Ecclesia a Long Journey to Tomorrow

Chapter 1: Introduction 

Chapter 2: Jesus, Paul and the First Century Church

Chapter 3: Persecution and Peace

Chapter 4: Egypt and Byzantium 

Chapter 5: Women and Men of the 4th Century

Chapter 6: Diversity: The Jews. The Eastern Churches 

Chapter 7 Iconoclasm and The ‘Great Schism’

Chapter 8: The ‘Dark’ Ages  

Chapter 9: The European Middle Ages

Chapter 10: The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation 

Chapter 11: Protestant Christianity in England

Chapter 12: The Catholic Counter-Reformation

Chapter 13: Oliver Cromwell and the Wars of Religion

Chapter 14: USA: Founding Fathers, Great Awakenings and Modern Baptists 

Chapter 15: Revivalism in Britain 

Chapter 16: Post-Reformation Spirituality 

Chapter 17: Social  Progress

Chapter 18: 19th Century Revivals in Australia

Chapter 19: Missions to the World: Oceania and Africa

Chapter 20: Missions to the Word: India and Asia

Chapter 21: The 20th Century:

Chapter 22: Post-War Events Chapter

23: Ecclesia in the Wider World Chapter

24: What of the 21st Century?

Epilogue

Appendix 1: The Crusades

Appendix 2: Medieval Disputations

Glossary

List of Abbreviations

Bibliography

End Notes

Prologue

Ecclesia: The Long Journey to Tomorrow

This book, Ecclesia: The Long Journey to Tomorrow, is the second of two well-researched, up-to-the minute books in the mini-series Synagogue and Church, by mother-and-son duo Rev. Justin Campbell and Dr Deslee Campbell. 

This, the second volume is about Ecclesia, the personification of the Church who is pictured on the front cover. This volume will explain how Christianity (i.e., the Church) here called by the Greek term Ecclesia, travelled and progressed through the turbulent centuries in the post-Constantinian era, having separated from her spiritual mother, Synagoga, to become more numerous and the more politically powerful through the centuries, down to today. 

Ecclesia: The Long Journey to Tomorrow is a handbook, written for Bible College students, for ‘the Christian in the pew’, for school and college students of religious education, studies in religion and/or church history, for ‘gap-year’ students and interns with missions and Christian NGOs and for undergraduate students of theology and especially for the supporters of the Jewish roots of Christianity. Both pastors and students will find much of interest in its pages and in its plans, photographs and drawings. 

This book will present such readers with recent discoveries, discussion and analysis in a manner that can benefit

churchgoers as well as help students and clergy. Ecclesia: The Long Journey to Tomorrow will consider topics such as: ‘how Christian tradition and teaching began with Jesus and St Paul’, ‘Roman persecution over three centuries’, ‘Celtic Christianity’,

‘the Reformation, ‘Ecclesia in America, Australia and Britain’, ‘the Missionary Movement’, ‘the 20th Century’ and finally, the future, which is now covered with fog because of the pandemic.

Jewish-Christian interactions and the contribution of women to Ecclesia over its history will form important elements. 

Ecclesia: The Long Journey to Tomorrow is more a book of history and ecclesiology than of theology. Where the chronological sequence is known, it is followed. Coverage of topics will be uneven as this book is an overview and a basis for further investigation of topics of interest, aided by its extensive bibliography. Such a short book will select the most relevant episodes in the vast history of Ecclesia beginning with Jesus’ earthly lifespan and the Apostolic period. This volume will show the reader how the great personalities and political events of the Judeo-Christian world have come together to create the colourful tapestry of the Christian world in the 21st century.

Many people have assisted us in the production of this mini-series. Our first thanks must go to our wonder photographer, Mr Ian Finnin, for a task so willingly and professionally completed. Secondly, we are indebted to numerous academics and others for great and freely given assistance for one or both volumes of the Series Synagoga and Ecclesia : to Israeli Professors Boaz Zissu; Eilat Mazar and Asher Ovadiah; to Drs Meridel and Jay Rawlings; to Father Juan Maria Solana and Professor Marcela Zapata-Moza of the Magdala Project. Assistance was also given from North America: from Professor Lawrence Welborn in the U.S.A. and Professor John Kloppenborg in Canada and in Australia, kind assistance was provided by Emeritus Professor Alanna Nobbs, Rev. Dr John Dixon, Rev. Robert Evans, Rev. Dr John Reid and Mrs Glenda Valais. We thank them all most sincerely. 

We also thank family members: Michael, David, Beth, Marnie and Heidi Campbell for their patience and help in 100 important ways without which the work could not have been completed. 

Rev. Justin Campbell and Dr. Deslee Campbell

Chapter 1

Introduction

This work is the second of two volumes in the series Synagogue and Church. It concerns the sweep of Christian history over more than three thousand years, two millennia of that being the era of the Church; Ecclesia’s era. Volume 1, Synagoga’s Heritage: Tabernacle, Temple, Synagogue and Church has brought the reader up to the earliest days of the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth and the origins of the Church in Old Testament (or the days of Temple Judaism) that is, the days before Rabbinic Judaism developed after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. So that this volume can stand alone if necessary there is some overlap between the two volumes, although this volume moves the narrative forward, up to the 21st century. It will explain how the multi-denominational, international church of today has emerged and, lastly, will consider its future.

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Plates 1.1 and 1.2.

Ecclesia and Synagoga of Strasbourg.

The cover of this book, ‘Ecclesia: the Long Journey to Tomorrow’, shows an image from the façade of a famous French landmark, the Cathedral at Metz. She is Ecclesia, the Church. Although the term Ecclesia Kyriou in the Old Testament first meant ‘congregation of the Lord’ (that is, the Jewish people) believers in Jesus could, and did, legitimately apply the term to themselves (Deut. 23:21; I Chron. 21:8;

Hurtardo, 1999, 54f). In Greek, ekklēsia, meant the gathered population of a Greek city-state or a mass assembly, much as the Greek loan-word synagoga meant in Judaism (Ferguson, 1996, 130f; James 5:14 and 2:2). Both words would, however, soon become terms for the building in which each group met.

Jesus, James and Paul chose to use the word ekklesia/ecclesia and altogether it was used 114 times in the New Testament,

but with various meanings, as in Eph. 1:23 (His body and the fullness of Him who fills all in all); Eph. 3:10-11 (God’ Eternal Purpose); Eph 5:23 (His body); Eph 5:29-30 (His holy and loved one) (Frost and Hirsch, 2009, 169ff). The term has overtones of massed assembly, unity of purpose and social similarities. It was also used for community meetings (Frost and Hirsch, 2009, 31). Jesus, however, used the word with a special connotation, which it still has: a corporate or group entity that meets together in his name (Mat. 18:20). Driscoll and Breshears, 2008, 28) define it as:

"a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organise under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfil the great commandment and the great commission for God’s glory and their joy."

In the Middle Ages this concept was often made concrete via a female personification of the Church. Usually, as at Strasbourg Cathedral, the stone icon of Ecclesia is one of a pair. There, on the opposite side of the Great West Door stands a representation of Judaism (Synagoga): the one in Plate 1.2. The Strasbourg Ecclesia (in Plate 1.1) is presented as a queen with a crown, a cloak, a banner and a chalice, which are her usual attributes.  [1]

As at Strasbourg, an image of Ecclesia is usually depicted in Europe on the exterior of the western wall of cathedrals. Her bearing is regal with face uplifted her cross-shaped banner of represents warfare or victory and her chalice represents the Mass, Holy Communion or Eucharist.

Similar examples of this iconography can still be seen throughout Europe: as in Strasbourg (c.1239) (Plate 1.1); Paris (11631345); Bamberg (13th century); Metz (Plate 1.4a) and Reims (1275). These cathedrals provide settings for dramatic monumental sculptures of these two female personifications: Ecclesia and Synagoga. Images of the pair also survive in cathedrals and minsters in England: in Rochester, Lincoln, Winchester, Salisbury, London and York. 

Virtually invariably Ecclesia is balanced with, but contrasted with Synagoga. At Strasbourg, Synagoga has a broken staff and no crown. She is downcast, poorly clad and blindfolded (in Plate 1.2). At Notre Dame, Paris (in Plate 1.3), Synagoga appears to be blind, her staff is broken, her head is not uplifted and the tablets of the Ten Commandments she holds are slipping.[2]  She is not crowned but wears a ‘Jew hat’ (a ‘badge’ of dishonour, worn by men in Appendix Plate 2.1).

There were other Medieval presentations of these two. For example stained-glass windows of the pair can also be seen in cathedrals at Freiburg, Chartres, Marburg, Châlon and the

Basilica of St Denis, Paris. In the early-14th-century stained-glass window in Freiburg Cathedral, a victorious Queen,

Ecclesia, carries her banner and chalice proudly and rides a war-horse in the spirit of the Crusades but blindfolded Synagoga barely manages to ride her donkey (Seiferth, 1970, 28). Synagoga’s crown falls, her banner has broken and she is depicted wearing the yellow dress of a Jewess. Her attributes include a goat’s head, which represents the Jewish sacrificial system. Whatever attributes she wears or carries she is often beautiful in her sorrow. 

As in Plate 1.4a Ecclesia is always depicted standing strongly and triumphantly compared with her opposite number (as in Plate 1.4b) because Medieval Christians believed that the Church was triumphing over all other religions, including Judaism, which had the nearest claim to primacy being based upon the Old Testament of the Bible. The majestic cathedrals in the Latin/Roman Catholic world are evidence of the authority of Ecclesia. Christians who only know Europe have western perceptions and interpretations of religious art, although now European cathedrals are more ‘tourist attractions’ than ‘houses of worship’. Originally these beautiful medieval European cathedrals announced the victory and splendour of European Christianity with its headquarters in Rome. This institution overshadowed the memory of Eastern Christianity, which was wealthier and more numerous at that time.

Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), first built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, is the supreme example of the glory of Eastern Christianity. [4] By the 15th century (well after the Muslim conquest of virtually the whole of the Byzantine Empire, including the capital, Constantinople, now Istanbul), Hagia Sophia became a mosque and four minarets were built (Plate 1.5).

Now this amazing building is a museum and a tourist attraction and nearby Hagia Irene is used as a concert hall,

although recently Muslim worship has recommenced in Hagia Sophia, although its popularity with tourists and its moneymaking potential are still potent influences upon its future. 

This volume is about Ecclesia, but Synagoga is vitally important because Christianity grew out of Judaism so that Old Testament Judaism was Ecclesia’s spiritual mother. [5] Some readers may be shocked by this, but then some Christians are shocked to hear that Jesus was a Jew, who never went to church in his life and that neither Peter nor his wife had ever eaten non-kosher food because his mother-in-law kept a kosher kitchen (Acts 10:14). 

This volume often refers back to Jews and Judaism in relation to the church. As will become clear, Synagoga has remained an important background figure in the life of Ecclesia until today. Each reader is encouraged to read Volume 1 of the Synagogue and Church series. Its title is Synagoga’s Heritage: Tabernacle, Temple, Synagogue and Church. 

This volume, ‘Ecclesia,’ picks up the narrative of the church’s journey into the future. Issues which are considered across both volumes include: ‘who or what is the church?’, ‘where did she come from?’, ‘how and where did she develop?’, ‘what was the ongoing relationship between Ecclesia with Synagoga’, ‘how can their sculptured personifications be interpreted’, ‘is the church correctly portrayed by these iconic images?’, ‘Ecclesia during two millennia’, ‘how is the Church going’ and ‘what of her future?’ This is not a book of theology but of history, ecclesiology and a little missiology. Coverage of topics will, of necessity, be uneven as this book is an overview, a handbook and a basis for further investigation of topics of interest, aided by its useful bibliography, which includes many online sources. This work features more women than is usual in church history texts but men’s stories can often be told through the lenses of their significant others. 

Readership  

‘Ecclesia’ is written for Bible College students, for ‘the Christian in the pew’, for senior school students, for college students of religious studies or church history, for ‘gap-year’

students and interns with missions and for undergraduate students of theology. Pastors, students and the growing roll of devotees of the Jewish roots of Christianity will find much of interest within the pages of both volumes with their helpful plans, photographs and drawings and their easy reading style. There is an emphasis upon the people who contributed and not just ‘the great ones’: some

forgotten Christians will feature. Both volumes will present readers with recent discoveries, discussion and

analysis to benefit churchgoers as well as help students and clergy.

Sources

Documentary sources have been used as much as possible. Reputable scholarship that has stood the test of time but is readily accessible in college and seminary libraries has been used, where appropriate. Bible references are within the main body of text, as the convention requires. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (ODCC) is the standard for dating biographies and major events. 

Method

This volume begins by recapping some material in Volume 1: Jesus, Paul and the Early Church. Each one of these chapters, however, even each section, would warrant whole tomes, perhaps whole libraries, for itself. It is impossible in a work of this length to more than highlight the highlights. Here the layout is user-friendly and the extensive bibliography,

including on-line sources, will lead Bible students in new directions. ‘Ecclesia’ may, at times, make uncomfortable

reading because it will challenge assumptions and even some scholarship from the 20th century, and earlier. Ecclesia’s

history is constantly being rewritten: its archaeology, especially, is a fertile area for research. Through the ages, Ecclesia has included all sorts of folk but all have advanced the work of the Kingdom in life, even those who somehow ‘fell from grace’, as in the case of Dr Paul Yongi Choo, whose unfortunate story is noted but whose impact upon South Korea has been vast. 

Geographic Parameters 

This volume will concentrate on the Western Church, even

though the earliest (Judaeo-Christian) church began in the

East and divergence between East and West was not clear-cut until the Great Schism between them in 1045. Furthermore, all of the earliest growth of the church and most of the great early theologians were of the Greek-speaking East. The Early Church was birthed in the East: Europe was ‘the mission-field’ but a field that was unified by the Latin language. 

A note about art

Paintings, sculptures and drawings informed the masses in an age before literacy was common, communicating both Bible stories and doctrines. Unlike Volume 1, this work deals with a period in which literacy was increasingly common and art was used more for decoration than educating and catechising the faithful. Therefore the printed word, the Book, became central to Ecclesia.

In the Eastern churches, however, icons (images) played an entirely different role, being windows by which the individual could enter into the world of the depicted saint, provided the identity of the saint was either written or identifiable by their usual and well-known attributes.

Conclusions 

Christianity is coming full circle to value its heritage and learn from the past: to learn from the early saints, the early bishops

and the martyrs. The desert mothers and fathers and the Celtic

monastics of Britain are attracting renewed interest along with the pioneer missionaries and modern-day saints and martyrs (Waddell, 1998; Swan, 2001). Her heritage includes Ecclesia’s roots in the Pentateuch/Torah, in the prophets’ visions of shalom, justice and community and the Holy Spirit’s work in the Book of Acts. 

This book notes the Jesus Movement, the modern era, the worldwide spread of the gospel, new life in Christ and the hope for renewal (Ringma, ‘Phronésis’ 14.1, online, and 2, 2007, 70). It offers insights into how elements of the past helped spread Christianity into a worldwide faith and how successful elements and practices being embraced in the 21st century might assist more people and congregations today.

Questions: At the end of each chapter there will be questions for personal reflection and/or for group discussions.

For this chapter the question is: Do you expect that the theme of Judaism in relation to Christianity (which is obviously so important to Volume I, Synagoga’s Heritage: Tabernacle, Temple, Synagogue and Church) will be important in this volume? Why and/or why not?

Chapter 2

Jesus, Paul and the First Century Church

2.1. Jesus 

The story of Ecclesia begins with Jesus of Nazareth, his life, his work, his death and his resurrection. Each of these elements is essential to the birth of the Church and the early Christians preached these four elements. Central to every sermon was "Christ (Messiah, Anointed One) and him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2). He was crucified just outside the walls of Jerusalem as they existed at that time: perhaps here on this hill, (Plate 2.1) or perhaps at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Plate 5.3), which is now within the Old City, but not originally. 

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In Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 Jesus introduced the concept of his Ecclesia. Numerous biblical passages indicated its character.

It was to be inaugurated by baptism (Mat. 28:19) and characterized by love (Jn.15:12). It was to be communal (Mat. 18:20; Acts 2:44); universal (Mat 28:19; Acts 1:7); centered around Jesus (Mat. 28:20); fruitful (Jn. 15:16) and everlasting (Mat. 28:20).

Saul of Tarsus, who was, at first, an angry opponent of Ecclesia, became the Apostle Paul, the giant of the early mission, largely because of the dying witness of the first martyr, the deacon Stephen (Acts 6). Through his death, Stephen’s final witness to Jesus indirectly changed the known world, by changing Saul. He, as a Christian called Paul, undertook many wide-ranging missionary journeys around Asia Minor and the Mediterranean World, taking the gospel of Jesus as far afield as Rome and perhaps even to Spain. He was accompanied by a variety of companions, including Luke the physician, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles and the third gospel. Paul had great success but he suffered great hardships over decades and was eventually martyred. 

While Paul was journeying, other apostles were also travelling in various directions and into different areas to preach. John (the son of Zebedee and Salome) apparently went to Ephesus; Peter (at first a business-partner of Zebedee) travelled throughout Israel (Acts 9:32) and in Asia. John-Mark accompanied Paul on the first journey to Cyprus and Asia before returning there with his relative, Barnabas, (Acts 15:39) and eventually travelling in Africa where he, too, was martyred (Eusebius, E.H., II. 16). Thomas Didymus is believed to have evangelised the Parthians and travelled to India where he was martyred and buried at Mylapore, near Madras (‘Thomas, St., Apostle’, in ODCC). 

While Jesus’ brother, James, was administering the home-base in Jerusalem as "world head of Christianity" (Barnett, 1999, 314),

his other brothers, Joseph/Joses, Simon and Jude, and their

believing wives, also travelled widely (I Cor. 9:5) (Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures 15). Except for James, who remained in Jerusalem to lead the church there, the early apostles, including Peter, were itinerant missionaries deliberately travelling on mission. Meanwhile others evangelized wherever they happened to be. Unnamed or lesser-known Christians were also busy travelling: for example Tychicus took various of Paul’s epistles to Ephesus, Colossae and to Philemon (Col. 4:7-9; Eph. 6:21f) and Epaphroditus took his ‘Epistle to the Philippians’ to Philippi, returning with a gift during Paul’s first imprisonment (Phil. 4:18) and Silvanus took Peter’s first epistle throughout Asia Minor (Turkey) (I Pet. 1:1; 5:12) presumably from Rome. 

Prior to Paul’s conversion (in about 34 CE) churches had already been founded in Syrian Antioch and as far away as Libya, Rome and Damascus (Acts 2:10). Ananias and/or the Judas of Acts 9:10-19 were members of the church in Damascus, although they don’t seem to have known each other so perhaps there were two or more congregations there.

Material from the Pauline Epistles can be utilized to clarify the narrative of Acts but full scholarly consensus has not been reached on the sequence of events in Paul’s journeys. The paraphrasing of Acts is not the writing of history, as Chris Forbes has noted  (Forbes, in Harding and Nobbs [eds], 2017, 10) but the following is good background material for students and may illuminate some interesting connections. 

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2.2. Paul’s First Journey (c.46-47CE)

The Church in Syrian Antioch (which is now in Turkey) sent Paul and Joseph Barnabas on mission. First they sailed to

Cyprus, accompanied by John-Mark. They crossed the island

from Selucia to Salamis and Paphos and then sailed to Asia Minor (Turkey) landing in the area of Pamphilia where John-Mark left them. They moved due North to Antioch in Pisidia

and then progressed in an Easterly direction to found

churches in Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. They returned through those cities to Perga and then Attalia on the coast (Acts 14:25) and sailed to Selucia, the port of Syrian Antioch, to report to the sending-church. 

2.3. Paul’s Second Journey (c.49-52CE)

For Paul’s extensive second missionary journey he was accompanied by Silas. They visited these same cities, via Tarsus and Pisidian Antioch. In Lystra they were jointed by Timothy (Acts 19:22) who, later on, was left in Ephesus to oversee the church during a doctrinal crisis (I Tim. 1:3).

At Troas Luke joined their team. Paul then responded to a Divine call to Macedonia where he landed in the port of Neapolis

(Plate 2.3.). By following the ancient Via Egnatia, Paul’s party moved on to Philippi, Amphipolis, Thessalonica and Berea, founding churches in each city. From Macedonia they entered Greece, visiting Athens, Corinth and its port city, Cenchreae, where churches were founded. They returned by ship across the Aegean Sea, to Ephesus and then Caesarea Maritima. Paul completed his second missionary journey by taking a quick trip back to Jerusalem and then to Syrian Antioch. 

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2.4. Paul’s Third Journey (c.54-60 CE)

For Paul’s third missionary journey he was accompanied by Luke, Timothy, Erastus, Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Tychicus and Trophimus (Acts 20:4). They began in Syrian Antioch (v. 23) and went overland to Paul’s home-town, Tarsus, and then on to his previously established churches (Derbe, Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch). 

While Paul was travelling to Jerusalem and then inland in Asia Minor, the eloquent Alexandrian Jew, Apollos, arrived in the coastal town of Ephesus. Although he accurately knew the way of Jesus, Apollos did not know of Christian baptism,

although he knew of the immersion taught by John-the-Baptist (v. 25). Therefore Paul’s fellow tentmakers, Priscilla and Aquila, took him aside and instructed him. As a result, when he went on to Achaia/Greece he powerfully witnessed to the Jews there that Jesus was the Messiah (18:18-28).

Apollos had probably departed (v. 27) before Paul returned, but news of his remarkable ministry reached Luke and Paul.

Paul stayed for three months in Ephesus with Priscilla and Aquila but, because of opposition from the synagogue, he

withdrew from it and hired the lecture-hall of Tyrannus for two years (Acts 19:9-10).

Timothy and Erastus were sent forward from Ephesus to Macedonia while Paul remained in Asia. Meanwhile, Demetrius, a silversmith in Ephesus, promoted a riot in support of the cult of the goddess Diana of the Ephesians, which endangered Paul’s companions, Gaius and Aristarchus. Paul was therefore forced to leave Ephesus and the riot was quelled (Acts 19:29-20:4). Paul went to Macedonia to visit his church-plants in Thessalonica and Berea, and he also spent three months in Corinth (Acts 20:1-3).

Paul returned to Macedonia, revisiting Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Appolonia and Berea. Having strengthened his Macedonian and Greek churches Paul returned by sea much the same way that he came, but his companions sailed directly across the Aegean Sea to Asia (Acts 20:4), rejoining Paul in Troas (v.13). After sailing from Assos, Paul, Timothy and Luke hopped south from one port city to another. Together they sailed south to Mitylene, Trogyllium and Miletus, where, because of Paul’s haste to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost (20:16), he had asked the leading Ephesian Christians to meet him (20:18-35). The party sailed on to the islands of Cos and Rhodes and changed ship at Patara for Tyre (in modern Lebanon). They then spent a day in Ptolemais and stayed many days in Caesarea with Philip the evangelist and his four daughters (21:7-14). (These women, who had the gift of prophesy and later lived in Ephesus, would be important in passing details of Jesus’ teachings on to Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis in Turkey) (Eusebius, H.E, III. 39.9). Paul ignored prophetic warnings and went up to Jerusalem and stayed in the home of Mnason, an early believer (15-16). After forty months away Paul had brought donations for the poor of Jerusalem but there is no record of how, or even if, they were received. This was Paul’s final visit to the elders in Jerusalem (Bible History Online, ‘Paul’s Third Missionary Journey’).

In Jerusalem, Paul was arrested under Antonius Felix, the corrupt Roman procurator, and imprisoned for two years (58 and 59 CE) (Barnett, 1999, 341). When the next governor, Porcius Festus, arrived, and it seemed that Paul would be handed over to the Jewish judges, he, being a Roman citizen, appealed to be tried in Rome.

Shortly afterwards the Bishop of Jerusalem, James, sometimes called ‘the Just’, was killed. According to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews XX. 9.1) he was tried by a

council of Jewish judges and stoned to death, so Paul’s departure had been timely but Christian tradition has preserved a different account of James’ death (Eusebius, H.E., II.I.1; II.22.4ff; 23.4-17, citing Hegesippus). By appealing to Caesar Paul lived about seven more years and was enabled (at government expense) to minister in Rome. 

2.5. Paul’s Fourth Journey (c.60-63 CE) 

Following Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea, and under guard, Paul had been taken by ship towards Rome accompanied by Luke and Aristarchus, but the ship was wrecked on the island of Malta. The crew and passengers, who all survived, were given hospitality in Malta for three months before sailing on to Rome where Paul spent two years under house arrest.

During his imprisonment Paul obtained the time to write the ‘prison epistles’ (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and to his friend,

Philemon). The narrative of Acts ceases at this point but Paul may have been released and have travelled to Greece and/or Asia. He may have been rearrested in Corinth and have undergone multiple legal hearings prior to being beheaded in c.67. He may even have gone to Spain: a much-debated

possibility. During his imprisonment in Rome, Paul fulfilled the Lord’s word that he would testify also in Rome (Acts 23:11).

During his second imprisonment Paul was in chains but was able to write to Titus and twice to Timothy, although the

authorship of the Pastoral Epistles is much contested.

[For a conservative evangelical opinion see ‘Timothy and Titus: Epistles to: iv Authenticity’, in NBD.] Paul’s presence in Rome, the great capital of the empire, and the journeys that his key followers undertook from there enabled the gospel to be spread widely [for example Crescens went to Galatia or Gaul/France and Titus to Dalmatia (II Tim 4:10)].

2.6. Leadership in Pauline Churches

Whenever mature people with leadership experience or potential were among the early converts Paul took particular notice and/or utilised them in their fledgling congregations. Such people were often wealthy. Examples include the proconsul of Cyrrus, Sergius Paulus (Acts13:4-12); Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth whom Paul, himself, baptised (Acts 18:5-8); Lydia, a businesswoman who dealt in expensive purple cloth in Philippi (Acts 16:14) and Dionysius the Areopagite, in Athens (Acts 17:34) (‘Dionysius the Areopagite’, in ODCC). Paul encouraged wealthier men and women with large houses to invite believers to meet in their homes, offering hospitality. Examples of people who did this include Stephanus in Corinth (I Cor.1:16) and Lydia from Thyatira (Acts 16:40; Rev. 2:18ff). Phoebe, who was called a diakonos (female deacon, minister or servant) was an affluent patroness who ran a house-church at Cenchreae, near Corinth (Rom. 16:1f); as Nympha also did in Laodicea or Colosse (Col. 4:15). Prisca and Aquila opened their home for house-churches in Rome (Rom. 16:5), in Corinth (I Cor.16:19) and in probably also in Ephesus (II Tim. 4:19). 

Perhaps the Apphia of Phil. 2:1 was a single woman who helped Philemon run the house-church in Colossae but she may have been Philemon’s wife, as John Chrysostom

supposed (Alexander, eds, 1973/1983, 625): or she may have been Philemon’s mother, or his sister (Mowczko, ‘Apphia of Colossae’, online). Quient is persuaded that she was the hostess and a prominent woman leader (Quient, Priscilla Papers 31.2, 2017, 12). 

A house-church met in the home of John-Mark’s mother, Mary, in Jerusalem (Acts 12:13ff). She was sufficiently wealthy to have a large house with a courtyard and a maid (a slave-woman named Rhoda).

Rhoda knew Peter so well that she joyfully recognized his voice. She was probably a Christian, not just a slave woman (Barnett, 1999, 198). Finegan (1992, 233) proposes that the ‘upper room’ of the last supper may have been in Mary’s house, but Barnett proposes a separate ‘upper room community’ (Barnett, 1999, 198). 

Mary’s son, Johannes-Marcus (John-Mark), had been given a good education and probably spoke Greek, Aramaic and perhaps some Latin. In Rome he became Peter’s scribe and/or translator and later recorded all that he had heard from Peter (1 Cor. 9:5) which is now know as ‘The Gospel According to St Mark’ (Scott, JETS 18, 1975, 217-227).[6]  Most scholars believe that this gospel and extra sources were used as source material by the writers of the other synoptic gospel (that is, Luke and Matthew).  Although Ecclesia met in homes including for prayer (Acts 2:42; 12:12) and for ‘the breaking of bread’ (2:46) they also continued to attend synagogues, as was their custom, and met daily in the Temple courts (2:46), notably in Solomon’s Colonnade where they preached, taught and even performed miracles (3:11).

Paul appointed leaders for his early Galatian churches (Acts 14:23) but he did not do so in every church-plant, for example in Ephesus the Holy Spirit had led the people in their own choice of episkopoi (overseers or bishops) (20:28) (Guthrie,

1990. 35). Paul recognised Timothy’s grounding in the Hebrew Scriptures and his potential and, despite his timidity and youth,

Paul sent him on numerous errands to visit churches (to Thessalonica, to Macedonia with Erastus and to Corinth). Timothy accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the donations for the poor and he was left to oversee matters of concern in Ephesus, notably false doctrines (I Tim. 1:3), an appointment confirmed by prophesy (I Tim. 1:18; 4:14). At the end of his life, Paul sent to Ephesus for Timothy (II Tim. 4:9; 4:21) but whether he arrived in Rome in time is unknown. Because Nero spent two years away from Rome (in 66-68 CE.) and had a backlog of judicial matters to attend to upon his return the historian E. M. Blaiklock opines that Paul was executed in 67 CE after a trial by the city prefect (Blaiklock, 1962, 51). Nero suicided in 68 CE. 

2.7. The Jews Early in the First Century

For Jews throughout the Roman Empire the first half of the first century was a period of relative peace and progress as both Julius Caesar (45-44 BCE) and Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE) permitted Jewish religious practices including sending their ‘first fruits’ to Jerusalem, receiving the grain allowance without having to break the Sabbath and the right to earn citizenship (we note that St Paul was born a citizen). Two contemporaries, Josephus in Judea and Philo of Alexandria in the Diaspora, provide excellent evidence.

Christianity was so closely associated with Judaism in the early period that the disdain with which either was viewed also fell upon the other. Thus Christians were apparently expelled from Rome as Jews by Claudius I (41-54 CE) (Acts 18.2) (Suetonius, Life of Claudius XXV.4, in Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, II, [DCC] 1968, Section I.b.). 

Christians followed the Jewish custom of burying their dead, rather than cremation. In the land of Israel that meant burial in a cave, necropolis or a rock-hewn tomb, such as behind

Absolom’s pillar in the Kidron Valley and the Garden Tomb off Nablus Road in Jerusalem (Plate 2.4).

In Rome, it meant that both Jews and Christians were buried in the now famous catacombs outside the city walls: but they differentiated their graves in inscriptions, icons and locations.

Catacombs were carved into the volcanic tufa wherever it was found (such as in Rome and Naples) because tunneling was easy but the soil became hard and eventually stable when exposed to the air.

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From over the four to five centuries of usage only 534 Jewsih names have survived on inscriptions in Roman catacombs: but, from total burials there, it is estimated that 40,000 Jews lived in Rome. They attended at least twelve different synagogues which used Hebrew, Greek or, in one case, only the Latin language. From the spelling errors in Greek inscriptions it has been deduced that literate Jews were unable to pay for higher education (Lendering, online). Many, the oldest burials, appear to have been of freed slaves taken to Rome by Pompey in 63 BCE.

The Judaism practised in Rome was of an archaic variety in that men could still marry their brother’s widow; they still slaughtered the Passover lamb in the traditional way and refused to change.

There is no mention of a ‘rabbi’ in any Roman inscription: so perhaps prayer was more prominent than teaching. According to Lendering (online), they had no ‘rabbis’ in the catacomb period but were led by elders, scribes, presidents, governors and an archigerousiarch and had no female elders (a matter contested in Brooten, 1982). The chief synagogue official was an ‘archisynagogus’ (ruler of the synagogue) who was assisted by the ‘hyperetes’ (who looked after the buildings) while the ‘archigerosiarch’ led the community. 

A most interesting but undated Roman inscription is of a woman, Beturia Paulina,  who converted to Judaism at the age of 70, took the name Sara and lived to be 86. She was described as ‘the mother of the synagogues of Campus and Volumi(i)us.’ Perhaps this was an honourifc title because of her age but it may have indicated an actual leadership role, as Brooten argues (Brooten, 1982, 57ff, 68 and Silver, BHD April 17, 2019).

There were synagogues throughout the Jewish Diaspora including at Ostia near Rome and, as the New Testament confirms, in Greece, Africa and Asia Minor. 

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2. 8. Jews of the Roman Empire Later in the First Century CE

Before the Roman invasion of Judea in 70 CE the province

had