After 70 AD, the number of Gentile Christians increasingly rose over the Jewish influence and brought with them many of the ideas and practices of their former religion. The Jewish influence was also present, but the Gentile forms of the Greco-Roman rituals had a large influence on the church fathers and future practices of the church organization. Many have done a thorough job in providing valuable information concerning the social context of the times.[1] Hinson notes that from the late first century, Gentile Christians outnumbered Jews and imported the customs of Greek and Roman culture.[2] The use of the word, “pagan,” refers to polytheists who believed in the old Roman gods, a view that dominated until the fourth century. We should not be surprised to learn that many of its practices and rituals were absorbed by Christians. When Christianity was given a popular status during the reign of Constantine, especially from 324 to 600, the pagan influences were already entrenched in their thinking.[3]
Therefore, the “church” was not only institutionalized but it also absorbed pagan religious ideas and practices and “Christianized them. Again, these religious practices were not adopted because some sincere bishop discovered a biblical practice that had been forsaken or because he was being guided by the Holy Spirit, as is often claimed. Instead, religious practice was adopted to seize control and gain greater influence over the competing pagan rituals. Some authors propose that the early worship forms were borrowed from Jewish synagogue services while others, like Bradshaw, Norrington, Senn, Jungmann, and Green to name a few, show comparisons with paganism. It is not our purpose to choose one position over another as there is evidence for both views. Will Durant writes in favor of this conclusion because there is strong evidence of Jewish influence among both Jews and Greeks. Many practices adopted by the church institution was borrowed from the Temple service or synagogues. However, if you were going to influence all men, you would be limited to those under the influence of Jewish worship. To reach those people coming from a different background, you would relate the worship services with their forms to the Greek mystery rituals of purification, sacrifice, and participation.[4] In this way, the institution would naturally appeal to people of both backgrounds and therefore gain a greater following.
Follow tomorrow’s post to see more concerning the work and influence of Constantine that defines a majority of Christian thought, today.
[1] Shirley J. Case, The Social Origins of Christianity (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1975), 27-28.
Edwin Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1895), 18.
[2] E. G. Hinson, “Worshipping Like Pagans?” Christian History 12,no.1 [1993]: 17).
[3] P. F. Bradshaw, The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 65.
Will Durant, Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1950), 575, 599-600, 610-619, 671-672.
[4] Durant, Caesar and Christ, 595, 599-600.