Abstract
Christianity has been from its very beginning a missionary religion. Its role on the “international” level arises from its original universal calling articulated in the gospels: “make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19). The object of the mission is the conversion of the nations. This mandate arises not from some kind of “colonialism,” added later to the original kerygma, and neither is it individual spirituality. The Christian idea of nationhood differs from modern concepts, since it relies on the Biblical history of humanity conceived as a history of salvation, lasting from the Creation to the end of times. The central role of nationhood emerges as a key theological concept, which is tied to the Biblical events of Babel and Pentecost. The kingdom of God is anticipated (but not yet realised) by the idea of the Church, as a “third nation” over the “two nations,” that is, the Jews and the Gentiles into the new nation of God. The reconstruction of these central concepts shows remarkable consistency in early Christianity.
I thank my reviewers for their incisive comments. If not otherwise indicated, translations are mine, like the responsibility for remaining failures.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Marx (1981, 385). Original published in 1844.
- 3.
Concerning the Biblical quotations I will generally follow the New King James translation. This translation stays conveniently close to the Vulgate (and thereby quite close to the Septuagint in most cases), but sometimes I had to amend the quotations on the basis of the Septuagint (LXX) or ancient readings present in the Church Fathers. Modern translational preferences often reflect far too much the contemporary concerns. When it is necessary to follow the LXX, I will use the new English translation (NETS 2009). Emphases are mine if not otherwise indicated.
- 4.
I’m setting aside now the much debated issue of the trinitarian baptismal formula following this injunction. Here I’m only concerned with the meaning of “nation.” There were attempts to excise the formula from Matthew as a later addition which are not based on undisputable philological evidence. These suggestions were rather based on modern presuppositions, which only support my point about the flight from the theological problem. Without entering the philological issue I hope to show that irrespective of its “originality” the passage fits very well into the early Christian theological discourse.
- 5.
The original meaning of the more familiar term “catholic.”
- 6.
Herder (1784–1791).
- 7.
- 8.
See Smith (2000, 2–3).
- 9.
The need for the revision was first proposed by the German Catholic convert church historian Erik Peterson. See also Hollerich (1999), who followed suit in writing about Eusebius on the doctrine of the Church in Eusebius.
- 10.
The Song of songs is often interpreted as describing the marriage between God and Israel, or later by the Christians as the love bondage between Christ and the Church. It signals a critical difference when the interpretations—already in the Middle Ages—shift towards the soul–God relation. (The two interpretations appear side by side already in Origen’s commentary.)
- 11.
Summarised in the adage “the norm of prayer is the norm of faith” (lex orandi lex credendi).
- 12.
For example, Philo quotes Hesiod, but changes the plural “gods” to singular, like the Apostle Paul on the Areopagus speaks about the “unknown god” in singular, while the altar devoted to the “unknown gods” is in plural.
- 13.
For example, in Jewish legends Alexander was supposed to have visited the Jerusalem Temple and sacrificed in it.
- 14.
The Jewish papyri show clearly that inner-Jewish correspondence was to a large extent conducted in Greek well up to the fourth century CE (Tcherikover and Fuks 1957–1964).
- 15.
Vergil, Aeneid VI, 851-3. Tr. by. E. F. Taylor (1907) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18466 (accessed 5 August 2018)—a somewhat free translation of pacisque imponere more—imposing the habit of peace (on the world).
- 16.
“Our ancestors wanted Janus Quirinus to be closed when throughout the domain of rule of the Roman people, by land and sea, peace had been secured through victory. Although before my birth it had been closed twice in all in recorded memory from the founding of the city, the senate voted three times in my principate that it be closed” (Res gestae Divi Augusti II. 13).
- 17.
Plutarch 1935, 330DE.
- 18.
As it is depicted on the Babel mosaic of the San Marco in Venice.
- 19.
The LXX and Qumran reading of Deut 32:8 speaks about the nations “according to the number of the angels of God,” which has been identified with the number of the “sons of Israel” (i.e. of Jacob, whose household had been established as seventy, too. Thereby the two figures coincide, and this became a solid tradition for the number of the languages and the national angels). For example, 1Enoch 89:59; 90:22 (seventy shepherds [of the nations]), or the Targum ps-Jonathan (Targum du Pentateuch. IV Deutéronome. par R. Le Déaut Paris: CERF 1980. SC 271, 266. (v.27:8, p. 215). The idea of the seventy languages survived well into the Middle Ages.
- 20.
Important book on the issue is Halbertal and Margalit (1992).
- 21.
In the rabbinic tradition the six universal Adamite Laws and the seventh Noachite law are prohibition of idolatry, murder, robbery, incest, blasphemy, and the requirement of justice, to which the prohibition of the eating of meat with blood is added.
- 22.
In some cases, it is the Archangel Michael who is the angel of Israel, but Michael being the highest-ranking trusted archangel, or “general”—so to say—of God, the difference is not of great significance in this respect. The importance of this declaration can be seen from the fact that Deut 32:9 will be included into the early Christian liturgies.
- 23.
Plato (1961, 659. Tr. P. Shorey) = Resp. 414d-e. A similar idea can be found in Cicero: “If the legislators of states have thus enforced, for the benefit of society, the belief that there exists a universal monarch in heaven, at whose nod (as Homer expresses) all Olympus trembles—and who is both king and father of all creatures—you may observe how great is this authority, and how multitudinous the witnesses which attest that nations have unanimously recognised, by the decrees of their chiefs, that nothing is better than a king, since all the gods consent to be governed by a monarchical deity” (Cicero 1969, 1.56).
- 24.
Symmachus (1872, rel. 3, 7).
- 25.
This idea might explain why Romans 1:18–21 blames the nations for not acknowledging God, since they “did not glorify him and give thanks to him as God, but became vain in their imaginings, and their unwise heart was darkened.”
- 26.
Plato (1961, 1171. tr. Jowett, B.) = Timaeus 42d6 theoi neoi.
- 27.
Sallustius (1960, cap. 6.; Proclus passim).
- 28.
This is why the recent attempts to rehabilitate ancient “monotheism,” for example, by the two recent collections of essays, are based on a conceptual misunderstanding. The Hellenistic and the Scriptural “monotheisms”—even if called correctly as monarchies—are fundamentally different from each other (Frede and Athanassiadi 2002; Mitchell and Nuffelen 2010).
- 29.
See the implications in the classic work of Fustel de Coulanges (1874. bk.3).
- 30.
In the Byzantine liturgy attributed to St. John Chrysostom the supplication “Lord, save thy people and bless your inheritance” is repeated three times. While it quotes Ps 28:9 (LXX) directly, in fact it is Dt 32:9 which serves as the background also for the Psalm.
- 31.
It is suggestive that the Chronicon [World history] of Eusebius begins with Abraham. This beginning is explained not so much by the difficulty of establishing a chronology before Abraham, but rather by the significance of Abraham’s role: it is with him that the known, the tangible history of humanity began in the form of the birth of the manifold of nations.
- 32.
Acts 17:26 alludes to the same line: “He made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation.” (An allusion to the rejection of the myth of Thebes or Plato can be detected here, too.)
- 33.
“The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the LORD loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers” (Deut 7:7–8).
- 34.
“Rabbi Azariah in the name of Rabbi Judah ben rabbi Simon: All the angelic princes who watch over the nations of the world in the coming age are going to come and make the case against Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He, saying: Lord of the world, these have worshipped idols, and those have worshipped idols. These have fornicated and those have fornicated. These have shed blood and those have shed blood. How come these go down to Gehenna, while those do not go?” (Neusner 1990, 232). I thank P. Kelenhegyi for the reference.
- 35.
As it is famously said in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys.
- 36.
Interestingly here the Hebrew term for “holy nation” is goy kadosh, which shows that there is no terminological difference between goy and am. The difference is between the singular “people” or “nation” and the plural “peoples” or “nations.”
- 37.
Greek: οὐ λαὸς.
- 38.
Greek: Καλέσω τὸν οὐ λαόν μου λαόν μου.
- 39.
This is a patristic commonplace. See in great detail, for example, in Ephrem the Syrian, who understands the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as a parable about the two nations (Murray 1975, 65). I have followed the history of the interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son which was also understood by many patristic authors (most notably by Augustin) as a parable about the Two Nations (Geréby 2004).
- 40.
Cf. “Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1Cor 13:8). The cessation of the “tongues” addresses (and rejects) the primacy of the national.
- 41.
This common theme of the Church Fathers reflects the important metaphysical issue of the day, the opposition of the One to the Many.
- 42.
Greek: ἡ κλῆσις τῶν ἐθνῶν, Latin: vocatio omnium gentium. This is the title of the work of Prosper of Aquitaine (d. after 455), The call of all nations.
- 43.
When Hermas adopts the number twelve instead of the seventy mentioned above it probably means that he thought of the twice twelve elders of Revelations who are the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel descending from Isaac, but also the twelve tribes descending from Ishmael. The twenty-four tribes constitute the whole of humanity according to this normative idea.
- 44.
Gloossa in Greek can mean both tongues of flame and tongues as languages, like in English.
- 45.
Cyrill of Jerusalem (Catechetical orations 17, 17).
- 46.
The salvation-historical interpretation of the parable of the Prodigal Son also points in this direction. (Geréby 2004).
- 47.
Harnack (2014, II.7).
- 48.
The views were divided in the early Church about the relation of the three nations. Hippolytus, for one, considered the two nations (the Jews and the Gentiles) as conspiring against of the Church: In Daniel I, 14,6; 15,1–4; 29, 1.
- 49.
Cf. also Mt 21:42; Marc12:10; Lc 20:17; Eph 2:20; 1Pet 2:7.
- 50.
Augustine’s view of the two nations may have influenced the mosaics (Blumenkranz 1973).
- 51.
Philanthropia is a Hellenistic technical term expressing the benign policy of the ruler to promote the well-being of its subjects.
- 52.
Fiunt non nascuntur Christiani. Tertullian, Apologia 18.4, De anima 1.
- 53.
Ratzinger (2005, 57).
- 54.
Bardy (1974, 278). The allusion “new name” refers to Rev 2:17 with Isaiah 62:2 in the background.
- 55.
“Differentia non debet esse in diversitate nationum quia una est ecclesia catholica per totum orbem diffusa.” Hrabanus Maurus Ep. ad Odogardum 829. MGH. Epistolae V. Fragm. 11. 520.
- 56.
“et omnes reconciliati sunt in uno corpore Deo, et in tantum unum corpus effecti in uno spiritu, ut Christus potius quam Christiani dicantur.” Liber adversus legem Gundobadi c.3, PL 104: 115 (alluding, of course to the connected verses of 1Cor 12:12; Rom 12:5; 1Cor 12:27 and Eph 5:23).
- 57.
Both Catholic and Orthodox churches reacted to emerging nationalisms in the nineteenth century. The Syllabus of Pope Pius IX (1864) condemned the independent national churches and that local councils are subject to civic order (Denzinger and Schönmetzer 1997, no. 2936–2937). The pan-orthodox synod of 1872 in Constantinople condemned phyletismos, meaning the autocephalous movements of the Bulgarian and the Serbian churches (Karmiris 1953, 2.1014–1015). The motivation seems to have been, however, to maintain the control of Constantinople.
- 58.
Constitutiones Apostolorum VII, 39. ed. B. Metzger.
- 59.
Tatian, Oratio. 28. The same idea can be found in the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus.
- 60.
Celsus quoted by Origene in his Contra Celsum VIII, 72 (Transl. Chadwick 1953, 507).
- 61.
Origen, Contra Celsum V, 25 (Transl. Chadwick 1953, 283). The term used by Pindar is “nomos” meaning “local customary law,” which should be juxtaposed to the universally valid “logos.” The Roman imperial ideology was built on the inclusion and coexistence of pacified, but different nations. For imperial propaganda manifested in art, see Smith (1988, 50–77).
- 62.
Abbreviations
-
PG – Migne, Patrologia Graeca
-
PL – Migne, Patrologia Latina
-
SC – Sources Chrétiennes
-
MGH – Monumenta Germaniae Historica
-
References
Abbreviations
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PG – Migne, Patrologia Graeca
-
PL – Migne, Patrologia Latina
-
SC – Sources Chrétiennes
-
MGH – Monumenta Germaniae Historica
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Geréby, G. (2020). The Nation, the Nations, and the Third Nation: The Political Essence of Early Christianity. In: Paipais, V. (eds) Theology and World Politics. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37602-4_8
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