Joan of Bark

The fourth century was certainly an amazing time for the Christian religion. Between 311 and the Edict of Toleration to the writing of Augustine's City of God in 412 Christianity went from an occasionally persecuted minor sect of the Roman Empire to its only official religion supported by the secular powers.

I've produced this timeline for everyone's general edification. One day I'll write a longer piece about how this century not only gave Christianity legitimacy but also corrupted it beyond any hope of redemption (power tends to do that).

mountainman

That will be an interesting piece to read Joan of Bark.

I'll be looking to understand how it is that we appear to be so sure that Christianity actually existed before the rise of Constantine.

best wishes,


Pete

aa5874

I think in order to show that the history of the Church is bogus, there must have Christians before Constantine.
Constantine, I would think would have heard of Christians, or Jesus before he propagated Christianity.

mountainman

Yes, of course he claimed to have had ...

1) "Our people have compared the chronologies with great accuracy,
and the 'age' of the Sibyl's verses excludes the view
that they are a post-christian fake."

2) Robin Lane Fox has more to say:
His proof of this comparison was unexpected: Cicero (106-43 BCE)
Cicero chanced upon this poem and translated it to Latin.
The Sibyl, Constantine said, had prophecised christ
in an acrostic, known to Cicero.

Robin Lane Fox comments ... "the proof was a fraud twice over."


[Editor: Fraud is demonstrated in the microcosm of the Oration.
Fraud is also demonstrated in the macrocosm of political reality.
Our thesis is that Constantine invented a fabrication and fiction.
Ancient history informs us that c.331 CE, he lavishly published.]

(3) Constantine informs us that the advent of Christ
had been predicted by Virgil (70-19 BCE)
in a Latin poem, written 40 BCE, to the poet's patron Pollio.
Fox says: "Constantine cites Latin's loveliest Eclogue
to a christian audience for a meaning which it never had."

Constantine began with the seventh line, in a free Greek translation which changed its meaning"

p.651: Fox writes:


"Has there ever been such a sequence of misplaced discoveries in a christian sermon,
let alone in a speech at the end of a Christian synod?

- Constantine's Oration, Antioch, 325 CE,
- to the (captive and non-christian) Saints

Huon

The third century was another decisive century for Christianity. The rise of Christianity in this century explains how Constantine could rely on a strong Christian party in his finally successful attempt to gain the power. The battle of Milvius Bridge (oct. 28, 312) has been described as a miracle. It has also a more ordinary explanation. Maxentius had not a strong support of the Romans, who had suffered a famine under his "reign", had revolted, and had been suppressed. The christian soldiers of his army abandoned him at the beginning of the battle and joined Constantine.

All these events are better explained when the rise of Christianity, the simultaneous rise of egyptian and syrian cults, and the decline of the old roman cult during the third century are analysed, along with the increasing military anarchy.