chapter 5bslideshare
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Discussion of the development of Christianity in the early Roman EmpireTRANSCRIPT
EXPLORING THE ROMAN CULTURE
Chapter 5: The First World Civilization: Rome, China and
the Emergence of the Silk Road
Background on Christianity
Who was Jesus?
Paul of Tarsus 25-67 C.E.
Helped spread the word of Jesus ChristHebrew name was SaulWas a Pharisee, a strict adherent to Jewish
lawPersecuted early Christians but underwent a
conversion on the road to DamascusSupported the position of the Hellenist Jews
who saw Christianity as a new, universal religion
The Persecution of the Jews/Christians
At first, Roman officials were indifferent to the new religion
But soon there were problems because the Christians would not worship ancient pagan deities or the emperor and were accused of disloyalty, atheism, and crimes such as cannibalism, infanticide and were blamed for plagues, floods, famines
Examples of what was said by prominent Romans
Christians began to be persecuted and found safety in the catacombs like those under the city of Rome
History of the Catacombs
In the first century, Rome’s Christians did not have cemeteries. If they had land of their own, that is where they buried their dead
In the first half of the second century, the Christians received grants and donations of land and then started to build catacombs
More on Catacombs
Many catacombs were family tombs who were new converts to Christianity
These families allowed fellow Christians outside of their own families to be buried there.
There are more than sixty catacombs in Rome with hundreds of miles of galleries and ten of thousands of tombs
There are also catacombs in North Africa, Naples, eastern Sicily
These catacombs are basically cemeteries
However, catacombs are cemeteries with a story!
Other images from the catacombs
The catacombs gave us great examples of early Christian art
More of the most important images is that of Christ
Another image of Christ
The catacombs allow us to know the lives of early Christians
Triumph of Christianity
In 303, Diocletian launched a serious persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
However, such persecution could not stem the tide of the growing Christian community which was bolstered by the example of martyrs
The conversion of Diocletian’s successor, Constantine, (312) and Constantine’s lavish support for the church and encouragement of conversions transformed the Christian community
In 394, Theodosius forbade the practices of pagan cults and by his death, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire
Chronology of the Triumph of Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth is born in ca. 4 B.C.E.Crucifixion of Jesus in ca. 30 C.E.Gospels written in ca. 70-100 C.E.Major persecutions by Decius and Valerian in ca.
250-260 C.E.Persecution by Diocletian in 303 C.E.Conversion of Constantine to Christianity in 312
C.E.Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E.Christianity becomes official religion of Roman
Empire in 395 C.E.