
Mystical interpretation of message
○
Dualistic vision of universe (physical world is corrupt)
○
Dialogue with Manichaeism
○
Divinity within each individual trapped by corrupt creation
○
Knowledge imparted by Jesus (an uncorrupt being) leads to spiritual
freedom) - sent to teach the pathway out of the physical world
○
They are important because there is a lot of text written against them
○
Gnostic gospels, Nag Hammadi 1945
○
-
Proto-orthodox (end up winning)
Developed from Pauline interpretation
○
Rejection of original Jewish messianic message for universal and divine
interpretation
○
Influenced by need to refute competing interpretations (cf. Trinity)
○
Roman base and hierarchical structure
Clergy & Creed = official elimination of divergent interpretations
§
○
Winner writes history
○
Bounces off of other versions of Christianity as it moves forward and
progresses
○
-
Why were the proto-orthodox the most successful?
Most successful version because they were organized - this was written in
Pauline
-
Able to tie people better to a group identity
-
There are people within the organization that have authority and legitimacy that
are able to ask/answer questions
-
Most present in Rome
-
Able to directly interface with Roman religion which would allow for smooth
transition into Roman imperial organization
-
What does this show us?
Far more heretics in the beginning that actual Christians
-
Erratic evidence in sources
-
Archeological evidence points to extremely diverse community with lively
dialogue
-
Dozens of texts written to support and explain various interpretations
-
Persistence of traditions for centuries (cf. infancy gospel of Thomas and Koran -
written in the 7th century)
Shows that the texts are still circulating and people still believe in the
values that are written in the books
○
Still a bit of discussion/ contention
○
-
Early Growth
Proselytization
-
Start to distance themselves from the Jews - Jews rise up and rebel against
Romans and they are seen as traitors to the state (rebels)
-
Desire to distance themselves from Jews near source of anti-Semitism, after
destruction of temple (70), Judaism undergoes transformation as well
-
Spread through Hellenistic Jewish diaspora, then into lower Roman classes
(egalitarianism). Leads to transformation in religion, from Semitic to Hellenistic
People associate themselves with religions that support their power and
Judaism did not have lots of success therefore senators did not associate
themselves with that
○
-
Persecutions (Nero 64, Diocletian 303) Martyrs
-
Strong structure and hierarchy help spread and survival
-
Later heresies: Donatism; Arianism; (Ulfilas and Barbarians)
Challenges Christianity
○
Donatists believed that these people were no longer qualified to be
Bishops or Priests (when you are baptized, your soul is transformed) - if
that ceremony is not done right, you will go to hell
If the priest is not qualified to be a priest, that puts your own
salvation into question
§
○
Arianism was a prevalent form of orthodox Christianity
Jesus was seen as a vessel for the divine message and for God's son
§
Physicality of him that was not divine itself
§
○
-
Imperialization - Chruch and State
Constantine - his decision to legalize and implicate himself and his
administration into Christianity
-
Battle of Milvian Bridge 312
Puts a cross on his soldier's shields and there was a cloud in the sky - they
win the battle so this convinces him to convert to Christianity
○
-
Edict of Milan 313
Fiscal, legal and social priveledges - need people who can get the fiscal
acception and social provledge, as well legitimizes the social hierarchy of
the Church
○
Direct state support
○
-
Constantinople = new Christian capital
-
Emperor as head of Church, Pontifex maximus
Responsibility to lead the church
○
Therefore needs to know what religion is
○
-
Council of Nicaea 323-5. Nicene Creed
Trinity and nature of jesus
○
Constantine forces church authorities to meet and decide who the Trinity
is and decide the nature of Christ
○
-
Theodosius I (379 - 395)
Justifies and legitimizes the state; ruling by the grace of God
○
Council of Constantinople 381, end of Arianism
○
Theodosian Code
Christianity become sole official religion
§
○
Orthodoxy enforced
○
Radically changes people's lives within the empire
Changes the way people interact with time (changes their calendars)
§
Disenfranchising Jews, Pagans and anyone who is not part of the
orthodox catholic community - they don't get to be Roman citizens
anymore
§
Effort to verticalize people's identity - Christians before anything else
(people have horizontal identities) - try to force onto people one
single identity
§
○
-
Lecture 3 -Early Christianity and Rise of the Catholic
Church
Thursday, September 14, 2017
2:35 PM
Mystery Religions
Phylosophical approaches to life; trying to answer people's problems
-
Called mystery religions because they share a common mechanism where an
initiate is transformed and saved (salvation)
Changes being of person - changes person from outside of religion to being
included into something bigger
○
Not mutually exclusive
○
-
Person symbolically or literally dying and then being resurrected from the dead
to represent what would happen to the adherents
-
Mythra, Sol Invictus, Isis.
Each of these religions are a way of people
○
Each one of these seeks to fix the needs of people on an individual basis
○
-
Response to worsening conditions in the empire
-
Christianity then one of several new religions out of East that seek to answer
Tendency within society accept and follow message during the early fourth
century
○
-
Sources
Imperial legal sources
-
Written Christian traditions
-
The bible
-
Jewish accounts
-
Oral traditions (eventually get written down)
-
What is Christianity?
Who gets to decide that?
How do texts get to us?
They are translated
-
Process of continuous recopying of the text itself
Problematic because there is human error
○
Inability of people to spend long hours of their day copying out exactly
word for word
○
The sources are biased and need to understand the context
○
There are competing narratives on how Christians behaving and what
Christianity truly means (example: the bible)
○
-
Process of Biblical Canonization
Texts are not originally meant to be read together
Written in response to certain circumstances at the time (different
communities, different questions, different problems) - this creates a false
narrative as they were never meant to go together
○
-
Artificial construct of texts that have been put together over time by different
people
-
Idea of biblical canon only gradually evolves
-
First list appears c. 140 (Marcion: Pauline letters and different Luke); list of 22
appears at the end of the 2nd century; current 27 listed by Athanasius in 367
(official approval with Council of Trent, 1546)
There is the creation of the printing press and the rise of Calvanism and
Lutheranism and people need to make Christianity more prominent and
decide on their values to compete with the other religions
○
-
Continued tinkering during early centuries (cf. 1 John 5:7 - 8)
-
Who wrote the New Testament?
Matthew, Mark, Luke & John (and James and Peter)?
Who were they? What do we know about them?
○
What do we write?
○
-
Paul (c. 55)
7 undisputed letters (1 Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, 1st and 2nd
Corinthians, Galatians, Romans)
All 7 of these articles were written by Paul and this is undisputed by
historians
§
○
Pseudoepigraphic: 1st & 2nd Timothy, Titus
Not written by Paul - judged the writing style and language style
(different vocabulary, grammatical structures, different
interpretations from the first letters to the second) - therefore it is
likely not the same person
§
○
Dubious: Ephesians, Colossians, 2nd Thessalonians
Demonstrates the importance of Paul in the Christian community
§
Showing the weight of Paul in their argument
§
Shows an early portrayal of Christian values and how they have
developed
§
Allows us to understand the debates and questions that are present
in the communities
§
○
Anonymous but ascribed to Paul: Hebrews
○
-
Gospels
Synoptic gospels
Mark (c. 65 - 70)
○
Matthew and Luke use Mark as a common source
○
Both the writers had copies of Mark with them - written in different
geographical areas; not written at the same time and shows that Mark was
circulating in different communities
○
Q used as common source by Matthew and Luke - passages in Matthew
and Luke that are not in Mark that they are using for inspiration and
weaving textual traditions into something new (a source that we no longer
have but we can find in Matthew and Luke - own source of information
they don't share)
○
M and L independent sources used
○
Focus on Jesus as Jewish apocalyptic messiah and impending Kingdom of
God (earthly)
○
-
John
C.90 -95 - reinterpretation of message (2 generations of Christians later)
○
Divinity of Christ
○
Abstract kingdom of God (Jewish Kingdom in God in Jerusalem has no
appeal - a kingdom in another dimension is more appealing)
○
East anti-Semitism (John 8:42-44)
Backlash against the early Christians by the Jewish community
§
Reason the Jews don't convert to Christianity because they are "the
children of the devil"
§
○
-
Heresy (means choice)
Versus orthodoxy
Can only have orthodoxy after you have an official organization
○
-
Divergent interpretations from the beginning
Not meant to be written for us, meant to be written for people at the time
○
-
Competing narratives
-
Christianities
Ebionites (early Jewish core foundations of Chritistianity; need to keep kosher,
etc.)
Christinity is seen to be Judiasim - keeping jewish traditions
○
Jesus = Jewish apocalyptic messiah
○
Direct followers of earliest converts
○
Reject Paul and later developments in Theology
○
-
Marcionites
Marcion, c. 144, Asia Minor
○
See the divide between core Jewish group and the way that it doesn't
match up with hellenistic Roman world
○
There is an effort to rewrite the story in a way that makes sense to the
people living in to mediterannean
○
Uses Paul as the basis of religion
○
Highly influenced by Pauline epistles and missionizing
○
Dualistic interpretation
Rejection of Hebrew god and teachings (who will win - Jewish god
misleading people. Jesus there to help them)
§
Primacy of Jesus and God from Pauline teaching
§
○
-
Gnostics
Mystical interpretation of message
○
Dualistic vision of universe (physical world is corrupt)
○
Dialogue with Manichaeism
○
Divinity within each individual trapped by corrupt creation
○
Knowledge imparted by Jesus (an uncorrupt being) leads to spiritual
freedom) - sent to teach the pathway out of the physical world
○
They are important because there is a lot of text written against them
○
Gnostic gospels, Nag Hammadi 1945
○
-
Proto-orthodox (end up winning)
Developed from Pauline interpretation
○
Rejection of original Jewish messianic message for universal and divine
interpretation
○
Influenced by need to refute competing interpretations (cf. Trinity)
○
Roman base and hierarchical structure
Clergy & Creed = official elimination of divergent interpretations
§
○
Winner writes history
○
Bounces off of other versions of Christianity as it moves forward and
progresses
○
-
Why were the proto-orthodox the most successful?
Most successful version because they were organized - this was written in
Pauline
-
Able to tie people better to a group identity
-
There are people within the organization that have authority and legitimacy that
are able to ask/answer questions
-
Most present in Rome
-
Able to directly interface with Roman religion which would allow for smooth
transition into Roman imperial organization
-
What does this show us?
Far more heretics in the beginning that actual Christians
-
Erratic evidence in sources
-
Archeological evidence points to extremely diverse community with lively
dialogue
-
Dozens of texts written to support and explain various interpretations
-
Persistence of traditions for centuries (cf. infancy gospel of Thomas and Koran -
written in the 7th century)
Shows that the texts are still circulating and people still believe in the
values that are written in the books
○
Still a bit of discussion/ contention
○
-
Early Growth
Proselytization
-
Start to distance themselves from the Jews - Jews rise up and rebel against
Romans and they are seen as traitors to the state (rebels)
-
Desire to distance themselves from Jews near source of anti-Semitism, after
destruction of temple (70), Judaism undergoes transformation as well
-
Spread through Hellenistic Jewish diaspora, then into lower Roman classes
(egalitarianism). Leads to transformation in religion, from Semitic to Hellenistic
People associate themselves with religions that support their power and
Judaism did not have lots of success therefore senators did not associate
themselves with that
○
-
Persecutions (Nero 64, Diocletian 303) Martyrs
-
Strong structure and hierarchy help spread and survival
-
Later heresies: Donatism; Arianism; (Ulfilas and Barbarians)
Challenges Christianity
○
Donatists believed that these people were no longer qualified to be
Bishops or Priests (when you are baptized, your soul is transformed) - if
that ceremony is not done right, you will go to hell
If the priest is not qualified to be a priest, that puts your own
salvation into question
§
○
Arianism was a prevalent form of orthodox Christianity
Jesus was seen as a vessel for the divine message and for God's son
§
Physicality of him that was not divine itself
§
○
-
Imperialization - Chruch and State
Constantine - his decision to legalize and implicate himself and his
administration into Christianity
-
Battle of Milvian Bridge 312
Puts a cross on his soldier's shields and there was a cloud in the sky - they
win the battle so this convinces him to convert to Christianity
○
-
Edict of Milan 313
Fiscal, legal and social priveledges - need people who can get the fiscal
acception and social provledge, as well legitimizes the social hierarchy of
the Church
○
Direct state support
○
-
Constantinople = new Christian capital
-
Emperor as head of Church, Pontifex maximus
Responsibility to lead the church
○
Therefore needs to know what religion is
○
-
Council of Nicaea 323-5. Nicene Creed
Trinity and nature of jesus
○
Constantine forces church authorities to meet and decide who the Trinity
is and decide the nature of Christ
○
-
Theodosius I (379 - 395)
Justifies and legitimizes the state; ruling by the grace of God
○
Council of Constantinople 381, end of Arianism
○
Theodosian Code
Christianity become sole official religion
§
○
Orthodoxy enforced
○
Radically changes people's lives within the empire
Changes the way people interact with time (changes their calendars)
§
Disenfranchising Jews, Pagans and anyone who is not part of the
orthodox catholic community - they don't get to be Roman citizens
anymore
§
Effort to verticalize people's identity - Christians before anything else
(people have horizontal identities) - try to force onto people one
single identity
§
○
-
Lecture 3 -Early Christianity and Rise of the Catholic
Church
Thursday, September 14, 2017 2:35 PM
Document Summary
Lecture 3 - early christianity and rise of the catholic. Phylosophical approaches to life; trying to answer people"s problems. Called mystery religions because they share a common mechanism where an initiate is transformed and saved (salvation) Changes being of person - changes person from outside of religion to being included into something bigger. Person symbolically or literally dying and then being resurrected from the dead to represent what would happen to the adherents. Each of these religions are a way of people. Each one of these seeks to fix the needs of people on an individual basis. Christianity then one of several new religions out of east that seek to answer. Tendency within society accept and follow message during the early fourth century. Process of continuous recopying of the text itself. Inability of people to spend long hours of their day copying out exactly. Inability of people to spend long hours of their day copying out exactly word for word.
