THE RELIGIOUS AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND' The land in which Christianity arose has never been an isolated one, least of all in that age when, by common consent, a new era was inaugurated in human history. Indeed, Galilee itself, the home of its Founder, lay in close proximity to the Greek cities of the Decapolis; it was more susceptible to external influences than was Jerusalem, with its temple and its stricter Judaism, and well deserved its old name "Galilee of the Nations." Two great "positive" religions (i.e., religions explicitly due to personal founders) had already firmly established themselves. Of these, Buddhism (q.v.) under King Asoka (3rd century B.c.) had sent its missionaries as far afield as Egypt and Cyrene; but its in fluence seems negligible, in marked contrast to its subsequent steady conquests in the Far East. On the other hand, the religion of Persia (see ZOROASTER), which has become weak in the East, was far more important in the West, and directly or indirectly exerted very considerable influence on the literature of Judaism and in Asia Minor. Between all these religions many striking parallels can, at one time or another, be found; but the difficulty of dating the sources frequently makes it impossible to determine on which side the debt, if any, really lies. Thus, certain Jewish doctrines (e.g., the merits of the fathers), in the form in which they are preserved, may be due to a Jewish "counter-reformation" after the birth of Christianity.
A broad survey of the Roman world reveals a more or less continuous development from the Hellenistic age to the Byzantine age, in the middle of which the novel "detested supersti tion," as Tacitus styles Christianity, makes its appearance as an accomplished fact. The general religious situation over that large area—the centre of gravity of which may be said to have been Egypt—was exceedingly complex. We see Stoicism, Epicureanism and a variety of mystical cults. There are a number of outstand ing figures—Posidonius of Apamea, Philo of Alexandria, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Hillel—to name only five. Egyptian and Ana tolian cults moved Romewards, and great Baals (Jupiter of Doliche, Jupiter of Heliopolis-Baalbek), with the cult of the Persian Mithras, almost reached the Atlantic. At their gates the Jews had Graeco-Semitic cults of Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus, and a "good, bountiful and compassionate Baal of Heaven"; at Gaza was "Our Lord" (Marna), and at Askalon the "Face of Baal" (Phanebal). There were anticipations of some profound change from the famous Fourth Eclogue of Virgil to the varied Messianic and cataclysmic beliefs of the Jews, and changes ensued. In the 2nd century A.D. there was the recognition at Alexandria that a new era had begun with the new Sothic cycle (A.D. 139-143). In Syria, the amazing emperor Heliogabalus (q.v.) was one of other signs of an oriental revival of which,
apart from Christianity, the Sasanian renascence is of consider able historical importance. (See PERSIA, History.) And in India, the Bhagavad Gita was henceforth to exercise the most powerful influence depicting a Krishna who to many minds has seemed a worthy rival of the Christ who was conquering the West.
In Christianity itself the differing tendencies, sects and heresies, indicate the diversity of minds in whom the seeds of the new re ligion wei e producing growths most of which could not endure or be tolerated. (See, for a noteworthy example, SOLOMON [ODES] "False" Messiahs, Essenes and Zealots, and especially John the Baptist, reflect in their turn significant movements. Hence if, to use a modern phrase, "reconstruction" was in the air, the fundamental facts are two : (a) the victory of Christianity and 'This article considers the relation of Jesus to the religious and historical background of the period, and His place in the history of religions. For a discussion of the life and teaching of Jesus, as these may be gathered from the sources, see the preceding article.
its progressive development amid the conditions of its age, and (b) the primary and impressive fact that "the stone which the builders rejected" became the foundation stone of a veritable new era (Acts iv. II).
What was there in Jesus to achieve this result? The world has agreed to recognize sundry men of outstanding genius—Homer, Plato, Dante, Shakespeare. . . . Men of unequalled spiritual genius are to' be found among the prophets, psalmists and writers of old Israel. Yet, possible though it might be to produce paral lels or analogies for the several sayings and acts of Jesus, there is no record, no hint among the sages, seers and saints of his or any other age of any personality so rich as he in all that has won men's hearts. None the less, he did not stand quite alone; the story of the Gospels, set forth as it is on a relatively small canvas, its simplicity and directness, the ability of the writers to present their narratives and to interpret what Jesus meant for them—all this points to men, also uniquely gifted, and able to paint so vitalizing a picture because they stood so near to the mind of their Master. There was, in truth, a certain qualitative difference be tween Jesus and his first interpreters, on the one hand, and, on the other, the various reformers and reforming or revolutionary move ments of his age—see notably JOHN THE BAPTIST (Matt. xi. II). A certain organic unity distinguishes the personality of Jesus as described in the Gospels, and this gave Christianity, from the first, a decisive individuality despite the striking points of contact between it, its background and other religions.