Page 150 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

of secularism, the separation of politics and religion, that the West holds today is a new view. In the
Hellenist world, the state and the religion were often one. The imperial cult, for instance, was a method
of political powers to ascertain who was a loyal subject and who was not. Fourth, we do notice many
deities were present in the Hellenistic world Paul visits. This does not mean that these cults were
tolerant of one another. As we have seen in other sections, the Jews wanted to kill Paul for subversion,
and the Ephesians wanted to kill him for undermining the worship of Artemis. The modern concept of
tolerance was not a religious virtue as some try to understand it today. 201

Some would love to say that Rome had its deities, Greece had its deities, and so on. The problem with
that is that Hellenism involved syncretism. Syncretism involves the combining or adopting of various
religions or cultures as part of another. Greece came before Rome as an empire. So many of the Asia
Minor cities adopted the Greek pantheon of deities as their own. Some of the deities were adopted by
the name they were known in in that culture. The same then happened when Rome took over. Writes
explains that

“Roman religion itself followed in the lines of the Greek Pantheon. The Roman interpretation of
Greek religion meant that Zeus was Jupiter; Poseidon, Neptune; Hera, Juno; Athene, Minerva;
Aphrodite, Venus; Ares becomes Mars; Artemis, Diana…Heracles changes a couple of letters to
become Hercules…of the major divinities, only Apollo retains his name unchanged in both
cultures.” 202

Different cities would have a different primary deity they served, though they
certainly served others as well. In Corinth, for instance, the remnants of the
temple of Apollo, see the picture on the right, can still be visited. 203 As we saw
in the section on Asian Minor, the temple of Artemis (Diana to Romans) was a
wonder of the ancient world (see reconstruction below). 204

Along with the
Pantheon of
Greek or Roman
deities,
households
would have
deities they
personally worshiped to gain favor and
blessings. These deities were usually
passed down from generation to
generation. Many Christians had
difficulties knowing how exactly to engage
with the city rituals and related issues. In
Romans, the issue of food sacrificed to

201 N.T. Wright and Michael F Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and
Theology of the First Christians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 153.
202 Ibid, p.146.
203 Brisco, Thomas V. Holman Bible Atlas. Holman Reference. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998.
254.
204 Reconstructional Picture of Temple of Artemis. http://www.ephesustravelguide.com/temple-of-artemis.html

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