From Jesus to the universal church: how a new religion is born

The holy books of the religions, including the First and Second Testaments of the Bible, are first and foremost about conveying faith rather than reporting historical facts. The exegesis of the sacred texts is also about faith. A literary genre has emerged from the rabbinical sermon, the midrash. In it, beliefs are expressed through stories. In order to relocate the birth of the historical Jesus of Nazareth to Bethlehem, the city of David, where the Messiah from the tribe of David was to see the light of day, the evangelists used the midrash and referred to the prophets' predictions.

There is no historical information about the census described in Luke, which would have ordered the inhabitants of the Roman province of Judea to register in tax lists, each at the place of origin of their tribe. It is also incomprehensible that a down-to-earth craftsman could expect his heavily pregnant wife to undergo the hardships of such a journey. Matthew, the author of the first of the four canonised Gospels, refers to the divine proclamation by the prophet Micah about the leading role of the small town of Bethlehem-Ephraim among the cities of Judah, "for out of you will come forth a prince, the shepherd of my people Israel" (Matthew 2:6).

Micah also prophesies that God will destroy the idols through this messenger "in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God" so that no one will bow down to them any more (cf. Micah 5:1-14). Matthew reinforces the universal significance of the birth of the anointed one with the midrash of the three astrologers "from the East", who, guided by a comet - which in popular belief appears in the sky as a harbinger of a special event - arrive at Jesus in Bethlehem and pay homage to him with the most expensive insignia of secular and sacred power in antiquity: Gold, frankincense and myrrh (cf. Matthew 2:1-11). Shalom Ben Chorin (1913-1999) describes the narrative relocation of the birth of Jesus to Bethlehem as proof of the historicity of a charismatic Tannaite (interpreter of the Torah) and travelling preacher named Yeshua (Jesus) Ben Joseph from Nazareth.

Unleashed forces of nature

The revelation at Sinai is figuratively summarised in a powerful display of the forces of nature: "All the people saw thunder and lightning, the sound of horns and the mountain smoking" (Exodus 20:18). In the first two Gospels, the image of the forces of nature being unleashed is repeated at Jesus' crucifixion: "The earth shook and the rocks split" (Matthew 27:51). In Mark, "darkness fell over the whole land", the harbinger of a violent cloudburst (cf. Mark 15:33). As a result, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (cf. Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38). The house of God opens itself to the world in accordance with the prophecy: "For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7). The removal of the grave sin of idolatry also requires voluntary martyrdom, interpreted in Hebrew as "Kiddush Ha Shem", "sanctification of the divine name".

Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956), an important figure in liberal Judaism, wrote in his main work "The Essence of Judaism": "The person who becomes a martyr, makes his love for God the centre of his existence, he lets the eternal value of his soul speak". Ben-Chorin cites the prophet's words addressed to Israel as God's servant: "I will make you the light of the nations; / so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6), as the meaning and task of the Jewish people's election. In the temple in Jerusalem, the aged Simeon called the newborn Jesus: "A light to enlighten the Gentiles, / and glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:32). The glory of God's people consists of becoming the "light of the nations" ("Or Goyim").

Israel as the servant of God and Jesus as the servant of God coincide. Jesus commits the Jewish martyrdom on Golgotha, the "Kiddush Ha Shem". Through his voluntary sacrificial death, idolatry is abolished worldwide. With this in mind, the Risen Christ bids farewell to his disciples with the words: "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). The resurrection of the dead is a Jewish-Pharisaic experience of faith, explains Pinchas Lapide (1922-1997) in "Resurrection - A Jewish Experience of Faith", and Ben Chorin describes the resurrection accounts in the New Testament as "super-Pharisaism" ("Brother Jesus - The Nazarene from a Jewish Perspective"). The resurrection of all those who have died is expected in the end times with the arrival of the Messiah. The belief in Jesus as the first one whom God had raised from the dead testifies to the messianic character of early Christianity.

The universal is confirmed in the "miracle of Pentecost", when the "tongues of fire" descended on the disciples on Shavuot, a pilgrimage festival to Jerusalem in memory of the Sinai revelation (cf. Acts 2:1-2); a parallel to the divine calling of Moses from "a flame of fire in the midst of a thorn bush" that burned without being distorted" (cf. Exodus 3:1-2). The disciples "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (ibid. 2:4). God's eternal spirit of creation, Hebrew "Ruach" (also wind, breath of wind and labour), which hovered over the "primeval flood" in the creation story (cf. Genesis 1:2), comes upon the disciples of Jesus with a roar as a sign of a new beginning.

Resurrection of the dead as a "bone of contention"

The historian Michael Wolffsohn (born 1947) reports in his book "Another Jewish History" that the great revolt against Rome (66-70 AD) was preceded by an internal Jewish civil war between the Sadducee aristocracy and the Pharisee "bourgeoisie". This can also be seen from the power struggles between the "party of the Sadducees" and the "party of the Pharisees" in the Acts of the Apostles; it is the Sadducean high priests who come into conflict with the apostles and the other followers of Jesus.

The Pharisees, who had "become believers" in following Jesus, also touched on a sensitive "bone of contention": they proclaimed the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducean priests denied, as an event that had already taken place. There was also Pharisaic opposition in the Sanhedrin. When the chief priests brought the apostles before the high council, the Pharisee Gamaliel, "a teacher of the law respected by all the people", obtained their release through his diplomatic argumentation (cf. Acts 5:34-40).

Unfortunately, Christian exegesis had interpreted the New Testament with preconceived anti-Jewish resentment in a black and white painting of "Jews and Christians", without taking into account the historical fact that the disputes described stemmed from internal Jewish conflicts caused by the political, social and spiritual structures in the Roman province of Judea at the time.

The hostilities escalate after Stephen's great legal defence speech with arguments from the entire biblical history of salvation in order to finally attack the Sadducees with the words: "You stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears" (cf. Acts 7:1-53). Stephen is stoned to death in the presence of "a young man named Saul" (cf. Acts 7:58) who "agreed to his murder" (ibid. 8:1). This Saul was considered a staunch opponent of the new movement.

Stoning of Stephen as the beginning of the change of soul

What really happened at the gates of Damascus "remains a secret of Paul's soul", writes Ben Chorin in his book "Paul - The Apostle to the Nations from a Jewish Perspective". The psychological turnaround was a psychological process that began with the stoning of Stephen, who died with the words, "Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit (...). Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:59-60). Saul-Paul - according to Ben Chorin, as a Roman citizen he had a double name - was a man of extremes who carried out a task with passion when he was convinced that it was right. The letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles are older than the Gospels. Only Paul opened the way for the Messianic movement, which emerged as the story of the impact of Jesus of Nazareth, to become an independent religion.

Judaism is not a missionary religion today. However, in line with the biblical mandate to bring God's salvation "to the ends of the earth" (cf. Isaiah 49:6-7), the Jews were certainly missionaries in ancient times. A group of Gentiles, "the God-fearing", who were not or not yet proselytes (converts) but were interested in Judaism, were allowed to attend synagogue services and also to stay in the forecourt of the temple on condition that they refrained from any pagan behaviour. Paul mostly preached in the synagogues of the Jewish diaspora. The "God-fearers" were the first Gentiles that the Apostle to the Gentiles reached with his message and formed the nucleus of Gentile Christianity.

The opinion often held by Christians that St Paul had turned away from Judaism is a misconception. For the apostle to the nations still stood firmly on Jewish ground, namely in the sense of Messianism. He was still convinced of the parousia during his lifetime: "For who is our hope, our joy, the crown of our glory before Jesus our Lord at his coming? Not even you?" (1 Thessalonians 2:19). With the return of Jesus, according to the prophecy, "the end of days" will "dawn" and a redeemed humanity will "forge swords into ploughshares" and "spears into pruning hooks", and "they will no longer learn war" (cf. Isaiah 2:2-4).

Paul's words about the "end of the law" are also Jewish messianic, because with the coming of the Messiah, the Torah will be replaced by the final reign of God. Paul only briefly mentions the historical Jesus, whom he did not know personally: "born of a woman and subject to the law" (Galatians 4:4). He proclaimed the eschatological Messiah and his new arrival in order to realise the vision of God "face to face" (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12). His endeavours were geared towards a near-universal eschatology emanating from Israel. But through his messianically inspired zeal, Paul had laid the foundations of a new religion.

Error of the apostle to the nations?

Did Christianity arise from an error by the apostle to the nations? This question can be answered with the words of the apostle to the nations: "What shall we say then? Is God acting unjustly? Not at all! For he says to Moses: I give mercy to whom I will and show favour to whom I will. So it does not depend on the will and behaviour of man, but on the merciful God" (Romans 9:14-16).

The Romans were cruel colonial rulers, but religiously tolerant. The subjugated peoples of their empire were allowed to continue practising their ancestral cults. One can also speak of an ancient globalisation in which people from the conquered countries were allowed to obtain Roman citizenship and continued to enjoy religious freedom. However, with the emergence of pagan Christianity, native Romans in the heartland refused both the pagan sacrificial cult, which was part of the raison d'état, and homage to the idolised emperor. This led to the persecution of Christians.

The Jews continued to enjoy the privileges of a "religio licita", which aroused the envy of the persecuted Christians, explains Hans Hermann Henrix (born 1941), a well-known name in Christian-Jewish dialogue, in his book "Israel Carries the Church". - After the Jewish revolt against Rome (66-70 AD), the trail of Jewish Christians was lost and gradually the church consisted only of Gentile Christians. - Because of their armed rebellion, the Jews also forfeited the religious tolerance of the Roman authorities. After the suppression of the second and last Jewish uprising under Bar Kochba (132 AD), the Romans cracked down: The study of the Torah and its use in worship were banned under penalty of death. Over time, this politically-induced resentment spilled over into religious matters among the Gentile Christians.

The Edict of Constantine on Tolerance (313) also granted Christians the freedom to practise their faith. Emperor Constantine (285-337) recognised that only a unified religion could stabilise the late Roman Empire, which was shaken by internal power struggles and threatened by the barbarians, and therefore supported the young church. He also took part in the Council of Nicaea in 325, which gave Christianity its first dogmatic character. However, whether he was baptised before his death - as is assumed in Christian tradition - is historically disputed. A generation later, Emperor Theodosius I (380) declared Christianity the state religion. He banned all pagan cults and also imposed restrictions on the Jews of the Roman Empire.

Unjust reproach

Posterity has unjustly accused the church father Aurelius Augustine (354-430) of intolerance. Due to ancient globalisation in the late Roman Empire, Christian content was mixed with pagan elements, resulting in mixed cults such as Arianism, Donatism, etc. Augustine himself was for a long time a follower of Manichaeism, a dualistic faith originating from ancient Persian and combined with Christian elements. At the time, the young church was in the same position as the Jewish exiles in Babylon: the purity of the faith had to be preserved from pagan influences, and Augustin also claimed the protection of state bodies in this regard. However, his attitude should not be compared with the Church's later claims to power, when it was already closely intertwined with the secular powers.

Augustine had already foreseen the aberrations of church history at the beginning of the fifth century AD. In his late work "De civitate Dei" ("The State of God"), the church father emphasises that the Christian church, as a "civitas terrena", is an earthly institution and is therefore subject to all human shortcomings and mistakes. The "Holy Catholic Church" is also a "sinful church" with representatives who, like all people, also sin.