HIST 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Jesus Movement, Virginity, Crisis Of The Third Century
Crisis and Christianity
I. Early Christianity
A. Jesus Movement - starts traveling around countryside and preaching
B. Paul of Tarsus
1. Four journeys of preaching
2. Captured and killed
II. Appeal of Christianity
A. New but old
1. Ancient roots because they used the Jewish bible as the old testament
B. Sacred writings
C. No gender restrictions
1. Evidence of women leading and participating
D. “equality” of believers
1. Rich/poor
E. Salvation religion
1. Death and rebirth
F. Control of your body
1. Women before this had to get married arranged
2. If you want to be pure for end time you don’t have sex/get married
G. Community of believers
1. Charity
2. Burial catacombs
1. Most people in roman who didn’t have money in rome were just
thrown in a mitt with others
2. If you were poor and Christian you knew your body would be
taken care of and prayer over not inside city, underground
III. Early Christian Moral Code
A. Prayer
1. Communal
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B. Charity/alms
1. Supposed to give part of income to community if they could afford to
C. Love
D. Faith
1. In Jesus
E. Fasting
1. Wednesdays and Fridays
F. Chastity
1. Virginity
2. Chaste marriage
3. Procreative sex
G. Slavery ok
H. Taxes ok
I. No killing
J. No games, theater
K. No idols, sacrifice imperial cult did this
L. No suicide
1. Rome had a notion of a noble suicide
M. No exposure
IV. Persecutions
A. Alexamenos graffito
1. From city of rome; picture of a crucified man with a head of a horse and
a man in a position worshipping him
2. Says “Alexamenos worships his god”
3. Piece of Anti-Christian art
B. Why?
1. Atheists: because they denied the existence of gods
2. Secretive: meet in secrete
3. Subversive: are they about to lead an uprising (talk bad about military)
4. Orgies: communities of unrelated roman citizens secretly meeting
behind closed doors
5. Cannibals- body and blood of Christ
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