Transcript Philippians - Baker Publishing Group

The New Testament World
A strange, harsh world with
tenderness and dignity
First-century Palestine
 Roman
rule
• 63 BCE to 70+ CE
• Peace and taxation
 Jewish
residents
• History of foreign rule
• Hellenized culture
 Aramaic spoken
 Christ
followers
• “God-fearing”
Gentiles from Judaism
• Jews who followed
Christ and Torah
 Pharisees
• Torah teachers
 Sadducees
• Temple priests
 Essenes
• Flee city for desert
 Zealots
• Seek political freedom
 Herodians
• Have political power
 Samaritans
 Gentiles
Political Situation under Rome:
Palestine
Herod the Great
 37–4 BCE
 Idumean (from coastal people; not fully
Jewish)
 Politically astute (plays all sides)
 Initiated building programs
• Creating jobs
• Feeding people
• Offending some by celebrating Greek culture
 Enlarged
Jerusalem Temple
Political Situation under Rome:
Empire-wide
Emperor’s Pax Romana
 Public building programs
• Aqueducts
• Roads (facilitate trade and movement of armies)
• Gymnasiums and Spas
 Crime
reduction on roads and seas
• Protects trade routes and pleases merchant class
 High
taxes
• Peasant farmers pay for public works program
 Impoverished
people become slaves
Judaism and Christianity
under Rome
 Rome
permitted innocuous religions
 Rome condemned all social unrest
• i.e., prophets seeking social change
• thieves, traitors, insurgents
 60
CE Emperor Nero purged Rome
 64–70 CE War in Palestine-Jerusalem
 110 CE Jerusalem closed to Jews
 112 CE Christianity becomes a crime
• “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach
 136
CE Bar Kochba Revolt
Hellenism: Greek Culture
under Roman Rule
Hellenism in Palestine
• “Reclining” at tables (rather than sitting up)
• Surgical operations to reverse male circumcision
• Aramaic spoken (Hebrew for ceremony)
And Roman syncretism in Judaism
• Wisdom theology
• Dualism
 Good vs. evil
• Apocalypticism
 Deterministic view of history
 God is in charge
Hellenism: Greek Culture
under Roman Rule
Hellenism in Diaspora
 Jews left Palestine over hundreds of years
• For business and trade
• Fleeing war or changes in political climate
 Synagogues
over Jerusalem Temple
• Houses of prayer; not sacrificial rites
 Rabbis
over priests
 Torah over sacrifices
 Greek spoken over Hebrew or Aramaic
 Septuagint writings over Hebrew
Roman Philosophies and Religion
 Epicureans
• Free will
• Tranquility
 Stoicism
 Honor
of the emperor
• Worship or patriotism?
 Animism
• Belief in spirit world
• Virtue is highest calling  Augury
• Logic and reason
control emotion
 Cynicism
• Radical authenticity
• Extreme independence
 Mystery
religions
• Secret societies
• Oracles
• Fortune/future tellers
 Supernaturalism
• Miracles
• Divine men
Gnosticism
 2nd–4th
century
phenomenon
 Worldview
• Anything material =
 Gnostic
Christianity
(after first century)
• Christ the spiritual
redeemer brings secret
knowledge
evil
 View 1
• Spirit = good
• Liberate spirit from
• Soma sema—a Greek
flesh—renounce (ignore
refrain meaning “the
or harm) body
body is a tomb”
 Syncretistic—mixes
with any religion
 View
2
• Spirit is already free of
flesh, bodily excess
won’t hurt spirit