5 - Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul)

5 - Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul)

The preaching success of the disciples among the Greek-speaking diaspora Jews prompted the intervention of the high priest of Jerusalem and of the Pharisees before the synagogues in various cities, and Jews organized persecutions against Christians. A Jew named Saul, better known by the Greco-Roman name Paul, was sent by the Pharisees to Damascus to direct there the anti-Christian movement. According to the book of Acts of the Apostles, Jesus appeared to Paul on the road and from then he became an ardent Christian. Paul would become the greatest apostle of Christianity, carrying the message of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire, and he would be the main architect of the transformation of a simple Jewish sect into a universal religion.

Paul was also from the diaspora, he was born in the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. He came from a wealthy family, and he had Roman citizenship. He also was learned, he had Greek and Jewish education, he spoke Greek and Aramaic, and he dominated the Hellenistic rhetoric. Unlike the original 12 apostles, he was literate. These conditions provided invaluable advantages along his preaching career.

Paul's conversion must have occurred between the years 31 and 34, but he began to stand out around the year 40. At that time, the large number of Gentiles (non-Jews) becoming Christians in the city of Antioch worried the Church of Jerusalem led by James and the twelve apostles, as it raised the need to solve new problems such as the coexistence of Jews and Greeks, non-compliance of the mosaics precepts by the Gentiles, and the risk of moral and doctrinal deviation of the community caused by Greek influence. These problems did not exist before due to the common Jewish origin of all Christians.

The Jewish ritual was complicated and confusing for those educated in Greek philosophy. It demanded strange dietary restrictions and, in addition, the Jews considered essential that every convert male submitted himself to the painful operation of circumcision. Finally, Judaism was centered in the Temple of Jerusalem, which was the only place where someone could actually be closer to God.

A veteran disciple named Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to organize the Christian community of Antioch. Barnabas went first to Tarsus to ask Paul to help him with the task assigned. When they arrived to Antioch, they found a church composed mainly of Gentiles who were not previously converted to Judaism, and accepting the fait accompli, they continued converting to Christianity as many Gentiles as they could, without asking the new faithful to go through circumcision. Thus began the amazing career of the "Apostle to the Gentiles."

Between the years 46 and 48, Paul traveled to Cyprus and Asia Minor, preaching openly to the Gentiles, and he realized that the intricate ritual of Judaism was not essential and could even alienate converts as they had to concentrate on minor details that tainted the essence of the message of Jesus. To follow the teachings of Jesus, Gentiles didn’t need to be circumcised, neither did they have to follow the full extent of Jewish ritual nor worship the Temple of Jerusalem. Paul urged Gentiles to simply accept Jesus, and he had extraordinary success. Wherever he went, he raised Christian churches whose strength derived from the Gentiles. Paul contributed more than anyone else in the organization of the early Christian communities.

But the Jerusalem Church objected the ideas of Paul and considered circumcision indispensable. Christians, in fact, were divided into two groups: the Jewish circumcised Christians, who fully accepted the Mosaic Law with the messianism of Jesus and the uncircumcised Hellenists Christians, willing to interpret the teachings of Jesus in the light of Greek philosophy.

The two streams faced each other in the council made in Jerusalem around year 48. James, brother of Jesus and leader of the Church of Jerusalem, was the exponent of the Jewish Christian current, and Paul of the Christian Gentile Hellenistic current. The council came to a compromise, proposed by James and Peter, which was not liked by any of the two groups. The disagreement continued and became harsher.

So Paul resumed his missionary work among the Gentiles and Jews in the Diaspora, and set out alone to convert the world. For 10 years (approximately 49 to 59) he evangelized the cities of Asia Minor, Greece and the Aegean Sea basin, founding new churches and writing numerous letters (epistles) to the Christian communities of the Empire.

Without abandoning Judaism and certain Mosaic prescriptions, Paul gave great importance to community life and to the gathering of the faithful in the "Lord's Supper"; He took Greek philosophy notions that were unknown to the Judaic thought, such as "consciousness", "nature" and "utility." As the concept of "Messiah" made no sense to the Greeks and Romans, he added to his letters and to Christian thought the notion that the pre-existent Son of God became man and suffered the torture to save humanity and wash away humanity sins. The Greek world could accept Jesus as deity because it had many human gods, but Judaism could not. Judaism absolutely separated God from humanity.

Around the year 59, Paul returned from his third mission trip and visited Jerusalem in an attempt to get closer to the Mother Church. He received a cold welcome because the Jews and Jewish Christians felt that his teachings were contrary to the Law of Moses and that his presence desecrated the Temple. Riots broke out and Paul was imprisoned. He appealed to the emperor as a Roman citizen, and after two years in prison he was allowed to sail to Rome, in his fourth and last voyage.

Today, few Christians know the important role played by Paul, the "apostle of the Gentiles" in the history of Christianity. Although he did not meet Jesus nor was he one of the twelve apostles, he carried the message of Jesus around the Roman Empire. By combining the teachings of Jesus with Greek philosophy, he managed that Greeks and Romans easily assimilated Christianity and he began the transformation of a simple Jewish sect into a universal religion.

We ignore what happened to Paul later, but it is believed that he remained in Rome, continuing his missionary work. Peter joined him in Rome and he accept the theology of Paul after leaving the Judeo-Christian Church of Jerusalem. Although they had differences over their careers, they found together martyrdom and death probably after the fire of Rome, like many other Christians martyred during Nero's persecution. The tradition that says that Peter was the first head of the Roman Church comes from his preaching in Rome.

4 - The early years of Christianity

The early years of Christianity

Not much is known about the history of the early years of Christianity. The first chapters of the book of Acts of the Apostles provide limited but invaluable information about the early Christian community in Jerusalem, once the contents with historical value are considered.

The former disciples of Jesus slowly gathered again in Jerusalem, where, with new converts and members of the family of Jesus, formed a community with the character of a Jewish sect. Its members were still oriented toward the Jewish cult and the Temple of Jerusalem, where they attended daily. The community was mainly devoted to preaching to the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem or to those who came in pilgrimage to the Temple. Although the appearances of resurrected Jesus had given them new impetus, the crucifixion of Jesus himself forced them to change the content of their speeches and preaching regarding Jesus. Their starting point was the resurrection because they wanted to emphasize that death had not beaten their master, who had risen from the grave three days after the crucifixion, had spoken with them, and then had risen to heaven from where he would return ( "the second coming"). The Day of Judgment was imminent. The message of their preaching was now "repent and receive baptism," which was a return to the teachings of John the Baptist.

Jesus and the twelve Apostles

This embryonic Church adapted Jesus’ message adding baptism and the commemoration of the last supper with the disciples in periodic rituals, and gave center stage to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, not just a prophet or a new Moses. To probe this statement, they told stories about his birth that matched the messianic prophecies of the scriptures. It was said that he was a descendant of King David and that he was born in Bethlehem from a virgin. But he was not merely a human Messiah, a king who would restore the Jewish monarchy. He was a divine Messiah, the Son of God, whose kingdom was in heaven.

The Jerusalem community also gave recognition to the twelve leading disciples of Jesus as "apostles", who deserved a respectful obedience, preparing the establishment of a hierarchy. Peter and John stood out among the twelve, and in the Acts of the Apostles, on several occasions Peter speaks on behalf of the other Apostles. But contrary to popular belief, it was James,brother of Jesus, highly regarded from the outset by his relationship to the family of the Messiah, who gradually became supreme leader of the early Church of Jerusalem. Peter became a traveling missionary. (James, "the brother of the Lord" as he is called in the Acts of the Apostles, must not be confused with the apostles James son of Zebedee and James son of Alpheus)

Many Jews didn’t want a Messiah who had been executed and who had left the nation enslaved. They wanted a victorious Messiah who was going to free them from Rome. The Jewish priests of the Temple of Jerusalem also watched the activities of the congregation to accuse them of blasphemy at the earliest opportunity. So, the early Church led by the twelve Apostles preached with prudence and they devoted their time to reflection, to search the scriptures for prophecies that could prove that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, and they avoided any kind of clash with the Temple authorities.

During the first half of the first century, a substantial proportion of Jews lived outside Palestine, in Jewish settlements at the cities of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. These colonies were called the "diaspora" (dispersion), where Greek was the usual language of culture and commerce. A group of Jesus’ disciples, Greek speaking Jews from these cities, with wider horizons than the humble Palestinian disciples, believed that Jesus teachings had to be spread more aggressively regardless of what the Temple priests thought. His words had to go everywhere, not just to the pilgrims of the Temple, which they considered a "cave of thieves". It was their thought that the community led by the twelve Apostles gave too much importance to the Temple.

Around year 31, a provocative speech against the Temple and against animal sacrifices spoken by Stephen, one of the leaders of the group of Greek language, caused his arrest and was stoned to death for blasphemy (he was the first martyr of the early Church). Other  Greek speaking members had to leave Jerusalem, while the twelve and their community were not disturbed. This difference in treatment shows the distance between the two groups.

The expulsion of the Greek speaking group from the capital did not mean disappearance of the group. They returned to their hometowns in the diaspora, spreading Jesus’ words earnestly even among the "gentiles" (those who were not Jews), succeeding especially among Greeks in the city ​​of Antioch. In these cities, Greek-speaking members of the new sect were called "messiahnists". The Greek word meaning "anointed" or "messiah" is "christos". Then, the disciples and followers of the Messiah became known as "Christians". What in Hebrew would have been "Joshua the Messiah" became the English version of the Greek form: "Jesus Christ".

Subsequent activities of the twelve Apostles is an issue that remains obscure, except for marginal notes of Peter's life. The other apostles are hardly mentioned during the exercise of their preaching, without further notice of the development of their lives. About Peter himself only stands out an account of the conversion of a centurion, his mediation between Greek speaking Christians and Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and dispersed information which could lead to think that Peter was in Antioch, Corinth, and that he died in Rome.

Next Chapter: Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul)


The chapters published up to now can be consulted in the INDEX OF PUBLISHED CHAPTERS.

3 - Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus

Everything we know today about Jesus’ life and the first century of Christianity, comes only from the Gospel and other Christian writings. In the Roman Empire of the first century, Christians were a tiny oriental cult that went unnoticed by historians of the period. The first reference to Christianity is described by Tacitus about the year 100, during the persecution ordered by Emperor Nero against the first Christians, when they were accused of causing the fire that destroyed the city of Rome in 64 AD. The birth of Jesus, during the reign of Emperor Augustus and his life and crucifixion during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, went largely unnoticed by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, except for the distant province of Judea, where Jesus preached.

The Gospel are texts that describe the life and teachings of Jesus. There are more than thirty Gospels but only four belong to the Bible. These four Gospels were written in the late first century after the fire of Rome. Other gospels, known as apocryphal gospels, were written in the second century or later. The topic of how, where and when the four main Gospels were written will be discussed in a later chapter.

During the years after Jesus death and until the end of the first century, the teachings and life of Jesus were transmitted orally, with the alterations and natural contradictions that come with oral traditions. The Gospels themselves were modified over the centuries, from the copy of a manuscript to the next copy, and the oldest versions known today come from the fourth century. Consequently, the texts that have come to us, 2,000 years later, are not as complete nor as accurate as historians would like them to be, but the four Gospels known to every Christian allow us to draw some essential aspects of Jesus life.

The origin of Jesus (Greek form of Joshua) is unclear. The poetry of Christmas stories says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town south of Jerusalem. Many historians believe that Jesus was actually born in the Galilean village of Nazareth, as he was known as "the Nazarene" or "the Galilean". Jewish prophecies said that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah, as a thousand years earlier had been the birthplace of King David, and it is possible that his followers in the first century adapted Jesus birth to these prophecies. His birth was estimated to be between 9 and 4 B.C.

It is strange to say that Jesus was born from nine to four years "before Christ", but this is due to an error of a Syrian monk, Dionysius Exiguus. Around the year 535 A.D., he argued that Jesus was born in 753 A.U.C. (753 years after the founding of Rome), error that was fixed centuries later, when it was inconvenient to renumber the years of the Christian era. When discussing the Chronology of Jesus’ life, historians only agree that Jesus started his public life around 29 A.D. The duration of his public life is unknown, but it probably was between 1 and 3 years.

The four Gospels do not make mention of Jesus' life before starting his preaching, except for a brief mention in the Gospel of Luke about a visit to the Temple of Jerusalem with his parents,  when Jesus was 12 years old. Jesus began his preaching when he was about 30 years old, which means that nothing is known about most of his life. He possibly spent his childhood in Nazareth with his parents and his brothers and sisters. For the vast majority of Christians it is a surprise that historians speak of brothers and sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, but they are mentioned several times in the Gospels (twice in the Gospel of Matthew, twice in the Gospel of Mark, once in the Gospel of Luke and twice in the Gospel of John) and in the Acts of the Apostles. Since the existence of blood brothers of Jesus of Nazareth is in contradiction with the dogma of the perpetual virginity of her mother Mary, the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations prefer to talk about "cousins" or "step brothers" instead of Jesus' brothers. His public life began when he met in the desert with the preacher named John the Baptist, who preached repentance to all Jews, followed by a purifying bath that ensured divine forgiveness in the coming Last Judgment.

After the arrest of John the Baptist by the year 28, during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, Jesus stopped baptizing and changed his preaching. Instead of bringing the repentant crowds into the desert to be baptized, as John did, he delivered a new and liberating message to all. People only needed love and compassion for everybody, without distinction of race, social status or nationality. This simple and new direction immediately offered to all the possibility of living at peace with God. Jesus reduced the demands of Jewish law to the love for God and he taught that the love for God is accomplished through the love for every human being. "Do unto others as ye would do to yourself ... A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you." Faith was essential to be with God. For Jesus, faith was total trust in God, and not intellectual and blind acceptance of doctrines about the nature of God, as subsequently was established when Christianity became a religion.

This bold message, proclaimed before crowds, was accompanied by spectacular healings that caused a great impression among those simple people for whom a disease was a hopeless curse. Jesus had a magnetic personality and he made selfless use of his power to heal. People saw this as a confirmation of his message and his teachings became popular.

Some of his disciples and followers began to call him the Messiah that the people expected. He also started to be called Son of God, Savior, Rabbi, son of David, Son of Man, etc. Perhaps Jesus did not personally arrogate himself none of those titles, but he accepted that people used them to characterize him. What mattered to him was that his message was accepted by the largest possible number of people. Jesus was sure to play a unique role in what he called the Kingdom of God already present.

Jesus gathered a group of devoted disciples whom he instructed carefully to disseminate his words. Twelve of these disciples accompanied him on his preaching and they are known as thetwelve apostles. They were, in order of choice:

    Simon, renamed by Jesus as Peter or Simon Peter.

    James, son of Zebedee.

    Andrew, Peter's brother and John the Baptist's disciple.

    John, the youngest of the twelve, also son of Zebedee.

    Philip from Bethsaida.

    Bartholomew, son of Talemai, also named Nathanael of Cana.

    Thomas, also called Didymus.

    Matthew the publican or tax collector.

    James, son of Alphaeus.

    Jude Thaddaeus, son of James.

    Simon theZealot.

    Judas Iscariot. Because of his betrayal of Jesus, he hanged himself and was replaced by Matthias.

    Matthias, the successor of Judas, elected by casting lots.

 They were all Galileans except Judas Iscariot, who was presumed from Judea.

The preaching of Jesus did not intend to create a new sect or religion. He and his disciples were devout Jews and did not depart from the mandates of Judaism. His famous words "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church", from the Gospel of Matthew, is the main point argued by the Catholic Church to attribute its foundation to Jesus. But Jesus and his disciples (while he lived) were "fishers of men" and never bothered with theology, ceremonies, sacraments, priesthood, hierarchical organization, etc. In the Gospel, the word "church" should not be understood as a current or future institution or as a building dedicated to the worship of God. The ancient Semitic equivalent of the word "church" or "ekklesia" designated the general meeting of the Jewish people before God.

The Jewish priests watched with irritation and jealousy as Jesus attracted more and more people. Although Jesus preached a doctrine of rejection of violence, they were concerned about problems with the Romans caused by an outbreak of messianism. The new Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, had given clear signs that he was going to drown in blood any revolt.

In year 29 or 30 A.D., Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. There, a crowd hailed him as the expected Messiah. The religious authorities quietly arrest him to avoid riots among his followers, with the complicity of Judas, one of his disciples. He was taken before the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate and before the Jewish King Herod Antipas (son and successor of Herod the Great), and was accused of treason against Rome. For the Romans, to claim to be the messiah was considered as to claim to be king of the Jews, and only the emperor had the right to appoint kings. Therefore, Jesus received the usual treatment that Roman law gave to traitors, and he was crucified as another rebel.

After the crucifixion of Jesus, his disciples fled and hid to escape persecution. The failure seemed complete, for Jesus left behind no writings or organized group, and his message was discredited by his death. However, the scattered and dispirited disciples were torn from their hiding places, as they recalled, by mysterious appearances of Jesus exhorting them to resume the interrupted work, affirming that he had conquered death. Numerous disciples resumed with new courage the dissemination of Jesus message and told the story of his resurrection. The initial impetus was given and from there, the words of Jesus would spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Next Chapter: The early years of Christianity



The chapters published up to now can be consulted in the INDEX OF PUBLISHED CHAPTERS.

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