헬레니즘기 이후 서양 고대 세계의 지배자 숭배에 대한 저항 － 유대교와 기독교의 입장을 중심으로

Abstract

This study is sponsored by the Korea Research Foundation in 2011. The theme of this project is “Civilization and Religion: the correlation of the Christianity and the Hellenistic civilization and the religion”. This study deals with the conflict between the ruler (the emperor) cult and Judaism/ Christianity. The ruler(the emperor) worship of the Hellenistic world shows the political system symbolically. The resistance to the ruler(the emperor) cult in Judaism and Christianity appeared as a conflict of civilizations and religions. In general, the history of the ruler(the emperor) cult in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt stems from the charismatic emphasis of kingship. The king was adored as a god, and it helped the king to control the people. This appeared in the process of the Alexander's Eastern Expedition. After his death, he was worshiped as a god by his successor. Ptolemy dynasty in Egypt and Seleucid dynasty in Syria attempted the ruler(the emperor) cult. The past kings were admired as gods, and the present king was also worshiped as a god. The rulers justified their domination by this. In this process, the Judaism was in conflict with the ruler worship. There was a cultural conflict with the Hellenism. A religious conflict between Judaism and the Hellenistic ruler(emperor) worship arose from the differences of the religious interpretation. A conflict of Hellenism and Judaism, especially the Hellenistic civilization and the ruler(the emperor) worship, appeared by the revolution through the Maccabees. According to Josephus, the war began by the Greeks. At around 67-70 A.D., the impulses of Zealot's members led to the Judaean war. Zealot's members put a dead bird before the Synagoge of Caesarea in Palestine. A dead bird was considered to be unclean in Judaism, and Jews felt it to be the violence to their religion. Therefore, these acts arose Jews' rages. Maccabi members also had the same attitude as Jews'. They sticked to the Jewish tradition and resisted against the foreign power. They refused to accept the Roman emperor's domination, and resisted against the Rome that ruled Palestine. Thus, the Jewish war broke out, and they struggled to accelerate the nation's independence. Why did they make a resistance, especially when the governor of Rome ruled Palestine? The reason why is that the Roman ruler over the Jews in Jerusalem tried to introduce the emperor cult. The resistance against the emperor worship in Judaism continued throughout the Bar Kochba war. Bar Kochba was a nickname of which original name was Simon ben Kosiba. Jewish Rabbi Akiba called him Bar Kochba, meaning Messiah to represent the king. This simply means the star from Jacob in the Old Testament Numbers Chapter 24 verse 17. In this context, the star represents the Messiah of Jewish, which is the basement of people's resistance. There are many different opinions about the causes of Barr Kochbar war. According to Dio Cassius, the war began when the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Egypt in the 129/130 year. He decided to establish Colonia Aelia Capitola in Jerusalem. This was an attempt to mimic the temple of Zeus in Rome's Capitol Hill. During the reign of Emperor, Hadrian had traveled to the colonial countries many times. When he visited cities in the eastern Mediterranean, he set the altar for the emperor worship. The names of the cities are Smyrna, Ephesus, and Kisykos. In those cities, he established the temple in which people served him as a god. He appointed the manager of the temple, the theologians, and singers to worship and give offerings to him. While traveling, he tried to reunify his colonial states with Pax Romana. He set the temple in Athens for himself. He called the temple Zeus Olympios. It meant that he was the highest god of the Olympian Zeus. In addition, in Athen, he built one building of which name is Panhellenion. In the building, the meetings of the colonial countries under Roman empire were hold. Through these meetings, Hadrian would implement the idea of the Hellenism. Consequently, the emperor worship of Hadrian became the dominant ideology of Rome to consolidate the colonies. The ideology was rejected by Bar Kochbar war in Judaean provinces. Judaism resisted the cult of the ruler with the theocracy. Jewish considered submission to the ruler of Rome an idol worship. They were expecting eschatological reign of God. In Judaism, Jewish refused to accept that the ruler of the world was a king. Rather, they believed that the king of Israel and the world was God. They advocated the theocracy. Jesus' teaching is a little bit different from traditional Jewish resistance. Jesus emphasizes that God rules the world. In his sermon, Jesus preached that God's reign is already realized right in this world. However, in the resistance of Judaism, Jewish expected the eschatological future which was to come. The disciples of Jesus confessed Jesus as ‘the Savior of the world’. In the emperor cult, ‘the Savior’ was the nickname of the king. This word represented the expectation of the world bringing in the ideal golden ages. The king was the person who was to implement the Golden age of the Savior. So the emperor of Rome feared the gods, while he sought to implement the Golden Age. The king was thought to realize divine philosophy as the Savior. The word ‘Savior’ is also found in the New Testament. Primarily in the Gospel of Luke, the story of the birth of Jesus Savior is declared (Chapter 1 v. 47). Jesus is declared as Savior of the world in John Chapter 4 v. 42. Therefore, the title ‘Savior’ has a critical view on the emperor worship of empire Rome. For two to three centuries, Christianity had a conflict with emperor worship. This would cause the persecution of the church. Christian apologetic documents showed that Christianity had suffered conflict with the emperor worship. Especially these documents showed that the state power under the Roman emperors was just relative. Its contents are summarized as follows. First, the old churches argued that the Roman emperor was not God. This idea was based on the Judeo-Christian thinking. That is, human is the creature of God, so Christians deny the emperor as a god. An Emperor is just the person for whom Christians should pray. Christians believed that they could obey the emperor only when the emperor performed a legitimate power. Second, the church-fathers and Christians defined the emperor worship as idolatry. They refused to devote offerings to genius of emperor, because they believed that this act was idolatry. Therefore, the ruler of Rome considered this behavior as a resistance against Roman state power. Eventually, the emperor worship came to be the ruling ideology of the Roman Empire. Finally, christians proved their beliefs by rejecting to give sacrifices to the ruller cult. In this process, the Christians refused to sacrifice to the genius of emperor. The Roman rulers thought of this activity as a resistance to the state power. This anti-emperor worship phenomenon appeared not only in the persecution in the age of Antiochos IV but also in the persecution of the Jewish war in 67-70 A.D. The conflicts between Christianity and the Roman Empire were shown in several apological documents. In particular, christian apologists thought of the genius of emperor as the power of demons or Satan. As is seen, a resistance to the emperor worship had a close relationship with Judaism and Christianity. The emperors were trying to consolidate the world with the ruler cult, but Judaism and Christianity had a view to think of the emperor worship as a human deification. This caused a clash of civilizations and religions. It was finally a matter of ideology and theology. The resistance of the spirit of Judaism and Christianity rejected the emperor worship and awakened a sense of criticism to Hellenistic and Roman culture. The Christian's critical views to the emperor was clearly based on the critical spirit of Jesus. Jesus was talking about the love of God and the neighbor. At the times of the Roman Empire, the community of the dominated colonial countries experienced internal dissolution of the community. However, the spirit of Jesus' love came to be a new alternative to the imperial ideology. That is, Jesus did the ministry with the expectation of new order which God reigns. God-centered view of Judaism and Christianity sees the human power being relative. This criticism became the new alternative to replace the ideology of the Roman Empire. Therefore, in the Western history, the resistance in Judaism and Christianity to the emperor worship should be accepted as an important factor in the configuration.