Lesson 04 | Spread of Christianity in the Ancient World

            The great missionary journeys of St. Paul and the wonderful work of Peter and the rest of the apostles make us think of the extraordinary spread of Christianity and its establishment in most of the Roman provinces in apostolic times (cf. Rom 1,8; Col 1,6,23), while in the rest of the known world its spread was slow and more difficult.

            In the most important cities of the Roman Empire we find Christian communities of considerable size.  For a very long time Christianity continued to be substantially a religion for the cities, and only slowly and with much difficulty did Christianity establish itself in the countryside.  The first groups came from the Jews of the diaspora and from the pagans, the “devout men who feared God” (Cf. Acts 10,2) (viri religiosi et timentes Deum).

            The new religion took root in the middle and low classes of society: artisans, traders, soldiers, slaves and among women.  We find, however, from the very beginning, rich Christians, learned and high people among the faithful, as we can see from the Acts of the Apostles (Sergius Paulus: Areopagus) and from the Pauline Letters.  From the end of the 2^nd century the number of learned and important Christians grew and even people belonging to the Roman nobility, to the Roman Army and officials of the Empire became Christians.  Tertullian (ca. 155-228) says: “we are but of yesterday and we fill your towns, your islands, even your camps and your palaces, the Senate and the forum; we have left you only your temples.”  By the year 250 Christianity was so widely extended that the universal and ferocious persecutions which began at this time could not hinder its final victory.

            By the beginning of the fourth century, out of a possible population of 50 or 60 million in the Roman Empire, the number of Christians may have been seven or eight million (ca.); most of them in the East.  The Christians were particularly strong in Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, Armenia, Egypt and in some regions in Central and Northern Italy, in North-West Africa, in Spain and in Gaul.  Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and still more the Church Fathers of the 4^th and 5^th centuries saw in this wonderful and rapid expansion of Christianity, among the many obstacles and difficulties, a clear proof of its supernatural origin.  In fact, for them this was the literal fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy: the grain of mustard seed had become a tree, which had began to cover the earth.

           

Major External Causes for the Rapid Diffusion of Christianity

            We are not well informed in general about this mysterious expansion, about the external diffusion of this new reality that was Christianity.  All we know is that its spread surprisingly fast, even in the face of the mightiest opposition.

            When we proceed to enumerate the “causes” of this rapid diffusion of Christianity we must never lose sight of a mysterious reality behind everything.  We cannot answer this question on the causes of this rapid diffusion of Christianity just by citing three or four sentences continuously repeated.  It is possible to bring in some concrete historical facts, but the total process in which numberless causes operate and actuate at the same time.  But, in fact, this growth proves the truth of one of the most important theological principles, “gratia praesupponit naturam.” That is, the decisive thing is the divine grace; yet grace does not work by chance or magic, but orderly, in accordance with the natural realities.

            With this brief introduction let us now examine the “external realities” that favored the rapid diffusion of Christianity or those that actually promoted its advance.  Some of the most important have been mentioned already in the chapter dealing with the State of the World at the time of Jesus.  In this chapter on the diffusion of Christianity we will follow the noted and famous Protestant historian Adolf Harnack.[1] Harnack mentions a number of causes, external to Christianity, that greatly helped in the spreading of the Christian religion.  These were the following:

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The Hellenization of the East

            The “Hellenizing of the East,” (in part also) of the West, which had gone on steadily since Alexander the Great; or, the comparative unity of language and ideas which this Hellenizing process had produced.  Not until the close of the second century AD does this Hellenizing process appear to have exhausted itself, while in the fourth century, when the seat of the empire was shifted to the East the movement acquired a still further impetus in several important directions.  As Christianity allied itself very quickly though incompletely to the speech and spirit of Hellenism, it was in a position to avail itself of a great deal in the success of the latter.  In return it furthered the advance of Hellenism and put a check to its retreat.

The World-Empire of Rome

            The world-empire of Rome and the political unity which it secured for nations bordering on the Mediterranean; the comparative unity secured by this world-state for the methods and conditions of outward existence, and also the comparative stability of social life.  Throughout many provinces of the East, people felt the emperor really stood for peace, after all the dreadful storms and wars; they hailed his law as a shelter and a safeguard.  Furthermore, the earthly monarchy of the world was a fact which at once favored the conception of the heavenly monarchy and conditioned the origin of a Catholic or Universal Church.

Rapid Communication

            The exceptional facilities, growth, and security of international traffic: the admirable roads, the blending of the different nationalities; the interchange of wares and of ideas; the personal intercourse; the ubiquitous merchant and soldier – one may add the ubiquitous professor, who was to be encountered from Antioch to Cadis, from Alexandria to Bordeaux.  The Church thus found the way paved for expansion; the means were prepared and the population of the large towns was a heterogeneous and devoid of a past as could be desired.

The Acceptance of the Essential Unity of Mankind

            The practical and theoretical conviction of the essential unity of mankind, and of human rights and duties, which was produced or at any rate intensified, by the fact of the “Orbis Romanus” on the one side and the development of philosophy upon the other, and confirmed by the truly enlightened system of Roman jurisprudence, particularly between Nerva and Alexander Severus.  On all essential questions the Church had no reason to oppose, but rather to assent to, Roman law, that grandest and most durable product of the empire.

The Birth of Democratic Ideas

            The decomposition of ancient society into a democracy; the gradual equalizing of the “Cives Romani” and the provincials, of the Greeks and the barbarians; the comparative equalizing of classes in society; the elevation of the slave class, in short, a soil prepared for the growth of the new formations by the decomposition of the old.

Religious Policy of Rome

            The religious policy of Rome, which furthered the interchange of religions by its toleration, hardly presented any obstacles to their natural increase or transformation or decay, although it would not stand any practical expression of contempt for the ceremonial of the State-religion.  The liberty guaranteed by Rome’s religious policy on all other points was an ample compensation for the rough check imposed on the spread of Christianity by her vindication of the State-religion.

The Existence of Associations and Organizations

            The existence of associations, as well as of municipal and provincial organizations: in several respects the former had prepared the soil for the reception of Christianity, while in some cases they probably served as a shelter for it.  The latter actually suggested the most important forms of organization in the Church and thus saved her the onerous task of first devising such forms and then requiring to commend them.

The Irruption of Syrian and Persian Religions

            The irruption of the Syrian and Persian religions into the empire dated especially from the reign of Antoninus Pius.  They had certain traits in common with Christianity, and although the spread of the Church was at first handicapped by them, any such loss was amply made up for by the new religious cravings which they stirred within the minds of men – cravings which could not finally be satisfied apart from Christianity.

 

All these outward conditions … brought about a great revolution in the whole human existence under the empire, a revolution which must have been highly conducive to the spread of the Christian religion.  The narrow world had become a wide world; the rent world had become a unity; the barbarian world had become Greek or Roman; one empire, one universal language, one civilization, a common development towards monotheism, and a common yearning for saviors.

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The Major Internal Causes for the Rapid Diffusion of Christianity

            We have to look for some internal causes to be found in Christianity itself.  Is it possible for us, so far away from the events and facts, to pinpoint the internal causes of this unparalleled diffusion?  Is there anything inherent to Christianity itself favoring the unstoppable expansion of early Christianity?

            Indeed, there are many causes inherent to Christianity.  A good historian must not conform himself with external causes, forgetting the basic historical reasons explaining any historical event.  In the case of Christianity’s marvelous expansion in the Roman empire, the cause has to be found in Christianity itself.

            Among the forces of attraction inherent to Christianity we find above all:

The Force of the Truth

            The force of the truth which proved all the more effective since the Gospel so far surpassed in contents and understanding all the wisdom of the world and gave an answer to the problems that perennially torment the human spirit, such as, a) the problem of God, b) the immortality of the soul [If man dies shall he live again?] c) the meaning of human life [Where do we come from? Where are we going to?] d) the problem of retribution.  Christianity won over to its cause men who like Justin (ca. 100-168), Tatian (ca. 120-183) and Dionysius had made all the necessary efforts to discover the truth in the different systems of pagan wisdom, but all was in vain.  As St. Justin rightly says, (Dial, 8) they discovered in Christianity the only true philosophy on which to hope, the only one to be put into practice.

            Christ’s doctrine was, for the pagans, something absolutely new and unheard of.  Christianity gave and offered them “the Gospel of the Savior and of Salvation, the Gospel of love and fraternal help, the religion of the spirit of fortitude, of moral behavior and holiness, the religion of authority and reason, of mysteries and transcendent revelations, the message of the new people and of the third kind of men, the religion of the book and of the historical realization” (A. Harnack; cfr. Bihlmeyer, o.c. p. 95).  The followers of Christ were convinced that their religion was totally new and something extraordinary had happened with the advent of Christianity, so that the old criteria of values were destroyed.  Ignatius of Antioch (ca. 35-107) declares (Rom. 3, 3): “Christianity is not the work of human persuasion but of divine greatness, for that it is hated the world over.”

The Gift of Charisms

            We must not forget the gift of charisms in the primitive Church (1 Cor. 12-14), first of all that of curing the sick and the expulsion of demons, the gift of tongues and many more extraordinary miracles which gave testimony to the truth (Justin, Apol. II, 6; Dial. 127; Adv. Haer. II, 32, 4); Tert., Apol. 23; De Anima 47; Origen, Contra Celsum I, 6, 46; IIIm 28; Cyprian, Ad Donatum 5; Eus. H.E., V, 3, 4).

The Life and Fervor of the First Christians

            A great importance in the rapid expansion of Christianity has the life and fervor of the faith of the first Christians.  Men and women, noble and plebeian, free and slave, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, officials, magistrates, traders, and soldiers: all of them felt the need of expanding and spreading Christianity like apostles.  According to the primitive Christian conception every Christian must be a missionary of his faith in virtue of the grace and duty conferred upon him in baptism.

            Not only Christian writers, but also pagans [Pliny the Younger (62-120), Celsus, (II cent.), Galenus (ca. 129-200), the Emperor Julian the Apostate, (361-63)] testify that:

a.     The life of the Christians as such was a most eloquent sermon in that pagan atmosphere and that the example of their virtues procured for the Church many new converts.

b.     The severe customs, their chastity, their fraternal love and admirable charitable activities were bright lights in that dark and obscure background which was the pagan world, the pagan society, filled with vices, with mutual aversion and hate.

The Christian apologists of the 2^nd century, such as Aristides (c. 15,16) and the author of the Letter to Diognetus, speak of the wonderful life of the Christians.  But not only these apologists, but also men like Tertullian (ca. 155-228) (Apol. 39), Minucius Felix (Octavius, p.31). According to Origen, (185-254) in his Contra Celsum (III, 29) the Christians, in comparison to the pagan masses, were “authentic celestial stars on earth.”[2]  St. Justin (100-168), rightly believes that the wonderful examples given by the Christians were the motives why many people embraced Christianity (cfr. Apol. I, 16).  Tertullian, (Apol. 39) reminds us of the common pagan exclamation despising the Christians: “Look how they love one another and are ready to die for one another.”  The Emperor Julian, the Apostate (361-363) (Epistula, 49), said that the rapid diffusion of Christianity was due to its charitable work, to the care given to the dead and to the holy life (in his eyes hypocrisy) of the followers of Christ.

Martyr’s Heroism

            One of the main and decisive arguments for conversion was, however, the strength and fortitude of the Christians during persecution and above all, the martyr’s heroism.  These people were ready to suffer anything, even death for Christ.  The great Apologist St. Justin (100-168) (Apol. II, 12), testifies that this fortitude of the Christians had broken in him the conviction of their guilt and, in the end, had moved him to become a Christian.

Y es asi yo mismo, cuando seguia la doctrina de platon, oia las calumnias contra los cristianos; pero, ai ver como iban intrépidamente a la muerte y a todo lo quer se tiene por espantoso, me puse a reflexionar ser imposible qué tales hombres vivieran en la maldad y en el amor de los placeres.  Porque qué hombre, amador del placer, que intemperante y que tenga cosa buena devorar carnes humanas, pudiera abrazar alegremente la muerte, que ha de privarle de sus bienes, y no trataria más bien por todos los medios de prolongar indefinidamente su vida presente y ocultarse a los gobernantes, cuante menos soñar en deleitarse a si mismo para ser muerto?

The great Tertullian, writing to the pagan proconsuli exclaimed: “Afflict us, torment us, crucify us, - in proportion as we are mowed down, we increase; the blood of Christians is a seed” (Apol. 50), “Cruciate, torquete, damnate, atterite nos;…plures efficimur, quotiens metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum.” And not only St. Justin and Tertullian, but also most of the Fathers and Christian writers of the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries (Acta Apolloni 24; Adv. Haer. IV, 33, 9; Ep. Ad Diog. 7; Origen, Contra Celsum, VII, 26).  Lactantius (245-338) the great African Christian writes: “Augetur religio Dei, quanto magis premitur.” (Inst. V, 19, 9) “The religion of God grows the more it is persecuted.”

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[1] The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Chicago, 1961.

[2] Cf. St. Paul, Philippians 2, 15: “Do all things without grumbling that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Lesson 03 | St. Paul

            The conversion of the Gentiles to Christianity was the work of the apostles.  This is what tradition tells us.  And it must be so if the apostles were to be faithful to the command of going all over the world to preach the New Gospel and baptize all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  We know in every detail the work of St. Paul.  He is the propagandist, the herald of the Gospel among the pagans.  He is the apostle of the Gentiles and no other apostle can be compared to him in this work.

            The Jews used to call the Gentiles all those people who were not Jew. Pagan and Gentiles are synonymous and cover all those people who believed and adored false divinities.

            The apostles, even after the long education with Christ, even after having been chosen priests of the “New Covenant” and having been sent by the Risen Lord to preach to the whole world and to all people, did not overcome the idea of a “Jewish national kingdom.” They still expected the restoration of the Jewish national state and kingdom (Acts 1:16). Because of this, they could not quite understand that the pagans could and should be admitted into the Church. The pagans were “the impure.” The description in the Acts of the Apostles of Peter’s vision about the “pure” and the “impure” animals (Acts 10:9-16); what they say about the first community at Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-16); and the amazement of the Jews who went with Peter to Caesarea, at the way the grace of God manifested itself to pagans (Acts 10:45), allow us to see, quite clearly, the inner difficulties which were to be overcome before Peter admitted to the Church in Caesarea, the pagan centurion Cornelius. The opposition from the Judaeo-Christian party to the admission of pagans into the Church continued for some time, even after the wonderful miracles which accompanied it.

           

St. Paul of Tarsus: The Apostle of the Gentiles

            St. Paul was able to break down this hard opposition. He was the man to free Christianity from the yoke of the Jewish law and conquer the world for Christ.

            St. Paul was entirely of Jewish blood, nevertheless, he was the one to uproot Christianity from its original Jewish soil, that menaced to smother it, transplant it to the universal stage of the Graeco-Roman culture and the Roman empire and graft it into a universal soil.  He contributed much to the enormous change that happened in Christianity from 33-67.  This change is in every aspect, a gigantic work, and it was done by a man of weak body, against a multitude of false brethren who everywhere wanted to destroy him.

            Paul was born in the Hellenistic town of Tarsus in Cilicia, in Asia Minor.  His parents were Jews, with Roman citizenship.  Under Gamaliel’s direction in Jerusalem, he became a learned Pharisee, full of enthusiasm for the law of his forefathers.  His zeal for the law made him a participant in the martyrdom of Stephen and led him to persecute the disciples, even those dwelling outside the city.  Going to Damascus, to the city, he heard this voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” and he said, “Who are you, Lord?”  and he said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5). 

            This happened about the year 33, seventeen years before the council of Jerusalem (Gal 1:8; 2:1).  Saul’s surrender was immediate and wholehearted.  After being baptized by Ananias, Paul was eager to begin preaching the new doctrine; but upon the advice of his new friend, he retired to the Arabian desert, where he stayed for 3 years.  Then he went to Damascus.  These years were his preparation for his new mission: to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.  A short visit to the Apostles at Jerusalem confirmed him externally of the certainty of his apostolate (Gal 1:13-20).  He remained in Jerusalem for 15 days with Peter and James the Younger, the only apostles he found in the city and continued on to Tarsus.  Finally accepting the invitation of Barnabas, he went to Antioch (42-43), where his work in the vineyard of the Lord properly began.

            St. Paul was a Jew, a Roman, and also a Hellenist.  He was then, by birth, study and way of life a representative of the three great cultures which Christianity encountered in antiquity.  Because of this, Paul had within himself the capacity to obtain the triumph Christianity over these 3 cultures.  This fact is vital to the future history of the Church.

            His whole idea was to free the Church from the Synagogue and from Palestine and make her really universal. He put all his energy and his great soul to the service of this calculated and well-planned mission; to go mainly to the most important cities and commercial centers of the Roman Empire, centers, too, of Hellenistic culture. His final aim was the Imperial City of Rome, capital of the world and Spain (Acts1: 21; Rm 15, 24, 28). This activity of his had the most extraordinary effects and was entirely successful; so that he could affirm to have worked more than the other apostles (1Cor 15:10). If it is true that first he used to go to the Hebrews, “his kinsmen by race,” (Rom 9:3) in fact later, owing to their stiffness and opposition, he got most of the new proselytes from among the pagans. His success was truly great.

            The main instrument to that effect was his Gospel, not a work of man but a Gospel that came to him through revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:6-13). This Gospel was based on this simple doctrine: salvation to all will only come by faith in Jesus Christ without any need of circumcision or of any other works of the law. With his Letters – Epistles – St. Paul became the founder of Christian theology.

St. Paul’s Missionary Journeys

First Journey (45-48 AD)

            St. Paul’s first journey from around 45 to 48 took him to Cyprus, where he converted the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus.  From Cyprus he went to Asia Minor.  Here, he preached in Perga of Pamphilia, in Antioch of Pisidia, in Iconium, at Lystra and Derbe of Licaonia, helped by Barnabas and for some time by John Mark (Acts 13 and 14).

            But now, important events were taking place in the Christian Church.  These events paved the way for the final separation of the Church from the synagogue.  The Acts of the Apostles tell us: “some came down from Judea [to Antioch] and were teaching the brethren, ‘unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’” (15:1).  This was, according to Barnabas and Paul, a terrible threat to the freedom of the Christians coming from paganism.  It provoked a serious agitation (controversy over the observance of the Mosaic Law).  So it was decided to send Paul and Barnabas as delegates to Jerusalem to place the case in front of that community.

Council at Jerusalem (49/50 AD)

            The apostles came together with the elders to consider the matter.  The council of the Apostles, as it is usually known, substantially accepted St. Paul’s doctrine, preaching and work.  Freedom from the Mosaic law was recognized and approved by the apostles, “columns or pillars of the Church” (James the Younger, Peter and John [Gal 2:9]).  Out of respect for the Jews and to facilitate the fusion in the nascent Church between Jews and pagans, the apostles demanded from the pagans the following:

1.     to abstain from the pollution of idols;

2.     from illicit sexual relations;

3.     from strangled animals; and

4.     from blood.

These are the so-called Four Clauses of James, also known as the Decree of the Apostles (Acts 15, 28 ff).

Some time after the Council of Jerusalem, even the Christians coming from Judaism were freed from the yoke of the law, first those outside Palestine, later those of Palestine.

At Antioch, the great center of Christians coming from paganism, the Mosaic law did not bind as law of the country, as in Palestine, and the Christians coming from Judaism left it soon.  Even St. Peter ate together with the Christians coming from paganism without paying much attention to the Jewish laws about food; he lived, according to Paul’s expression “like a Gentile” (Gal 2:14).  It must be said, however, that Peter did this out of love for the Gentiles more than out of conviction that he was right.  So much so that when some brethren from Judea were scandalized by his conduct, he separated himself from the Gentiles, being followed in this by Barnabas and many other Hebrew Christians.

This conduct placed the Gentiles, already Christians, below the Hebrew Christians and implied a moral restriction to observe the Jewish practices, with grave danger for Paul’s missionary activity.  Paul, nevertheless, “opposed him to his face because he stood condemned” (Gal 2:11) and his attitude, no doubt, was crowned with success.  Although St. Paul had still to fight, especially in Galatia and Corinth, against the machinations of the Judaizers, the autonomy of the Church of Christ and her independence from the synagogue were never questioned again.

The destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus (79-81) in the year 70, while commander of the Roman army of Judea, definitely sealed this separation.  “The Christian ideals about the future became universal because there was no more terrestrial Jerusalem” (Mommsen).  The Christians coming from Judaism lost much ground; a small faction of them, who wanted to continue in their isolation, ended up in heresy.

Second Missionary Journey (50-52)

            After the incident at Antioch, St. Paul set out for the second missionary journey into the pagan world around the year 50-52.  He was accompanied by Silas (Silvanus), later by Timothy and Luke, while Barnabas finally separated from him because of John Mark.  Barnabas and John Mark went to Cyprus.  The apostle began his work by visiting the communities of Licaonia and Pisidia.  He went on to Phrygia, Galatia and Mysia (Moesia).  They continued to Troas from here then over to Macedonia and Greece.  He preached in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea and finally in Athens, where he went alone.  In this most famous city, he was filled with sadness at the spectacle he saw.  But “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16).  After a wonderful discourse in the Areopagus, some people believed in his doctrine, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris and others with him.” (Acts 17:34)

            He went to the famous and rich city of Corinth where he stayed for a year and a half helped by the Judaeo-Christians Aquila and Priscilla, who had been expelled from Rome (50) together with many Jews, by the Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54).  Somewhat later the Jewish convert Apollo (Apollonius) an eloquent and learned native of Alexandria began to preach at Corinth.  Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, and brother of the philosopher Seneca, refused to press the charges which the Jews made against Paul.  A recently discovered Delphic inscription definitely fixes the date of Gallio’s term of office at Corinth from 51 to 52 AD.  From Corinth, he continued to Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and after spending a short time there, he went to Jerusalem, returning soon to Antioch of Syria.

Third Missionary Journey (53-58)

            He did not stay long in Antioch because around the year 53, he set out for a third missionary journey which lasted until the year 58 (circa).  After stopping briefly in Galatia and Phrygia, to visit the new and young Churches established by him in his previous missionary journeys, he set out for Ephesus, where he stayed for two and a half years.  The spreading of Christianity caused tumult organized by a certain Demetrius.  This forced Paul to leave Ephesus.  He went to Troas, Macedonia and Greece (Corinth) and probably also to Illyricum (Rm 15:19). It is at this time that he sustained the Churches of Rome, Corinth and Galatia by writing the letters to them.

Return to Jerusalem and Prison

            When Paul returned to Jerusalem in 58 to bring alms and help the brethren, he lost his freedom of action.  The hatred of the Jews almost stopped him, but being rescued by the tribune Claudius Lysias, he was taken to the procurator Felix at Caesarea.  He was kept in prison for two years (58-60).  His successor Festus sent Paul to Rome because, as a Roman citizen, he appealed to Caesar.  He arrived there, after a perilous crossing, the next year (61).  His imprisonment, however, left him free time to preach the Gospel and for two years continued to do it.  With this, the Acts of the Apostles come to an end and we will lose sight of Paul.  Some people believed that in 64, he died during the persecution of Nero (54-68).  But most probably, he was acquitted and he realized the journey he has always yearned to make: his mission to Spain.  The Muratorian Canon speaks with certainty of a “profectio Pauli ad urbe ab Hispaniam profisciscentis,”[1] and in the same sense are understood the words of Clement the Roman in his Letter to the Corinthians (circa 96), where he says that Paul reached, as a herald of the Gospel, the end of the West.  It is, then, probable comparing his pastoral Epistles (I & II Timothy and Titus) with those to the Philippians, Ephesus and Colossians, that Paul suffered a second imprisonment in Rome.  That imprisonment ended with his capital execution, probably by beheading, in the year 67.  His tomb can be found in the beautiful basilica of St. Paul, outside the walls of Rome, near the Ostia Road.  His execution took place, according to a pious tradition, in a place called “Tre Fontane” (Three Fountains).

Conclusion

            This is the wonderful work of St. Paul.  As we have already noticed, nobody did more than he did for the spreading and consolidation of Christianity.  He excelled over all the other apostles.  He had excellent qualities: a vivid imagination, a profound intelligence, an ardent soul and indomitable energy.  All these qualities, however, were nothing without God’s grace which was not in vain in him (1Cor 15:10), as he himself testifies.  When he felt that his end was near and his departure at hand, that he had to meet Christ, the Christ he loved so much (Cupio Dissolvi et esse cum Christo), he wrote to his beloved Timothy: “I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (Tim 2:4, 6-8).  As an author says: “perhaps there is nothing so sublime in all the writings of Paul as these words of the aged athlete whose faith is stronger than ever, who knows no weariness, who leaves the stadium because the race has been won.”[2]

St. Peter: The Apostle and His Martyrdom in Rome

            What we know about Peter is much scantier than what we know about Paul.  We know that the Lord chose him to be the cornerstone, the shepherd of the Church (Mt 16:18ff; Jn 21:15ff).  The Acts of the Apostles (1-11) speak of his work in Jerusalem and in Palestine in the first years after the Lord’s Ascension into heaven; the preaching after Pentecost, the healing of the lame man from birth, the one “whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple” (Acts 3:2ff), the double imprisonment, his preaching in Samaria and Judea.  We have already said that Peter was from the very beginning, the leader of the Apostles.  The Acts do not tell us where Peter went after his liberation in 42, but according to a tradition [Origen; Eusebius], Peter is considered the founder of the episcopate of Antioch.  So it is presumed that he went to that city in Syria.

            It is possible and probable that he went to Rome already during the time of the Emperor Claudius (41-54).  We find him at the Council of Jerusalem (circa 50) and it is again presumed that he went to Rome at the beginning of Nero’s reign (54-68).  Historically speaking, this does not constitute a problem.  Everything speaks in favor of his martyrdom at Rome and nothing against it.  However, given the theological transcendence of this fact, it is legitimate for the historian to ask himself how certain we are about it.

            According to a tradition already common in the fourth century (Catalogue of the Popes of 354, St Jerome) Peter lived in Rome for 25 years, from 42 to 67, but it does not necessarily mean a continuous sojourn in the city.  It is very sure that he exercised his apostolate in Rome with all his apostolic powers and that here he met his death during Nero’s persecution.

            The denial of this has been dictated by confessional prejudices and the critical bias of Protestants against the Roman supremacy, but later few historians deny Peter’s sojourn and martyrdom at Rome.  His sojourn at Rome is already mentioned in his first letter (1Pt 5:13).  In fact by “Babylon,” the author’s residence must be understood the corrupt capital of the world.  The unanimous tradition of Christian antiquity of both East and West furnishes incontrovertible evidence.  A series of noted and trustworthy writers of the first two centuries bear ample witness to the facts.

1.     St. Clement, bishop of Rome (ca. 91-101 AD), third successor of Peter and one who must have known him personally, (consequently only a generation after the events) writing about the year 96 in his Letter to the Corinthians (Ch 5,6) considered Peter and Paul victims of envy and jealousy.  They fought till death (in front of powerful people) and were witnesses (martyrein – they confessed Christ in front of the judge) before going to the glory owed them.  As St. Clement relates the Apostle’s martyrdom with Nero’s persecution, of which he speaks immediately and afterwards, it is clear according to him, that both died in Rome.  (“To these men, whose life was holy, there is joined a great multitude of elect ones who, in the midst of numerous tortures inflicted for their zeal, gave among us a magnificent example.”)

2.     St. Ignatius (ca. 35-107) the martyr, bishop of Antioch, martyred at Rome under Trajan, speaks of the straight relation of Peter and Paul with Rome.  Otherwise we could not quite understand why around the year 107, in his Letter to the Romans, 4,3, he writes: “I do not command you like Peter and Paul did” (oux os Petrus kai Paulos dictasemai onen).  Tradition does not tell us of any letter of Peter to the Romans.  These reports then, must be real.

3.     Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215), speaking of the genesis of the second Gospel (in Eusebius, II, 15; VI, 14), says that Mark, interpreter of Peter, wrote his Gospel (which is St. Peter’s preaching) to satisfy the wishes and entreaties of Peter’s Roman listeners.

4.     Bishop Dionysius of Corinth, around the year 170, writes to the Romans that Peter and Paul suffered their martyrdom at Rome at the same time and died witnesses of Christ (Eusebius, II, 25).  This is how Eusebius quotes him: “in this very way by your impressive admonition you have bound together all that has grown from the seed which Peter and Paul sowed in Romans and Corinthians alike.  For both of them sowed in Corinth and taught us jointly; in Italy, too, they have taught jointly in the same city and were martyred at the same time (Letter to Soter, written ca. 170 AD).

5.     Irenaeus of Lyons, writing around the years 180-190, attributes the foundation of the Church of Rome to the glorious apostles Peter and Paul (Adversus Haereses, II, 3, 2, 3) and gives an elenchus of all the Roman bishops from Peter down to his own time.

6.     Gaius, a Roman presbyter, ca. 200, declares in most categorical form, that even during his time, he could find in Rome the “tropheian”, the mortal remains of the two apostles, those of Peter on the Vatican Hill and those of Paul along the Ostian Road – Via Ostiense.  Eusebius quotes him: ”I can point out the monuments of the victorious apostles.  If you will go as far as the Vatican or the Ostian Way, you will find the monuments of these two who founded this Church” (Eusebius, II, 25).  He wrote this in the Dialogue against Proclus, the leader of the Montanists from Phrygia.

7.     Sometime later, Tertullian tells us about Peter’s sojourn and death at Rome (De Praescriptione, 32,36; Scorpiace, 15, De Baptismo, 4,4).

These are the testimonies of Peter’s sojourn and martyrdom at Rome.  But we have now, too, archaelogical testimonies in the Vatican Basilica.  These excavations were carried out during 1940-1949, under the auspices of Pope Pius XII and brought to light an important archaeological complex, about which we had little and confused knowledge.  The excavations are still in progress, but there is no doubt whatsoever that around a small and poor tomb the early Christians built a small altar.  Constantine (306-337) built his basilica there something which implied tremendous technical, juridical, and psychological problems. (1) Technical because it had to be built on the slope of the Vatican Hill, something unthinkable if Constantine did not think that Peter was there. (2) Juridical and psychological because together with Peter’s tomb and all along the slope of Vatican Hill there was a pagan cemetery, full of beautiful and expensive mausoleums.  Those were sacred places even for the pagans.  This shows the tremendous difficulties facing Constantine.  And he tried to overcome them.  Why if not because he believed that Peter was there?  So he built a beautiful basilica to honor St. Peter, a basilica no longer in existence but superimposed by the greatest basilica of the whole Christendom: St. Peter’s.  Every Christian understands that St. Peter’s means that: the basilica above Peter’s tomb.  It is wonderful to think that a fisherman, thrown on the slope of Vatican Hill, would rest under Michelangelo’s dome, the most daring and beautiful dome ever built by men.  When we think of the fisherman, we cannot understand, but when we go beyond, to the Vicar of Christ, to the Shepherd of Christ’s flock, then we not only understand but we believe and feel happy to belong to that flock.

St. John and the Other Apostles

            John, son of Zebedee and brother of James the Elder, the first martyr Apostle, was the youngest among the apostles and the beloved disciple of Christ.  We find him together with Peter in the healing of the lame man from birth (Acts 3ff), in front of the Sanhedrin (Acts 4) and in the mission to Samaria (Acts 8).  In the so-called Council of Jerusalem (ca. 49-50) he is there together with Peter and James the Less (i.e. the younger), described by Paul (Gal 2:9) as one of the pillars of the primitive Church.  He certainly remained in Jerusalem till Mary’s death, who had been commended to him from the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

            According to a tradition stemming from the second century, St. John the Apostle worked as “high priest in Ephesus” naming bishops all over Asia Minor and dying of old age at the beginning of Trajan’s reign (98-117).  This is stated by Irenaeus of Lyons, who came originally from Asia Minor and was a disciple of Polycarp, who in turn was St. John’s disciple (Adv. Haer. II, 22, 5; III, 1,1:3,4).  It is also stated by Polycrates of Ephesus (in Eus. III, 31, 3) and by Clement of Alexandria (Quis dives salvetur, 42).

            St. John the Apostle, having lived for so long, is the link between the apostolic times and the following times and also, a wonderful witness of the new situation in which the Church lived after the catastrophe of the year 70 (Destruction of Jerusalem).

            The Fourth Gospel, the “pneumatic” Gospel, as Clement of Alexandria calls it, is destined to the Christians coming from paganism.  Its aim is to strengthen in them the faith in the messianism and divinity of Christ, and fights against the docetico-gnostic heresy of Corinth and other heretics who denied the true nature of the Redeemer and its identity with the historical Jesus (Adv. Haer. III, II, 1).

            In this Fourth Gospel, we find the concept and idea of the Logos, so common in the Hellenistic and Jewish world, but an idea and concept totally different from that of the pagans and Jews which allowed Christianity to become a universal religion, realizing the possibility of taking from the Greek philosophy and the Hellenistic religiosity the best elements they had without losing its character as a religion.

            Of the rest of the apostles, we know very little.  The little we know cannot be properly ascertained.  Some legends and traditions tell us about the end of most of the apostles.  According to them, St. Matthew evangelized in Persia; St. Andrew went to Scythia and Thrace and was crucified at Patras, Greece; Judas Thaddeus evangelized in Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia; St. Bartholomew in Southern Arabia; St. Simon in Mesopotamia and Idumea; St. Thomas came to the East Indies; St. Philip in Upper Asia and Phrygia; Matthias in Ethiopia.  All the apostles crowned their lives with martyrdom and among them, we can count their immediate disciples, like Luke, Mark, both evangelists, and Titus and Timothy, disciples of Paul.

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[1] “The departure of Paul from the City on his journey to Spain.”

[2] John Laux, Church’s History, p. 32.

Lesson 02 | Foundation of the Church

Life of Christ

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his only Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:4-5).

           

With these wonderful words St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Lord, characterized the coming, mission and primordial aim of the Redeemer.  The Son of God came to end the Old Covenant and establish the New One of grace.  Thirty years later, more or less, he began his public life in a remote place called Palestine, confirming his divine doctrine with signs and marvelous miracles.

He was not the reformer of the Jewish religion, but something more.  He came to show mankind that God is the Father who gives himself to men through love.  The Law, the Temple and the works of the Law must come to an end.  Christ unites religion and ethics, the two salvific principles of the Jewish and Hellenistic world, in a new supernatural community for the salvation and beatitude of men, a supernatural community which embraces all the people of the world and must remain until the end of the world.

To achieve this end he chose some disciples, and from them, his twelve Apostles, he conferred to them special powers for their mission, sending them to preach to all people, to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.[1]  As the fundament of his Church and as supreme pastor of his flock Jesus chose Simon Peter, when he said:

Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jona.  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven (Mt 16:11-19).

In this promise there was a guarantee of the continuation of his divine mission on earth. Only a part of the Jewish people, however, recognized Christ as the Messiah.  St. John tells us in the Prologue of his Gospel: “he came to his own, and his own people received him not” (Jn 1:11).  Not only the Pharisees, but also the Sadducees were against him.  After a little less than three years of public life Christ ended his life on the Cross.  It was the hate of the Jewish leaders that brought him to that seemingly infamous end.  His mission seems to end in total failure.  Rejected and crucified by his own people, who would ever think of him?  And yet miraculous signs accompanied his death, witnessing his celestial mission.  The veil of the Temple was torn into two to show that a New Covenant between God and mankind had started.  After three days he raised himself from the dead, as he had predicted.  In that way he proved he was a real Prophet.  After his resurrection he spent forty days with his disciples, instructing them about his Kingdom.  Finally, to fully realize his mission he ascended into heaven where he is now seated at the right hand of the eternal Father.

This is how Christ’s life can be briefly described.  An unknown man, for world’s standards, he led an agitated and poor life indeed.  He appeared to his contemporaries as one denouncing evil, preaching universal brotherhood, called himself Son of God, he attracted the illiterate people of society.  No rich or learned man followed him.  He surrounded himself of common people, even sinful women and men.  To crown everything, to show the utter failure by human standards, he was abandoned and even denied by his own disciples.  In fact, one of them, called Judas, betrayed him to his declared enemies: the leaders of the Jews.  He was nailed to a Cross, the lowest and most despicable way of dying and being executed.  Yet it was God dying on a cross.  Ever since that moment the Cross has become the symbol and reality of salvation.  But in order to achieve this, he was going to depart from this world and return to his heavenly Father, he always thought of founding his Church, a divine and universal family for all men who have a common Father – Our Father – who is in heaven.  This family is the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church, then, is Christ living in the world, it is his very dynamic presence in man.

As we mentioned before, the earthly life of Christ is a seeming failure and defeat.  After three years of preaching he dies like a criminal, between two criminals.  But since the cross upon which he died has become the symbol of Christianity and center of redemption, it is, then, not strange that the Church, the continuation of Christ’s salvific mission here on earth, participates also of that suffering upon the cross.  Together with spectacular successes we find incredible failures.  Even during her most brilliant periods, the Church is always on her way towards the Cross.

The Church shines over all the other religions and systems because of her universalism, of her Catholicism. The Church is the System of the Center, the synthesis of all human values, whether of the right or of the left.  In her rich history, tainted in times by blood and failure, the Church has always avoided the partiality and exaggeration of everything that pertains to her essence.  The Church abandons the Jewish people as the chosen people, but in the New Alliance, humanity becomes the True Israel.  The Church recognizes the forces of human intelligence, but rejects all comparison of the Christian religion to philosophy.  The Church knows that her doctrine is a mystery and, nevertheless, admits that this mystery can, in part, be understood by human intellect.  The Church teaches that grace is the moving force for all that leads to salvation and, yet, ascribes to the human will the strength and duty of cooperating with grace in this transcendental task called salvation.

The life and work of Christ, the founder of the Church, are the basis and foundation of the Church.  So, everything we know about him pertains, in a special way, to the history of the Church. The sources of our knowledge about the life of Jesus are to be found fundamentally in the writings of the New Testament and, in a most special way, in the four Gospels.

Jesus Christ died probably in the year 783 after the foundation of Rome, on the 7^th day of April of the year 30 of our Era.[2] Jesus Christ, we have said, is God.  This is taught by faith.  The foundations of this faith are the Messianism of Christ, the fulfillment of all the prophecies in Him, the miracles wrought by him and, principally, his bodily Resurrection from the dead, the divine sanctity of his life, the inexhaustible richness, wisdom and clear truth of his doctrine: the divine highness of his personality.

Jesus wants to carry to all men the true religion and true piety.  The culmination of this religion is the command of love to God and command of love to the neighbor.  He demands that the internal intention be pure.  In this way, Jesus rejected the mechanical and exterior piety: the religious act is an involvement between God and the soul.  At the same time, the political element in religion comes to an end.  The kingdom of God preached by Christ is not only for the descendants of Abraham – the Jews – but for all men.  Christ brings to man religious universalism, the religion of mankind.

The religion of Jesus is internally capable to fulfill this universalism because it is simple, because it does not look for temporal advancement, because it looks only for the ultimate reality and destiny of man, because it looks only for man, his soul and, because of this, it is addressed to men of every nation and race.

The Primitive Community of Jerusalem and the Initial Development of the Church

            The first community of believers in Jesus Christ was formed in Jerusalem.  During the forty days that Christ remained on earth after his Resurrection, he taught his disciples many more things about the kingdom of heaven.  He ordained and commanded them to remain in the Holy City “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5), “and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)

At the moment of the Ascension the number of the disciples was around five hundred (1 Cor 15:6) of whom 120 belonged to the community of Jerusalem.  From this first nucleus of disciples Christ has taken apart the twelve apostles, conferring upon them the triple mission of teaching, governing, and sanctifying the souls.   After the Ascension the disciples thought of electing one to replace the traitor, Judas Iscariot. Following Peter’s advice the community of Jerusalem put forward the names of two of those men who had accompanied Jesus during all the time that the Lord went in and out among them.  Their names were Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus and Matthias.  Casting lots, it was on Matthias on whom the lot fell.  And he was enrolled with the eleven apostles (Acts 1:26).

Precisely on the day of Pentecost that followed the Ascension of Christ many Jews from the Diaspora had come to Jerusalem.  The Apostles together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, were present in the upper room (coenaculum).  All were devoted to prayer waiting for the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, promised by Christ.  On the day of Pentecost, “a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house were they were sitting.  And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.  And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).

At the sound the many Jews there present came together.  Then Peter lifted up his voice and addressed them saying that everything was the fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures and of the prophecies about Jesus of Nazareth.  By his miracles and above all, by his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, he had proved to be the much awaited Messiah.  Jews were converted and baptized.  With this, with this new Pentecost, the true history of the Church begins.  In that moment the Church was proclaimed in the most solemn way in front of the whole world and to the whole world, as the new and universal Messianic Kingdom, independent from the Synagogue.  Three thousand Jews were added to the disciples of Jerusalem.  Those Jews, now Christians, who went back to their own countries, were the first missionaries of the Church.

First Persecution and Stephen’s Martyrdom

The apostles, full of the Holy Spirit and especially with the gift of miracles, began to preach the Resurrection of Christ.  We can appreciate from the very outset, that the leader was Simon Peter.  After the healing of the lame from birth, the one “whom they laid daily at the gate at the temple which is called Beautiful” (Acts 3:1ff), the number of disciples who believed in Christ through Peter’s preaching grew enormously.  The number reached five thousand.

The authorities, especially the Sadducees, were annoyed “because they were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the Resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2).  This was in clear opposition to their own teaching, because the Sadducees did not admit the Resurrection from the dead.  The two apostles were arrested and put into custody for the night, but were freed the next morning.  As they continued their preaching they were put in prison a second time, owing their freedom to an angel of the Lord.  They were taken before the council, owing their freedom to Gamaliel’s intervention.  The Jewish leaders beat the apostles, charging them not to speak in the name of Jesus and allowed them to go.

The life of the new community was something beautiful and ideal. “…Those who believed were of one heart and one soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32).  Here we have a kind of religious communism practiced out of love for sacrifice and totally alien to any constriction.

The direction of all the works of charity was the duty of the twelve, but having to minister at table to so many people the apostles had no much time to preach the word of God.  So when the “Hellenists – Jews born in foreign countries who spoke Greek – murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution” (Acts 6:1), the twelve apostles decided to pick from among the disciples seven[3] men of good repute, full of spirit and of wisdom …We will devote ourselves to prayer and to ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:3-4).  Among those seven deacons chosen were Stephen and Philip.

The faithful, at the outset, were together with the Jews.  They went daily to the temple at the time of prayer and observed the Mosaic Law.  Nevertheless they had special practices, that is, celebration in private houses, where “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread – Eucharistic banquet or agape of love – and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The supreme council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, was not indifferent to the increasing numbers and influence of the disciples of Christ.  The Jewish leaders had put Peter and John into prison but for fear of the people never dared to proceed against them.  Stephen’s preaching, however, was a little too much for them.  He was one of the seven deacons, a man “full of grace and power” who “did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8).  When Stephen spoke of the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New with Christ, the Jews could not stand him anymore.  “…They cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58).

General Persecution

            Stephen’s martyrdom, - which must have happened around the year 33, (the first Christian blood to be shed) – was the sign of a general persecution which fell upon the Christian community, especially upon the Hellenists.  Many took refuge in the rural districts of Judea and Samaria, Syria and the island of Cyprus.  The apostles however, remained in Jerusalem (Acts 3:8).

            This dispersion or scattering of the disciples favored even more the spreading of the Christian faith because the faithful “who were scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).  One of the disciples who distinguished himself in the preaching of the Gospel was the deacon Philip (not to be confused with Philip the Apostle).  In Samaria the inhabitants, like the Jews, were monotheists and looked for the coming of the Messiah.  But they retained nothing else of Jewish religion or practices and were despised by the Jews as a mixed race.  Philip made conversions among these inhabitants including Simon the magician, “who had previously practiced magic” (Acts 8:9), hence his name.  Having heard of the many conversions in Samaria the apostles sent Peter and John so that the new converts “might receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:15).

            As first gift of the pagan world[4] we have “a Eunuch, minister of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure” (Acts 8:27) who was baptized by Philip.  He was followed into Christianity by “a devout man who feared God, with all his household” (Acts 10:2).  This happened through Peter’s effort.  This man, Cornelius, was received into the Church without first passing through Judaism.

            In Antioch, capital city of Syria, there was already a Christian community chiefly composed of Gentile Christians, under the care of Barnabas, a native of Cyprus.  It was here where the followers of Christ were first called by the pagans “Kristianoi”, that is Christians (Acts 11:26).   By the Jews they were known as Galileans or Nazarenes (Acts 1:15, 24:5).  They called themselves brothers, holy people, faithful, disciples of the Lord or something similar (Acts 1:15; 6, 1:2-7; Rm 1:7; Ep 1:7).

Final Scattering of the Apostles

            King Herod Agrippa (37-44)[5] who had received from the Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41) the title of King, wanted to please the Jews and prove to them his Jewish faith.  Around the year 42 or 43 “the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the Church.  He killed James the brother of John with the sword…and he tried to arrest Peter also” (Acts 12: 1-3).  St. Peter was rescued by the angel of the Lord and went himself to tell the Church – that Church which made earnest prayer for him to God – the happy news of his liberation.  Finally, “Peter departed and went to another place” (Acts 12:17).  According to the ancient tradition all the other disciples scattered themselves to regions far away from Palestine to preach the Gospel.  James the Less, son of Alfeus (Mt 10:3) who probably is “brother of the Lord” (Gal 1:19) remained in Jerusalem as head of the first community and as president of the presbyterium.  Hegesippus, a Christian Hebrew of the 2^nd century, (Eusebius, H.E. II, 1,2,3) calls him expressly bishop of Jerusalem.  Among the apostles he had a high prestige.  Paul speaks of him as “pillar” of the primitive Church (Gal 2:9).  For his rigid ascetic life and his unbreakable fidelity to the Old Testament Law he was surnamed the “just”.  He wrote the magnificent letter addressed “to the twelve tribes in the dispersion”, that is, to those Christian Hebrews who lived in the pagan world.  But in the end, he, too, fell victim to Jewish fanaticism.  Around the year 62 or 63 the high priest Annas (Ananus) had him stoned.[6]

Conclusion

            As we have seen the Church was born in Jerusalem, in the bosom of the official Jewish religion which, in God’s plan, represents the natural historical development.

            Jerusalem was always thought of in Jewish history as the only and ideal center of religion.  In it was the only temple in which God wished his presence to be honored in a special way.  In the “Holy City” the supreme religious authorities felt themselves the trustees of perfect orthodoxy.  Their just pre-occupation with keeping intact the purity of God’s revelation had caused the official religiosity of the period immediately before the Jews to evolve into a rigid and largely legalistic conservatism. The different sects were distinguished by particular interpretations of the Law and, although they differed among themselves, they rediscovered their unity in the unique thread of their ancient tradition.  Against such a background the new community was considered by the Jewish authority.

            St. Luke shows us the earliest community still deeply involved in the Jewish religion.  It takes part in the liturgical life of the Temple, having as its own particular external distinctions the sharing of the possessions and the breaking of the bread, a term used to describe the Eucharistic rite, then celebrated in private houses.  It seems to have been organized around the Twelve, witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.

            Jerusalem is thus seen as the center of Christianity whence the mission of the pagans is being slowly prepared.  The transition happened gradually; the first step is towards Jews and Hellenists who are orthodox and circumcised, the second is towards the Samaritans, circumcised but unorthodox, who join the new Church without attaching themselves to official Judaism.

            The first group of converted Hellenists is very active and is the cause of great friction with the religious authorities.  It provokes a certain uneasiness even among the converted Jews of Jewish speech.  Jerusalem has always been a center of conservatism whether Jewish or Christian.  The Jews would have resigned themselves to accepting the Christian movement as a sect of Judaism but they could not accept the universalism, first of the Hellenists and then of St. Paul.  In that they saw the destruction of Judaism itself.  The first reaction therefore comes from the religious authority which tries to absorb the new sect, keeping it at least outwardly within the bounds of orthodoxy.  Thus a sort of compromise is reached between the new Church and Judaism, a compromise which undergoes various vicissitudes, and later results in the apostles and the most active exponents of Christianity leaving the city for other centers.

            The second reaction came some time afterwards from political Judaism in the person of Agrippa I who, in addition to being a Jew, had also the title of King.  To ingratiate himself with the Sanhedrin and the Jews he posed as the defender of orthodox Judaism and, above all, he persecuted the Twelve, who were obnoxious to the Jewish leaders for having welcomed even pagans into the new sect.  The persecution ended with his death, but meanwhile had provoked the final flight of the Church from Jerusalem.  Peter left the city and we find him later at Antioch, capital of the Middle East and third city of the Empire.  At Jerusalem remained James, the Lord’s cousin, revered even by the Jews for his respect for the Law.  The Holy City thus slipped into the background and had no further important part to play in the history of Christianity.[7]

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[1] “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of age” (Mt 28:18-20).

[2] As a consequence of an error made on the account of the Christian Era by the monk Dionysius the Little (+566), the birth of Christ did occur three to five years before the beginning of our Era.

[3] Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus.

[4] Eusebius, H.E., II, 1, 13; “The first Gentile to receive from Philip by revelation the mysteries of the divine word, and the first fruits of the faithful throughout the world…

[5] 1. Herod the Great – appointed king of the Jews by the Romans in 40 BC and ruled from 37 to 4 BC.  Christ was born during his reign.

            2. Herod Antipas – Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and son of Herod the Great. “Herod the Tetrarch” of the Gospels (4 BC-34 AD).

            3. Herod Agrippa I (37-44).  Grandson of Herod the Great.  He was given the title of King by Caligula in 37 for the region north of Galilee.  In 41 Claudius (41-54) made him King also of Galilee and Judea.  He is the “Herod” of the Acts.

            4. Agrippa II is the “King Agrippa” before whom St. Paul appeared.

[6] Flavius Josephus, Antiq. XX, 9,1; Hegesippus, in Eusebius II, 23 with some variants.

[7] Cf. The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 115-116, by Msgr. Enrico Galbiati, 1973.