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200 JUDAH THE PATRIARCH COMPILES THE MISHNAH
Following the defeat of Bar Kokhba (d. 135), an assembly of rabbis convened in Galilee and was named the "Sanhedrin" after the body by the same name that had ruled the Jews prior to the destruction of the Temple. The Sanhedrin's leader was called the patriarch. This council's goal was to make rabbinic Judaism the norm for succeeding ages. A major step in this process occurred in about 200 when Judah the Patriarch (135-220) compiled the Mishnah, a record of the rabbis' discussion regarding proper interpretation and application of the Mosaic law. The Mishnah is a collection of oral laws, traditions, and explanations of Scripture by Jewish teachers from as early as 300 BC. It was written in Hebrew and formed the core of the Talmud.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
202 PERSECUTION BEGINS UNDER SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS Septimius Severus (145-211), a man of African descent, was Roman emperor from 193-211. In 202, he enacted a law forbidding new conversions to Christianity. His motive was to unite all religions in worship of the sun. All gods could be accepted as long as their adherents acknowledged that the sun god was supreme. The law produced violent persecution, especially in Egypt and North Africa. As consequences of this law, Origen's father was beheaded in Alexandria and a young woman named Perpetua (d. 203), along with her fellow Christians, was killed by wild beasts at a public festival in Carthage. Many more unnamed believers also received their martyr's crown during this persecution.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
205 ORIGEN BEGINS TO WRITE
Origen (185-254), considered the greatest scholar of his age, was born in a Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt. After her husband, Origen's father, was martyred in 202, Origen's mother hid her son's clothes to prevent him from turning himself in to the authorities to be martyred as well.
Origen was a prodigious scholar and lived an ascetic life, allowing himself only one coat but no shoes. A prolific writer, Origen authored more than two thousand works, including commentaries on almost every book of the Bible. His book On First Principles was the first systematic theology written. Origen was primarily responsible for making allegorical interpretation of the Bible the standard hermeneutic from his time through the Middle Ages. Because he included many concepts from Plato in his teaching, he is considered a father of both orthodoxy and heresy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
212 JEWS ARE GRANTED ROMAN CITIZENSHIP
Under the Sanhedrin's leadership, the Jews of Palestine were able to work out a way to be accepted by the Roman Empire. They were treated as other small nations of the empire, except that Jews were excused from pagan observances. In 212, Emperor Carcalla (188-217) granted Roman citizenship to the Jews as well as to the other small nations of the empire. Yet in spite of peaceful relations with Rome, Palestine was impoverished, and the population declined as a result.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
217 HIPPOLYTUS BECOMES FIRST ANTIPOPE
Hippolytus (160-236) was a presbyter and teacher in the church of Rome. Although he was that church's most important theologian in the third century, he was passed over for bishop in favor of a deacon named Callistus (d. 222), who served in that position from 217 to 222. Believing Callistus to be too lax on the issue of absolution for mortal sins, Hippolytus withdrew from the church with a few followers and claimed that he was the true bishop of Rome, thus becoming history's first antipope. He continued attacks on the succeeding bishops of Rome: Urban I (222-230) and Pontianus (230-235). Then as part of Christian persecution under Emperor Maximin (235-238), Hippolytus and Pontianus were exiled together to Sardinia where they came to agreement over their differences. Both resigned their positions, and their successor, Anterus (235-236), ended the schism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
219 RAV ARRIVES IN BABYLON
Through the second century the Jews of Babylon looked to the rabbis of Palestine for guidance, because the Sanhedrin patriarch in Palestine was considered to be the final authority in religious matters. Although many Palestinian rabbis had come to Babylon following the Bar Kokhba rebellion, Babylon did not become a center for Jewish scholarship until the arrival of Abba Arika (popularly called Rav) (d. 247) in 219. A Palestinian rabbi and disciple of Judah the Patriarch (135-220), Rav introduced Babylonian Jews to the Mishnah. Rav founded an academy at Sura, while Samuel Yarhinaa'ah (165-257), a wealthy Babylonian scholar, established one at Nehardea that relocated to Pumbeditha. These two schools became rivals to the declining Palestinian ones. They survived until the eleventh century as centers of Jewish scholarship.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
220 CARTHAGE BECOMES NORTH AFRICAN CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY
Carthage, on the northernmost coast of modern-day Algeria, became the Christian center for North Africa. In the West, Carthage's influence was second only to Rome. Around 220, the first church council was held in Carthage and was composed of seventy African and Numidean bishops. By the time Cyprian became bishop in 248, the Carthage church was the largest in Africa. Church councils continued to be held in Carthage as late as 646.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
232 EARLIEST KNOWN CHURCH IS BUILT
Early Christians worshiped in homes, some of which were eventually adapted to serve as church buildings. In Dura-Europos, Syria, such a house was excavated, dating from 232. A single entrance in the north wall opened into a vestibule and from there into a courtyard with a portico on the east side. In the northwest corner of the building a room with a cistern served as a baptistry. Two rooms on the house's south side had been combined into one with a small platform serving as an altar. A small room off of this larger room may have been used for the preparation of the Lord's Supper, and a room on the west side of the courtyard may have been used for instructing catechumens, believers being taught the basics of Christianity. Buildings such as this were the forerunners of every place of worship from one-room churches to cathedrals.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
240 MANI PREACHES MANICHAEISM
Mani (216-276) grew up in southern Babylonia in an aristocratic Parthian family. Revelations he received at ages twelve and twenty-four led him in 240 to proclaim the truth he felt he had received. His teaching, called Manichaeism, presupposed a primal conflict between light and darkness. He taught that religious practice was to free particles of light, which Satan had stolen from the world of light and had imprisoned in the brain of man. Jesus, Buddha, the prophets, and Mani himself had been sent to aid in this process. Manichaeism spread throughout the Roman Empire and as far as China, becoming a major rival to Christianity in many regions. Mani himself was imprisoned in Persia by a competing religious group known as Zoroastrians, and in about 276 was skinned alive.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
250 DECIUS PERSECUTES CHRISTIANS
Decius (190-251), a native of Pannonia (modern-day Hungary), was first proclaimed emperor by the Roman army. After the death of Emperor Philip in 249, the Senate accepted him as the new emperor. Being a staunch defender of Roman traditions, Decius believed that the restoration of state cults was necessary to preserve the empire. Therefore, he issued an imperial order that all citizens make a sacrifice to the emperor. As a result, Fabian, the bishop of Rome, was executed in January 250 for not making a sacrifice. Thousands of other deaths followed. Fortunately for the church, Decius died in battle the following year. But following the persecution, a major crisis arose in the church over how to deal with Christians who sacrificed but later repented.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
251 THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE MEETS
Between 249 and 251, during Emperor Decius' (201-251) persecution of the church, many professing Christians recanted their faith while under pressure from Roman authorities. However, the persecution abated when Decius was killed in battle. The church then was left with the problem of how to deal with the multitudes who had denied their faith but now desired readmittance to the church. In response to this, Cyprian (200-258), the bishop of the North African city of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia), called a church council in 251. The Council of Carthage ruled that after a lengthy period of repentance and penance, the lapsed believers could be readmitted to the church. However, the stringent requirements of this decision were eased by later councils.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
251 CYPRIAN WRITES ABOUT CHURCH UNITY
Born into a wealthy family in Carthage, North Africa, Cyprian (200-258) was converted to Christ in 246. Two years later he was installed as bishop of the church of Carthage, the largest in Africa. During a period of persecution under Emperor Decius (250-252), Cyprian continued his duties of bishop from hiding. During his absence, the church readmitted Christians who formerly had agreed to sacrifice to the Roman gods. From exile Cyprian insisted that they instead perform severe penance. After Cyprian's return, the threat of a new persecution united the church. Cyprian's most important treatise, On the Unity of the Church, argued for the equality of all bishops, an argument contrary to the bishop of Rome's claim of authority over other bishops. Cyprian is known for his statement, "There is no salvation outside the church."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
SACRIFICE TO THE ROMAN GODS
January 3, 250
Deliver us, Lord Jupiter!" shouted Trajanus Decius, emperor of Rome, as stones and arrows showered around him. "Deliver us, Lord Jupiter, for I have delivered all of Rome into your hands and the hands of our ancient gods!" cried the beleaguered monarch.
Decius' Roman troops gradually succumbed to the fatal blows of the barbarian Goths of King Kniva. Decius fell at last, one dark form among many, trampled underfoot by panic-stricken horses.
Decius had been emperor for just three years. Coming to power in a time when political turmoil threatened the Roman Empire, Decius sought to unite his subjects through forced submission to the ancient Roman gods. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "the gods will favor us once more, give us final victory over the pestilent Goths, and restore the glory of the Empire."
On January 3, 250, he published an imperial edict commanding all citizens of the empire to sacrifice to the Roman gods. Those who did so were given certificates as evidence of their compliance. Those who refused were imprisoned or executed.
Decius' edict initiated the first universal Roman persecution of the Christian church. Untold numbers of believers suffered the loss of family, freedom, and life itself. Among those martyred over the next two years were the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
When Decius died in battle against the Goths in June 251, the pogrom ended, but the lull revealed a spiritual war within the ranks of the Christian community itself.
Many believers had sacrificed to the gods to save their lives. Others had illegally obtained certificates without sacrificing. And now thousands of lapsed Christians begged to be received back into church fellowship.
A great controversy ensued. Some of those who had been imprisoned for their faith wrote letters of pardon to large numbers of those who had denied Christ. Some dishonest individuals produced amnesty papers in the name of dead martyrs.
Bishops were divided over how to treat the lapsed Christians. Some called for rigid excommunication. Some demanded a general amnesty. Eventually, they arrived at a consensus that those who had sacrificed to the gods should be readmitted to communion only when dying. Those who obtained a false Roman certificate but had not sacrificed to the gods could be readmitted upon repentance and penance. No forgiveness was to be offered to the unrepentant. However, bitter dissensions over the matter continued, with resulting schisms.
When another great persecution arose under Emperor Valerian in 257, a wider amnesty was offered to those who had defected during the days of Decius. This was not the sign of a weakened standard for Christian fidelity, but rather a gracious opportunity for the shunned to stand where once they had fallen. Many returned to the fold. Many, in turn, sacrificed their lives for Christ.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
268-341 ANTIOCH COUNCILS MEET
Church councils meeting in Antioch, Syria, in 325, 330, and 341, played an important role in defining the nature of Christ. They influenced the decisions of the ecumenical church council of Chalcedon in 451. Facing accusations from the Alexandrian Church of Arianism—a heresy that denied the eternal existence of God the Son—the members of the Antioch councils took measures to distance themselves from Arius (d. 336) and his supporters. At the same time, they endeavored to highlight Christ's eternal equality with the Father. Later councils served to further distance the church from the Nestorian heresy, which split Jesus Christ into two distinct persons, one human and one divine; and the Monophysite heresy, which denied that Jesus had both divine and human natures.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
270 ANTHONY LIVES AS A HERMIT
Regarded as the father of monasticism, Anthony (251-356) was born in Egypt, the son of wealthy parents. Shortly after his parents died, Anthony heard Matthew 19:21 read in church, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor." In response, Anthony gave his property to the poor and initially placed himself under the supervision of an elderly Christian ascetic. Living on bread and water once a day and sleeping on bare ground in a tomb, he was besieged by demons. He eventually was the first Christian to withdraw to the desert, crossing the Nile to the East where he ultimately settled on a mountain near the Red Sea. Even there he was sought out by many would-be hermits. Anthony organized them into colonies, beginning the monastic movement.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
Following the defeat of Bar Kokhba (d. 135), an assembly of rabbis convened in Galilee and was named the "Sanhedrin" after the body by the same name that had ruled the Jews prior to the destruction of the Temple. The Sanhedrin's leader was called the patriarch. This council's goal was to make rabbinic Judaism the norm for succeeding ages. A major step in this process occurred in about 200 when Judah the Patriarch (135-220) compiled the Mishnah, a record of the rabbis' discussion regarding proper interpretation and application of the Mosaic law. The Mishnah is a collection of oral laws, traditions, and explanations of Scripture by Jewish teachers from as early as 300 BC. It was written in Hebrew and formed the core of the Talmud.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
202 PERSECUTION BEGINS UNDER SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS Septimius Severus (145-211), a man of African descent, was Roman emperor from 193-211. In 202, he enacted a law forbidding new conversions to Christianity. His motive was to unite all religions in worship of the sun. All gods could be accepted as long as their adherents acknowledged that the sun god was supreme. The law produced violent persecution, especially in Egypt and North Africa. As consequences of this law, Origen's father was beheaded in Alexandria and a young woman named Perpetua (d. 203), along with her fellow Christians, was killed by wild beasts at a public festival in Carthage. Many more unnamed believers also received their martyr's crown during this persecution.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
205 ORIGEN BEGINS TO WRITE
Origen (185-254), considered the greatest scholar of his age, was born in a Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt. After her husband, Origen's father, was martyred in 202, Origen's mother hid her son's clothes to prevent him from turning himself in to the authorities to be martyred as well.
Origen was a prodigious scholar and lived an ascetic life, allowing himself only one coat but no shoes. A prolific writer, Origen authored more than two thousand works, including commentaries on almost every book of the Bible. His book On First Principles was the first systematic theology written. Origen was primarily responsible for making allegorical interpretation of the Bible the standard hermeneutic from his time through the Middle Ages. Because he included many concepts from Plato in his teaching, he is considered a father of both orthodoxy and heresy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
212 JEWS ARE GRANTED ROMAN CITIZENSHIP
Under the Sanhedrin's leadership, the Jews of Palestine were able to work out a way to be accepted by the Roman Empire. They were treated as other small nations of the empire, except that Jews were excused from pagan observances. In 212, Emperor Carcalla (188-217) granted Roman citizenship to the Jews as well as to the other small nations of the empire. Yet in spite of peaceful relations with Rome, Palestine was impoverished, and the population declined as a result.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
217 HIPPOLYTUS BECOMES FIRST ANTIPOPE
Hippolytus (160-236) was a presbyter and teacher in the church of Rome. Although he was that church's most important theologian in the third century, he was passed over for bishop in favor of a deacon named Callistus (d. 222), who served in that position from 217 to 222. Believing Callistus to be too lax on the issue of absolution for mortal sins, Hippolytus withdrew from the church with a few followers and claimed that he was the true bishop of Rome, thus becoming history's first antipope. He continued attacks on the succeeding bishops of Rome: Urban I (222-230) and Pontianus (230-235). Then as part of Christian persecution under Emperor Maximin (235-238), Hippolytus and Pontianus were exiled together to Sardinia where they came to agreement over their differences. Both resigned their positions, and their successor, Anterus (235-236), ended the schism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
219 RAV ARRIVES IN BABYLON
Through the second century the Jews of Babylon looked to the rabbis of Palestine for guidance, because the Sanhedrin patriarch in Palestine was considered to be the final authority in religious matters. Although many Palestinian rabbis had come to Babylon following the Bar Kokhba rebellion, Babylon did not become a center for Jewish scholarship until the arrival of Abba Arika (popularly called Rav) (d. 247) in 219. A Palestinian rabbi and disciple of Judah the Patriarch (135-220), Rav introduced Babylonian Jews to the Mishnah. Rav founded an academy at Sura, while Samuel Yarhinaa'ah (165-257), a wealthy Babylonian scholar, established one at Nehardea that relocated to Pumbeditha. These two schools became rivals to the declining Palestinian ones. They survived until the eleventh century as centers of Jewish scholarship.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
220 CARTHAGE BECOMES NORTH AFRICAN CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY
Carthage, on the northernmost coast of modern-day Algeria, became the Christian center for North Africa. In the West, Carthage's influence was second only to Rome. Around 220, the first church council was held in Carthage and was composed of seventy African and Numidean bishops. By the time Cyprian became bishop in 248, the Carthage church was the largest in Africa. Church councils continued to be held in Carthage as late as 646.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
232 EARLIEST KNOWN CHURCH IS BUILT
Early Christians worshiped in homes, some of which were eventually adapted to serve as church buildings. In Dura-Europos, Syria, such a house was excavated, dating from 232. A single entrance in the north wall opened into a vestibule and from there into a courtyard with a portico on the east side. In the northwest corner of the building a room with a cistern served as a baptistry. Two rooms on the house's south side had been combined into one with a small platform serving as an altar. A small room off of this larger room may have been used for the preparation of the Lord's Supper, and a room on the west side of the courtyard may have been used for instructing catechumens, believers being taught the basics of Christianity. Buildings such as this were the forerunners of every place of worship from one-room churches to cathedrals.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
240 MANI PREACHES MANICHAEISM
Mani (216-276) grew up in southern Babylonia in an aristocratic Parthian family. Revelations he received at ages twelve and twenty-four led him in 240 to proclaim the truth he felt he had received. His teaching, called Manichaeism, presupposed a primal conflict between light and darkness. He taught that religious practice was to free particles of light, which Satan had stolen from the world of light and had imprisoned in the brain of man. Jesus, Buddha, the prophets, and Mani himself had been sent to aid in this process. Manichaeism spread throughout the Roman Empire and as far as China, becoming a major rival to Christianity in many regions. Mani himself was imprisoned in Persia by a competing religious group known as Zoroastrians, and in about 276 was skinned alive.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
250 DECIUS PERSECUTES CHRISTIANS
Decius (190-251), a native of Pannonia (modern-day Hungary), was first proclaimed emperor by the Roman army. After the death of Emperor Philip in 249, the Senate accepted him as the new emperor. Being a staunch defender of Roman traditions, Decius believed that the restoration of state cults was necessary to preserve the empire. Therefore, he issued an imperial order that all citizens make a sacrifice to the emperor. As a result, Fabian, the bishop of Rome, was executed in January 250 for not making a sacrifice. Thousands of other deaths followed. Fortunately for the church, Decius died in battle the following year. But following the persecution, a major crisis arose in the church over how to deal with Christians who sacrificed but later repented.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
251 THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE MEETS
Between 249 and 251, during Emperor Decius' (201-251) persecution of the church, many professing Christians recanted their faith while under pressure from Roman authorities. However, the persecution abated when Decius was killed in battle. The church then was left with the problem of how to deal with the multitudes who had denied their faith but now desired readmittance to the church. In response to this, Cyprian (200-258), the bishop of the North African city of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia), called a church council in 251. The Council of Carthage ruled that after a lengthy period of repentance and penance, the lapsed believers could be readmitted to the church. However, the stringent requirements of this decision were eased by later councils.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
251 CYPRIAN WRITES ABOUT CHURCH UNITY
Born into a wealthy family in Carthage, North Africa, Cyprian (200-258) was converted to Christ in 246. Two years later he was installed as bishop of the church of Carthage, the largest in Africa. During a period of persecution under Emperor Decius (250-252), Cyprian continued his duties of bishop from hiding. During his absence, the church readmitted Christians who formerly had agreed to sacrifice to the Roman gods. From exile Cyprian insisted that they instead perform severe penance. After Cyprian's return, the threat of a new persecution united the church. Cyprian's most important treatise, On the Unity of the Church, argued for the equality of all bishops, an argument contrary to the bishop of Rome's claim of authority over other bishops. Cyprian is known for his statement, "There is no salvation outside the church."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
SACRIFICE TO THE ROMAN GODS
January 3, 250
Deliver us, Lord Jupiter!" shouted Trajanus Decius, emperor of Rome, as stones and arrows showered around him. "Deliver us, Lord Jupiter, for I have delivered all of Rome into your hands and the hands of our ancient gods!" cried the beleaguered monarch.
Decius' Roman troops gradually succumbed to the fatal blows of the barbarian Goths of King Kniva. Decius fell at last, one dark form among many, trampled underfoot by panic-stricken horses.
Decius had been emperor for just three years. Coming to power in a time when political turmoil threatened the Roman Empire, Decius sought to unite his subjects through forced submission to the ancient Roman gods. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "the gods will favor us once more, give us final victory over the pestilent Goths, and restore the glory of the Empire."
On January 3, 250, he published an imperial edict commanding all citizens of the empire to sacrifice to the Roman gods. Those who did so were given certificates as evidence of their compliance. Those who refused were imprisoned or executed.
Decius' edict initiated the first universal Roman persecution of the Christian church. Untold numbers of believers suffered the loss of family, freedom, and life itself. Among those martyred over the next two years were the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
When Decius died in battle against the Goths in June 251, the pogrom ended, but the lull revealed a spiritual war within the ranks of the Christian community itself.
Many believers had sacrificed to the gods to save their lives. Others had illegally obtained certificates without sacrificing. And now thousands of lapsed Christians begged to be received back into church fellowship.
A great controversy ensued. Some of those who had been imprisoned for their faith wrote letters of pardon to large numbers of those who had denied Christ. Some dishonest individuals produced amnesty papers in the name of dead martyrs.
Bishops were divided over how to treat the lapsed Christians. Some called for rigid excommunication. Some demanded a general amnesty. Eventually, they arrived at a consensus that those who had sacrificed to the gods should be readmitted to communion only when dying. Those who obtained a false Roman certificate but had not sacrificed to the gods could be readmitted upon repentance and penance. No forgiveness was to be offered to the unrepentant. However, bitter dissensions over the matter continued, with resulting schisms.
When another great persecution arose under Emperor Valerian in 257, a wider amnesty was offered to those who had defected during the days of Decius. This was not the sign of a weakened standard for Christian fidelity, but rather a gracious opportunity for the shunned to stand where once they had fallen. Many returned to the fold. Many, in turn, sacrificed their lives for Christ.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
268-341 ANTIOCH COUNCILS MEET
Church councils meeting in Antioch, Syria, in 325, 330, and 341, played an important role in defining the nature of Christ. They influenced the decisions of the ecumenical church council of Chalcedon in 451. Facing accusations from the Alexandrian Church of Arianism—a heresy that denied the eternal existence of God the Son—the members of the Antioch councils took measures to distance themselves from Arius (d. 336) and his supporters. At the same time, they endeavored to highlight Christ's eternal equality with the Father. Later councils served to further distance the church from the Nestorian heresy, which split Jesus Christ into two distinct persons, one human and one divine; and the Monophysite heresy, which denied that Jesus had both divine and human natures.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
270 ANTHONY LIVES AS A HERMIT
Regarded as the father of monasticism, Anthony (251-356) was born in Egypt, the son of wealthy parents. Shortly after his parents died, Anthony heard Matthew 19:21 read in church, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor." In response, Anthony gave his property to the poor and initially placed himself under the supervision of an elderly Christian ascetic. Living on bread and water once a day and sleeping on bare ground in a tomb, he was besieged by demons. He eventually was the first Christian to withdraw to the desert, crossing the Nile to the East where he ultimately settled on a mountain near the Red Sea. Even there he was sought out by many would-be hermits. Anthony organized them into colonies, beginning the monastic movement.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The