Bacchanalia
I am researching how the Romans may have viewed Christianity in light of what Livy had documented about the earlier movement of Bacchanalia, How it may of viewed it as a threat to the empire and in turn when Christianity started to spread may have viewed it in a similar light. Does anyone have an idea about this? I think in Acts it speaks of the woman going out at night to gather, as was the practice with the Bacchanalia. Does anyone have any opinion at all about this? I am sure that this group were still meeting when the early church was forming. I read somewhere that the early church with its message of equality was appealing to woman and I just see a vision of woman going out at night under the cover of darkness to meet together as the body and some of the citizens and officials may have believed they were part of this earlier movement.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tammy_LIBAW on -
I am so lost as to what you're referring to here. I looked up Bacchanalia & one definition was orgies. Can you expound a little more if you don't mind?
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Permalink Reply by Debbie_LIBAW on -
What I found when I searched was that they were worshiping the Greco-Roman god Bacchus, the god of wine. And they liked to celebrate by getting very drunk.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Sparrow on -
I am trying to find out how the Roman officials would have viewed a movement that had to meet in secret under the cloud of darkness and if they thought the early church might have been a part of this movement. Yes Debbie, it was a group that got drunk on wine and had orgies. It started out as only woman and later men were permitted to join. I think when the woman that started to follow Christianity would leave at night to meet and worship, I am almost positive this movement would have entered their husbands minds. I also see that the earlier Roman empire was threatened by this movement ( like they were to Christianity ) so much so that they tried to extinguish it.
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Permalink Reply by Colby Chase on
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Mike,
You raise an excellent question here concerning a subject on which I have scant knowledge.
From what information I was able to cull from the Web and review, it appears the Bacchanalians were a cult with closed membership, initially limited to women, that engaged in raucous festivities centering on drunkenness and libertine sexual practices that aroused the suspicion of and was off-putting to Roman society and, in some circles, increasingly viewed as a threat to Roman ruling elites.
During the same time, there was a small community of Christians in 1st and 2nd century Rome that were viewed with much suspicion by Roman authorities for what were regarded as bizarre beliefs and rituals such as Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper.
The Bacchanalian cult eventually came under censure by the Roman Senate. It would come as no surprise to me, therefore, that the Roman authorities would have viewed the Christians with equal suspicion, seeing them too as a cult and a threat to their rule.
Of course, we all that know that Rome would go on to become a major center of Christianity, eclipsing Jerusalem, for a movement that began in Israel and was extended through missionary work to Syria, Greece and Turkey where small Christian communities formed largely through Paul's missionary work. That, in turn, leads us to the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine.
Colby
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Had it not been for Paul's conversion by the risen Christ and for his missionary zeal in reaching out to the Gentiles to share the Good News, followers of Jesus Christ would have been confined to a sect within Judaism.
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Permalink Reply by Debbie_LIBAW on
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Ok, didn't really understand what you were asking.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy_LIBAW on
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lol. me either
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Mike,
I was going through my home library and came across an interesting and informative account of the religions of Rome and Greece in the first few centuries. Judaism was well established but its adherents were small in number. Christianity had just come upon the scene. Against this, a backdrop of clashing and complementary polytheism (many gods), astrology, mysticism, magic and occultic practices vying to hold the attention and meet the spiritual needs of the people and their rulers.
James L. Price, Professor, Duke University, 1961
"The Environment of Gentile Christianity" in early Rome
Dionysus was originally a Greek fertility god who became known as the god of wine (Bacchus). His female worshippers danced themselves into a state of frenzy, tearing living animals to pieces and eating their raw flesh. By partaking of this bloody flesh, and new wine, a mystical union with the deity was achieved and a foretaste given of the bliss of eternity.
The religion of early Rome was in many ways respect parallel to the polytheistic cults of the Greek city-states. Jupiter, the great god of the sky and weather, was worshipped with Mars, who doubled as the god of war and agriculture. Juno, the fertility goddess of the moon, was another local deity.
All right-thinking Romans believed that sacrifices and other other traditional rites had to be scrupulously performed to maintain pax deorum (peace with the gods).
No more than the cults of the Greek city-states was the religion of early Rome able to maintain itself as a living faith after the extension of Roman power into the Mediterranean world. It became evident that that the world needed a religion as all-embracing as the Empire itself.
It was inevitable that tension should develop between Christianity and imperial Rome as the Church became largely Gentile in membership and was recognized as a religious society distinct from Judaism. To representatives of the state, the Christian proclamation, "Jesus Christ is Lord," easily be might be considered a treasonable statement.
The cult of Milthra, a religion which spread with amazing rapidity throughout the Roman army and became, during the 3rd century, a strong competitor with Christianity. Only men were allowed to be devotees of Mithra.
Many men turned to astrology in the hope of understanding the universe, and of finding security in it. The logical implication of astrology is atheism, since belief that the cosmos is a giant, clock-like mechanism eliminates the possibility of interference by the gods.
Superstition and magic are weeds which grow in the same soil as religion. It is evident from our sources that many persons in the Roman empire sought by magical means to overcome the demons and the fatalism of astrology. Magic was made a substitute for religion, as well as its adjunct. The popular demand for love potions, conjurations, "the evil eye," amulets, statuettes of gods, and so on netted fabulous profits for businessmen. Prevalent also was belief in oracles, and in dreams and omens.
There were intellectuals of the Empire who found no lasting satisfaction in the popular philosophies and eventually turned to mystical or else occultic beliefs. This is evidenced by the popularity of "the Hermetica,"an extensive body of writings which has survived from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The doctrines of the Hermetica cannot be reduced to a consistent pattern of thought. Nevertheless, a Platonic-Sotic world-view and a common religious spirit are manifest in them all.
Gnosticism arose as a syncretistic phenomenon, like so many religions and philosophies of the Hellenistic Age, a fusion of the Greek and Oriental thought. Before contact with Christianity, the Gnostic movement absorbed features from Judaism and itself influenced several Jewish apologists and sectarian groups. After contact with Christianity, Gnosticism gathered momentum.
The Jews actively participated in the commercial and social life of the cities and villages of the Greco-Roman world, and sometimes enjoyed full citizenship rights. At the same time, they zealously maintained their national identify and religion. Like a magnetic pole, the temple in Jerusalem hled the Jews of the Dispersion together.
Judaism could better satisfy the religious aspirations of men in the Hellenistic Age than could the mystery religions. Judaism taught the unity of God and of the world, and satisfied the longings of individuals for a purification from the passions of the flesh and for eternal happiness. At the same time, the ceremonial and dietary laws, and the practice of circumcision, gave Judaism a national character which remained a deterrent to its missionary enterprise. Because of these assets and liabilities, Diaspora Judaism set the stage for the triumph of Christianity.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Sparrow on
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Real cool stuff here Colby, Thanks. I ran across some of this when i was reading copy cat savior myth, really great how you have it layed out so I can easily see and understand the climate.
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Your question about the Bacchanalian movement, of which I knew nothing, caused me to dig up this information. The people of Rome and Greece in this vivid description (I have only excerpted parts of Professor Price's essay) of the religious or spiritual climate that existed in the first few centuries after Jesus walked among us is amazing. There were more gods than we can possibly imagine and new religions and cults sprouting up all the time. There were people who turned from these man-made gods or supplemented their belief in them with astrology, mysticism, magic and the occult. But none of these fads had staying power. Two exceptions stood out: Judaism and the new fledgling movement of followers and believers in Jesus Christ. This was the crazy, hostile environment in which Christianity took root. And we think we live in interesting times!
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Permalink Reply by Mike Sparrow on
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This has caused me to also look at Revelation in a whole new light, I saw a lot of things taking place just as John has said they would from the emperors being worshiped as God to the first Jewish-Roman war. the things the early Christ followers had to endure has been and probably never will be paralleled. Just goes to show how true and amazing God is. This movement of Christianity to survive was and is miraculous.
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