Jesus Followers in the Roman Empire by Paul B. Duff (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI, 2017). Pbk. 275 pages. £24.99. 'Why might any ordinary non-Jewish person in the Roman Empire in the first couple of centuries CE have been drawn into the early Christian movement?' Duff's accessible account seeks to answer this very pertinent question in fewer than 250 pages. Professor of Religion at George Washington University in Washington DC, Duff is essentially writing a book to be used by his students, and in so doing, he shares material that might otherwise be unavailable to the general reader.
Duff is clearly familiar with the old advice to preachers: first you tell them what you are going to tell them, then you tell them, then you tell them what you’ve told them. Thus, his Introduction explains the organisation of the book, chapter by chapter, each of which ends with a summary and conclusions section.
The final chapter is, unsurprisingly, entitled ‘Conclusion’. Personally, I found this enormously helpful, as far too many authors drift on in a semi-stream-ofconsciousness style, mentioning names without any explanation of who they were, and peppering their text with an endless supply of ‘isms’, again without any contextualisation. As one’s familiarity with a subject area advances, and particularly after many years, it must be all too easy to fall into this trap, and it is such a joy to see it avoided here.
The book is organised in three sections. The first, entitled ‘Setting the Stage’, looks at Hellenistic culture in the ancient near east, at the early years of the Jesus movement in rural Judea, and at Greco-Roman paganism. Section two ‘Inside the Movement’ considers the kinds of Gentiles who would have populated the early assemblies of Jesus’s followers in cities such as Antioch, Corinth and Ephesus, and what might have attracted them. The third section ‘Accommodation and Resistance’ compares the Jesus assemblies with contemporary Greco-Roman worship groups, which also celebrated a memorial meal in the context of religious devotions to particular deities.
Also considered are a couple of areas which were controversial for early Christians: eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and marriages between Christians and pagans.
So why should anyone have gone to the Jesus assemblies? Duff’s useful precis of the preaching of St Paul suggests that the message to ‘flee from the wrath to come’ was one motivator, in a period where the return of Jesus was expected to happen shortly.
However, the theological message was not the whole picture, and the social and intellectual context was important too. Early Christianity was a Jewish offshoot and Judaism itself, an ancient source of wisdom, together with the prophesies and laws of the Jews, were considered worthy of respect. Before Jesus became well known, some Gentiles already attended the synagogue, although they didn’t normally convert. There was also significant interest in Monotheism, alongside a still vibrant paganism, the culture of which had things in common with the Jesus movement. For example, the life events of both Heracles and Mithras could be compared with Jesus. Thus the gospel stories, apparently fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, appeared credible. Jesus and missionaries such as St Paul fell into the category of ‘independent religious experts’, a familiar type in the ancient world.
The social conscience of the early Christians, who collected money to help the poorer members of the church, was a strong selling point too, as many fell on hard times, and within a family-like group of cobelievers could have their sufferings relieved. The house churches resembled, in many ways, cult assemblies of the time. These included, for example, people from the same home area, gathering to worship the gods of their homeland and share a meal; or an occupational group, such as blacksmiths, worshipping the patron deity of their craft. It is interesting to read how the Christians’ memorial meal followed a similar pattern to those of contemporary cults, with bread as the main course, followed by wine, setting the pattern for the future development of the Mass. Like the cult assemblies, this meal was followed by an entertainment, though in the Christian case, hymn singing, prayer, and speaking in tongues was the norm, rather than dancing girls or a formal symposium. These are among the themes dealt with in a convincing and readable manner in this stimulating and entertaining book.
Margaret Connolly read History at Reading University. Now retired, she was Headmistress of Hollygirt School, Nottingham.