the roman empire and religion
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The Roman Empire and Religion. The Rise of Christianity. Objectives. Why did Roman leaders ban some religions? What was one religion that Roman leaders considered a problem? Why? What traditions were practiced by the Jews of Judea? Describe Jewish beliefs about the Messiah. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Roman Empire and Religion
The Rise of Christianity
Objectives
• Why did Roman leaders ban some religions?
• What was one religion that Roman leaders considered a problem? Why?
• What traditions were practiced by the Jews of Judea?
• Describe Jewish beliefs about the Messiah.
• From what source does most of the information about Jesus of Nazareth come?
• how did the teachings of Paul of Tarsus change Christianity's relationship to Judaism?
• What challenges did early Christians face in practicing and spreading their religion?
• How did Constantine affect Christianity?
Terms and People
• Christianity is the following of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Jesus of Nazareth taught that people must change their hearts.
• Resurrection means rising from the dead.
• Disciples are people that follow with discipline.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Terms and People
• Paul of Tarsus was once a person that persecuted Christians, but became one himself.
• Constantine was the Roman Emperor that became Christian and ended the persecutions against them.
In the Roman Empire, religion was a mishmash of this and that.
Many people worshipped the gods and goddesses of Greece.
Others worshipped the
emperor as a living god.
Roman religion was concerned with:
Predicting the future
Reading signs in the guts of sacrificed animals
Rolling bones like dice
Getting good luck
winning battles
Having a good harvest
Avoiding bad luck
Not getting sick or having an accident
Early in the First Century, a Jew named Jesus of Nazareth began preaching in Israel.
His preaching generally said that rituals alones don’t count for much; instead, people should have love in their hearts.
This angered many Jewish priests, who taught that strictly following rituals was the most important.
To get rid of Jesus, the Jewish priests worked together with the Roman governor, a man named Pontius Pilate.
Israel was one of Rome’s most difficult provinces to rule. Jewish leaders had caused Pilate many problems.
In order to keep the peace, Pontius Pilate allowed the Jewish leaders to have Jesus executed.
The followers of Jesus teach that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his execution.
They celebrate this day annually on a holiday called Easter.
The twelve closest followers of Jesus were called the Apostles.
After the death of Jesus, the Apostles continued to spread his teachings.
Many teachings of Christianity were similar to those of the Jews.
Both Judaism and Christianity taught that each person was made like God.
However, this idea angered some Romans that worshipped the Emperor as God.
The idea that everyone had holiness in them appealed to the poor and enslaved people of the Empire.
Christians’ private worship also aroused suspicion among the pagans, who were accustomed to public displays of religion.
Local political leaders also performed religious rituals; uniformity of religion guaranteed support.
In this painting, a young Carthaginian noblewoman in AD 203 refused to make the required ritual sacrifice to the emperor. She guides the gladiator’s blade to her own throat.
Christians were put to death in public arenas.
However, Christianity continued to spread through the Empire.
According to legend, Emperor Constantine saw a vision of a cross in the heavens the day before a battle.
He converted to Christianity and the won the battle.
Whether or not the legend is true, this was the end of Rome’s persecution of Christians.
Emperor Honorius put a stop to the gladiatorial combats which had long so been held at Rome. The occasion of his doing so arose from the following circumstance.
A monk named Telemachus set out from the East to Rome. There, when the gladiatorial fight was occurring, he stepped into the arena and attempted to stop the men who were wielding their weapons against one another.
The spectators of the slaughter were outraged, and stoned the peacemaker to death.
When the admirable emperor was informed of this he put an end to that impious spectacle.
The monk was the last person to die in the arena.
