Into All the World

Emergent Christianity in Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Context

Mark Harding, Alanna Nobbs

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781467448543
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Into All the World —the third volume from editors Mark Harding and Alanna Nobbs on the content and social setting of the New Testament—brings together a team of eminent Australian scholars in ancient history, New Testament, and the early church to take the story of Christianity into the Jewish and Greco- Roman world of the first century. In thirteen chapters, the contributors discuss all the post-Pauline New Testament writings, devoting attention to both their content and their context. They examine the impact of the growth of the church on both Jews and Gentiles, exploring issues such as the diaspora, minorities, the Book of Acts, and the Fourth Gospel. The book then proceeds to a discussion of the impact of Christianity on the Roman state, including consideration of the book of Revelation and the imperial cult. A final chapter investigates how the church was perceived by Clement of Rome at the end of the first century.

9. Divine Imperial Cultic Activities and the Early Church

Bruce W. Winter

The fastest growing religious movement in the first century was not Christianity. It was the imperial cult that spread like wildfire in both the East and West of Rome’s vast empire. “The diffusion of the cult of Augustus (BC 27–AD 14) and of other members of his family in Asia Minor and throughout the Greek East from the beginning of the empire was rapid, indeed almost instantaneous.”¹

“Rome’s main export to the empire was the cult of the emperors… It appealed to Augustus, as it did to later emperors, as a way of focusing the loyalty of provincials on the imperial persona.”² Tertullian, the second-century Christian apologist, noted that the emperor became known as “the god of the Romans” (Romanorum deus).³

In official city calendars a number of “no work” high and holy days were specifically set aside for the worship of the emperor so that all in its cities could venerate him as a god and express their loyalty and thankfulness for the divine “Roman peace” (pax romana) he had bestowed on them.⁴

Imperial cult temples in the East were erected in the heart of the city in the most dominant position overlooking the city center where all commerce, civic administration, and law courts were situated. Not only was the temple in the hub of city life, but it was also host to festive and entertainment activities held in its theaters and stadiums.⁵

Official imperial decrees issued by emperors to cities and provinces began with their divine titles, some of which were also used of Jesus in the New Testament. Emperors themselves are seen to have played a highly significant cultic role as the high priest for the whole empire, interceding with the gods for its safety and material blessings.

To profile the nature of imperial cult veneration, a number of important inscriptions will be cited in this chapter, containing the official titles of emperors and also official coins bearing imperial images. The purpose is that like first-century recipients in the Roman Empire, the reader can construct the nature of imperial cultic activities. Scheid in his chapter “Epigraphy and Roman Religion” has stated that these were essential in their day and can be now used as a tool to understand the nature of the cult of emperor worship:

The study of Roman religion cannot do without epigraphy any more than it can do without archaeology. No one neglects the literary sources, obviously, but it is essential to recognize that without direct documentation… [it is] very fragmentary, imprecise and burdened with the lumber of the scholars of Antiquity.⁶

How would the first Christians cope with Rome’s expectation that all were expected to render to Caesar the things that are God’s as the standard expression of their loyalty to Rome’s rule, given the contrary ruling of Jesus of the strict divide (Mark 14:17)? Mitchell concludes:

One cannot avoid the impression that the obstacle which stood in the way of the progress of Christianity, and the force which would have drawn new adherents back to conformity with the prevailing paganism, was the public worship of the emperors … where Christians could not (if they wanted to) conceal their beliefs and activities from their fellows.⁷

In this chapter it is proposed (1) to profile imperial cultic activities, (2) to record the divine titles used by emperors in the official decrees promulgated from Rome, (3) to show how the Jews were able to adapt to this phenomenon within the parameters of their own sacrificial system, and (4) to explore some of the first Christians’ responses to this inescapable reality, as recorded in the New Testament.⁸ The persecution of Christians from Nero to Hadrian (AD 54–138) and the punishment of Christians in the cities in Revelation are discussed in chapters 10 and 12 respectively of this book.

1. Imperial Cultic Activities

One of the features often overlooked in discussion of the imperial cult is the way it was skillfully combined with very popular activities in the city. It also helps explain why it spread so rapidly throughout the Latin West and the Greek East of the Roman Empire.

1.1. Imperial Cultic Celebrations Combined with Other Spectacles

In the Province of Galatia in the Augustan era, “the festival at Ancyra is explicitly stated to have been held at the imperial temple; horse races were run there and the other spectacles, gladiatorial and animal fights, competitions, sacrifices and feasts, may also have taken place nearby.”⁹ Feasts connected with the cultic activities may have been restricted to certain classes of citizens, but that would not be the case with spectacles and others public events.

An inscription from this province of Galatia records the variety and intensity of such festivities and helps us understand this.

The Galatians who sacrificed to the divine Augustus and divine Roma ... son of King Brigatus, gave a public feast and provided olive oil for four months; he presented spectacles and 30 pairs of gladiators and gave a beast-hunt with bulls and wild beasts. Rufus gave a public feast and presented spectacles and a beast-hunt.

In the governorship of Metilius. Pylaemenes, son of King Amyntas, twice gave a public feast and twice presented spectacles and presented games with athletes, chariots and race-horses. Likewise a bull-fight and a beast-hunt. He gave oil to the city. He offered up young animals where the temple of Augustus is situated and the festival and horse racing takes place. Albiorix, son of Ateporix, gave a public feast and dedicated two statues, of Caesar and of Julia Augusta. Amyntas, son of Gaezatodiastes, twice gave a public feast and sacrificed a hecatomb and presented public spectacles and gave corn rations at the rate of 5 modii … of Diognetus. Albiorix, son of Ateporix, for the second time gave a public feast.

In the governorship of Fronto. Metrodorus, son of Menemachus and the natural son of Dorylaus, gave a public feast and provided olive oil for four months. Musaeus, son of Articnus, gave a public feast … son of Seleucus, gave a public feast and provided oil for four months. Pylaemenes, son of King Amyntas, gave a public feast for the three tribes¹⁰ and at Ancyra sacrificed a hecatomb and presented spectacles and a procession; likewise, a bull-fight and bull-fighters and 50 pairs of gladiators. He provided oil for the three tribes for the whole year and presented a wild beast-fight.¹¹

Fishwick concludes: “The end result was that sacrifices became more and more a pretext for a good meal, religious anniversaries simply an occasion for a free dinner when one might indulge oneself in over-eating and over-drinking” and “inscriptions and papyri confirm that games and banquets were a staple appurtenance of major festivals of the imperial cult throughout the empire.”¹²

Mitchell notes, “It is clear that gladiatorial games reached the East…. The vast majority of gladiatorial inscriptions are linked with the imperial cult, and in most cases the responsibility for mounting gladiatorial fights lay with the high priests.”¹³

Price also observes, “The gladiatorial games and animal fights, which spread from Rome and became very popular in the Greek world under the empire, were put on almost exclusively in connection with the imperial cult.”¹⁴ As a result, “when a high priest organized gladiatorial games, he was acclaimed by the crowd and responded by further munificence … the spectacle, especially of the gladiators, caused the greatest astonishment and even incredulity as roses and gifts were thrown into the amphitheater where the variety of the gladiators’ arms was wondered at” and “at the provincial level, imperial choirs are only known … in the provincial cult of Asia.”¹⁵

It also emerges from reading official inscriptions that it is more accurate to refer to imperial cultic activities and not “the” imperial cult. Hillard rightly argued that we should not speak of the imperial cult, but imperial cults.¹⁶ The reason for this is that loyal citizens prayed to and participated in sacrifices to the gods for the emperor’s safety, and did the same to the emperor as a divine being, seeking the continued blessing on and safety of the empire. Furthermore he had a liturgical role as the pontifex maximus, literally the “greatest bridge builder,” that was rendered in Greek as “the high priest” (ὁ ἀρχιερεύς). He was the link between the empire and the gods, sacrificing to them and interceding to them for the peace of the empire.

These three cultic activities to, for, and by the ruling emperor are recorded in one inscription from the city of Sardis where later a Christian community would be established (Rev 3:1–6). The occasion was when one of Augustus’s adopted sons, Gaius, whom he appointed as his successor, received the traditional garment of manhood, the toga virilis.

1.2. Prayers to Augustus

The decree reads:

Since Gaius Iulius Caesar, the eldest of the sons of Augustus, has put on the toga most earnestly prayed for (and) radiant with every decoration, in place of the one with purple border, and there is joy among all men to see [by this event] the prayers that have been awakened everywhere to Augustus on behalf of his sons (lines 7–10).¹⁷

Firstly, the decree specifically stated there had been “prayers to Augustus for his sons” (τῷ Σεβαστῷ τὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν παίδων εὐχάς: line 9). The other adopted son was Lucius Caesar. Both were were his nominated heirs, but were killed in battles before he died. He was succeeded by Tiberius in AD 14.

The date on which Gaius assumed the toga in 5 BC was also to be incorporated into cities’ imperial calendars and celebrated annually, j...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• RETROSPECTIVE
• THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY TO AD 100
• CHRISTIANS AMONG JEWS
• CHRISTIANS AMONG ROMANS
• Index of Ancient People
• Index of Modern Scholars