This video aims to give you Christian origins in a nutshell. If you want a brief explanation of
Christian origins by a top expert i recommend this book: Searching for the Real Jesus by a guy called
Geza Vermes who is a professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford and he's acknowledged
as a leading expert on the historical jesus, jesus as he really was in the first century,
and also Christian origins, the origins of Christianity. And in this book he has
a chapter called Christian Origins in a Nutshell, and i want to read you a bit from it so this is
an historian's academic summary of the origins of christianity which i think is really useful
really insightful and we'll show you really how uh christianity developed over the centuries and
changed from really being a very different kind of jewish faith to the much later hellenistic
faith that we are familiar with today. So Geza Vermes writes on page 161 of the book:
In 325 AD the emperor Constantine summoned and opened the ecumenical council at Nicaea
at which 318 bishops declared Jesus God, consubstantial with the Father. Consubstantial
by the way is a Latin phrase meaning of the same being of the same substance so whatever the father
was the son was basically according to the nicene creed. The essential beliefs of christianity entail
the holy trinity, the incarnation of the son, the redemption of mankind through the crucifixion
and resurrection of christ, and the universality of the church established to guide and nourish
the faithful until the final judgment and the inauguration of eternal life.
From then on he writes the influence of christianity on public life exercise under
the direction of bishops and theologians steadily increased in the roman empire
and in fact what you get is the emergence of the medieval period after constantine i think
at nicaea the heresy of arius who's the bad guy who denied the true divinity of jesus was refuted
by saint athanasius of alexandria aries by the way sometimes thought of as a unitarian and maybe
he was but he used the language of divine language of god but he also believed at least it's credited
to him that he said that there was a time when the son was not so unlike the father who was the
eternal uncreated god the son came into existence at some point in the past so he wasn't god in the
sense that jews or muslims would understand god he was a created being during the 4th century the
theologians of the theology rather of the holy trinity was fully developed by the greek church
fathers people like saint basil saint gregory of nissa and saint gregory of nazianzus in the west
saint ambrose and especially central augustine who's a huge figure in western civilization by
the way were the shining lights over the whole spectrum of theological doctrine origin of
alexandria in the east and saint jerome in the west dominated the field of biblical studies
and the egyptian desert fathers led by saint anthony sowed the seeds of christian asceticism
monastic life and aestheticism by the way is this focus on the denial of the self so you
don't get married you you focus on celibacy you might live as a hermit uh in a cave somewhere or
you might live in a monastery um famously uh saint anthony you know founded monasticism in the west
monastic life giza vermish writes was finally organized by saint benedict in the sixth century
and his disciples were largely responsible for the transmission of classical civilization to western
europe because at that time of course europe was in the dark ages whilst in the muslim world
antalucia islamic spain and further east there was a massive flourishing of learning and science
and culture in europe what we call here it was a time of the dark ages and we don't tend to
know about these other things very well anyway back to giza virmish after the fall of rome
in ad476 this is when the roman empire ended um in the west the papacy especially with gregory
the great took on a significant role in the religious cultural and political life and
christianity became or played a leading part in the history of the middle ages particularly
through the papacy which became probably the most powerful single force in the west at that time
anyway though fundamentally hellenistic in thought from the second century onwards and roman in
organization of after constantine the christian movement was originally the product of the jewish
mind excuse me so hellenistic in thought that means influenced by greek philosophy going back to
i don't know plato aristotle and other people 500 years before christ this philosophy of
philosophies were hugely influential in the roman empire and they had a big impact on christian
thought as well from the second century onwards he writes and the church was hugely influenced by the
roman empire in terms of his organization after constant time he writes but the christian movement
was originally the product of the jewish mind it's very important point fully developed christianity
what we call christianity did not fall from heaven its beginnings and early progress may be detected
and followed in the writings of the new testament which he says were written between ad50 and 120
a.d although he doesn't say the last to be written was probably the second letter of peter which is
now seen by scholars as a forgery not by peter but by written in the middle of the second century
so he continues the new testament consists of 27 greek documents four gospels or theological lives
of jesus the acts of the apostles outlining the early history of the christian church
there are 21 letters discussing christian belief and practice addressed to named or anonymous
churches or church leaders and the apocalyptic book of revelation this is the last book in the
bible in the christian bible that is describing the ultimate victory of christ and god marked by
the descent on earth of the heavenly jerusalem these the fourth gospel the gospel of john
and the letters of paul provide the best insight into the evolution of christian theology
because christian theology changed developed transformed over the
centuries it wasn't fixed from the beginning this is what we know from history now
the gospels of mark matthew and luke and the acts of the apostles he writes
constitute the chief sources for understanding of christian origins the author of the fourth gospel
notice he doesn't say john because we don't know who wrote the gospels it's a commonplace now
amongst scholarship that matthew mark luke and john we don't really know who wrote them
they're anonymous if you read the text it doesn't mention who wrote them doesn't mention any names
the author of the fourth gospel he writes imbued in hellenistic mysticism and philosophy
can hardly be identical with the apostle john the uneducated and common galilean fisherman
of acts 4 13. interestingly if you look in acts which is the history of the early church
the disciples of jesus are called uh uh are unlettered uneducated because they
would be they were fishermen and how could such people produce uh you know the second
the fourth gospel you know this work of mystical philosophy doesn't make any sense
his jesus the gospel of john's jesus a stranger from heaven presented as the
temporary incarnation or the temporal incarnation i should say of the eternal word of god
is the first major step towards the deification of christ in the nicene creed so john's gospel
is presents jesus such an exalted figure that he becomes a first step towards the statement
at nicaea that jesus is god this gospel probably originated between 100 and 110 a.d
so in the second century according to giza varmish it was compiled before 125 a.d because of the date
of the earliest papyrus fragments of john that we have but after the completion in the final quarter
of the first century of the doctrinally much less developed synoptic gospels so the four gospels
were written mark is the first according to scholars now matthew and luke wrote later and used
mark and then after them john wrote his gospel finally published in the early second century
the next chief artisan of christianity was saint paul so the next big figure who gave
us the christianity we have today with saint paul a jew of the greek diaspora
from tarsus in what is now turkey he had not known the historical jesus this is a really important
point paul never claimed no one ever thought that he met jesus he had a vision of course
on the road to damascus but he never met the historical jesus like his disciples had very
interesting and built his doctrine partly on tradition and partly on mystical vision
and insight he had lots of visions and mystical uh insights as well in his letters to the churches
founded by him through syria asia minor that's turkey today greece and rome he depicted jesus
who he never met as the redeemer of jews and gentiles thanks to his death and resurrection
and proclaimed his impending return to earth to bring about salvation for the whole of mankind
that's a pretty big claim about jesus paul's theological vision of the work of christ
was recorded in greek in his genuine epistles epistle's just another way of saying letters he
actually wrote literally wrote letters romans one and two corinthians galatians philippians
philemon and one and two thessalonians approximately written between 50 and 60 a.d
testifying to a beginning of christological speculation half a century before john's
gospel the fourth gospel by the way that list of paul's letters he says genuine epistles
there are other letters by paul which are now seen by most historians as forgeries for example
one and two ty one and two timothy and titus and probably the letter to the colossians probably the
letter to the ephesians are fake as well although there's more dispute about those two letters
so the earliest stage of the tradition relative to the historical jesus is preserved in the gospels
of matthew mark and luke they are called these synoptic gospels because they follow the same
general point of view and storyline and can be set out in three parallel columns in a gospel synopsis
by the way the word synoptic in greek the word optic is where we get
optic where we see things and sin means with syn optic so you can see them together so if
you look at the three columns of matthew mark and luke you'll notice basically or very often
the language is identical in greek and so you can see them together john is very different
anyway they they represent matthew mark and luke the least evolved form of the portrait of jesus
and are commonly dated to 70 to 100 a.d the entire new testament including the synoptic gospels
is in greek and was probably composed in greek remember by the way jesus was not greek
however jesus and his original audience were aramaic speaking galilean jews
so greek was not their language uh they spoke aramaic that was the the language of the masses
in that part of the world not greek it is possible that among early jewish christian groups such
as the ebionites or the poor that's simply what ebonites means in hebrew there existed an aramaic
gospel this is really interesting so he's saying that it's possible among the earliest jewish
christian groups there was an aramaic gospel in the same language as jesus himself of course
church tradition refers to matthew recording the teaching of jesus in the hebrew dialect
but no traces of it have survived so this may be what most what muslims may call the original
injil this original aramaic gospel not the matthew mark luke and john of the new testament and not
what paul preached because he never met jesus of course so in fact apart from a few aramaic phrases
preserved in mark's gospel they're there if you look for them for example abba which means father
in english is an aramaic word and another term talitha kum probably mispronounced that it means
little girl arise so this is one of the miracles of jesus apart from those few words in aramaic
jesus's own words have all faded from memory so there we don't have jesus's words in the new
testament at all we have just a couple well just three words as far as i can see abba and talitha
come and that's it unlike say in islam where we have the words of the prophet uh in authentic
you know reliable hadith in the collections of bukhari a muslim and so on in christianity we
don't have the words of jesus they simply have disappeared no traces of them have survived
quote unquote uh the fact that the new testament was handed down in greek not the language of jesus
played an essential part in the transformation of the original semitic gospel into a hellenistic
religious system created by philosophically educated greek church fathers wow just reread that
because it's such an important statement the fact that the new testament was handed down in greek
written in greek played an essential part in the transformation complete change
of the original semitic gospel written in the words of jesus in aramaic into
a hellenistic religious system so in other words a heavily uh influenced pagan philosophical
thought world a way of seeing religion a way of seeing jesus and his life created by he says
philosophically educated greek church fathers so here we have a linguistic cultural and religious
transformation according to one of the world's leading experts on early christianity and jesus
to continue the synoptic gospels of which mark is thought to be the earliest composed about
70 a.d followed by matthew and luke between eight were followed by matthew and luke about 80 to 100
a.d offer a theologically less developed life story of jesus of nazareth who is he for him
gizer varmish a galilean charismatic healer exorcist and teacher who preached a message of
repentance and invited his followers to prepare themselves for entry into the kingdom of god
so if you look at the synoptic gospels you get this uh impression of a jesus a jewish figure
who is much less theologically developed than saying paul or in john and he is according to
giza varmish a charismatic leader exorcist teacher who preached repentance and so on now this is
a commonplace uh amongst historians this is a very common view that they have concluded with
and they usually one word sums up uh who jesus was in scholarship it is a prophet that's who he he
was his mission according to giza vermish was cut short by the intervention of the roman governor
pilate who on charges leveled against jesus by the jewish priestly authorities condemned him to die
on the cross his disciples claimed however to have seen him alive in repeated visions
and were convinced that the success of their charismatic healing and teaching activity
in the name of jesus was the proof that god had raised him from the dead and that's the end of
that chapter absolutely fascinating there are many interesting chapters in this book i might
read some more of them in the future but he he rightly stresses giza verbis rightly stresses the
the total transformation of the original jewish movement uh familiar to jesus and
his actual disciples to the later hellenistic philosophical system involving a trinity and a
dying and rising savior figure very common motif in the ancient greco-roman world by the way this
kind of religious system fits very comfortably in the graco roman pago pagan world but giza webber
should argue and as it's a common place really that was not the original religion of jesus it's
not what he preached to his galilean countrymen i hope you found that of interest until next time