.... Recent studies have shown that the influence of Hellenism on various peoples in the ancient world was largely superficial, and primarily attracted the ruling class and those with political and administrative hopes.
In his massive study of the Hellenistic period, Peter Green demonstrates that the effects of Hellenism on local cultures in the ancient world operated like a forced cultural veneer over an otherwise healthy and distinct traditional worldview. G. W. Bowersock has come to similar conclusions:
the persistence of all these local traditions has suggested that there was no more than a superficial Hellenization of much of Asia Minor, the Near East, and Egypt . . . . [Hellenism] was a medium not necessarily antithetical to local or indigenous traditions. On the contrary, it provided a new and more eloquent way of giving voice to them.
These observations point to the fact that Hellenism did not tend to infiltrate and 'corrupt' the local religious traditions of the ancient world. Rather, people maintained their religious traditions in spite of Hellenistic influence in other areas of their lives. This leads to our third observation.
3.) Although Judaism and early Christianity were affected by the surrounding culture in certain ways, they diligently guarded their religious beliefs and practices from Hellenistic pagan influences, even to the point of martyrdom.
We now come to the heart of the issue. The historical and archaeological evidence shows that both Judaism and early Christianity carefully guarded their religious views from the surrounding Hellenistic culture. For example, with regard to Judaism, the archaeological work of Eric Meyers on the city of Sepphoris in first-century Upper Galilee reveals that, in spite of wise-spread Hellenistic influence on various cultural levels, the Jewish people maintained a strict observance of the Torah.
When it comes to early Christianity, it is clear that the religious influences are Jewish rather than Hellenistic paganism. The essence of the Christian Gospel is nothing more nor less than the fulfillment of all the Old Testament covenantal promises through the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. It is the climax of the history of Yahweh-God's dealings with the Jewish people through a series of covenants, culminating in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. It is a Jewish worldview that dominates the Gospel, not that of paganism. Gregory Dix's conclusions on the question of the Hellenization of the Gospel confirm this claim: the central core of the Gospel consists of "a Jewish Monotheism and a Jewish Messianism and a Jewish Eschatology; which is expressed in a particular pattern of worship and morality."
This conclusion does conflict with what used to be a popular view of Christian origins in the early twentieth-century. This view, held by a group, of critical scholars known as the 'History of Religions School,' claimed that many early Christian beliefs and practices were actually borrowed from Hellenistic pagan 'mystery cults.' In recent years, however, this view has largely been abandoned by the scholarly world. The evidence now demonstrates that early Christianity is best understood as arising from the Jewish thought world. In his book, Christianity and the Hellenistic World, philosopher Ronald Nash wrestles with the claims of the History of Religions School. His findings are worth noting:
Was early Christianity a syncretistic faith? Did it borrow any of its essential beliefs and practices either from Hellenistic philosophy or religion or from Gnosticism? The evidence requires that this question be answered in the negative.
Nash's conclusion fits with the findings of many others. The work of historians and biblical scholars such N. T. Wright and David Flusser confirm that first-century Judaism is the proper context within which to understand the rise of early Christianity. It is true that Christianity eventually broke with Judaism. Unlike Judaism, it understood God as a Triune Being, and the Messiah as both divine and human. However, these theological perspectives were rooted in the experience of the early Jewish Christians as recorded in the New Testament. As Dix has noted, "Christianity ceased to be Jewish, but it did not thereby become Greek. It became itself--Christianity."
4.) Many of the central elements of the Gospel are diametrically opposed to the Hellenistic mind-set.
This claim can be demonstrated by offering the following examples: First, like Judaism, the Christian Gospel proclaims that God created all things 'out of nothing' ('ex nihilo'). This is contrary to the Greek view of pre-existing eternal matter. Second, since God created all things, including matter, Christianity (with Judaism) understands matter in general, and the human body in particular, as 'very good' (Gen 1:31). The Hellenistic worldview understood matter as questionable at best--if not down-right evil. The body was seen as something like an unnatural tomb, within which the eternal human soul was temporarily trapped until released by death. Whereas, with Judaism, Christianity proclaimed that to be human was to have a body, and thus that we would experience resurrection of the body (an uncorruptible body!) in the after-life, the Greek view of the after-life was freedom from the body.
Some have noted similarities between certain Greek systems of ethics and New Testament teachings on morality. However, even here there are significant differences. While one can identify certain common features, such as literary styles and basic moral codes, there are prominent differences in the motivation (Christians are motivated by regard for God and His call to holiness; the Greeks by self-evident 'reason') and means for living a moral life (Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit; Greeks rely upon their own innate wisdom and ability). Finally, unlike the Greek philosophical view, the hope of heaven provides the foundation for Christians to persevere under moral pressure.
Finally, we must address the claim that the doctrines of the deity of Christ and the Trinity are later Hellenistic pagan corruptions of the early and 'pure' Christianity. Two responses will suffice to show the weaknesses of these claims. First, the claims of those like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses that New Testament Christianity was corrupted by later Hellenistic influence fail to account for the fact that it is the New Testament data itself which led the early Christian fathers to confess the deity of Christ and the Trinity of God. While space considerations do not allow for a detailed biblical defense of these doctrines, reference can be made to a number of significant studies demonstrating that these doctrines are rooted in the New Testament witness to Jesus Christ (see endnote for suggested resources). Second, recent research has forcefully shown that the early Christian idea of Christ's deity developed not in a Hellenistic context but in a distinctly Jewish thought-world. Richard Bauckham, a contributor to this relatively new scholarly movement (sometimes known as the 'New History of Religions School') states these conclusions succinctly:
When New Testament Christology is read with this Jewish theological context in mind, it becomes clear that, from the earliest post-Easter beginnings of Christology onwards, early Christians included Jesus, precisely and unambiguously, within the unique identity of the one God of Israel . . . . The earliest Christology was already the highest Christology . . . .
In conclusion, although the claim that early Christian belief and practice was corrupted by Hellenistic influence is commonly argued by critics of orthodox Christianity, the historical evidence does not support this claim. Rather, like the Judaism from which it arose, the Christian faith rigorously guarded its unique religious identity in the midst of the religious and philosophical diversity of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson, How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997), p. 92.
Blomberg and Robinson, How Wide the Divide?, p. 128.
Should You Believe in the Trinity? (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1989), p. 11.
Muhammad 'Ata'ur-Rahim and Ahmad Thomson, Jesus Prophet of Islam, 2nd ed. (London: Ta-Ha Pub., 1996), p. 2.
Martin Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period, 2 vols., (trans. John Bowden; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974). See also Hengel's Jews, Greeks and Barbarians: Aspects of the Hellenization of Judaism in the Pre-Christian Period (trans. John Bowden; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980); and The 'Hellenization' of Judea in the First Century after Christ (trans. John Bowden; Philadelphia: Trinity, 1989).
Peter Green, Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 312-335.
G. W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990) 6-7.
Eric Meyers, "The Challenge of Hellenism for Early Judaism and Christianity," Biblical Archaeology 55 (1992) pp. 84-91.
Gregory Dix, The 'Hellenization' of the Gospel (Uppsala: Almqvist& Wiksells, 1953), p. 3 (emphasis in text).
Ronald Nash, Christianity and the Hellenistic World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), p. 270.
See N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992); David Flusser, Jewish Sources in Early Christianity (New York: Adama, 1987).
Dix, 'Hellenization' of the Gospel, p. 29.
For a more detailed discussion see Paul R. Eddy, "Christian and Hellenistic Moral Exhortation: A Literary Comparison Based on I Thessalonians 4," in Directions in New Testament Methods (ed. M. Albl, P. R. Eddy, and R. Mirkes; Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1993), pp. 45-51.
On the deity of Christ see: Murray J. Harris, Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of theos in Reference to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992); Robert M. Bowman, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus Christ, and the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989); Millard Erickson, The Word Became Flesh: A Contemporary Incarnational Christology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991). On the Trinity see: Robert M. Bowman, Why You Should Believe in the Trinity: An Answer to Jehovah's Witnesses (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989); Gregory Boyd, Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992).
Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) vi-vii.
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