Chapter 4
Messiahs and missions:
contexts for the origins
and spread of Christianity
Before you opened this book, you probably had some picture of
Christian origins already in your head. Christians facing lions in
the amphitheatre might have figured prominently, but I suspect
that the most striking images will have been of events described
in the New Testament. Such images have become central to the
culture of the modern west, and of other parts of the world too.
The most potent, if disturbing, of these images must be that of
Jesus being executed on the cross. In many Christian countries,
the image, propagated in paint, stone and other media, is almost
ubiquitous. Even for individuals who might class themselves as
post-Christian, in whom the crucified Christ no longer inspires
reverent awe, it can be evoked from other contexts, such as the
closing musical number of Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979).
My point here is that, regardless of whether or not we
revere them, such images of Christian origins are so familiar and
ingrained in our culture as to seem uncontroversial: in some sense,
they are deemed to be ‘true’. The origins of Christianity, espe-
cially as outlined in the books of the New Testament, might seem
to some people to require little qualification. Part of the public
debate engendered by Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ
1
2
3
4
5
61
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
1711
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
97 Folio