Shadow of the Temple- The Political Dimension

Was the Roman Empire’s political context a good or bad one for Jewish and early Christian religion?

That’s an interesting question and one taken up in chapter two of the book, In the Shadow of the Temple, that we’ve begun to explore.  Overall, Rome’s policy was much more lenient than other empires.  In general they favored letting conquered territories continue to practice the same basic patterns of worship and rule that had always been present.  They honored the traditions of one’s ancestors.

This sounds good right?  But the problem was that the Jewish people (and the Christians who follow behind them) were not just any normal people.  Some of their practices the Romans found very repulsive, especially circumcision which they viewed as a mutilation of the body.  This they didn’t like but could tolerate.  What was even more pressing was the constant refusal of the Jews to acknowledge the Roman pantheon of gods.  And perhaps even worse than that was the refusal to offer incense to images of Caesar.  This was seen as a nigh rejection of Roman rule and resulted in the Jews being called atheists (for lack of belief in other gods) and as subversives.

In some times this was tolerated, and at other times there was persecution related to these issues.  Overall, however, the Roman government was relatively benevolent, preferring to stay away from Jewish religious belief.  They often were granted special privlege to get out of normal Roman observances, especially when they would go so far as to make sacrifices and say prayers in the Temple for Casesar and Rome.

Of course, things start to change when the Chrsitian faith came on the scene.  At first it’s seen as part of the Jewish faith and those believers who are of Jewish descent are protected by the Roman standard of avoiding religious squabbles (e.g. Acts 18:12-17).  In fact as you read Acts the Romans are rarely the persecutors and oftentime are the protectors.  But as Romans start to notice an increasing number of Gentiles converting to Christianity, this becomes a new problem.  These are people “abandoning” their ancient faiths and practices, moving away from their family, their polis, etc to be part of a new sect.  And they are not always granted the same priveleges as Jews because of their separation from the protection of an ancient tradition/faith.  It was hard enough for Romans to deal with “intolerant, atheistic, judgmental” Jews, but to tolerate Gentiles leaving the gods of Rome for this kind of faith was another thing.

So there is increased persecution of Christians, especially Gentile Christians, as they are part of a faith which never gets the mark of “religio licita” (legal religion).  Sometimes this is harsh persecution, sometimes it’s simply societal/political pressure, and sometimes the Romans tried to ignore the Christians as much as they could in hopes that the faith would sputter and die.

This is the environment in which Christianity is birthed, one in which it is very much connected to the Jewish interaction with the government.  There are also some interesting parallels to today.  While Christianity today can find some areas where it still is very much connected to the government and culture (the continued presence of references to God, Sunday and Christian holidays as days off, the large number of Christians in prominent positions) these areas of influence may be waning.  Also, the Roman presecution of Christians for being “intolerant” is a charge that conservative Christians are facing more and more.  To argue for evangelism of other faiths is to be intolerant.  Can you see other parallels between the situation of Chrsitians under Roman rule and our own world today?

Tags: christians, government, jews, rome