Christianity from Judaism to the Constantine: Crash Course World History #11

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In which John Green teaches you the history of Christianity, from the beginnings of Judaism and the development of monotheism, right up to Paul and how Christianity stormed the Roman Empire in just a few hundred years. Along the way, John will cover Abram/Abraham, the Covenant, the Roman Occupation of Judea, and the birth, life, death and legacy of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Hi there my name’s John Green; this is Crash
Course: World History and today we’re going

to talk about Jesus.

This is a Roman coin from around the time
Jesus was born in the Roman Empire, and it

calls Augustus, the emperor, the son of God.

So let’s just state at the outset that in
4 BCE, being the son of God, or at least being

the son of a god was not such an unusual thing.
But a poor Jew being the son of God—

that was news.

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Any understanding of Christianity has to start
with Judaism, because Jesus was born a Jew,

and he grew up in the Jewish tradition.

He was one of many teachers spreading his
ideas in the Roman province of Judea at the

time, and he was part of a messianic tradition
that helps us understand why he was thought

of not only teacher but something much, much
more.

Let’s go straight to the Thought Bubble
today.

The people who would become the Jews, were
just one of many tribal peoples eeking out

an existence in that not-very fertile crescent
world of Mesopotamia after the agricultural

revolution.

The Hebrews initially worshipped many gods,
making sacrifices to them in order to bring

good weather and good fortune.

But they eventually developed a religion centered
around an idea that would become key to the

other great western religions. This was monotheism,
the idea that there is only one true god

(or at least that if there are other gods
around, they are total lameoids).

The Hebrews developed a second concept that
is key to their religion as well: the idea

of the covenant, a deal with God.

The main man in this, the big macher was Abraham.

Not to make this too much of a scripture lesson,
but it’s kind of hard to understand the

Jews without understanding Abraham, or Abram
as he was known before he had his big conversation

with God, recorded in Genesis 17:

When Abram was ninety years and nine, the
LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him,

"I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and
be thou perfect."

And I’m a make a covenant with you and a
bunch of cool things will happen like you’re

gonna have kids and your descendants will
number the stars and you can have

all the land of Canaan forever, it’s gonna
be awesome.

I’m paraphrasing by the way, Thought Bubble.
So God promised that Abram would have kids

with his wife even though the dude was already
like 99, but there was a catch:

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep,
between me and you and thy seed after thee;

Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

Keep it PG-13, Thought Bubble.

Now that is asking a lot from a guy, especially
a 99 year old geezer like Abram living in

a time before general anesthesia.

But those were the terms of the deal, and
in exchange God had chosen Abraham and his

descendants to be a great nation. From this
we get the expression that the Jews are the

Chosen people.

Thanks for keeping it clean, Thought Bubble.
So, some important things about this god:

1. Singularity. He—and I’m using the masculine
pronoun because that’s what Hebrew prayers

use—does not want you to put any gods before
Him. He is also transcendent, having always

existed and he is deeply personal – he chats
with prophets, sends locusts, etc.

But he doesn’t take corporeal form like
the Greek and Roman Gods do. He is also involved

in history, like he will destroy cities, and
bring floods, and determine the outcomes of

wars, and possibly football games. Stan, no!
FOOTBALL games!

Probably most important to us today, and certainly
most important to Jesus, this god demands

moral righteousness and social justice.

So, this is the god of the Hebrews, Yahweh,
and despite many ups and downs, the Jewish

people have stuck with him for- according
to the Hebrew calendar, at least- over 5700

years.

And he has stuck by them too, despite the
Jews being, on occasion, something of a disappointment

to him, which leads to various miseries, and
also to a tradition of prophets who speak

for God and warn the people to get back on
the right path lest there be more miseries.

Which brings us back to our friends, the Romans.
By the time that Jesus was born, the land

of the Israelites had been absorbed into the
Roman Empire as the province of Judea.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, Judea was under
the control of Herod the Great, best known

for building the massive temple in Jerusalem,
that the Romans would later destroy.

And by the time Jesus died, an expanded Judea
was under the rule of Herod Antipater.

Also, unhelpfully, known as Herod.

Both Herods ultimately took their orders from
the Romans, and they both show up on the list

of rulers who are oppressive to the Jews,
partly because there’s never that much religious

freedom in an empire. Unless you are, wait
for it...

The Mongols

or the Persians.

Also, they were Hellenizers, bringing in Greek
theater and architecture, and rationalism.

And in response to those Hellenistic influences,
there were a lot of preachers trying to get

the Jews to return to the traditions and the
godly ways of the past, including the Sadducees,

and the Pharisees, and the Essenes, and the
Zealots.

And one of those preachers, who didn’t fit
comfortably into any of these four groups,

was Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus was a preacher who spread his message
of peace, love and, above all, justice, across

Judea over the course of his actually average-length
life for his time.

He was remarkably charismatic, attracting
a small but incredibly loyal group of followers,

and he was said to perform miracles—although
it’s worth noting that miracles weren’t

terribly uncommon at the time.

Jesus’s message was particularly resonant
to the poor and downtrodden and pretty radical

in its anti-authoritarian stance.

He said it was easier for a camel to get through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to

get to heaven, he said the meek were blessed,
that the last would be first and the first

would be last—

All of which was kind of threatening to the
powers that be, who accordingly had him arrested,

tried and then executed in the normal method
of killing rebels at that time, crucifixion.

Also, just to put this question to bed, the
Romans that crucified Jesus, because he was

a threat to their authority. Later traditions
saying that the Jews killed Jesus? Very unfortunate.

Also, very untrue.

We’re not going to discuss Jesus’s divinity,
because 1. This isn’t a theology class,

and 2. Flame wars on the Internet make me
so uncomfortable I have to turn to camera

2,

Hi there camera 2, I’m here to remind you
that 3. Fighting over such things, like fighting

over whether the proverbial cake is a lie,
rarely accomplishes anything,

Plus 4. What matters to us is the historical
fact that people at the time believed that

Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the
son of God.

And they believed that he would return some
day to redeem the world. Which leads us to

two questions about Christianity:

First,

Why did this small group of people believe
this, and

Why and how did that belief become so widespread?

So why would people believe that Jesus was
the Messiah? First, the Jews had a long tradition

of believing that a savior who would come
to them in a time of trouble.

And Judea under the rule of Herod and the
Romans… definitely a time of trouble.

And many of the prophecies about this savior
point to someone whose life looks a lot like

Jesus'. For instance, Isaiah 53 says the person
will be misunderstood and mistreated, just

like Jesus was:

“He was despised, and rejected by men; a
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:

and as one from whom men hide their face he
was despised; and we didn't respect him.”

And a lot of the prophecies like Daniel 7:14,
for instance, explained that when the Messiah

comes there will be this awesome new, everlasting
kingdom.

And that had to sound pretty good to people
who’d had their autonomy taken away from

them.

So some religious Jews saw Jesus in those
prophecies and came to believe either during

his life or shortly thereafter, that he was
the messiah.

Most of them thought the new everlasting kingdom
was right around the corner, which is probably

why no one bothered to write down much about
the life of Jesus for several decades, by

which time it was clear that we might have
to wait a bit for this brilliant new everlasting

kingdom.

I should note, by the way, that the idea of
a messiah was not unique to the Jews at the

time. Even the Romans got in on the action.
For Instance, the Roman poet Vergil wrote

of a boy who:

“Shall free the earth from never-ceasing
fear. He shall receive the life of gods, and

see Heroes with gods commingling.”

Sound familiar? But Vergil was writing about
Emperor Augustus in that poem, not Jesus,

which points again to the similarities between
the two.

Both called sons of God. Both sent to free
the earth from never-ceasing fear.

But one ruled the largest empire in the world;
and the other believed that empire, and the

world, needed to change dramatically. So why
did the less wealthy and famous son of God

become by far the more influential?

Well, here are three possible historical reasons:

Reason #1: The Romans continued to make things
bad for the Jews.

In fact, things got much worse for the Jews,
especially after they launched a revolt between

66-73 CE, which did not go well.

By the time the dust settled, the Romans had
destroyed the Temple and expelled the Jews

from Judaea, beginning what we now know as
the Jewish Diaspora.

And without a Temple or geographic unity,
the Jews had to solidify what it meant to

be a Jew and what the basic tenants of the
religion were.

This forced the followers of Jesus to make
a decision; Were they going to continue to

be Jews following stricter laws set forth
by rabbis, or were they going to be something

else.

The decision to open up their religion to
non-Jews, people who weren’t part of the

covenant, is the central reason that Christianity
could become a world religion instead of just

a sect of Judaism.

And it probably didn’t hurt that the main
proponent of sticking with Judaism was James,

Jesus’s brother, who was killed by the Romans.

Reason #2: Is related to reason number 1 and
it’s all about a dude named Saul.

No, not that Saul. Yes, Saul of Tarsus, thank
you.

Saul, having received a vision on the road
to Damascus, became Paul and began visiting

and sending letters to Jesus followers throughout
the Mediterranean.

And it was Paul who emphatically declared
that Jesus followers did NOT have to be Jews,

that they did not have to be circumcised or
keep to Jewish laws or any of that stuff.

This opened the floodgates for thousands of
people to convert to this new religion. And

the other thing to remember about Paul is
that he was a Roman citizen. Which meant that

he could travel freely throughout the Roman
Empire.

This allowed him to make his case to lots
of different people and facilitated the geographic

spread of Christianity.

Oh, it’s time for the open letter? Alright.

An open letter, to the fish.

But first, lets see what’s in the secret
compartment today. Oh, Stan. [JCSS-esque music

briefly plays] It’s my favorite album Jesus
Christ Superstar, finally available in my

favorite format, the cassette.

Did I color-coordinate my shirt to Jesus Christ
Superstar? Yes.

Dear Ichthys,

So check this out: In the first century when
it was still super underground and hipster

to be a Christian, you were a secret symbol
of Christianity, used to kind of hide from

the Romans.

Ichthys, the Greek word for fish was an acronym
and it was a super clever way to talk about

religion without anyone knowing that you were
talking about it.

But you’ll never guess what happened- even
in places where it’s completely fine to

talk about Christianity now and to use, you
know, regular Christian symbols, like the

cross

You have had a huge resurgence thanks to the
plastic automobile decal industry.

I mean seriously, Ichthys, I haven’t seen
a comeback like this

since Jesus.

Best wishes,
John Green

And lastly, Christianity was born and flourished
an empire with a common language that allowed

for its spread.

And crucially, it was also an Empire in decline.
Like even by the end of the first century

CE, Rome was on its way down.

And for the average person, and even for some
elites, things weren’t as good as they had

been, if fact they were getting worse so fast
that you might have thought the end of the

world was coming.

And Roman religion offered no promise of an
afterlife, and a bunch of squabbling whiny

gods- sorry if I offended adherents to Roman
religion, but seriously, they squabble.

So even though early Christians were persecuted
by the Roman Empire and sometimes fed to the

lions and other animals, the religion continued
to grow, albeit slowly.

But then as the Roman decline continued, Emperor
Constantine allowed the worship of Jesus and

then eventually converted to Christianity
himself.

And then the religion really took off. I mean,
Rome wasn’t what it used to be, but everybody

still wanted to be like the Emperor.

And soon enough there was a new son of God
on coins.

Thanks for watching. See you next week.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller, our script supervisor is Danica Johnson.

The show is written by my high school history
teacher Raoul Meyer and myself and our graphics

team is Thought Bubble.

As only 62 million of you guessed last week,
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Ow... again.