Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity

1. Ancient Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success: Christians, Jews, and Others in the Early Roman Empire

INTRODUCTION This chapter was initially written in 1994 to suggest both a rationale and a few possible lines of inquiry for a seminar of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS), which would focus on the question of religious rivalries in different urban settings of the early Roman Empire. The chapter is thus essentially a list of leading questions. It will also become apparent that my own particular interests and competencies lie in the field of earliest Christianities. This angle of vision is certainly not the only perspective , and conceivably not even the best one, from which to define such a conversation. Nonetheless, because a decidedly Christian, viz. Protestant view of things has shaped historical research in the area, it has still seemed useful to introduce the following studies with a critique of certain stock features of that traditional perspective. EDWARD GIBBON The eventual success of Christianity in becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire is an historical phenomenon that has been variously celebrated and lamented but still remains inadequately understood. Typically, the fact of Christianity’s emergence as the empire’s dominant persuasion is construed mutatis mutandis either as the inevitable triumph of a compelling truth (albeit initially ignored and benightedly disparaged) or as due to the opportunistic chicanery of politically astute but otherwise quite conventional believers (a.k.a. the deceived and the deceivers). Edward GibAncient Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success Christians, Jews, and Others in the Early Roman Empire Leif E. Vaage 1 3 01_vaage.qxd 2006/03/24 9:42 AM Page 3 bon’s well-known magnum opus, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1788), specifically, the two chapters (15–16) in Volume One dedicated to “the progress and establishment of Christianity,” may well serve as a symbolic point of departure for an assessment of this modern scholarly tradition. Understanding Gibbon himself is not my purpose here. Nonetheless, it is clear that an assessment of Gibbon’s own social history would be relevant to any critical examination of his view of Mediterranean antiquity. In my opinion, for example, a notable contrast exists between Gibbon’s general enthusiasm for life in the Roman republic and early Roman Empire (under the Antonines) and the rather fussy genteelness of Gibbon’s own personal existence (beyond what Gibbon writes in his autobiography, see, e.g., Joyce 1953; de Beer 1968). Gibbon’s own account of how he conceived the project that became his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is remarkably short and uninformative (see Bonnard 1966, 136f); though, on more than one occasion, Gibbon did revise this account for maximum symbolic effect (Bonnard 1966, 304f; the significance of these revisions has been dismissed by Ghosh 1997, 283). Writing with evident irony—yet, in my judgment, very much within the reigning convictions that Gibbon affected no longer seriously to entertain —the renowned historian proposed: A candid but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essential part of the history of the Roman Empire.…Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned, that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself and to the ruling providence of its great Author. But as truth and reason seldom find so favourable a reception in the world, and as the wisdom of Providence frequently condescends to use the passions of the human heart and the general circumstances of mankind as instruments to execute its purpose, we may still be permitted (though with becoming submission) to ask, not indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church? It will, perhaps, appear that it was most effectually favoured and assisted by the five following causes: I. The inflexible and, if we may use the expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians—derived, it is true, from the Jewish religion but purified from the narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. II. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which 4 PART I • RIVALRIES? 01_vaage.qxd 2006/03/24 9:42 AM Page 4 could give weight and...