C H R I S T I A N , J A M I E 5 5 6 7 B U Christian Good Shepherd. Second century CE. Marble, ht. 39″. Vatican Museum. S N L DF 128 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 128 11/26/12 2:24 PM Judaism and the Rise of Christianity 6 Preview Questions The Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, and Romans made 1. What were the major stages in the historical development of ancient Israel? significant and enduring C contributions to the unfolding Western tradition. 2. How do written and material evidence combine to reveal the history of Israel? 3. What were the central teachings of Christianity? 4. How do written and material evidence reveal Christianity’s relationship to classical culture? At the height of their H power, they were often identified by their political and governmental structures—kingdoms, city-states, or empires—and R I ern tradition has also been shaped and enriched by peoples who did not S establish kingdoms or empires, but whose ideas and beliefs have survived T to the present day. The first of these people were the Hebrews, the second, I early Christians. Henceforth, the Western humanities constitutes a blend of A of the Judeo-Christian traditions. the Greco-Roman and N their surrounding neighbors, the Hebrews were, inIn comparison to deed, small in number , and exerted little political or economic dominance. historians have described them in terms of their states. However, the West- Yet they formulated and preserved a unique religious experience and tradition that has been Jactive and influential for nearly three thousand years. The early Christians emerged in a Jewish milieu, spread across the Roman A M century CE. I Judaism, the religion of the Hebrews, was affected by nearby tribes and E kingdoms while Christianity, original in many ways, owed much to Judaworld, and came to be the single official faith of the empire in the fourth ism and to its surrounding classical world. Their similarities and differ- 5 ences regarding depictions of God can be seen in the image of the Good 5 were absolutely forbidden to depict their God. Early Shepherd. Hebrews 6 this Jewish prohibition, but soon began to circumvent Christians inherited this aversion by adopting symbolic images. The Good Shepherd clearly 7 represented ChristB but certainly was not meant to be him. The image is a metaphorical, not aUphysical, representation. The Hebrew scriptures often refer to God as a shepherd, and the Christians, who retained those scriptures as the old Testament, frequently referred to Jesus Christ as a shepherd in their scriptures, the new Testament. The statue is of high quality. Its patron is unknown but must have been a person of some standing and 129 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 129 11/26/12 2:25 PM S N L DF 130 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity Timeline 6.1 JEWISH CIVILIZATION 2000 BCE 1500 Hebrews in Canaan 1250 Hebrews in Egypt 1020 Hebrews Return to Canaan 926 United Monarchy 586 Division of Kingdom and Wars with Neighboring Empires Moses substance to commission the work. The image is reminiscent of the works of Praxiteles, the renowned Greek sculptor—in sum, a biblical image in classical form. The Jews and the early Christians were also connected in their use of a common language—Greek. The Jews adopted the Greek of the Hellenistic world to communicate with one another after being scattered by their political foes. Early Christians used Greek from the start to disseminate their message across the Roman Empire. Jewish and Christian writings reveal evident borrowings of both words and ideas from their surrounding world. Like the statue as a connection of the two faiths, Judaism and Christianity speak old words in a new world and new words in an old world. JUDAISM Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world. It originated in the third millennium BCE among a tribal Middle Eastern people who placed themselves at the center of world history and created sacred texts for passing on their heritage. Unlike the history and religion of other ancient peoples, the history and religion of the Jews are so inextricably connected that they cannot be separated. The People and Their Religion S N L DF Around 2000 BCE, Akkadian rule collapsed and Babylonian power slowly emerged. Among many displaced tribes the Hebrews were the most significant historically. Under their patriarch Abraham, the oldest and most respected male leader, they migrated from Sumer to the land of Canaan, which included parts of what are now Israel and Lebanon. Abraham and his people were primarily pastoralists but also engaged in some trade (Timeline 6.1). The Hebrews considered themselves unique, a belief based on the relationship between Abraham and a supernatural being who spoke to him and whom he obeyed. This deity made a covenant, or solemn agreement (the outward sign of which was the circumcision of all male children), with mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 130 722 BCE Assyrians destroy Israel 538 Babylonian Captivity Babylonians conquer Judah 168 Postexilic Period, Reestablishment of Jewish State 332 BCE Alexander the Great conquers Judah 63 70 CE MaccaRoman bean Rule in KingJudea dom Romans destroy Jerusalem Pompey conquers Judah C H Abraham to protect his family and bring prosperity his offspring if they agreed to obey his divine comR to mands. Although this Hebrew deity was associated I with nature, he differed from other Mesopotamian in his commitment to justice and righteousS deities ness. He was an ethical god and sought to impose T ethical principles on humans (Map 6.1). I Egypt, Exodus, and Moses The Hebrews prosA pered for decades in Canaan, but around 1500 BCE, N in a time of famine, a group migrated south into the more prosperous Egypt, which had recently been over, run by the Hyksos, a Semitic people with whom the Hebrews shared language and cultural traits. The Hebrews thrived over the next few centuries, until the J Egyptians overthrew the Hyksos and enslaved the A Hebrews. In about 1250 BCE, the extraordinary leader rallied the Hebrews and led them on the Exodus MMoses from Egypt—one of the most significant events in JewI ish history. As the Hebrews wandered in the desert on Sinai peninsula, Moses molded his followers into a E the unified people under a set of ethical and societal laws, which they believed were received from God. After 5 forty years of wandering, followed by Moses’s death, the Hebrews finally returned to Canaan, the Promised 5 Land pledged by Yahweh to their forefathers. 6 The laws of Moses were unique among ancient peoples because they were grounded in the covenant 7 between the Hebrews and God and because no disB tinction was made between religious and secular offenses. All crimes were seen as sins and all sins as U crimes. Those who committed crimes could not simply make reparation to their victims; they also had to seek forgiveness from God. There were some crimes, such as murder, that were so offensive to God that they could not be forgiven by human beings alone. Furthermore, human life was seen as sacred because it was given by God, who created and owned all things; individual humans were precious because they were made in God’s image. The core of Mosaic law was the Ten Commandments, which set forth the proper behavior of human 11/26/12 2:25 PM Judaism Learning Through Maps TABLE 6.1 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ASIA MINOR 0 0 50 100 mi 200 km 100 CYPRUS To Babylon PHOENICIA Mediterranean Sea Sidon Damascus Tyre Sea of Galilee ISRAEL Samaria Jordan River Jericho Jerusalem JUDAH Gaza Dead Sea Beer-sheba To Egypt EGYPT SINAI PENINSULA The United Kingdom under David and Solomon, ca. 1000 BCE To Elath C H R I S T I A N , 1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. . . . 3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. . . . 4. Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. . . . 5. Honor your father and your mother. . . . 6. You shall not kill. 7. Neither shall you commit adultery. 8. Neither shall you steal. 9. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. 10. Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife . . . or anything that is your neighbor’s. Source: The Bible, Revised Standard Version, Deuteronomy 5:6–21. ARABIAN DESERT Trade route MHS636.1 123 ANCIENT ISRAEL MAP mat76620_m0501.eps This Firstmap proofshows the Hebrews’ ancient kingdom, known as the United Monarchy, forged by the rulers David and his son Solomon. The map also shows the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the two Hebrew states that emerged when the United Monarchy split on the death of Solomon, in 926 BCE. 1. Locate the capitals of these two kingdoms. 2. How was the cultural life and religious faith of the nation of Israel influenced by foreign neighbors? 3. What impact did Israel’s size and location have on its history and religious faith? 4. Notice the scale of the map and compare it to the scale of Map 5.2, The Roman Empire under Hadrian. beings (Table 6.1). The commandments became the basis of a renewed covenant. The Hebrew God tolerated no rivals; he was seen as the sole, omnipotent creator and ruler of the universe. If individuals followed his laws and worshiped him alone, they would be rewarded, and if they strayed, they would be punished. Likewise, if the people followed the divine commands, they would prosper, and if they disobeyed, they would meet with adversity. As the mediator of the covenant between God and the Hebrew people, Moses played a crucial role in shaping Judaism into a comprehensive system of ethical monotheism, the belief that there is only one God and that God demands a high standard of personal and societal behavior. mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 131 131 J A M I E 5Figure 6.1 Stone Menorah. Second century CE. Ht. 18″. Israel Jerusalem. Although this particular menorah dates from the 5Museum, second century CE, the seven-branched candelabrum had been in use symbol for centuries. According to Jewish beliefs, God 6asgavea religious Moses explicit instructions on how to craft the menorah, which was 7made for the tabernacle, or house of prayer. Later the menorah came to symbolize knowledge and understanding as well as the light of God Bprotecting the Jews. U As they wandered through the Sinai desert, the Hebrews carried with them a sacred decorated box called the Ark of the Covenant. Within it were the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were carved. Details of how to craft the Ark and all the other sacred objects used in worship were dictated to Moses by God (Figure 6.1). In the desert, the deity also revealed a new name for himself—YHWH, a name so sacred that pious Jews never speak or write it. In the Middle Ages, European scholars rendered YHWH as Jehovah, but today S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM 132 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity TABLE 6.2 HISTORICAL STAGES OF THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM NAME CONSTRUCTION DETAILS DATE DESTROYED Solomon’s Temple. Also called First Temple. Completed under King Solomon, 957 BCE. 587/586 BCE, by the Babylonians. Second Temple. Also called Completed 515 BCE. Rebuilt at Herod’s Temple after being order of King Herod (d. 4 BCE) rebuilt in 26 CE. between 20 BCE and 26 CE. 70 CE, by the Romans. A section of the Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall) survived; it was incorporated into the wall around the Muslim Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque in 691 CE. this term is generally considered a false reading of the C sacred letters. In modern En­glish, YHWH is usually H rendered as Yahweh. In biblical times, Jewish priests R called the deity Adonai, the Semitic term for Lord. I The Kingdom of Israel In about 1000 BCE, the Heestablished a monarchy, and from the late elevS brews enth century to the end of the tenth century BCE, the T nation flourished under a series of kings—Saul, David, I and Solomon. The people called themselves Hebrews to distinguish themselves from others while others called A them Israelites. The popular king David centralized the N government and shifted the economy away from herding and toward commerce, trade, and farming. , Solomon, David’s son, brought the Hebrew, or Israelite, kingdom to its pinnacle of power and prestige. He signed treaties with other states, expanded Israel’s J trade across the Middle East, and raised the standard A of living for many of his subjects. He completed the building of Jerusalem begun by David, which, with Mits magnificent public structures and great temple, I rivaled the glory of other Middle Eastern cities. The of Solomon, also known as the First Temple, E Temple housed Israel’s holy relics, including the Ark of the Covenant, and became the focal point of the nation’s which required pilgrimages and rituals, 5 religion, based on the religious calendar (Table 6.2; Figure 6.2). 5 The Hebrew religion required ritual offerings (sac6 rifices of animals on large altars and wine, incense, and grain mixed with oil on small altars) twice daily. 7 These offerings were conducted by priests in the TemB ple in Jerusalem as a community ritual for the entire Hebrew nation; individuals could also arrange for sacU rifices to be made on their own behalf. Figure 6.2 Horned Altar. Tenth century BCE. Carved limestone, ht. 261/2″. The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago. Middle Eastern peoples made sacrifices to their deities on altars, but the small horned altar, as pictured here, was unique to the Hebrews. Horned altars are described in the Bible, especially as a ritual object in the Temple in Jerusalem, built in the tenth century BCE. However, this horned altar was discovered at Megiddo, one of the cities of the Hebrew kingdom. Originally, then, sacrifices could be performed away from the Temple in Jerusalem. S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 132 11/26/12 2:25 PM Judaism 133 northern and southern tribes. When Solomon died in 926 BCE, the tensions between the regions intensified and the United Monarchy separated into two states: Israel in the north, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah in the south, with its capital at Jerusalem. During the period of the two Hebrew kingdoms, a new type of religious leader, known as a prophet, appeared. The prophets warned of the fatal consequences of breaking Yahweh’s commandments. They also demanded social justice for the helpless and the downtrodden. In the face of a widening gulf between rich and poor, the prophets predicted that if the welloff did not aid the less fortunate, Yahweh would bring down the evil rulers and, in the future, punish the Cselfish and reward the sufferers. But the words of the Hprophets, such as Hosea and Amos in Israel and Isaiah and Jeremiah in Judah, seemed to go unheeded. Figure 6.3 Torah Scroll of the Pentateuch. Nuremberg, 1700–1751. Johann Conrad Weiss. Ink on vellum, staves, wood with silver, cast and engraved. The Jewish Museum, New York. The ancient Hebrews recorded their scriptures on parchment scrolls. The scroll of the Pentateuch was wound on two staves. The scrolls were not decorated or illuminated with designs, animals, or humans because the Bible forbade any likeness of Yahweh and artistic expressions were not encouraged. However, some sacred books were illustrated and ornamented at various stages of Hebrew history. The carved staves on which the Pentateuch was wound were often embellished. Evidence exists that by the fifth century CE, the scrolls might have been encased in a container of precious metal, and by the fifteenth century, they were enclosed in containers adorned with reliefs and Hebrew lettering. King Solomon was a patron of literature and the arts, and under his rule Hebrew culture expanded, notably in law, writing, music, and dance. As the Hebrews’ oral traditions gave way to written records, Hebrew authors wrote down their laws and their earliest histories, which are preserved in the first books of the Bible (Figure 6.3). These Hebrew works predate by five centuries the writings of the great Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, but, unlike the Greek writers, the Hebrew historians made God the central force in human history and thus transformed the unfolding of earthly events into a moral drama portraying God’s relationship with his chosen people. Solomon’s achievements came at a heavy price, for they undermined his people’s religious foundations, intensified class divisions, and tended to divide the mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 133 R I The Babylonian Captivity and the Postexilic Period In 722 BCE, the tiny nation of Israel was deSstroyed by the Assyrians. Judah, to the south, endured Tfor another one hundred fifty years, but in 586 BCE, I the Babylonians conquered Judah, destroying Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and deporting most of the AHebrews to Babylonia. The approximately forty years Nof exile, known as the Babylonian Captivity, became one of the major turning points in Jewish history. , At the end of the sixth century, the Jews ( Jew comes from Hebrew yehudi [yeh-HU-dee] meaning “Judaean” via the Greek iudaios and Latin Judaeus; afJter the exile, Jew tended to displace both Israelite and AHebrew) were freed by the triumphant Persians, who were sweeping across the ancient world under Cyrus M(see Chapter 2). Returning to Judah, the Jews rebuilt I Jerusalem including their Temple, now known as the Temple. Believing that God had rescued them, ESecond they established a theocratic state—a government ruled by those who are recognized as having special divine and approval—and dedicated themselves to 5guidance the correct formulation and observation of their reli5gious beliefs. Many exiles remained outside the home6land and became known as Jews of the Diaspora, or the Dispersion. 7 After their return from Babylon, the Jews expanded Btheir views of Yahweh. Some of them at least came to view their faith as universal and not restricted to the UJews. The Hebrews’ earlier perception of themselves as a chosen people under a universal deity was reinforced as they concluded that Yahweh had used the Persians to free them. Furthermore, the Jews started to incorporate two new features into their religion: eschatology, or the concern with the end of the world, and an interest in apocalypse, prophecies about the coming of God and a day of judgment. This future world would be led by a Messiah, or Anointed One, who would bring peace and justice to all. Perhaps S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM 134 CHAPTER SIX: JUdAISM And THE RISE oF CHRISTIAnITY influenced by the dualism of Persian Zoroastrianism, Jews began to differentiate heaven and hell as places of reward and punishment. The Hellenistic and Roman Periods Figure 6.4 Model of the Reconstructed Second Temple (Herod’s Temple) in Jerusalem. This model of the Second Temple shows the strong influence of Hellenistic-style architecture, particularly in the colonnaded arcades, the decorative frieze, and the tall, slender Corinthian columns flanking the main entryway. The Second Temple was destroyed by Roman legions in 70 CE, but one wall was left standing. Alexander the Great conquered Judah in 332 BCE, and after his death the area became part of the Seleucid kingdom, centered in Syria. Hellenistic culture and ideas proliferated and deeply affected Jewish life. Growing tensions between the Jews and the Hellenistic leaders erupted in 168 BCE when the Seleucid king Antiochus IV tried to impose the worship of Greek gods on the Jews, placing a statue of Zeus in the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Antiochus’s violation of the sacred place enraged the C Maccabean clan, whose inspired leadership and bravH ery led to a successful revolt and the recapture of the Temple. The Maccabean family ruled Judah R Second as an independent commonwealth for approximately I one hundred years. Then, in 63 BCE, the Romans conmost of the Middle East. They subsequently inS quered corporated Judah (in what was now called Palestine) T into their empire as Judea and placed the Jewish lands I under client kings (loyal, pliable dependents). The Romans ruled through the Jewish Herodian A dynasty. Herod the Great, who ruled from 37 to 4 BCE, N rebuilt Jerusalem, including the Second Temple, and promoted Hellenistic culture (Figure 6.4). But condi, tions under the Romans became unbearable to the Jews, and in 66 CE a rebellion broke out. After the First Jewish War (66–70), the Romans captured Jerusalem J and destroyed the Second Temple. The Western Wall, A or Wailing Wall, of the Second Temple in Jerusalem remained standing and came to symbolize the plight of Mthe Jewish people (Figure 6.5). A revolutionary group I known as Zealots held out until 73 at Masada, a sheersided mesa on the shores of the dead Sea (Figure 6.6). E 5 5 6 7 B U Figure 6.5 The Western Wall today. The Western Wall, sometimes called the Wailing Wall, is the sole remaining structure of the temple erected by Herod the Great. When Muslims conquered Jerusalem in the seventh century, the Western Wall became the buttress of the former temple mount, the Haram es-Sherif (the “Noble Sanctuary”), on which two important mosques—Muslim houses of worship—were constructed. Jews from all over the world come to pray at the Western Wall. S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 134 11/26/12 2:25 PM JUdAISM 135 SLICE OF LIFE A Jewish Eyewitness to the Destruction of the Second Temple Flavius Josephus A JEWISH SOLDIER IN THE ROMAN ARMY The Jewish historian Josephus (about 37–100 CE) was an eyewitness to one of the darkest days in Jewish history: the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem on September 8, 70 CE. He became an admiring, though sometimes reluctant, soldier in the Roman cause. Assigned to General Titus, he was among the troops that sacked and burned the temple on that fateful day. The following account is taken from Josephus’s History of the Jewish War (75–79 CE). At this moment one of the [Roman] soldiers, not waiting for orders and without any dread of such an act but driven on by some frenzy, snatched a brand from the blazing fire and, lifted up by a comrade, hurled the torch through the golden door which gave access to the buildings of the Temple Precinct from the north side. As the flames surged up, a great cry to match their feelings arose from the Jews, and they rushed to the defence, reckless of their lives and prodigal of their strength once they saw that the purpose of their previous watch was gone. . . . As the fire gained strength, Titus found that he could not restrain the surge of his enthusiastic soldiers. . . . Most were driven on by the hope of loot, for they thought that the inside of the building must be full of money if the outside, which they could see, was made of gold. one of those who had got in forestalled the attempts of Titus, who had rushed in to check them, Cand hurled a brand against the hinges of the door. Suddenly flames appeared from within, which forced Hback Titus and his officers, leaving those outside to the blaze unhindered. In this way, though Rkindle much against Titus’s will, the Temple was burnt. . . . I Interpreting This Slice of Life S1. What was the source of conflict between the RoT mans and the Jews? 2. Do you find Josephus’s account credible, given that I he was both a Jew and a Roman soldier? A3. What role does General Titus play in the assault? N4. How are the Roman soldiers depicted? 5. How does Josephus depict the Jewish rebels? , J A M Figure 6.6 Masada, Israel. This outcropping of rock in the forbidding terrainIoutside Jerusalem was a natural fortress. King Herod had built one of his palace-fortresses here in the years just before the birth of E after the end of the First Christ. For three years the Zealots occupied its ruins, holding out against the Romans Jewish War in 70 CE. 5 5 6 7 B U S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 135 11/26/12 2:25 PM 136 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity When their cause became hopeless, they committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. To make sure the Jews would no longer be a problem for the Romans, the Roman government in the late first century CE ordered the dispersal of the Jews throughout the empire. However, this second Diaspora did not end the Jews’ cultural, intellectual, and religious existence. On the contrary, the Jewish way of life continued, though it changed. With the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews worshiped in synagogues, or congregations, which eventually were headed by rabbis, or teachers. Over the centuries, the rabbis’ teachings evolved into Rabbinic Judaism, based on the Torah and the Talmud (from Hebrew, “learning”), a collection of legal rulings and commentaries. Rabbinic Judaism established a mode of worship and moral code that Jews worldwide have followed down to modern times. Societal and Family Relationships To be a Jew one had to be born of a Jewish mother, yet Hebrew society was patriarchal. Of 1,426 people named in the Hebrew Bible, 1,315 are male. Only males could bear the sign of God’s covenant—circumcision. Women could not own or inherit property, sue in court, or initiate a divorce. Women could not enter the temple; they worshiped in a courtyard outside. The Hebrew religion had no goddesses. Nevertheless, the Bible recounts stories of numerous brave, clever, and wise women. Men were in principle equals but there is plenty of evidence for wide divisions in wealth, status, and power. Generally, Hebrew society had much in common with that of its neighbors. It was in religion where the Hebrews were different. The Bible S N L DF The Jews enshrined their cultural developments in the Bible, their collection of sacred writings, or scriptures. Known as the Old Testament to Christians, the Hebrew Bible (from the Greek word for “book”) contains history, law, poetry, songs, stories, prayers, and philosophical works. Evolving out of a rich and long oral tradition, parts of the Bible probably began to assume written form during the United Monarchy in the tenth century BCE. By then the Hebrews had an alphabet, which, like that of the Greeks, was probably derived from the Phoenicians. Having acquired a written language and a unified political state, the Hebrews shared a consciousness of their past and desired to preserve it. They assembled and recorded various historical accounts, songs, and stories, plus the sayings of the prophets. Sometime in the fifth century BCE, Jewish scholars and religious leaders canonized (declared official) parts of these writings as divinely inspired. They became the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. The Hebrew Bible’s ultimate form was reached in 90 CE when a council of Jewish rabbis added a last set of writings to the canon. mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 136 Another important development in the transmission of the Hebrew scriptures was their translation into other languages. In the third century BCE, after many Jews had been influenced by Hellenistic culture, a group of Alexandrian scholars collected all the authenticated Jewish writings and translated them into Greek. This Hebrew Greek Bible was called the Septuagint, from the Latin word for “seventy,” so named because of the legend that it was translated by seventy scholars. The final version of the Hebrew Bible is divided into three parts: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (Table 6.3). (Christians divide the Old Testament into four parts.) The Law, also called the Torah (from C Hebrew, “instruction”), recounts the story of God’s H creation of the world and the early history of the HeMore important, it details the establishment R brews. of the covenant and the foundation of the moral and I ritualistic codes of personal and societal behavior that Judaism. S underlie The Prophets recount a good deal of historical T material but above all are full of moral and spiritual I instruction. They reflect constantly on the Torah and reminded the Hebrews when they failed to keep their A covenant with God and where they treated each other N poorly. Disasters, the Prophets say, are divine rebukes. The Writings reflect diverse viewpoints and contain , many types of literature, including poetry, wise sayings, stories, and apocalyptic visions of the end of time. Some of these books, such as Job, Ecclesiastes, J and Proverbs, reflect in both style and content the inA fluence of other cultures on Jewish beliefs. There is also a body of Jewish literature outside Mthe canon. The Apocrypha are books written between I 200 BCE and 100 CE that include wisdom, literature, and history, including the history of the MacE stories, cabees. Though not part of the Jewish canon, these books were included in the Septuagint, the Greek of the Hebrew Bible, and accepted by the 5 translation Roman Catholic Church as part of the Christian Old 5 Testament. 6 Early Jewish Architecture and Art 7 The description of the Temple in 1 Kings makes it B sound similar to the “long-house” temples found in other civilizations of that time and probably indicated U the influence of foreign neighbors. According to the Bible, Solomon’s Temple was a rectangular building comprising a porch; a sanctuary, or main hall; and an inner sanctum that housed the Ark of the Covenant. Artists and craftspeople decorated the interior with carvings of floral designs and cherubs, highlighting these with gold. The building was made of ashlars, and two large freestanding columns were placed at the entryway. The Temple may have been raised on a platform. A court surrounded the Temple, and a large altar stood inside the court. 11/26/12 2:25 PM Judaism 137 TABLE 6.3 BOOKS OF THE HEBREW BIBLE AND THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE OLD TESTAMENT HEBREW BIBLE CHRISTIAN BIBLE OLD TESTAMENT The Law (Torah) The Pentateuch Genesis Numbers Exodus Deuteronomy Leviticus Genesis Numbers Exodus Deuteronomy Leviticus The Prophets The Historical Books (Early Prophets) Joshua Judges 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings (Later Prophets) Isaiah Micah Jeremiah Nahum Ezekiel Habakkuk Hosea Zephaniah Joel Haggai Amos Zechariah Obadiah Malachi Jonah The Writings Psalms Esther Proverbs Daniel Job Ezra Song of Songs Nehemiah Ruth 1 Chronicles Lamentations 2 Chronicles Ecclesiastes Joshua 2 Chronicles Judges Ezra Ruth Nehemiah 1 Samuel Tobit* 2 Samuel Judith* 1 Kings Esther 2 Kings 1 Maccabees* 1 Chronicles 2 Maccabees* C H R I S The Poetical or Wisdom Books T Job I Psalms Proverbs A Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon (Songs) N Wisdom* , Sirach* The Prophetical Books J A M I E Isaiah Obadiah Jeremiah Jonah Lamentations Micah Baruch* Nahum Ezekiel Habakkuk Daniel Zephaniah Hosea Haggai Joel Zechariah Amos Malachi 5 5 6 7 Bconstructed a fortress-palace at present-day Araq el Emir in Jordan that shows this influence clearly. The faUcade of the palace blended Greek columns and oriental *Roman Catholics include these books in the canon and refer to them as deutero­ canonical (“secondary canon”); Protestants sometimes place them in an appendix with other Apocrypha. When the Jews were released from the Babylonian Captivity by the Persians, they returned to their homeland and built the Second Temple in the late sixth century BCE. It exhibited a simpler design and decoration scheme than did Solomon’s Temple. Meanwhile, the Jews of the Diaspora gathered in Hellenistic cities to read the Torah and to pray in buildings that became synagogues, or houses of worship. No record survives of how these synagogues looked or how they might have been decorated until the third century CE. Greek influences became apparent in Jewish architecture during Hellenistic times. One Maccabean ruler, John Hyrcanus [hear-KAY-nuhs] (135–106 BCE), mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 137 carvings, typical of the Alexandrian architectural and decorative style. The edifice and its carvings were probably similar to the Second Temple in Jerusalem. One of the few decorations remaining from this palace is a lion fountain (Figure 6.7). Carved in high relief, the lion is well proportioned and conveys a sense of power with its raised front paw and open mouth. The lingering influence of late Greek architecture on Jewish structures is also seen in a set of tombs dug out of the soft limestone rocks east of Jerusalem in the S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM 138 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity Figure 6.7 Lion Fountain at the Palace of John Hyrcanus. Second century BCE. Araq el Emir, Jordan. This lion, Greco-Oriental in style, was carved deeply into the stone’s surface to create a high-relief work. The lion’s tail, wrapped around its right rear leg, is balanced by the raised left front leg, creating a feeling of strength and agility. Figure 6.8 Tomb of Bene Hezir. Early first century BCE. Kidron Valley, Israel. The tomb of Bene Hezir (on the left) shows the influence of Greek architecture in its post-and-lintel construction and its Doric columns. Even though the area was subject to Roman impact at this time, Roman influence is not apparent in the architecture. Priests from the Hezir family, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 24, were buried in what has been determined to be the oldest tomb in Israel’s Kidron Valley. Scholars disagree over whether the structure in the center with the pyramidal roof belonged to the tomb of Bene Hezir. Kidron Valley. According to the inscription on them, these tombs contain the remains of priests from the Hezir family (Figure 6.8). The tomb on the left displays Doric columns, and the one in the center fuses Greek Ionic columns and an Egyptian pyramidal roof. Several other tombs in the vicinity reveal a similar melding of styles. During the reign of King Herod the Great (r. 37–4 BCE), architecture in Judea exhibited a further mix of Greek styles with Jewish motifs. King Herod’s magnificent fortress-palace at Masada may have been a conscious blending of the two cultures in an effort to bridge the gap between the Roman and Jewish worlds (see Figure 6.6). The various buildings in Herod’s comC plex contained many representative Greco-Roman feaH tures, including fluted Corinthian columns and marble (Figure 6.9). R facings The Second Commandment forbade graven images, I which meant cult images that could be worshiped. always observed this prohibition strictly. The S Jews commandment also forbade “likenesses”—a prohibiT tion that has been understood in different ways from I antiquity to the present. Clearly, no cult images were permitted in any circumstances. But as noted there A were images in the Temple and, in several places in the N Hebrew Bible, God commanded images to be made. The surviving lion from John Hyrcanus’s palace can, not have been the only likeness in that place. Whatever else there may have been has vanished along with everything else from earlier centuries. The palace of J Herod at Masada had beautiful geometric designs A M I E 5 5 6 7 B U S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 138 11/26/12 2:25 PM Judaism 139 Figure 6.9 Hall of Herod’s North Palace. Late first century BCE. Masada, Israel. These Corinthian columns were originally plastered over and painted. Carved directly out of the hill’s rock, they formed a natural corridor around the banqueting hall. Herod built this and other splendid palaces to impress the Jews and win their political sympathy, but he failed to do either. C H R I S T I A N , (Figure 6.10), but no likenesses of humans or animals survive. From the middle of the third century, however, at Dura Europos in upper Mesopotamia, there survive the ruins of a magnificent synagogue that had beautiful figural images depicting many scenes from the scriptures (Figures 6.11 and 6.12). A Jewish catacomb in Rome has images from the same period. By the end of the fifth century CE, a floor mosaic from the synagogue Hammam Lif in Tunisia shows in another Jmedium the capacity of Jewish artists to create images Athat were beautiful, inspiring, and related to the scriptures (Figure 6.13). The so-called “Exodus Prohibition” Mmay have put a damper on Jewish figural art but did I not completely prevent it. E 5 5 6 7 B U Figure 6.10 Mosaic from Herod’s Palace. Late first century BCE. Masada, Israel. The Greek practice of mosaic making was adopted by both the Romans and the Jews. The patterned designs around the borders of this mosaic from Herod’s Palace are typically Greek, and the organic image in the center is typically Jewish. mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 139 S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM 140 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity Figure 6.12 C H R I S T I A N , Syria. 240s CE. National Scenes from the Western Wall, Synagogue of Dura Europos, Figure 6.11 Moses Giving Water to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Fresco. Synagogue. 240s CE. Dura Europos, Syria. Reconstructed in the National Museum, Damascus, Syria. This fresco is from a house-synagogue (a place of worship set up within a private residence) that was discovered in the early twentieth century, after having been filled with rubble in 256 CE, as part of a defense plan for the city of Dura Europos. Only sections of the walls survive. The room featured benches running around the walls and a niche for the Torah scrolls in the western wall. The paintings depict various events from the Hebrew Bible, most having to do with national salvation, such as Samuel Anointing David, the Ark Brought to Jerusalem, and the Exodus from Egypt. Painted by anonymous artists, these works were executed in tempera, a medium made of pigments blended with egg yolks and water, applied to dry plaster. This fresco was part of the Exodus group and was based on Numbers 2:2–12. It portrays Moses seated and holding a staff, as he delivers life-giving water (via “tubes”) to the tribes, symbolized by twelve huts, each with a single figure. A menorah stands in the center rear. Museum, Damascus. In the center of the wall is the Torah shrine, the place where the Torah rolls were kept, above which is a representation of the Temple—long since destroyed—and of a menorah (left) and the sacrifice of Isaac (right). Spreading across the whole wall is a beautiful, and exceedingly well accomplished, set of images representing key scenes from the Hebrew Bible. J A M I E 5 5 6 7 B U S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 140 11/26/12 2:25 PM Christianity Figure 6.13 Mosaic of a Duck Enclosed in a Vine Scroll. Fourth to fifth century CE. 341/2 × 331/16″. From the Floor of a Synagogue at Hammam Lif, Tunisia. Brooklyn Museum. Ducks could symbolize wealth, good fortune, or a clever person. This image represents one panel from a floor mosaic that had numerous images of plants, birds, other animals, and Jewish symbols, such as a menorah. CHRISTIANITY The rise of Christianity was as surprising in the short term as it was important in the long term. The wandering teacher Jesus Christ was neither rich nor powerful, but he attracted followers who eventually took his teachings throughout the Roman world and beyond. Originally a sect within Judaism, Christianity gradually emerged as a distinct religion. One measure of the historical impact of Christianity lies in the way dates have been marked in the Western world. The period before Jesus’s birth is known as BC, or “before Christ,” and the era after his birth is termed AD, or anno Domini, Latin words meaning “in the year of the Lord,” the title of respect given to Jesus by Christians. Although Christianity and the church have declined from their zenith in the Middle Ages, the Christian calendar remains in effect throughout the West as well as in many other parts of the world—a symbol of the continuing power of this creed. In this textbook, reflecting today’s multicultural world, the term BCE, “before common era,” replaces BC, and the term CE, “common era,” replaces AD. The Life of Jesus Christ and the New Testament The surviving primary sources for the origin of Christianity are writings in Greek by early believers who were openly partisan. According to them, Christianity mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 141 141 began within the Jewish faith among the followers of Jesus, a deeply pious and charismatic Jew who ended up founding a dynamic new religion instead of renewing Judaism. Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph in Judea in about 4 BCE (a date that reflects errors in early Christian timereckoning). After narrating the events surrounding his birth, the accounts of Jesus’s life are almost silent until he reaches the age of about thirty, when he commenced a teaching mission that placed him squarely in conflict with prevailing Jewish beliefs and authorities. Jews of various social classes heard Jesus’s message, and he soon had a small group of followers who believed that he was the Messiah, the Anointed One who would deCliver the Jews, promised by God to the prophets. He Hwas also termed the Christ, taken from the Greek for anointed one.” Performing miracles and healing R“the the sick, he preached that the Kingdom of God was at I hand. Neither then nor now has it been easy to say just Jesus meant by “Kingdom of God,” but to preSwhat pare for it he urged his followers to practice a demandTing and loving ethic. I Growing discord between the Jewish establishment and this messianic band caused Roman leaders to clasAsify Jesus as a political rebel. In about 33 CE, he was Ncrucified by the Romans (Timeline 6.2). Three days later, some of his followers reported that Jesus had , risen from the dead and reappeared among them. His resurrection became the ultimate miracle associated with his teachings, the sign that immortal life awaited Jthose who believed in him as the son of God and as the AMessiah. After forty days, Jesus ascended into heaven, though not before pledging to return when the world Mcame to an end. I The outline of Jesus’s life is set forth in the first three called Gospels, of the Christian scriptures. The Ebooks, early Christian community believed that the writers, known as Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were witnesses to Jesus’s message; hence they were called evangelists af5ter the Greek word evangelion—for those who preached 5the gospel, or the good news. The Gospels, although 6providing evidence for the historical Jesus, were not intended as histories in the Greco-Roman sense because 7they were addressed to Christian converts. Mark’s GosBpel was the earliest, dating from about 70; the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are dated a little later. They Umade use of Mark’s narrative and added the logoi, the “sayings” of Jesus. These three works are known as the synoptic Gospels (from the Greek words syn, for “together,” and opsis, for “view”) because they take essentially the same point of view toward their subject. Between 90 and 100, a fourth, and somewhat different, Gospel appeared—that of John—which treats Jesus as a wisdom teacher, a revealer of cosmic truths. The author of the Fourth Gospel has Jesus teach the possibility of being born again to eternal life. S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity 142 Timeline 6.2 CHRISTIANITY TO 284 CE 30 CE 4 BCE Life of Jesus 70 Age of Apostles 100 Scriptures Written 38 – 65 Paul’s missionary travels and letters S N L DF Despite their similarities, the synoptic Gospels reflect a schism, or split, in the early Christian church. Peter, one of Jesus’s original disciples, headed a Judaizing group that stressed the necessity of first becoming a Jew before becoming a Christian. Paul, a Jew who converted to Christianity after the death of Jesus, led a group that welcomed gentile, or non-Jewish, members. Mark’s Gospel was written in part to support Paul’s gentile faction and therefore takes a negative tone toward Jews. Matthew was written in part as a corrective to Mark and made Peter, according to Roman Catholic doctrine, the “rock” on which the church was founded—the biblical source for the belief that Peter was the first pope. Luke’s Gospel was an effort by the early Roman church to deny, after the fact, that a schism had ever existed. Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, the earliest account of the fledgling Christian community. This work records the activities of Jesus’s followers immediately after his resurrection and defines some of the church’s first rituals and beliefs, including a rejection of Jewish dietary laws and the practice of circumcision. The Acts also affirmed the opening of Christianity to gentiles, a policy that in the future would aid in the spread of Christianity. At the time the Acts was written, however, Paul and other missionaries were preaching mainly to Greek-speaking Jews and Jewish converts scattered across the Roman Empire. Paul’s Roman citizenship enabled him to move about freely. The meaning of Jesus’s life and teachings was further clarified by Paul, who had persecuted the Christians of Judea before joining the new faith. Between 50 and 62, Paul, who was familiar with Greek philosophy, addressed both local issues and broader theological concerns in epistles, or letters, the earliest writings among the Christian scriptures, although only seven of the fourteen so-called Pauline epistles are generally recognized as having been written by him. These epistles constitute Christianity’s first theology, or presentation of religious teachings in a reasonably organized fashion. Paul directed his letters to communities he either founded or visited across the Roman Empire: Ephesus and Colossae (Galatia), Philippi mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 142 284 Age of the Church Fathers (to 476) 200 Tertullian flourished 250 Persecutions by Decius; Origen flourished and Thessalonica (Macedonia), Corinth (Greece), and C Rome (Map 6.2). H Paul’s interpretation of the life of Jesus was based the “Suffering Servant” section of the book of ­Isaiah R on in the Old Testament. The Suffering Servant was deI scribed as noble and guiltless, but misunderstood and on behalf of others. Paul set forth the docS suffering trine of the Atonement, whereby a blameless Christ T suffered on the cross to pay for the sins of humankind. I Christ’s life and death initiated a new moral order by offering salvation to sinful human beings who otherA wise were doomed to eternal death and punishment N by Adam’s first sin. But, according to Paul, human redemption was not automatically given, for a sinner , must have faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. Paul’s teachings also stressed that Christ’s resurrection, which guaranteed everlasting life for others, was J the heart of Christian beliefs, an argument echoed A in the synoptic Gospels. Pauline Christianity made a radical break with Judaism by nullifying the old law’s Mauthority and claiming that the true heirs of Abraham I were not the Jews but the followers of Christ. Paul also that obedience to Christ led to righteousness, E affirmed which demanded ascetic living, with particular stress on sexual chastity. The final section of the Christian scriptures was the 5 book of Revelation, dating from about 95. This apoca5 lyptic scripture projected the end of the world and the 6 institution of a new moral order on the occasion of Jesus’s return and final judgment. Revelation’s picture 7 of Rome as a corrupt Babylon destined for destrucB tion reflected the early church’s hatred of the existing political and social order. But the book, filled with U enigmatic sayings and symbols, proved controversial, and not all ancient church communities accepted its authority. By the mid–second century, the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the fourteen Pauline epistles, the seven non-Pauline epistles, and Revelation were accepted as the canon of Christian scriptures, or the New Testament (Table 6.4). Believing themselves to be the new Israel, the early Christians also retained the Hebrew scriptures, called the Old Testament. Although the spoken language of the Jews in Palestine was Aramaic, 11/26/12 2:25 PM Learning Through Maps Milan Pisa A Black Sea dr tic ia Rome Se a Puteoli MACEDONIA Thessalonica Philippi Constantinople Beroea Carthage SICILY Syracuse Tripoli Corinth 125 MAP 6.2 MHS63 138THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WORLD mat76620_m0502.eps This map shows the spread of Christianity after the death of Jesus. First proof 1. Identify the major churches in existence by the end of Paul’s ministry. 2. Which of these churches did Paul found or visit? 3. Which church was best positioned to become the mother church of Christianity? Why? 4. Consider the impact of geography on the location of these churches. 5. Is there a connection between the major cities on Map 5.2, the Roman Empire under Hadrian, and the location of the Christian churches on this map? a Semitic tongue, the Christian canon was composed in Koiné Greek, like the Hebrew Septuagint. The use of Greek reflected the triumph of Paul and the gentiles as well as the pervasive Hellenistic culture. Christians and Jews Despite the distinctive features of early Christianity, many Jewish ideas and rituals contributed to the new religion. The Christian vision of Yahweh was rooted in Judaism: a single, creating, universal God who spoke through sacred texts (the canon) and who demanded moral behavior from all humans. Both Jewish and Christian ethical standards required social justice for individuals and for the community. Likewise, the Christian image of Jesus as Messiah was framed within the context of Jewish prophetic literature. Christian GALATIA Smyrna Ephesus Athens C H R CRETE Medi terranea n SI e a Cyrene S T I A N 250 mi , 0 125 0 Pergamum Colossae Antioch SYRIA CYPRUS Knossos Damascus Tyre Caesarea Nazareth Samaria PALESTINE Joppa Jerusalem Bethlehem Alexandria Dead Sea EGYPT Memphis 250 km J A M I E Tarsus ile N Major church at the end of Paul’s ministry, ca. 62 BITHYNIA Aegean Sea CORCYRA R. Red Sea TABLE 6.4 BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Gospels Matthew Luke Mark John Acts of the Apostles 5 5 6 7 B U Acts Epistles Romans Titus 1 Corinthians Philemon 2 Corinthians Hebrews Galatians James Ephesians 1 Peter Philippians 2 Peter Colossians 1 John 1 Thessalonians 2 John 2 Thessalonians 3 John 1 Timothy Jude 2 Timothy Apocalypse Revelation 143 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 143 11/26/12 2:25 PM S N L DF 144 CHAPTER SIX: Judaism and the Rise of Christianity apocalyptic writing, such as Revelation, also shared a common literary form with Jewish models such as the book of Daniel. Even when Christians rejected specific Jewish ideas, such as the sanctity of the Mosaic law, the early church continued discussions on human righteousness and sin in terms familiar to Jews. The Christians probably adapted their rite of baptism from a ceremony similar to that of the Jews of the Diaspora. Christians also kept the idea of the Sabbath but changed it from Saturday to Sunday, and they transformed the festival of Passover (a celebration of the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt) to Easter (a festival celebrating Jesus’s resurrection). The church sanctuary as a focal point for prayer and learning evolved out of the Jewish synagogue, as did Christian priests from the Jewish elders. And the Christian liturgy, or the service of public worship, borrowed heavily from the Jewish service with its hymns, prayers, and Bible reading. Judaism also influenced Christian thought by transmitting certain ideas from Zoroastrianism, including such dualistic concepts as Satan as the personification of evil, heaven and hell as the two destinies of humankind, and a divine savior who would appear at the end of time. Despite the common heritage of Christians and Jews, relations between them were stormy. After the Council at Jamnia in Judea in 90, when the Jews established the final version of their sacred canon, there was no place in Judaism for the Christian message. As revealed in Paul’s letters, the Jews viewed the followers of Jesus Christ as apostates, people who had abandoned or renounced their true religion. Accordingly, the Jews tried to deny the Christians the protection that Jewish leaders had negotiated with Roman authorities regarding their distinctive religious beliefs. For example, Jews were not required to worship the emperor as a god. Until the end of the second century, Jews and Christians occasionally engaged in violent clashes. Christianity and Greco-Roman Religions and Philosophies S N L DF Christianity also benefited from its contacts with GrecoRoman mystery cults and philosophies. Whether or not the rituals of the cults of Cybele, Isis, or Mithra directly influenced Christianity, they did share religious ideas— for example, salvation through the sacrifice of a savior, sacred meals, and hymns. Christianity, as a monotheistic religion, paralleled movements within the cults of the second and third centuries that were blending all deities into the worship of a single divinity. Among the Greco-Roman philosophies, both Stoicism and Neo­ platonism influenced Christianity as the church shifted from its Jewish roots and became hellenized; the Stoics mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 144 taught the kinship of humanity, and the Neoplatonists praised the spiritual realm at the expense of the physical world. Christians in the Roman Empire The Romans initially regarded the Christians as a Jewish sect, but during the First Jewish War, the Christians evidently held themselves aloof. The Christian attitude seemed to be that the Jews had brought calamity upon themselves through their rejection of Christ. Similarly, Christians remained untouched during later persecutions of Jews by Romans in 115–117 and in 132–135. As their faith expanded during the C first century, individual Christians encountered spoH radic persecution, though there was no state policy of Christianity. R persecuting As the empire descended into chaos in the third I century, Christians were sometimes blamed for its The emperor Decius [DEE-see-us] (r. 249–251) S troubles. mounted a wide-ranging political test that required all T citizens (men, women, and children) to make a token I sacrifice to him. When the Christians refused to honor the emperor in this manner, hundreds of them were A killed, including several of their local leaders, or bishN ops. Decius’s sudden death ended this assault, but in 257 Valerian (r. 253–260) renewed it, which resulted in , the martyrdom of the bishop of Rome and the leading intellectual, Cyprian. The killings eventually ceased, but for the rest of the century the survival of the ChrisJ tian church was uncertain and depended on a muted A existence. Despite persecutions by the authorities, the Christian Mchurch drew much sustenance from Roman culture. I The language of the church in the western provinces Latin, and in the eastern provinces the religious E became leaders adopted Greek. The canon law that governed the church was based on the Roman civil law. Most imthe church modeled itself on the Roman state: 5 portant, bishops, the chief Christian officers in cities, had juris5 diction over territories called dioceses just as the secu6 lar governors controlled administrative dioceses. In addition, the church was moving toward a mo7 narchical form of government. Because the authority B of the officeholders was believed to descend from Jesus’s faithful supporters, those bishoprics (territories U ruled by bishops) established by apostles—such as the one in Rome that tradition claimed was founded by both Peter and Paul—emerged as the most powerful. From an insignificant number of followers at the end of the first century, the church had attained a membership of perhaps five million, or about a tenth of the population of the empire, by the end of the third century. The smallest communities were scattered along the frontiers, and the largest congregations were in Rome and the older eastern cities. Social composition of the 11/26/12 2:25 PM Christianity church came to include progressively higher classes. By the late second century, the middle classes, especially merchants and traders, were joining the church. Aristocratic women sought membership, but men of the highest classes tended to remain unconverted. Christianity’s appeal to women was complex, though all seemed to respond to its promise of salvation and the apostle Paul’s egalitarian vision (Galatians 3:28): “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Female converts also found the Christian community to be a refuge from the anonymity and cruelty of Roman society; the church formed a secret underworld of close relationships among people drawn together by an ascetic but loving way of life. Christianity offered power by allowing them to influence others by their faith; it widened their horizons through intimate contacts with spiritual leaders; it gave them new identities through foreign travel and involvement in a cause that was life sustaining; and, for those who chose lives of chastity, it could serve as a means of birth control and freedom from the constraints of marriage and family life. Early Christian Literature By the late second century, the status of the church had attracted the attention of leading Roman intellectuals, such as the philosopher Celsus [KEL-suhs] and the physician Galen [GAY-len]. Celsus ridiculed the Christian notion of the resurrection of the body and the new religion’s appeal to women and slaves. On the other hand, Galen found merit in Christianity because of its philosophical approach to life and its emphasis on strict self-discipline (see Chapter 7). In the second century, postbiblical Christian literature, generally unremarked by the secular world, took two forms. Apologists, vigorous, principled defenders of Christianity, offered arguments that Christians were loyal, dependable subjects of Rome; that Christianity and Judaism were different; and that living a Christian life in a pagan world was difficult, but possible. Theologians—for example, Tertullian [tehr-TULL-eeun] (about 160–230) and Origen [OHR-uh-juhn] of Alexandria (about 185–254)—began to define basic Christian teachings, to create a distinctive Christian vocabulary, and to relate Christian thought to classical learning. Tertullian’s life and writings showed the uncompromising nature of Christianity. Trained in Stoic philosophy in Roman Carthage, Tertullian later converted to the new faith after he witnessed the serenity of Christians dying for their religion. The strength of his beliefs made him a spokesperson for North Africa, where a cult of martyrs made the area the “Bible belt” of the Roman world. Writing in Latin, he helped to shape the western church’s voice in that language. His mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 145 145 diatribes against the pleasures of the theaters and arenas and his intense denunciation of women as sexual temptresses became legendary. In the severest terms, Tertullian rejected the Greco-Roman humanistic heritage, preferring the culture of Christianity. Origen of Alexandria shared Tertullian’s puritanical zeal, but he did not repudiate humanistic learning. In his mature writings, composed in Greek, Origen brought Christian thought into harmony with Platonism and Stoicism. Origen’s Jesus was not the redeemer of the Gospels but, rather, the logos of Stoicism (see Chapter 4). The logos, or reason, liberated the human soul so that it might move through different levels of reality to reach God. Origen’s Platonism led him Cto reject the notion of the resurrection of the body as Hdescribed in the Gospels and Paul’s letters and to asinstead that the soul is eternal. Although some Rsert of Origen’s ideas were later condemned, his philoI sophic writings, which were read secretly, helped free from its Jewish framework and appealed SChristianity to intellectuals. Origen also initiated the allegorical Tmethod of reading the scriptures. Behind the plain I words on the page, Origen taught, there were layers upon layers of deeper meaning. A Christian women writers in this earliest period were Nvery rare, because intellectual discourse was dominated by men. Women did play important roles in the , new faith—such as Mary Magdalene, who waited at Jesus’s empty tomb, and Lydia and Priscilla, whom Paul met on his travels—but their voices are almost always Jheard indirectly. In their theoretical writings, men ofAten addressed women’s issues, such as Tertullian’s “The Apparel of Women.” Nevertheless, the voice of one MChristian woman from this period has come down to I us: that of Vibia Perpetua (about 181–203 CE) of Carin North Africa, one of the first female saints. An Ethage anonymous account of the Christian martyrs’ struggles includes a verbatim reproduction of Perpetua’s writings prison. Filled with heartbreaking detail, the account 5in describes her prison ordeal as she awaited death while 5nursing her child. The sentence was imposed because 6she refused to renounce her faith (see Slice of Life). 7 BEarly Christian Art Although some early Christian writers, including TerUtullian and Origen, condemned the depiction of religious subjects as blasphemous, pious Christians, attracted by the pull of humanism, commissioned frescoes for underground burial chambers and sculptures for their sarcophagi, or marble tombs. Christian painters and sculptors slowly fused their religious vision with the Greco-Roman tradition, a style that would dominate the art of the late empire. Religious values and themes were central to Western art for more than a thousand years, until the Italian Renaissance. S N L DF 11/26/12 2:25 PM 146 CHAPTER SIX: JUdAISM And THE RISE oF CHRISTIAnITY SLICE OF LIFE A Christian Mother Faces Death from Roman Authorities Vibia Perpetua A MARTYR IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH Vibia Perpetua, an educated young woman from a wealthy Carthaginian family and a convert to Christianity, defied an edict against proselytizing issued by the non-Christian emperor in 202. She was jailed and died in the arena of Carthage in 203. This excerpt is part of her personal account of her last days before martyrdom. A few days later we were moved to a prison [in Carthage]. I was frightened, because I had never been in such a dark place. A sad day! The large number of prisoners made the place stifling. The soldiers tried to extort money from us. I was also tormented by worry for my child. Finally, Tertius and Pomponius, the blessed deacons responsible for taking care of us, bribed the guards to allow us a few hours in a better part of the prison to regain our strength. All the prisoners were released from the dungeon and allowed to do as they wished. I gave suck to my starving child. . . . I was permitted to keep my child with me in prison. His strength came back quickly, which alleviated my pain and anguish. The prison was suddenly like a palace; I felt more comfortable there than anywhere else. C Interpreting This Slice of Life H 1. Why was Vibia Perpetua being held captive by the R Romans? 2. Since the Roman guards were eager for bribes, I what does this reveal about their attitude toward S Christians? 3. How does Vibia Perpetua’s faith sustain her in T prison? I 4. Compare and contrast the religious conflict depicted here with religious conflicts in modern times. A N , J In imperial Rome, citizens had the legal right to bury A their dead in catacombs (underground passageways and chambers) alongside the roads leading out of Rome M(Figure 6.14). Many catacombs had arcosoliums, square I or rectangular arched rooms cut into the rock to serve chapels or burial vaults. By the late second century, E as some of the tombs displayed Christian symbols and subjects. Some images were purely symbolic, for excrosses, chi-rho’s, evangelist symbols, and fish 5 ample, (ichthus, the Greek word for fish, makes an anagram 5 interpreted as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”) (Fig6 ure 6.15). In the catacomb of Priscilla, a third-century fresco depicts a shepherd as a symbol of Jesus (see In7 terpreting Art). This depiction, one of the most popuB lar figural image in early Christian art, is based on the idea of Jesus as the shepherd of his flock of followers. U Even though the shepherd and sheep convey a Christian message, the image adapts a familiar Greco-Roman Figure 6.14 The Roman Catacombs: A Narrow Corridor with Niches for Burials. Because of their belief in a bodily resurrection, proper burial loomed large in the minds of early Christians. Roman Christians joined with other citizens in burying their dead along subterranean passages underneath the city. In 400, when Christianity triumphed in Rome, the custom of catacomb burial ceased. Knowledge of the catacombs passed into oblivion until 1578, when they were rediscovered and became subjects of study and veneration. S N L DF mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 146 11/26/12 2:26 PM Interpreting Art Context Priscilla was a Roman woman of senatorial rank who donated the land where the catacomb that bears her name is located. She may have been Christian. Literary Source The Bible refers to shepherds many times, but Luke 15: 4–5 is almost certainly the source here: “Who among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninetynine in the wasteland and follow the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders in jubilation.” Religious Perspective Shepherds are mentioned often in both the Jewish and Christian Bibles and stand for the loving care of God for his people. It is a metaphor that spawned not only art but also poetry and song. Composition A very simple image comprising a shepherd, two sheep, two trees or bushes, and two birds. Cultural Perspective C The shepherd image was originally Style A limited color scheme, secular and symbolized either a king H and faint, almost fuzzy, illusionistic and his people or a teacher and his figures float in space. This style was pupils. Christianity took over the R common in late Hellenistic times. image. Tombs in antiquity had often been decorated, but in Egypt the I images were intended to delight the dead person in the next life whereas S Christian images were meant to inspire and comfort the living. T I Christ as the Good Shepherd. Third century CE. Fresco. Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome. This fresco was painted on the ceiling Aof an arcosolium in the catacomb beside the Via Salaria. N 1. Literary Source What is the source for the Good Shepherd , 4. Context Define catacomb and arcosolium. image? 2. Composition Where is this image located and why is it there? 3. Style What are the chief stylistic features of this image? theme—known in both art and literature—that identified such diverse figures as the philosopher Pythagoras and the orphic cult leader orpheus with shepherds. The pose of the youth carrying an animal on his shoulders appeared in Archaic Greek sculpture as early as the sixth century BCE (Figure 6.16). The painter of the Good Shepherd ceiling fresco portrays the shepherd as a beardless youth without distinctive, godlike traits. The second-century statue of a shepherd depicted as 5. Religious Perspective What is the significance of a shepherd’s image? J A M I E 5 5 6 7 B U Figure 6.15 Symbolism and Early Christian Art. Christ monogram in a wreath. Central panel of a sarcophagus, marble bas relief, Early Christian, 4th century CE. Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican Museums. Early Christians had some aversion to figural representations and used symbols, such as chi-rho and alpha-omega. Chi and rho are the first two letters of “Christ” in Greek. Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, signifying God as the beginning and the end. The evangelist symbols—man, lion, bull, and eagle—were derived from the book of Revelation; however, the four symbols have numerous antecedents, for example, in Assyrian iconography. 147 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 147 11/26/12 2:26 PM S N L DF C Figure 6.17 Scenes from Chamber (Arcosolium) of the Velata, of Priscilla, Rome. Ca. 250–300. The deceased woman is H Catacomb depicted in the center in an orans (“praying”) position. Presumably she R is ascending to heaven. This would be a standard image in Christian art until modern times. At the figure’s right (the viewer’s left), a bishop is I blessing the woman’s wedding. The bride holds a scroll, the Roman tabula a document that spelled out the wife’s duties. A youth presents S nuptialis, the wedding veil. To the figure’s left (the viewer’s right), the woman is with an infant child. Such depictions of mother and child would T depicted soon be appropriated by Christian artists for the standard depiction of Mary I and Jesus. In fact, the oldest surviving image of Mary and the baby Jesus stands on another wall of this same arcosolium. A N the chapter-opening image (see page 128) attests to the , widespread use of this image. By such representations as these, the artists in effect declared the limits of their art in penetrating the mystery of Jesus as both God J and man. That is, they confined themselves to symimages. A bolic In the catacomb of Priscilla, in the same arcosolium Mwhose ceiling is graced by the Good Shepherd, a late image reveals scenes from the life of a I third-century Figure 6.16 Calf Bearer. Ca. 570 BCE. Marble, ht. 65″. Acropolis dead woman buried there (Figure 6.17). Christian art Museum, Athens. This sixth-century BCE Greek statue shows a young E was beginning to gain some narrative sophistication man carrying a calf probably intended for a ritual sacrifice. The statue is and its production values were getting higher and executed in the kouros style, popular in the Archaic Age, as indicated by the higher. This may point to greater wealth in the Chrisfrontality, stiffness, and stylized beard. The shepherd image later became 5 tian community. associated with Jesus in the early Christian period. SUMMARY S N L DF The historical experience of the Hebrews was relentlessly difficult. They were always surrounded by more powerful peoples who attacked and conquered them. They lived in a tiny land from which it was hard to scratch a bare existence. However challenging their lives may have been, the Hebrews clung tenaciously to their covenant with Yahweh that obliged them to believe in only one God, to worship him in specifically defined ways, and to promote justice among themselves. Viewing God as just and righteous, the Hebrews believed that their calamities resulted from 5 6 7 B U their own failures. The Hebrews wrote down a vast library of religious literature, some of which was essentially historical and spelled out the formulation of the covenant and God’s ongoing relationship with his people. Some of it was prophetic and constantly called people to believe and to behave. Some of it was beautiful literature, such as the Psalms. And some of it was homey, practical advice for daily living. during Augustus’s reign over the Roman world, a young Jew, Jesus, arose and began calling on people to repent and hear the good news, the gospel, that he 148 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 148 11/26/12 2:26 PM was professing. Jesus attracted a band of loyal followers and taught them by means of inspiring stories. His message was simple, and in a Jewish context, ancient: love God and love your neighbor. But Jesus, who called himself the son of God, also relaxed the requirements of the countless rules under which Jews had always lived. The Romans saw Jesus as a troublemaker and executed him. His dispirited followers rallied and a Jewish convert, Paul, joined their number. Gradually, they spelled out the Christian message in a body of writings that they called the new Testament, to differentiate those writings from the Hebrew Scriptures, thereafter called by Christians the old Testament. Christianity spread throughout the Roman world despite occasional persecution. Christians began to develop a church with regular officials and to write works of theology, books that sought to interpret and explain the Christian message. And, finally, Christianity began to adapt the arts of antiquity to its own purposes. The Legacy of Judaism and Early Christianity not a day goes by when Israel is not in the news. Surrounded by hostile people, the Jews in that country maintain confidence in their right to the land God promised Abraham. In antiquity, Jews were disparaged because they got in the way of imperialists or because they were a small minority practicing what seemed to others strange religious rituals. Eventually, anti-Jewish prejudices turned into malevolent antiSemitism, the hatred of Jews as a people. In Hitler’s Germany an attempt was made to eliminate the Jews as a people. But alongside prejudice and persecution, there are other stories. To be inclusive, people today speak of the “Abrahamic faiths”: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is crucial to remember that Judaism was the source for the other two. From both Judaism and Christianity, the West has inherited a moral and an ethical code. Pick up an American coin and see stamped on it “In God we trust.” The prodigious learning of the ancient rabbis has been retained and revived down through the centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Jews have made fundamental contributions to the western humanities in almost every area of life. The modern world would be inconceivable without Itzhak Perlman or George Gershwin, Albert Einstein or Betty Friedan. Readers of this book probably grew up reading books by Judy Blume and Shel Silverstein. For centuries Christianity had a privileged place in the West. The Romans made Christianity the state religion of the empire, and during the Middle Ages the culture was fundamentally Christian. The church was the great patron of builders, artists, and musicians into the modern world. The Protestant Reformation sundered Christendom but hardly diminished Christianity’s cultural influence. Modern secularization has weakened Christianity’s influence but has by Cindeed no means eradicated it. The “Religious Right” and the HCatholic Church remain major players in American although religious influences in European Rpolitics, society are increasingly weak; for example, topics like I abortion and evolution are prominent in America. But Sreligious schools continue to educate numerous pupils, and the Vienna Boys’ Choir still attracts packed Thouses eager to listen to stirring renditions of Latin I chants from the Middle Ages. The bishop of Rome— the pope—remains the most visible and in many Aways the most respected religious leader in the world. NAnd a recent pope, John Paul II (1978–2005), initiated a long-overdue process of healing relations between , Jews and Christians. J A M I E 5 5 6 7 Pope John Paul II visiting the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, on April 13, B1986. This marked the first time a pope had ever visited a synagogue or a rabbi. John Paul would go on to visit synagogues in Poland and Uembraced Israel. KEY CULTURAL TERMS covenant monotheism diaspora eschatology apocalypse Messiah scripture canon Gospels evangelists theology liturgy apologists catacomb arcosolium 149 mat76655_Ch06_128-149.indd 149 11/26/12 2:26 PM S N L DF INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES, UNIT 5 Discussion: In this, our final Unit, we encounter the Hebrews, Judaism, and Christianity. These groups bore one primary thing in common: Monotheism, The Belief in One God: YHWH. These groups' spiritual beliefs were codified in The Holy Bible, first through a covenant based upon lawkeeping [The Old Testament] and then through a new covenant [The New Testament] based upon faith in a messiah. Based upon what you can tell (from the text and from at least one additional resource), describe in two paragraphs at least one primary difference and at least one similarity between these two systems of belief /covenants. Let's spend our final discussion critically assessing the messages of the early Christians and what ideas and beliefs they represented. Begin by imagining that you are one of the following people alive in c. 100 CE in Greece and you have just heard your first sermon from a Christian convert; this could be a wealthy merchant, a woman married to a shop keeper or farmer, an impoverished solider or a student at the Lyceum. What do you think about the sermon? Share your response in one paragraph. In another paragraph, pretend that you are a skeptic, that is, someone who holds a different view from that expressed in the sermon. How would this individual respond critically or unfavorably to the sermon? In other words, you are offering TWO different points of view in this discussion in response to the sermon. REMEMBER: the more you can support your ideas with details and examples and quoted passages from both our text and secondary sources, the stronger your response. Minimum of 250 words and two scholarly sources. Reference: Matthews, R. T., Noble, T. F., & Platt, F. D. (2014). Experience humanities (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Complete: Complete Section: a minimum of 350 words per question and three scholarly sources per question including the book reference. Questions: 1.) What were the major stages in the historical development of ancient Israel? 2.) How do written and material evidence combine to reveal the history of Israel? 3.) What were the central teachings of Christianity? 4.) How do written and material evidence reveal Christianity’s relationship to classical culture?
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