Disclaimer: I do not literally mean Christianity is a Jewish faith, what I mean is how Jewish history [in the form of Christianity] replaced Roman/Greek theological history.
I know a bit of the [gnostic] history myself and it's battle seems to be in the East Roman Province of Egypt, but that doesn't explain the rest of the non gnostic Greek/Roman myths which were swept aside as well.
Secular or non secular set of events is fine. The reality seems to be, people came in and preached it. Constantine seemed to put his stamp of approval on it.
What I don't get... is how? How did a virtually unknown and subjugated Jewish people implement their deities over Greek/Roman deities while they were not the one's in power over the governments?
I mean, Rome had their Aeneid, Greek their philosophy. Yet... this movement came in and swept over all of Rome.
If I had to guess, I would say the chain of events that created the shift would be East Roman Province, but early Church history seems to be wanting.
I’m not quite sure what question you are trying to ask here. If I understand what you have written correctly, you seem to have some difficulty with the success of Christianity in the Roman Empire given that it was a religion that lacked social and political advantagement for most of its first 250-300 years, and so you are asking for an explanation of how it could go from being a very marginal, foreign belief system, to an empire-wide dominant belief towards the end of the 4th century, given its disadvantages? Is that correct?
I found a new site today
In reference to Pompeii and Poppaea Sabina
> though as we see in Epaphroditus and others, Chrestians covertly ruled the imperial court
Doesn't really support his claims well enough. However, I'll leave it here if anyone wants to follow it up. It's way too super conspiracy with too little corroborated backing between points.
III. Hellenistic Judaism.
This borrowing went on between Judaism and Platonism, particularly at Alexandria in Egypt, where Jews of the Diaspora came in contact with Hellenistic ideas, particularly the philosophy of Plato. This special brand of Judaism at a earlier time produced the translation into Greek of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. Greek ideas had always attracted the Jews of this great cosmopolitan city, set at the frontiers between the East and West, and it was here that the most thoroughgoing attempt was made to interpret Jewish theology in terms of Hellenistic philosophy. The Hellenic Jewish apologist and philosopher, Philo (30 B.C.-50 A.D.), who was born in Alexandria, was the most notable exponent these tendencies. He was, as well as being a scholarly man with a decidedly mystical bent, was a considerable personage in the Jewish community at Alexandria and headed the delegation that it sent to the Emperor Gaius in A.D. 40 after the anti-Jewish rioting at Alexandria. Philo's extensive writings include a Jewish apologetic, commentaries on the Pentateuch, and descriptions of Jewish monastic sects, including the [edit:] Essennes. Being convinced that the teachings of Moses anticipated the wisdom of the Greeks, especially Platonism and Stoicism, Philo interpreted allegorically the O.T. Scriptures in the attempt to demonstrate this. He was drawn to the Greek philosophers, especially Plato, accepting wholeheartedly the Platonic dualism between the ideal, or intelligible world of ideas, and the material world of the senses, but he maintained that all their best ideas had been anticipated in the Jewish Scriptures. His method of allegorizing Scripture by means of which he attempted to show that the truths set forth in the divinely revealed Scriptures were identical with those of the philosophers, was no novelty at that time; scholars had employed it for centuries to discover the hidden meanings in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, and with its help the Stoics enabled themselves to read their own metaphysical system out of the ancient myths. More that a hundred years earlier an Alexandrian Jew, Aristobulus, had used it to explain away the cruder anthropomorphism of the Pentateuch. For example, Philo used it to explain the story of Adam and Eve as a myth symbolizing the creation of the human earthy soul along with the intelligence, senses and passions, and the seduction of the intelligence by pleasure and its subjection to the material order, and the ways it can return to its original state. This is merely one example of his method by which, while adhering strictly to the letter of the Law, he can regard it as a divinely authorized veil covering a whole complex of Greek philosophical ideas which he found intellectually congenial. This borrowing went on between Judaism and Platonism, particularly at Alexandria in Egypt, where Jews of the Diaspora came in contact with Hellenistic ideas, particularly the philosophy of Plato. This special brand of Judaism at a earlier time produced the translation into Greek of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. Greek ideas had always attracted the Jews of this great cosmopolitan city, set at the frontiers between the East and West, and it was here that the most thoroughgoing attempt was made to interpret Jewish theology in terms of Hellenistic philosophy. The Hellenic Jewish apologist and philosopher, Philo (30 B.C.-50 A.D.), who was born in Alexandria, was the most notable exponent these tendencies. He was, as well as being a scholarly man with a decidedly mystical bent, was a considerable personage in the Jewish community at Alexandria and headed the delegation that it sent to the Emperor Gaius in A.D. 40 after the anti-Jewish rioting at Alexandria. Philo's extensive writings include a Jewish apologetic, commentaries on the Pentateuch, and descriptions of Jewish monastic sects, including the Essences. Being convinced that the teachings of Moses anticipated the wisdom of the Greeks, especially Platonism and Stoicism, Philo interpreted allegorically the O.T. Scriptures in the attempt to demonstrate this. He was drawn to the Greek philosophers, especially Plato, accepting wholeheartedly the Platonic dualism between the ideal, or intelligible world of ideas, and the material world of the senses, but he maintained that all their best ideas had been anticipated in the Jewish Scriptures. His method of allegorizing Scripture by means of which he attempted to show that the truths set forth in the divinely revealed Scriptures were identical with those of the philosophers, was no novelty at that time; scholars had employed it for centuries to discover the hidden meanings in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, and with its help the Stoics enabled themselves to read their own metaphysical system out of the ancient myths. More that a hundred years earlier an Alexandrian Jew, Aristobulus, had used it to explain away the cruder anthropomorphism of the Pentateuch. For example, Philo used it to explain the story of Adam and Eve as a myth symbolizing the creation of the human earthy soul along with the intelligence, senses and passions, and the seduction of the intelligence by pleasure and its subjection to the material order, and the ways it can return to its original state. This is merely one example of his method by which, while adhering strictly to the letter of the Law, he can regard it as a divinely authorized veil covering a whole complex of Greek philosophical ideas which he found intellectually congenial.
I was really surprised to find this today. I've been reading a plethora of contextually related materials. Trying to conduct some research, and this Christian spells it out for me. :) I was really surprised at that. However, maybe not... Good Job Ray Shelton. Update, I see he is an Episcopalian; that explains a lot.
I thought the Logos was an idea that had some commonality with Christianity, so I wanted to see some etymology googling on it, found this site. He's the missing link. He made Judaism congruent with Greek Philosophy, which had already entered Roman philosophy. I knew Egypt was the answer... Now I'm thinking that maybe the Essenes were part of this sect [in fact Philo mentions them]
It makes so much sense now. I knew if I had names, dates, places, and ideas I could deconstruct this. Philo, he had access to everything just before the damn Library of Alexandria burned down!
My take is later on with the Nicean creed, the philosophy was whiddled down into congruent theological bite size chunks, like omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.