Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREECE
- PART II THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN WORLDS
- 20 Introduction: the Hellenistic and Roman periods
- 21 The Cynics
- 22 Epicurean and Stoic political thought
- 23 Kings and constitutions: Hellenistic theories
- 24 Cicero
- 25 Reflections of Roman political thought in Latin historical writing
- 26 Seneca and Pliny
- 27 Platonism and Pythagoreanism in the early empire
- 28 Josephus
- 29 Stoic writers of the imperial era
- 30 The Jurists
- 31 Christianity
- Epilogue
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map 1. Greece in the fifth century bc"
- References
31 - Christianity
from PART II - THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN WORLDS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREECE
- PART II THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN WORLDS
- 20 Introduction: the Hellenistic and Roman periods
- 21 The Cynics
- 22 Epicurean and Stoic political thought
- 23 Kings and constitutions: Hellenistic theories
- 24 Cicero
- 25 Reflections of Roman political thought in Latin historical writing
- 26 Seneca and Pliny
- 27 Platonism and Pythagoreanism in the early empire
- 28 Josephus
- 29 Stoic writers of the imperial era
- 30 The Jurists
- 31 Christianity
- Epilogue
- Bibliographies
- Index
- Map 1. Greece in the fifth century bc"
- References
Summary
A political movement?
In Acts 11.26 we are told that it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christianoi. It appears to have been a nickname given by others rather than the name chosen by those thus designated. The term occurs only three times in the New Testament. The form of this nickname, with its -anos ending, is Latinate, and words in Latin with this ending normally refer to members of a political faction, followers of a leader seeking power. So Acts implies that while the early Christians saw themselves as the pupils of a teacher (mathētai), they were perceived by outsiders as politically motivated.
This coheres with the Gospel evidence that Jesus was put to death on the ground that he claimed to be king of the Jews, and with indications in later material that the family of Jesus was caught up in endeavours to eliminate potential Messianic claimants. The fact that the Roman government faced two Jewish revolts in the first and early second centuries makes it likely that people claiming descent from King David would be suspect. It would appear that Jewish Christians made exactly this claim for Jesus and his family. Eusebius (Hist.Eccl. 111.12) reports Hegesippus as recording that ‘after the capture of Jerusalem Vespasian issued an order that, to ensure that no member of the royal house should be left among the Jews, all descendants of David should be ferreted out’
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought , pp. 635 - 660Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000