《基督教会史》菲利普·沙弗，第一章

Translated from Philip Schaff’s History of The Christian Church

第一章

犹太与异教世界历史中为基督教所作的预备

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J. L. von Mosheim: Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity in the first three centuries. 1753. Transl. by Vidal and Murdock, vol. i. chs. 1 and 2 (pp. 9–82, of the N. York ed. 1853).

Neander: Allg. Gesch. der christl. Religion und Kirche. Vol. 1st (1842). Einleit. (p. 1–116).

J. P. Lange: Das Apost. Zeitalter. 1853, I. pp. 224–318.

Schaff: Hist. of the Apostolic Church. pp. 137–188 (New York ed.).

Lutterbeck (R. C.): Die N. Testamentlichen Lehrbegriffe, oder Untersuchungen über das Zeitalter der Religionswende, die Vorstufen des Christenthums und die erste Gestaltung desselben. Mainz, 1852, 2 vols.

Döllinger (R. C.): Heidenthum und Judenthum. Vorhalle zur Geschichte des Christenthums. Regensb. 1857. Engl. transl. by N. Darnell under the title: The Gentile and the Jew in the courts of the Temple of Christ: an Introduction to the History of Christianity. Lond. 1862, 2 vols.

Charles Hardwick (d. 1859): Christ and other Masters. London, 4th ed. by Procter, 1875.

M. Schneckenburger (d. 1848): Vorlesungen über N. Testamentliche Zeitgeschichte, aus dessen Nachlass herausgegeben von Löhlein, mit Vorwort von Hundeshagen. Frankf. a M. 1862.

A. Hausrath: N. Testamentliche Zeitgeschichte. Heidelb. 1868 sqq., 2d ed. 1873–’77, 4 vols. The first vol. appeared in a third ed. 1879. The work includes the state of Judaism and heathenism in the time of Christ, the apostolic and the post-apostolic age to Hadrian (A.D. 117). English translation by Poynting and Guenzer, Lond. 1878 sqq.

E. Schürer: Lehrbuch der N. Testamentlichen Zeitgeschichte. Leipz. 1874. Revised and enlarged under the title: Gesch. des jüd. Volkes im Zeitalter Christi. 1886, 2 vols. Engl. translation, Edinb. and N. Y.

H. Schiller: Geschichte des römischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero. Berlin, 1872.

L. Freidländer: Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in der Zeit von Augustus bis zum Ausgang der Antonine. Leipzig, 5th ed., revised, 1881, 3 vols. A standard work.

Geo. P. Fisher (of Yale College, New Haven): The Beginnings of Christianity. N. York, 1877. Chs. II.-VII.

Gerhard Uhlhorn: The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. Transl. by Egbert C. Smyth and C. T H. Ropes. N. York, 1879. Book I. chs. 1 and 2. The German original appeared in a 4th ed., 1884.

§ 8. 基督在世界历史中的中心地位

为清晰地看见基督教与此前人类历史的关系，并领会其对未来所有世代的巨大影响，我们必须首先审视在我们的救主降临时，世界的政治、道德和宗教状况中存在的预备。

由于宗教是人最深刻、最神圣的关切，基督教进入历史是所有事件中最为重大的。它是旧世界的终结，也是新世界的开端。狄奥尼修斯·伊希格斯（Dionysius “the Little”）以我们救主的诞生作为纪元之始，是一个伟大的创想。耶稣基督，这位神人，人类的先知、祭司和君王，事实上不仅是年代学的中心和转折点，也是全部历史的中心和转折点，是解开其所有奥秘的钥匙。万国和世界上所有宗教生活中的重要事件，都围绕着祂，如同围绕道德宇宙的太阳，在各自的距离上运转；所有一切都必须，或直接或间接，或自觉或不自觉地，为荣耀祂的名、推进祂的事业而作出贡献。祂诞生前的人类历史，必须被视为是对祂降临的预备；而祂诞生后的历史，则是祂的精神的逐步传播和祂的国度的不断前进。“万物是借着他造的，也是为他造的。”祂是“万国所羡慕的”。祂在“时候满足”$^{45}$时显现，那时预备的过程已经完成，世界对救赎的需求也已充分显露。

这种为基督教所作的预备，严格来说始于人的创造之初。人是按上帝的形象所造，并注定要通过永恒之子与上帝相交；也始于上帝赐给我们始祖的救赎应许，这一应许如一颗希望之星，引导他们走出罪与错的黑暗。$^{46}$ 关于原始乐园和随后的堕落的模糊记忆，以及对未来救赎的希望，甚至在异教信仰中也依然存在。

从亚伯拉罕开始，约在基督前一千九百年，人类的宗教发展分化为两个独立的、范围极不相等的支流：犹太教和异教。它们最终在基督里相遇并联合，基督是共同的救主，是古代世界的预表、预言、渴望和希望的成全者；与此同时，两者中不敬虔的成分也联合起来，与祂为敌，从而充分揭示了祂那真理与爱之全能的征服力量。

由于基督教是在耶稣基督这位神人里、并通过祂而实现的神与人的和解与联合，它必然先经历一个双重的预备过程：神向人靠近，以及人向上帝靠近。在犹太教中，这种预备是直接和正面的，从上而下，以弥赛亚的诞生为终点。在异教中，它是间接的，且主要是（尽管不完全是）负面的，从下而上，以人类对救赎的无助呼求为终点。前者，我们看到独一真神通过言语和作为进行的特殊启示或自我交通，这启示愈发清晰明了，直到最终神圣的“道”（Logos）在人性中显现，以将人性提升至与祂相交的境地；后者，人们诚然在上帝的普遍护理的引导下，并被那照在黑暗里微光的“道”所光照，$^{47}$ 却无直接的启示帮助，被任凭“各行其道”，$^{48}$ “要叫他们寻求神，或者可以揣摩而得”。$^{49}$ 在犹太教中，真宗教是为人类预备的；在异教中，则是人类为真宗教作预备。前者是神圣实质的孕育；后者是人类形式的塑造，以承载这实质。前者好比寓言中留在家中的长子；后者则如那挥霍家产的浪子，最终在毁灭的深渊前战栗，悔罪归回父爱慈悲的怀抱。$^{50}$ 异教是繁星之夜，充满黑暗与恐惧，却也带有神秘的预兆和对白昼之光的焦急等待；犹太教则是黎明，充满对初升太阳的新希望与应许；两者都消融于基督教的阳光之中，并共同见证了基督教作为全人类唯一真实且完美的宗教的主张。

异教的预备又分为理智与文学方面，以及政治与社会方面。前者由希腊人代表，后者由罗马人代表。

圣城耶路撒冷、文化之城雅典、权力之城罗马，可代表那段以基督教诞生为终点的预备历史中的三大要素。

世界历史中为救赎所作的预备过程，即异教对“未识之神”$^{51}$ 和内心平安的摸索，以及犹太教的律法挣扎和安慰盼望，在每一位信徒的生命中都会重现；因为人是为基督而造，“他的心动荡不安，直到安息在基督里”。$^{52}$

§ 9. 犹太教

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I. 史料

《旧约》与《新约》正典。
犹太次经 (Apocrypha)。最佳版本由Otto Frid. Fritzsche编辑: Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testamenti Graece. Lips. 1871. 德文注释由Fritzsche与Grimm提供, Leipz. 1851–’60 (收录于 “Exeget. Handbuch zum A. T.“); 英文注释由Dr. E. C. Bissell提供, N. York, 1880 (收录于Schaff’s ed. of Lange’s Bible-Work, vol. xxv)。
约瑟夫 (Josephus) (一位犹太学者、祭司和历史学家，受维斯帕先和提图斯庇护，生于公元37年，卒于约103年): Antiquitates Judaicae ($jArcaiologiva jIoudaikhv$), 20卷, 最初用亚兰文写成（但未保存下来），后于公元94年以希腊文再现，从创世记述至公元66年反抗罗马人叛乱的爆发，对被掳回归后时期尤为重要。Bellum Judaicum ($peri; tou’ jIoudai>vkou’ polevmou$), 7卷, 约于公元75年写成，根据他本人的亲身观察（先为加利利的犹太将军，后为罗马俘虏及罗马代理人），记述至公元70年耶路撒冷的毁灭。Contra Apionem, 为犹太民族辩护，反驳语法学家阿皮翁的诽谤。其 Vita 或自传写于公元100年后。——约瑟夫著作的版本有：Hudson, Oxon. 1720, 2 vols. fol.; Havercamp, Amst. 1726, 2 fol.; Oberthür, Lips. 1785, 3 vols.; Richter, Lips. 1827, 6 vols.; Dindorf, Par. 1849, 2 vols.; Imm. Bekker, Lips. 1855, 6 vols. Havercamp和Dindorf的版本最佳。英文译本由Whiston和Traill翻译，常在伦敦、纽约、费城出版。德文译本有Hedio, Ott, Cotta, Demme。
亚历山大的斐洛 (Philo of Alexandria) (卒于公元40年后) 代表了博学和哲学化的（柏拉图式）犹太教。最佳版本由Mangey编辑, Lond. 1742, 2 fol., 及Richter编辑, Lips. 1828, 2 vols. 英文译本由C. D. Yonge翻译, London, 1854, 4 vols. (收录于Bohn’s “Ecclesiastical Library”)。
《塔木德》 (Talmud, $T’l]mWd$, 意为教义) 代表了传统的、被掳回归后的、反基督教的犹太教。它由《密西拿》(Mishna, $!iv]n:h$, $deutevrwsi”$, 律法的重申)，成于二世纪末，和《革马拉》(Gemara, $gÒm;r;a$, 意为完美的教义，源自$gÉm’r$, 意为完成) 组成。后者有两种形式：巴勒斯坦的《革马拉》，约于公元350年在提比哩亚完成；以及六世纪的巴比伦《革马拉》。《塔木德》的最佳版本由Bomberg编辑, Ven. 1520 sqq. 12 vols. fol., 及Sittenfeld编辑, Berlin, 1862–’68, 12 vols. fol. 《密西拿》的拉丁文译本由G. Surenhusius翻译, Amst. 1698–1703, 6 vols. fol.; 德文译本由J. J. Rabe翻译, Onolzbach, 1760–’63。
碑文史料: 埃及的（见Champollion, Young, Rosellini, Wilkinson, Birch, Mariette, Lepsius, Bunsen, Ebers, Brugsch等人的著作）；巴比伦和亚述的（见Botta, Layard, George Smith, Sayce, Schrader等人的著作）。
希腊与罗马作者: Polybius (卒于公元前125年), Diodorus Siculus (凯撒的同代人), Strabo (卒于公元24年), Tacitus (卒于约117年), Suetonius (卒于约130年), Justinus (卒于公元160年后)。他们的记述大多是偶然提及，要么是简单地引自约瑟夫，要么充满错误和偏见，因此价值甚微。

II. 历史著作

(a) 基督教作者

Prideaux (诺里奇教长, d. 1724): The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and neighboring nations, from the declension of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the time of Christ. Lond. 1715; 11th ed. 1749, 4 vols. (and later eds.). The same in French and German.

J. J. Hess (d. 1828): Geschichte der Israeliten vor den Zeiten Jesu. Zür. 1766 sqq., 12 vols.

Warburton (格洛斯特主教, d. 1779): The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated. 5th ed. Lond. 1766; 10th ed. by James Nichols, Lond. 1846, 3 vols. 8vo.

Milman (圣保罗教长, d. 1868): History of the Jews. Lond. 1829, 3 vols.; revised ed. Lond. and N. York, 1865, 3 vols.

J. C. K. Hofmann (埃尔朗根教授, d. 1878): Weissagung und Erfüllung. Nördl. 1841, 2 vols.

Archibald Alexander (d. at Princeton, 1851): A History of the Israelitish Nation. Philadelphia, 1853. (Popular.)

H. Ewald (d. 1874): Geschichte des Volkes Israel bis Christus. Gött. 1843 sqq. 3d ed. 1864–’68, 7 vols. A work of rare genius and learning, but full of bold conjectures. Engl. transl. by Russell Martineau and J. E. Carpenter. Lond. 1871–’76, 5 vols. Comp. also Ewald’s Prophets, and Poetical Books of the O. T.

E. W. Hengstenberg (d. 1869): Geschichte des Reiches Gottes unter dem Alten Bunde. Berl. 1869–’71, 2 vols. (Posthumous publication.) English transl., Edinburgh (T. & T. Clark), 1871–272, 2 vols. (Name of the translator not given.)

J. H. Kurtz: Geschichte des Alten Bundes. Berlin, 1848–’55, 2 vols. (unfinished). Engl. transl. by Edersheim, Edinb. 1859, in 3 vols. The same: Lehrbuch der heil. Geschichte. Königsb. 6th ed. 1853; also in English, by C. F. Schäffer. Phil. 1855.

P. Cassel: Israel in der Weltgeschichte. Berlin, 1865 (32 pp.).

Joseph Langen (R. C.): Das Judenthum in Palästina zur Zeit Christi. Freiburg i. B. 1866.

G. Weber and H. Holtzmann: Geschichte des Volkes Israel und der Gründung des Christenthums. Leipzig, 1867, 2 vols. (the first vol. by Weber, the second by Holtzmann).

H. Holtzmann: Die Messiasidee zur Zeit Christi, in the “Jahrbücher für Deutsche Theologie,” Gotha, 1867 (vol. xii. pp. 389–411).

F. Hitzig: Geschichte des Volkes Israel von Anbeginn bis zur Eroberung Masada’s im J. 72 nach Chr. Heidelb. 1869, 2 vols.

A. Kuenen (莱顿教授): De godsdienst van Israël tot den ondergang van den joodschen staat. Haarlem, 1870, 2 vols. Transl. into English. The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State, by A. H. May. Lond. (Williams & Norgate), 1874–’75, 3 vols. Represents the advanced rationalism of Holland.

A. P. Stanley (威斯敏斯特教长): Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church. Lond. and N. York, 1863–76, 3 vols. Based on Ewald.

W. Wellhausen: Geschichte Israels. Berlin, 1878, 3d ed. 1886. Transl. by Black and Menzies: Prolegomena to the History of Israel. Edinb. 1885.

F. Schürer: Geschichte des jüd. Volkes im Zeitalter Christi. 1886 sq. 2 vols.

A. Edersheim: Prophecy and History in relation to the Messiah. Lond. 1885.

A. Köhler: Lehrbuch der bibl. Geschichte des A. T. Erlangen, 1875–’88.

C. A. Briggs: Messianic Prophecy. N. York and Edinb. 1886.

V. H. Stanton: The Jewish, and the Christian Messiah. Lond. 1886.

B. Stade: Gesch. des Volkes Israel. Berlin, 1888, 2 vols. Radical.

E. Renan: Hist. du peuple d’Israel. Paris, 1887 sqq., 3 vols. Engl. translation, London, 1888 sqq. Radical.

B. Kittel: Gesch. der Hebräer. Gotha, 1888 sqq. Moderate.

(b) 犹太作者

J. M. Jost: Geschichte der Israeliten seit der Zeit der Maccabäer bis auf unsere Tage. Leipz. 1820–’28, 9 vols. By the same: Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten. 1857–159, 3 vols.

Salvador: Histoire de la domination Romaine en Judée et de la ruine de Jerusalem. Par. 1847, 2 vols.

Raphall: Post-biblical History of the Jews from the close of the 0. T. about the year 420 till the destruction of the second Temple in the year 70. Lond. 1856, 2 vols.

Abraham Geiger (法兰克福自由派拉比): Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte. Breslau; 2d ed. 1865–’71, 3 vols. With an appendix on Strauss and Renan. Comes down to the 16th century. English transl. by Maurice Mayer. N. York, 1865.

L. Herzfeld: Geschichte des Volkes Jizrael. Nordhausen, 1847–’57, 3 vols. The same work, abridged in one vol. Leipz. 1870.

H. Grätz (布雷斯劳教授): Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart. Leipz. 1854–’70, 11 vols. (to 1848).

“救恩是从犹太人出来的。”$^{53}$ 这个奇妙的民族，其恰当的象征是燃烧的荆棘，被至高的恩典拣选，在周围的偶像崇拜中，成为独一真神、祂的圣律法和鼓舞人心的应许的知识的承载者，从而成为弥赛亚的摇篮。它始于亚伯拉罕的蒙召，以及耶和华在应许之地迦南与他立的约；在为奴之地埃及成长为一个民族；在旷野由摩西以西奈律法为基础，被拯救并组织成一个神权国家；由约书亚带领回到巴勒斯坦；在士师之后，成为一个君主国，在大卫和所罗门时期达到荣耀的顶峰；后分裂为两个敌对的王国，并因内部分裂和日益增长的偶像崇拜之背道而受惩罚，被异教征服者掳去；在七十年的羞辱之后，被恢复到其祖先的土地上，但再次落入异教敌人的轭下；然而，在其最卑微的境地，它却完成了其最高的使命，诞生了世界的救主。“希伯来民族的历史，”埃瓦尔德（Ewald）说，“从根本上说，是真宗教经历所有进步阶段直至其圆满的历史；这个宗教在其狭窄的民族领土上，通过所有斗争走向最高的胜利，并最终以其全部的荣耀和力量显现出来，以其自身不可抗拒的能量向外传播，永不消逝，而成为万国永恒的遗产和祝福。整个古代世界的目的都是为了寻求真宗教；但唯有这个民族，其在世上的存在与荣耀完全在于真宗教，因此它登上了历史的舞台。”$^{54}$

犹太教与古代偶像崇拜的民族形成鲜明对比，如同沙漠中的一片绿洲，界限分明，与世隔绝；由严格的道德和礼仪律法所分离和包围。圣地本身，虽位于古代世界三大洲的中心，被古代文化大国所环绕，却被南面和东面的沙漠、西面的海洋和北面的山脉所隔开；从而确保了摩西宗教能够自由发展并完成其伟大使命，不受外界干扰。但以色列从一开始就怀揣着一个宏大的应许，即亚伯拉罕的后裔必使地上的万国得福。信心的父亚伯拉罕、立法者摩西、英雄君王和圣诗作者大卫、先知中的传福音者以赛亚、与摩西一同在变像山上显现向耶稣致敬的提斯比人以利亚，以及整个旧约的化身施洗约翰，是古代启示这条金链中最杰出的环节。

基督诞生时，犹太人的外部环境以及道德和宗教状况，乍看之下似乎与他们的神圣命运形成鲜明对比。但是，首先，他们的堕落本身就证明了神圣帮助的需要。其次，通过基督的救赎，相比之下更显荣耀，是上帝创造性的作为。最后，在大量的腐败之中，如同防止腐烂的防腐剂，存留着亚伯拉罕真正后裔的传承，他们渴望以色列的救恩，并准备好拥抱拿撒勒的耶稣，认祂为应许的弥赛亚和世界的救主。

自庞培于公元前63年征服耶路撒冷（这一年因西塞罗的执政、喀提林的阴谋和奥古斯都的诞生而闻名）以来，犹太人一直受制于异教的罗马人，罗马人通过以土买人希律及其子孙，后来又通过总督来冷酷地统治他们。在这可憎的轭下，他们的弥赛亚盼望被强烈地激发起来，但却被肉体化地扭曲了。他们主要渴望一位政治上的拯救者，能够以更辉煌的规模恢复大卫的属世统治；他们对耶稣的仆人形象和祂的属灵国度感到冒犯。他们的道德在表面上远胜于异教徒；但在严格遵守律法的外衣下，他们隐藏着极大的腐败。新约将他们描绘成一个硬着颈项、忘恩负义、不肯悔改的民族，是蛇的后裔，是毒蛇的种类。他们自己的祭司和历史学家约瑟夫，虽然通常努力向希腊人和罗马人展示他同胞最有利的一面，却形容他们当时是一个堕落邪恶的民族，完全配得上他们在耶路撒冷被毁时所受的可怕惩罚。

在宗教方面，犹太人，尤其是在巴比伦被掳之后，极其顽固地坚守律法的字句、传统和仪式，却不理解经文的精神和力量。他们对异教徒怀有偏执的憎恶，因此被异教徒鄙视和憎恨为厌世者，尽管他们凭借判断力、勤奋和机智，能够在罗马帝国所有的大城市中获得财富和尊重。

自马加比时代（公元前150年）之后，他们分裂为三个互相敌对的教派或党派，分别代表了形式主义、怀疑主义和神秘主义这三种倾向；所有这些都预示着旧宗教的即将瓦解和新宗教的黎明。我们可以将它们与希腊哲学的三大主流学派——斯多葛派、伊壁鸠鲁派和柏拉图派，以及伊斯兰教的三大教派——遵循传统的逊尼派、坚守《古兰经》的什叶派和在“内在神圣感”中寻求真宗教的苏菲派进行比较。

法利赛人，“分离者”，$^{55}$ 可说是犹太的斯多葛派。他们代表了传统的正统和僵化的形式主义、律法上的自以为义和狂热的偏执。他们在民众和妇女中最有影响力，并控制着公共崇拜。他们将虔诚与理论上的正统混为一谈。他们用长者的传统给圣经加上了过重的负担，以至于使圣经“失去了效用”。他们将摩西律法分析至死，用一个决疑法的迷宫取代了活生生的法典。“他们把难担的重担捆起来，搁在人的肩上”，但自己“一个指头也不肯动”。在新约中，他们尤其背负着伪善的指责；当然，也有像尼哥底母、迦玛列和他的门徒保罗这样杰出的例外。
人数较少的撒都该人$^{56}$ 是怀疑、理性主义和世俗化的，他们在犹太教中的地位大约相当于伊壁鸠鲁派和新学院派在希腊罗马异教中的地位。他们接受成文的圣经（尤其是摩西五经），但拒绝口头传统，否认身体的复活和灵魂的不朽、天使和灵的存在，以及掌管一切的天命教义。他们的追随者多为富人，并曾一度占据大祭司的职位。该亚法就属于他们这一派。

法利赛人和撒都该人之间的差异在现代犹太人中重现，他们分为正统派和自由派或理性主义派。
艾赛尼派（我们仅从斐洛和约瑟夫的著作中了解他们）不是一个党派，而是一个神秘和禁欲的修会或兄弟会，大多在村庄和死海边的隐基底沙漠中过着修道式的隐居生活。$^{57}$ 他们约有4000名成员。他们对旧约进行任意的、寓言式的解释，并结合了一些外来的神哲学元素，这些元素与新毕达哥拉斯派和柏拉图派的教义非常相似，但可能（像诺斯底派和摩尼教的理论一样）源自东方宗教，尤其是琐罗亚斯德教（Parsism）。他们实行财产公有，穿白衣，禁食肉类、血祭、起誓、奴役和（除少数例外）婚姻，生活极其简朴，希望借此达到更高的圣洁程度。他们是基督教修道主义的先驱。

在使徒时代，艾赛尼派很少或从未与基督教发生接触，除非是在歌罗西以异端的形式出现。但是法利赛人和撒都该人，尤其是前者，在福音书中随处可见，是耶稣的死敌，尽管他们彼此敌对，却联合起来判处祂钉十字架的死刑，而这死刑最终以荣耀的复活告终，并成为相信的外邦人和犹太人属灵生命的根基。

§ 10. 律法与预言

尽管犹太教的群众堕落败坏，但旧约的经纶是为基督教救赎作预备的神圣制度，因此受到基督及其使徒最深的敬重，同时他们也试图通过严厉的斥责来引导其不配的代表悔改。因此，对于那些顺服其训导、并认真查考摩西和先知书的人心，它必能产生拯救的果效。

律法和预言是犹太宗教的两大要素，使其成为基督教的直接神圣引言，“是在旷野有人声喊着说：预备主的道，在沙漠地修平我们神的路径。”

摩西的律法是基督降临前上帝圣洁旨意的最清晰表达。《十诫》是古代立法的奇迹，其两块法版包含了所有真虔诚与道德的精髓——对上帝至高的爱，以及对邻舍的爱。它阐明了公义的理想，因此最有效地唤醒了人对自身严重偏离这一理想的认识，即对罪与罪疚的认识。$^{58}$ 它扮演了训蒙的师傅的角色，引人到基督面前，$^{59}$ “使我们因信称义”。$^{60}$

同样的罪疚感和和解的需要，通过起初在会幕、后来在圣殿里的日常献祭，以及整个礼仪律法，不断地被保持着。这套礼仪律法，作为一个奇妙的预表和影像系统，不断地指向新约的实体，特别是基督在十字架上那一次性、全备的赎罪祭。

上帝以其公义要求绝对的顺服和内心的纯洁，并应许生命、惩罚死亡。然而祂不会残忍地戏弄人；祂是真实、信实、慈爱的上帝。因此，在道德和仪式律法中，如同在一个外壳里，隐藏着一个甜美的应许核心，即祂有一天将以活生生的形式展现公义的典范，并赐予悔罪的罪人赦免其一切过犯和遵行律法的能力。没有这样的保证，律法将是辛辣的讽刺。

就律法而言，犹太经纶是一种悔改的宗教。
但同时，如前所述，它也是神圣救赎应许的载体，因此也是一种希望的宗教。当希腊人和罗马人将他们的黄金时代置于过去时，犹太人则在未来寻找他们的黄金时代。他们的全部历史、他们的宗教、政治和社会制度与习俗，都指向弥赛亚的到来和他国度在世上的建立。

预言，或律法之约下的福音，实际上比律法更古老。律法是后来加上的，介于应许和其实现之间，介于罪和救赎之间，介于疾病和治疗之间。$^{61}$ 预言始于乐园，在人堕落后立即出现的击碎蛇头的应许。它在先祖时代占主导地位，尤其是在亚伯拉罕的生平中，他的虔诚具有信靠和信心的相应特征；而立法者摩西，同时也是一位先知，向人民指明一位更伟大的继承者。$^{62}$ 没有弥赛亚应许的安慰，律法必会使认真的灵魂陷入绝望。从大约基督前十一世纪的撒母耳时代起， hitherto 零星出现的预言，以一个永久的先知职分和团体的形式组织起来。在这种形式下，它伴随着利未祭司制度和大卫王朝直到巴比伦被掳，并在这场灾难后幸存下来，指导人民的回归和圣殿的重建；它解释和应用律法，斥责教会和国家的弊端，预言上帝可怕的审判和救赎的恩典，警告和惩罚，安慰和鼓励，并越来越明确地指向将要来临的弥赛亚，祂将从罪和苦难中拯救以色列和世界，并在地上建立一个和平与公义的国度。

大卫的胜利统治和所罗门的和平统治，为以赛亚及其后继者提供了一个历史和预表的基础，来描绘一个远为荣耀的未来。这个未来若不与鲜活的记忆和当下的环境联系起来，便无法被理解。随后的灾难和被掳的苦难，有助于发展出一位为人民的罪而赎罪，并经由苦难进入荣耀的弥赛亚的观念。

先知是一种特殊的职分，部分是为了补充，部分是为了纠正常规的、世袭的祭司职分，以防止其僵化为单调的形式主义，并使其保持活泼的流动性。可以说，先知是旧约的抗议者（Protestants），是圣灵和与神直接交通的仆人，以区别于那些字句、传统和礼仪中介的仆人。

我们正典预言的繁荣时期始于基督前八世纪，约在摩西之后七百年，当时以色列正遭受亚述的压迫。在被掳前的这个时期，以赛亚（意为“神的拯救”）是主要人物，他出现在乌西雅王末年，约在罗马建城前十年；围绕着他，在犹大国有弥迦、约珥和俄巴底亚，在以色列国有何西阿、阿摩司和约拿。以赛亚达到了预言的最高峰，他逐一展开弥赛亚的形象——从大卫家而出，向穷人传福音，医好伤心的人，开瞎子的眼，使被掳的得释放，像羊羔被牵到宰杀之地，担当百姓的罪孽，义的代替不义的而死，战胜死亡，并作为和平的君王统治万国——这个形象在一个人，且只有一个人，拿撒勒的耶稣身上得到了完全的应验。他最接近十字架，他的书是旧约的福音书。在巴比伦流亡时期，耶利米（意为“主倾覆”）是主要人物。他是哀伤的先知，却也是圣灵新约的先知。在他对祭司和假先知的谴责中，在他对耶路撒冷的哀叹中，在他圣洁的悲伤中，在他所受的残酷迫害中，他都与基督的使命和生平相似。他留在他祖先的土地上，在耶路撒冷的废墟上唱着他的哀歌；而以西结则在迦巴鲁河边警告流亡者防备假先知和肉体的希望，敦促他们悔改，并描绘了新耶路撒冷和枯骨因神的气息而复活的景象；但以理则在巴比伦尼布甲尼撒的宫廷中，在灵里看见了四大帝国的更替和人子永恒国度的最终胜利。被掳回归时期的先知是哈该、撒迦利亚和玛拉基。随着玛拉基（他生活到尼希米时代）的出现，旧约的预言停止了，以色列被独自留下了四百年，在这段期待的时期里消化那启示的丰富内容，并为即将来临的救赎预备诞生地。
在弥赛亚降临之前，整个旧约，包括律法和先知，摩西和以赛亚，都在施洗约翰身上短暂地重现，然后以无与伦比的谦卑，如同红色的黎明在新约升起的太阳的光辉中消逝。这个非凡的人，在旷野里热切地宣讲悔改，将斧子放在树根上，同时又以预言安慰人，指向那赎罪的上帝的羔羊，作为新约经纶的直接先驱和天上新郎的亲身朋友，他确实是妇人所生的中最伟大的；然而，以他作为古代预备经纶代表的官方身份，他却比基督国度里最小的还要低，因为基督的国度远比过去所有的预表和影像荣耀得多。

这就是犹太宗教，它从神圣启示的泉源流出，活在真以色列人，即亚伯拉罕属灵的后裔心中；活在施洗约翰、他的父母和门徒心中；活在耶稣的母亲、她的亲属和朋友心中；活在可敬的西面和女先知亚拿心中；活在拉撒路和他虔诚的姐妹心中；活在那些拥抱拿撒勒的耶稣为律法和先知的成全者、神的儿子和世界救主的使徒和早期门徒心中；他们是基督教会的初熟之果。

§ 11. 异教

文献

I. 史料

从荷马到维吉尔及安东尼时代的希腊罗马古典著作。

古代的碑文遗迹。

早期基督教护教士的著作，特别是殉道者游斯丁 (Justin Martyr): Apologia I. 和 II.; 德尔图良 (Tertullian): Apologeticus; 米努修·费里克斯 (Minucius Felix): Octavius; 优西比乌 (Eusebius): Praeparatio Evangelica; 和奥古斯丁 (Augustine, d. 430): De Civitate Dei (前十卷)。

II. 后世著作

Is. Vossius: De theologia gentili et physiolog. Christ. Frcf. 1675, 2 vols.

Creuzer (d. 1858): Symbolik und Mythologie der alien Völker. Leipz. 3d ed, 1837 sqq. 3 vols.

Tholuck (d. 1877): Das Wesen und der sittliche Einfluss des Heidenthums, besonders unter den Griechen und Römern, mit Hinsicht auf das Christenthum. Berlin, 1823. In Neander’s Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. i. of the 1st ed. Afterwards separately printed. English translation by Emerson in, “Am. Bibl. Repository” for 1832.

Tzschirner (d. 1828): Der Fall des Heidenthums, ed. by Niedner. Leip, 1829, 1st vol.

O. Müller (d. 1840): Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftl. Mythologie. Gött. 1825. Transl. into English by J. Leitch. Lond. 1844.

Hegel (d. 1831): Philosphie der Religion. Berl. 1837, 2 vols.

Stuhr: Allgem. Gesch. der Religionsformen der heidnischen Völker. Berl. 1836, 1837, 2 vols. (vol. 2d on the Hellenic Religion).

Hartung: Die Religion der Römer. Erl. 1836, 2 vols.

C. F. Nägelsbach: Homerische Theologie. Nürnb. 1840; 2d ed. 1861. The same: Die nach-homerische Theologie des Griechischen Volksglaubens bis auf Alexander. Nürnb. 1857.

Sepp (R. C.): Das Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung für das Christenthum. Regensb. 1853, 3 vols.

Wuttke: Geschichte des Heidenthums in Beziehung auf Religion, Wissen, Kunst, Sittlichkeit und Staatsleben. Bresl. 1852 sqq. 2 vols.

Schelling (d. 1854): Einleitung in die Philosophie der Mythologie. Stuttg. 1856; and Philosophie der Mythologie. Stuttg. 1857.

Maurice (d. 1872): The Religions of the World in their Relations to Christianity. Lond. 1854 (reprinted in Boston).

Trench: Hulsean Lectures for 1845–’46. No. 2: Christ the Desire of all Nations, or the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom (a commentary on the star of the wise men, Matt. ii.). Cambr. 4th ed. 1854 (also 1850).

L. Preller: Griechische Mythologie. Berlin, 1854, 3d ed. 1875, 2 vols. By the same; Römische Mythologie. Berlin, 1858; 3d ed., by Jordan, 1881–83, 2 vols.

M. W. Heffter: Griech. und Röm. Mythologie. Leipzig, 1854.

Döllinger: Heidenthum und Judenthum, quoted in § 8.

C. Schmidt: Essai historique sur la societé civil dans le monde romain et sur sa transformation par le christianisme. Paris, 1853.

C. G. Seibert: Griechenthum und Christenthum, oder der Vorhof des Schönen und das Heiligthum der Wahrheit. Barmen, 1857.

Fr. Fabri: Die Entstehung des Heidenthums und die Aufgabe der Heidenmission. Barmen, 1859.

W. E. Gladstone (the English statesman): Studies on Homer and Homeric Age. Oxf. 1858, 3 vols. (vol. ii. Olympus; or the Religion of the Homeric Age). The same: Juventus Mundi: the Gods and Men of the Heroic Age. 2d ed. Lond. 1870. (Embodies the results of the larger work, with several modifications in the ethnological and mythological portions.)

W. S. Tyler (阿默斯特学院教授, Mass.): The Theology of the Greek Poets. Boston, 1867.

B. F. Cocker: Christianity and Greek Philosophy; or the Relation between Reflective Thought in Greece and the Positive Teaching of Christ and his Apostles. N. York, 1870.

Edm. Spiess: Logos spermaticós. Parallelstellen zum N. Text. aus den Schriften der alten Griechen. Ein Beitrag zur christl. Apologetik und zur vergleichenden Religionsforschung. Leipz. 1871.

G. Boissier: La religion romaine d’Auguste aux Antonins. Paris, 1884, 2 vols.

J Reville: La religion à Rome sous les Sévères. Paris, 1886.

Comp. the histories of Greece by Thirlwall, Grote, and Curtius; the histories of Rome by Gibbon, Niebuhr, Arnold, Merivale, Schwegler, Ihne, Duruy (transl. from the French by W. J. Clarke), and Mommsen. Ranke’s Weltgeschichte. Th. iii. 1882. Schiller’s Gesch. der römischen Kaiserzeit. 1882.

异教是宗教在堕落人性的土壤上野蛮生长的产物，是对上帝原始意识的蒙蔽，是对理性和非理性受造物的神化，以及相应而来的道德感的败坏，为自然和非自然的恶习提供了宗教的认可。$^{63}$

即使是希腊的宗教，作为一种想象的艺术产物，被公正地称为美的宗教，也被这种道德扭曲所损害。它完全缺乏对罪的真正概念，因此也缺乏对圣洁的真正概念。它不把罪视为意志的败坏和对神的冒犯，而视为理智的愚蠢和对人的冒犯，甚至常常源于神明本身；因为“迷狂”或道德盲目（Ate, [Ath），是“宙斯的女儿”和一位女神，尽管被逐出奥林匹斯山，却是地上一切祸害的源头。荷马不知道魔鬼，但他却将魔鬼的元素放入他的神祇中。希腊诸神，以及模仿前者的罗马诸神，都不过是男人和女人，荷马和大众信仰在他们身上看到并崇拜的，是希腊人性格中的弱点和恶习，以及他们的美德，只不过被放大了。神会出生，但永不死亡。他们像凡人一样有身体和感官，只是尺寸巨大。他们吃喝，尽管只是琼浆玉液。他们醒来又睡去。他们旅行，却快如思想。他们参与战斗。他们与人类交合，产生英雄或半神。他们受时间和空间的限制。虽然有时被赋予全能和全知的属性，并被称为圣洁和公正，但他们仍受制于一种铁的命运（Moira），会陷入迷惑，并互相指责愚蠢和罪行。他们的天庭幸福被地上生活的一切烦恼所扰乱。即使是奥林匹斯家族的族长宙斯（Jupiter），也被他的姐姐兼妻子赫拉（Juno）所欺骗——在宣布她为配偶和众神之后前，他已与她秘密同居三百年——并且对特洛伊城前发生的事件一无所知。他用拳打脚踢和死亡来威胁同伴，当他愤怒地摇动发绺时，奥林匹斯山为之颤抖。温柔的阿佛洛狄忒（Venus）手指被矛刺伤而流血。玛尔斯（Mars）被狄俄墨得斯用石头击倒。尼普顿（Neptune）和阿波罗（Apollo）不得不受雇为人服务并被欺骗。赫淮斯托斯（Hephaestus）跛脚，引来一阵哄堂大笑。诸神因婚姻而陷入无休止的嫉妒和争吵。他们充满嫉妒和愤怒、仇恨和情欲，唆使人犯罪，并互相挑唆说谎、残忍、作伪证和通奸。《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》，这两部希腊天才最受欢迎的诗篇，是诸神的一部丑闻录。因此，柏拉图将它们从他的理想国中驱逐出去。品达、埃斯库罗斯和索福克勒斯也提升到了对神明更高尚的观念，并呼吸着更纯净的道德空气；但他们代表的是少数人的特殊信仰，而荷马则表达了大众的信仰。确实，我们没有理由像席勒那样渴望“希腊诸神”的回归，而宁愿与诗人一同欢欣感恩：

“为使万物之中有一物得以丰盛，
这诸神的世界必须消逝。”

尽管存在这种对真理和圣洁的根本背离，异教仍然是一种宗教，一种对“未识之神”的摸索。它的迷信暴露了对信仰的需要。它的多神论建立在一个模糊的一神论背景之上；它使所有神都服从于朱庇特，而朱庇特自己也服从于一个神秘的命运。它从根本上有一种对更高力量的依赖感和对神圣事物的敬畏。它保存了对黄金时代和一次堕落的记忆。它有良知的声音，以及一种尽管模糊但存在的罪疚感。它感到需要与神和解，并通过祈祷、忏悔和献祭来寻求这种和解。它的许多宗教传统和习俗是原始宗教的微弱回响；它的神话梦境，如神与人交合、半神、普罗米修斯被赫拉克勒斯从无助的苦难中解救出来，都是无意识的预言和对基督教真理的肉体预演。

唯有此才能解释异教徒以极大的热情拥抱福音，令犹太人羞愧。$^{64}$

在整个异教世界中，散布着一个属灵的以色列，他们从未受过肉体的割礼，而是由那随己意吹拂、不受任何人律和常规手段束缚的圣灵之手，接受了内心的割礼。旧约提供了一些在可见的犹太教会交通之外的真虔诚的例子，例如亚伯拉罕的朋友、君尊的祭司、基督的预表麦基洗德；米甸的祭司叶忒罗；迦南妇人、约书亚和迦勒的女主人喇合；摩押女子、我们救主的先祖路得；大卫的朋友希兰王；前来钦佩所罗门智慧的示巴女王；叙利亚的乃缦；尤其是那崇高的受难者约伯，他在他救赎主的盼望中欢欣。$^{65}$

散布在古代异教中的真理、道德和虔诚的元素，可归因于三个来源。首先，人，即使在堕落的状态下，仍保留着一些神圣形象的痕迹，一种对上帝的认识，$^{66}$ 无论多么微弱，一种道德感或良知，$^{67}$ 以及一种对与神联合、对真理和公义的渴望。$^{68}$ 从这个角度看，我们可以像德尔图良一样，将苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德、品达、索福克勒斯、西塞罗、维吉尔、塞内加、普鲁塔克的美好而真实的句子，称为“一个天性上是基督徒的灵魂的见证”，$^{69}$ 即一个被预定要归向基督教的本性的见证。其次，必须考虑到来自亚当和挪亚的普遍原始启示的传统和记忆，无论多么微弱。但异教对真理的预期的第三个也是最重要的来源，是掌管万有的上帝的护理，祂从未停止为自己作见证。我们尤其必须像古代希腊教父那样，考虑到神圣的“道”（Logos）在祂道成肉身之前的影响，$^{70}$ 祂是人类的导师，是理性的原始之光，照在黑暗里，照亮每一个人，是那在异教土壤中撒播真、善、美种子的撒种者。$^{71}$

我们在此所关心的异教之花，出现在古典时代的两个伟大民族中：希腊和罗马。使徒们直接接触了这两个民族的语言、道德、文学和宗教，整个第一世纪，教会都在这些民族的基础上活动。他们与犹太人一起，是古代世界的选民，共同分享着大地。犹太人被拣选是为了永恒之事，守护真宗教的圣所。希腊人为教会准备了自然文化的元素，即科学和艺术。罗马人发展了法律的观念，并将文明世界组织成一个普世帝国，随时准备为福音的属灵普世性服务。希腊人和罗马人都是耶稣基督这位“未识之神”的无意识的仆人。

这三个在天性上彼此深恶痛绝的民族，在十字架上的罪状牌上携手合作，那里救赎主的神圣名字和君王头衔，由异教徒彼拉多的命令，“用希伯来、希腊、罗马三样文字写着”。$^{72}$

§ 12. 希腊文学与罗马帝国

古代希腊的文学和罗马的普世帝国，是继摩西宗教之后，为基督教预备世界的主要力量。它们提供了人类的形式，使在犹太神权政体怀抱中充分预备好的福音的神圣实质得以被塑造。它们为天国的超自然大厦奠定了自然的基础。上帝赋予希腊人和罗马人最丰富的自然天赋，使他们能够在没有基督教帮助的情况下达到最高的文明水平，从而既为教会提供了人类科学、艺术和法律的工具，又同时显示了仅凭这些工具来祝福和拯救世界是完全无能为力的。

希腊人，数量虽少，如犹太人一样，但在历史上的重要性远超亚洲帝国无数的部落。他们被召唤去完成一项高尚的任务：在阳光明媚的天空下，以清澈的心智，展现出人性在其自然活力与美丽中的理念，同时也展现其自然的缺陷。他们发展了科学和艺术的原则。他们将思想从自然的黑暗力量和东方神秘主义的阴郁沉思中解放出来。他们上升到对人性的清晰而自由的意识，大胆地探索自然和精神的法则，并以各种艺术形式实践了美的理念。在诗歌、雕塑、建筑、绘画、哲学、修辞学、史学方面，他们留下了真正的杰作，至今仍被作为形式与品味的典范而受到赞赏和研究。

所有这些作品只有在基督教会的手中才真正变得有价值和有用，它们最终都归于教会。希腊为使徒们提供了最丰富、最美丽的语言来表达福音的神圣真理，而天意早已安排好政治运动，将这种语言传播到世界各地，使其成为文明和国际交流的工具，就像拉丁语在中世纪、法语在十八世纪以及英语在十九世纪所扮演的角色一样。“希腊文，”西塞罗说，“几乎在所有国家都被阅读；拉丁文则被其自身的狭窄边界所限制。”希腊的教师和艺术家跟随罗马征服的军团前往高卢和西班牙。年轻的英雄亚历山大大帝，虽然生为马其顿人，却是荷马的热情崇拜者，是阿喀琉斯的效仿者，是哲学世界征服者亚里士多德的弟子，因此是他那个时代最真实的希腊人。他构想了一个崇高的思想，即把巴比伦建成一个希腊世界帝国的所在地；虽然他的帝国在他英年早逝时分崩离析，但它已经将希腊文学带到了印度的边境，并使其成为所有文明国家的共同财富。亚历山大所开始的，由尤利乌斯·凯撒完成。在罗马法律的保护下，使徒们可以随处旅行，并通过希腊语在罗马领土的每个城市使人理解他们。

希腊哲学，特别是柏拉图和亚里士多德的体系，为科学神学构成了自然的基础；希腊的雄辩术，为神圣的讲道术；希腊的艺术，为基督教会的艺术。事实上，不少古典作家的思想和格言已踏上启示的门槛，听起来像是基督教真理的预言；特别是柏拉图的精神飞升，$^{73}$ 普鲁塔克深刻的宗教反思，$^{74}$ 塞内加有时近乎保罗式的道德箴言。$^{75}$ 对许多最伟大的教父，如殉道者游斯丁、亚历山大的克莱门、奥利金，甚至在某种程度上对奥古斯丁来说，希腊哲学是通往基督教信仰的桥梁，是一位引导他们走向基督的科学导师。不仅如此，整个古代希腊教会都建立在希腊语言和民族性的基础上，没有它们是无法解释的。

这就是为什么古典文学至今仍在整个基督教世界被作为博雅教育的基础的真正原因。青年人通过它接触到科学和艺术的基本形式，接触到清晰、有品位的风格典范，以及在智力和艺术文化顶峰的自塑人性，从而同时被训练去科学地理解基督教。基督教出现在希腊罗马文明发展达到顶峰并已开始衰落之时。希腊语和拉丁语，如同梵语和希伯来语一样，在它们的青春期就已死亡，并被保存在不朽的古典作品中，免于腐朽。它们至今仍为每个学科和艺术分支以及每项新发明提供最佳的科学术语。基督教的原始记录也因此免受了活语言不断变化所带来的解释不确定性的影响。

但是，除了希腊文学的永久价值之外，在其故土的荣耀，在基督诞生时，已经无可挽回地逝去了。公民自由和独立已被内部分裂和腐败所摧毁。哲学已经沦为怀疑主义和精致的唯物主义。艺术已堕落为轻浮和感官享乐的服务。不信或迷信已经取代了健康的宗教情感。不诚实和放荡在高层和底层都盛行。

这种无望的状况不能不给更认真、更高尚的灵魂留下深刻印象，让他们认识到所有科学和艺术的空虚，以及这种自然文化完全不足以满足内心更深层次的需求。这必然使他们充满对一种新宗教的渴望。

罗马人是古代的实践和政治民族。他们的使命是实现国家和民法的理念，并将世界各国联合成一个从幼发拉底河延伸到大西洋，从利比亚沙漠延伸到莱茵河畔的庞大帝国。这个帝国囊括了亚洲、非洲和欧洲最肥沃和最文明的国家，约有一亿人口，也许是基督教传入时全人类的三分之一。$^{76}$ 与其外在广度相对应的是其历史意义。尼布尔说，每个古代民族的历史都终结于罗马的历史，正如每个现代民族的历史都始于罗马的历史。因此，它的历史具有普遍的意义；它是古代遗产的巨大宝库。如果说希腊人在所有民族中拥有最深刻的思想，甚至在文学上为他们的征服者立法，那么罗马人则拥有最坚强的性格，生来就是要统治世界的。这种差异当然也延伸到了这两个民族的道德和宗教生活中。希腊神话是艺术幻想的作品和诗歌的宗教，而罗马宗教则是为国家目的而设计的算计之作，是政治和功利的，但同时也是庄严、认真和充满活力的。“罗马人不像希腊人那样热爱美。他们不像日耳曼人那样与自然交流。他们唯一的理念就是罗马——不是古代的、神话的、诗意的罗马，而是战争和征服的罗马；是世界的女主人（orbis terrarum domina）。S. P. Q. R.（元老院与罗马人民）几乎刻在他们文学的每一页上。”$^{77}$

罗马人从一开始就相信自己被召唤来统治世界。他们将所有外国人——不像有教养的希腊人那样视为野蛮人——而是视为要被征服和奴役的敌人。战争和凯旋是他们对人类荣耀和幸福的最高构想。“罗马人，记住，要用你的帝国统治万民！”（Tu, regere imperio populos, Romane, memento!）这句维吉尔的名言，在它形成之前很久就已成为他们的座右铭。永恒之城（urbs aeterna）的名字本身，以及其建立的独特传说，都预言了它的未来。在最艰难的困境中，罗马人从未对共和国绝望过片刻。他们以巨大的精力、深邃的谋略、坚定的恒心和狼一般的贪婪，追求他们雄心勃勃的计划，并确实成为了世界的主人，但也正如他们最伟大的历史学家塔西佗所说，是世界永不满足的掠夺者。$^{78}$

用剑征服了世界之后，他们用法律来组织它，万民都必须在法律的威严面前低头，并用和平的艺术来美化它。在共和国的夕阳和帝国的旭日下，哲学、雄辩术、历史和诗歌享受了一个黄金时代，并将其文明影响扩展到野蛮主义的边缘。虽然罗马作家在文学和美术方面不具创造性，但他们成功地模仿了希腊的哲学家、演说家、历史学家和诗人。罗马被奥古斯都从一个砖房城市变成了一个大理石宫殿的城市。$^{79}$ 最精美的绘画和雕塑从希腊进口，凯旋门和纪念柱竖立在公共广场上，世界各地的珍宝都为首都的骄傲、美丽和奢华服务。各省也受到这种改进精神的感染，人口众多的城市拔地而起，宏伟的耶路撒冷圣殿也由希律王的雄心壮志重建。人身和财产权利得到了很好的保护。被征服的民族，虽然常常公正地抱怨行省总督的贪婪，但总体上享有更大的安全，免受国内纷争和外来入侵，享有更大部分的社会舒适，并达到了更高的世俗文明程度。帝国的两端通过精心修建的道路实现了军事、商业和文学的沟通，这些道路的痕迹至今仍在叙利亚、阿尔卑斯山脉和莱茵河畔存在。在凯撒统治时期，旅行的便利和安全比之后直到十九世纪之前的任何时期都要好。五条主干道从罗马通往帝国的尽头，并在海港与海上航线相连。“我们可以在任何时候旅行，”一位罗马作家说，“从东到西航行。”商人们将钻石从东方、琥珀从波罗的海沿岸、贵金属从西班牙、野生动物从非洲、艺术品从希腊，以及各种奢侈品带到台伯河畔的市场，就像他们现在将这些东西带到泰晤士河畔一样。《启示录》的先知在他对帝国女主宰世界之城倾覆的预言性描绘中，突出了她庞大的商业：“地上的客商也都为她哭泣悲哀，因为没有人再买他们的货物了；这货物就是金、银、宝石、珍珠、细麻布、紫色料、绸子、朱红色料、各样香木、各样象牙的器皿、各样极宝贵的木头和铜、铁、汉白玉的器皿，并肉桂、豆蔻、香料、香膏、乳香、酒、油、细面、麦子、牛、羊、车、马和奴仆、人口。你心所贪爱的果子离开了你；你一切的珍馐美味和华美的物件也从你中间毁灭，决不能再见了。”$^{80}$

异教罗马在这预言之后还存活了很长一段时间，但衰败的原因在第一世纪就已经在起作用了。巨大的扩张和外在的繁荣带来了那些曾使罗马人远胜于希腊人的家庭和公民美德的减少。那些从犁地走向公共服务，又谦卑地回到犁地或厨房的爱国者和解放者的种族已经灭绝。他们对神祇的崇拜，曾是他们美德的根源，已经沦为纯粹的形式，要么走向最荒谬的迷信，要么让位给不信，以至于祭司们在街上相遇时都互相嘲笑。我们常常发现不信和迷信在同一些人身上结合，正如那句格言所说，所有极端都相互接触。人必须相信某种东西，要么敬拜上帝，要么敬拜魔鬼。$^{81}$ 魔法师和巫师比比皆是，并受到慷慨的资助。古老的简朴和满足被无尽的贪婪和挥霍所取代。道德和贞洁，曾被贞女维斯塔的家庭祭司职务优美地象征着，让位于邪恶和放荡。娱乐变成了野兽和角斗士的野蛮打斗，这在一个月内常常消耗两万条人命。下层阶级失去了所有高尚的情感，只关心“面包和马戏”，并使台伯河畔那座骄傲的帝国城市成为奴隶中的奴隶。提比略和尼禄的庞大帝国只是一个没有灵魂的巨人，缓慢但坚定地走向最终的瓦解。一些皇帝是恶魔般的暴君和邪恶的怪物；然而他们却经元老院投票被供奉在众神之中，并为他们的崇拜建造了祭坛和神殿。这种独特的习俗始于凯撒，他甚至在生前就因其辉煌的胜利而被尊为“神圣的尤利乌斯”（Divus Julius），尽管这些胜利是以一百多万人的被杀和另外一百万人的被俘和奴役为代价的。$^{82}$ 圣保罗在致罗马人的信中描绘的他那个时代异教的黑暗画面，得到了塞内加、塔西佗、尤维纳利斯、佩尔西乌斯和其他那个时代的异教作家的充分证实，并显示了救赎的绝对必要性。“世界，”塞内加在一篇著名的文章中说，“充满了罪行和恶习。犯下的罪行比武力所能治愈的要多。这是一场巨大的罪恶斗争。罪行不再是隐藏的，而是公然呈现在眼前。纯真不仅罕见，而且无处可寻。”$^{83}$ 这是负面的一面。另一方面，罗马的普世帝国是福音普世帝国的积极基础。它像一个熔炉，将古代各民族所有矛盾和不可调和的特性溶解成一个新创造的混沌状态。罗马军团推倒了古代民族之间的隔墙，将文明世界的两极带入自由的交往中，并以共同的语言和文化、共同的法律和习俗将南北东西联合起来。因此，他们显然，尽管是无意识地，为那通过信仰和爱的属灵纽带将万国联合成一个上帝大家庭的宗教的迅速和普遍传播开辟了道路。

一种共同人性的理念，它超越了种族、社会和教育的所有区别，开始在异教徒的头脑中萌芽，并在泰伦提乌斯那句在剧院里受到掌声欢迎的名言中得到表达：

“我是人，凡是人性的东西，我都觉得与我并非无关。”
（Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.）

这种人道主义精神在西塞罗和维吉尔的作品中得以体现。因此，教父们和整个中世纪都对《埃涅阿斯纪》的诗人表示敬意。奥古斯丁称他为最高贵的诗人，但丁则称他为“其他诗人的荣耀和光芒”，是“他的导师”，引导他穿越地狱和炼狱，直至天堂之门。人们曾相信，他在他的第四首《牧歌》中预言了基督的降临。这种解释是错误的；但是，“在维吉尔的作品中，”一位博学的学者说，$^{84}$ “有一种思想和情感的脉络，比在任何其他古代诗人，无论是希腊人还是罗马人中，都更虔诚，更人道，更接近基督教。他是一个准备好并等待着的灵魂，尽管他自己并不知道，等待着某种更好的事物被揭示。”

罗马的民法和制度，以及其伟大的行政智慧，也为基督教会的外部组织作出了巨大贡献。正如希腊教会建立在希腊民族性的基础上一样，拉丁教会也建立在古罗马的基础上，并以更高的形式再现了其美德和缺陷。罗马天主教是受洗的异教罗马，是对古时坐落在七山之城的普世帝国的一种基督教再现。

§ 13. 犹太教与异教的接触

罗马帝国，虽然直接建立的仅仅是外部的政治联合，但它间接地促进了犹太教和外邦人这些敌对宗教之间在思想和道德上的相互接近，他们将通过基督十字架的超自然力量，在一个神圣的兄弟情谊中和解。

犹太人，自巴比伦被掳以来，已经散布到世界各地。他们在第一世纪的罗马帝国中无处不在，就像他们现在在整个基督教世界中一样。根据约瑟夫和斯特拉波的说法，没有一个国家没有他们作为人口的一部分。$^{85}$ 在五旬节奇迹的见证人中，有“从天下各国来的犹太人……有帕提亚人、玛代人、以拦人，和住在美索不达米亚、犹太、加帕多家、本都、亚西亚、弗吕家、旁非利亚、埃及的人，并靠近古利奈的利比亚一带地方的人，从罗马来的客旅中，或是犹太人，或是进犹太教的人，克里特和阿拉伯人。”$^{86}$ 尽管外邦人对他们怀有反感，但他们凭借才能和勤奋，获得了财富、影响力和各种特权，并在罗马帝国所有的商业城市建造了他们的会堂。庞培于公元前63年将相当数量的犹太俘虏从耶路撒冷带到首都，并将他们安置在台伯河右岸（特拉斯提弗列）。通过建立这个社群，他不知不觉地为罗马教会提供了主要的材料。尤利乌斯·凯撒是犹太人的伟大保护者；他们为了表示感谢，连续多晚聚集在他被谋杀的尸体被焚烧的罗马广场上哀悼他的死亡。$^{87}$ 他授予他们公共崇拜的自由，从而给予他们作为宗教团体的合法地位。奥古斯都确认了这些特权。在他的统治下，他们在城里的人数已经数以千计。随后出现了反动；提比略和克劳狄将他们驱逐出罗马；但他们很快又回来了，并成功地确保了他们仪式和习俗的自由行使。对他们的频繁讽刺性提及证明了他们的影响力，以及罗马人对他们的厌恶和蔑视。他们的请愿通过尼禄的妻子波佩娅传到尼禄的耳中，波佩娅似乎倾向于他们的信仰；而他们最杰出的学者约瑟夫，则享有三位皇帝——维斯帕先、提图斯和图密善的青睐。用塞内加的话来说（奥古斯丁引用），“被征服的犹太人给他们的罗马征服者制定了法律。”

通过犹太人的这次散居，关于真神的知识和弥赛亚盼望的种子被播撒在偶像崇拜世界的田野里。旧约圣经在基督前两个世纪被翻译成希腊文，并在向所有人开放的公共敬拜中被阅读和解释。每一个会堂都是一神论的宣教站，并为使徒们宣讲耶稣基督为律法和先知的成全者提供了绝佳的场所和自然的引介。

然后，由于异教宗教已被怀疑主义哲学和大众的不信无可挽回地破坏了，许多认真的外邦人，特别是大量的妇女，或全部或部分地归向了犹太教。完全归信者，被称为“公义的皈依者”（proselytes of righteousness），$^{88}$ 通常比土生土长的犹太人更加偏执和狂热。半归信者，“门口的皈依者”（proselytes of the gate）$^{89}$ 或“敬畏神的人”，$^{90}$ 他们只接纳犹太教的一神论、主要的道德法则和弥赛亚的盼望，而不受割礼，在新约中表现为最易接受福音的听众，并构成了许多早期基督教会的核心。迦百农的百夫长、凯撒利亚的哥尼流、腓立比的吕底亚、提摩太以及许多其他杰出的门徒都属于这一类。
另一方面，希腊罗马的异教，通过其语言、哲学和文学，对软化犹太人中较高和更有教养阶层的狂热偏执产生了不小的影响。通常，散居的、说希腊语的犹太人——被称为“希腊化的犹太人”（Hellenists）——比保持母语的“希伯来人”或巴勒斯坦犹太人要开明得多。这在外邦宣教士，塞浦路斯的巴拿巴和塔尔苏的保罗，以及整个安提阿教会中都很明显，与耶路撒冷教会形成对比。希腊化的基督教形式是通往外邦人的天然桥梁。

一个过渡性的、尽管非常奇特和类似诺斯底主义的、犹太和异教元素结合的最显著例子，出现在埃及大都市亚历山大的有教养圈子中，以及斐洛的体系中。斐洛生于公元前20年左右，活到公元40年之后，尽管他从未与基督或使徒们接触过。这位犹太神学家试图通过对旧约进行巧妙但任意的寓言式解释来调和摩西的宗教与柏拉图的哲学；他从《箴言》和《智慧书》中推导出的“道”（Logos）的教义，与约翰福音中的教义惊人地相似，以至于许多解经家认为有必要认定使徒约翰熟悉斐洛的著作，或至少熟悉其术语。但斐洛的思辨之于使徒的“道成肉身”，如同影子之于实体，或梦境之于现实。他没有为道成肉身留下任何空间，但他思辨与这一伟大事实的巧合确实非常引人注目。$^{91}$

埃及的一个神秘和禁欲的教派，治疗派（Therapeutae）或崇拜者（Worshippers），与犹太的艾赛尼派相似，将这种柏拉图式的犹太教付诸实践；但当然，他们在以一种活泼而持久的方式联合这两种宗教方面同样不成功。这样的联合只能通过一种从天上启示的新宗教来实现。$^{92}$

与亚历山大的哲学犹太教完全无关的是撒玛利亚人，他们是一个混合的民族，也以一种不同的方式结合了犹太和外邦宗教的元素。$^{93}$ 他们的历史可以追溯到流亡时期。他们信奉摩西五经、行割礼，并怀有肉体的弥赛亚盼望；但他们在基利心山上有自己的圣殿，并且对正统犹太人怀有致命的仇恨。从耶稣与撒玛利亚妇人的谈话，$^{94}$ 以及腓利的传道来看，$^{95}$ 基督教在他们中间很容易被接受，但像在艾赛尼派和治疗派中一样，它很容易陷入异端的形式。例如，行邪术的西门和其他一些撒玛利亚的大异端者，被早期基督教作家描述为诺斯底主义的主要创始人。
因此，为基督教预备的道路，从各个方面，无论是正面的还是负面的，直接的还是间接的，理论上的还是实践上的，都已铺平——通过真理和谬误，通过错误的信仰和不信——这对 hostile 兄弟，却又无法分开生活——通过犹太宗教，通过希腊文化，通过罗马征服；通过犹太和异教思想徒劳的融合尝试，通过自然文明、哲学、艺术和政治力量的无能为力的暴露，通过旧宗教的衰败，通过那个时代普遍的分心和无望的苦难，以及所有认真和高尚灵魂对救赎宗教的渴望。

“及至时候满足”，当科学和艺术最美丽的花朵凋谢，世界濒临绝望之际，童贞女之子诞生了，以治愈人类的软弱。基督进入一个垂死的世界，成为一种新的、不朽的生命的创造者。

原文

CHAPTER I.

PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH AND HEATHEN WORLD.

Literature.

J. L. von Mosheim: Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity in the first three centuries. 1753. Transl. by Vidal and Murdock, vol. i. chs. 1 and 2 (pp. 9–82, of the N. York ed. 1853).

Neander: Allg. Gesch. der christl. Religion und Kirche. Vol. 1st (1842). Einleit. (p. 1–116).

J. P. Lange: Das Apost. Zeitalter. 1853, I. pp. 224–318.

Schaff: Hist. of the Apostolic Church. pp. 137–188 (New York ed.).

Lutterbeck (R. C.): Die N. Testamentlichen Lehrbegriffe, oder Untersuchungen über das Zeitalter der Religionswende, die Vorstufen des Christenthums und die erste Gestaltung desselben. Mainz, 1852, 2 vols.

Döllinger (R. C.): Heidenthum und Judenthum. Vorhalle zur Geschichte des Christenthums. Regensb. 1857. Engl. transl. by N. Darnell under the title: The Gentile and the Jew in the courts of the Temple of Christ: an Introduction to the History of Christianity. Lond. 1862, 2 vols.

Charles Hardwick (d. 1859): Christ and other Masters. London, 4th ed. by Procter, 1875.

M. Schneckenburger (d. 1848): Vorlesungen über N. Testamentliche Zeitgeschichte, aus dessen Nachlass herausgegeben von Löhlein, mit Vorwort von Hundeshagen. Frankf. a M. 1862.

A. Hausrath: N. Testamentliche Zeitgeschichte. Heidelb. 1868 sqq., 2d ed. 1873–’77, 4 vols. The first vol. appeared in a third ed. 1879. The work includes the state of Judaism and heathenism in the time of Christ, the apostolic and the post-apostolic age to Hadrian (A.D. 117). English translation by Poynting and Guenzer, Lond. 1878 sqq.

E. Schürer: Lehrbuch der N. Testamentlichen Zeitgeschichte. Leipz. 1874. Revised and enlarged under the title: Gesch. des jüd. Volkes im Zeitalter Christi. 1886, 2 vols. Engl. translation, Edinb. and N. Y.

H. Schiller: Geschichte des römischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero. Berlin, 1872.

L. Freidländer: Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in der Zeit von Augustus bis zum Ausgang der Antonine. Leipzig, 5th ed., revised, 1881, 3 vols. A standard work.

Geo. P. Fisher (of Yale College, New Haven): The Beginnings of Christianity. N. York, 1877. Chs. II.-VII.

Gerhard Uhlhorn: The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. Transl. by Egbert C. Smyth and C. T H. Ropes. N. York, 1879. Book I. chs. 1 and 2. The German original appeared in a 4th ed., 1884.

§ 8. Central Position of Christ in the History of the World.

To see clearly the relation of the Christian religion to the preceding history of mankind, and to appreciate its vast influence upon all future ages, we must first glance at the preparation which existed in the political, moral, and religious condition of the world for the advent of our Saviour.

As religion is the deepest and holiest concern of man, the entrance of the Christian religion into history is the most momentous of all events. It is the end of the old world and the beginning of the new. It was a great idea of Dionysius “the Little” to date our era from the birth of our Saviour. Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the prophet, priest, and king of mankind, is, in fact, the centre and turning-point not only of chronology, but of all history, and the key to all its mysteries. Around him, as the sun of the moral universe, revolve at their several distances, all nations and all important events, in the religious life of the world; and all must, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, contribute to glorify his name and advance his cause. The history of mankind before his birth must be viewed as a preparation for his coming, and the history after his birth as a gradual diffusion of his spirit and progress of his kingdom. “All things were created by him, and for him.” He is “the desire of all nations.” He appeared in the “fulness of time,”45 when the process of preparation was finished, and the world’s need of redemption fully disclosed.

This preparation for Christianity began properly with the very creation of man, who was made in the image of God, and destined for communion with him through the eternal Son; and with the promise of salvation which God gave to our first parents as a star of hope to guide them through the darkness of sin and error.46 Vague memories of a primitive paradise and subsequent fall, and hopes of a future redemption, survive even in the heathen religions.

With Abraham, about nineteen hundred years before Christ, the religious development of humanity separates into the two independent, and, in their compass, very unequal branches of Judaism and heathenism. These meet and unite—at last in Christ as the common Saviour, the fulfiller of the types and prophecies, desires and hopes of the ancient world; while at the same time the ungodly elements of both league in deadly hostility against him, and thus draw forth the full revelation of his all—conquering power of truth and love.

As Christianity is the reconciliation and union of God and man in and through Jesus Christ, the God-Man, it must have been preceded by a twofold process of preparation, an approach of God to man, and an approach of man to God. In Judaism the preparation is direct and positive, proceeding from above downwards, and ending with the birth of the Messiah. In heathenism it is indirect and mainly, though not entirely, negative, proceeding from below upwards, and ending with a helpless cry of mankind for redemption. There we have a special revelation or self-communication of the only true God by word and deed, ever growing clearer and plainer, till at last the divine Logos appears in human nature, to raise it to communion with himself; here men, guided indeed by the general providence of God, and lighted by the glimmer of the Logos shining in the darkness,47 yet unaided by direct revelation, and left to “walk in their own ways,”48 “that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.”49 In Judaism the true religion is prepared for man; in heathenism man is prepared for the true religion. There the divine substance is begotten; here the human forms are moulded to receive it. The former is like the elder son in the parable, who abode in his father’s house; the latter like the prodigal, who squandered his portion, yet at last shuddered before the gaping abyss of perdition, and penitently returned to the bosom of his father’s compassionate love.50 Heathenism is the starry night, full of darkness and fear, but of mysterious presage also, and of anxious waiting for the light of day; Judaism, the dawn, full of the fresh hope and promise of the rising sun; both lose themselves in the sunlight of Christianity, and attest its claim to be the only true and the perfect religion for mankind.

The heathen preparation again was partly intellectual and literary, partly political and social. The former is represented by the Greeks, the latter by the Romans.

Jerusalem, the holy city, Athens, the city of culture, and Rome, the city of power, may stand for the three factors in that preparatory history which ended in the birth of Christianity.

This process of preparation for redemption in the, history of the world, the groping of heathenism after the “unknown God”51 and inward peace, and the legal struggle and comforting hope of Judaism, repeat themselves in every individual believer; for man is made for Christ, and “his heart is restless, till it rests in Christ.”52

§ 9. Judaism.

Literature.

I. Sources.

The Canonical Books of the O. and N. Testaments.
The Jewish Apocrypha. Best edition by Otto Frid. Fritzsche: Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testamenti Graece. Lips. 1871. German Commentary by Fritzsche and Grimm, Leipz. 1851–’60 (in the “Exeget. Handbuch zum A. T.”); English Com. by Dr. E. C. Bissell, N. York, 1880 (vol. xxv. in Schaff’s ed. of Lange’s Bible-Work).
Josephus (a Jewish scholar, priest, and historian, patronized by Vespasian and Titus, b. A.D. 37, d. about 103): Antiquitates Judaicae (jArcaiologiva jIoudaikhv), in 20 books, written first (but not preserved) in Aramaic, and then reproduced in Greek, A.D. 94, beginning with the creation and coming down to the outbreak of the rebellion against the Romans, A.D. 66, important for the post-exilian period. Bellum Judaicum (peri; tou’ jIoudai>vkou’ polevmou), in 7 books, written about 75, from his own personal observation (as Jewish general in Galilee, then as Roman captive, and Roman agent), and coming down to the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. Contra. Apionem, a defence of the Jewish nation against the calumnies of the grammarian Apion. His Vita or Autobiography was written after A.D. 100.—Editions of Josephus by Hudson, Oxon. 1720, 2 vols. fol.; Havercamp, Amst. 1726, 2 fol.; Oberthür, Lips. 1785, 3 vols.; Richter, Lips. 1827, 6 vols.; Dindorf, Par. 1849, 2 vols.; Imm. Bekker, Lips. 1855, 6 vols. The editions of Havercamp and Dindorf are the best. English translations by Whiston and Traill, often edited, in London, New York, Philadelphia. German translations by Hedio, Ott, Cotta, Demme.
Philo of Alexandria (d. after A.D. 40) represents the learned and philosophical (Platonic) Judaism. Best ed. by Mangey, Lond. 1742, 2 fol., and Richter, Lips. 1828, 2 vols. English translation by C. D. Yonge, London, 1854, 4 vols. (in Bohn’s “Ecclesiastical Library”).
The Talmud (T’l]mWd i.e. Doctrine) represents the traditional, post-exilian, and anti-Christian Judaism. It consists of the Mishna (!iv]n:h ,, deutevrwsi” Repetition of the Law), from the end of the second century, and the Gemara (gÒm;r;a i.e. Perfect Doctrine, from gÉm’r to bring to an end). The latter exists in two forms, the Palestinian Gemara, completed at Tiberias about A.D. 350, and the Babylonian Gemara of the sixth century. Best eds. of the Talmud by Bomberg, Ven. 1520 sqq. 12 vols. fol., and Sittenfeld, Berlin, 1862–’68, 12 vols. fol. Latin version of the Mishna by G. Surenhusius, Amst. 1698–1703, 6 vols. fol.; German by J. J. Rabe, Onolzbach, 1760–’63.
Monumental Sources: of Egypt (see the works of Champollion, Young, Rosellini, Wilkinson, Birch, Mariette, Lepsius, Bunsen, Ebers, Brugsch, etc.); of Babylon and Assyria (see Botta, Layard, George Smith, Sayce, Schrader, etc.).
Greek and Roman authors: Polybius (d. b.c. 125), Diodorus Siculus (contemporary of Caesar), Strabo ((d. A.D. 24), Tacitus (d. about 117), Suetonius(d. about 130), Justinus (d. after A.D. 160). Their accounts are mostly incidental, and either simply derived from Josephus, or full of error and prejudice, and hence of very little value.

II. Histories.

(a) By Christian authors.

Prideaux (Dean of Norwich, d. 1724): The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and neighboring nations, from the declension of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the time of Christ. Lond. 1715; 11th ed. 1749, 4 vols. (and later eds.). The same in French and German.

J. J. Hess (d. 1828): Geschichte der Israeliten vor den Zeiten Jesu. Zür. 1766 sqq., 12 vols.

Warburton (Bishop of Gloucester, d. 1779): The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated. 5th ed. Lond. 1766; 10th ed. by James Nichols, Lond. 1846, 3 vols. 8vo.

Milman (Dean of St. Paul’s, d. 1868): History of the Jews. Lond. 1829, 3 vols.; revised ed. Lond. and N. York, 1865, 3 vols.

J. C. K. Hofmann (Prof. in Erlangen, d. 1878): Weissagung und Erfüllung. Nördl. 1841, 2 vols.

Archibald Alexander (d. at Princeton, 1851): A History of the Israelitish Nation. Philadelphia, 1853. (Popular.)

H. Ewald (d. 1874): Geschichte des Volkes Israel bis Christus. Gött. 1843 sqq. 3d ed. 1864–’68, 7 vols. A work of rare genius and learning, but full of bold conjectures. Engl. transl. by Russell Martineau and J. E. Carpenter. Lond. 1871–’76, 5 vols. Comp. also Ewald’s Prophets, and Poetical Books of the O. T.

E. W. Hengstenberg (d. 1869): Geschichte des Reiches Gottes unter dem Alten Bunde. Berl. 1869–’71, 2 vols. (Posthumous publication.) English transl., Edinburgh (T. & T. Clark), 1871–272, 2 vols. (Name of the translator not given.)

J. H. Kurtz: Geschichte des Alten Bundes. Berlin, 1848–’55, 2 vols. (unfinished). Engl. transl. by Edersheim, Edinb. 1859, in 3 vols. The same: Lehrbuch der heil. Geschichte. Königsb. 6th ed. 1853; also in English, by C. F. Schäffer. Phil. 1855.

P. Cassel: Israel in der Weltgeschichte. Berlin, 1865 (32 pp.).

Joseph Langen (R. C.): Das Judenthum in Palästina zur Zeit Christi. Freiburg i. B. 1866.

G. Weber and H. Holtzmann: Geschichte des Volkes Israel und der Gründung des Christenthums. Leipzig, 1867, 2 vols. (the first vol. by Weber, the second by Holtzmann).

H. Holtzmann: Die Messiasidee zur Zeit Christi, in the “Jahrbücher für Deutsche Theologie,” Gotha, 1867 (vol. xii. pp. 389–411).

F. Hitzig: Geschichte des Volkes Israel von Anbeginn bis zur Eroberung Masada’s im J. 72 nach Chr. Heidelb. 1869, 2 vols.

A. Kuenen (Prof. in Leyden): De godsdienst van Israël tot den ondergang van den joodschen staat. Haarlem, 1870, 2 vols. Transl. into English. The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State, by A. H. May. Lond. (Williams & Norgate), 1874–’75, 3 vols. Represents the advanced rationalism of Holland.

A. P. Stanley (Dean of Westminster): Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church. Lond. and N. York, 1863–76, 3 vols. Based on Ewald.

W. Wellhausen: Geschichte Israels. Berlin, 1878, 3d ed. 1886. Transl. by Black and Menzies: Prolegomena to the History of Israel. Edinb. 1885.

F. Schürer: Geschichte des jüd. Volkes im Zeitalter Christi. 1886 sq. 2 vols.

A. Edersheim: Prophecy and History in relation to the Messiah. Lond. 1885.

A. Köhler: Lehrbuch der bibl. Geschichte des A. T. Erlangen, 1875–’88.

C. A. Briggs: Messianic Prophecy. N. York and Edinb. 1886.

V. H. Stanton: The Jewish, and the Christian Messiah. Lond. 1886.

B. Stade: Gesch. des Volkes Israel. Berlin, 1888, 2 vols. Radical.

E. Renan: Hist. du peuple d’Israel. Paris, 1887 sqq., 3 vols. Engl. translation, London, 1888 sqq. Radical.

B. Kittel: Gesch. der Hebräer. Gotha, 1888 sqq. Moderate.

(b) By Jewish authors.

J. M. Jost: Geschichte der Israeliten seit der Zeit der Maccabäer bis auf unsere Tage. Leipz. 1820–’28, 9 vols. By the same: Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten. 1857–159, 3 vols.

Salvador: Histoire de la domination Romaine en Judée et de la ruine de Jerusalem. Par. 1847, 2 vols.

Raphall: Post-biblical History of the Jews from the close of the 0. T. about the year 420 till the destruction of the second Temple in the year 70. Lond. 1856, 2 vols.

Abraham Geiger (a liberal Rabbi at Frankfort on the M.): Das Judenthum und seine Geschichte. Breslau; 2d ed. 1865–’71, 3 vols. With an appendix on Strauss and Renan. Comes down to the 16th century. English transl. by Maurice Mayer. N. York, 1865.

L. Herzfeld: Geschichte des Volkes Jizrael. Nordhausen, 1847–’57, 3 vols. The same work, abridged in one vol. Leipz. 1870.

H. Grätz (Prof. in Breslau): Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart. Leipz. 1854–’70, 11 vols. (to 1848).

“Salvation is of the Jews.”53 This wonderful people, whose fit symbol is the burning bush, was chosen by sovereign grace to stand amidst the surrounding idolatry as the bearer of the knowledge of the only true God, his holy law, and cheering promise, and thus to become the cradle of the Messiah. It arose with the calling of Abraham, and the covenant of Jehovah with him in Canaan, the land of promise; grew to a nation in Egypt, the land of bondage; was delivered and organized into a theocratic state on the basis of the law of Sinai by Moses in the wilderness; was led back into Palestine by Joshua; became, after the Judges, a monarchy, reaching the height of its glory in David and Solomon; split into two hostile kingdoms, and, in punishment for internal discord and growing apostasy to idolatry, was carried captive by heathen conquerors; was restored after seventy years’ humiliation to the land of its fathers, but fell again under the yoke of heathen foes; yet in its deepest abasement fulfilled its highest mission by giving birth to the Saviour of the world. “The history of the Hebrew people,” says Ewald, “is, at the foundation, the history of the true religion growing through all the stages of progress unto its consummation; the religion which, on its narrow national territory, advances through all struggles to the highest victory, and at length reveals itself in its full glory and might, to the end that, spreading abroad by its own irresistible energy, it may never vanish away, but may become the eternal heritage and blessing of all nations. The whole ancient world had for its object to seek the true religion; but this people alone finds its being and honor on earth exclusively in the true religion, and thus it enters upon the stage of history.”54

Judaism, in sharp contrast with the idolatrous nations of antiquity, was like an oasis in a desert, clearly defined and isolated; separated and enclosed by a rigid moral and ceremonial law. The holy land itself, though in the midst of the three Continents of the ancient world, and surrounded by the great nations of ancient culture, was separated from them by deserts south and east, by sea on the west, and by mountain on the north; thus securing to the Mosaic religion freedom to unfold itself and to fulfil its great work without disturbing influenced from abroad. But Israel carried in its bosom from the first the large promise, that in Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Abraham, the father of the faithful, Moses, the lawgiver, David, the heroic king and sacred psalmist, Isaiah, the evangelist among the prophets, Elijah the Tishbite, who reappeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration to do homage to Jesus, and John the Baptist, the impersonation of the whole Old Testament, are the most conspicuous links in the golden chain of the ancient revelation.

The outward circumstances and the moral and religious condition of the Jews at the birth of Christ would indeed seem at first and on the whole to be in glaring contradiction with their divine destiny. But, in the first place, their very degeneracy proved the need of divine help. In the second place, the redemption through Christ appeared by contrast in the greater glory, as a creative act of God. And finally, amidst the mass of corruption, as a preventive of putrefaction, lived the succession of the true children of Abraham, longing for the salvation of Israel, and ready to embrace Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah and Saviour of the world.

Since the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey, b.c. 63 (the year made memorable by the consulship of Cicero. the conspiracy of Catiline, and the birth of Caesar Augustus), the Jews had been subject to the heathen Romans, who heartlessly governed them by the Idumean Herod and his sons, and afterwards by procurators. Under this hated yoke their Messianic hopes were powerfully raised, but carnally distorted. They longed chiefly for a political deliverer, who should restore the temporal dominion of David on a still more splendid scale; and they were offended with the servant form of Jesus, and with his spiritual kingdom. Their morals were outwardly far better than those of the heathen; but under the garb of strict obedience to their law, they concealed great corruption. They are pictured in the New Testament as a stiff-necked, ungrateful, and impenitent race, the seed of the serpent, a generation of vipers. Their own priest and historian, Josephus, who generally endeavored to present his countrymen to the Greeks and Romans in the most favorable light, describes them as at that time a debased and wicked people, well deserving their fearful punishment in the destruction of Jerusalem.

As to religion, the Jews, especially after the Babylonish captivity, adhered most tenaciously to the letter of the law, and to their traditions and ceremonies, but without knowing the spirit and power of the Scriptures. They cherished a bigoted horror of the heathen, and were therefore despised and hated by them as misanthropic, though by their judgment, industry, and tact, they were able to gain wealth and consideration in all the larger cities of the Roman empire.

After the time of the Maccabees (b.c. 150), they fell into three mutually hostile sects or parties, which respectively represent the three tendencies of formalism, skepticism, and mysticism; all indicating the approaching dissolution of the old religion and the dawn of the new. We may compare them to the three prevailing schools of Greek philosophy—the Stoic, the Epicurean, and the Platonic, and also to the three sects of Mohammedanism—the Sunnis, who are traditionalists, the Sheas, who adhere to the Koran, and the Sufis or mystics, who seek true religion in “internal divine sensation.”

The Pharisees, the “separate,”55 were, so to speak, the Jewish Stoics. They represented the traditional orthodoxy and stiff formalism, the legal self-righteousness and the fanatical bigotry of Judaism. They had most influence with the people and the women, and controlled the public worship. They confounded piety with theoretical orthodoxy. They overloaded the holy Scriptures with the traditions of the elders so as to make the Scriptures “of none effect.” They analyzed the Mosaic law to death, and substituted a labyrinth of casuistry for a living code. “They laid heavy burdens and grievous to be borne on men’s shoulders,” and yet they themselves would “not move them with their fingers.” In the New Testament they bear particularly the reproach of hypocrisy; with, of course, illustrious exceptions, like Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and his disciple, Paul.
The less numerous Sadducees56 were skeptical, rationalistic, and worldly-minded, and held about the same position in Judaism as the Epicureans and the followers of the New Academy in Greek and Roman heathendom. They accepted the written Scriptures (especially the Pentateuch), but rejected the oral traditions, denied the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul, the existence of angels and spirits, and the doctrine of an all-ruling providence. They numbered their followers among the rich, and had for some time possession of the office of the high-priest. Caiaphas belonged to their party.

The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees reappears among modern Jews, who are divided into the orthodox and the liberal or rationalistic parties.

The Essenes (whom we know only from Philo and Josephus) were not a party, but a mystic and ascetic order or brotherhood, and lived mostly in monkish seclusion in villages and in the desert Engedi on the Dead Sea.57 They numbered about 4,000 members. With an arbitrary, allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament, they combined some foreign theosophic elements, which strongly resemble the tenets of the new Pythagorean and Platonic schools, but were probably derived (like the Gnostic and Manichaean theories) from eastern religions, especially from Parsism. They practised communion of goods, wore white garments, rejected animal food, bloody sacrifices, oaths, slavery, and (with few exceptions) marriage, and lived in the utmost simplicity, hoping thereby to attain a higher degree of holiness. They were the forerunners of Christian monasticism.

The sect of the Essenes came seldom or never into contact with Christianity under the Apostles, except in the shape of a heresy at Colossae. But the Pharisees and Sadducees, particularly the former, meet us everywhere in the Gospels as bitter enemies of Jesus, and hostile as they are to each other, unite in condemning him to that death of the cross, which ended in the glorious resurrection, and became the foundation of spiritual life to believing Gentiles as well as Jews.

§ 10. The Law, and the Prophecy.

Degenerate and corrupt though the mass of Judaism was, yet the Old Testament economy was the divine institution preparatory to the Christian redemption, and as such received deepest reverence from Christ and his apostles, while they sought by terrible rebuke to lead its unworthy representatives to repentance. It therefore could not fail of its saving effect on those hearts which yielded to its discipline, and conscientiously searched the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets.

Law and prophecy are the two great elements of the Jewish religion, and make it a direct divine introduction to Christianity, “the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

The law of Moses was the clearest expression of the holy will of God before the advent of Christ. The Decalogue is a marvel of ancient legislation, and in its two tables enjoins the sum and substance of all true piety and morality—supreme love to God, and love to our neighbor. It set forth the ideal of righteousness, and was thus fitted most effectually to awaken the sense of man’s great departure from it, the knowledge of sin and guilt.58 It acted as a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ59 that they might be justified by faith.”60

The same sense of guilt and of the need of reconciliation was constantly kept alive by daily sacrifices, at first in the tabernacle and afterwards in the temple, and by the whole ceremonial law, which, as a wonderful system of types and shadows, perpetually pointed to the realities of the new covenant, especially to the one all-sufficient atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

God in his justice requires absolute obedience and purity of heart under promise of life and penalty of death. Yet he cannot cruelly sport with man; he is the truthful faithful, and merciful God. In the moral and ritual law, therefore, as in a shell, is hidden the sweet kernel of a promise, that he will one day exhibit the ideal of righteousness in living form, and give the penitent sinner pardon for all his transgressions and the power to fulfil the law. Without such assurance the law were bitter irony.

As regards the law, the Jewish economy was a religion of repentance.

But it was at the same time, as already, hinted, the vehicle of the divine promise of redemption, and, as such, a religion of hope. While the Greeks and Romans put their golden age in the past, the Jews looked for theirs in the future. Their whole history, their religious, political, and social institutions and customs pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and the establishment of his kingdom on earth.

Prophecy, or the gospel under the covenant of the law, is really older than the law, which was added afterwards and came in between the promise and its fulfilment, between sin and redemption, between the disease and the cure.61 Prophecy begins in paradise with the promise of the serpent-bruiser immediately after the fall. It predominates in the patriarchal age, especially in the life of Abraham, whose piety has the corresponding character of trust and faith; and Moses, the lawgiver, was at the same time a prophet pointing the people to a greater successor.62 Without the comfort of the Messianic promise, the law must have driven the earnest soul to despair. From the time of Samuel, some eleven centuries before Christ, prophecy, hitherto sporadic, took an organized form in a permanent prophetical office and order. In this form it accompanied the Levitical priesthood and the Davidic dynasty down to the Babylonish captivity, survived this catastrophe, and directed the return of the people and the rebuilding of the temple; interpreting and applying the law, reproving abuses in church and state, predicting the terrible judgments and the redeeming grace of God, warning and punishing, comforting and encouraging, with an ever plainer reference to the coming Messiah, who should redeem Israel and the world from sin and misery, and establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness on earth.

The victorious reign of David and the peaceful reign of Solomon furnish, for Isaiah and his successors, the historical and typical ground for a prophetic picture of a far more glorious future, which, unless thus attached to living memories and present circumstances, could not have been understood. The subsequent catastrophe and the sufferings of the captivity served to develop the idea of a Messiah atoning for the sins of the people and entering through suffering into glory.

The prophetic was an extraordinary office, serving partly to complete, partly to correct the regular, hereditary priesthood, to prevent it from stiffening into monotonous formality, and keep it in living flow. The prophets were, so to speak, the Protestants of the ancient covenant, the ministers of the spirit and of immediate communion with God, in distinction from the ministers of the letter and of traditional and ceremonial mediation.

The flourishing period of our canonical prophecy began with the eighth century before Christ, some seven centuries after Moses, when Israel was suffering under Assyrian oppression. In this period before the captivity, Isaiah (“the salvation of God”), who appeared in the last years of king Uzziah, about ten years before the founding of Rome, is the leading figure; and around him Micah, Joel, and Obadiah in the kingdom of Judah, and Hosea, Amos, and Jonah in the kingdom of Israel, are grouped. Isaiah reached the highest elevation of prophecy, and unfolds feature by feature a picture of the Messiah—springing from the house of David, preaching the glad tidings to the poor, healing the broken-hearted, opening the eyes to the blind, setting at liberty the captives, offering himself as a lamb to the slaughter, bearing the sins of the people, dying the just for the unjust, triumphing over death and ruling as king of peace over all nations—a picture which came to its complete fulfilment in one person, and one only, Jesus of Nazareth. He makes the nearest approach to the cross, and his book is the Gospel of the Old Testament. In the period of the Babylonian exile, Jeremiah (i.e. “the Lord casts down”) stands chief. He is the prophet of sorrow, and yet of the new covenant of the Spirit. In his denunciations of priests and false prophets, his lamentations over Jerusalem, his holy grief, his bitter persecution he resembles the mission and life of Christ. He remained in the land of his fathers, and sang his lamentation on the ruins of Jerusalem; while Ezekiel warned the exiles on the river Chebar against false prophets and carnal hopes, urged them to repentance, and depicted the new Jerusalem and the revival of the dry bones of the people by the breath of God; and Daniel at the court of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon saw in the spirit the succession of the four empires and the final triumph of the eternal kingdom of the Son of Man. The prophets of the restoration are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. With Malachi who lived to the time of Nehemiah, the Old Testament prophecy ceased, and Israel was left to himself four hundred years, to digest during this period of expectation the rich substance of that revelation, and to prepare the birth-place for the approaching redemption.

Immediately before the advent of the Messiah the whole Old Testament, the law and the prophets, Moses and Isaiah together, reappeared for a short season embodied in John the Baptist, and then in unrivalled humility disappeared as the red dawn in the splendor of the rising sun of the new covenant. This remarkable man, earnestly preaching repentance in the wilderness and laying the axe at the root of the tree, and at the same time comforting with prophecy, and pointing to the atoning Lamb of God, was indeed, as the immediate forerunner of the New Testament economy, and the personal friend of the heavenly Bridegroom, the greatest of them that were born of woman; yet in his official character as the representative of the ancient preparatory economy he stands lower than the least in that kingdom of Christ, which is infinitely more glorious than all its types and shadows in the past.

This is the Jewish religion, as it flowed from the fountain of divine revelation and lived in the true Israel, the spiritual children of Abraham, in John the Baptist, his parents and disciples, in the mother of Jesus, her kindred and friends, in the venerable Simeon, and the prophetess Anna, in Lazarus and his pious sisters, in the apostles and the first disciples, who embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfiller of the law and the prophets, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and who were the first fruits of the Christian Church.

§ 11. Heathenism.

Literature.

I. Sources.

The works of the Greek and Roman Classics from Homer to Virgil and the age of the Antonines.

The monuments of Antiquity.

The writings of the early Christian Apologists, especially Justin Martyr: Apologia I. and II.; Tertullian: Apologeticus; Minucius Felix: Octavius; Eusebius: Praeparatio Evangelica; and Augustine (d. 430): De Civitate Dei (the first ten books).

II. Later Works.

Is. Vossius: De theologia gentili et physiolog. Christ. Frcf. 1675, 2 vols.

Creuzer (d. 1858): Symbolik und Mythologie der alien Völker. Leipz. 3d ed, 1837 sqq. 3 vols.

Tholuck (d. 1877): Das Wesen und der sittliche Einfluss des Heidenthums, besonders unter den Griechen und Römern, mit Hinsicht auf das Christenthum. Berlin, 1823. In Neander’s Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. i. of the 1st ed. Afterwards separately printed. English translation by Emerson in, “Am. Bibl. Repository” for 1832.

Tzschirner (d. 1828): Der Fall des Heidenthums, ed. by Niedner. Leip, 1829, 1st vol.

O. Müller (d. 1840): Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftl. Mythologie. Gött. 1825. Transl. into English by J. Leitch. Lond. 1844.

Hegel (d. 1831): Philosphie der Religion. Berl. 1837, 2 vols.

Stuhr: Allgem. Gesch. der Religionsformen der heidnischen Völker. Berl. 1836, 1837, 2 vols. (vol. 2d on the Hellenic Religion).

Hartung: Die Religion der Römer. Erl. 1836, 2 vols.

C. F. Nägelsbach: Homerische Theologie. Nürnb. 1840; 2d ed. 1861. The same: Die nach-homerische Theologie des Griechischen Volksglaubens bis auf Alexander. Nürnb. 1857 .

Sepp (R. C.): Das Heidenthum und dessen Bedeutung für das Christenthum. Regensb. 1853, 3 vols.

Wuttke: Geschichte des Heidenthums in Beziehung auf Religion, Wissen, Kunst, Sittlichkeit und Staatsleben. Bresl. 1852 sqq. 2 vols.

Schelling (d. 1854): Einleitung in die Philosophie der Mythologie. Stuttg. 1856; and Philosophie der Mythologie . Stuttg. 1857.

Maurice (d. 1872): The Religions of the World in their Relations to Christianity. Lond. 1854 (reprinted in Boston).

Trench: Hulsean Lectures for 1845–’46. No. 2: Christ the Desire of all Nations, or the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom (a commentary on the star of the wise men, Matt. ii.). Cambr. 4th ed. 1854 (also 1850).

L. Preller: Griechische Mythologie. Berlin, 1854, 3d ed. 1875, 2 vols. By the same; Römische Mythologie. Berlin, 1858; 3d ed., by Jordan, 1881–83, 2 vols.

M. W. Heffter: Griech. und Röm. Mythologie. Leipzig, 1854.

Döllinger: Heidenthum und Judenthum, quoted in § 8.

C. Schmidt: Essai historique sur la societé civil dans le monde romain et sur sa transformation par le christianisme. Paris, 1853.

C. G. Seibert: Griechenthum und Christenthum, oder der Vorhof des Schönen und das Heiligthum der Wahrheit. Barmen, 1857.

Fr. Fabri: Die Entstehung des Heidenthums und die Aufgabe der Heidenmission. Barmen, 1859.

W. E. Gladstone (the English statesman): Studies on Homer and Homeric Age. Oxf. 1858, 3 vols. (vol. ii. Olympus; or the Religion of the Homeric Age). The same: Juventus Mundi: the Gods and Men of the Heroic Age. 2d ed. Lond. 1870. (Embodies the results of the larger work, with several modifications in the ethnological and mythological portions.)

W. S. Tyler (Prof. in Amherst Coll., Mass.): The Theology of the Greek Poets. Boston, 1867.

B. F. Cocker: Christianity and Greek Philosophy; or the Relation between Reflective Thought in Greece and the Positive Teaching of Christ and his Apostles. N. York, 1870.

Edm. Spiess: Logos spermaticós. Parallelstellen zum N. Text. aus den Schriften der alten Griechen. Ein Beitrag zur christl. Apologetik und zur vergleichenden Religionsforschung. Leipz. 1871.

G. Boissier: La religion romaine d’Auguste aux Antonins. Paris, 1884, 2 vols.

J Reville: La religion à Rome sous les Sévères. Paris, 1886.

Heathenism is religion in its wild growth on the soil of fallen human nature, a darkening of the original consciousness of God, a deification of the rational and irrational creature, and a corresponding corruption of the moral sense, giving the sanction of religion to natural and unnatural vices.63

Even the religion of Greece, which, as an artistic product of the imagination, has been justly styled the religion of beauty, is deformed by this moral distortion. It utterly lacks the true conception of sin and consequently the true conception of holiness. It regards sin, not as a perverseness of will and an offence against the gods, but as a folly of the understanding and an offence against men, often even proceeding from the gods themselves; for “Infatuation,” or Moral Blindness ( [Ath), is a “daughter of Jove,” and a goddess, though cast from Olympus, and the source of all mischief upon earth. Homer knows no devil, but he put, a devilish element into his deities. The Greek gods, and also the Roman gods, who were copied from the former, are mere men and women, in whom Homer and the popular faith saw and worshipped the weaknesses and vices of the Grecian character, as well as its virtues, in magnified forms. The gods are born, but never die. They have bodies and senses, like mortals, only in colossal proportions. They eat and drink, though only nectar and ambrosia. They are awake and fall asleep. They travel, but with the swiftness of thought. They mingle in battle. They cohabit with human beings, producing heroes or demigods. They are limited to time and space. Though sometimes honored with the attributes of omnipotence and omniscience, and called holy and just, yet they are subject to an iron fate (Moira), fall under delusion, and reproach each other with folly and crime. Their heavenly happiness is disturbed by all the troubles of earthly life. Even Zeus or Jupiter, the patriarch of the Olympian family, is cheated by his sister and wife Hera (Juno), with whom he had lived three hundred years in secret marriage before he proclaimed her his consort and queen of the gods, and is kept in ignorance of the events before Troy. He threatens his fellows with blows and death, and makes Olympus tremble when he shakes his locks in anger. The gentle Aphrodite or Venus bleeds from a spear-wound on her finger. Mars is felled with a stone by Diomedes. Neptune and Apollo have to serve for hire and are cheated. Hephaestus limps and provokes an uproarious laughter. The gods are involved by their marriages in perpetual jealousies and quarrels. They are full of envy and wrath, hatred and lust prompt men to crime, and provoke each other to lying, and cruelty, perjury and adultery. The Iliad and Odyssey, the most popular poems of the Hellenic genius, are a chronique scandaleuse of the gods. Hence Plato banished them from his ideal Republic. Pindar, Aeschylus, and Sophocles also rose to loftier ideas of the gods and breathed a purer moral atmosphere; but they represented the exceptional creed of a few, while Homer expressed the popular belief. Truly we have no cause to long with Schiller for the return of the “gods of Greece,” but would rather join the poet in his joyful thanksgiving:

“Einen zu bereichern unter allen,

Musste diese Götterwelt vergehen.”

Notwithstanding this essential apostasy from truth and holiness, heathenism was religion, a groping after “the unknown God.” By its superstition it betrayed the need of faith. Its polytheism rested on a dim monotheistic background; it subjected all the gods to Jupiter, and Jupiter himself to a mysterious fate. It had at bottom the feeling of dependence on higher powers and reverence for divine things. It preserved the memory of a golden age and of a fall. It had the voice of conscience, and a sense, obscure though it was, of guilt. It felt the need of reconciliation with deity, and sought that reconciliation by prayer, penance, and sacrifice. Many of its religious traditions and usages were faint echoes of the primal religion; and its mythological dreams of the mingling of the gods with men, of demigods, of Prometheus delivered by Hercules from his helpless sufferings, were unconscious prophecies and fleshly anticipations of Christian truths.

This alone explains the great readiness with which heathens embraced the gospel, to the shame of the Jews.64

There was a spiritual Israel scattered throughout the heathen world, that never received the circumcision of the flesh, but the unseen circumcision of the heart by the hand of that Spirit which bloweth where it listeth, and is not bound to any human laws and to ordinary means. The Old Testament furnishes several examples of true piety outside of the visible communion with the Jewish church, in the persons of Melchisedec, the friend of Abraham, the royal priest, the type of Christ; Jethro, the priest of Midian; Rahab, the Canaanite woman and hostess of Joshua and Caleb; Ruth, the Moabitess and ancestress of our Saviour; King Hiram, the friend of David; the queen of Sheba, who came to admire the wisdom of Solomon; Naaman the Syrian; and especially Job, the sublime sufferer, who rejoiced in the hope of his Redeemer.65

The elements of truth, morality, and piety scattered throughout ancient heathenism, may be ascribed to three sources. In the first place, man, even in his fallen state, retains some traces of the divine image, a knowledge of God,66 however weak, a moral sense or conscience,67 and a longing for union with the Godhead, for truth and for righteousness.68 In this view we may, with Tertullian, call the beautiful and true sentences of a Socrates, a Plato, an Aristotle, of Pindar, Sophocles, Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, Plutarch, “the testimonies of a soul constitutionally Christian,”69 of a nature predestined to Christianity. Secondly, some account must be made of traditions and recollections, however faint, coming down from the general primal revelations to Adam and Noah. But the third and most important source of the heathen anticipations of truth is the all-ruling providence of God, who has never left himself without a witness. Particularly must we consider, with the ancient Greek fathers, the influence of the divine Logos before his incarnation,70 who was the tutor of mankind, the original light of reason, shining in the darkness and lighting every man, the sower scattering in the soil of heathendom the seeds of truth, beauty, and virtue.71

The flower of paganism, with which we are concerned here, appears in the two great nations of classic antiquity, Greece and Rome. With the language, morality, literature, and religion of these nations, the apostles came directly into contact, and through the whole first age the church moves on the basis of these nationalities. These, together with the Jews, were the chosen nations of the ancient world, and shared the earth among them. The Jews were chosen for things eternal, to keep the sanctuary of the true religion. The Greeks prepared the elements of natural culture, of science and art, for the use of the church. The Romans developed the idea of law, and organized the civilized world in a universal empire, ready to serve the spiritual universality of the gospel. Both Greeks and Romans were unconscious servants of Jesus Christ, “the unknown God.”

These three nations, by nature at bitter enmity among themselves, joined hands in the superscription on the cross, where the holy name and the royal title of the Redeemer stood written, by the command of the heathen Pilate, “in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.”72

§ 12. Grecian Literature, and the Roman Empire.

The literature of the ancient Greeks and the universal empire of the Romans were, next to the Mosaic religion, the chief agents in preparing the world for Christianity. They furnished the human forms, in which the divine substance of the gospel, thoroughly prepared in the bosom of the Jewish theocracy, was moulded. They laid the natural foundation for the supernatural edifice of the kingdom of heaven. God endowed the Greeks and Romans with the richest natural gifts, that they might reach the highest civilization possible without the aid of Christianity, and thus both provide the instruments of human science, art, and law for the use of the church, and yet at the same time show the utter impotence of these alone to bless and save the world.

The Greeks, few in number, like the Jews, but vastly more important in history than the numberless hordes of the Asiatic empires, were called to the noble task of bringing out, under a sunny sky and with a clear mind, the idea of humanity in its natural vigor and beauty, but also in its natural imperfection. They developed the principles of science and art. They liberated the mind from the dark powers of nature and the gloomy broodings of the eastern mysticism. They rose to the clear and free consciousness of manhood, boldly investigated the laws of nature and of spirit, and carried out the idea of beauty in all sorts of artistic forms. In poetry, sculpture, architecture, painting, philosophy, rhetoric, historiography, they left true masterpieces, which are to this day admired and studied as models of form and taste.

All these works became truly valuable and useful only in the hands of the Christian church, to which they ultimately fell. Greece gave the apostles the most copious and beautiful language to express the divine truth of the Gospel, and Providence had long before so ordered political movements as to spread that language over the world and to make it the organ of civilization and international intercourse, as the Latin was in the middle ages, as the French was in the eighteenth century and as the English is coming to be in the nineteenth. “Greek,” says Cicero, “is read in almost all nations; Latin is confined by its own narrow boundaries.” Greek schoolmasters and artists followed the conquering legions of Rome to Gaul and Spain. The youthful hero Alexander the Great, a Macedonian indeed by birth, yet an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, an emulator of Achilles, a disciple of the philosophic world-conqueror, Aristotle, and thus the truest Greek of his age, conceived the sublime thought of making Babylon the seat of a Grecian empire of the world; and though his empire fell to pieces at his untimely death, yet it had already carried Greek letters to the borders of India, and made them a common possession of all civilized nations. What Alexander had begun Julius Caesar completed. Under the protection of the Roman law the apostles could travel everywhere and make themselves understood through the Greek language in every city of the Roman domain.

The Grecian philosophy, particularly the systems of Plato and Aristotle, formed the natural basis for scientific theology; Grecian eloquence, for sacred oratory; Grecian art, for that of the Christian church. Indeed, not a few ideas and maxims of the classics tread on the threshold of revelation and sound like prophecies of Christian truth; especially the spiritual soarings of Plato,73 the deep religious reflections of Plutarch,74 the sometimes almost Pauline moral precepts of Seneca.75 To many of the greatest church fathers, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and in some measure even to Augustine, Greek philosophy was a bridge to the Christian faith, a scientific schoolmaster leading them to Christ. Nay, the whole ancient Greek church rose on the foundation of the Greek language and nationality, and is inexplicable without them.

Here lies the real reason why the classical literature is to this day made the basis of liberal education throughout the Christian world. Youth are introduced to the elementary forms of science and art, to models of clear, tasteful style, and to self-made humanity at the summit of intellectual and artistic culture, and thus they are at the same time trained to the scientific apprehension of the Christian religion, which appeared when the development of Greek and Roman civilization had reached its culmination and began already to decay. The Greek and Latin languages, as the Sanskrit and Hebrew, died in their youth and were embalmed and preserved from decay in the immortal works of the classics. They still furnish the best scientific terms for every branch of learning and art and every new invention. The primitive records of Christianity have been protected against the uncertainties of interpretation incident upon the constant changes of a living language.

But aside from the permanent value of the Grecian literature, the glory of its native land had, at the birth of Christ, already irrecoverably departed. Civil liberty and independence had been destroyed by internal discord and corruption. Philosophy had run down into skepticism and refined materialism. Art had been degraded to the service of levity and sensuality. Infidelity or superstition had supplanted sound religious sentiment. Dishonesty and licentiousness reigned among high and low.

This hopeless state of things could not but impress the more earnest and noble souls with the emptiness of all science and art, and the utter insufficiency of this natural culture to meet the deeper wants of the heart. It must fill them with longings for a new religion.

The Romans were the practical and political nation of antiquity. Their calling was to carry out the idea of the state and of civil law, and to unite the nations of the world in a colossal empire, stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, and from the Libyan desert to the banks of the Rhine. This empire embraced the most fertile and civilized countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and about one hundred millions of human beings, perhaps one-third of the whole race at the time of the introduction of Christianity.76 To this outward extent corresponds its historical significance. The history of every ancient nation ends, says Niebuhr, as the history of every modern nation begins, in that of Rome. Its history has therefore a universal interest; it is a vast storehouse of the legacies of antiquity. If the Greeks had, of all nations, the deepest mind, and in literature even gave laws to their conquerors, the Romans had the strongest character, and were born to rule the world without. This difference of course reached even into the moral and religious life of the two nations. Was the Greek, mythology the work of artistic fantasy and a religion of poesy, so was the Roman the work of calculation adapted to state purposes, political and utilitarian, but at the same time solemn, earnest, and energetic. “The Romans had no love of beauty, like the Greeks. They held no communion with nature, like the Germans. Their one idea was Rome—not ancient, fabulous, poetical Rome, but Rome warring and conquering; and orbis terrarum domina. S. P. Q. R. is inscribed on almost every page of their literature.”77

The Romans from the first believed themselves called to govern the world. They looked upon all foreigners—not as barbarians, like the cultured Greeks, but—as enemies to be conquered and reduced to servitude. War and triumph were their highest conception of human glory and happiness. The “Tu, regere imperio populos, Romane, memento!”had been their motto, in fact, long before Virgil thus gave it form. The very name of the urbs aeterna, and the characteristic legend of its founding, prophesied its future. In their greatest straits the Romans never for a moment despaired of the commonwealth. With vast energy, profound policy, unwavering consistency, and wolf-like rapacity, they pursued their ambitious schemes, and became indeed the lords, but also, as their greatest historian, Tacitus, says, the insatiable robbers of the world.78

Having conquered the world by the sword, they organized it by law, before whose majesty every people had to bow, and beautified it by the arts of peace. Philosophy, eloquence, history, and poetry enjoyed a golden age under the setting sun of the republic and the rising sun of the empire, and extended their civilizing influence to the borders of barbarianism. Although not creative in letters and fine arts, the Roman authors were successful imitators of Greek philosophers, orators, historians, and poets. Rome was converted by Augustus from a city of brick huts into a city of marble palaces.79 The finest paintings and sculptures were imported from Greece, triumphal arches and columns were erected on public places, and the treasures of all parts of the world were made tributary to, the pride, beauty, and luxury of the capital. The provinces caught the spirit of improvement, populous cities sprung up, and the magnificent temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt by the ambitious extravagance of Herod. The rights of persons and property were well protected. The conquered nations, though often and justly complaining of the rapacity of provincial governors, yet, on the whole, enjoyed greater security against domestic feuds and foreign invasion, a larger share of social comfort, and rose to a higher degree of secular civilization. The ends of the empire were brought into military, commercial, and literary communication by carefully constructed roads, the traces of which still exist in Syria, on the Alps, on the banks of the Rhine. The facilities and security of travel were greater in the reign of the Caesars than in any subsequent period before the nineteenth century. Five main lines went out from Rome to the extremities of the empire, and were connected at seaports with maritime routes. “We may travel,” says a Roman writer, “at all hours, and sail from east to west.” Merchants brought diamonds from the East, ambers from the shores of the Baltic, precious metals from Spain, wild animals from Africa, works of art from Greece, and every article of luxury, to the market on the banks of the Tiber, as they now do to the banks of the Thames. The Apocalyptic seer, in his prophetic picture of the downfall of the imperial mistress of the world, gives prominence to her vast commerce: “And the merchants of the earth,” he says, “weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; and all thine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep; and merchandise of horses and chariots and slaves; and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul desired are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and sumptuous are perished from thee, and men shall find them no more at all.”80

Heathen Rome lived a good while after this prediction, but, the causes of decay were already at work in the first century. The immense extension and outward prosperity brought with it a diminution of those domestic and civil virtues which at first so highly distinguished the Romans above the Greeks. The race of patriots and deliverers, who came from their ploughs to the public service, and humbly returned again to the plough or the kitchen, was extinct. Their worship of the gods, which was the root of their virtue, had sunk to mere form, running either into the most absurd superstitions, or giving place to unbelief, till the very priests laughed each other in the face when they met in the street. Not unfrequently we find unbelief and superstition united in the same persons, according to the maxim that all extremes touch each other. Man must believe something, and worship either God or the devil.81 Magicians and necromancers abounded, and were liberally patronized. The ancient simplicity and contentment were exchanged for boundless avarice and prodigality. Morality and chastity, so beautifully symbolized in the household ministry of the virgin Vesta, yielded to vice and debauchery. Amusement came to be sought in barbarous fights of beasts and gladiators, which not rarely consumed twenty thousand human lives in a single month. The lower classes had lost all nobler feeling, cared for nothing but “panem et circenses,” and made the proud imperial city on the Tiber a slave of slaves. The huge empire of Tiberius and of Nero was but a giant body without a soul, going, with steps slow but sure, to final dissolution. Some of the emperors were fiendish tyrants and monsters of iniquity; and yet they were enthroned among the gods by a vote of the Senate, and altars and temples were erected for their worship. This characteristic custom began with Caesar, who even during his lifetime was honored as “Divus Julius” for his brilliant victories, although they cost more than a million of lives slain and another million made captives and slaves.82 The dark picture which St. Paul, in addressing the Romans, draws of the heathenism of his day, is fully sustained by Seneca, Tacitus, Juvenal, Persius, and other heathen writers of that age, and shows the absolute need of redemption. “The world,” says Seneca, in a famous passage, “is full of crimes and vices. More are committed than can be cured by force. There is an immense struggle for iniquity. Crimes are no longer bidden, but open before the eyes. Innocence is not only rare, but nowhere.”83 Thus far the negative. On the other hand, the universal empire of Rome was a positive groundwork for the universal empire of the gospel. It served as a crucible, in which all contradictory and irreconcilable peculiarities of the ancient nations and religions were dissolved into the chaos of a new creation. The Roman legions razed the partition-walls among the ancient nations, brought the extremes of the civilized world together in free intercourse, and united north and south and east and west in the bonds of a common language and culture, of common laws and customs. Thus they evidently, though unconsciously, opened the way for the rapid and general spread of that religion which unites all nations in one family of God by the spiritual bond of faith and love.

The idea of a common humanity, which underlies all the distinctions of race, society and education, began to dawn in the heathen mind, and found expression in the famous line of Terentius, which was received with applause in the theatre:

“Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.”

This spirit of humanity breathes in Cicero and Virgil. Hence the veneration paid to the poet of the Aeneid by the fathers and throughout the middle ages. Augustine calls him the noblest of poets, and Dante, “the glory and light of other poets,” and “his master,” who guided him through the regions of hell and purgatory to the very gates of Paradise. It was believed that in his fourth Eclogue he had prophesied the advent of Christ. This interpretation is erroneous; but “there is in Virgil,” says an accomplished scholar,84 “a vein of thought and sentiment more devout, more humane, more akin to the Christian than is to be found in any other ancient poet, whether Greek or Roman. He was a spirit prepared and waiting, though he knew it not, for some better thing to be revealed.”

The civil laws and institutions, also, and the great administrative wisdom of Rome did much for the outward organization of the Christian church. As the Greek church rose on the basis of the Grecian nationality, so the Latin church rose on that of ancient Rome, and reproduced in higher forms both its virtues and its defects. Roman Catholicism is pagan Rome baptized, a Christian reproduction of the universal empire seated of old in the city of the seven hills.

§ 13. Judaism and Heathenism in Contact.

The Roman empire, though directly establishing no more than an outward political union, still promoted indirectly a mutual intellectual and moral approach of the hostile religious of the Jews and Gentiles, who were to be reconciled in one divine brotherhood by the supernatural power of the cross of Christ.

The Jews, since the Babylonish captivity, had been scattered over all the world. They were as ubiquitous in the Roman empire in the first century as they are now throughout, Christendom. According to Josephus and Strabo, there was no country where they did not make up a part of the population.85 Among the witnesses of the miracle of Pentecost were “Jews from every nation under heaven … Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.”86 In spite of the antipathy of the Gentiles, they had, by talent and industry, risen to wealth, influence, and every privilege, and had built their synagogues in all the commercial cities of the Roman empire. Pompey brought a considerable number of Jewish captives from Jerusalem to the capital (b.c. 63), and settled them on the right bank of the Tiber (Trastevere). By establishing this community he furnished, without knowing it, the chief material for the Roman church. Julius Caesar was the great protector of the Jews; and they showed their gratitude by collecting for many nights to lament his death on the forum where his murdered body was burnt on a funeral pile.87 He granted them the liberty of public worship, and thus gave them a legal status as a religious society. Augustus confirmed these privileges. Under his reign they were numbered already by thousands in the city. A reaction followed; Tiberius and Claudius expelled them from Rome; but they soon returned, and succeeded in securing the free exercise of their rites and customs. The frequent satirical allusions to them prove their influence as well as the aversion and contempt in which they were held by the Romans. Their petitions reached the ear of Nero through his wife Poppaea, who seems to have inclined to their faith; and Josephus, their most distinguished scholar, enjoyed the favor of three emperors—Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. In the language of Seneca (as quoted by Augustin) “the conquered Jews gave laws to their Roman conquerors.”

By this dispersion of the Jews the seeds of the knowledge of the true God and the Messianic hope were sown in the field of the idolatrous world. The Old Testament Scriptures were translated into Greek two centuries before Christ, and were read and expounded in the public worship of God, which was open to all. Every synagogue was a mission-station of monotheism, and furnished the apostles an admirable place and a natural introduction for their preaching of Jesus Christ as the fulfiller of the law and the prophets.

Then, as the heathen religious had been hopelessly undermined by skeptical philosophy and popular infidelity, many earnest Gentiles especially multitudes of women, came over to Judaism either, wholly or in part. The thorough converts, called “proselytes of righteousness,”88 were commonly still more bigoted and fanatical than the native Jews. The half-converts, “proselytes of the gate”89 or “fearers of God,”90 who adopted only the monotheism, the principal moral laws, and the Messianic hopes of the Jews, without being circumcised, appear in the New Testament as the most susceptible hearers of the gospel, and formed the nucleus of many of the first Christian churches. Of this class were the centurion of Capernaum, Cornelius of Caesarea, Lydia of Philippi, Timothy, and many other prominent disciples.

On the other hand, the Graeco-Roman heathenism, through its language, philosophy, and literature, exerted no inconsiderable influence to soften the fanatical bigotry of the higher and more cultivated classes of the Jews. Generally the Jews of the dispersion, who spoke the Greek language—the “Hellenists,” as they were called—were much more liberal than the proper “Hebrews,” or Palestinian Jews, who kept their mother tongue. This is evident in the Gentile missionaries, Barnabas of Cyprus and Paul of Tarsus, and in the whole church of Antioch, in contrast with that at Jerusalem. The Hellenistic form of Christianity was the natural bridge to the Gentile.

The most remarkable example of a transitional, though very fantastic and Gnostic-like combination of Jewish and heathen elements meets us in the educated circles of the Egyptian metropolis, Alexandria, and in the system of Philo, who was born about b.c. 20, and lived till after A.D. 40, though he never came in contact with Christ or the apostles. This Jewish, divine sought to harmonize the religion of Moses with the philosophy of Plato by the help of an ingenious but arbitrary allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament; and from the books of Proverbs and of Wisdom he deduced a doctrine of the Logos so strikingly like that of John’s Gospel, that many expositors think it necessary to impute to the apostle an acquaintance with the writings, or at least with the terminology of Philo. But Philo’s speculation is to the apostle’s “Word made flesh” as a shadow to the body, or a dream to the reality. He leaves no room for an incarnation, but the coincidence of his speculation with the great fact is very remarkable.91

The Therapeutae or Worshippers, a mystic and ascetic sect in Egypt, akin to the Essenes in Judaea, carried this Platonic Judaism into practical life; but were, of course, equally unsuccessful in uniting the two religions in a vital and permanent way. Such a union could only be effected by a new religion revealed from heaven.92

Quite independent of the philosophical Judaism of Alexandria were the Samaritans, a mixed race, which also combined, though in a different way, the elements of Jewish and Gentile religion.93 They date from the period of the exile. They held to the Pentateuch, to circumcision, and to carnal Messianic hopes; but they had a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim, and mortally hated the proper Jews. Among these Christianity, as would appear from the interview of Jesus with the woman of Samaria,94 and the preaching of Philip,95 found ready access, but, as among the Essenes and Therapeutae fell easily into a heretical form. Simon Magus, for example, and some other Samaritan arch-heretics, are represented by the early Christian writers as the principal originators of Gnosticism.

Thus was the way for Christianity prepared on every side, positively and negatively, directly and indirectly, in theory and in practice, by truth and by error, by false belief and by unbelief—those hostile brothers, which yet cannot live apart—by Jewish religion, by Grecian culture, and by Roman conquest; by the vainly attempted amalgamation of Jewish and heathen thought, by the exposed impotence of natural civilization, philosophy, art, and political power, by the decay of the old religions, by the universal distraction and hopeless misery of the age, and by the yearnings of all earnest and noble souls for the religion of salvation.

“In the fulness of the time,” when the fairest flowers of science and art had withered, and the world was on the verge of despair, the Virgin’s Son was born to heal the infirmities of mankind. Christ entered a dying world as the author of a new and imperishable life.

Essay

#Church History

《基督教会史》菲利普·沙弗，第一章

http://avcaleb.github.io/2025/08/27/《基督教会史》菲利普·沙弗，第一章/

作者

A. V. Caleb

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2025年8月27日

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