Early Christians and Roman gods

1. Early Christians and Romans – 23rd July 2016
“These men are Jews, and are throwingour city into an uproar 21
by advocatingcustomsunlawful for
us Romansto accept or practice.”(Acts16:20 – 21).
In a lettertothe RomanEmperorTrajan, Plinythe Younger,the governorof Bithynia,stated: “Thisisthe
course I have taken withthose who were accused before me as Christians.I asked themwhether they
were Christians,and ifthey confessed,Iasked thema secondand third time with threats of
punishment.Ifthey kept to it, I orderedthem for execution.” Asforthose whodeniedChristianityby
cursingChristand worshippingastatue of the emperorandthe imagesof the gods: “I thoughtitright to
letthemgo.” We can learnfromthe bible thatearlyChristianswere persecutedfortheirrefusal to
renderworshiptothe emperorandto imagesof variousgods.What aboutotherreligionsthroughout
the Roman Empire?Whichgodswere worshipped,andhow didthe Romansview them?Whywere
Christianspersecutedforrefusingtosacrifice tothe godsof Rome?Answers tothese questionswill help
us to deal withsimilarpresent-dayissues.
The varietyof deitiesworshippedthroughoutthe RomanEmpire wasasvastas itsdifferencesin
language andculture.Howeverstrange Judaismmighthave seemedtothe Romans,theyconsideredita
religio licita, or recognizedreligion,andprotectedit.Twice eachdayinJerusalem’stemple,twolambs
and an ox were sacrificedforCaesarandthe Romannation.Whetherthese sacrificesappeasedone god
or many godswas irrelevanttothe Romans.Whatdidmatterto themwas that thisgesture provided
sufficientproof of JewishloyaltytoRome. Paganisminavarietyof formswasprevalentinlocal cults
duringRomantimes.Greekmythologyhadgainedwideacceptance,anddivinationwascommon.So-
calledmysteryreligionsfromthe Eastpromiseddevoteesimmortality,directrevelation,andapproach
to the gods throughmysticrites.These religionsspreadthroughoutthe empire.Popularinthe early
centurieswere coinedsuchas:the cultsof the EgyptiangodSerapisandgoddessIsis,the Syrianfish-
goddessAtargatis,andthe Persiansun-godMithra.
As theirempire grew,the Romansacceptednew deitiesthattheyencounteredasdifferent
manifestationsof godstheyalreadyknew.Ratherthaneliminatingforeigncults,the Romanconquerors
acceptedandadoptedthem.Rome’sreligionthusbecame asvariedashermulticultural population.
Romanreligioussensibilitiesdidnotdemandexclusiveworship.People couldworshipseveral different
deitiesatthe same time.
Whenwe read the bookof Acts,we can see that itclearly portraysthe pagan atmosphere surrounding
earlyChristianity.Forinstance,the Romanproconsul of CypruskeptcompanywithaJewishsorcerer as
we can read from Acts 13:6-7, “ They traveled throughthe whole islanduntil they came to Paphos.
There they met a Jewishsorcerer andfalse prophet named Bar-Jesus,7
who wasan attendant ofthe
proconsul,SergiusPaulus.The proconsul,anintelligentman,sent for Barnabasand Saul because he
wanted to hear the word of God”. We can learnthat in Lystra,local people mistookPaul andBarnabas
for the GreekgodsHermesand Zeus as we can read in Acts 14:11-13, “Whenthe crowd saw what Paul
had done,they shouted inthe Lycaonianlanguage,“Thegodshave come down to us inhumanform!”
12
Barnabasthey calledZeus, and Paul they calledHermes because he was the chief speaker. 13
The
priest of Zeus,whose temple was just outsidethe city, broughtbullsandwreaths to the city gates
because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrificesto them”.

2. Whenhe was inPhilippi, the apostle Paul hadanencounterwithaservantgirl whopracticeddivination
as we can read from Acts 16:16-18, “Oncewhen we were goingto the placeof prayer, we were met by
a female slavewho hada spirit by whichshe predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money
for her owners by fortune-telling.17
ShefollowedPaul andthe rest ofus, shouting,“Thesemen are
servants ofthe Most HighGod,who are tellingyou the way to be saved.” 18
Shekept thisup for many
days.FinallyPaul became so annoyedthat he turned aroundand saidto the spirit,“Inthe name of
Jesus ChristI commandyou to come out of her!” At that momentthe spiritleft her”. We can also read
that inAthensthe apostle remarkedthatitsinhabitants‘seemedto be more giventothe fearof the
deitiesthanotherswere.’Inthatcity,he had alsoseenan altar inscribed“Toan UnknownGod.” We can
readthis in Acts 17:22- 23, “Paul thenstood up inthe meetingof the Areopagusand said:“Peopleof
Athens! I see that in every way youare very religious. 23
Foras I walked aroundandlooked carefullyat
your objects ofworship,I even foundanaltar with thisinscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.So you are
ignorantof the very thing youworship—andthisiswhat I am goingto proclaimto you”.
We can understandthatinsuch settings,Christiansneededtobe onguardagainstinfluencesthatcould
corrupt theirpure worship.Althoughintoday’sworldwe donot have such problemswiththe Romans,
we have to face a multitude of other‘deities’thatare promotedbyunbelieverswhofollow these rituals.
If we are not careful inthisaspect