Among the numerous messianic sects arising in the Jewish world at the beginning of the first Millennium, included the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, former followers of John the Baptist. The Christian community was accepted within Judaism until the year 65, approximately, when consummated the inevitable rupture between the two religious factions, motivated by the Messiah condition attributed to Jesus by his followers.
Historical background
On the occasion of the advent of Christianity, the entire region of the Mediterranean sea was under the power of Rome. Palestine, since the division between the northern Kingdom (Israel) and southern (Judah), which took place after the death of King Solomon, had been weaker politically and socially, in a process that culminated with the fall of Samaria, capital of the northern Kingdom in 722 BC, the Kingdom of Judah remained independent until the Babylonian conquest in 605 BCE To 586 the 539 , the Jews remained in captivity in Babylon, but to ascend to power the Persians have promoted the restoration, have allowed the maintenance of religious and cultural customs of the Jews and authorized the return of many of them to Judah. After the captivity in Babylon, the region of Judah came to be called Judea.
In 333 BC, the Greeks, with Alexander the great, subdued the Persians and included Palestine in the fields Macedonians. After the death of Alexander in 323, the vast Empire was divided between his generals and emerged, after several years of fighting, four major kingdoms or Empires, of which the most important were the Egypt and Syria. Palestine, situated between the two, serving as a strategic passageway during the frequent military campaigns. Judea, whose social, political and religious existence concentrated in the city of Jerusalem, he paid tribute to Egypt and Syria. In the year 198 BC, the Seleucid King Antiochus III took the entire region, Judea to Syria's dominance.
In 175 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes ascended to the Syrian throne, son of Antiochus III, who became involved almost immediately in a war with Egypt, which never left completely victorious, especially for the support that the Jewish religious leaders, mainly scribes, gave to the Egyptians. Religion and politics were United in Judea, where the high priest presiding over both the priests in the temple as the elders in the Sanhedrin Court that judged the criminal or administrative issues. Resolved to punish the Jews, Antiochus moved forward about Jerusalem, brought down its walls and plundered the temple, carrying the sacred vessels. To put an end to the Jewish religion, an obstacle to the submission of the Jews, forbade all forms of worship of Yahweh and initiated prosecutions. The Jerusalem Temple was desecrated with the construction of a pagan altar upon the altar of burnt offering.
Against this desecration revolted the Maccabees (or Hasmonean Dynasty), as well as all Jews devotees, who gathered in the mountains to organize the fight against the Syrians. The movement became widespread and the religious war quickly became a series of triumphs.Jerusalem was retaken and the reconsagrado Temple in December 165 BC Four years later, however, a mighty Syrian army defeated the Maccabees, that just might keep, as small rebel group, at Micmash.
This group gradually regained confidence of Jews and extended its influence and power, especially under John Hyrcanus, and came to dominate most of Palestine, except the northern Galilee, conquered later by Aristobulus, the son of Hyrcanus. The Sadducees supported the rebels, but the Pharisees, or separatist, disapproved of the policy of Hyrcanus because of agreements made with Rome. Against the rise of Alexander Jannaeus, who amassed the offices of King and high priest, the Pharisees revolted, causing violent civil war that lasted several years, sometimes with the supremacy of these, now of the Sadducees. The fight only ended with the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 BC, which made the Jews subjects of Rome.
Pompey named the Edomite (a descendant of Esau) Antipater Procurator of Judea. He was succeeded by his son Herod the great (47 BC), who, to gain the sympathy of the people, rebuilt with great splendour the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was born during his reign, probably in the year 6. The massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem, took place under Herod.
Herod's Kingdom was divided, in her will, among three of his sons: Archelaus (Judea and Samaria), Herod Antipas (Galilee and Peréia) and Philip (Ituréia and Traconítides).Archelaus was exiled in the year 6 of our era and its territory became administered by the Roman procurators, of which the fifth would Pilate. Herod Antipas ruled until the year 39, when he was deposed and banished, and Philip died without heirs in 34. Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the great and protected from Caligula, managed to reunify the realm.
Religious situation
For the Roman common subject, the borders of the Empire coincided with those of the civilized world. Was not aware of the Indian or Chinese civilizations, admired the great works and boasted of his empire. The communication was facilitated by great roads and by vessels. A common language, the Greek, favoured the cultural exchange and the great mixture of religious interests, whose sources were Judaism, other Eastern religions, the popular religiosity and the Greek thought.
Judaism
Despite the political domination of Judea by foreigners, Judaism has maintained almost always intact their religious institutions. A highly organized and politically influential clergy controlled the religious life and, mostly through the Sanhedrin, determined political positions. In general the Jews kept the Messianic hope, but were divided into factions and parties, whose motivations were to a greater or lesser fidelity to religious beliefs of the past or the acting political purposes.
The main organized groups among the Jews were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The first, composed of priests and aristocrats, exercised great political and economic influence and maintained good relations with Rome. Although strictly follow the Mosaic law, the Sadducees, strongly impregnated of Hellenic culture, denied the afterlife and messianism. The Pharisees, in contrast, had more religious than political concerns. Its origin dates back to the era of the Maccabees, around 130 BC, and his name means "separated", in view of the efforts made to maintain the Jewish faith away from all contact with paganism. Believed in eternal life and were ardent in their messianic hopes. Its activity is directed mainly to the masses, in which sought to instill the spirit of Holiness by the dissemination of traditional religious teachings.
There were also small groups of mystical life, gathered in communities of faith and work, one of which probably originated from John the Baptist. One of the most important of these groups was the Qumran community, rooted to the shoreline of the dead sea, no doubt linked to the Essenes. Its existence was revealed by the Dead Sea scrolls, discovered in 1948. Such communities regarded themselves as the faithful remnant of Jewish history.Kept the law, maintained periodic purification rituals, constantly renewing its accession to the Covenant with God and attend a sacred meal of bread and wine.Believed in the establishment of a Kingdom brought by a new Prophet.
The Essenes, another group of monastic type, existed, according to the historian Josephus, since 150 BC their communities if distributed by several Palestinian villages and exerted great influence on Jewish life. Supported the Pharisees, against the Sadducees, though differed from the first by practicing celibacy, rejecting animal sacrifice and deny the resurrection of the body. Accept the immortality of the soul and the punishment or reward after death. Some scholars claim that both John the Baptist as Jesus belonged to the Essene community.
Syncretism and popular religiosity
Many other cults and sects vied followers within the general framework of high expectations. Among the most successful movements were the Oriental cults of mystery, of enormous popularity, favored by the arrival of slaves from the East, adopted even by Roman soldiers. Among these are the cults of ISIS and Serapis, of Egypt; Cybele and Attis, of Syria, and Mithras, from Persia. These religions, alongside other expressions of Judaism itself, favored a remarkable syncretism, perhaps the greatest movement of amalgam of various religions registered by history, which included summaries of radically opposing beliefs. One example is the merger of worship naturalists with the god worshipped by Israel (Dionysus Sabázio, Phrygia, and the Kyrios Sabaoth).
Among the people practiced large number of superstitions. All acts of life, the professions, the seasons and the most important events had their gods, which in the future would appear, transmudados in santos, in the history of the Christian Church and in your calendar.Many preachers have become popular and frequently abused of the beliefs of the people. Also the Governors have created State cults and for themselves. The cult of the goddess Roma was already in Smyrna in 195 BC. In Pergamon, in the year 29 BC, there was a temple of Rome and Augustus.
Greek thought
The predominant influence among the more educated people of the population was, however, of the Greek philosophical thought, which would have great importance in the later formation of Christian theology.The "natural virtues" taught by Socrates, the idea of the immortality of the soul, Plato, the divine spark and the logos of Aristotle were some of the ideas that have shaped Christian thought. Between stoicism and Christianity there was even some common elements. The notion of a universal source and shaping of everything that exists, a soul that he expressed himself in human reason — that is, God himself in each one — influenced decisively in shaping Christian theology. Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus, tried to recast the Jewish faith in God through the Stoic and Platonic concepts, providing another source to the theology of the church fathers.
Other influences
The rebuilding of the temple, he recovered one of the most important symbols of the history of the Jewish people, he pointed out the contrast with the informality and simplicity of primitive Christianity and was one of the images that Jesus used to assert their design on a new relationship with the God of Israel. The Greek translation of the old testament, of the 70, another stimulus to thought at the time, favoured the universalization of Christianity. The authors of the New Testament used this text to compare the old and new doctrines.
Doctrines
The politics of Rome to the fullest extent of their domains was characterized by respect for different customs and languages of the conquered peoples, which favored the variety of religious ideas, both the popular character as the more rational in nature. Christianity arose, therefore, at a time of intense religious fermentation; his doctrine and theory suffered, throughout their period of training, the impact of these various sources. Christian concepts if localized at the beginning, to an original accent conferred upon the religious backdrop of the time. The first revelations, voiced by John the Baptist, confirmed and illustrated abundantly through Jesus, referred to some religious elements known and others whose originality is the dynamic force of the expansion of Christianity.
The idea of a single God and righteous, emphasized by the last prophets of Judaism in the old testament, Jesus added a personal revelation, which didn't have the content that the Jews had expected — a political realm – but the suffering Messiah, who would give their lives for the remission of sins and the salvation of all men who accepted. The rigidity of the final revelation and consummated, pride and conviction of some religious parties and civil status in many cases, Jesus opposed the freedom of God's power. Although it does not reject the law and the prophets, principles entrenched in the official interpretations broke.
The denial of the world, a life of rewards or punishments, new rites of initiation (baptism instead of circumcision), equality among all men, a moral and just life based on God's sovereignty were the teachings that Jesus imparted, leading a life of poverty and sacrifice, then, as the stories of the New Testament, of many miracles. The statement of Jesus about his own death, which would became a common belief among his first disciples and incorporated the fundamental doctrines established by the Apostle Paul.
Teaching of Jesus
The public activity of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius, corresponding to 28 year, when Jesus would have 32 years of age. His preaching was anticipated by John the Baptist, ascetic life, which many would hear in the desert, being baptized when confessed regret and the desire of new life. Jesus not only made many references to John, but he was also baptized. The teaching of Jesus is narrated in the Gospels of Matthew, mark and Luke, synoptic, and called John.
Whether Jesus considered himself the Messiah (Khristós in Greek) is a problem. The Gospels generally refer to it as such, since when were written (more or less between 70 and 98), such a belief was already sedimented between the disciples of Jesus. Nevertheless, texts such as the Mc 9:41 and 14:61, in which the name Christ appears, are of questionable authenticity, according to the opinion of exegetes conservatives, who consider the use of the Greek word Khristós without article, Paul language itself and not from the synoptic Gospels.
Thus Jesus manifested itself as the revelation of the Father, who came and who would return — which constituted a blasphemy to the Jews — and as the way, the truth and the Life. In his method of teaching the parables predominated, of which approximately 35 contained in the Gospels. There was in his preaching, however, the formal character of the whole elaborate theology, but only a general scheme of doctrine. In the first phase of his Ministry, Jesus talks about the Kingdom, its reality, character and meaning, but not relating to your person. Only in Caesarea of Philip (Mc 8:29) directs to Peter a question that induces the Apostle the answer that Jesus was the Messiah.
Preparation of theology
The preaching of the first apostles, addressed to the Jews, still did not constitute a Christology set, which would begin to be drawn up later, with the initial chapters of the acts and the Epistles of James. Reiterated stating that Jesus was the Lord and Christ, the one whom the prophets spoke, who came to the judgment and salvation.
It fell to Paul, converted around the year 35, the main task in the expansion of Christianity beyond the borders of Palestine and the systematization of their doctrines. The polemics of Paul with the Jews, raised by the increasing number of conversions, were instrumental in the characterization of Christianity as a universal religion and not as a Jewish sect.
The question about permission to the Jews to eat together with Gentiles and the rite of circumcision were preponderant elements in this debate and main themes of the Council of Jerusalem, gathered in the year 49. The Epistles of Paul, addressed to communities founded by him or by other missionaries, provided the basis for the doctrine of the incarnation, the Trinity, the Atonement, the Holy Spirit, of the Organization of the Church and the most complete equality of men, starting between Jews and Gentiles.
The fourth Gospel, attributed to John, which appeared between 95 and 98 (according to others, in 110), perhaps in Ephesus, gave another important contribution to the systematization of the Christian doctrines. It is unclear, however, if the peculiarity of his ideas can be attributed to effective teaching and knowledge of the life of Jesus or the influence of Greek thought or Gnostic. The use of the Greek word logos, in the preface of the book, explains the selection of the narratives and their depth, since the author knew the Jewish world and the Greek. The fourth Gospel sounds, many times, a continuation of the thought of St. Paul (Paul was at length in Ephesus), especially the texts on the pre-existence of Christ and the universality of its message.
Councils and schools
The book of the acts of the Apostles, written around the year about 90 events probably between 29 and 63, is the first effort of organization of Christianity. At 15 registers the first Council, in Jerusalem, in the year 49. From the middle of the second century there were councils or synods, with the purpose of solving issues relating to the heresies of the time. At the end of this century, settled in Alexandria, the culture of the Roman Empire, the Catechumens school, an institution where he taught Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine.
From 325, with the Council of Nicaea, began to be made larger councils, ecumenical, called also called for the purpose of establishing the position of the Church regarding the doctrines considered heretical.
In the 19th century, have multiplied the studies that examine Christian doctrine within the context of historical and social situations, as opposed to monolithic and static forms that they considered the doctrines as a set of immutable truths.
Expansion
The persecution of the Church, moved by Saul of Tarsus, before his conversion, when it adopted the name Paul, and the death of the first martyr, Stephen, had as a consequence the expansion of Christianity beyond the borders of Palestine, when fugitives from persecution reached the Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. The conversion of Paul, who before chasing the Christians, has greatly contributed to the dissemination of the new faith.
After the end of the Apostolic age, a period of about 40 years remained obscure in the history of Christianity.There are indications that this season, in which they were written the Gospels and the Epistles, met many changes and intense missionary work. Around the year 100, Christianity had already been established in Macedonia, in Anatolia, in Syria, in Greece, in Rome and, possibly, in Egypt. Despite differences among the churches in the various locations where Christianity, has your organization in mid-2nd century and was one of the means used by the early Church to combat more effectively the heresies of the time.
At the end of the 2nd century the Christian Church already termed Catholic (universal), a term first used by Saint Ignatius of Antioch. The first attempt to establish the Canon of the New Testament is also from this period.Around the year 150, the Bible was translated into Latin, for use in Africa. From the year 300, when Christianity was already present in all points of the Empire — now including North Africa, central Italy, southern Gaul and Spain-, several government officials and Imperial officials became, taking Christianity to the higher classes of society and also to members of the Roman army.
In the 4th century the situation changed radically, especially in the West, first with the voluntary departure of Diocletian in 305, and later with an edict of tolerance for Christians by Galerius, "under the condition that no practice that is contrary to the discipline". Constantine, acclaimed Emperor in the East, left for the conquest of the West. During sleep, imagined have seen the initials of the name of Christ, with the inscription "in hoc signo vinces" ("in this sign you will conquer"). To succeed in the battle against Maxentius in 312, joined the Christianity and, in 313, granted full freedom to the Christians. In 323, with the defeat of Licinius, who still controlled part of the Empire, were abolished completely the persecutions to Christianity. Thus began a new phase of its history: the Union with political power, which culminated under the rule of Theodosius I in 380, when was proclaimed official State religion.
