Lecture 10: Early Christianity—Food Rituals and Asceticism

Early Christianity—Food Rituals and Asceticism ..............................

Lecture 10

J

ust as the vast Roman Empire swept over most of the ancient world, it

also conquered the Holy Land and incorporated it as a province called

Palestine. The Jews were still performing ritual sacrifi ces, but they were

now very much Hellenized and were even speaking Greek or Aramaic. In

this lecture, you will learn how certain practices of the Jewish faith started

to change, making the Romans uneasy, and how Jesus tried to revitalize the

Jewish religion, getting into some trouble in the process.

Jews in the Roman Empire

 The Jews held a tenuous position within the Roman Empire. On

the one hand, they were allowed relative autonomy; they had their

own king (Herod, in this case), who was a puppet of the governor

(Pontius Pilate, in this case). They were granted autonomy partly

because they had vast mercantile links across the Mediterranean

and because Jews made up a good proportion of the entire empire.

On the other hand, the Jews were monotheistic, and they would

not participate in the offi cial Roman rites, which recognized the

emperor as a semidivine being.

 Jewish practice had changed a great deal since the days of the

kingdoms. For example, many Jews lived nowhere near the temple,

so a new kind of worship arose that centered on the synagogue (a

Greek term that basically means school), in which Jewish scholars

(rabbis) study the Torah and the newer commentaries on the Bible

called the Talmud. Sacrifi ces still take place in Jerusalem, but a

different kind of worship happens elsewhere.

 Another important point is that these synagogues also developed

different forms of Judaism, groups who wanted to escape what they

considered the corruption of the Pharisees (the orthodox priests

running the temple) and return to the original intentions of God.

One of these groups was the Essenes, who were bound by mutual