The Early Stage of Christianity since the Birth of Jesus Christ - Essay Example

Early Christianity until Third Century A.D. The early stage of Christianity since the birth of Jesus Christ to the third century of Common Era was the most critical period of its survival and growth. The incarnation of Jesus Christ and the credibility of the New Testament have been subjects for debate among the theologians and researchers over centuries. Although Christianity originated from Judaism, its broad concept of universal love and salvation enabled it to flourish throughout the Roman Empire. Regardless of the doctrinal variance between groups, Christianity gained popularity even under the religious and imperial suppression. This paper tends to discuss the significant landmarks in the growth of early Christianity from biblical and historical perspective. It will also consider some of the contrasting views that question the reliability of the biblical description of historical facts. The birth of Jesus Christ The birth of Jesus Christ could be counted as the beginning of Christianity. The event itself is one of the major controversial subjects among the critics of Bible. However, according to the leading opinion, it might have happened around 4 B.C when August Cesar was the Roman emperor and Herod the Great was the king of Judea. According to the Bible, Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit when she was engaged to marry Joseph. It happened for the fulfillment of prophesy which had predicted that a virgin would give birth to the Messiah who would redeem the world from its tribulations. (Mt: 1: 21-23). As St. Luke narrates, Augustus Cesar ordered a census program according to which people had to register their names in their homelands. Since Joseph was the descendant of David he traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife and while they were in Bethlehem she gave birth to the child, Jesus. (Luke: 2:1-7). King Herod came to know about the birth of the divine child who would become the king of Jews; and planned to kill him. Therefore, Joseph with his wife and son escaped to Egypt and after the death of Herod resettled in Nazareth. Jesus starts his mission The birth of Jesus happened as a subsequent event of the birth of John the Baptist. According to the gospel, the mission of John the Baptist was to prepare people for the advent of Messiah. He criticized the hypocrisy of Jews and asked them repent in order to welcome the Word of God. He baptized his followers in the river Jordan as a symbol of the new order. According to the gospel, Jesus himself received baptism from John, before starting his mission and fasted forty days and nights in desert. (Luke: 4). The Gospel also states that when he began his public life he was about thirty years old (Luke: 3: 21). If the speculation is correct, between 26 and 36 A.D. Pontius Pilate became the ruler of Judea. The four Gospels in the New Testament are the detailed description of the life and mission of Jesus. Obviously there are certain discrepancies in the narration of events in the gospels. According to the scholars, it occurred because each gospel had its own specific objective as well as distinctive message to convey. However, the whole content of Gospels is comprised of his mission, death and resurrection. In fact, Jesus did not initiate a new religious order. He was born as a Jew and lived as a true Jew adhering to the teachings of the Old Testament. In other words, he insisted on the true sense of the Scriptures and Jewish laws and subsequently provoked the conservative religious leaders, priests and Pharisees. His magnifying eloquence, wisdom, and simplicity attracted both common people and scholars alike. He condemned the priests for trading belief and exploiting the religious sentiments of the laity. The miracles he performed accompanied his preaching as the evidence of his authenticity. He often addressed himself as the Son of Man, the real meaning of which can be the Son of God or other as it has been interpreted in numerous ways. According to the Catholic belief Jesus is a perfect man and a perfect God. He is the Son of God though not less than Father and Holy Spirit. This concept of Trinity is one of the major conflicting issues between Catholicism and other Christian orders. Death, Resurrection, and Acts of Apostles As the gospel describes, unfair coalition and conspiracy between religion and political power ended in the crucifixion of Jesus. Three years of preaching was sufficient for him to promote the Good News in Judea, Galilee, Jordan, Samaria, Jerusalem and all other regions of Palestine. Soon after his death, his disciples were scattered or absconded to the various regions of Rome. Later on as the news of his resurrection spread, they rejoined in secret. Many of them said to have mystical experiences from risen Christ and they gathered his disciples and spent time praying in a secret place. As the Acts of Apostles states, on the 40th day of his resurrection they were filled with the blessings of Holy Spirit and began to preach Jesus with great audacity and grace. It could be considered as the commencement of a new era in the history of early Christianity. Although the movement was initiated by Peter, historians say that due to the absence of proper coordination, interpretation of Christian belief varied from group to group since the very beginning of the Church. It was the inevitable result of the adverse situation. A political scenario in which the believers were incessantly hunted by Jewish, Pagan religions and Roman officials offered them little opportunity to propagate their faith. The Acts of Apostles gives us a vivid picture of the early Christian groups and the major problems they confronted with. There was no class variation and they considered everything as common (Acts: 2:44). At gathering they prayed, sang from the psalms, and the elder member of the group, probably an apostle, delivered a sermon. Finally, they shared the bread and wine they used to bring from their homes. This sharing was known as ‘Agape’ (God’s love) which represented the concept of equality and inculcated a feeling of oneness among the believers. As the church gained rather institutional setup, the Agape became more significant as the remembrance of the Last Supper and later, the center of worship as it is in Catholic Church today. This practice has been a matter of dispute among the various Christian groups since the early history of its evolution. Some of them consider it as the remembrance of the last supper and is supposed to celebrate only on the Passover; whereas Catholic Church celebrates it on every Holy Mass and believes that the bread and wine transform into the real flesh and blood of Christ. However, there were considerable stages of theological development with every Christian group until they settled their own doctrinal identity. In addition to the Roman threat, the early Christians had to compete with Judaism and even with the deviated Christian groups like Gnostic Christians and Marcionism. Many of the epistles of the apostles and church fathers warned about the fallacies and wrong convictions spread among the various groups. The major conflict occurred when some leaders confused whether to continue the Jewish practice of circumcision in Christianity. (Acts: 15). Emergence of Paulinism Oppression from Jewish leadership tormented the early Christians to a great extent. The organized persecution started under the leadership of a Jewish scholar Saul who later surprisingly converted to be the most efficient advocate of Christianity by A.D. 34-36. Saul went on hunting Christians on behalf of Judaism until he had a vision of risen Christ on his way to Damascus. From his own testimony we understand that he had a divine revelation that forced him to rise to be the ardent preacher of Christianity. (Acts: 22:6-21). Saul changed his name into Paul and reappeared after few years of secret life. He began his religious expedition from Jerusalem to Illerikon, the entire eastern region of Roman Empire, by coordinating and enhancing various Christian groups. Through his sermons and letters of outstanding proficiency and wisdom he promoted Christian belief among various gentile groups. He had good knowledge in the Jewish laws and Holy Scriptures which enabled him to prove that Jesus was the real Messiah the Jews had been expecting for centuries. By the time the church had been split into various Christian denominations with widely different understanding of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, numerous doctrines and writings on Christian belief with considerable disparities appeared in different regions. Around A.D. 46-47, a council at Jerusalem was held to determine many of the conflicting opinions. (Act: 15). Although St. Peter is considered as the head of Christianity, St. Paul must be the most powerful evangelist the world has ever seen. In fact he defined the mystery of incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by linking them with the Old Testament. The letters written by him (or attributed to him) to various churches and individuals are the wonderful evidence of his knowledge and intellect. In other words, he laid the foundation for the pillars of Christian theology. It was under his zealous efforts the Christian order emerged to be one of the outstanding religions in the world history. Paul founded numerous churches in various parts of the Roman Empire along the Mediterranean region. He undertook several adventures for the sake of gospel and confronted with shipwreck and other mishaps during voyage. Moreover, he was arrested and imprisoned twice by the Roman officials and finally rewarded martyrdom in AD. 64. Canon of Scriptures The Holy Bible is a collection of numerous books and writings written by several known and unknown writers over centuries. Obviously there are several books and gospels that are excluded from the official Bible of today. Moreover, the number of books varies from church to church. The early Christians probably have relied on the Old Testament which was compiled between 3rd and 1st century B.C. and that was in contemporary use. Later they began to depend more on the Greek version Septuagint. At the same time, the writings of the apostles had their own authority in the church. For instance, Paul used to propose the public reading of his letters he wrote to the various churches. (1 Tess. 5:27, Col.4:16). Before the end of the 1st century all of the gospels and other writings of the New Testament are believed to have completed. As the church spread to the various parts of the Roman Empire, numerous writings and gospels appeared. Many of them carried widely different concepts; and the church had to determine the authentic scriptures. The canon was not a particular process but a gradual development happened in the Judaism and Christianity. For the early Christianity it was highly significant to define its identity from Judaism and pagan religions. “Both Judaism and Christianity eventually selected a body of documents that they regarded as sacred and authoritative. Such a collection of writings is referred to as a canon.” (Hayes J H., 1971 p.20). The Gospel of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John are the widely approved gospels of Christian belief. Although they were written between 65 and 90 A.D., the differences in their style, content, and narration point out to the varying objectives of the writers. Although it is hard to determine ‘to whom, who, when, and where’ the books were written (Bockmuehl M., Hanger D A., 2005 p.100), there are certain common assumptions regarding the origin of these gospels. Among the four, gospel of Mark must be the one written first around 65-70 A.D. in Rome. The beginning sentence of the gospel indicates the whole content of this book. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk: 1:1). He is supposed to have written this gospel targeting the gentiles outside Palestine. Mark gives importance to the narration of the miracles performed by Jesus to prove that he is the son of God. Mark was the travel companion of Paul in his expedition (Act: 13:5, 15: 37-39) and was imprisoned with him in Rome (Col: 4:10). According to the concept, Mathew one of the disciples of Jesus wrote the gospel between 75 and 90 A.D. While writing this gospel his target group might be the Jews who had been converted to Christianity. It is believed so because Mathew, throughout his book suggests that Jesus is the Christ or Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. Since the beginning he correlates the events and prophesies of Old Testament with the life events of Jesus. His Gospel begins as “the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt: 1:1). According to him Christianity is the continuation of Judaism and New Testament (Jesus) is the fulfillment of God’s (Yahweh) promise. Through his gospel he announces that the kingdom of God has been accomplished and awaiting another Messiah would be a fallacy. Another persuasive writing of the first century was the Gospel of Luke. Researchers have an opinion that he wrote this gospel in Greece in 70 A.D. The carefully crafted preface of his gospel indicates that he was probably influenced by the other two gospels written by Mathew and Mark. Therefore he deliberately excluded several incidents as if to avoid repetition; and included numerous additional events of the life history of Jesus Christ. His objective of writing this book might be to persuade gentiles (people who were not Jews) to believe in Jesus because he himself was a gentile. According to him, incarnation of Christ is the Good News to the entire world. (Luke: 2:10-11). He describes the personality of Jesus who is highly compassionate to the poor and crippled. Luke also was the friend and companion of Paul in many of his evangelical programs and like Mark, he also got imprisoned with Paul for the sake of Gospel. (Col: 4:14, Act: 16: 10-11, Act: 27: 1-28). Finally, the Gospel of John which has an entirely different style from that of the other three was written in 95 A.D probably in Ephesus. John was the direct and intimate disciple of Jesus and gives testimony to the events (John 19: 35, 21:24). He describes the intention of his writing as “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (20: 30-31). Instead of the overall description of the events, he explored the inner meaning of Christ’s words, deeds, miracles, death, and resurrection. He wanted to define the mystery of incarnation; and many of the terms like water, light, life, death, sword, bread etc. have had symbolic meaning. Furthermore, the other writings like the Acts of Apostles and a number of letters written by (or attributed to) Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John and Revelation are also the part of the New Testament which were expected to have completed by the end of first century A.D. (Cairns E., 1996 p.75). According to the catholic Canon, the total number of books in the New Testament is 27 although it varies in other groups. One might lack accurate historical evidence from the Bible because the objective of the book was to reveal the mystery of salvation rather than presenting historical facts. The Apostolic Fathers. In addition to the Gospels and other writings of officially approved Bible, many other doctrinal works had been initiated by several early Christian proponents. They were either contemporaries of apostles or their disciples who mostly lived in the second century. Many of these great believers wrote their own works to defend Christianity from the threat of heresy. The notable heresies emerged during the first and second centuries were Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Montainism. (Grant R M., 1993 pp.5-7). Some of the eminent early Christian fathers who are known as Apostolic Fathers and Ante-Nicene Fathers were Clement of Rome, Linus the successor of Peter, Polycarp, Barnabas, Papias of Hierapolis, and Tertullian, Iraneus, Ignatius, and Justine. Among them, Ignatius Antioch (A.D. 110), Policarp (A.D. 156), and Justine (A.D.165) were put to death for proclaiming Christianity in second century A.D. Christianity in second century confronted with severe persecution from the imperial authorities. The church had to compete with both the imperial oppression and the emerging heresies simultaneously. The works like Didache, the Letter to Diognetus, the Letter of Clement of Rome, and the Letters of Bernabas etc. are the products of the second century which intended to defend Christianity from the emerging threats. Christianity was a prohibited religion in Rome; and moreover Christians were considered as criminals. “They were hated mostly for what was considered as their stubbornness and intolerance due to their exclusive devotion to Christ as Lord.” (Fr. Hipko T.). The situation became adverse when the Roman emperor Aurelian made pagan cult official religion of Rome in 274 A.D. Christians refused to honor king as their lord and God and that resulted in incessant persecution throughout the second century until it ended with the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. It was later in 391 A.D., under the reign of Theodosius, Christianity officially declared to be the state religion of Rome. In short, the early centuries of Common Era was the most crucial period in the history of Christianity. Regardless of the unfavorable condition, it sprung up to be the official religion of Roman Empire. It was the significant period when the Church had to define its canon scriptures and most of the writings of the New Testament. The church had to defend its true faith from the threat of heresy as well as from the political and religious intervention. Numerous believers including Peter, Paul, and other Apostolic Fathers shed their blood for the ‘Word of God’ that subsequently led to the great religious revolution that swept across the Roman Empire. Works cited Bockmuehl M., Hanger D. The Written Gospel. Cambridge University Press. 2005. Cairns E. Christianity through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church. Edn 3, revised. Zondervan, 1996. Fr. Hopko T. ‘Second Century: Persecution and Faith’. CBN.com. 8 Nov.2009. http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/ChurchAndMinistry/ChurchHistory/Second_Century_Persecution_and_Faith.aspx Grant R M. Heresy and Criticism: The Search for Authenticity in Early Christian Literature. Westminster John Knox Press. 1993. Hayes J H. Introduction to the Bible. Illustrated, Westminster John Knox Press. 1971. The New Testament. The Holy Bible. Read More