PREPARATION OF THE CIVILISED WORLD FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
OUTLINE: I.--The ancient world. II.--Condition of the
civilised world at the time Jesus came. III.--How the
condition of the world prepared the way for Christianity.
IV.--Sources.
The ancient world included the many independent tribes surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea and spreading into the interior. This independence was
institutional. Each tribe had its own government, laws, and customs; its
own religion and gods; its own ideals of education; its own commercial
and industrial methods. But all these diversities of life and thought
were broken down by the ascendancy of Rome. The independent laws, gods,
and institutions fell before the onward march of those of the Mistress
of the World.
When Jesus was born, the Roman Empire extended from the Euphrates to the
Atlantic, and from the African desert to the Danube, Rhine, and Weser.
It formed a wide fringe around the Mediterranean Sea, included the best
parts of three continents, and had a population of 100,000,000.[40:1]
The Empire was called "the world." Roman law was predominant throughout
the provinces as well as at Rome, but local usages were tolerated.
Citizenship had become so widely extended that the different peoples
began to feel themselves a single race, bound together by one Emperor,
one government, and one code of laws.
The era of the boyhood of Jesus was one of comparative peace, since
there was no important war after the naval battle of Actium (31
B.C.).[41:1] Hence the industries of the Empire prospered greatly.
Across the Mediterranean as the great highway, up and down the rivers,
and along the incomparable Roman roads, an enormous trade was carried on
between the colonies and the capital, Rome.[41:2] Factories thrived in
every direction and commerce flourished. Showers of wealth fairly fell
upon the Eternal City.
The trade of the Empire was carried on in Latin, the official language
of the Empire for law and war. Greek was also a universal tongue, but
used more especially for art, science, philosophy, education, and
religion.[41:3] Cicero complained: "Greek is read in almost all nations.
Latin is confined by its own natural boundaries." Hebrew and other
tongues were sectional. The literature of the opening century of the
Christian era, however, was largely in Latin,[41:4] which had been
fertilised by Greek culture.
Education had made far greater progress in this old world than is
generally thought. Judea,[41:5] Greece,[41:6] and Rome[42:1] had
excellent systems of education, though differing much in purpose and in
subjects studied. Pronounced schools of philosophy grew up. Art,
comparatively little developed among the Jews, culminated with the
Greeks, and from them was transplanted to Rome. Travel, always
liberalising and educational, was widespread among scholars, tradesmen,
soldiers, and public officials. All these factors had produced a
superior intelligence and general culture throughout the Empire.
The religious condition of the Empire was very significant. The Roman
religion, a mixture of Grecian and Etrurian religions[42:2]--of
licentiousness and puritanism--was alone legal over the whole
Empire.[42:3] The Emperor, as Pontifex Maximus, was head of the
religion. Worship, however, had become mere form--even priests ridiculed
the gods. Cicero declared: "One soothsayer could not look another in the
face without laughing," and "even old women would no longer believe
either in the fables of Tartarus or the joys of Elysium." This loss of
faith engendered skepticism and superstition, and gave magicians and
necromancers a wide patronage. The best men in Rome were demanding
reformation, and were longing for and predicting a new era. Cicero
prophesied: "There shall no longer be one law at Rome, and another at
Athens; nor shall it decree one thing to-day, and another to-morrow;
but one and the same law, eternal and immutable, shall be prescribed for
all nations and all times, and the God who shall prescribe, introduce,
and promulgate this law shall be the one common Lord and Supreme Ruler
of all."[43:1]
The Grecian religion,[43:2] so closely resembling the Roman, was of
course tolerated in the Empire. The gods were ideal Greeks with virtues
and vices magnified. They were born, had passions, senses, and bodies
like men, but never died. They committed crimes, had troubles, and were
given to wrath, hatred, lust, cruelty, perjury, deception, and adultery,
yet were omnipotent and omniscient.[43:3] While the conception of Zeus,
as the father of the gods, ruled by fate, had a vague idea of monotheism
in it, still the Greek religion lacked the Christian conception of sin
and righteousness, for with the Greeks sin was only a folly of the
understanding--even the gods sinned. Small wonder then that Plato
banished the gods from his ideal republic.[43:4] Pindar, Eschylus, and
Sophocles also urged loftier views of the gods, and preached a higher
morality.[43:5] With the Roman conquest national honour and patriotism
died out, and superstition, infidelity, refined materialism, and
outright atheism came in. The best hearts were longing for a new and
purer religion, and were ready to accept it when it came.
The Jews,[44:1] intensely religious, with several thousand years of
spiritual history back of them, divided the known world into the
followers of the true God and the heathen idolaters. Even they were
separated into factions:
(1) The Pharisees,[44:2] numbering 6000, stoical casuists, rigidly
orthodox, prone to analyse the Mosaic law to death, intensely patriotic,
and bitter against all non-Jewish tendencies, were very popular, guided
public worship, and controlled the Jews in politics.
(2) The Sadducees,[44:3] rationalistic and skeptical, were aristocratic
Epicureans who rejected oral traditions, and denied resurrection,[44:4]
angels,[44:5] and an all-ruling, foreknowing Providence. They formed a
smaller political party in opposition to the Pharisees, held many
priestly offices, were in league with the Romans, and therefore had less
influence with the people.[44:6]
(3) The Essenes,[44:7] a mystic brotherhood of 4000 whose purpose was to
attain holiness, received their ideas from eastern Theosophists; lived
communal lives on the shores of the Dead Sea; took the Old Testament
allegorically; wore a white dress; were over-scrupulously clean for the
purpose of purification; and rejected animal food, bloody sacrifices,
oaths, slavery, and marriage. They had little to do with politics; were
forerunners of Christian monasticism; and may have influenced the ideas
of Jesus.[45:1]
(4) The Samaritans,[45:2] in origin half Jewish and half heathen
Babylonian, practised their reformed Judaism about Gerizim under an
established Levitical priesthood. They rejected all Scriptures but the
Pentateuch, held pure Messianic expectations, looked with favour upon
Christianity, and were bitterly hated by the orthodox Jews.[45:3]
(5) The Zealots, led by Judas of Galilee, a sort of a nationalistic
party, were imbued by a very materialistic conception of the hope of
Israel. They sprang from the Pharisees and followed them in religious
things. They confidently expected the realisation of the kingdom of God,
the Messiah, and a new Israel. In their patriotic zeal they did not
hesitate to use the sword and dagger to drive out their Roman foes in
order to realise their dreams for a purely Jewish kingdom. Their
followers came mostly from the lowest classes.[45:4]
(6) The common people accepted the Pharisees, in a general way, as
leaders. They believed in tradition and in the resurrection, but they
were prone to neglect the law and formalism so stoutly insisted upon by
the scribes. This class of Jews had a vital, living fellowship with God,
and might be called pietists. Such characters as Simeon and Anna,
Zachariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, and most of those influenced
by John's call to repentance were of this class. They stood for the pure
religion of the early prophets, and in a way opposed the sacerdotalism
of the Jewish Church. They were in a spiritual and ethical mood to
accept the great teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and were consequently
his first converts. While they constituted the majority of the Jews, and
were scattered all over the Roman Empire yet they were not organised as
a political party. To these Christianity meant a great and much needed
reformation.[46:1]
The moral condition of the Empire, east and west, makes a dark picture
as drawn by such men as Paul,[46:2] Seneca,[46:3] Tacitus,[46:4]
Juvenal, Persius, and Sallust. "The world is full of crimes and vices"
moaned Seneca. Foreign conquest and plunder brought in their wake
luxury, sensuality, cruelty, and licentiousness. Slavery was fostered;
infanticide tolerated; marriage lax, and divorce shamefully common.
Amusements became bloody and brutal; 20,000 lives were sacrificed in one
month to appease the populace, who cared only for "panem et circenses."
The stern virtue and morality of old Greece and Rome were dead. The huge
Empire was a giant body without a soul going to final destruction.
It is evident, then, that forces both positive and negative were at work
to prepare the civilised world for the reception of Christianity:
(1) The universal Empire of Rome was a positive groundwork for the
universal empire of the Gospel. The imperial organisation suggested a
form of organisation for the Church, so that Latin Christianity was
simply Rome baptised. The unity of the Empire afforded concrete
illustration of God's spiritual kingdom, and implied fatherhood and
brotherhood.[47:1] Imperial toleration of harmless provincial religions
protected Christianity, and thus enabled it to get a foothold before
persecution came. Universal peace also was a boon to the Christian
crusade.
The flourishing commerce, the good roads uniting the Empire, the
extensive travel, and the various military expeditions all made the
spread of new ideas easier and quicker.
(2) Pagan theology became a stepping-stone to Christian theology.[47:2]
The decay of polytheism, because of its unspiritual and unsatisfying
character, made spiritual monotheism acceptable. Pagan temples, priests,
and rites made the conception of, and the transition to, Christianity
easier. Even the low moral condition and widespread skepticism strongly
emphasised the need of a better religion.
(3) The schools of the Empire prepared men's minds for an intellectual
consideration of the new faith, though not necessarily for its adoption.
The Greek and Latin tongues were excellent mediums for propagating the
new doctrines. Greek particularly was excellent for the expression of
abstract and lofty truth, and the Old Testament had been translated into
it more than two centuries before Jesus.[48:1] Grecian eloquence became
the model for sacred oratory. The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle
formed the scientific basis for Christian theology. The spiritual
flights of Plato,[48:2] the religious reflections of Plutarch, and the
moral precepts of Seneca were all used as arguments of revealed
religion. Even pagan art, with its love for the beautiful, was early
employed to give material expression to Christian ideas.
(4) The Jews, scattered over the world,[48:3] befriended by Julius
Cæsar, given legal status as a sect by Augustus, expelled in vain by
Tiberius and Claudius, spread a knowledge of the living God over the
whole Empire before Christ appeared. Synagogues were numerous, and many
Gentiles became converts to monotheism.[48:4] These converts were the
first to accept the teachings of Jesus, and in this way formed the
_nuclei_ of the Christian Church.
Thus Jerusalem the Holy City, Athens the city of culture, and Rome the
city of power, combined to prepare the world so that the matchless
ethical and religious teaching of Jesus of Nazareth could capture the
hearts and heads of men, replace the national religions, and become
realised in the outward forms and inward beliefs of the Christian
Church, which was soon to exercise a controlling power in the civilised
world.
SOURCES
A.--PRIMARY:
I.--JEWISH:
1.--_Old Testament._
2.--_Old Testament Apocrypha._ Transl. by E. C. Bissell, N.
Y., 1865-80.
3.--Josephus (37-103 A.D.), _Antiquities_, and _The Jewish
War_. Various eds. Whiston the standard.
4.--Philo Judæus (20 B.C.-40 A.D.), _Works_. Transl. by C. D.
Yonge. In Bohn, Lond., 1854-5. 4 vols.
5.--_The Talmud._ Transl. by Bodkinson and revised by Wise, N.
Y., 1896.
6.--Lardner, _Jewish and Heathen Testimonies_. _Works_, vii.,
Lond., 1788.
II.--PAGAN:
=1.--Greek:=
1.--The classics. Bohn Lib. Excellent. Fine transl. by W.
H. Appleton, Bost., 1893.
2.--Polybius (204-122 B.C.), _Histories_. Transl. by E. S.
Schuckburgh. 2 vols. Lond., 1889.
3.--Strabo (62 B.C.-24 A.D.), _Geography_. Transl. by
Falconer and Hamilton, Lond., 1890. 2 vols. Bohn Lib.
=2.--Latin:=
1.--Virgil (70-19 B.C.), _Works_. Bohn Lib., 1894; Morley
Univ. Lib., 1884.
2.--Horace (65-8 B.C.), _Works_. Transl. by Lonsdale and
Lee, Lond., 1873. Best complete Eng. ed. is by Wickham. 2
vols. Oxf., 1887, 1892.
3.--Livy (59 B.C.-17 A.D.), _Works_. Bohn Lib., 1850.
Transl. by Stephenson, Lond., 1883-90.
4.--Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.), _Works_. Bohn Lib. Transl. by H.
T. Riley, Lond., 1852.
5.--Lucan (39-65 A.D.), _Pharsalia_. Transl. by H. T. Riley,
Lond., 1853. Bohn Lib.
6.--Seneca (3-65 A.D.), _Works_. Transl. by T. Lodge, Lond.,
1620. Bohn Lib. has partial list.
7.--Pliny (61-115 A.D.), _Works_. Transl. by Milmoth and
Bosauquet, Lond., 1878.
8.--Tacitus (54-119 A.D.), _Works_. Bohn Lib., 1848. 2 vols.
Transl. by Church and Brodribb, Lond., 1877.
9.--Juvenal (47-130 A.D.), _Works_. Bohn Lib. Transl. by
Strong and Leeper, Lond., 1882.
10.--Suetonius (75-160 A.D.), _Lives of the Twelve Cæsars_.
Bohn Lib., 1855. Transl. by C. Whibley, Lond., 1899. 2
vols.
III.--CHRISTIAN:
1.--_New Testament._ (27 canonical books).
2.--_New Testament Apocrypha._ In _Ante-Nic. Christ. Lib._,
vol. 16.
3.--Justin Martyr (103-164 A.D.), _Apologies_. _Ib._, vol.
ii., 1-84; Am. ed., vol. i.
4.--Tertullian (104-216 A.D.), _Apology_. _Ante-Nic. Christ.
Lib._, xi., 53-140. Several other transls.
5.--Minicius Felix (?), _Octavius_. _Ibid._, xiii.
6.--Eusebius (d. 340), _The Evangelical Preparation_. Transl.
by H. Street, Lond., 1842.
7.--St. Augustine (d. 430), _The City of God_. _Nic. and
Post-Nic. Fathers._ Buf., 1886-90. ii., 16-621. Other
transls.
B.--SECONDARY:
I.--SPECIAL:
1.--Breed, D. R., _A History of the Preparation of the World
for Christ_. N. Y., 1893.
2.--Döllinger, J. J. I., _The Gentile and the Jew_. Lond.,
1862. 2 vols.
3.--Fisher, G. P., _Beginnings of Christianity_. N. Y., 1877.
4.--Hardwick, C., _Christ and Other Masters_. Lond., 1875. 2
vols.
5.--Hausrath, A., _History of the New Testament Times_. Lond.,
1895. 4 vols.
6.--Maurice, F. D., _Religions of the World_. Lond. and Bost.,
1854.
7.--Pressensé, De E., _Religions before Christ_. Edinb., 1862.
8.--Shahan, J. T., _The Beginnings of Christianity_. N. Y.,
1904.
9.--Trench, R. C., _Christ the Desire of all Nations_. Camb.,
1846.
10.--Uhlhorn, G., _Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism_.
Lond., 1880.
11.--Wernle, P., _The Beginnings of Christianity_. Lond., 1908.
2 vols.
II.--GENERAL:
Alzog, i., § 24-31. Backhouse, E., _Early Ch. Hist._, ch. 1.
Baur, i., 1-43. Blunt, J. H., _Key to Ch. Hist._, ch. 1.
Bouzique, i., Intr. Burton, E., _Lects. on Eccles. Hist._ (to
3d cent.). Catterille, H., _Genesis of the Ch._, ch. 1.
Cheetham, ch. 1. Cox, H., _First Cent. of Christianity_, i.,
chs. 1-10. Darras, i., ch. 1. Döllinger, _Hist. of the Ch._,
i., ch. 1, sec. 1-2. Duff, ch. 1-6. Farrar, F. W., _Early Days
of Christianity_, bk. i., ch. 1. Fisher, pd. i., ch. 1.
Gibbon, i.-ii. Gieseler, i., sec. 8-19. Gilmartin, i., sec.
2-3. Guericke, pp. 21-28. Hase, 13-23. Hurst, i., 61-87.
Jackson, F. J. F., _Hist. of the Christ. Ch._ (to 461), ch. 2.
Janes, L. G., _A Study of Prim. Christ._, chs. 1-2. Killen,
ch. 1. Kurtz, i., sec. 6-12. Milman, _Hist. of Christ._ (to
4th cent.), ch. 1. Milner, i., cent. i. Moeller, i., 26-48.
Mosheim, 11-30. Neander, i., 1-69. Robertson, bk. i., ch. 1.
Schaff, i., ch. 1. Waddington, ch. 1.
FOOTNOTES:
[40:1] Mommsen, v., chs. 11-12; Merivale, i., ch. 1; iv., ch. 39;
Liddell, ii., ch. 71; Bury's Gibbon, i., chs. 1-3; Finlay, i., ch. 1.
[41:1] 1 Tim. ii., 2. Epictetus wrote: "Cæsar has promised us a profound
peace; there are neither wars, nor battles, nor great robberies, nor
piracy."--_Dis._, iii., 13.
[41:2] Lewin, _Life and Epistles of St. Paul_. Lond., 1878. Bergier,
_Histoire des Grands Chemins de l'Empire Romain_.
[41:3] Merivale, iv., ch. 41.
[41:4] The chief writers were: Ovid, d. 17; Livy, d. 17; Lucan, d. 65;
Seneca, d. 65; Pliny, d. 115; Tacitus, d. 119; Juvenal, d. 130.
[41:5] Schürer, ii., § 22; Graetz, i., ch. 20.
[41:6] Plato, _Protagoras_, tr. by Jowett; Aristotle, _Politics_, bk. 8,
tr. by Jowett; Mahaffy, _Old Greek Ed._; St. John, _The Hellenes_, bk.
2, ch. 4; Davidson, _Aristotle_, bk. 1, ch. 4; _The Nation_, March 24,
1892, pp. 230-231; Zeller, _Socrates and the Socratic Schools_, ch. 3;
Capes, _University Life in Ancient Athens_, ch. 1; Newman, _Hist.
Sketches_, ch. 4; Thirlwell, _Hist. of Greece_, i., ch. 8.
[42:1] Döllinger, _Gentile and Jew_, ii., 294-296; Kirkpatrick, _Hist.
Develop. of Super. Instr._; _Am. Jour. of Ed._, xxiv., 468-470.
[42:2] Gieseler, i., § 11.
[42:3] Döllinger, _Gentile and Jew_, i., bk. 7.
[43:1] _About the Republic_, iii., 6; Virgil, _Eclogues_, iv., 4-10; 13,
14; Lactantius, _Divine Inst._, vi., 8; Suetonius, _Life of Vesp._, ch.
4; Tacitus, _Histories_, v., 13.
[43:2] Gladstone, _Gods and Men of the Heroic Age_; Tyler, _Theol. of
the Greeks_; Cocker, _Christ and Greek Philos._; Niebuhr, _Stories of
Gr. Heroes_; Berens, _Myths and Legends of Anc. Gr._; Taylor, _Anc.
Ideals_; Parnell, _Cults of the Gr. States_; Ely, _Olympus_; Francillon,
_Gods and Heroes_; Grote; Curtius; Thirlwell.
[43:3] Read _Iliad_, _Odyssey_ and Hesiod, _Theogeny_.
[43:4] _Concerning the Republic_, ii.
[43:5] Adam, _The Religious Teachers of Greece_, Edinb., 1908. Baur,
_The Christian Element in Plato_, Edinb., 1861; Hatch, _The Greek
Influence on Christianity_. Hibbert Lectures, 1888.
[44:1] Schürer, _Hist. of Jewish People_; Milman, _Hist. of the Jews_;
Stanley _Lect. on Hist. of Jewish Ch._; Ewald, _Hist. of Jewish People_;
Edersheim, _Prophecy and Hist. in Rel. to the Messiah_; Kent, _Hist. of
Heb. People_; Graetz, _Hist. of Jews_; Newman, _Christianity in its
Cradle_. See Josephus for full account.
[44:2] _Jewish Encyc._ See Josephus, _Antiq._, XIII., x., 5, 6; v., 9;
XVII., ii., 4; XVIII., i., 2.
[44:3] _Jewish Encyc._ See Josephus, _Antiq._, XIII., v., 9; x., 6;
XVIII., i., 3; _Wars_, II., viii., 14.
[44:4] Matt. xxii., 23; Mark xii., 18; Luke xx., 27; Josephus, _Antiq._,
XVIII., i., 4.
[44:5] Acts xxiii., 8.
[44:6] It must be remembered that Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and others came
from this class.
[44:7] _Jewish Encyc._
[45:1] Josephus; Philo; Pliny; Lightfoot, _Ep. to Gal._; Schürer, ii.,
188; _Jewish Encyc._
[45:2] _Jewish Encyc._
[45:3] John iv., 4; viii., 48; Luke ix., 52, 53; x., 25-37.
[45:4] Josephus, _Antiq._, XVIII., i., 1-6; Rhees, _Life of Jesus_;
_Jewish Encyc._ Hastings, _Dict. of the Bible_.
[46:1] Schürer, _Jewish People_, div. II., ii., 154-187; Wendt,
_Teachings of Jesus_, i., 33-89; Graetz, _Hist. of the Jews_, ii.,
122-123, 140-147; Edersheim, _Life and Times of Jesus_, i., 160-179;
Rhees, _Life of Jesus_, sec. 13; Mathews, _Hist. of N. T. Times_, ch.
13.
[46:2] Rom. i., 18-32.
[46:3] _De Ira_, I., ii., c. 8.
[46:4] _Politica_, I., ii., c. 2-18.
[47:1] Tacitus felt a common humanity when he wrote: "Homo sum; humani
nihil a me alienum puto." Cicero and Virgil expressed like ideas. In the
Middle Ages it was even said that Virgil in the Fourth Eclogue
prophesied the advent of Jesus. See _Princeton Rev._, Sept. 1879, 403
_ff._
[47:2] Ackerman, _The Christian Element in Plato_; Cocker, _Christianity
and Greek Philosophy_; Hatch, _Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon
the Christian Church_; Addis, _Christianity and the Roman Empire_,
22-25; Farrar, _Seekers after God_; Davidson, _The Stoic Creed_, N. Y.
1907.
[48:1] The Septuagint version, 284-247 B.C.
[48:2] Ackerman, _The Christian Element in Plato_.
[48:3] Josephus and Strabo. Gieseler, i., § 17.
[48:4] Apion, ii., 10, 39.