Page 180 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

eventually became the authoritative record of Jesus’s life and teachings and formed the core of the New Tes- tament. Recently, some scholars have argued that other gospels, such as that of Thomas, were rejected because they deviated from the beliefs about Jesus held by the emerging church leaders.
Although Jerusalem was the first center of Christian- ity, its destruction by the Romans in 70 C.E. left individ- ual Christian churches with considerable independence. By 100, Christian churches had been established in most of the major cities of the East and in some places in the Western part of the empire. Many early Christians came from the ranks of Hellenized Jews and the Greek-speak- ing populations of the East. But in the second and third centuries, an increasing number of followers came from Latin-speaking cultures. A Latin translation of the Greek New Testament that appeared soon after 200 aided this process.
Although some of the fundamental values of Christi- anity differed markedly from those of the Greco-Roman world, the Romans initially did not pay much attention to the Christians and regarded them at first as simply another sect of Judaism. The structure of the Roman Empire itself aided the growth of Christianity. Christian missionaries, including some of Jesus’s original twelve disciples, known as apostles, used Roman roads to travel throughout the empire spreading their “good news.”
As the popular appeal of Christianity grew, the Roman attitude toward it began to change. The Romans were tolerant of other religions except when they threat- ened public order or public morals. Many Romans came to view Christians as harmful to the order of the Roman state. Because Christians held their meetings in secret and seemed to be connected to Christian groups in dis- tant areas, the government could view them as poten- tially dangerous to the state.
Some Romans felt that Christians were overly exclu- sive and hence harmful to the community and public order. The Christians did not recognize other gods and therefore abstained from public festivals honoring these divinities. Finally, Christians refused to participate in the worship of the state gods and the imperial cult. Since the Romans regarded these as important to the state, the Christians’ refusal undermined the security of the state and hence constituted an act of treason, pun- ishable by death. But to the Christians, who believed there was only one real God, the worship of state gods and the emperors was idolatry and would endanger their own salvation.
Nevertheless, Roman persecution of Christians in the first and second centuries was never systematic but
142 Chapter 6 The Roman Empire
only sporadic and local. It began during the reign of Nero. After the fire that destroyed much of Rome, the emperor used the Christians as scapegoats, accusing them of arson and hatred of the human race and sub- jecting them to cruel deaths in Rome. In the second century, Christians were largely ignored as harmless (see the box on p. 140). By the end of the reigns of the five good emperors, Christians still represented a small minority, but one of considerable strength.
The Growth of Christianity
The sporadic persecution of Christians by the Romans in the first and second centuries did nothing to stop the growth of Christianity. In fact, it served to strengthen Christianity as an institution in those cen- turies by causing it to shed the loose structure of the first century and move toward a more centralized orga- nization of its various church communities. Crucial to this change was the emerging role of the bishops, who began to assume more control over church commun- ities. The Christian church was creating a well-defined hierarchical structure in which the bishops and clergy were salaried officers separate from the laity or regular church members.
THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIANITY Christianity grew slowly in the first century, took root in the second, and had spread widely by the third. Why was Christianity able to attract so many followers? First of all, the Christian message had much to offer the Roman world. The prom- ise of salvation, made possible by Jesus’s death and resurrection, had immense appeal in a world full of suf- fering and injustice. Christianity seemed to imbue life with a meaning and purpose beyond the simple material things of everyday reality. Second, Christianity was not entirely unfamiliar. It could be viewed as simply another Eastern mystery religion, offering immortality as the result of the sacrificial death of a savior-God. At the same time, it offered advantages that the other mystery religions lacked. Jesus had been a human figure, not a mythological one, such as Mithra. Moreover, Christian- ity had universal appeal. Unlike Mithraism, it was not restricted to men. Furthermore, it did not require a painful or expensive initiation rite as other mystery reli- gions did. Initiation was accomplished simply by bap- tism—a purification by water—by which one entered into direct communion with Jesus. In addition, Christi- anity gave new meaning to life and offered what the Roman state religions could not—a personal relation- ship with God and a link to higher worlds.
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