Introduction to Humanities Lecture 9 The Rise of Christianity By David Kelsey

Judaism Judaism: –1900 BC: Abraham leads Israelites from the Sumerian city of Ur northwest of the Euphrates river valley. Later they moved into the Land of Canaan… –1600 BC: Israelites follow Joseph into Egypt…slavery… –1300 BC: Moses leads them out of Egypt and into Sinai. Page 166… Moses gives them the concept of a single tribal god (called Yahweh) and a covenant… –1230 BC: Jericho falls to Joshua and the Israelites –1020 BC: 12 tribes are unified and a monarchy forged with Saul as the first king.

The History of Judaism The History of Judaism continued: –1000 BC: the height of Israelite political power reached under King David ( BC) and his son King Solomon ( BC). After Solomon’s death: the kingdom’s of Israel and Judah… 722 BC: Israel falls to the Assyrians… Judah survived until 586 BC when it was conquered by Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar II. –63 BC: Rome conquers Palestine. Gives Palestine the status of Protectorate… –66 AD: Jews launch rebellion against Rome with much of their population destroyed…

4 aspects of Judaism 4 aspects of Judaism that helped it survive: –1-Monotheism: the concept evolved from one Israelite God to a universal God. –2-Covenant: a bond with Yahweh that the Jews made of their own free will. Moses is said to have returned with knowledge of God’s will-commandments inscribed on tablets of stone. Later these become the Torah. –3-Graven images: images of God were prohibited. A defense against idolatry. –4-The name of God cannot be taken in vain.

Prophets Prophets: –Many Jewish prophets between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. Preached that Yahweh was the only God and he demanded the highest ethical standards. –2nd Isaiah: the climax of the prophetic movement. Saw the Jews as a people chosen to exemplify in their characters and lives the spiritual presence of the lord. The insights of 2nd Isaiah strongly influenced Christianity Later generations came to believe that he was speaking of a particular person, a Messiah who would redeem the world through his suffering. In Jesus of Nazareth the early Christians found that Messiah. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:3-6)

The History of Christianity The History of Christianity: –Based on the life, death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ –A modification of Jewish heritage –The old testament establishes that there is one true God Predicts the coming to be of a Jewish messiah 39 books written almost entirely in Hebrew between the 11th and 2nd centuries BC Note that the New Testament was written in Greek from about AD 40 to AD 150 –No written record from Jesus: He left no written record, only a collection of sayings… Written accounts in Greek appear decades after Christ’s death including St. Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians (AD 55), The Acts of the Apostles (AD 60), and the 4 gospels telling the story of Jesus, Mark (AD 70), Matthew and Luke (AD 80-85) and John (AD ) By about AD 200: a Canonical Christian text

The History of Christianity continued The History of Christianity continued: –The rise of Christianity was in almost direct proportion to the decline of the Roman empire… See page 171 –Jesus: 4 B.C A.D. Said to be the son of God and Messiah Believed to be anointed by God as savior of humanity Convicted for blasphemy and is subsequently crucified. … –Shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jerusalem church is founded as first Christian church –In 380 A.D., Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Christianity Christianity: –What Christianity isn’t: Not philosophy but prophecy Not discussion, but proclamation Not let us examine, but “Thus says the lord” Not questioning but accepting –Christian Beliefs: There is one God who is not made by men God is the father of all humankind and so all people are the children of God So all men and women are brothers and sisters As children of God, people are capable of better lives than they lead but can be forgiven for their sins if they repent –So love thy God and thy neighbor as thyself

Christian beliefs continued Christian beliefs continued: –God is immaterial, not restricted to any one place & is eternal –He is omni-benevolent and omnipotent so when you cry to him he does help –God alone is worthy of worship and reverence –God is the creator of the entire visible universe, which is not eternal and is wholly dependent on God’s power

Christ as redeemer Christ as redeemer: –God is good and made the visible world good, but sin is persistent in man as is shown by the story of Adam and Eve Because of the sin of Adam, humankind carries with it the taint of original sin… –God will save us from our sinfulness through his son Jesus who took our sin upon himself in his death But God seeks to redeem and does so through Incarnation in which God becomes man taking to himself man’s inherent guilt. In Christ’s death as a mortal, the guilt is atoned and human beings are set free. –Through faith and belief in Jesus Christ, man will be raised from death, as Jesus was, to a blessed and eternal life with him.