Scribd
Upload
78 views13 pages

Historical Interlude B Auto

The document discusses the origins and development of early Christianity, which was influenced by both Hebrew and Greek thought. It emerged from Judaism but spread to the Greek world, incorporating ideas from Jewish scripture as well as Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Early Christians debated the divinity of Jesus and the nature of God, with the Trinity and the Nicene Creed establishing that Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father.

Uploaded by

Logan Ball
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
78 views13 pages

Historical Interlude B Auto

The document discusses the origins and development of early Christianity, which was influenced by both Hebrew and Greek thought. It emerged from Judaism but spread to the Greek world, incorporating ideas from Jewish scripture as well as Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Early Christians debated the divinity of Jesus and the nature of God, with the Trinity and the Nicene Creed establishing that Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father.

Uploaded by

Logan Ball
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

Philosophy and Early Christianity

Historical Interlude B
Hebrew and Greek Origins
 Hebrew religious thought and Greek
rationalist thought are deeply
interwoven into western culture.
 Christendom
 Came to be the name for Western
culture.
 Plato and Aristotle Christianized
 Their pagan ideas were modified to be
consistent with Christianity.
 Christianity began as a Jewish sect
and spread into the Greek World
 It was influenced by Jewish and Greek
ideas.
Hebrews
 Abraham
 Unified a number of nomadic
tribes.
 Monotheism
 They believed there was one God.
 Different from Greek polytheism.
 Moses
 Leads the Jews out of exile in
Egypt.
 God revealed the Ten Commandments
to him.
 Through Moses God established a
covenant with the Hebrew people.
Hebrews
 The Old Testament
 The Hebrew Scriptures
 Began as an oral tradition
 The Torah
 The first five books that describe
the creation of the world through
the formulation of the law.
 Historical Books
 Describe Kings, wars….
 Words of the Prophets
 The Wisdom Literature
 Proverbs and other advice on living
a holy life.
The Jewish God
 Transcendent
 Independent of space-time world we
live in.
 Not Pantheistic
 God is not identified with nature.
 Personal God
 Not Aristotle’ s unmoved mover.
 Awesome and powerful.
 The Story of Abraham and Isaac.
 Created the World and called it
Good.
 The fall of Adam and Eve bring evil
into the world.
 A Messiah is coming
 Will establish a kingdom of God on
earth
Roman Stoicism
 First and Second centuries A.
D.
 A form of Pagan ethical
thought
 Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius
 The Logos orders the Cosmos
 The goal of life is to obey
the Logos.
 The passions are enemies of
reason or Logos and are to be
avoided.
The Emergence of Christianity
 The New Testament
 The uniquely Christian scriptures.
 Zealots, Sadducces, Pharisees
 Zealots wanted to rebel against
Roman rule.
 Sadducces fraternized with them.
 Pharisees kept the law and waited
for vindication from God.
 Jesus was closest to the Pharisees
 But he healed people on the Sabbath.
 Linked unlimited forgiveness of others
with God’ s forgivness.
 He disappointed all three Jewish sects.
 Jesus was executed by the Romans
The Emergence of Christianity
 The “ True Judaism”
 The followers of Jesus saw him as the
Jewish Messiah and they saw themselves
as members of the “ True Judaism.”
 The Nazarenes
 Affirmed all the central truths of
Judaism.
 Added a sacrificial meal of bread and
wine.
 The Divinity of Jesus
 Early Christians believed in one God
but thought Jesus was more than merely
human.
 Stephen stoned for saying there was
another God.
 Trinitarian Monotheism
 God is one but expressed through the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Greek and Hebrew Thought
 Paul
 Became the chief Christian
missionary to the Greek-speaking
world.
 He knew Greeks were more
interested in origins than the
end of times.
 He described the Wisdom (or Logos)
as being with God at the creation.
 Philo already argued that
Plato’s form of the Good was
identical to the transcendent
God of the Bible.
Greek and Hebrew Thought
 The Gospels
 The first four books of the New Testament.
 Attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
 Justin Martyr
 United Christian concepts with the ideas
of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics.
 Christians before Christ
 Abraham and Socrates because they were willing
to die for what they believe in.
 Concept of the Trinity
 As one torch is lighted from another, Jesus is
“light of light.”
The Emergence of Christianity
 Judaism as a precondition for
Christianity
 Including Circumcision
 Compromise: The requirement would remain
for Jews but not for Greeks.
Gnosticism and Christianity
 Gnosticism
 The fall of humanity occurred before creation.
 The world is evil.
 It could not have been created by God.
 Incarnation
 Gnostics argue that God could not take human
form and inhabit this evil world.
 Jesus only appeared to suffer and die.
 God only exists apart from this evil world.
 Christians insisted the Logos was made
incarnate with Jesus.
 Gnosticism was the first view condemned as
heresy.
Monotheism and the Trinity
 Some resisted calling Jesus God because
it appeared to threaten monotheism.
 Tertullian, 3rd century
 God is three persons in one.
 Arius, 4th century
 Jesus is not the same substance as God
 In the Incarnation the Logos entered his
body and replaced his spirit
 Jesus is neither divine or human
 Nicene Creed, A. D. 325
 Jesus “ one in being” with the Father.
 God created the world (rejecting Gnostics)

You might also like