A study of primitive Christianity

Contents

PAGE

Preface 5

Preface to Second Edition 7

Introduction 9

I. Palestine in the Roman Period 13 II. Society and Religion in the Roman Empire 39

III. Sources of Information .... 69

IV. Theological Aspects of the Re-

ligion of Jesus ...... 98

V. Social Aspects of the Religion

of Jesus 118

VI. Myth and Miracle in the Gospel Stories 144

VII. The Christianity of Paul . . . 174 VIII. The Church in the Apostolic

Age 204

IX. The Martyr Period 235

X. Christianity the State Religion 266

Bibliography 304

PREFACE,

1 take great pleasure in recommending Dr. Janes's Primitive Christianity to the community at large. One of the most satisfactory aspects of my Brooklyn pastorate has been the work of Dr. Janes in connection with an adult class on Sundays, and the evening class to which he refers in his introduction. In both of these connections, he has shown a remarkable faculty for laborious study and intelligent and persuasive exposition. The chapters herewith presented were originally prepared for lectures to the evening class. They proved themselves entirely equal to the purpose for which they were designed, conveying definite information and inciting vigorous debate. The origin of these lectures, in the exigencies of class instruction, suggests the hope that they will be found widely useful in churches and elsewhere for the purposes of such instruction. Their topical arrangement will be a great advantage to the class and teacher using them.

At the same time, they are deserving of a more general currency. They are a wonderfully clear

Preface

and strong expression of the best results of the higher criticism of the New Testament, and the origins of Christianity. They are no mere compilation, but the outcome of an independent mind working freely upon a great mass of materials, to which few, except the professional scholar, can give the attention they deserve. If I am not mistaken, Dr. Janes has brought to these materials a singularly just and patient mind, which has saved him from 'the falsehood of extremes/ and enabled him 'to see things as they are.' It is, for me, an admirable feature of his book that it does not apprehend the life of Jesus and the early Christians as any merely historical problem, but demands at every step to know what there is here to help us in the storm and stress of our own time's Philosophy, and Ethics, and Sociology, and Religion. If the various questions which are now so serious and engrossing can be met in such a spirit as my friend has shown within the compass of his little book, that

' bridal-dawn of thunder-peals, Which all the past of time reveals, "Wherever Thought has wedded Fact,'

will not be long delayed, nor anything but welcome when it comes.

John W. Chadwick.

Bbooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 26, 1885.

Preface To Second Edition

In issuing a new edition of these lectures, obedient to the continued demand of the public, the author desires to express his grateful acknowledgments for the cordial and appreciative greeting which they have received from the liberal and secular press, for the kind favors of commendation and friendly criticism from private individuals, and for the fair and candid treatment which has generally been bestowed upon his book by reviewers who differ widely from his theological point of view.

A careful reconsideration, in the light of the published criticisms, suggests but little modification of the judgments and conclusions herein recorded. Two or three friendly critics have maintained that too great credence has been allowed to the non-miraculous part of Philostratus* Life of Apollonius of Tyana, in the chapter on "Myth and Miracle" (pp. 147-159). While acknowledging the weight of some of these dissenting arguments, and admitting that the estimation of the degree of historical verity justly assignable to the work of Philostratus is a question for the nicest critical judgment, and one, moreover, on which the ablest scholars are not iu full accord, — the author is impelled to adhere in

8 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

the main to the conclusions previously arrived at, after a careful study of both sides of this mooted question. In this decision, he is sustained by the judgments of such unbiassed modern historians as Hitter — who sees no reason to doubt the honesty either of Philostratus or of Damis, the contemporary disciple of Apollonius — and Lecky, who in several instances refers to the narrative of Philostratus without discrediting its non-miraculous portions, as well as by the general consensus of those early Christian and Pagan writers who make mention of Apollonius. It must be admitted, however, that the work of Philostratus contains some glaring historical inaccuracies ; but, in our judgment, these do not justify us in relegating it in its entirety to the domain of pure fiction, any more than similar considerations justify a like treatment of the Christian Gospels. This entire question, however, is incidental and illustrative merely, and has little bearing upon the main purpose and argument of the book.

A recent " Critico-Historical Sketch of the Druids," from the able pen of William Emmette Coleman, appears, justly, to discredit much that has been generally accepted as truth concerning them on the authority of Caesar, Pliny, and other classical writers. The account of the Druids herein contained (pp. 62, 63) follows, temperately, the generally received authorities, but perhaps requires some further modification.

L. G. J.

Bbooklyw, N.Y., Dec. T, 1886.

Introduction

The questions involved in the study of the origins of Christianity and the earliest phases of its development are ordinarily supposed to lie within the exclusive province of the professional theologian. It is freely intimated that a layman has no business to meddle with them. The theologian, having thus monopolized the treatment of these important subjects, is generally careful to avoid any such discussion of them as may tend to throw doubt upon the currently accepted doctrines of the divine origin and infallible truth of the Christian system.

When, by chance, a Christian minister, having a mind unwarped by theological bias and a sublimer confidence in the sacredness of truth and the method of free discussion than, unhappily, is usual, dares to transgress the bounds of custom, and gives to the public the plain facts of history and the results of the critical judgment of the best and most reverent scholars upon these topics, he does but demonstrate by his experience that intellectual liberty is rarely possible within sectarian boundaries, even though the body with which he communes may be the most cultured and liberal of all the sects, — may assume indeed to be no sect, but the church universal.

As far as the enlightenment of the public is involved in the event, it does not seem to matter much whether the voice of truth is silenced by the rack and thumb-screw, as of yore, or by the friendly request of an assistant bishop, as at the present day. Silenced it is for the moment, and that effectually ; while in the ears of the eagerly waiting people rings the old-time query, never more forceful or pertinent than to-day, Why seek ye not, even of yourselves, what is true ?

In this spirit of single-minded search for the truth, it is proposed to investigate the origins of Christianity, the character and validity of the New Testament literature, and the different phases of custom and belief which existed in the earliest Christian communities. The writer perhaps owes it to his readers to inform them that his work was commenced and prosecuted with no original purpose or expectation of publication, and that it embodies the results of some years of careful study in connection with his duties as teacher of an advanced class of Sunday-school pupils. The papers herein collected were originally prepared and delivered as a course of lectures before an Association* engaged in the systematic study of the world's great religions. Their publication is due solely to the cordial appreciation and earnestly expressed desire of those who listened to their delivery. Their original form will not be essentially

•The Association for Moral and Spiritual Education, Brooklyn, N.Y.

INTRODUCTION 11

modified ; but sub-titles and explanatory notes will be inserted for the convenience of the general reader, and a carefully prepared topical index will, it is believed, add to the usefulness of the lectures.

It is hoped that the reader will unite with us in the attempt to hold our educational and inherited prejudices and prepossessions, as far as possible, in abeyance, bearing in mind that maxim of Confucius which affirms that "the superior man, in the world, does not set himself either for anything or against anything: what is right he will follow." The sense of this maxim is rendered more tersely, if less unequivocally, by Paul, in the text which may be rendered : "Test all things thoroughly, and hold fast to that which is morally beautiful."

Commencing our investigation with an examination of the local environment of the earliest phase of Christianity, involved in the political, social, and religious condition of Palestine in the Roman period, we will next consider the state of society and religion in the Roman Empire outside of Palestine, — that fruitful ground into which the earliest seeds of Christian thought and life were transplanted. Thereafter, we will investigate the sources of our information concerning the life and teachings of Jesus, and the different stages of the evolution of the new religion, up to the time of its secular triumph.

The literature bearing upon these topics is already enormous, and is expanding with every added year. The work involved in the preparation of these lectures has therefore not been inconsiderable : it is much greater, indeed, than the somewhat meagre results may appear to indicate. The greatest care has been taken to insure accuracy in regard to all statements of fact, reliance having been placed only on authorities of recognized weight and impartiality. For the conclusions and deductions from ascertained historical facts, herein set forth, no one is responsible save the writer, who commits them to the candid judgment of the unbiassed reader, trusting that they may serve a good, if humble, purpose toward the discovery of truth and the consequent enfranchisement of mankind from superstition and theological bondage.

L

PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD.

A trite subject, but one of supreme interest and importance, is that to which we are to devote our attention, — the Origin and Growth of Christianity. Of making books upon this topic there has been no end. It can hardly be anticipated that the present effort will add anything to the information of those unprejudiced investigators whose inclination and leisure have permitted them to make acquaintance with the current literature bearing upon this question in all its different relations. These, however, are of necessity the few: the present lectures are intended for others, — for those whom lack of time has prevented from keeping pace with the growth of a literature whose bulk is already portentous.

Treating the topics involved in this study from the stand-point of sympathetic rationalism, and, in accordance with the latest results of critical and exegetical research, regarding Christianity as a product of natural evolution from the existing environment, with its inheritance of past influences and traditions, the attempt will be made to group together and present as clearly and consistently as possible the salient points in each division of the

14 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHKISTIANITY

subject in such a brief and succinct form that the reader may readily retain them in his memory, and find the theme, notwithstanding its familiarity, not devoid of interest or unworthy of his serious attention.

From the Captivity to the Reman Period. 4

Palestine, in the generations immediately preceding the birth of Jesus, — a land less in extent than the State of New Hampshire, — from its location, the character of its people, and the peculiarities of their national religion, became the seat of a remarkable series of political and social events. The period of the ancient Hebraism, interrupted in its development by the dispersion of the Northern tribes and the Babylonian captivity of the Southern tribes, had long since passed. Persia and Chaldea had bestowed upon Israel their gifts of the belief in a future life and a bodily resurrection. The Persian conception of the speedy destruction of the world by fire and the coming of a supernatural saviour had penetrated the popular mind of Judaism, and modified its growing Messianic expectation. Satan, the old-time messenger and servant of Yahweh, had been endowed with the attributes of the Persian Ahriman, thus becoming the devil of the New Testament;! and the Chaldean superstition of

*As it is our purpose hereafter to show the natural relation of the thought and life of Jesus to his social and intellectual environment, the material for this lecture has accordingly been drawn wholly from other than New Testament sources.

tThe word "devil" is of Aryan origin, and is not found at all in the Old Testament.

active demoniacal influences in human affairs, while it was rejected by the cultivated classes, had obtained a strong hold upon the credulity of the common people.

The Persian protectorate, cut short by the conquests of Alexander the Great, had been succeeded by the period of Greek domination, which in turn was interrupted by the successful issue of the Maccabaean struggle for freedom, followed by a century of independence and comparative prosperity under the leadership of the descendants of Judas Maccabseus. Success, however, as often happens, brought corruption in its wake ; and the later Asmonean leaders were no longer animated by the resolute and incorruptible patriotism which spurred on their ancestors in the struggle for liberty. For many years, the country was disturbed by political dissensions, which finally wrought the overthrow of the independent Commonwealth.

During all this period of strife, the more faithful adherents of Judaism, who held to the old theocratic conception of Israel, kept aloof from political strife, acknowledging Yahweh* as their only King and Ruler, and submitting to the authority of their superiors with silent but indignant protest. They left the petty dissensions of politics to the holders and seekers for office, who then, as now, were abundantly able to create a popular commotion with little assistance from the substantial and thinking classes of the people.

*The name "Yahweh" will be used throughout these lectures instead of the familiar "Jehovah," as expressing more accurately the correct orthography and pronunciation of the word.

16 A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY" Occasions of Roman Interference*

About the year 69 B.C., a contest for the throne arose between two Asmonean pretenders, John Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. To decide the dispute, five years later, Scaulus, the Roman commander in Syria, was appealed to as an arbitrator. He assigned the throne to Aristobulus; but, in the following year, Pompey the Great, who was then at the head of affairs in Rome, annulled the act of Scaulus, transferred the regal office to Hyrcanus, and carried Aristobulus a captive to Rome, where, with his two daughters and his son Absalom, he graced the public triumph of the great Roman general, in the year 61 B.C. Four years later, Alexander, another son of Aristobulus, raised an insurrection in Palestine; and, in the year 54 B.C., Crassus, then the Roman commander in Syria, taking advantage of the turbulence incited by these dissensions, took possession of the city of Jerusalem with his army, and shocked the entire religious community by committing the sacrilege of entering and plundering the temple.

On the advent of Julius Caesar to supreme power, soon after this event, the fortunes of the Jews improved. He granted them many privileges, and relieved them from oppressive exactions, both in Rome, where a colony had existed since the time of Pompey, and in their native country. Aristobulus having been poisoned in Rome at the instigation of the party of Pompey, and his son Alexander having been beheaded, Caesar recognized Hyrcanus as High Priest and bestowed upon him the title of Prince, making him ruler of Palestine under the protection of the empire. A few years later, in 44 B.C., Herod, a prince of ldutnea or Edom, — the ancient hereditary rival and foe of Israel, — having married the daughter of Hyrcanus, was made tetrarch or governor of the country under his father-in-law.

In the year 40 B.C., the Parthians, who had revolted and overthrown the Seleucidse, — the successors of Alexander the Great in the eastern provinces, — and had maintained thus far an effective resistance against the Roman power, invaded Judea in alliance with Antigonus, a son of Aristobulus, and seated him upon the throne, carrying Hyrcanus to Persia, a prisoner. About the same time, the Roman Senate bestowed the kingdom upon Herod; and in the year 37 B.C., by the aid of Mark Antony, he stormed Jerusalem, captured the Holy City, expelled the Parthian invaders, and assumed the regal power. Thus, the patriotic Jews were at last subjected to the unexampled degradation and ignominy of beholding an accursed Edomite seated upon the throne of David.

The Sects: the Pharisees and Sadducees.

During this period of political dissension, the people were also rent by religious disputes between the rival sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees. The latter have sometimes erroneously been termed the Liberals of Judaism. They have been regarded as innovators upon the ancient customs and beliefs of their people. In their leading doctrines, on the contrary, they were preeminently the representatives of the historic life and thought of Israel. They were the traditional custodians of the priestly office and emoluments ; constituting, as it were, an ancient order of hereditary nobility.

The Asmonean rulers were originally in sympathy with the growing religious life of the people. They had attained their leadership through their pre-eminent merits and patriotism and with the popular support. But, not unnaturally, they were rejoiced when they began to find favor in the eyes of the ancient order of nobility. Mutual interests, apart from the life and thought of the people, cemented a cordial bond of sympathy between them. The Sadducees, holding themselves superior to the masses by reason of their priestly functions, and puffed up by their alliance with the ruling house, grew more and more conservative and narrow-minded. They sought to build up a hierarchy, to identify the entire range of religious duties with themselves and their official position. "Thus gradually," says Rabbi Geiger, a learned Jewish historian, "they changed their position. Instead of remaining the servants and ministers of religion, they made religion their servant." *

The germs of a priestly order which formed the nucleus of this sect doubtless existed from a period long antedating the Babylonian captivity, but the sect as it appeared in the generations approachiDg the advent of Christianity was unknown to the Old Testament writings. Its origin

^Judaism and its History, by Rabbi Geiger, which see for an admirable account of the Jewish sects.

is obscure, and the meaning of its designation uncertain.* The sect of the Pharisees was unknown prior to the Maccabaean era, about 165 B.C. In opposition to the priestly assumptions of the Sadducees, their opponents held that all the people should be regarded as sanctified in the service of Yahweh, all alike should be elevated to a condition of priestly holiness. Accordingly, they adopted strict rules of life, and insisted upon the formal observance of the rites of their religion in order to approximate as nearly as possible to the special requirements of the priestly office.

The Sadducees naturally magnified the temple worship, in which they were chiefly interested, and advocated strict conformity to the letter of the law, — the Thorah. The Pharisees were the leading supporters of the synagogue, an institution which arose during the Maccabaean period. They proclaimed the superior sanctity of the oral law or tradition, which they attributed also to Moses, and advocated the right of all to be teachers and interpreters of the Thorah. Public prayers, daily ablutions, the consecration of the daily meals, were characteristic Pharisaic observances, the intent of which was to render every man, as nearly as possible, a priest. The scribes, who traced their origin to the time of Ezra,f were the copyists, readers, and commentators on the law in the synagogues, and were almost exclusively drawn from the sect of the Pharisees. They have sometimes

* Some derive the word Sadducee from the name of one Zadok or Sadoq, a priest; others, from a word said to mean "the wise."

t Circum 444 B.C.

erroneously been regarded as constituting a separate sect by themselves.

The Sadducees adopted the aristocratic designations of "sons of the families of rank" and "sons of the high priests." The Pharisees were known as "separatists," "the learned," sometimes even "the people." Fraternizing with the main body of the populace, they accepted the popular doctrines of a future life, a bodily resurrection, and the coming of a personal Messiah. They declared that the exclusive priesthood would go down, the people would be emancipated, a descendant of the house of David would arise and reign over them, the servant and representative of Yahweh. Many of them anticipated the miraculous destruction of the existing world and society, and the establishment of a perpetual kingdom of God, a regenerated world in the glories and joys of which all true believers would participate. The Sadducees, on the contrary, including, it is said, twenty thousand priests living in gluttony and luxury in Jerusalem alone, satisfied with their power and emoluments, contented with the present life, wishing for no change, repudiated the notions of a resurrection and a future existence as unwarranted by the teachings of the law, and rejected the doctrine of the personal Messiahship.

Jewish Mouasticism : the Essenes.

About a century before the Christian era there arose in Palestine the small monastic sect of the Essenes.* During the reign of Herod, it is esti-

•Our information concerning the Essenes is derived mainly from the works of Flavins Josephus.

mated that they numbered about four thousand ascetics or "come-outers," withdrawn from among the Pharisees, and carrying to an extreme the Pharisaic doctrine of separatism. Members were received into this order by a solemn ceremonial of initiation, which included the rite of immersion. They took vows of chastity and seclusion, performed frequent ceremonial ablutions, refused to make sacrificial offerings at the temple, were prohibited from taking oaths, and held all their property in common. They had no fixed dwellingplaces, but appointed some of their members or sympathizers in every considerable town or city to entertain them as they journeyed through in the course of their itinerant wanderings. They had certain conventual establishments in the wilderness near the Jordan, in the neighborhood of which they practised husbandry during the intervals of their journey ings and religious exercises. They were extreme formalists, placing greater importance even than the Pharisees upon the performance of all the minutiae of their religious observances. They wore a peculiar white costume and a sacred girdle. They carefully preserved and often repeated the names of the angels. They venerated as sacred the rays of light, and turned toward the sun to pray.

The Essenes were as fatalistic in their beliefs as the Mohammedans. Unlike the Pharisees, they rejected the doctrine of a bodily resurrection, and believed in a spiritual immortality for both the righteous and evil-doers. They interpreted many passages of Scripture allegorically in defence of their peculiar doctrines. By the poor, they were known as skilful physicians ; and they were popularly reputed to be remarkable prophets. Many of their customs and beliefs, as well as those of the Pharisees, bear marked evidences of Persian or Zoroastrian origin. Some modern writers have attempted to trace their monastic habits and ascetic tendencies to the influence of Buddhism, but no certain or probable contact of this sect with the religion of Sakya-Muni has yet been clearly demonstrated. They appear, on the contrary, to have originated in Palestine by a natural evolution out of Pharisaic Judaism. Some writers have attempted to identify them with the Therapeutse, represented to have been a monastic sect or order of itinerant physicians which arose in Egypt at about this period; but our information concerning them is not sufficiently trustworthy to enable us to affirm even their existence as a fact beyond dispute.*

Though we cannot assert any probable connection between the doctrines of any of the Jewish sects and those of Buddhism, it is manifest that other Eastern notions, chiefly of Zoroastrian origin, were gradually creeping into the thought and faith of the people of Israel. Besides the more prominent beliefs of this character, to which allusion has already been made, ideas were probably already working in the Hebrew mind, which subsequently took form in the mystical and esoteric

♦The earliest accounts of the' Therapeut® appear in a work attributed to Philo, but which is of doubtful authenticity. It is probably of much later date, and its testimony must be regarded as untrustworthy. See Kuenen, Religion of Israel, Vol. III.

doctrines of the Kabbala,* the earliest account of which we find in a work attributed by current Jewish tradition to Rabbi Akiba, who wrote about 120 A.D., but which, in reality, was probably written several centuries later. The Oriental doctrine of creation by Emanation was certainly current at this time; and the Aramaic version of the Scriptures, which was commonly used in the synagogues, designated God by the term Memra, or the "Word," whenever it was desired to separate him in thought from the visible creation.f

The Kauaim, or Zealots.

Out of the long oppression of the Jews by foreign rulers and the indignities offered to their religion, culminating in the desecration of the sacred temple of Yahweh, grew the party of the Kanaim, or Zealots. Its members were patriots whose zeal for their ancestral faith impelled them to renounce all foreign domination, and to strive to break the bonds of the oppressor by the force of arms. The Kanaim held unswervingly to the ancient theocratic character of the Commonwealth. "There is but one kingdom : it is the heavenly kingdom, — the kingdom of God." This was the motto of the Zealot. "Thou shalt make no graven image" was the command of the Tkorah. To touch a piece of money with the image of the

* Hebrew "tradition," often spelled "Cabbala." tThe"Targums," or Aramaic versions of the Old Testament writings, were at this time probably oral. The Targum of Onkelos, the first of the written Targums, dates from the second century oi our era. See the able discussion of this question in "Quotations in the New Testament," by Prof. Crawford Howell Toy, of Harvard University.

Roman emperor on it was therefore a sin in his eyes. Yahweh only was king. To pay taxes to a foreigner, the representative of false gods and an alien religion, was therefore a crime. To make contracts under the seal of the Roman officials was blasphemy. "How can you pretend to be pious?" said one of this sect to a leading Pharisee. "You write in contracts the name of the ruler by the side of that of Moses, beginning 'In the year of the Emperor,' and concluding 'According to the Law of Moses and Israel/ If the name of the unbeliever is in this way incorporated into contracts, can you call that piety ?"

This uncompromising patriotism and resolute adherence to the old faith of Israel did not fail to meet with a response in the hearts of the people. Associations were formed, which had for their object the delivery of the people from the foreign yoke; and insurrections were frequent from the time of Judah of Gaulonitis, in the generation before Christ, to that of Bar-Cochba, more than a century later, who was accepted as the true Messiah by a large number of the people, including some of the leading Rabbis of the day. During this period, it is said that more than fifty leaders arose among the Jews, claiming the Messianic office, each of whom had a considerable popular following.

Sectional Characteristics: Galilee, Samaria, and Judea.

Galilee appears to have been the fountain-head of these insurrectionary movements. The Galileans were a mixed race, having intermarried with the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhood after the deportation of the northern tribes by the Assyrians. They were regarded with suspicion and contempt by the more conservative classes who inhabited Judea, and came under the direct influence of the government and the priestly party of the Sadducees who gathered around the temple as the centre of their worship and the chief citadel of their faith. This region was often called "Galilee of the Gentiles" by the blue-blooded Jews of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the Galileans strenuously maintained their rights as children of Abraham, and were strict in their allegiance to the law and the temple at Jerusalem. Like the Jews of Judea, they despised their neighbors, the Samaritans, whose blood was even less pure than their own, and who had established a new temple on Mt. Gerizim, breaking loose entirely from all allegiance to the aristocratic element of Jerusalem and Judea. So bitter was the feeling against the Samaritans that it was customary for travellers between Galilee and Judea to avoid Samaria, which lay in the direct route, by crossing over to the east of the Jordan.

Judah of Gaulonitis, himself a native of Galilee or an adjacent district, may be regarded as the founder of the sect of the Zealots. He taught that to obey the foreign ruler, or in any way depart from the original theocratic constitution of Israel or to compromise in the least degree with the secular power, was rebellion against the sacred law of Yahweh. Rising in insurrection with a considerable following in the generation before the birth of Jesus, after a severe struggle he was defeated, captured, and crucified. His followers were scattered and disarmed, but the spirit which animated them was not thereby quelled. A generation later, John of Giscala, a descendant of Judah, became the leader of another rebellion which likewise came to a disastrous end. Theudas, a third sectarian leader, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, also hailed from Galilee. He met with some local and temporary success, and had many enthusiastic followers, but finally succumbed to the fate of his predecessors. The martyrdom of these leaders of the Kanaim by crucifixion only served to perpetuate their memories and give currency to their revolutionary sentiments, and thus added fuel to the patriotic flame which was glowing in the hearts of the people.