Church History - If you can't beat them, join them?

American Fringe Tree

“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”  Willa Cather

The land of Palestine where the bible writers lived has been embroiled in turmoil seemingly since the beginning of time.

Gonzalez:  ‘As we read the Old Testament, we see that, as enemies came and went, they cast a covetous eye on that narrow strip of land; for this reason, its inhabitants repeatedly suffered invasion, bondage, and exile.’

There were lots of pesky enemies of the Israelites in bible times.  Some ‘ite’ or another was always jabbing at them for territorial control.  Their two major foes were the Assyrians and the Babylonians.  The latter destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.  The Persians came to power after the Babylonians and allowed some Jewish independence in religious matters including rebuilding of the temple.

There is a gap of about 400 years from the end of the Hebrew Scriptures to the first of Paul’s letters in the New Testament (350 B.C – 50 A.D.).  During this period, Alexander the Great used his massive armies to defeat King Darius III of Persia.  Alexander brought Greek culture to the region.  The Greek culture of that era was historically termed Hellenization.  Why was Hellenization such a big deal?

If we go way back in the bible to God beckoning Abraham, we remember that God called a people out of the mainstream society where you could believe anything you wanted and worship anything you wanted.  God said in effect to Abraham ‘I am the one who created the world; stop worshipping images on sticks; seek justice and mercy; strive to be holy like me.’

Abraham started the movement of a people then that believed in one creator and providential God.  Seemingly though at every turn, bible people still got involved with the ideas of the day and worshiped things other than God.  This problem of wanting to fit in with other cultures and ideas was made almost impossible to resist when the Assyrians destroyed the Northern tribes of Israel.  The smart or good looking Jews who weren’t killed were shipped off the live in other Assyrians cities.  The same thing happened when the Babylonians destroyed the Southern tribe and Jerusalem.  It was only the Persians who allowed the Jews to come back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.  When this happened, some who went back like Nehemiah held prominent positions in the Persian government:

‘At the time, I was cupbearer to the king. In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was served to him, I carried the wine and gave it to the king.’ Nehemiah 1:11-2:1

When the Greeks came to power, it was no different with them than with the other conquerors.  If you wanted to fit in you started to speak Greek.  If you wanted to get a good job, you learned to speak kindly of the philosophers.  If you wanted your children to marry well and get in to the best schools you went along with ideas about other gods.  This is really what Hellenization means to me. 

Gonzalez:  ‘In a way, the history of Palestine from the time of Alexander’s conquest to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 may be seen as the constant struggle between Hellenizing pressures on the one hand and Jewish faithfulness to their God and their traditions on the other.’

After the Romans routed the Greeks, there was a period of order and some autonomy for the Jews and early Christians.  But it did not stay that way for long.  The Romans liked many of the Greek ideas and thought they would implement some of them in provinces like Palestine.

Gonzalez:  ‘Herod made an effort to Hellenize the country, and had temples built in Samaria and Caesarea in honor of Roma and Augustus.  But when he dared to place a Roman eagle at the entrance of the Temple there was an uprising, which he suppressed by force.’

The Jews tired in various ways to get along with the conquering armies.  The Zealots, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes all developed differing ideas of the Jewish faith.  But they were always fighting the idea in the ruling culture that there was more than one God. 

Gonzalez:  ‘…monotheism means there is only one God, and that this God requires, just as much as proper worship, proper relationships among human beings.  These various parties might disagree as to the exact shape of such relationship, but they all agreed on the need to honor the only God with the whole of life….All…firmly believed that the day would come when God would intervene in order to restore Israel and fulfill the promise of a Kingdom of peace and justice.’

There were attempts by some like Philo of Alexandria to suggest that the moral teachings of the Hebrews Scriptures were no different than those presented by the Greek philosophers.   

This was a lie then and it’s a lie still today.  We can’t reason things out.  We can’t on the hand have this idea that there is God but on the other hand still do whatever we want

There is only one way and that is stated early in the bible:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut 6:4-9

Might Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford or Tiger Woods have fared better if they had marked their foreheads accordingly?

Where are commanded early in the bible; in the end we are warned:

‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.’  Revelation 3:15-17

We can summarize by saying that during the early Christian church Greek culture and strong Roman governments were synthesized into the worldview of the day.  When the Christian movement got underway in earnest, in some ways, the efficiency and order created by the Roman government were favorable to the spread of Christianity.

Gonzalez:  ‘But other aspects of those circumstances were a threat and a challenge to the early Christians.  In order to achieve greater unity, imperial policy sought religious uniformity by following two routes:  religious syncretism-the indiscriminate mixing of elements from various religions-and emperor worship.’

The Romans built the Pantheon which was a temple to hold all the gods.  Every time someone came up with a new god, an artist carved out an image and shipped it to the Pantheon.  If you wanted to fit in, you might pick the newest god to call your own. 

Gonzalez:  ‘In that atmosphere, Jews and Christians were seen as unbending fanatics who insisted on worshiping of their one God-an alien cyst that must be removed for the good of society.’

Questions we might reflect on:

-Would we have had the courage back in the day to be a part of a group that was considered an alien cyst by the mainstream society?

- In many ways, Hellenization was troubling to early Christians.  What aspects of Americanization trouble us today?  Does our best work get exported around the world?  (E.g. Lady Gaga, Just do it, grab some buds, and vitriol politics) Does anything shock us anymore? 

Source:  Justo L. Gonzalez from ‘The Story of Christianity, Volume 1, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation’