HIST 212, Section 5: Gospel Readings

In the linked excerpt (Read this first) from the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 5), Jesus took the idea of intention in the law which we saw previously in the Hebrew Bible and extended that line of thinking. That extension, as you can see, makes it just about impossible for any thinking human being to fulfill the law. Jesus' criticisms of behavior fit right into the context of Hebrew Prophets which we have already seen. The New Covenant or New Testament provides a New way. One large question looms:
Why did Christianity succeed? We will shortly the question in the 'linked excerpt'.

Having made the law impossible to fulfill, a Jewish scholar would have to wonder how, then, does one do the will of God and attain heaven? Jesus' answer (in the ' Billy Graham verse') encapsulated his mission and here created the major difference between Judaism and Christianity (Matthew 20:28): "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The idea of ransoming slaves -- to free them for a price -- was well-known in the ancient world, but here the idea is given a cosmic interpretation. This concept of Redemption -- developed and emphasized by St Paul, St Augustine, Luther, Calvin et al., is at the heart of Christianity: Jesus' crucifixion redeems people's souls, as opposed to Confucius, Buddha, the Hebrew Testament and most other religions which mainly present the message that one needs to live a moral life -- to be good -- in order to get in touch with the divine and to achieve a really cool (!) afterlife..

Having been redeemed, how, then, should a Christian live? That answer is next....

St Paul's letters emphasized many controversial aspects of Christianity, but one aspect shines through the controversies: For example, a story handed down about the apostle John, who in old age was asked what was the essence of being Christian, answered simply, "Love one another." St Paul rang the same bell, below, in 1 Cor 13.

Besides various other problems, the following passage from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, shows how the charge of hypocrisy has so easily been levelled at Christians. The idealism in this passage seems to have little place on planet Earth...or does it?

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Acts is the only book of the New Testament that presents a history of the Early Church. Some of the doings of some of the Apostles. Here is one glimpse, Acts 17, about Paul and the ups and downs of the spread of early Christianity. Remember Solon and his Council of 400 which replaced the aristocratic council in Athens called the Areopagos? Long before Paul's day the Areopagos had lost all political power, but it still existed as a sort of 'Think Tank' or Club of Higher Intellects.

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king--Jesus." And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?"

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean." For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'

Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter." So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Back to the Original Question -- What in this account of the Acts (or any of the New Testament accounts) responds to the Original Question:
Why did Christianity succeed?