CHAPTER
III
CHRISTIANITY
AND THE PAGAN WORLD
PAUL: APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES
Introduction
The
conversion of the Gentiles to Christianity was the work of the apostles. This is what tradition tells us. And it must be so if the apostles were to be
faithful to the command of going all over the world to preach the New Gospel
and baptize all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. We know in every detail the work
of St. Paul. He is the propagandist, the
herald of the Gospel among the pagans.
He is the apostle of the Gentiles and no other apostle can be compared
to him in this work.
The
Jews used to call the Gentiles all those people who were not Jew. Pagan and
Gentiles are synonymous and cover all those people who believed and adored
false divinities.
The
apostles, even after the long education with Christ, even after having been
chosen priests of the “New Covenant” and having been sent by the Risen Lord to
preach to the whole world and to all people, did not overcome the idea of a
“Jewish national kingdom.” They still expected the restoration of the Jewish
national state and kingdom (Acts 1:16). Because of this, they could not quite
understand that the pagans could and should be admitted into the Church. The
pagans were “the impure.” The description in the Acts of the Apostles of
Peter’s vision about the “pure” and the “impure” animals (Acts 10:9-16); what
they say about the first community at Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-16); and the
amazement of the Jews who went with Peter to Caesarea, at the way the grace of
God manifested itself to pagans (Acts 10:45), allow us to see, quite clearly,
the inner difficulties which were to be overcome before Peter admitted to the
Church in Caesarea, the pagan centurion Cornelius. The opposition from the
Judaeo-Christian party to the admission of pagans into the Church continued for
some time, even after the wonderful miracles which accompanied it.
St. Paul of Tarsus: The Apostle of the Gentiles
St.
Paul was able to break down this hard opposition. He was the man to free
Christianity from the yoke of the Jewish law and conquer the world for Christ.
St.
Paul was entirely of Jewish blood, nevertheless, he was the one to uproot
Christianity from its original Jewish soil, that menaced to smother it,
transplant it to the universal stage of the Graeco-Roman culture and the Roman
empire and graft it into a universal soil.
He contributed much to the enormous change that happened in Christianity
from 33-67. This change is in every
aspect, a gigantic work, and it was done by a man of weak body, against a
multitude of false brethren who everywhere wanted to destroy him.
Paul
was born in the Hellenistic town of Tarsus in Cilicia, in Asia Minor. His parents were Jews, with Roman
citizenship. Under Gamaliel’s direction
in Jerusalem, he became a learned Pharisee, full of enthusiasm for the law of
his forefathers. His zeal for the law
made him a participant in the martyrdom of Stephen and led him to persecute the
disciples, even those dwelling outside the city. Going to Damascus, to the city, he heard this
voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” and he said, “Who are you,
Lord?” and he said, “I am Jesus whom you
are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5).
This
happened about the year 33, seventeen years before the council of Jerusalem
(Gal 1:8; 2:1). Saul’s surrender was
immediate and wholehearted. After being
baptized by Ananias, Paul was eager to begin preaching the new doctrine; but
upon the advice of his new friend, he retired to the Arabian desert, where he
stayed for 3 years. Then he went to
Damascus. These years were his
preparation for his new mission: to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. A short visit to the Apostles at Jerusalem
confirmed him externally of the certainty of his apostolate (Gal 1:13-20). He remained in Jerusalem for 15 days with
Peter and James the Younger, the only apostles he found in the city and
continued on to Tarsus. Finally
accepting the invitation of Barnabas, he went to Antioch (42-43), where his
work in the vineyard of the Lord properly began.
St.
Paul was a Jew, a Roman, and also a Hellenist.
He was then, by birth, study and way of life a representative of the
three great cultures which Christianity encountered in antiquity. Because of this, Paul had within himself the
capacity to obtain the triumph Christianity over these 3 cultures. This fact is vital to the future history of
the Church.
His
whole idea was to free the Church from the Synagogue and from Palestine and
make her really universal. He put all his energy and his great soul to the
service of this calculated and well-planned mission; to go mainly to the most
important cities and commercial centers of the Roman Empire, centers, too, of
Hellenistic culture. His final aim was the Imperial City of Rome, capital of
the world and Spain (Acts1: 21; Rm 15, 24, 28). This activity of his had the
most extraordinary effects and was entirely successful; so that he could affirm
to have worked more than the other apostles (1Cor 15:10). If it is true that
first he used to go to the Hebrews, “his kinsmen by race,” (Rom 9:3) in fact
later, owing to their stiffness and opposition, he got most of the new
proselytes from among the pagans. His success was truly great.
The
main instrument to that effect was his Gospel, not a work of man but a Gospel
that came to him through revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:6-13). This Gospel
was based on this simple doctrine: salvation to all will only come by faith in
Jesus Christ without any need of circumcision or of any other works of the law.
With his Letters – Epistles – St. Paul became the founder of Christian
theology.
St. Paul’s Missionary Journeys
First Journey (45-48 AD)
St.
Paul’s first journey from around 45 to 48 took him to Cyprus, where he
converted the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus.
From Cyprus he went to Asia Minor. Here, he preached in Perga of Pamphilia, in
Antioch of Pisidia, in Iconium, at Lystra and Derbe of Licaonia, helped by Barnabas
and for some time by John Mark (Acts 13 and 14).
But
now, important events were taking place in the Christian Church. These events paved the way for the final
separation of the Church from the synagogue.
The Acts of the Apostles tell us: “some came down from Judea [to
Antioch] and were teaching the brethren, ‘unless you are circumcised according
to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’” (15:1). This was, according to Barnabas and Paul, a terrible
threat to the freedom of the Christians coming from paganism. It provoked a serious agitation (controversy
over the observance of the Mosaic Law).
So it was decided to send Paul and Barnabas as delegates to Jerusalem to
place the case in front of that community.
Council at Jerusalem (49/50
AD)
The
apostles came together with the elders to consider the matter. The council of the Apostles, as it is usually
known, substantially accepted St. Paul’s doctrine, preaching and work. Freedom from the Mosaic law was recognized
and approved by the apostles, “columns or pillars of the Church” (James the
Younger, Peter and John [Gal 2:9]). Out
of respect for the Jews and to facilitate the fusion in the nascent Church
between Jews and pagans, the apostles demanded from the pagans the following:
1.
to abstain from the pollution of idols;
2.
from illicit sexual relations;
3.
from strangled animals; and
4.
from blood.
These are the
so-called Four Clauses of James, also known as the Decree of the
Apostles (Acts 15, 28 ff).
Some time after the
Council of Jerusalem, even the Christians coming from Judaism were freed from
the yoke of the law, first those outside Palestine, later those of Palestine.
At Antioch,
the great center of Christians coming from paganism, the Mosaic law did not
bind as law of the country, as in Palestine, and the Christians coming from
Judaism left it soon. Even St. Peter ate
together with the Christians coming from paganism without paying much attention
to the Jewish laws about food; he lived, according to Paul’s expression “like a
Gentile” (Gal 2:14). It must be said,
however, that Peter did this out of love for the Gentiles more than out of
conviction that he was right. So much so
that when some brethren from Judea were scandalized by his conduct, he
separated himself from the Gentiles, being followed in this by Barnabas and
many other Hebrew Christians.
This conduct
placed the Gentiles, already Christians, below the Hebrew Christians and
implied a moral restriction to observe the Jewish practices, with grave danger
for Paul’s missionary activity. Paul,
nevertheless, “opposed him to his face because he stood condemned” (Gal 2:11)
and his attitude, no doubt, was crowned with success. Although St. Paul had still to fight,
especially in Galatia and Corinth, against the machinations of the Judaizers,
the autonomy of the Church of Christ and her independence from the synagogue
were never questioned again.
The destruction
of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus (79-81) in the year 70,
while commander of the Roman army of Judea, definitely sealed this
separation. “The Christian ideals about
the future became universal because there was no more terrestrial Jerusalem”
(Mommsen). The Christians coming from
Judaism lost much ground; a small faction of them, who wanted to continue in
their isolation, ended up in heresy.
Second Missionary Journey
(50-52)
After
the incident at Antioch, St. Paul set out for the second missionary journey
into the pagan world around the year 50-52.
He was accompanied by Silas (Silvanus), later by Timothy
and Luke, while Barnabas finally separated from him because of John
Mark. Barnabas and John Mark went to
Cyprus. The apostle began his work by
visiting the communities of Licaonia and Pisidia. He went on to Phrygia, Galatia and Mysia
(Moesia). They continued to Troas from
here then over to Macedonia and Greece. He preached in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea
and finally in Athens, where he went alone.
In this most famous city, he was filled with sadness at the spectacle he
saw. But “his spirit was provoked within
him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). After a wonderful discourse in the Areopagus,
some people believed in his doctrine, among them Dionysius the
Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris and others with him.” (Acts 17:34)
He
went to the famous and rich city of Corinth where he stayed for a year and a
half helped by the Judaeo-Christians Aquila and Priscilla, who had been
expelled from Rome (50) together with many Jews, by the Roman Emperor Claudius
(41-54). Somewhat later the Jewish convert
Apollo (Apollonius) an eloquent and learned native of Alexandria began to
preach at Corinth. Gallio, proconsul of
Achaia, and brother of the philosopher Seneca, refused to press the charges
which the Jews made against Paul. A
recently discovered Delphic inscription definitely fixes the date of Gallio’s
term of office at Corinth from 51 to 52 AD.
From Corinth, he continued to Ephesus, in Asia Minor, and after spending
a short time there, he went to Jerusalem, returning soon to Antioch of Syria.
Third Missionary Journey
(53-58)
He
did not stay long in Antioch because around the year 53, he set out for a third
missionary journey which lasted until the year 58 (circa). After stopping briefly in Galatia and
Phrygia, to visit the new and young Churches established by him in his previous
missionary journeys, he set out for Ephesus, where he stayed for two and a half
years. The spreading of Christianity
caused tumult organized by a certain Demetrius.
This forced Paul to leave Ephesus.
He went to Troas, Macedonia and Greece (Corinth) and probably also to
Illyricum (Rm 15:19). It is at this time that he sustained the Churches of
Rome, Corinth and Galatia by writing the letters to them.
Return to Jerusalem and Prison
Conclusion
This
is the wonderful work of St. Paul. As we
have already noticed, nobody did more than he did for the spreading and
consolidation of Christianity. He
excelled over all the other apostles. He
had excellent qualities: a vivid imagination, a profound intelligence, an
ardent soul and indomitable energy. All
these qualities, however, were nothing without God’s grace which was not in
vain in him (1Cor 15:10), as he himself testifies. When he felt that his end was near and his
departure at hand, that he had to meet Christ, the Christ he loved so much (Cupio
Dissolvi et esse cum Christo), he wrote to his beloved Timothy: “I am
already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has
come. I have fought the good fight, I
have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but
also to all who have loved his appearing” (Tim 2:4, 6-8). As an author says: “perhaps there is nothing
so sublime in all the writings of Paul as these words of the aged athlete whose
faith is stronger than ever, who knows no weariness, who leaves the stadium
because the race has been won.”[2]
St. Peter: The Apostle and His Martyrdom in Rome
What
we know about Peter is much scantier than what we know about Paul. We know that the Lord chose him to be the
cornerstone, the shepherd of the Church (Mt 16:18ff; Jn 21:15ff). The Acts of the Apostles (1-11) speak
of his work in Jerusalem and in Palestine in the first years after the Lord’s
Ascension into heaven; the preaching after Pentecost, the healing of the lame
man from birth, the one “whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple” (Acts
3:2ff), the double imprisonment, his preaching in Samaria and Judea. We have already said that Peter was from the
very beginning, the leader of the Apostles.
The Acts do not tell us where Peter went after his liberation in 42, but
according to a tradition [Origen; Eusebius], Peter is considered the founder of
the episcopate of Antioch. So it is
presumed that he went to that city in Syria.
It
is possible and probable that he went to Rome already during the time of the
Emperor Claudius (41-54). We find him at
the Council of Jerusalem (circa 50) and it is again presumed that he
went to Rome at the beginning of Nero’s reign (54-68). Historically speaking, this does not
constitute a problem. Everything speaks
in favor of his martyrdom at Rome and nothing against it. However, given the theological transcendence
of this fact, it is legitimate for the historian to ask himself how certain we
are about it.
According
to a tradition already common in the fourth century (Catalogue of the Popes
of 354, St Jerome) Peter lived in Rome for 25 years, from 42 to 67,
but it does not necessarily mean a continuous sojourn in the city. It is very sure that he exercised his
apostolate in Rome with all his apostolic powers and that here he met his death
during Nero’s persecution.
The
denial of this has been dictated by confessional prejudices and the critical
bias of Protestants against the Roman supremacy, but later few historians deny Peter’s
sojourn and martyrdom at Rome. His
sojourn at Rome is already mentioned in his first letter (1Pt 5:13). In fact by “Babylon,” the author’s residence
must be understood the corrupt capital of the world. The unanimous tradition of Christian
antiquity of both East and West furnishes incontrovertible evidence. A series of noted and trustworthy writers of
the first two centuries bear ample witness to the facts.
1.
St. Clement, bishop of Rome (ca. 91-101 AD),
third successor of Peter and one who must have known him personally,
(consequently only a generation after the events) writing about the year 96 in
his Letter to the Corinthians (Ch 5,6) considered Peter and Paul victims
of envy and jealousy. They fought till
death (in front of powerful people) and were witnesses (martyrein – they
confessed Christ in front of the judge) before going to the glory owed
them. As St. Clement relates the
Apostle’s martyrdom with Nero’s persecution, of which he speaks immediately and
afterwards, it is clear according to him, that both died in Rome. (“To these men, whose life was holy, there is
joined a great multitude of elect ones who, in the midst of numerous tortures
inflicted for their zeal, gave among us a magnificent example.”)
2.
St. Ignatius (ca. 35-107) the martyr, bishop of
Antioch, martyred at Rome under Trajan, speaks of the straight relation of
Peter and Paul with Rome. Otherwise we
could not quite understand why around the year 107, in his Letter to the
Romans, 4,3, he writes: “I do not command you like Peter and Paul did” (oux
os Petrus kai Paulos dictasemai onen). Tradition does not tell us of any letter of
Peter to the Romans. These reports then,
must be real.
3.
Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215), speaking of
the genesis of the second Gospel (in Eusebius, II, 15; VI, 14), says that Mark,
interpreter of Peter, wrote his Gospel (which is St. Peter’s preaching) to
satisfy the wishes and entreaties of Peter’s Roman listeners.
4.
Bishop Dionysius of Corinth, around the year
170, writes to the Romans that Peter and Paul suffered their martyrdom at Rome
at the same time and died witnesses of Christ (Eusebius, II, 25). This is how Eusebius quotes him: “in this
very way by your impressive admonition you have bound together all that has
grown from the seed which Peter and Paul sowed in Romans and Corinthians
alike. For both of them sowed in Corinth
and taught us jointly; in Italy, too, they have taught jointly in the same city
and were martyred at the same time (Letter to Soter, written ca. 170
AD).
5.
Irenaeus of Lyons, writing around the years
180-190, attributes the foundation of the Church of Rome to the glorious
apostles Peter and Paul (Adversus Haereses, II, 3, 2, 3) and gives an
elenchus of all the Roman bishops from Peter down to his own time.
6.
Gaius, a Roman presbyter, ca. 200, declares in
most categorical form, that even during his time, he could find in Rome the “tropheian”,
the mortal remains of the two apostles, those of Peter on the Vatican Hill and
those of Paul along the Ostian Road – Via Ostiense. Eusebius quotes him: ”I can point out the
monuments of the victorious apostles. If
you will go as far as the Vatican or the Ostian Way, you will find the
monuments of these two who founded this Church” (Eusebius, II, 25). He wrote this in the Dialogue against
Proclus, the leader of the Montanists from Phrygia.
7.
Sometime later, Tertullian tells us about
Peter’s sojourn and death at Rome (De Praescriptione, 32,36; Scorpiace,
15, De Baptismo, 4,4).
These are the
testimonies of Peter’s sojourn and martyrdom at Rome. But we have now, too, archaelogical
testimonies in the Vatican Basilica.
These excavations were carried out during 1940-1949, under the auspices
of Pope Pius XII and brought to light an important archaeological complex,
about which we had little and confused knowledge. The excavations are still in progress, but there
is no doubt whatsoever that around a small and poor tomb the early Christians
built a small altar. Constantine
(306-337) built his basilica there something which implied tremendous
technical, juridical, and psychological problems. (1) Technical because
it had to be built on the slope of the Vatican Hill, something unthinkable if
Constantine did not think that Peter was there. (2) Juridical and
psychological because together with Peter’s tomb and all along the slope of
Vatican Hill there was a pagan cemetery, full of beautiful and expensive
mausoleums. Those were sacred places
even for the pagans. This shows the
tremendous difficulties facing Constantine.
And he tried to overcome them.
Why if not because he believed that Peter was there? So he built a beautiful basilica to honor St.
Peter, a basilica no longer in existence but superimposed by the greatest
basilica of the whole Christendom: St. Peter’s.
Every Christian understands that St. Peter’s means that: the basilica
above Peter’s tomb. It is wonderful to
think that a fisherman, thrown on the slope of Vatican Hill, would rest under
Michelangelo’s dome, the most daring and beautiful dome ever built by men. When we think of the fisherman, we cannot
understand, but when we go beyond, to the Vicar of Christ, to the Shepherd of
Christ’s flock, then we not only understand but we believe and feel happy to
belong to that flock.
St. John and the Other Apostles
John,
son of Zebedee and brother of James the Elder, the first martyr Apostle, was
the youngest among the apostles and the beloved disciple of Christ. We find him together with Peter in the
healing of the lame man from birth (Acts 3ff), in front of the Sanhedrin
(Acts 4) and in the mission to Samaria (Acts 8). In the so-called Council of Jerusalem
(ca. 49-50) he is there together with Peter and James the Less (i.e. the
younger), described by Paul (Gal 2:9) as one of the pillars of the
primitive Church. He certainly
remained in Jerusalem till Mary’s death, who had been commended to him from the
cross by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
According
to a tradition stemming from the second century, St. John the Apostle worked as
“high priest in Ephesus” naming bishops all over Asia Minor and dying of old
age at the beginning of Trajan’s reign (98-117). This is stated by Irenaeus of Lyons, who came
originally from Asia Minor and was a disciple of Polycarp, who in turn was St.
John’s disciple (Adv. Haer. II, 22, 5; III, 1,1:3,4). It is also stated by Polycrates of Ephesus
(in Eus. III, 31, 3) and by Clement of Alexandria (Quis dives
salvetur, 42).
St.
John the Apostle, having lived for so long, is the link between the apostolic
times and the following times and also, a wonderful witness of the new
situation in which the Church lived after the catastrophe of the year 70
(Destruction of Jerusalem).
The
Fourth Gospel, the “pneumatic” Gospel, as Clement of Alexandria calls it, is
destined to the Christians coming from paganism. Its aim is to strengthen in them the faith in
the messianism and divinity of Christ, and fights against the docetico-gnostic
heresy of Corinth and other heretics who denied the true nature of the Redeemer
and its identity with the historical Jesus (Adv. Haer. III, II, 1).
In
this Fourth Gospel, we find the concept and idea of the Logos, so common
in the Hellenistic and Jewish world, but an idea and concept totally different
from that of the pagans and Jews which allowed Christianity to become a
universal religion, realizing the possibility of taking from the Greek
philosophy and the Hellenistic religiosity the best elements they had without
losing its character as a religion.
Of
the rest of the apostles, we know very little.
The little we know cannot be properly ascertained. Some legends and traditions tell us about the
end of most of the apostles. According
to them, St. Matthew evangelized in Persia; St. Andrew went to
Scythia and Thrace and was crucified at Patras, Greece; Judas Thaddeus
evangelized in Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia; St. Bartholomew in
Southern Arabia; St. Simon in Mesopotamia and Idumea; St. Thomas
came to the East Indies; St. Philip in Upper Asia and Phrygia; Matthias
in Ethiopia. All the apostles crowned
their lives with martyrdom and among them, we can count their immediate
disciples, like Luke, Mark, both evangelists, and Titus and Timothy, disciples
of Paul.
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