Chapter 3: , page 89 (56)

CHREMONIDEAN WAR, The.

See ATHENS: B. C. 288-263.

CHRIST, Knights of the Order of.

See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1415-1460.

CHRISTIAN I.,
King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, A. D. 1448-1481.

Christian II., A. D. 1513-1523.

Christian III., King of Denmark and Norway, A. D. 1534-1558.

Christian IV., A. D. 1588-1648.

Christian V., A. D. 1670-1699.

Christian VI., A. D. 1730-1746.

Christian VII., A. D. 1766-1808.

Christian VIII., King of Denmark, A. D. 1839-1848.

Christian IX., A. D. 1863-.

CHRISTIAN COMMISSION, The United States.

See SANITARY COMMISSION.

CHRISTIAN ERA.

See ERA, CHRISTIAN.

[image: DEVELOPMENT MAP OF CHRISTIANITY.]

[image: DEVELOPMENT MAP OF CHRISTIANITY.]

CHRISTIANITY:

"Historical geography has of late years become an integral
part of the historical science. Recent investigations have
opened up the subject and a solid beginning has been made—but
it is only a beginning. It is clearly recognized that the land
itself as it appears at different periods is one of those
invaluable original documents upon which history is built, and
no stone is being left unturned to clear away mysteries and to
bring to our aid a realism hitherto unknown to the science.
… But the special branch of this vast and complicated theme
of historical geography which interests us most and which I
desire briefly to bring to your attention is that which deals
with the Christian Church. … Our eyes first rest upon that
little group at Jerusalem that made up the Pentecostal Church.
Its spread was conditioned by the extent and character of the
Roman Empire, by the municipal genius of that empire, its
great highways by land and sea; conditioned by the commercial
routes and the track of armies outside the bounds of
civilization; conditioned by the spread of languages—
Aramaic, Greek, and Latin,—and, most important of all,
conditioned by the whereabouts of the seven million Jews
massed in Syria, Babylonia, and Egypt, and scattered
everywhere throughout the Empire and far beyond its
boundaries."

_H. W. Hulbert,
The Historical Geography of the Christian Church
(American Society of Church History, volume 3)._

"When we turn from the Jewish 'dispersion' in the East to that
in the West, we seem in quite a different atmosphere. Despite
their intense nationalism, all unconsciously to themselves,
their mental characteristics and tendencies were in the
opposite direction from those of their brethren. With those of
the East rested the future of Judaism; with them of the West,
in a sense, that of the world. The one represented old Israel
groping back into the darkness of the past; the other young
Israel, stretching forth its hands to where the dawn of a new
day was about to break. These Jews of the West are known by
the term Hellenists. … The translation of the Old Testament
into Greek may be regarded as the starting point of Hellenism.
It rendered possible the hope that what in its original form
had been confined to the few, might become accessible to the
world at large. … In the account of the truly representative
gathering in Jerusalem on that ever-memorable Feast of Weeks,
the division of the 'dispersion' into two grand sections—the
Eastern or Trans-Euphratic, and the Western or
Hellenist—seems clearly marked. In this arrangement the
former would include 'the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and
dwellers in Mesopotamia,' Judæa standing, so to speak, in the
middle, while 'the Cretes and Arabians' would typically
represent the farthest outrunners respectively of the Western
and Eastern Diaspora. The former, as we know from the New
Testament, commonly bore in Palestine the name of the
'dispersion of the Greeks', and of 'Hellenists' or 'Grecians.'
On the other hand, the Trans-Euphratic Jews, who 'inhabited
Babylon and many of the other satrapies,' were included with
the Palestinians and the Syrians under the term 'Hebrews,'
from the common language which they spoke. But the difference
between the 'Grecians' and the 'Hebrews' was far deeper than
merely of language, and extended to the whole direction of
thought."

_A. Edersheim.
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
volume 1, book 1, chapters 2-3, and 1._

"Before Pentecost an assembly of the believers took place, at
which the post vacated in the number of the apostles by the
suicide of the traitor Judas of Kerioth, was filled up by the
election of Matthias by lot. On this occasion the number of
the assembled brethren amounted to about 120 men. … At the
feast of Pentecost … a very considerable accession was made
to the formerly moderate band of believers in Jerusalem; …
about 3,000 souls received the word and were joined to the
Church by baptism (Acts ii. 41). We must not, however, at once
credit the Church in Jerusalem with this increase. For among
the listeners to the apostolic discourse there were
Israelitish guests and proselytes from near and distant
countries (ii. 5, 9-11, 14), whence we may infer that of those
newly converted many were not living in Jerusalem itself, but
partly in Judæa and Galilee, partly in countries beyond
Palestine, who therefore returned home after the feast days
were ended.
{433}
Some of these might, under certain circumstances, form
the centre of a small Church in the dispersion, so that
gradually Churches may have arisen to which also James may
possibly have addressed his Epistle. … So abundantly did God
bless with success the activity of the early apostles though
limited to the nation of Israel and the land of Canaan, and
their fidelity within a circumscribed sphere. Hence there
existed at the end of the period of which we treat numerous
Christian Churches in Jerusalem and the whole country of Judæa
(comp. Galatians i. 22, etc.: Acts xi. 1), also on the coast (Acts
ix. 32-35, etc.) in Samaria and Galilee, and finally in Syria,
Phenicia, and Cyprus, (Acts ix. 2, 10, 25, xi. 19), some of
which were directly, some indirectly, founded by the Twelve,
and were, in any case, governed and guided by them.' In the
above named districts outside Palestine, it might not, indeed,
have been easy to find a Christian Church consisting
exclusively of believing Jews, for as a rule they consisted of
believing Jews and individual Gentiles. On the other hand, we
shall scarcely be wrong in regarding the Christian Churches
within Palestine itself as composed entirely of believing
Israelites. But even among these there were many distinctions,
e. g., between Palestinians and Hellenists."

_G. V. Lechler,
The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, pages 30-35._

"We find the early [Jewish] Christians observing the national
feasts and holidays (Acts ii. 1: xviii. 21: xx. 6, 16: Romans
xiv. 5). They take part in the worship of the temple and the
synagogue; they pray at the customary hours (chapters ii. 46;
iii. 1; volume 42; x. 9). They observe the fasts, and undergo
voluntary abstinence, binding themselves by special vows like
all pious Jews (xiii. 2: xvii. 18; xxi. 23). They scrupulously
avoid unlawful food, and all legal defilement (x. 14). They
have their children circumcised (xv. 5; xvi. 3; 65493 volume 2).
… This scrupulous piety won for them the esteem and
admiration of the people (chap. volume 13)." At first their creed
was "comprised in a single dogma: 'Jesus is the Messiah.' …
Their preaching of the Gospel strictly followed the lines of
Messianic tradition (i. 7; ii. 36; iii. 20). … But in
reality all this formed only the outside of their life and
creed. … Herein lies the profound significance of the
miracle of Pentecost. That day was the birthday of the Church,
not because of the marvelous success of Peter's preaching, but
because the Christian principle, hitherto existing only
objectively and externally in the person of Jesus, passed from
that moment into the souls of His disciples. … And thus in
the very midst of Judaism we see created and unfolded a form
of religious life essentially different from it—the Christian
life."

_A. Sabatier,
The Apostle Paul,
pages 35-36._

"By the two parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven,
Christ marked out the two sides or aspects of His truth—its
external growth from the least to the greatest, and its
internal action on society at large—as setting up a ferment,
and making a new lump out of the unkneaded mass of the old
humanity. With these two symbols in view we may gauge what the
gospel was designed to be and to do. It was to grow into a
great outward society—the tree of the Church; but it was also
to do a work on secular society as such, corresponding to the
action of leaven on flour. The history of Christianity has
been the carrying out of these two distinct and contrasted
conceptions; but how imperfectly, and under what drawbacks."

_Reverend J. B. Heard,
Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted,
page 186._

"The organic connection of Jewish Christians with the
synagogue, which must, in accordance with the facts before us,
be regarded as a rule, is certainly not to be taken as a mere
incidental phenomenon, a customary habit or arbitrary
accommodation, but as a moral fact resting upon an internal
necessity, having its foundation in the love of Jewish
Christians to their nation, and in the adhesion of their
religious consciousness to the old covenant. To mistake this
would be to underrate the wide bearing of the fact. But lest
we should over-estimate its importance, we must at once
proceed to another consideration. Within Judaism we must
distinguish not only the Rabbinical or Pharisaic tradition of
the original canonical revelation, but also within the canon
itself we have to distinguish the Levitical element from the
prophetic, … taking the latter not in a close but a wide
sense as the living spiritual development of the theocracy."

_G. V. Lechler,
The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, page 54._

"Moreover the law had claims on a Hebrew of Palestine wholly
independent of his religious obligations. To him it was a
national institution, as well as a divine covenant. Under the
Gospel he might consider his relations to it in this latter
character altered, but as embodying the decrees and usages of
his country it still demanded his allegiance. To be a good
Christian he was not required to be a bad citizen. On these
grounds the more enlightened members of the mother-church
would justify their continued adhesion to the law. Nor is
there any reason to suppose that St. Paul himself took a
different view of their obligations."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 67._

"The term 'Jewish-Christianity' is applicable exclusively to
those Christians who really retained, entirely or in the
smallest part, the national and political forms of Judaism and
insisted upon the observance of the Mosaic Law without
modification as essential to Christianity, at least to the
Christianity of the Jewish-born converts, or who indeed
rejected these forms, but acknowledged the prerogative of the
Jewish people also in Christianity."

_A. Harnack,
Outlines of the History of Dogma,
page 75._

CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100.
The Rise of the Churches.
Jerusalem.

"After the miraculous healing of the cripple and the discourse
of the Apostle Peter on that occasion, the historian goes on
to say, Many of them which heard the word believed, and the
number of the men was about 5,000' (iv. 4). It seems as if in
consequence of this event, which made no little stir, a larger
number joined themselves to the Church. Nor is it probable
that this healing took place until a long time after the
beginning of the Church. The miracle, with the effect which it
had, serves as a resting place at which the result of the
previous growth of the Church may be ascertained. And here the
number again incidentally mentioned refers without doubt to
the Church at Jerusalem."

_G. V. Lechler,
The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times,
volume 1, page 32._

{434}

The early history of the Churches "falls into three periods
which mark three distinct stages in its progress:
(1) The Extension of the Church to the Gentiles;
(2) The Recognition of Gentile Liberty;
(3) The Emancipation of the Jewish Churches.
… And soon enough the pressure of events began to be felt.
The dispersion was the link which connected the Hebrews of
Palestine with the outer world. Led captive by the power of
Greek philosophy at Athens and Tarsus and Alexandria,
attracted by the fascinations of Oriental mysticism in Asia,
swept along with the busy whirl of social life in the city and
court of the Cæsars, these outlying members of the chosen race
had inhaled a freer spirit and contracted wider interests than
their fellow-countrymen at home. By a series of insensible
gradations—proselytes of the covenant—proselytes of the
gate—superstitious devotees who observed the rites without
accepting the faith of the Mosaic dispensation—curious
lookers-on who interested themselves in the Jewish ritual as
they would in the worship of Isis or of Astarte—the most
stubborn zealot of the law was linked to the idolatrous
heathen whom he abhorred and who despised him in turn. Thus
the train was unconsciously laid, when the spark fell from
heaven and fired it. … Meanwhile at Jerusalem some years
passed away before the barrier of Judaism was assailed. The
Apostles still observed the Mosaic ritual; they still confined
their preaching to Jews by birth, or Jews by adoption, the
proselytes of the covenant. At length a breach was made, and
the assailants as might be expected were Hellenists. The first
step towards the creation of an organized ministry was also
the first step towards the emancipation of the Church. The
Jews of Judæa, 'Hebrews of the Hebrews' had ever regarded
their Hellenist brethren with suspicion and distrust; and this
estrangement reproduced itself in the Christian Church. The
interests of the Hellenist widows had been neglected in the
daily distribution of alms. Hence 'arose a murmuring of the
Hellenists against the Hebrews' (Acts vi. 1), which was met by
the appointment of seven persons specially charged with
providing for the wants of these neglected poor. If the
selection was made, as St. Luke's language seems to imply, not
by the Hellenists themselves but by the Church at large (vi.
2), the concession when granted was carried out in a liberal
spirit. All the names of the seven are Greek, pointing to a
Hellenist rather than a Hebrew extraction, and one is
especially described as a proselyte, being doubtless chosen to
represent a hitherto small but growing section of the
community. By this appointment the Hellenist members obtained
a status in the Church; and the effects of this measure soon
became visible. Two out of the seven stand prominently forward
as the champions of emancipation, Stephen the preacher and
martyr of liberty, and Philip the practical worker."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
pages 50-52._

"The Hellenist Stephen roused deep-stirring movements chiefly
in Hellenist circles. … The persecution of the Jerusalem
community—perhaps specially of its Hellenist part—which
followed the stoning of Stephen, became a means of promoting
the spread of the Christian faith to … Cyprus, at last to so
important a centre as Antioch, the imperial capital of the
East. To the winning of the Jews to faith in Jesus there is
already added the reception into the Christian community of
the pious Gentile Cornelius, a proselyte of the gate. …
Though this appears in tradition as an individual case
sanctioned by special Divine guidance, in the meantime
Hellenist Christians had already begun to preach the Gospel to
born Greeks, also at Antioch in Syria, and successfully (Acts
xi. 19-26), Barnabas is sent thither from Jerusalem."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 53-54._

"Philip, driven from Jerusalem by the persecution, preached
Christ to the Samaritans. … The Apostles who had remained at
Jerusalem, hearing of the success of Philip's preaching, sent
two of their number into this new and fruitful field of labor.
… Peter and John return to Jerusalem while the Deacon Philip
is called, by a new manifestation of the will of God, yet
further to extend the field of Christian missions. It is not a
Samaritan but a pagan, whom he next instructs in the truth.
… He was an Ethiopian eunuch, a great dignitary of the court
of Meroë, treasurer of the Queen. … This man, a pagan by
birth, had taken a long journey to worship the true God in the
temple of Jerusalem."

_E. De Pressensé,
The Early Years of Christianity,
pages 71-74._

"For the sake of the popular feeling Herod Agrippa laid hands
on members of the community, and caused James the brother of
John (the sons of Zebedee) to be put to death by the sword, in
the year 44, for soon thereafter Herod Agrippa died. Peter
also was taken prisoner, but miraculously escaped and
provisionally left Jerusalem. From this time on James the
brother of the Lord appears ever more and more as really
bearing rank as head of the Jerusalem community, while Peter
more and more devotes himself to the apostolic mission abroad,
and indeed, more accurately, to the mission in Israel."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
page 55._

"The accounts which we have regarding the apostle Peter,
represent him as preaching the gospel from the far east to
distant parts of the west. … According to his own words, he
founded churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia, and according to the testimony of ancient historians
of the Church in the east also; in Syria, Babylon,
Mesopotamia, Chaldaea, Arabia, Phoenicia and Egypt, and in the
west, at Rome, in Britain, Ireland, Helvetia and Spain."

_J. E. T. Wiltsch,
Hand Book of the Geography and Statistics of The Church,
volume 1, pages 19-20._

"Three and three only of the personal disciples and immediate
followers of our Lord hold any prominent place in the
Apostolic records—James, Peter, and John; the first the
Lord's brother, the two latter the foremost members of the
Twelve. Apart from an incidental reference to the death of
James the son of Zebedee, which is dismissed in a single
sentence, the rest of the Twelve are mentioned by name for the
last time on the day of the Lord's Ascension. Thenceforward
they disappear wholly from the canonical writings. And this
silence also extends to the traditions of succeeding ages. We
read indeed of St. Thomas in India, of St. Andrew in Scythia;
but such scanty notices, even if we accept them as
trustworthy, show only the more plainly how little the Church
could tell of her earliest teachers. Doubtless they laboured
zealously and effectively in the spread of the Gospel; but, so
far as we know, they have left no impress of their individual
mind and character on the Church at large. Occupying the
foreground, and indeed covering the whole canvas of early
ecclesiastical history, appear four figures alone, St. Paul,
and the three Apostles of the Circumcision."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 46._

{435}

"While Peter (as it appears) is occupied with the work of
preaching to the Jews outside of Palestine, the community at
Jerusalem, and indeed the Palestinian communities in general,
stand under the leadership of the brother of the Lord, James,
as their recognised head. They remain strictly in the life of
the law, and still hold securely to the hope of the conversion
of the whole of God's people (which Paul had for the present
given up). The mission to the Gentiles is indeed recognised,
but the manner of its conduct by Paul and the powerful
increase of Pauline communities excite misgivings and
dissensions. For in these mixed communities, in the presence
of what is often a preponderating Gentile element, it becomes
ever clearer in what direction the development is pressing;
that, in fact, for the sake of the higher Christian communion
the legal customs even of the Jewish Christians in these
communities must inevitably be broken down, and general
Christian freedom, on principle, from the commands of the law,
gain recognition."

_Dr. Wilhelm Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
page 73._

"The fall of Jerusalem occurred in the Autumn of the year 70
[see JEWS: A. D. 66-70]. And soon the catastrophe came which
solved the difficult problem. … Jerusalem was razed to the
ground, and the Temple-worship ceased, never again to be
revived. The Christians foreseeing the calamity had fled
before the tempest. … Before the crisis came, they had been
deprived of the counsel and guidance of the leading apostles.
Peter had fallen a martyr at Rome; John had retired to Asia
Minor; James, the Lord's brother, was slain not long before
the great catastrophe. … He was succeeded by his cousin
Symeon, the son of Clopas and nephew of Joseph. Under these
circumstances the Church was reformed at Pella. Its history in
the ages following is a hopeless blank."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 68._

"While Cæsarea succeeded Jerusalem as the political capital of
Palestine, Antioch succeeded it as the centre of Christendom."

_A. Plummer,
Church of the Early Fathers,
chapter 3._

CHRISTIANITY: Antioch.

"Under Macedonian rule the Greek intellect had become the
leading intellectual power of the world. The great
Greek-speaking towns of the East were alike the strongholds of
intellectual power, the battlefields of opinion and systems,
and the laboratories of scientific research, where discoveries
were made and literary undertakings requiring the combination
of forces were carried out. Such was Antioch on the Orontes,
the meeting point of Syrian and Greek intellect; such, above
all, was Alexandria."

_J. J. von Döllinger,
Studies in European History,
page 165._

"The chief line along which the new religion developed was
that which led from Syrian Antioch through the Cilician Gates,
across Lycaonia to Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome. One subsidiary
line followed the land route by Philadelphia, Troas, Philippi,
and the Egnatian Way to Brindisi and Rome; and another went
north from the Gates by Tyana and Cæsareia of Cappadocia to
Amisos in Pontus, the great harbour of the Black Sea, by which
the trade of Central Asia was carried to Rome. The maintenance
of close and constant communication between the scattered
congregations must be presupposed, as necessary to explain the
growth of the Church and the attitude which the State assumed
towards it. Such communication was, on the view advocated in
the present work, maintained along the same lines on which the
general development of the Empire took place; and politics,
education and religion grew side by side."

_W. M. Ramsay,
The Church in the Roman Empire,
page 10._

"The incitement to the wider preaching of the Gospel in the
Greek world starts from the Christian community at Antioch.
For this purpose Barnabas receives Paul as a companion (Acts
xiii., and xiv.) Saul, by birth a Jew of the tribe of
Benjamin, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, educated as a Pharisee;
and although indeed as a Hellenist, he had command of Greek
and had come into contact with Greek culture and Greek life,
yet had not actually passed through the discipline of Greek
culture, was introduced by Gamaliel to the learned study of
the law, and his whole soul was seized with fiery zeal for the
Statutes of the fathers. … After [his conversion and] his
stay in Damascus and in Arabia and the visit to Peter (and
James) at Jerusalem, having gone to Syria and Cilicia, he was
taken to Antioch by Barnabas."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
page 57._

"The strength and zeal of the Antioch Christian society are
shown in the sending forth of Paul and Barnabas, with Mark, a
cousin of Barnabas, for their companion for a part of the way,
on a preaching tour in the eastern districts of Asia Minor.
First they visited Cyprus, where Sergius Paulus, the
proconsul, was converted. Thence they sailed to Attalia, on
the southern coast of Pamphylia, and near Perga; from Perga
they proceeded to Antioch in Pisidia, and from there eastward
to Iconium, and as far as Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia.
Retracing their steps, they came back to Attalia, and sailed
directly to Antioch. … This was the first incursion of Paul
into the domain of heathenism."

_G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
page 22._

"How then should Paul and Barnabas proceed? To leave Syria
they must go first to Seleuceia, the harbour of Antioch, where
they would find ships going south to the Syrian coast and
Egypt, and west either by way of Cyprus or along the coast of
Asia Minor. The western route led toward the Roman world, to
which all Paul's subsequent history proves that he considered
himself called by the Spirit. The Apostles embarked in a ship
for Cyprus, which was very closely connected by commerce and
general intercourse with the Syrian coast. After traversing
the island from east to west, they must go onward. Ships going
westward naturally went across the coast of Pamphylia, and the
Apostles, after reaching Paphos, near the west end of Cyprus,
sailed in one of these ships, and landed at Attalia in
Pamphylia."

_W. M. Ramsay. The Church in the Roman Empire, page 60._

"The work starting from Antioch, by which access to the faith
is opened to the Gentiles, the formation of (preponderatingly)
Gentile Christian communities, now introduces into the
original Christian development an important problem, which
(about the year 52, probably not later), (Galatians ii.; Acts xv.)
leads to discussions and explanations at the so-called
Apostolic Council [at Jerusalem]. … For Paul, who has risen
to perfect independence by the energy of his own peculiar
stamp of gospel, there now begin the years of his powerful
activity, in which he not only again visits and extends his
former missionary field in Asia Minor, but gains a firm
footing in Macedonia (Philippi), Athens, and Achaia (Corinth);
then on the so-called third missionary journey he exercises a
comprehensive influence during a stay of nearly three years at
Ephesus, and finally looks from Achaia towards the metropolis
of the world."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 57-59._

{436}

"If the heathen whom he (Paul) had won to the faith and
received into the Church were to be persuaded to adopt
circumcision and the law before they could attain to full
participation in the Christian salvation, his preaching had
fallen short of his aim, it had been in vain, since it was
very doubtful whether the Gentiles gained over to believe in
the Messiah would submit to the condition. Paul could only
look on those who made such a demand as false brethren, who
having no claim to Christian brotherhood had forced themselves
into the Church at Antioch in an unauthorized way (Galatians ii.
4), and was persuaded that neither the primitive Church as
such, nor its rulers, shared this view. In order therefore to
prevent the Gentile Christians from being disturbed on this
point, he determined to go to Jerusalem and there to challenge
a decision in the matter that should put an end to the strife
(ii. 2). The Church at Antioch also recognized this necessity;
hence followed the proceedings in Jerusalem [about A. D. 52],
whither Paul and Barnabas repaired with other associates (Galatians
ii. 1, Acts xv. 2 ff). … It is certain that when Paul laid
his (free) gospel before the authorities in Jerusalem, they
added nothing to it (Galatians ii. 2-6). i. e., they did not
require that the gospel he preached to the Gentiles should,
besides the sole condition of faith which he laid down, impose
Judaism upon them as a condition of participation in
salvation. … Paul's stipulations with the authorities in
Jerusalem respecting their future work were just as important
for him as the recognition of his free gospel (Galatians ii. 7-10).
They had for their basis a recognition on the part of the
primitive apostles that he was entrusted with the gospel of
the uncircumcision, to which they could add nothing (ii. 6),
just as Peter (as admittedly the most prominent among the
primitive apostles) was entrusted with that of the
circumcision."

_Bernhard Weiss,
A Manual of Introduction to the New Testament,
volume 1, pages 172-175, 178._

"It seems clear that the first meetings of the Christians as a
community apart—meetings that is of a private rather than a
proselytising character—took place, as we see from Acts i.
13-15, in private apartments, the upper rooms or large
guest-chambers in the houses of individual members. Such a
room was doubtless provided by the liberality of Titus Justus
(Acts xviii. 7), such a room again was the upper chamber in
which St. Paul preached at Troas (Acts xx. 7, 8); in such
assembled the converts saluted by the Apostle as the church
which is in the house of Aquila and Prisca, of Nymphas and of
Philemon. … The primitive Roman house had only one story,
but as the cities grew to be more densely populated upper
stories came into use, and it was the custom to place in these
dining apartments, which were called cenacula. Such apartments
would answer to the 'upper rooms' … associated with the
early days of Christianity. … The Christian communities
contained from an early period members of wealth and social
position, who could accommodate in their houses large
gatherings of the faithful; and it is interesting to reflect
that while some of the mansions of an ancient city might be
witnessing in suppers of a Trimalchio or a Virro, scenes more
revolting to modern taste than almost anything presented by
the pagan world, others, perhaps in the same street, might be
the seat of Christian worship or of the simple Christian
meal."

_G. B. Brown,
From Schola to Cathedral,
pages 38-43._

CHRISTIANITY: Asia Minor and Greece.

"Our knowledge of the Apostle Paul's life is far from being
complete. We have only a brief sketch of journeys and toils
that extended over a period of thirty years. Large spaces are
passed over in silence. For example, in the catalogue of his
sufferings, incidentally given, he refers to the fact that he
had been shipwrecked three times, and these disasters were all
prior to the shipwreck on the Island of Malta described by
Luke. Shortly after the conference at Jerusalem he started on
his second missionary tour. He was accompanied by Silas, and
was joined by Timothy at Lystra. He revisited his converts in
Eastern Asia Minor, founded churches in Galatia and Phrygia,
and from Troas, obedient to a heavenly summons, crossed over
to Europe. Having planted at Philippi a church that remained
remarkably devoted and loyal to him, he followed the great
Roman road to Thessalonica, the most important city in
Macedonia. Driven from there and from Berea, he proceeded to
Athens [see ATHENS: A. D. 54 (?)]. In that renowned and
cultivated city he discoursed on Mars Hill to auditors eager
for new ideas in philosophy and religion, and in private
debated with Stoics and Epicureans. At Corinth, which had
risen from its ruins and was once more rich and prosperous, he
remained for a year and a half. It was there, probably, that
he wrote his two Epistles to the Thessalonian Christians.
After a short stay at Ephesus he returned to Antioch by way of
Cesarea and Jerusalem. It was not long before Paul—a second
Alexander, but on a peaceful expedition—began his third great
missionary journey. Taking the land route from Antioch, he
traversed Asia Minor to Ephesus, a flourishing commercial
mart, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. There, with
occasional absences, he made his abode for upwards of two
years. From Ephesus, probably, he wrote the Epistle to the
Galatians. … From Ephesus Paul also wrote the First Epistle
to the Corinthians. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians he
probably wrote from Philippi. … Coming down through Greece,
he remained there three months. There he composed his Epistle
to the Romans. … The untiring Apostle now turned his face
towards Jerusalem. He desired to be present at the festival of
the Pentecost. In order to save time, he sailed past Ephesus,
and at Miletus bade a tender farewell to the Ephesian elders.
He had fulfilled his pledge given at the conference, and he
now carried contributions from the Christians of Macedonia and
Achaia for the poor at Jerusalem."

_G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 27-28._

"We may safely say that if Saul had been less of a Jew, Paul
the Apostle would have been less bold and independent. His
work would have been more superficial, and his mind less
unfettered. God did not choose a heathen to be the apostle for
the heathen; for he might have been ensnared by the traditions
of Judaism, by its priestly hierarchy and the splendours of
its worship, as indeed it happened with the church of the
second century. On the contrary God chose a Pharisee. But this
Pharisee had the most complete experience of the emptiness of
external ceremonies and the crushing yoke of the law. There
was no fear that he would ever look back, that he would be
tempted to set up again what the grace of God had justly
overthrown (Galatians ii. 18). Judaism was wholly vanquished
in his soul, for it was wholly displaced."

_A. Sabatier,
The Apostle Paul,
page 69._

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"Notwithstanding the opposition he met from his countrymen, in
spite of all the liberal and the awakened sympathies which he
derived from his work, despite the necessity of contending
daily and hourly for the freedom of the Gospel among the
Gentiles, he never ceased to be a Jew. … The most ardent
patriot could not enlarge with greater pride on the glories of
the chosen race than he does in the Epistle to the Romans. His
care for the poor in Judæa is a touching proof of the strength
of this national feeling. His attendance at the great annual
festivals in Jerusalem is still more significant. 'I must
spend the coming feast at Jerusalem.' This language becomes
the more striking when we remember that he was then intending
to open out a new field of missionary labour in the far West,
and was bidding perhaps his last farewell to the Holy City,
the joy of the whole earth."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Biblical Essays,
pages 209-210._

"The Macedonian Churches are honorably distinguished above all
others by their fidelity to the Gospel and their affectionate
regard for St. Paul himself. While the Church of Corinth
disgraced herself by gross moral delinquencies, while the
Galatians bartered the liberty of the Gospel for a narrow
formalism, while the believers of Ephesus drifted into the
wildest speculative errors, no such stain attaches to the
brethren of Philippi and Thessalonica. It is to the Macedonian
congregations that the Apostle ever turns for solace in the
midst of his severest trials and sufferings. Time seems not to
have chilled these feelings of mutual affection. The Epistle
to the Philippians was written about ten years after the
Thessalonian letters. It is the more surprising therefore that
they should resemble each other so strongly in tone. In both
alike St. Paul drops his official title at the outset, … and
in both he adopts throughout the same tone of confidence and
affection. In this interval of ten years we meet with one
notice of the Macedonian Churches. It is conceived in terms of
unmeasured praise. The Macedonians had been called upon to
contribute to the wants of their poorer brethren in Judæa, who
were suffering from famine. They had responded nobly to the
call. Deep-sunk in poverty and sorely tried by persecution,
they came forward with eager joy and poured out the riches of
their liberality, straining their means to the utmost in order
to relieve the sufferers. … We may imagine that the people
still retained something of those simpler habits and that
sturdier character, which triumphed over Greeks and Orientals
in the days of Philip and Alexander, and thus in the early
warfare of the Christian Church the Macedonian phalanx offered
a successful resistance to the assaults of an enemy, before
which the lax and enervated ranks of Asia and Achaia had
yielded ignominiously."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Biblical Essays,
pages 249-250._

At Jerusalem, "the Apostle was rescued by a detachment of the
Roman garrison from a mob of Jewish malignants, was held in
custody for two years at Cesarea, and was finally enabled to
accomplish a long-cherished intention to go to Rome, by being
conveyed there as a prisoner, he having made an appeal to
Cæsar. After being wrecked on the Mediterranean and cast
ashore on the Island of Malta, under the circumstances related
in Luke's graphic and accurate description of the voyage, he
went on his way in safety to the capital."

_G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
page 29._

"Paul's apostolic career, as known to us, lasted …
twenty-nine or thirty years; and it falls into three distinct
periods which are summarized in the following chronological
table:

First Period
Essentially Missionary:
35 A. D.,
Conversion of Paul, Journey to Arabia;
38,
First visit to Jerusalem;
38-49,
Mission in Syria and Cilicia-Tarsus and Antioch;
50-51,
First missionary journey Cyprus, Pamphylia and Galatia
(Acts xiii., xiv.);
52,
Conference at Jerusalem (Acts xv.; Galatians ii.);
52-55,
Second missionary journey
Epistles to the Thessalonians (from Corinth).

Second Period
The Great Conflicts, and the Great Epistles:
54,
Return to Antioch
Controversy with Peter (Gal. ii. 12-22);
55-57,
Mission to Ephesus and Asia;
56,
Epistle to the Galatians;
57 or 58 (Passover),
First Epistle to the Corinthians
(Ephesus);
57 or 58 (Autumn),
Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
(Macedonia);
58 (Winter),
Epistle to the Romans.

Third Period
The Captivity:
58 or 59 (Pentecost),
Paul is arrested at Jerusalem;
58-60, or 59-61,
Captivity at Cæsarea
Epistles to Philemon, Colossians and Ephesians;
60 or 61 (Autumn),
Departure for Rome;
61 or 62 (Spring),
Arrival of Paul in Rome;
62-63,
Epistle to the Philippians;
63 or 64,
End of the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles."

_A. Sabatier,
The Apostle Paul,
pages 21-22._

"The impression that we get from Acts is, that the
evangelisation of Asia Minor originated from St. Paul; and
that from his initiative the new religion gradually spread
over the country through the action of many other missionaries
(Acts xix. 10). Moreover, missionaries not trained by him,
were at work in South Galatia and in Ephesus as early as 54-56
A. D. (Gal. volume 7-10; Acts xviii. 25). … The Christian Church
in Asia Minor was always opposed to the primitive native
character. It was Christianity, and not the Imperial
government, which finally destroyed the native languages, and
made Greek the universal language of Asia Minor. The new
religion was strong in the towns before it had any hold of the
country parts. The ruder and the less civilised any district
was, the slower was Christianity in permeating it.
Christianity in the early centuries was the religion of the
more advanced, not of the 'barbarian' peoples; and in fact it
seems to be nearly confined within the limits of the Roman
world, and practically to take little thought of any people
beyond, though in theory, 'Barbarian and Scythian' are
included in it. … The First Epistle of John was in all
probability 'addressed primarily to the circle of Asiatic
Churches, of which Ephesus was the centre.'"

_W. M. Ramsay,
The Church in the Roman Empire,
pages 284, 44, 303._

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"Unless we are prepared to reject without a hearing all the
traditions of Christianity, we cannot refuse to believe that
the latest years of the Apostle St. John were spent in the
Roman province of Asia and chiefly in Ephesus its capital.
This tradition is singularly full, consistent and
well-authenticated. Here he gathered disciples about him,
organized churches, appointed bishops and presbyters. A whole
chorus of voices unite in bearing testimony to its truth. One
who passed his earlier life in these parts and had heard his
aged master, a disciple of St. John himself, recount his
personal reminiscences of the great Apostle; another, who held
this very see of Ephesus, and writing less than a century
after the Apostle's death was linked with the past by a chain
of relatives all bishops in the Christian Church; a third who
also flourished about the close of the century and numbered
among his teachers an old man from this very district—are the
principal, because the most distinct; witnesses to a fact
which is implied in several other notices of earlier or
contemporary writers. As to the time at which St. John left
his original home and settled in this new abode no direct
account is preserved; but a very probable conjecture may be
hazarded. The impending fall of the Holy City was the signal
for the dispersion of the followers of Christ. About this same
time the three other great Apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul and
St. James, died a martyr's death; and on St. John, the lust
surviving of the four great pillars of the Church, devolved
the work of developing the theology of the Gospel and
completing the organization of the Church. It was not
unnatural that at such a crisis he should fix his residence in
the centre of a large and growing Christian community, which
had been planted by the Apostle of the Gentiles, and watered
by the Apostle of the Circumcision. The missionary labours of
St. Paul and St. Peter in Asia Minor were confirmed and
extended by the prolonged residence of their younger
contemporary. At all events such evidence as we possess is
favourable to this view of the date of St. John's settlement
at Ephesus. Assuming that the Apocalypse is the work of the
beloved Apostle, and accepting the view which assigns it to
the close of Nero's reign or thereabouts, we find him now for
the first time in the immediate neighbourhood of Asia Minor
and in direct communication with Ephesus and the neighbouring
Churches. St. John however was not alone. Whether drawn
thither by the attraction of his presence or acting in
pursuance of some common agreement, the few surviving personal
disciples of the Lord would seem to have chosen Asia Minor as
their permanent abode, or at all events as their recognised
headquarters. Here at least we meet with the friend of St.
John's youth and perhaps his fellow-townsman, Andrew of
Bethsaida, who with him had first listened to John the
Baptist, and with him also had been the earliest to recognise
Jesus as the Christ. Here too we encounter Philip the
Evangelist with his daughters, and perhaps also Philip of
Bethsaida, the Apostle. Here also was settled the Apostle's
namesake, John the Presbyter, also a personal disciple of
Jesus, and one Aristion, not otherwise known to us, who
likewise had heard the Lord. And possibly also other Apostles
whose traditions Papias recorded [see _J. B. Lightfoot,
Apostolic Fathers, page 527_], Matthew and Thomas and James,
may have had some connexion, temporary or permanent, with this
district. Thus surrounded by the surviving disciples of the
Lord, by bishops and presbyters of his own appointment, and by
the pupils who gathered about him and looked to him for
instruction, St. John was the focus of a large and active
society of believers. In this respect he holds a unique
position among the great teachers of the new faith. St. Peter
and St. Paul converted disciples and organized congregations;
St. John alone was the centre of a school. His life prolonged
till the close of the century, when the Church was firmly
rooted and widely extended, combined with his fixed abode in
the centre of an established community to give a certain
definiteness to his personal influence which would be wanting
to the wider labours of these strictly missionary preachers.
Hence the notices of St. John have a more solid basis and
claim greater attention than stories relating to the other
Apostles."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Biblical Essays,
pages 51-53._

"In the parable of Jesus, of which we are speaking, it is said
that 'the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself;'—that is,
to transfer the Greek term into English, 'automatically.' That
epithet is chosen which denotes most precisely a self-acting,
spontaneous energy, inherent in the seed which Jesus, through
his discourses, his acts of mercy and power, and his patience
unto death, was sowing in the world. This grand prophetic
declaration, uttered in a figure so simple and beautiful, in
the ears of a little company of Galileans, was to be
wonderfully verified in the coming ages of Christian history."

_G. P. Fisher,
The Nature and Method of Revelation,
page 47._

CHRISTIANITY: Alexandria.

"Plutarch looked upon it as the great mission of Alexander to
transplant Grecian culture into distant countries, and to
conciliate Greeks and barbarians, and to fuse them into one.
He says of him, not without reason, that he was sent of God
for this purpose; though the historian did not divine that
this end itself was only subsidiary to, and the means of, one
still higher—the making, viz., the united peoples of the East
and West more accessible to the new creation which was to
proceed from Christianity, and by the combination of the
elements of Oriental and Hellenic culture the preparing for
Christianity a material in which it might develop itself. If
we overlook this ulterior end, and do not fix our regards on
the higher quickening spirit destined to reanimate, for some
new end, that combination which already bore within itself a
germ of corruption, we might well doubt whether that union was
really a gain to either party; whether, at least, it was not
everywhere attended with a correspondent loss. For the fresh
vigour which it infused into the old national spirit must have
been constantly repressed by the violence which the foreign
element did to it. To introduce into that combination a new
living principle of development, and, without prejudice to
their original essence, to unite peculiarities the most
diverse into a whole in which each part should be a complement
to the other, required something higher than any element of
human culture. The true living communion between the East and
the West, which should combine together the two peculiar
principles that were equally necessary for a complete
exhibition of the type of humanity, could first come only from
Christianity. But still, as preparatory thereto, the influence
which, for three centuries, went forth from Alexandria, that
centre of the intercourse of the world, was of great
importance."

_A. Neander,
General History of the Christian Religion and Church,
volume 1, introduction._

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"The Greek version [of the Old Testament, the Septuagint],
like the Targum of the Palestinians, originated, no doubt, in
the first place, in a felt national want on the part of the
Hellenists, who as a body were ignorant of Hebrew. Hence we
find notices of very early Greek versions of at least parts of
the Pentateuch. But this, of course, could not suffice. On the
other hand, there existed, as we may suppose, a natural
curiosity on the part of the students, specially in
Alexandria, which had so large a Jewish population, to know
the sacred books on which the religion and history of Israel
were founded. Even more than this, we must take into account
the literary tastes of the first three Ptolemies (successors
in Egypt of Alexander the Great), and the exceptional favour
which the Jews for a time enjoyed."

_A. Edersheim,
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,
volume 1, page 24._

CHRISTIANITY: Rome.

"Alongside of the province of Asia Minor, Rome very early
attains to an outstanding importance for young Christianity.
If, as we have supposed, the community here which emancipated
itself from the synagogue was mainly recruited from among the
proselyte circles which had formed themselves around the
Jewish synagogue, if Paul during the years of his captivity,
and Peter also, influenced this preponderatingly
Gentile-Christian community, we must, however, by no means
undervalue for the Christian community the continuous
influence of Judaism on the Roman world, an influence which
was not lessened but rather increased by the destruction of
Jerusalem. Many thousands of Jewish captives had arrived here
and been sold as slaves—Rome was the greatest Jewish city in
the Empire, … and in part it was an enlightened and liberal
Judaism. Jewish Hellenism had already long availed itself of
the weapons of Hellenic philosophy and science … in order to
exalt the Jewish faith. … Under this stimulus there was …
developed a proselytism which was indeed attracted by that
monotheism and the belief in providence and prophecy and the
moral ideas allied therewith, and which also had a strong
tendency to Jewish customs and festivals—especially the
keeping of the Sabbath—but which remained far from binding
itself to a strictly legal way of life in circumcision, etc.
We may suppose that Roman Christianity not only appeared in
the character of such a proselytism, but also retained from it
a certain Jewish colouring."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church: A. D. 1-600,
pages 83-84._

"The last notice of the Roman Church in the Apostolic writings
seems to point to two separate communities, a Judaizing Church
and a Pauline Church. The arrival of the Gentile Apostle in
the metropolis, it would appear, was the signal for the
separation of the Judaizers, who had hitherto associated with
their Gentile brethren coldly and distrustfully. The presence
of St. Paul must have vastly strengthened the numbers and
influence of the more liberal and Catholic party; while the
Judaizers provoked by rivalry redoubled their efforts, that in
making converts to the Gospel they might also gain proselytes
to the law."

_J. B. Lightfoot,
Dissertations on the Apostolic Age,
page 94._

"Historical information of any certainty on the latter period
of Paul's life is entirely wanting. While the epistles require
this unknown period, and a second captivity, as a basis for
their apostolic origin, on the other hand, the hypothesis of a
second captivity scarcely finds any real foundations except in
the three Pastoral letters."

_A. Sabatier,
The Apostle Paul,
page 269._

It only remains for us, returning to the close of the
apostle's life, to put together the slender indications that
we have of its date. He embarked for Rome in the autumn of 60
(or 61) A. D.; but was compelled by shipwreck to winter in the
island of Malta, and only reached the Eternal City in the
spring of 61 (62). Luke adds that he remained there as a
prisoner for two years, living in a private house under the
guard of a soldier; then his narrative breaks off abruptly,
and we are confronted with the unknown (Acts, xxviii. 30).
Paul is supposed to have perished in the frightful persecution
caused by the fire of Rome in July 64 A. D. All that is
certain is that he died a martyr at Rome under Nero
(Sabatier).

[The purpose of what follows in this article is to give a
brief history of Christianity in some of its relations to
general history by the method of this work, and in the light
of some of the best thought of our time. The article as a
combination of quotations from many authors attempts a
presentation of historic facts, and also a positive and
representative view, so far as this may be obtained under the
guidance of ideas common to many of the books used. Some of
these books have had more influence on the development of the
article than others: entire harmony and a full presentation of
any author's view would manifestly be impossible.
Nevertheless, the reader may discover in the article
principles and elements of unity derived from the literature
and representing it. Unfortunately, one of the essential parts
of such a history must be omitted—biography.]

CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312.
The Period of Growth and Struggle.

"Christian belief, Christian morality, the Christian view of
the world, of which the church as a religious society and
institution is the focus, as fluid spiritual elements permeate
humanity as it becomes Christian, far beyond the sphere of the
church proper; while conversely the church is not assured
against the possibility that spiritual elements originally
alien to her may dominate and influence her in their turn. …
In this living interaction the peculiar life of the church is
unfolded, in accordance with its internal principles of
formation, into an extraordinarily manifold and complicated
object of historical examination. … For this purpose it is
necessary to elucidate the general historical movement of the
church by the relative separation of certain of its aspects,
without loosening the bond of unity."

_W. Moeller,
History of the Christian Church:
A. D. 1-600, pages 1-3._

"Such, in fact, has been the history of the Faith: a sad and
yet a glorious succession of battles, often hardly fought, and
sometimes indecisive, between the new life and the old life.
… The Christian victory of common life was wrought out in
silence and patience and nameless agonies. It was the victory
of the soldiers and not of the captains of Christ's army. But
in due time another conflict had to be sustained, not by the
masses, but by great men, the consequence and the completion
of that which had gone before. … The discipline of action
precedes the effort of reason. … So it came to pass that the
period during which this second conflict of the Faith was
waged was, roughly speaking, from the middle of the second
to the middle of the third century."

_B. F. Westcott,
Essays in the History of Religious Thought in the West,
pages 194-197._

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