1. Historical and cultural background of early Christianity
Juraj Franek (j.franek@mail.muni.cz)
1. We do not have the originals of any of the books of the New Testament.
2. The surviving handwritten copies (i.e., “manuscripts”) were all made much later – in most
instances, many centuries later. We have some 5,700 manuscripts in Greek, from the early
second century (just one small fragment) to the sixteenth century. Most are from the Middle
Ages.
3. All of our surviving manuscripts contain mistakes, made either accidentally or intentionally.
Some of the differences among our manuscripts are significant, radically affecting the
interpretation of a book.
4. Scholars have devised a series of rules to help them determine what the authors actually wrote:
a. The text found in the earliest, most geographically dispersed, and qualitatively superior manuscripts is to be
preferred.
b. The reading that is “more difficult” is to be preferred (since scribes more often tried to correct than to create
mistakes).
c. Readings that coincide with what is otherwise known about the author’s own language, style, and theology
are to be preferred.
The text of the New Testament
Few examples
• Mark 16, 9-20 (the “short” and the “long” endings of Mark)
• Luke 22, 43-44 (“sweating blood”)
• Luke 23, 34 (forgiveness for those crucifying Jesus)
• 1 John 5, 7-8 (the Trinity)
Codex Vaticanus (Ms. Vat. Gr. 1209, p. 1512)
ἀμαθέστατε καὶ κακέ, ἄφες τὸν παλαιόν, μὴ μεταποίει
“Fool and knave, leave the old reading, don’t change it!”
Canon(s)
• Marcion († c. 160)
• Luke + 10 epistles of Paul (“law-free” canon) + editing out of “judaizing” sections
• Tatian († c. 180)
• Diatessaron (combination of all four “canonical” gospels into one text)
• Muratorian Canon (dated anywhere between 200-400)
• Includes Apocalypse of Peter and excludes Hebrews and one Epistle of John
• Codex Siniaticus (c. 350)
• Includes the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas
• Cheltenham Canon (c. 360)
• Excludes several canonical writings (Hebrews, James, Jude)
• Codex Claromontanus (c. 550)
• Includes Shepherd of Hermas, Acts of Paul and the Apocalypse of Peter
• Athanasius († 373)
• His paschal letter from 367 contains the first “orthodox” canon list
Religion and Philosophy in the Greco-Roman World
1. Almost all religions in the Roman Empire were:
a. Polytheistic: worshiping many gods.
b. Concerned with the present life instead of the afterlife.
c. Focused on cultic acts of worship rather than doctrines (what to believe) or ethics (how to
behave).
d. Closely connected with the political state.
e. Tolerant of other religions and non-exclusivistic (i.e., none of them insisted that it was right and
that all others were wrong).
2. Magic – that is, religious practices that were not socially acceptable – was widely
practiced in the Greco-Roman world.
3. Mystery cults that emphasized individual relation to the divine and benefits after
death were widely spread throughout the world.
4. The philosophical schools, including the Stoics, Platonists, and Epicureans, answered
some of life’s most difficult questions and stressed the importance of right (ethical)
lifestyles.
Jewish context
1. Even though Judaism was widely diverse (e.g., in such groups as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes), it had
several distinctive characteristics:
a. Jews were to worship just one God, the God of Israel.
b. This God has chosen Jews to be his special people.
c. Jews were to respond to their election by God by obeying his will, as expressed in the Law.
d. God could be worshipped by sacrifices made in the Temple in Jerusalem and by prayer and the study of the sacred
traditions of Israel in synagogues located throughout the ancient world.
2. The history of ancient Israel involved one military/political disaster after the other, as the promised land was
successively overrun by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Syrians, and the Romans.
3. About 150 years before the birth of Jesus, the Maccabean Revolt led to the establishment of Israel as a sovereign
nation on its own land, which lasted until the Romans conquered it in 66 B.C.E.
4. From about the time of the Maccabees, and in the century or so that followed, there emerged a variety of “parties”
within Judaism of Palestine:
a. The Pharisees, with a rigorous adherence to the oral laws that allowed them to keep fully the Law of Moses;
b. The Sadducees, Jewish aristocrats in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem, who emphasized the need to follow the laws of
worship found in the Torah;
c. The Essenes, a separatist group that believed in maintaining its own ritual purity away from the polluting influences of
society at large, in anticipation of the coming of the end;
d. The “fourth philosophy”, which urged a violent overthrow of the foreign oppressors occupying the promised land.
Snippets from the Jewish history
• 721 B.C.E. Kingdom of Israel (northern part) conquered by the Assyrians.
• 587-586 B.C.E. Kingdom of Judah (southern part) conquered by the Babylonians, destruction of the Temple.
• 559-332 B.C.E. Palestine ruled by the Persians, then conquered by Alexander the Great.
• 300-198 B.C.E. Palestine ruled by the Ptolemies (Egypt).
• 198-142 B.C.E. Palestine ruled by the Seleucids (Syria).
• 175 B.C.E. Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascends to the throne of the Seleucid kingdom, thus becoming the ruler of Judea
• High Priest Jason in Jerusalem, Hellenization (assimilation) of the elites
• Conflict between Jason and Menelaus for high priesthood (both Hellenized Jews)
• 168-167 B.C.E. Syrian forces plunder the Temple, stay garrisoned in Jerusalem, introduction of the worship of Zeus (~
Syrian Baal Shamem).
• 167-164 B.C.E. Introduction of anti-Jewish laws (circumcision is forbidden, Jews cannot keep Sabbath, something bad
happens in the Holy of the Holies of the Jerusalem Temple).
• Enter Daniel 11.
Further development
• 167 B.C.E. Mattathias refuses to sacrifice to the Greek gods → guerilla warfare against Antiochus &
the Syrians (and the Jews siding with them).
• 165 B.C.E. † Mattathias, succeeded by his son Judas Maccabeus (“hammer”), Jerusalem is
captured.
• 164 B.C.E. Temple is cleansed and rededicated to one true God (cf. Hanukkah), control of Judea
assumed → rule of the Hasmonean dynasty (effectively ruling Judea 142-63 B.C.E.).
• 63 B.C.E. Pompey takes control of Jerusalem → beginnings of the Roman rule.
• 37 B.C.E.-6 C.E. Herod the Great and his sons rule in Judea as client kings, followed by direct
Roman rule (cf. Pontius Pilate).
• 63 C.E. Jerusalem Temple Complex is finished (leaving 18,000 workers unemployed).
• 66 C.E. Jewish Revolt.
• 70 C.E. Destruction of the Temple, the end of Jewish sacrificial system.
• 132-135 C.E. Bar Kochba (sometimes spelled Kokhba) revolt → destruction of Jerusalem, Aelia
Capitolina is established on its ruins.