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Roles of apostle Paul in the growth and spread of christianity
Examples of christian persecution in the roman empire
The apostle paul's influence on the church
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Throughout the rise of early Christianity in rome persecution ranged from commoners to emperors and was a common practice. The unfair oppression of Christians came from a place of fear from the emperors, However the commoners believed Christians disrespected the rank of the gods. Because of the inferior label put on Christians and their “shameful” behavior during this time persecution was an ongoing sequence.
Christianity is a unified religion that took full commitment and faith in early Rome. Christianity Rose during the first century after christ 's death and its rise came from the help of the apostles. Apostles are early christian teachers who taught the message of christ as well as how to reach god through worship. They first taught the early roman christians to accept christ as their lord and savior not the emperor. Pliny, a lawyer author and magistrate in ancient rome who lived from 61 to 113 c, wrote letters to an emperor named trajan about the average sunday worship of a christian. , He writes, “ That they were wont, on a stated day, to meet together before it was light, and to sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternately; and to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath], not to do anything that was ill: but that they would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery; that they would not break their promises, or deny what was deposited with them...“it was their custom to depart, and to meet again at a common but innocent meal,” The “hymn” he is talking about was connected to the bible, a physical representation of the christians denying the emperor, and in reciting an oath they separated themselves from the emperor on a divine level. When Pliny is talking the meal they eat he is explaining a traditional sunday din...
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... to heal those dealing with illnesses, and in doing so this helped to converted alot of Pagans. However alot of the roman people were still angry at the situatuion at hand in rome. Not only were they poor, becuase they wee spending money n how to help their loved ones, but those that were not in Hospitals would have had family member taken away from their original religion.
Pagans and Christians both looked for someone to blame, however the pagans who were loyal to to the emperor looked for an easy target, which happens to be the christinas. Most Christians were either slaves or soldiers, so they were hardly respectable people at that time. The main reason why Emperors persecuted Christians is because historically emperors had always been hostile to christians. How could an emperor agree to a religion where they worship Jesus Christ, a jewish criminal.
The Romans, originally called the Latins after the volcanic plain were they lived, were founded around 753BCE after the battle across the seven hills on the Tiber. The battle was fought between twin brothers Romulus and Remus, ending in the defeat of Remus (Duiker). Religion played a huge role in the daily life of Rome, the state religion lasting between 200BCE-250CE (“Roman Religion”). Temples to worship the gods were built throughout the Roman Empire and family houses would also have a small altar and shrine. The Roman religion was a mixture of fragmented rituals, taboos, superstitions, and traditions that they collected over the years from a number of sources. The Roman gods and goddess were a blend of several religious influences. Many of the gods and goddess were introduced through the Greek colonies of southern Italy; others had roots in old religions of the Etruscans or Latin tribes (“Roman Religion”). Roman authorities were generally tolerant of the dietes and religious practices of Empire subjects and tried to foster loyalty to the empire by merging these gods and goddess into the Roman Pantheon (Overfield). Normally all the Romans would require was that the various cults not threaten public order or morality. Cults like Bacchism, Celts Druid and Christianity were seen as violating all norms of social behavior and threatened the stability of Roman rule (Overfield). It was not until the rule of Constantine that Christianity was accepted. This Essay will explore the two religious practices, Vestal Virgins and Roman devotees of the cult of Isis, describing their religious life before Constantine’s conversion.
The Christians during this era focused on helping others and becoming closer to God by causing as less drama as possible. Well lets see, the profit of the Christian religion, Jesus Christ, was just an ordinary criminal killed under Roman law, and these people who were considered Christians were worshipping him. The Romans were very strict about anything that went against their authority. Christians didn’t believe in sacrifice, so they wouldn’t kill animals or anything. This was seen at that time as something that should be done to please the Roman Gods and was a benefit to everyone.
The rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
As the greatest empire in the western world began to crumble one city at a time, the leader of the Roman Empire, Constantine, under pressure from external and internal sources moved the capital of Rome to Constantinople around 330 AD. The movement of the capital was after his conversion to Christianity in 312 AD, a growing religion throughout the empire despite being officially illegal. Constantine was not the devote saint that the church may speak of today, “from 312-320 Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title "Pontifex Maximus" in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never understood the theology of Christianity” (Ferguson & Grupp, 1998). The first Christian Emperor claimed to have converted after a victorious battle with his brother and there are many that corroborate this story it appears highly suspicious to only promote Christian ideals and worship. Constantine was not even the Emperor that made Christianity the religion of the Roman people, but simply permitted religiou...
Question 3: Candida Moss, a New Testament Historian from Notre Dame University, in her book The Myth of Christian Persecution, tells how Christian historians misconstrue oppression in the first three centuries of the Christian church. She believes that persecution only came in a small section of Rome, and generally did affect the Christian population as a whole. She believes that while many Christians in the inner cities experienced persecuted, most Christians generally experienced a low level of persecution and did not experience significant hardship in the early years of Christianity. In the first century, however, persecution is very real in the city of Rome.
The Great Persecution was said to be, “...a horrible, difficult time for Christians...Many Christians fell away, and many others were tortured, thrown in a dungeon, or put to death,” (Paul Pavao). During this time period, Diocletian wanted to convert the Christians back to paganism which meant the emperor at the time would be considered God. If any Christians were caught by Diocletian they, “...could be released by offering a sacrifice to the gods or to the emperor,” (Paul Pavao). Also, if the Christians gave up copies of scriptures to be burned, they would be given “great favor.” After Diocletian retired in 305 AD, Galerius, Constantine, and Maximian carried out the persecution in the east and west, causing it to end by 311
Christianity is defined as, “A major religion, stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century AD.” (Shelton) It has become the largest of the world’s religions. Yet in Ancient Rome in the first century A.D. they were not welcome. Christians were burned and tortured, and persecuted for just over three hundred years because of their beliefs. Why? We may never fully know, but I believe it was mostly out of fear. Fear of the new, and fear of change.
As the Imperial system gained hold, it was common practice for the Emperors to accept divine honors before their deaths. These living gods, in some cases, required sacrificial rituals as signs of loyalty and ingrained themselves with the older more traditional pagan gods. The requirement of a sacrifice to the emperor, as well as the forced belief in the complete pantheon became a significant source of conflict with early Christians. As Christians refused to worship the emperor as a god, persecution of the Christians and conflict with the cult was a constant source of strife. Emperor worship would continue until late in the western Empire until the reign of Constantine. In the early 4th century AD, Constantine either converted to Christianity or made it an acceptable part of Roman religion, eliminating the emperor deification altogether. Later Emperors such as Julian attempted to revive the old ways, but the deeply rooted Mithraism, and Christian cults combined were firmly set within Roman society. By 392 AD, Emperor Theodosius I banned the practice of pagan religions in Rome altogether and Christianity was, without question, the official religion of the state.
The first Christian Church (the Orthodox Church) came to be in the Late Roman Empire because of Jesus of Nazareth, and the first Christian Emperor Constantine. The messages Jesus wanted to reach his disciples were this: brotherhood, equality, elevation of the poor, and anti-materialism. He preached a lifestyle that changed mankind, and gave people hope. Jesus gave the people of the Late Roman Empire some hope, and guided them through times of need. On the other hand you have the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe, with a lot of power in the medieval society. The Catholic Church was the western counterpart the Eastern Orthodox Church and it slowly became a very strict religion. Their mission was simple: faith+good works=salvation. Religion over 2000 years ago was almost more important then, than it is today. It was new, and it was important, the rise of Christianity played a central role in the early historical
Christianity is now in our modern world one of the five major religions. The other major religions include Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism from which Christianity descended. Christianity was practiced before Christ, During his life, and after his life. After Christ¹s life Christianity spread to become a main world religion.
During the first half century after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman government including governors in the eastern provinces took no active measures against Christians. The attitude of the higher Roman authorities had always been that Christianity was merely a sect of Judaism, and as such, were entitled to share in its privileges as a recognized religion. In 64 A.D. this attitude suffered a severe alteration. On July 19, 64 A.D. occurred the great fire of Rome. Half a million people were left homeless. Popular rumor persistently asserted that the fire was started by incendiaries acting under the orders of the Emperor Nero. It was said that Nero wanted the city burnt down so he could build a new city which was to be re-named after himself. Nero felt that something must be done to deflect the public indignation against him. To do this he contrived that accusations should be brought against the Christians. So Nero began an aggressive persecution of the Christians in Rome. Those who confessed their guilt were brought to trail. During these trials a great number of other Christians were uncovered and were also brought to trial. Oddly enough, these people were not charged with starting the great fire of Rome, but rather for “hatred of the humankind.”
Christianity, originally, was thought of as an outsider religion, and wasn’t accepted by most Romans. The Romans could learn to live with other religions, but not when they were harmful to public order. At one point, Romans viewed it to be just that. Christians tended ...
Christianity is the world’s most prominent religion, with more than six billion people practicing worldwide. Although Christianity has come to dominate the world of religion, it began as a small and mysterious cult in Ancient Rome. Small, and poorly understood, Christianity soon became an enemy of Rome, marked with persecution, martyrdom, and murder. By the end of the third century CE, tens of thousands of Christians had been arrested and killed for their beliefs.
The earliest recorded text teaching Christianity has its roots buried deep within Judaism. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, created a new ideology of worship. The Messiah is the savior for all people and of all sins. Paul carried the message of the Messiah to the Gentiles. His missionary journeys and establishment of churches enabled the spreading of the message throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity grew in acceptance; those that believed in the Messiah separated and began to worship on their own. This marked the beginning of the split of Judaism and Christianity.
When Christianity became the religion in Rome, some people accepted the change and some people did not. Christianity was brought into the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine during his reforms after a period of crisis in the late Roman Empire. The change in Religion was too big of a modification to society for some people to handle, and instead stuck with the old Roman religion of polytheism. The change in religion caused internal chaos in the empire because not everyone accepted Christianity in empire when the religion changed. With Christianity becoming the new religion, it also changed where people saw who had power, which changed the people of Rome’s believe in the emperor to God because of the religion change. Before Christianity came to Rome, people believed in polytheism, so emperors were basically gods, so the change represents the acceptance of something else to believe in. While Christianity helped with the fall of Rome, the expansion of the empire also assisted in the fall of the Roman Empire.