by Adolph (von)
Harnack
translated and edited by James Moffatt
Second, enlarged and revised English edition;
Theological Translation Library, volumes 19-20
Electronic edition prepared under the direction of Robert A. Kraft
by a team of students at the University of Pennsylvania, including Amna
Khawar, Francisco Lameiro, Virginia Wayland,
Moises Bassan, Harry Tolley, Chris Segal.
From the German, Die
[[in addition to the
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in electronic form, an updated version is being prepared which
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BOOK
I
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER
1
JUDAISM:
ITS DIFFUSION AND LIMITS
To nascent
Christianity the
synagogues in the Diaspora meant more than the fontes persecutionum of
Tertullian's complaint; they also formed the most important
presupposition for
the rise and growth of Christian communities throughout the empire. The
network
of the synagogues furnished the Christian propaganda with centres and
courses
for its development, and in this way the mission of the new religion,
which was
undertaken in the name of the God of Abraham and Moses, found a sphere
already
prepared for itself.
Surveys of the
spread of
Judaism at the opening of our period have been often made, most
recently and
with especial care by Schurer (Geschichte des judischen Volkes, Bd.
III.'31 pp.
1-38; Eng. trans., II. ii. 220 f.). Here we are concerned with the
following
points:
(1) There were Jews
in most of
the Roman provinces, at any rate in all those which touched or adjoined
the
Mediterranean, to say nothing of the Black Sea; eastward also, beyond
Syria,
they were thickly massed in Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Media.\1 / [[2]]
\1 / The conversion of the
royal family of Adiabene (on the Tigris, at the frontier of the Roman
Empire
and of Parthia) to Judaism, during the reign of Claudius, is a fact of
special
moment in the history of the spread of Judaism, and Josephus gives it
due
prominence. A striking parallel, a century and a half later, is
afforded by the
conversion of the royal house of
(2) Their numbers
were
greatest in
\2/ The large number of Jews
in
\3/ For the diffusion of
Jews
in
\4/ Philo,
Legat. 33: Ἰουδαῖοι
καθ’ ἑκάστην
πόλιν
εἰσὶ
παμπληθεῖς,
Ἀσίας
τε
καὶ
Συρίας (''The Jews abound in every
city of
\5/ Cp. also the remarks of
Epiphanius (Her., Ixxx. l) upon the cult of Παντοκπάτωρ.
\6/See Monceaux, "les
colonies juives dans 1'Afrique romaine" (Res. des Eludes juives, 1902);
and Leclerq, L'Afrique chretienne (1904),
\7/To all appearances,
therefore, he knew no Jewish Christians at first hand.
\8/ Renan, Les Apostres (ch.
xvi.).
(3) The exact number
of Jews
in the Diaspora can only be calculated roughly. Our information with
regard to
figures is as follows. Speaking of the Jews in
\9/Antiq., xv. 3. i, xi. 5.
2.
According to Antiq., xii. 3. 4, Antiochus the Great deported 2000
families of
Babylonian Jews to
\10/Dio Cassius (loc. cit.).
The same author declares (Ixix. 14) that 580,000 Jews perished in
\11/ There is a discrepancy
between them. Whilst Josephus (Antiq., xviii. 3. 5) mentions only Jews,
Tacitus
{Annal., ii. 85) writes: "Actum et de sacris Aegyptiis Judaicisque
pellendis factumque patrum consultum, ut quattuor milia libertini
generis ea
superstitione infecta, quis idonea aetas, in insulam Sardinian!
veherentur,
coercendis illic latrociniis et, si ob gravitatem caeli interissent,
vile
damnum ; ceteri cederent Italia, nisi certain ante diem profanes ritus
exuissent"(" Measures were also adopted for the extermination of
Egyptian and Jewish rites, and the Senate passed a decree that four
thousand
freedmen, able-bodied, who were tainted with that superstition, should
be
deported to the island of Sardinia to put a check upon the local
brigands.
Should the climate kill them 'twould be no great loss! As for the rest,
they
were to leave
\12/ The sources here are
contradictory.
Acts (xviii. 2), Suetonius (Claud. 25), and Orosius (vii. 6. 15) -- the
last named
appealing by mistake to Josephus, who says nothing about the incident
-- all speak
of a formal (and enforced) edict of expulsion, but Dio Cassius (Ix. 6)
writes: τούς τε Ἰουδαίους
πλεονάσαντας αὖθις,
ὥστε χαλεπῶς ἂν
ἄνευ ταραχῆς ὑπὸ
τοῦ ὄχλου σφῶν
τῆς πόλεως εἰρχθῆναι,
οὐκ · ἐξήλασε
μέν, τῷ
δὲ δὴ πατρίῳ
βίῳ χρωμένους
ἐκέλευσε
μὴ
συναθροίζεσθαι ("As the Jews had once more
multiplied, so that it would have been difficult to remove them without
a
popular riot, he did not expel them, but simply prohibited any
gatherings of
those who held to their ancestral customs"). We have no business, in my
opinion, to use Dio Cassius in order to set aside two such excellent
witnesses
as Luke and Suetonius. Nor is it a satisfactory expedient to suppose,
with
Schiirer (III. p. 32 ; cp. Eng. trans., II. ii. 237), that the
government
simply intended to expel the Jews. The edict must have been actually
issued,
although it was presently replaced by a prohibition of meetings, after
the Jews
had given a guarantee of good behaviour.
A
glance at
these numerical statements shows \13/ that only two possess any
significance.
The first is Philo's, that the Egyptian Jews amounted to quite a
million.
Philo's comparatively precise mode of expression (οὐκ
ἀποδέουσι
μυριάδων
ἑκατὸν οἱ
τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν
καὶ
τὴν χώραν Ἰουδᾶιοι
κατοικοῦντες ἀπὸ
τοῦ πρὸς Λιβύην
καταβαθμοῦ μέχρι τῶν ὁρίων
Αἰθιοπίας: “The Jews resident in
Alexandria and
in the country from the descent to Libya back to the bounds of
Ethiopia, do not
fall short of a million"), taken together with the fact that registers
for
the purpose of taxation were accurately kept in Egypt, renders it
probable that
we have here to do with no fanciful number. Nor does the figure itself
appear
too high, when we consider that it includes the whole Jewish population
of
\13/ I omit a series of
figures given elsewhere by Josephus ; they are not of the slightest use.
\14/ See
\15/ Josephus, Bell., vii.
3.
3; (Τὸ Ἰουδαίων
γένος πολὺ μὲν κατὰ
πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην
παρέσπαρται
τοῖς
ἐπιχωρίοις, πλεῖστον
δὲ
τῇ
Συρίᾳ: "The
Jewish race is thickly spread over the world among its inhabitants, but
specially in
The second passage
of
importance is the statement that Tiberius deported four thousand
able-bodied
Jews to Sardinia -- Jews, be it noted, not (as Tacitus declares)
Egyptians and
Jews, for the distinct evidence of Josephus on this point is
corroborated by
that of Suetonius (see above), who, after speaking at first of Jews and
Egyptians, adds, by way of closer definition, "Judaeorum juventatem per
speciem sacramenti in provincias gravioris caeli distribuit.'" Four
thousand able-bodied men answers to a total of at least ten thousand
human
beings,\16/ and something like this represented the size of the
contemporary
Jewish community at
\16/Taking for granted, as
in
the case of any immigrant population, that the number of men is very
considerably larger than that of women, I allow 2000 boys and old men
to 4000
able-bodied men, and assume about 4000 females.
\17/ See Beloch, pp. 292 f.
His figure, 500,000, seems to me rather low.
\18/Renan (L'Antichrist, ch.
i.) is inclined to estimate the number of the Roman Jews, including
women and
children, at from twenty to thirty thousand.
\19/ The total number,
including foreigners and slaves, would amount to something between
800,000 and
900,000 (according to Beloch, 800,000 at the outside).
We can hardly
suppose that the
Jewish community at
If the Jews in
\20/ After the edict of
Pius,
which forbade in the most stringent terms the circumcision of any who
had not
been born in Judaism (cp. also the previous edict of Hadrian), regular
secessions must have either ceased altogether or occuned extremely
seldom ; cp.
Orig., c. Cels; II. xiii.
\21/ In modern
Our survey would not
be
complete if we did not glance, however briefly, at the nature of the
Jewish
propaganda in the empire,\22/ for some part, at least, of her
missionary zeal
was inherited by Christianity from Judaism. As I shall have to refer to
this
Jewish mission wherever any means employed in the Christian propaganda
are
taken over from Judaism, I shall confine myself in the meantime to some
general
observations.
\22/Compare, on this point,
Schurer's description, op, cit., III. pp. 102 f. [Eng.trans., II. ii.
126 f.].
It is surprising
that a
religion which raised so stout a wall of partition between itself and
all other
religions, and which in practice and prospects alike was bound up so
closely
with its nation, should have possessed a missionary impulse\23/of such
vigour
and attained so large a measure of success. This is not ultimately to
be
explained by any craving for power or ambition ; it is a proof \24/
that
Judaism, as a religion, was already blossoming out by some inward
transformation and becoming across between a national religion and a
world-religion (confession of faith and a church). Proudly the Jew felt
that he
had something to say and bring to the world, which concerned all men,
viz., The
one and only spiritual God, creator of heaven and earth, [[10]] with his holy moral
late. It was owing to the
consciousness of this (Rom. ii. 19 f.) that he felt missions to be a
duty. The
Jewish propaganda throughout the empire was primarily the proclamation
of the
one and only God, of his moral law, and of his judgment; to this
everything
else became secondary. The object in many cases might be pure
proselytism
(Matt. xxiii. 15), but Judaism was quite in earnest in overthrowing
dumb idols
and inducing pagans to recognize their creator and judge, for in this
the
honour of the God of Israel was concerned.
\23/The duty and the
hopefulness of missions are brought out in the earliest Jewish
Sibylline books.
Almost the whole of the literature of Alexandrian Judaism has an
apologetic
bent and the instinct of propaganda.
\24 /Cp. Bousset's Die
Religion desJudentums im neutest, Zeitalter 1903), especially the
sections on
"The Theologians, the Church and the Laity, Women, Confession (Faith
and
Dogma), the Synagogue as an
It is in this light
that one
must judge a phenomenon which is misunderstood so long as we explain it
by
means of specious analogies -- I mean, the different degrees and phases
of
proselytism. In other religions, variations of this kind usually
proceed from
an endeavour to render the moral precepts imposed by the religion
somewhat
easier for the proselyte. In Judaism this tendency never prevailed, at
least
never outright. On the contrary, the moral demand remained
unlowered. -- As the
recognition of God was considered the cardinal point, Judaism was in a
position
to depreciate the claims of the cultus and of ceremonies, and the
different
kinds of Jewish proselytism were almost entirely due to the different
degrees
in which the ceremonial precepts of the Law were observed. The fine
generosity
of such an attitude was, of course, facilitated by the fact that a man
who let
even his little finger be grasped by this religion, thereby became a
Jew.\25/
Again, strictly speaking, even a born Jew was only a proselyte so soon
as he
left the soil of Palestine, since thereby he parted with the
sacrificial
system; besides, he was unable in a foreign country to fulfil, or at
least to
fulfil satisfactorily, many other precepts of the Law.\26/For
generations there
had been a gradual neutralising of the sacrificial system proceeding
apace
within the inner life of Judaism -- even among the Pharisees; and this
coincided
with an historical situation which obliged by far the greater number of
the
adherents of the religion to live amid conditions which had made them [[11]] strangers for a long
period to the
sacrificial system. In this way they were also rendered accessible on
every
side of their spiritual nature to foreign cults and philosophies, and
thus
there originated Persian and Graeco-Jewish religious alloys, several of
whose
phenomena threatened even the monotheistic belief. The destruction of
the
temple by the Romans really destroyed nothing; it may be viewed as an
incident
organic to the history of Jewish religion. When pious people held God's
ways at
that crisis were incomprehensible, they were but deluding themselves.
\25/ If he did not, his son
did.
\26/ Circumcision, of
course,
was always a troublesome wall of partition. Born Jews, as a rule, laid
the
greatest stress upon it, while pagans submitted to the operation with
extreme
reluctance.
For a long while the
popular
opinion throughout the empire was that the Jews worshipped God without
images,
and that they had no temple. Now, although both of these "atheistic"
features might appear to the rude populace even more offensive and
despicable
than circumcision, Sabbath observance, the prohibition of swine's
flesh, etc.,
nevertheless they made a deep impression upon wide circles of educated
people.\27/ Thanks to these traits, together with its monotheism -- for
which the
age was beginning to be ripe\28/ -- Judaism seemed as if it were
elevated to the
rank of philosophy, and inasmuch as it still continued to be a
religion, it
exhibited a type of mental and spiritual life which was superior to
anything of
the kind.\29/ At bottom, there was nothing artificial in a Philo or in
a
Josephus exhibiting Judaism as the philosophic religion, for this kind
of
apologetic corresponded to the actual situation in which they found
themselves
\30/; it was as the revealed and also the philosophic [[12]] religion, equipped with
"the oldest book in the
world,"that Judaism developed her great propaganda.\31/ The account
given
by Josephus (Bell., vii. 3. 3) of the situation at Antioch, viz., that
"the Jews continued to attract a large number of the Greeks to their
services, making them in a sense part of themselves" -- this holds true
of
the Jewish mission in general.\32/ The adhesion of Greeks and Romans to
Judaism
ranged over the entire gamut of possible degrees, from the
superstitious
adoption of certain rites up to complete identification. "
God-fearing" pagans constituted the majority; proselytes (i.e., people
who
were actually Jews, obliged to keep the whole Law), there is no doubt,
were
comparatively few in number.\33/ Immersion was more indispensable than
even
circumcision as a condition of entrance.\34/
\27/ This rigid
exclusiveness
in a religion naturally repelled the majority and excited frank
resentment; it
was somewhat of a paradox, and cannot fail to have been felt as
obdurately
inhuman as well as insolent. Anti-Semitism can be plainly traced within
the
\28/ It was ripe also for
the
idea of an individual recompense in the future life, as an outcome of
the
heightened valuation of individual morality in this life, and for the
idea of a
judgment passed on the individual thereafter.
\29/ E.g., especially to the
idealistic schools of popular philosophy. Cp. Wendland, Philo und die
stoisch-kynische Diatribe (1895).
\30/ Cp. Friedlander's
Geschichte der judischen Apologetik als Vorgeschichte des
Christentzims, 1903.
On the heights of its apologetic, the Jewish religion represented
itself as the
idealist philosophy based on revelation (the sacred book),
i.e.,materially as
ideological rationalism, and formally as supra-rationalism ; it was
the"most satisfying" form of religion, retaining a vitality, a
precision, and a certainty in its conception of God such as no cognate
form of
religious philosophy could preserve, while at the same time the
overwhelming
number and the definite character of its '' prophecies " quelled every
doubt.
\31/ " As a philosophical
religion Judaism may have attracted one or two cultured individuals,
but it was
as a religious and social community with a life of its own that it won
the
masses." So Axenfeld, on p. 15 of his study (mentioned below on p. 16).
Yet even as a religious fellowship with a life of its own, Judaism made
a
philosophic impression -- and that upon the uneducated as well as upon
the
educated. I agree with Axenfeld, however, that the Jewish propaganda
owed its
success not to the literary activity of individual Hellenistic Jews,
but to the
assimilating power of the communities with their religious life, their
strict
maintenance of convictions, their recognition of their own interests
and their
satisfaction of a national pride, as evidenced in their demand for
proselytes
to glorify Jehovah.
\32/ The keenness of Jewish
propaganda throughout the empire during the first century -- "the age
in
which the Christian preaching began its course is the age in which the
Jewish
propaganda reached the acme of its efforts " -- is also clear from the
introduction of the Jewish week and Sabbath throughout the empire; cp.
Schiirer, "Die siebentagige Woche im Gebrauch der christlichen Kirche
der
ersten Jahrhunderte " {Zeits. f. die neut. Wiss., 1905, 40 f.). Many
pagans celebrated the Sabbath, just as Jews today observe Sunday.
\33 /See Eus., H. E., i. 7,
for the extent to which proselytes became fused among those who were
Jews by
birth.
\34/It must not be forgotten
that even in the Diaspora there was exclusiveness and ' fanaticism. The
first
persecution of Christians was set afoot by synagogues of the Diaspora
in
While all this was
of the
utmost importance for the Christian mission which came afterwards, at
least
equal moment attaches to one vital omission in the Jewish missionary
preaching:
viz., that no Gentile, in the first generation at least, could become a
[[13]] real son of
Abraham. His rank before God
remained inferior. Thus it also remained very doubtful how far any
proselyte -- to
say nothing of the " God-fearing " -- had a share in the glorious
promises of the future. The religion which repairs this omission will
drive
Judaism from the field.\35/ When it proclaims this message in its
fulness, that
the last will be first, that freedom from the Law is the normal and
higher
life, and that the observance of the Law, even at its best, is a thing
to be
tolerated and no more, it will win thousands where the previous
missionary
preaching won but hundreds.\36/ Yet the propaganda of Judaism did not
succeed
simply by its high inward worth; the profession of Judaism also
conferred great
social and political advantages upon its adherents. Compare Schurer''s
sketch
(pp. cit., III' pp. 56-90;
\35/ I know of no reliable
inquiries into the decline and fall of Jewish missions in the empire
after the
second destruction of the temple. It seems to me unquestionable that
Judaism
henceforth slackened her tie with Hellenism, in order to drop it
altogether as
time went on, and that the literature of Hellenistic Judaism suddenly
became
very slender, destined ere long to disappear entirely. But whether we
are to
see in all this merely the inner stiffening of Judaism, or other causes
to boot
(e.g., the growing rivalry of Christianity), is a question which I do
not
venture to decide. On the repudiation of Hellenism by Palestinian
Judaism even
prior to the first destruction of the temple, see below (p. 16).
\36/ A notable parallel from
history to the preaching of Paul in its relation to Jewish preaching,
is to be
found in Luther's declaration, that the truly perfect man was not a
monk, but a
Christian living in his daily calling. Luther also explained that the
last
(those engaged in daily business) were the first. -- The above sketch
has been
contradicted by Friedlander (in Dr. Bloch's Oesterr. Wochenschrift,
Zentralorgan f. d. ys. Interessen des Judentums, 1902, Nos. 49 f.), who
asserts
that proselytes ranked entirely the same as full-blooded Jews. But
Friedlander
himself confines this liberal attitude towards proselytes to the
Judaism of the
Greek Diaspora ; he refers it to the influence of Hellenism, and
supports it
simply by Philo (and John the Baptist). Note also that Philo usually
holds
Jewish pride of birth to be vain, if a man is wicked ; in that case, a
Jew is
far inferior to a man of pagan birth. With this limitation of
Friedlander's, no
objection can be taken to the thesis in question. I myself go still
further ;
for there is no doubt that even before the rise of Christianity the
Jews of the
Diaspora allegorised the ceremonial Law, and that this paved the way
for the
Gentile church's freedom from the Law. Only, the question is (i.)
whether the
strict Judaism of Palestine, in its obscure origins, was really
affected by
these softening tendencies, (ii.) whether it did not exercise an
increasingly
strong influence upon Judaism even in the Diaspora, and (iii.) whether
the
Judaism of the Diaspora actually renounced all the privileges of its
birth. On
the two latter points, I should answer in the negative (even with
regard to
Philo); on the first, however, my reply would be in the affirmative.
\37/' The Jewish communities
in the Diaspora also formed small states inside the state or city; one
has only
to recollect the civil jurisdiction which they exercised, even to the
extent of
criminal procedure. As late as the third century we possess, with
reference to
Palestine, Origen's account (Ep. ad Afric., xiv.) of the power of the
Ethnarch
(or patriarch), which was so great "that he differed in no whit from
royalty"; "legal proceedings also took place privately as enjoined by
the Law, and several people were condemned to death, not in open court
and yet
with the cognizance of the authorities." Similar occurrences would take
place in the Diaspora. The age of Hadrian and Pius did bring about a
terrible
retrograde movement; but afterwards, part of the lost ground was again
recovered.
\38/ Proofs of this are not
forthcoming,
however, in any number.
\39/ Owing to their
religious
and national characteristics, as well as to the fact that they enjoyed
legal
recognition throughout the empire, the Jews stood out conspicuously
from
amongst all the other nations included in the Roman state. This comes
out most
forcibly in the fact that they were even entitled "The Second race."
We shall afterwards show that Christians were called the Third race,
since Jews
already ranked thus as the Second.
One thing further.
All
religions which made their way into the empire along the channels of
intercourse and trade were primarily religions of the city, and
remained such
for a considerable period. It cannot be said that Judaism in the
Diaspora was
entirely a city-religion; indeed the reverse holds true of one or two
large
provinces. Yet in the main it continued to be a city-religion, and we
hear
little about Jews who were settled on the land.
So long as the
temple stood,
and contributions were paid in to it, this formed a link between the
Jews of
the Diaspora and [[15]]
Palestine.\40/
Afterwards, a rabbinical board took the place of the priestly college
at
\40/ Messengers and letters
also passed, which kept the tie between
\41/ On the patriarch, see
Schiirer, III.(3), pp. 77 f. [
To the Jewish
mission which
preceded it, the Christian mission was indebted, in the first place,
for a
field tilled all over the empire; in the second place, for religious
communities already formed everywhere in the towns; thirdly, for what
Axenfeld
calls " the help of materials'" furnished by the preliminary
knowledge of the Old Testament, in addition to catechetical and
liturgical
materials which could be employed without much alteration; fourthly,
for the
habit of regular worship and a control of private life ; fifthly, for
an
impressive apologetic on behalf of monotheism, historical teleology,
and
ethics; and finally, for the feeling that self-diffusion was a duty.
The amount
of this debt is so large, that one might venture to claim the Christian
mission
as a continuation of the Jewish propaganda. " Judaism,'' said Renan,
" was robbed of its due reward by a generation of fanatics, and it was
prevented from gathering in the harvest which it had prepared.'"
The extent to which
Judaism
was prepared for the gospel may also be judged by means of the
syncretism into
which it had developed. The development was along no mere side-issues.
The
transformation of a national into a universal religion may take place
in two
ways: either by the national religion being reduced to great central
principles, or by its assimilation of a wealth of new elements from
other
religions. Both processes developed simultaneously in Judaism.\42/ But
the
former is the [[16]]
more important of the
two, as a preparation for Christianity. This is to be deduced
especially from
that great scene preserved for us by Mark xii. 28-34 -- in its
simplicity of
spirit, the greatest memorial we possess of the history of religion at
the
epoch of its vital change.\43/ " A scribe asked Jesus, What is the
first
of all the commandments ? Jesus replied, The first is: Hear, O Israel,
the Lord
our God is one God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart,
and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength. The second is
: Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no commandment greater
than
these. And the scribe said to him. True, O teacher; thou hast rightly
said that
he is one, and that beside him there is none else, and that to love him
with
all the heart, and all the understanding and all the strength, and to
love
one's neighbour as oneself, is far above all holocausts and sacrifices.
And
when Jesus saw that he answered intelligently, he said: "Thou art not
far
from the
\42/ For
"syncretism," see especially the last chapter in Bousset's volume
(pp. 448-493). Syncretism melted each of the older elements within the
religion
of Judaism, and introduced a wealth of entirely new elements. But
nothing
decomposed the claim that Judaism was the true religion, or the
conviction that
in " Moses " all truth lay.
\43/ The nearest approach to
it is to be found in the missionary speech put into Paul's mouth on the
hill of
Mars.
With regard to the
attitude of
Palestinian Judaism towards the mission-idea (i.e., universalism and
the duty
of systematic propaganda), the state of matters during the age of
Christ and
the apostles is such as to permit pleadings upon both sides of the
question.\44/ Previous to that age, there had been two periods which
were
essentially opposite in tendency. The older, resting upon the second
Isaiah,
gave vivid expression, even within
\44/ Cp. Bertholet, Die
Stellung der Israel Uen und Judea sit den Fremden (1890); Schlirer,
III.(3),
pp. 125 f.); Bousset, op. cit., 82 f.; Axenfeld, "Die judische
Propaganda
als Vorlauferin der urchristlichen Mission," in the Missionswiss.
Studien
(Festschrift fiir Warneck), 1904, pp. l-80
\45/ Axenfeld remarks very
truly (pp. 8 f.) that "the history of the Jewish propaganda is to be
explained by the constant strain between the demand that the heathen
should be
included and the dread which this excited. The Judaism which felt the
impulse
of propaganda resembled an invading host, whose offensive movements are
continually being hampered by considerations arising from the need of
keeping
in close touch with their basis of operations." But it seems to me an
artificial and theological reflection, when the same scholar lays
supreme
weight on the fact that the Jewish propaganda had no "consciousness of
a
vocation," and that, in contrast to the Christian mission, it simply
proclaimed its God zealously from the consciousness of an innate
religious
preeminence, devoid of humility and obedience. I have tried in vain to
find an
atom of truth in this thesis, with its resultant defence of the
historicity of
Matthew xxviii. 19. It is of course admitted on all hands that
Christian
missionary zeal was bound subsequently to be intensified by the belief
that
Jesus had directly enjoined it.
CHAPTER
2
THE
EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OF THE WORLD-WIDE EXPANSION
OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
It is only in a
series of
headings, as it were, that I would summarize the external conditions
which
either made it possible for Christianity to spread rapidly and widely
during
the imperial age, or actually promoted its advance. One of the most
important
has been mentioned in the previous chapter, viz., the spread of
Judaism, which
anticipated and prepared the way for that of Christianity. Besides
this, the
following considerations\1/ are especially to be noted : --
\1/ The number of works at
our
disposal for such a survey is legion. One of the most recent is
Gruppe's Kulturgeschichte
der romischen Kaiserzeit (2 vols., 1903, 1904).
(1) The Hellenizing
of
the East and (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 had produced. Not until the close of the second
century
CE does this Hellenizing process appear to have exhausted itself,\2/ [[20]] while in the fourth
century, when the seat of
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.
\2/ I know no investigations
as to the precise period when the advance of Hellenism, more
particularly of
the Greek language, subsided and ceased at
(2) The
world-empire of
\3/ After Melito, Origen (c.
Celsum 2.30) correctly estimated the significance of this for the
Christian
propaganda. "In the days of Jesus, righteousness arose and fulness of
peace; it began with his birth. God prepared the nations for his
teaching, by
causing the Roman emperor to rule over all the world; there was no
longer to be
a plurality of kingdoms, else would the nations have been strangers to
one
another, and so the apostles would have found it harder to carry out
the task
laid on them by Jesus, when he said, 'Go and teach all nations.' It is
well
known that the birth of Jesus took place in the reign of Augustus, who
fused
and federated the numerous peoples upon earth into a single empire. A
plurality
of kingdoms would have been an obstacle to the spread of the doctrine
of Jesus
throughout all the world, not merely for the reasons already mentioned,
but
also because the nations would in that event have been obliged to go to
war in
defence of their native lands. .... How, then, could this doctrine of
peace,
which does not even permit vengeance upon an enemy, have prevailed
throughout
the world, had not the circumstances of the world passed everywhere
into a
milder phase at the advent of Jesus?"
(3) The exceptional
facilities,
growth, and security of international traffic:\4/ the admirable
roads;
the blending of different nationalities;\5/ the interchange of wares
and of
ideas; the [[21]]
personal intercourse ; the
ubiquitous merchant and soldier -- one may add, the ubiquitous
professor, who
was to be encountered from
\4/ Cp. Stephan in Raumer's Histor,
Taschenbuch (1868), pp. 1f., and Zahn's Weltverkehr und Kirche
wahrend der
drei ersten Jahrhunderte (1877). That one Phrygian merchant voyaged to
\5/ It is surprising to
notice
this blending of nationalities, whenever any inscription bears a
considerable
number of names (soldiers, pages, martyrs, etc.), and at the same time
mentions
their origin.
(4) The practical
and
theoretical conviction of the essential unity of mankind, and
of human
rights and duties, which was produced, or at any rate intensfied, by
the fact
of the "orbis Romanus" [Roman world] 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.\6/
\6/ At this point (in order
to
illustrate these four paragraphs) Renan's well-known summary may be
cited {Les
Apotres, ch. xvi.): " The unity of the empire was the essential
presupposition of any comprehensive proselytizing movement which should
transcend the limits of nationality. In the fourth century the empire
realised
this: it became Christian; it perceived that Christianity was the
religion
which it had matured involuntarily; it recognized in Christianity the
religion
whose limits were the same as its own, the religion which was
identified with
itself and capable of infusing new life into its being. The church, for
her
part, became thoroughly Roman, and to this day has remained a survival
of the
old
(5) The
decomposition of
ancient society into a democracy: the gradual equalizing of the
"cives
Romani" [Roman citizens] 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 new
formations
by the decomposition of the old.
(6) The religious
policy of
(7) 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, whilst 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.
(8) The
irruption of the
Syrian and Persian religions into the empire, dating especially
from the
reign of Antoninus Pius. These 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.
(9) The decline
of the
exact sciences, a phenomenon due to the democratic tendency of
society and
the simultaneous popularizing of knowledge, as well as to other unknown
causes:
also the rising vogue of a mystical philosophy of religion with a
craving
for some form of revelation and a thirst for miracle.
All these outward
conditions
(of which the two latter might have been previously included among the
inward)
brought about a great revolution in the whole of 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 and Roman: one
empire,
one universal language, one civilization, a common development towards
monotheism, and a common yearning for saviors! \7/
\7/ As Uhlhorn remarks very
truly {Die christliche Liebesthatigkeit in der alten Kirche,
1882, p.
37; Eng. trans. pp. 40-42): "From the time of the emperors onwards a
new
influence made itself felt, and unless we notice this influence, we
cannot
understand the first centuries of the early Christian church, we cannot
understand its rapid extension and its relatively rapid triumph. ....
Had the
stream of new life issuing from Christ encountered ancient life when
the latter
was still unbroken, it would have recoiled impotent from the shock. But
ancient
life had by this time begun to break up; its solid foundations had
begun to
weaken; and, besides, the Christian stream fell in with a previous and
cognate
[[23]] current of Jewish
opinion. In the
CHAPTER
3
THE
INTERNAL CONDITIONS DETERMINING THE WORLD-WIDE
EXPANSION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION -- RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM
In subsequent sections of this book we shall notice a series of the
more
important inner conditions which determined the universal spread of the
Christian religion. It was by preaching to the poor, the burdened, and
the
outcast, by the preaching and practice of love, that Christianity
turned the
stony, sterile world into a fruitful field for the church. Where no
other
religion could sow and reap, this religion was enabled to scatter its
seed and
to secure a harvest.
The condition,
however, which
determined more than anything else the propaganda of the religion, lay
in the
general religious situation during the imperial age. It is impossible
to
attempt here to depict that situation, and unluckily we cannot refer to
any
standard work which does justice to such a colossal undertaking,
despite the
admirable studies and sketches (such as those of Tzschirner,
Friedlander,
Boissier, Reville, and Wissowa)\1/ which we possess. This being so, we
must
content ourselves with throwing out a few hints along two main lines.
\1/ Add the sketch of the
history of Greek religion by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Jahrb. des Freien
deutschen Hochstifts, 1904).
(1) In spite of the
inner
evolution of polytheism towards monotheism, the relations between
Christianity
and paganism simply meant the opposition of monotheism and polytheism
-- of
polytheism, too, in the first instance, as political religion (the
imperial
cultus). Here Christianity and paganism were absolutely opposed. The
former
burned what the latter adored, and the latter burned Christians as
guilty of
high treason. [[25]]
Christian apologists
and martyrs were perfectly right in often ignoring every other topic
when they
opened their lips, and in reducing everything to this simple
alternative.
Judaism shared with
Christianity this attitude towards polytheism. But then, Judaism was a
national
religion; hence its monotheism was widely tolerated simply because it
was
largely unintelligible. Furthermore, it usually evaded any conflict
with the
State authorities, and it did not make martyrdom obligatory. That a man
had to
become a Jew in order to be a monotheist, was utterly absurd: it
degraded the
creator of heaven and earth to the level of a national god. Besides, if
he was
a national god, he was not the only one. No doubt, up and down the
empire there
were whispers about the atheism of the Jews, thanks to their lack of
images;
but the charge was never levelled in real earnest -- or rather, opinion
was in
such a state of oscillation that the usual political result obtained: in dubio pro reo.
It was otherwise
with
Christianity. Here the polytheists could have no hesitation: deprived
of any
basis in a nation or a State, destitute alike of images and temples,
Christianity was simple atheism. The contrast between polytheism and
monotheism
was in this field clear and keen. From the second century onwards, the
conflict
between these two forms of religion was waged by Christianity and not
by
Judaism. The former was aggressive, while as a rule the latter had
really
ceased to fight at all -- it devoted itself to capturing proselytes.
From the very outset it was no hopeless struggle. When Christianity came upon the scene, the polytheism of the State religion was not yet eradicated, indeed, nor was it eradicated for some time to come; \2/ but there were ample forces at hand which were already compassing its ruin. It had survived the critical epoch during which the republic had changed into a dual control and a monarchy; but as for the fresh swarm of religions which were invading and displacing it, polytheism could no more exorcise them with the magic wand of the imperial cultus than it could dissolve them under the rays of a protean cultus of the sun, which sought to bring everything [[26]] within its sweep. Nevertheless polytheism would still have been destined to a long career, had it not been attacked secretly or openly by the forces of general knowledge, philosophy, and ethics; had it not also been saddled with arrears of mythology which excited ridicule and resentment. Statesmen, poets, and philosophers might disregard all this, since each of these groups devised some method of preserving their continuity with the past. But once the common people realized it, or were made to realize it, the conclusion they drew in such cases was ruthless. The onset against deities feathered and scaly, deities adulterous and infested with vice, and on the other hand against idols of wood and stone, formed the most impressive and effective factor in Christian preaching for wide c