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In the section of Tom Lee's manuscript that we publish today, the focus is on how Paul came to focus on the Gentiles in his missionary endeavours and how this in turn led to the first major dispute that needed resolution through a Council of Elders of the embryonic Christian community. Tom Lee examines the decision of the first Council held at Jerusalem under James, the brother of Jesus…

Paul and his radical interpretation of the message of Jesus (cont'd)
Part 5.5
by Tom Lee

Paul returns to Rome…

Philip, who had established the church in Caesarea twenty-odd years before, lived there still with his four daughters, who preached the Gospel with him. The library of Christian Antiquities at Caesarea became one of the most valuable sources of information concerning the primitive church until the first major Church History was written by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, in the fourth century. He was able to incorporate documents from previous Christian information gatherers like Hegesippus (2nd cent.) and Epiphanius (d.431).

In the summer of 60 Paul was embarked at Caesarea with some of his companions, on the way to Italy for his appeal to be heard by Nero. The journey was prolonged and perilous. There was a change of ship at Myra in Lycia to an Alexandrian cargo ship, but this encountered head winds and made slow progress. The attempt was made to reach Crete and winter there; but this plan was frustrated by a tremendous storm and the boat was swept westward and wrecked on the coast of Malta. Three months later another Alexandrian boat conveyed the company to the Italian port of Puteoli, and the journey was continued by road to Rome. While waiting for his case to be heard Paul, under guard, was permitted to occupy his own rented apartment.

Not content to sit and twiddle his thumbs Paul, during the two years of his confinement, made contact with the Jewish community and with the Christian community, but without notable success in either quarter. Many of the Jewish-Christian refugees from Rome whom Paul had met at Corinth and Ephesus had drifted back to the imperial capital after the death of Emperor Claudius, so that Paul probably knew some members of the church there before his arrival in the city; they seem to have become circumspect and were not anxious to once more place themselves in danger of exile. Evidently however, Paul's evangelical zeal and peculiar doctrine goaded the Christians of Rome into greater activity, partly to combat his unorthodox teaching. There is no record of any contact with Peter. The effect was to bring the followers of Jesus more prominently to public and official attention, which probably contributed to sealing Paul's fate and brought terrible suffering on the whole community.

Things hotting up in Jerusalem…

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, things were hotting­up. Josephus tells us that in 59:

"There was enkindled mutual enmity and class warfare between the high priests, on the one hand, and the priests and leaders of the populace, on the other. Each of the factions formed and collected for itself a band of the most reckless revolutionaries and acted as their leader. And when they clashed, they used abusive language and pelted each other with stones... it was as if there was no one in charge of the city, so that they acted as they did with full license."

The ordinary priests, many of whom had joined the Nazoreans, sided with the populace. The hierarchy retaliated by sending slaves to the threshing floors to receive the tithes due to the priests and then refused to distribute what was owed to them.

The unrest continued to simmer and boiled over during the Sabbatical Year 61-62; one of those unfortunate fallow periods when all that was nurtured was unrest; on this occasion doubly fomented by the fact that it would be followed by a Roman Census Year.

During an interregnum of procuratorial rule caused by the death of Festus, the high priest Ananus took the opportunity to convene a Sanhedrin, at the time of Passover in 62, before which he brought James the brother of Jesus and some others on a charge of breaking the Law. How the trial was conducted and on what evidence the accused were found guilty is not recorded. As the method of execution was by stoning, the penalty for blasphemy, the charge must have been a trumped-up one, as no one was reputed to be more orthodox and observant a Jew than James.

Horrified Pharisees protested and even sent a delegation to the newly appointed governor, Albinus. Others sent a secret report to the Emperor begging him to restrain Ananus from his unlawful actions.

The martyrdom of James, who may even have borne some likeness to Jesus, must have seemed to the Nazoreans, in their bereavement, as if the Messiah had died again. Hegesippus, a Christian writing early in the following century, reports that the last words of James were the prayer, "I beseech thee, 0 Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", words which in Luke's Gospel alone are attributed to Jesus himself.

Following the dynastic principle, like the early successors of Muhammed at a later date, James was immediately succeeded, without any recorded opposition, by his cousin Simeon son of Cleophas, according to Hegesippus. The new leader of the Nazoreans was a first cousin of Jesus and James, his father being the brother of Joseph, and it must be presumed a younger brother, as Simeon survived until early in the second century in the reign of Trajan, credited with being a centenarian.

Under Simeon's leadership the Jerusalem Church continued strong and united, exploiting to the fullest the opportunity of propaganda in the Pauline churches, while their founder was under house-arrest at Rome. Each year saw the realization of Paul's conception of Christianity as a universal religion grow steadily more remote before the increasing control of Jerusalem.

The Roman Census was again due with all the hostile feeling that this periodic event aroused. But the new governor, Albinus, was adept at dirty intrigue. According to Josephus, unobserved by his superiors, who were far more concerned with the increasing terrorism, the governor freely accepted bribes to release criminals from prison, including a number of the Sicarii, as well as indulging in many other illegal money-grubbing activities. Law and order was held to ransom, and the Nazoreans must have considered that the End was now very close at hand. Surely the signal would soon be given from the skies.

Hostility of the Nazoreans towards Paul progressively increased. They totally disowned him. He wrote plaintively to the community at Colossae that of Jewish believers in the Messiah at Rome, only three associated with him, Aristarchus a fellow-prisoner, Mark the nephew of Barnabus then in Rome, and Jesus called Justus. There is no mention of Peter who, according to Catholic tradition, was based in Rome at this time.

We have no information about the hearing of Paul's appeal to Nero. Apparently judgment was deferred. Nero in his passion for theatrical display took himself off to Naples at the beginning of 64 and then crossed Italy to Beneventum, before returning to Rome in the spring of 65. Probably this was the reason for the delay.

Bad news of the state of affairs in Judaea caused Nero to recall Albinus and replace him with Gessius Florus. The new governor was even worse. Where Albinus had at least been circumspect about his misdeeds, Florus flouted his abuses openly, according to Josephus, "as though he was trying to foment revolt".

Icon of Peter and Paul

Paul would seem, as a Roman citizen, to have either had the charges against him dismissed at this stage, or to have been exiled. Tradition places his execution in 67, and according to Theodoret of Cyrrhus (393-458), Paul's apostolic work extended as far as the Balearic Islands. The Epistle of Clement of Rome at the end of the first century also indicates that Paul did reach Spain, "the limits of the West (where) he gave testimony before the rulers, and thus passed from the world and was taken up into the Holy Place". He also states that both Peter and Paul were handed over through "envy and jealousy", presumably by Judeo-Christians. Later Christian writers omitted the reference to Peter and Paul in citing this passage, implying a cover-up of a betrayal too painful to be recalled.

Since the Spanish island of Mallorca was a regular place of exile for offending Roman citizens it is possible to suppose that Paul may have been there at some time during his last three years. An ancient cave church has been discovered there on the east coast.

To be a witness — to give testimony…

There is no indication that Paul suffered a martyr's death. The Greek verb martyrein means "to be a witness" or "to give testimony". It was not used in the sense "to suffer a martyr's death" until the middle of the second century.

Nero's wife Poppaea (later kicked to death by the emperor) may have inadvertently aided Paul's release. Apart from conventional. fascinations like astrology, she had unexpected interests, including Judaism. She had a Jewish lover, a handsome actor named Aliturius, an employee of Nero's. Though the legend that she was a Jewish convert is not true, it is certain that she met the Jewish soldier/historian Josephus at the port of Puteoli in 64, gave him presents and used her influence to secure the release of Jews from Judaea who had been sent under arrest to Rome, and Paul may have been one of them.

Nero's profligate nature was illustrated by his castration of a youth named Sporus, their mock marriage, and his treatment of the boy as his empress. In the early summer 64, wearing the flaming veil of a bride, Nero was formally married to his more masculine lover, Doryphorus. Seutonius (c.69-122) reports of the emperor "on the wedding night he imitated the screams and moans of a girl being deflowered".

As Tacitus (55-120) reports: "Disaster followed. Now started the most terrible and destructive fire which Rome had ever experienced ... Of Rome's fourteen districts only four remained intact ... Neither human resources, nor imperial munificence, nor appeasement of the gods, eliminated sinister suspicions that the fire had been instigated. To suppress this rumor, Nero fabricated scapegoats - and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called)."

The secretive Christians were believed by the Romans to indulge in infanticide, cannibalism and incestuous orgies; even by Roman standards a reprehensible combination of activities — but an easy misconception to make with only a little knowledge of the Eucharist and the love feast. In addition, the Jews, and by extension the Christians were believed to worship an Ass-headed God.

Tacitus continues:

"First Nero had self-acknowledged Christians arrested. Then, on their information, large numbers of others were condemned - not so much for incendiarism as for their anti-social tendencies. Their deaths were made farcical. Dressed in wild animals' skins they were torn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, or made into torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for daylight ... Despite their guilt as Christians, and the ruthless punishment it deserved, the victims were pitied. For it was felt that they were being sacrificed to one man's brutality rather than to the national interest."

Peter, along with his wife and daughter, is claimed to have been a victim of this persecution. It is said that he was crucified head downwards, at his own request and tradition points to a spot below where the altar of the Vatican basilica stands as his burial place. The cathedral is built, according to popular belief, on or near the site of Caligula's circus, though excavation thus far has failed to prove this.

He bore witness by bearing trials…

But if we are to believe Clement's letter, "Peter ... because of unrighteous jealousy suffered not one or two but many trials, and having thus given testimony went to the righteous place which was his due". It does not describe martyrdom. He bore witness by bearing trials.

The modes of execution applied to the Christians, as described by Tacitus agree with the Roman penalties for the practice of magic and sorcery. At the very least, the Christians could be held guilty of ill-wishing Rome and the Empire. It would hardly have escaped attention that Christians were anticipating the overthrow of the Roman Empire, even if they were not directly engaged in seeking to accomplish it by militant action. Therein lay the most serious menace, in the eyes of the Romans, of the growing and expanding superstition.

The authorities were aware that Christianity had a relationship with the Jews, but where Christians were not Jews and had separate meetings it made their conduct all the more suspect and reprehensible. The Jews were regarded as a nation, the Christians as separatist rebels. This seems to have been the first time that official Roman differentiation was made between Christians and Jews.

The dire tidings of the extermination of the community at Rome must have reached Jerusalem by September 64, increasing still more the conviction that the climax of the persecution of the saints had come and that the End could not be far from fruition.

Meanwhile, in Britain, the conquered Celtic tribes were being encouraged to give their sons a Roman education and to adopt the outward habits of Roman citizens. They probably viewed the new, straight roads scarring the countryside and the elegant new towns being constructed, as raw and alien, just as Native Americans looked upon the railroads of the nineteenth century dissecting the prairie.

ARTICLE NAVIGATION: You are presently looking at Part 5.5
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For a comprehensive index of each extract in this series go to: www.catholica.com.au/specials/first500-2/index.php
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Tom Lee is an Australian, now semi-retired in Phoenix, Arizona, who has had an illustrious international career as an actor, writer, and broadcast commentator. He does not claim to be a professional theologian, nor an historian, but he undertook this study because, like many of the people who are attracted to what we're doing here at Catholica Australia, he was simply inquisitive about the history of Christianity and trying to better understand what he had been brought up to believe. In a sense, his book is a one-man journey seeking to better understand who Jesus was and what his own faith was about.

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©2009 Tom Lee (Star Concepts LLC) 15633 N. 17* Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85023-3409

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