Background History of the Charismatic Church
Introduction
The Aim of the Study
The history of the early Church is vitally important in understanding the fulfillment of the word of Yahuwah to his prophets from when the world began even to Malaki. They prophesied the days of the Church. When we see the dream of Daniel in chapter 7 he sees four beasts during the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babel in his. These beasts arose out of the earth and were the background of the coming of the Kingdom of God under the Son of Man (Bar Enosh).
The beasts were a lion with the wings of an eagle it had its winged plucked off and it stood on it feet. This is usually recognized as the Babylonian kingdom which ruled until 539 BC from 606 BC. Its first ruler was Nebuchadnetzar and its final one was Belshatsar in whose first year Daniel had the dream.
The second beast was a bear raised up on its side with three ribs, the Medes and the Persians, and its was commanded to "Arise and devour much flesh". The third was a leopard with four wings and four heads. This is said to point to Alexander the Great and his four generals. Then we come to fourth beast which was a monster with iron teeth and 10 iron horns. This is said to be the Roman Empire. These four beasts set the background for the rise of the Kingdom of God in the first century with Yeshua at its head.
The Contentions of this Study
We seek to address the idea that the Church is part of a natural process of growth. In this perspective the early Church is part of the development of the world of that time. This is the contention of Petra Heldt Lecturer at University of the Holy land. She presented this contention on 6th of March 2002 in a lecture at Rothberg School, Hebrew University. When does the Church become the Church? It is believed to be developing slowly. The Church takes from everything available and it identity is built by accepting and rejecting practices and ideas from the four cultures we just mentioned the Babylonian, the Median- Persian, the Greek and the Roman.
Our aim then is to assess this hypotheses that the Church is a natural outgrowth of the communities it was born into.
Our second issue it to do with how Christianity took something of everything in order to grow. That is we are looking at the cultures around about and into which it was born as food and at the idea of the Church eating from the various food sources, Judaism and Paganism. We will read the authors of the first four centuries to detect their sources. Which people and ideas are they drawing from. So we are on an investigation to origins of ideas in the writings and theology of the early Church fathers. We are not only going to detect their sources we are going to see the way they used those sources for their various purposes.
Our third purpose is too seek to read the writings of the early Church according to themes. Themes are those ideas which are seeking to show how to live every day life. They are the contents which go into making a dogma. Heldt's contention is that the early Church was not so much concerned with defending theological dogma’s which are the answers to a question. Rather the Fathers, whether the earlier Greek of the later Latin were exploring themes and questions and were coming out with many different answers. In these ideas Scripture was read according to themes not according to dogmas. The fathers are not trying to prove dogmas but giving themes for daily life. At that time she contends all peoples were seeking to find their own answer to life’s questions. They were seeking to find how to live with the word of Elohim.
This sets our study apart from many other studies of this period. This is the modern approach to the study of the Fathers of the Church. Scholars who exemplify this approach are Kannengiesser, Francis Young and David Dawson. Heldt contends that the Mishna is a reading of the Bible from the year 200. It shows the Halakah or way to walk.
An example of a dogma approach is What is Heaven? what is hell ? And these questions are followed by a response Heaven is….hell is…A dogma is an answer to a question.
In contrast to this a theme talking about how do we live now, such issues as the Mishna addresses.
She contends that even as the Jewish Rabbis were asking questions about how to apply the Torah in daily life so the Church was thinking how to apply the Scripture to daily life.
Historical Survey of the Background to Christianity
The whole history of the this period takes place more or less within the bounds of the Persian Empire established in the 6th century BC under Cyrus. He began his reign around 551 BC. There were five great Persian emperors who ruled the area stretching from Macedonia in the West, that is in the south of Greece to India in the East. The Empire took in some of north Africa in the south. This are was the area where more than 500 years after Cyrus that Christianity and the early church flourished.
There were five great emperors in the Persian beast which was a bear. And these were Cyrus the Great 551BC
Cambyses
Darius
Xerxes 450 BC
Artaxerxes 430BC
The greatest period of disintegration took place in the reign of Artaxerxes. And Cyrus the younger wanted to over throw Artaxerxes and hired 11000 Greek mercenaries to do this. We know this from Xenophon Anahasi. A little later afterwards the Greeks came back and took revenge on Cyrus the Younger for treating them so badly. And that was how the Greeks came into Persia.
Alexander of Macedon and the Greek Period
Alexander the Great lived from 356 BC until 323 BC. The boundaries of area remained the same as the Persian Empire but the people and the culture changed. When Alexander died his four generals called the diadochi divided his empire.
After they began to reign the Hellenistic kingdoms developed from 280 BC. Three great kingdoms arose out of his Empire. The Ptolomaic with its seat in Egypt. The Seleucids with their seat in Syria and Persia and the Antigonites who took Macedonia. The whole area was Greek although people also spoke their own languages as well. Greek Culture took over in the whole region of what used to be the Persian Empire.
Antioch in Syria was fond of Aristotle and a very important seat of Greek culture and learning. In the East of the Seleucian Empire Nisibus and Edessa were important centers. They taught Hebrew Syriac and Greek. (See Article on the Church of the East)
The Rise of Rome
Rome began to fight against the Greek empires first in Macedonia in 225 BC against the Antigonites. A generation later they moved further East into Turkey, and took Pergamum and began to influence all of Turkey. In 30 BC they finally took the third area of the Greek Empires. Rome however unlike Greece did not change the culture. Indeed the culture remained Greek for the next 300 to 400 years. So that we find most of the early Church Fathers from that period were writing in Greek and the boundaries of the empire of Cyrus was maintained. The area was a real mixture of Greek, Roman, Persian. It was at this time that Mashiach came, so Christianity did very well.
The Rule of Rome
After 30 BC each Roman Emperor confronted his own thing.
Augustus
Tiberius stabilised the frontiers
Caligula was the uncle of Tiberius
Claudius – added Britain and enlarged the empire
Nero 54-68 had a great fire in his reign and blamed and then persecuted the Church
Vespasian – He was frugal and old fashioned and conquered Jerusalem in 66-70 AD
Titus 79-81 He inaugurated the Coliseum
Domitian 81-96 During his reign the Apocalypse was written
Nove 96-98 A military ruler
Trajan 98-117 saw the largest territorial extent of the Empire including Spain
Hadrian 117-138 He put down the second Jewish revolt under Bar Kochba
Antonius Pious 138-161 Here began a long period of peace and prosperity in the Empire and he gave stability
Marcus Aurelius He encountered something which brought the downfall of the Roman Empire. This brought a decline in the Political and Economic fields. The money was devalued and the empire went into poverty.
Commodus180-192
We are interested in the fact that from 80 BC to 220BC we have a whole period called Middle Platonism. The period from Hadrian to Commodius is called Antonines. They gave a certain kind of stability to the empire During this time there was also a group of Christian thinkers called the Second Sophists.
Administration of the Empire
Cities were important and the rural areas were not considered so important. And the classification of the cities was according to privileges
Colonies were the highest class. Military veterans settled in colonies. They didn’t have to pay taxes and each colony was happy like a little Rome. Phillipi , Corinth , antioch , Ikonium, Lystra and Troas were colonies. The missionaries went to the rich and the clever ones. If you go to the grass roots people they have to do more work. The cities regarded as colonies had the rich , Paul went to them. In Israel you would go to San Meon near Tel Aviv.
Towns or Roman Cities
Certain people had a magistry and were exempt from tax.
Latin Town
Some free people but most were slaves
Other cities
Cities with no privileges whatsoever
The Roman Empire
There were 6oo cities in the East alone that is in the whole empire from Italy Eastward. Why do we need this information? Because the Fathers wrote different things to different cities.
Citizenship
Since the Pax Augustus 95% of the people were slaves. To become a citizen you had to gain your freedom.
Acquiring Citizenship
by birth
slaves freed in Rome could become citizens
as a favour
on discharge from the auxilaries as a soldier
The Antonine period
They continued a policy of extending citizenship. In the first century it was granted by the Emperor to individuals. However in the second century whole cities applied for citizenship.
Finaly under Caracalla citizenship was granted to all free people at a price. The salves were not granted citizenship. However with the extension it lost its value. It was stripped of content. Rome was impoverished and so selling citizenship was a way of raising finance.
As time passed Rome itself got poorer than the colonies in the second century. They competed for Rome’s central position. It was in this time of great competition that Christianity developed.
Judaism
As Judaism developed Christianity also developed. We can’t understand one with out the other. It is recommended you get the poster showing the development of Judaism with the Torah as a stream turning into a river.
Worlds in our Mind
Persian , Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jewish, Philosophers, Platonists Neo Platonic all these are part of the stew from which Christianity is made.
Read M Saebo The Histories of its Interpretation. Septuaguint, Targamim and Peshitta and Diatessaron.
The Aim of the Study
The history of the early Church is vitally important in understanding the fulfillment of the word of Yahuwah to his prophets from when the world began even to Malaki. They prophesied the days of the Church. When we see the dream of Daniel in chapter 7 he sees four beasts during the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babel in his. These beasts arose out of the earth and were the background of the coming of the Kingdom of God under the Son of Man (Bar Enosh).
The beasts were a lion with the wings of an eagle it had its winged plucked off and it stood on it feet. This is usually recognized as the Babylonian kingdom which ruled until 539 BC from 606 BC. Its first ruler was Nebuchadnetzar and its final one was Belshatsar in whose first year Daniel had the dream.
The second beast was a bear raised up on its side with three ribs, the Medes and the Persians, and its was commanded to "Arise and devour much flesh". The third was a leopard with four wings and four heads. This is said to point to Alexander the Great and his four generals. Then we come to fourth beast which was a monster with iron teeth and 10 iron horns. This is said to be the Roman Empire. These four beasts set the background for the rise of the Kingdom of God in the first century with Yeshua at its head.
The Contentions of this Study
We seek to address the idea that the Church is part of a natural process of growth. In this perspective the early Church is part of the development of the world of that time. This is the contention of Petra Heldt Lecturer at University of the Holy land. She presented this contention on 6th of March 2002 in a lecture at Rothberg School, Hebrew University. When does the Church become the Church? It is believed to be developing slowly. The Church takes from everything available and it identity is built by accepting and rejecting practices and ideas from the four cultures we just mentioned the Babylonian, the Median- Persian, the Greek and the Roman.
Our aim then is to assess this hypotheses that the Church is a natural outgrowth of the communities it was born into.
Our second issue it to do with how Christianity took something of everything in order to grow. That is we are looking at the cultures around about and into which it was born as food and at the idea of the Church eating from the various food sources, Judaism and Paganism. We will read the authors of the first four centuries to detect their sources. Which people and ideas are they drawing from. So we are on an investigation to origins of ideas in the writings and theology of the early Church fathers. We are not only going to detect their sources we are going to see the way they used those sources for their various purposes.
Our third purpose is too seek to read the writings of the early Church according to themes. Themes are those ideas which are seeking to show how to live every day life. They are the contents which go into making a dogma. Heldt's contention is that the early Church was not so much concerned with defending theological dogma’s which are the answers to a question. Rather the Fathers, whether the earlier Greek of the later Latin were exploring themes and questions and were coming out with many different answers. In these ideas Scripture was read according to themes not according to dogmas. The fathers are not trying to prove dogmas but giving themes for daily life. At that time she contends all peoples were seeking to find their own answer to life’s questions. They were seeking to find how to live with the word of Elohim.
This sets our study apart from many other studies of this period. This is the modern approach to the study of the Fathers of the Church. Scholars who exemplify this approach are Kannengiesser, Francis Young and David Dawson. Heldt contends that the Mishna is a reading of the Bible from the year 200. It shows the Halakah or way to walk.
An example of a dogma approach is What is Heaven? what is hell ? And these questions are followed by a response Heaven is….hell is…A dogma is an answer to a question.
In contrast to this a theme talking about how do we live now, such issues as the Mishna addresses.
She contends that even as the Jewish Rabbis were asking questions about how to apply the Torah in daily life so the Church was thinking how to apply the Scripture to daily life.
Historical Survey of the Background to Christianity
The whole history of the this period takes place more or less within the bounds of the Persian Empire established in the 6th century BC under Cyrus. He began his reign around 551 BC. There were five great Persian emperors who ruled the area stretching from Macedonia in the West, that is in the south of Greece to India in the East. The Empire took in some of north Africa in the south. This are was the area where more than 500 years after Cyrus that Christianity and the early church flourished.
There were five great emperors in the Persian beast which was a bear. And these were Cyrus the Great 551BC
Cambyses
Darius
Xerxes 450 BC
Artaxerxes 430BC
The greatest period of disintegration took place in the reign of Artaxerxes. And Cyrus the younger wanted to over throw Artaxerxes and hired 11000 Greek mercenaries to do this. We know this from Xenophon Anahasi. A little later afterwards the Greeks came back and took revenge on Cyrus the Younger for treating them so badly. And that was how the Greeks came into Persia.
Alexander of Macedon and the Greek Period
Alexander the Great lived from 356 BC until 323 BC. The boundaries of area remained the same as the Persian Empire but the people and the culture changed. When Alexander died his four generals called the diadochi divided his empire.
After they began to reign the Hellenistic kingdoms developed from 280 BC. Three great kingdoms arose out of his Empire. The Ptolomaic with its seat in Egypt. The Seleucids with their seat in Syria and Persia and the Antigonites who took Macedonia. The whole area was Greek although people also spoke their own languages as well. Greek Culture took over in the whole region of what used to be the Persian Empire.
Antioch in Syria was fond of Aristotle and a very important seat of Greek culture and learning. In the East of the Seleucian Empire Nisibus and Edessa were important centers. They taught Hebrew Syriac and Greek. (See Article on the Church of the East)
The Rise of Rome
Rome began to fight against the Greek empires first in Macedonia in 225 BC against the Antigonites. A generation later they moved further East into Turkey, and took Pergamum and began to influence all of Turkey. In 30 BC they finally took the third area of the Greek Empires. Rome however unlike Greece did not change the culture. Indeed the culture remained Greek for the next 300 to 400 years. So that we find most of the early Church Fathers from that period were writing in Greek and the boundaries of the empire of Cyrus was maintained. The area was a real mixture of Greek, Roman, Persian. It was at this time that Mashiach came, so Christianity did very well.
The Rule of Rome
After 30 BC each Roman Emperor confronted his own thing.
Augustus
Tiberius stabilised the frontiers
Caligula was the uncle of Tiberius
Claudius – added Britain and enlarged the empire
Nero 54-68 had a great fire in his reign and blamed and then persecuted the Church
Vespasian – He was frugal and old fashioned and conquered Jerusalem in 66-70 AD
Titus 79-81 He inaugurated the Coliseum
Domitian 81-96 During his reign the Apocalypse was written
Nove 96-98 A military ruler
Trajan 98-117 saw the largest territorial extent of the Empire including Spain
Hadrian 117-138 He put down the second Jewish revolt under Bar Kochba
Antonius Pious 138-161 Here began a long period of peace and prosperity in the Empire and he gave stability
Marcus Aurelius He encountered something which brought the downfall of the Roman Empire. This brought a decline in the Political and Economic fields. The money was devalued and the empire went into poverty.
Commodus180-192
We are interested in the fact that from 80 BC to 220BC we have a whole period called Middle Platonism. The period from Hadrian to Commodius is called Antonines. They gave a certain kind of stability to the empire During this time there was also a group of Christian thinkers called the Second Sophists.
Administration of the Empire
Cities were important and the rural areas were not considered so important. And the classification of the cities was according to privileges
Colonies were the highest class. Military veterans settled in colonies. They didn’t have to pay taxes and each colony was happy like a little Rome. Phillipi , Corinth , antioch , Ikonium, Lystra and Troas were colonies. The missionaries went to the rich and the clever ones. If you go to the grass roots people they have to do more work. The cities regarded as colonies had the rich , Paul went to them. In Israel you would go to San Meon near Tel Aviv.
Towns or Roman Cities
Certain people had a magistry and were exempt from tax.
Latin Town
Some free people but most were slaves
Other cities
Cities with no privileges whatsoever
The Roman Empire
There were 6oo cities in the East alone that is in the whole empire from Italy Eastward. Why do we need this information? Because the Fathers wrote different things to different cities.
Citizenship
Since the Pax Augustus 95% of the people were slaves. To become a citizen you had to gain your freedom.
Acquiring Citizenship
by birth
slaves freed in Rome could become citizens
as a favour
on discharge from the auxilaries as a soldier
The Antonine period
They continued a policy of extending citizenship. In the first century it was granted by the Emperor to individuals. However in the second century whole cities applied for citizenship.
Finaly under Caracalla citizenship was granted to all free people at a price. The salves were not granted citizenship. However with the extension it lost its value. It was stripped of content. Rome was impoverished and so selling citizenship was a way of raising finance.
As time passed Rome itself got poorer than the colonies in the second century. They competed for Rome’s central position. It was in this time of great competition that Christianity developed.
Judaism
As Judaism developed Christianity also developed. We can’t understand one with out the other. It is recommended you get the poster showing the development of Judaism with the Torah as a stream turning into a river.
Worlds in our Mind
Persian , Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jewish, Philosophers, Platonists Neo Platonic all these are part of the stew from which Christianity is made.
Read M Saebo The Histories of its Interpretation. Septuaguint, Targamim and Peshitta and Diatessaron.
posted by Evangelist Edi Nachman Bsc. PGCE @ 5:16 AM
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