Making of theWestern Mind Institute for the Study of ...May 10, 2015 · “Augustus” 63 BC -14 AD Herod the Great 74 BC - 4 BC SaturdayDecember 21, 2019. SaturdayDecember 21, 2019

Making of theWestern Mind Institute for the Study of

Western Civilization Week Ten: Paul of Tarsus

SaturdayDecember 21, 2019

Paul the Apostle5 AD to 65 ADborn in Tarsus (Asia Minor)

died in Rome 65 AD




BethlehemSaturdayDecember 21, 2019


The Sea of GalileeSaturdayDecember 21, 2019

JerusalemSaturdayDecember 21, 2019



Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem








Jesus of Nazareth, 5 BC- 30 AD

“Augustus” 63 BC -14 AD

Herod the Great

74 BC - 4 BC



ROMAN TARSUS TIME OF PAUL (5 AD)


CLEOPATRA’S GATE, TARSUS


Young Paul comes to Jerusalem to study with great Rabbi Gamaliel


Paul comes to Jerusalem to study with the great RabbiGamaliel I, son of Simon. Grandson of Rabbi Hillel



Acts 9:1-19 New International Version (NIV)Saul’s ConversionMeanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

SAUL BECOMES A PERSECUTER OF CHRISTIANS



Acts 9:19-25“For several days Saul was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah. After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.”


http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=362560721

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=362560721

28Paul’s Journeys ca. 40?-64 CE Book of Acts 9-28

Damascus


Paul preaching to the Greeks and Romans. 50’s AD


Paul the Letter Writer 50’s AD

Earliest New Testament documents


49 AD Jerusalem Council


Paul arrested in Jerusalem, appeals to Emperor


Paul goes to Rome, c. 60 AD













THE RISE OF ROME1. A unique location on a river network of all central Italy.

2. A unique location that linked to Greeks.3. A unique location that linked to Etruscans.

4. A unique location that linked to Carthaginians.

5. A unique location on a river that allowed access to a protected inner area (Forum) with 3 hills around it

for safe living (Rome starts on the Palatine hill.)




Neronianaureus

Circa 60 AD



Bust of Nero now in Pushkin Mueum, MoscowNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 37 AD – 68 AD

Emperor54-68


One problem: self-indulgenceMassive banquets, some lasted 12 hours


July 19, 64 AD, Great Fire of RomeDoes terrible damage to Nero’s reputaion


Nero’s Persecution of the Christians, 64 ADSaturdayDecember 21, 2019


Tacitus, 56 - 117 ADSaturdayDecember 21, 2019

Tacitus, 56-117 AD

Annals

The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in one page of his final work, Annals

(written ca. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44.SaturdayDecember 21, 2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_historiography


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_senate


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_centers_of_Christianity#Rome




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_(Tacitus)


https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Annals_(Tacitus)/Book_15#44


In Latin: Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Chrestianos

appellabat. auctor nominis eius Christus Tibero imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat; repressaque in praesens exitiablilis superstitio rursum

erumpebat, non modo per Iudaeam, originem eius mali, sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda

confluunt celebranturque. igitur primum correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens haud proinde in crimine

incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt.


Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for

their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme

penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous

superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an

arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much

of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.


Historian Ronald Mellor has stated that the Annals is "Tacitus's crowning achievement" which represents the "pinnacle of Roman historical writing".

Scholars view it as establishing three separate facts about Rome and Christians around AD 60:

(1) that there were a sizable number of Christians in Rome at the time, (2) that it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome, and (3) that at the time non-Christians made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in Roman Judea.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Mellor_(historian)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Mellor_(historian)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Judea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Judea

Tacitus, 56-117 AD

Annals

The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in one page of his final work, Annals

(written ca. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44.SaturdayDecember 21, 2019





















Titus Flavius Josephus, 37- 100 AD

The Antiquitiesof the Jews

(93 AD)SaturdayDecember 21, 2019

The Antiquitiesof the Jews

(93 AD)

The extant manuscripts of the writings of the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus include references to Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, written around 93–94 AD (nearly 25 years after the first known Gospel, Mark, dated around 70 AD), includes two references to the biblical Jesus Christ in Books 18 and 20 and

a reference to John the Baptist in Book 18.SaturdayDecember 21, 2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_citizenship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_historians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_historians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Josephus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Josephus



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Christianity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Christianity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiquities_of_the_Jews




https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Book_XVIII#Chapter_3


https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Book_XX#Chapter_9

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews/Book_XX#Chapter_9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Baptist



Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Bithynia-Pontus (now in modern Turkey) wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan

around 112 AD and asked for counsel on dealing with Christians. The letter (Epistulae X.96) details an account of how

Pliny conducted trials of suspected Christians who appeared before him as a result of anonymous accusations and asks for

the Emperor's guidance on how they should be treated.

Pliny the Younger,61-112 AD

The imperial governor (legatus Augusti) of Bithynia et Pontus province


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bithynia_et_Pontus


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistulae_(Pliny)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Christians


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_governor




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_province


Pliny opens the letter (112 AD) (sections 1-4) with questions to Trajan concerning trials of Christians brought before him, since he says he has never been present at any trials of Christians. This may indicate that previous trials had taken place and that Pliny was unaware of any existing edicts under Trajan for prosecuting Christians.He has three main questions:

• Should any distinction be made by the age of the Christian? Should the very young be treated differently from mature people?

• Does denying being a Christian mean the accused is pardoned?• Is the “name” of Christianity itself enough to condemn the accused or is it

the crimes associated with being a Christian? (Nomen ipsum si flagitiis careat an flagitia cohaerentia nomini puniantur.)

A.N. Sherwin-White states that “When the practice of a sect was banned...indictment of the nomen (“name”), i.e. of membership of a cult group, sufficed to secure conviction. This looked uncommonly like religious persecution to the victims themselves, but the underlying ground remained the flagitia (“shameful acts”) supposed to be inseparable from the practice of the cult.”


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.N._Sherwin-White

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.N._Sherwin-White

Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Bithynia-Pontus (now in modern Turkey) wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan

around 112 AD and asked for counsel on dealing with Christians. The letter (Epistulae X.96) details an account of how

Pliny conducted trials of suspected Christians who appeared before him as a result of anonymous accusations and asks for

the Emperor's guidance on how they should be treated.

Pliny the Younger,61-112 AD

The imperial governor (legatus Augusti) of Bithynia et Pontus province


















60-64 AD Paul in prison in Rome


Mamertine Prison, Rome Capitoline HillSaturdayDecember 21, 2019

Mamertine Prison Rome Capitoline Hill


Peter and Paul both executed with hundreds of other Christians by Nero in 64 or 65 AD. They were taken to an area outside the walls, and most likely beheaded (though artists such as Caravaggio hold on to the idea that Peter was crucified)


Their place of execution and burial close by was held in the memory of the community for the. next 300 years. When Christians could build churches (313) they built St Peter's and Saint Paul's Outside the Walls.SaturdayDecember 21, 2019




Execution of Paul in Rome, 64 or 65 AD



Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls





Archaeologists Test Bones in Tomb of St Paul 2009



CHRISTIANS AND ROMECHRISTIAN STORY HAPPENING IN CENTER OF MOST IMPORTANT EMPIRE OF ALL TIMESEEMS DESTINED TO HAPPEN THAT WAY


St Luke the Evangelist, 1 AD- 84 AD

TheBook


Luke's presence in Rome with the Apostle Paul near the end of Paul's life was attested by Paul’s 2nd Letter to

Timothy 4:11: "Only Luke is with me". In the last chapter of the Book of Acts, widely attributed to Luke, we find

several accounts in the first person also affirming Luke's presence in Rome including Acts 28:16: "And

when we came to Rome..."


http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Acts&verse=28:16&src=!

http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=Acts&verse=28:16&src=!

The Texts:1. Matthew

2. Mark3.Luke4. John5. Paul


Matthew Mark

Luke John

When werethe Gospels

Written?


313: Edict of Milan, Christianity legal



WHY WERE PEOPLE JOININGTHE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT

IN 300’S?


Christianity challenged prevailing notions of the virtuous life. Where Aristotle had touted prudence, justice, courage and

temperance as the virtues proper to the good life, Jesus emphasized the blessedness of humility, patience and

peacemaking in his crowning Sermon on the Mount. The power of Love. Where the Buddha taught compassion as an

attitude of the Enlightened, Jesus preached about good deeds from all: "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of

the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." In Roman times, Christian compassion was manifest in special concern

for widows, orphans, the aged and infirm.

CHRISTIAN VIRTUE


Christianity "discovered" the individual. In the ancient world, individuals were recognized as members of tribes or nations or families, and conducted themselves accordingly. For Jews, this meant as now that one's relationship with God depends upon the prior

covenant he has made with Israel as his chosen people. But the Gospels are replete with scenes in which Jesus works one on one, healing this woman's sickness, forgiving that man's sins and calling each to personal conversion.

He invites Jews and Gentiles alike to enter God's kingdom.

"Christianity discovers individuality in the sense that it stresses personal conversion," says Bernard McGinn, professor of historical theology at the

University of Chicago Divinity School.

"This is a crucial contribution to Western civilization because it releases the individual from the absolute constraints of family and society." The sense of self deepened. Prayer became more personal. As Jesus himself

taught, God could be addressed as "Abba"the equivalent of "Dad."


St Luke the Evangelist, 1 AD- 84 AD

TheBook


Luke the Historian THIS IS HISTORY/WRITTEN AS HISTORY

! an historian heir to Greek historical writing! see opening Luke I:1-4! (via Antioch/part of Alex empire)

Luke:Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have taken place among us, exactly as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over tthe whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.

The Gospel is a history written by an historian aware of historical standards. The truth of his history is central to his book.

Accuracy of his material has been totally vindicated by later research: geography/topography/cities/seas/Latin/Roman offices, titles.


4. Luke a companion of Paul!! "we" sections of Acts show that Luke was with Paul

! ! Acts 16:10-18, Troas (Troy) to Philippi , Paul’s in prison.! ! Acts 20:5-21:18 Philippi to Jerusalem (Paul arrest)! ! Acts 27:1-28:16 Luke with Paul, 2 yrs prison in Caesarea! ! ! then long trip to Rome via Malta. Luke there.! ! Luke in Rome with Paul (thus in touch with whole ! ! ! international Christian movement)! ! ! 2 Timothy 4:11:"only Luke is with me"

Thus a missionary/traveler/knows international Christian situation



ROME 64/65



ROME 64/65










COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM 49 AD




Paul’s First Letter to Corinthians Chapter 15: 1-12“I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is: you

accepted it, took your stand on it, and you are saved by it. You must keep to the message I preached to you,

otherwise your coming to believe was all in vain. The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tradition

that I myself had received, was that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried

and that on the third day he was raised to life according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and later the

Twelve, and others. . . and lastly he appeared to me.”


Gods in the Ancient World1. Polytheistic (many)

2. Monotheistic3. Christianity

Out of Jesus’ Life Comes a New Conception of God


The first Christians were Jews who preached in the name of Jesus. As Jewish monotheists, they believed in one God the

Father to whom Jesus was obedient unto death.


But they also worshiped Jesus as his "only begotten Son"conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit and prophesied by the Jewish prophets. This experience of God as three-in-one was implicit in the New Testament, God was absolute, transcendant, omnipotent AND personal, immediate, caringAND ever-present as the Holy Spirit.


Christianity bequeathed to Western culture a God who revealed himself in the person of Jesus, and who continues to be present through Holy Spirit.

Time itself was transformed:

Greeks and Romans thought of the universe as fixed and eternal,

Christianity building on the Hebrew prophets and their HISTORICAL VISION injected into West the notion of the future as the work of God himself.

In the “fullness of time.”


1. A new conception of God.2. An inversion of values:

vengence is bad, forgiveness good3. A new conception of the community:

caring vs “honor”4. A new conception of the good life.

service to poor, sick5. A new emphasis on the INDIVIDUAL.

The individual now had a personal connection to a personal God: Jesus.

To a world ruled by fate and the whims of capricious gods, Christianity brought the promise of everlasting life



1. There is an order to the universe.

Physicist Steven Weinberg writes, “All my experience as a physicist leads me to believe that there is order in the universe…. As we have been going to higher and higher energies and as we have studied structures that are smaller and smaller, we

have found that the laws, the physical principles, that describe what we learn become simpler and simpler…. The rules we have discovered become increasingly coherent and universal…. There is a simplicity, a beauty, that we are finding in the

rules that govern matter that mirrors something that is built into the logical structure of the universe at a very deep level.”


Genesis Chapter 1 (King James)

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gospel According to John, Chapter 1: In the beginning was the Word (Logos=Order), and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.


CHRISTIANSMERGED THE GREEK PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA (Logos)OF AN ORDERLY UNIVERSE CREATED BY ORDERLY

DIVINE POWERTO

GOD OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS(John: In the beginning was the Word(Logos)

THE SOURCE OF ORDER IS MARRIEDTO

THE SOURCE OF TIME AND HISTORYTHUS IS BORN THE UNIQUE

WESTERN CIV. VISION


1. There is an order to the universe.

Physicist Steven Weinberg writes, “All my experience as a physicist leads me to believe that there is order in the universe…. As we have been going to higher and higher energies and as we have studied structures that are smaller and smaller, we

have found that the laws, the physical principles, that describe what we learn become simpler and simpler…. The rules we have discovered become increasingly coherent and universal…. There is a simplicity, a beauty, that we are finding in the

rules that govern matter that mirrors something that is built into the logical structure of the universe at a very deep level.”


SOCRATESPLATOARISTOTLE

AbrahamMosesDavidJesus

Think of Western Civilization as a suspension bridgeIt is always in tension and has to be.Western Pillar is Ancient GreeceEastern Pillar is Ancient Israel


2. You are important…..in this great vast universe.

You have a place. You have a purpose.

You are not just flotsam and jetson….not just some

mud that sprang to life.

You are special; you are Human…..part of the great tradition of human life, with human dignity, uniqueness.


Christianity "discovered" the individual. In the ancient world, individuals were recognized as members of tribes or nations or families, and conducted themselves accordingly. For Jews, this meant as now that one's relationship with God depends upon the prior

covenant he has made with Israel as his chosen people. But the Gospels are replete with scenes in which Jesus works one on one, healing this woman's sickness, forgiving that man's sins and calling each to personal conversion.

He invites Jews and Gentiles alike to enter God's kingdom.

"Christianity discovers individuality in the sense that it stresses personal conversion," says Bernard McGinn, professor of historical theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. "This is a crucial contribution to Western civilization because it releases the individual from the absolute

constraints of family and society." The sense of self deepened. Prayer became more personal. As Jesus himself taught, God could be addressed as

"Abba"the equivalent of "Dad."

Professor Bernard McGinn, Univ of Chicago


2. You are important…..in this great vast universe.

You have a place. You have a purpose.

You are not just flotsam and jetson….not just some

mud that sprang to life.

You are special; you are Human…..part of the great tradition of human life, with human dignity, uniqueness.


3. You can do it. You are important and you are unique, but you have help.

You have the community.


4. Things are getting better. Progress. Fullness of time. You are part of it. You

will advance the plan.


Christianity bequeathed to Western culture a God who revealed himself definitively in the person of Jesus, and who continues to redeem the world by the work of the Holy Spirit in history in time.

Time itself was transformed

Time was good…..it would reveal God’s plan (Judeo-Christ. a "happy" visionthings getting better. ex: end slavery)

"progress"vs Greek circlesHindu cycles


4. Things are getting better. Progress. Fullness of time. You are part of it. You

will advance the plan.


5. So what is the plan?Where is it going?

What do we do in the plan?





Making of theWestern Mind Institute for the Study of

Western Civilization Week Ten: Paul of Tarsus





Agape and ErosSo totally new was this revolution that a Greek word had to be invented for Christian love= agape, self less love vs eros.

At the center of the Christian message was a core idea that was totally new in all of human history.

No other religion preached this message.

And certainly not Classical civ. nor Classical religion. (Classical religion exalted power!)

The Idea is contained in I Corinthians, Chapter 13.

The Power of Love. Most extraordinary sentences ever written.


Documents

Making of theWestern Mind Institute for the Study of ...May 10, 2015 · “Augustus” 63 BC -14 AD Herod the Great 74 BC - 4 BC SaturdayDecember 21, 2019. SaturdayDecember 21, 2019