-
Essay / How Paul played an important role in the spread and influence of Christianity
Paul spread Christianity throughout the Greco-Roman world, introducing the emerging faith to a wider audience than ever before. While Jesus and his contemporaries only preached, unsuccessfully, to Hebrew communities, Paul brought hundreds of thousands of people to the faith by converting them. Recorded in the New Testament as epistles, it introduced new ideas such as the nature of human sin, the de-emphasis of law and ritual, and the promise of eternal life, which appealed to the Hellenic flocks who had previously part of the polytheistic pantheon of ancient Greece, and later Rome. Paul institutionalized the spread of Christianity by completing the break with Judaism and making the new faith a popular faith. Paul's life and teaching was the most important factor that led to the spread and influence of Christianity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayPaul brought the epicenter of Christianity out of the cramped Roman-controlled region of Judea and into the cultural centers of the Mediterranean. This is why he has been called the co-founder of Christianity. It was Paul who began writing the Holy Scriptures in Greek, and it was Paul who changed the name of the Messiah from the Hebrew Yehoshua to the Greek name Jesus. This process of Hellenization, then Westernization, has more similarities with modern Christianity than with rabbinic Judaism, as it is practiced today, or with Judaism practiced in ancient Israel. For this, Christians have Paul alone to thank. His singular contributions to the formation of Christianity as a religion, and to making it more than a simple movement in the fertile lands of reproduction of the Messiah that is Judea, have an unparalleled influence in the propagation of the faith, exception perhaps of life, death and the message. of Jesus. Even though Christianity is a religion centered around a single man, if historians examined the differences between its practice today and that of more than 2,000 years ago, they would notice significant juxtapositions, and anyone studying the spread of Christianity would soon see a vital change in his movement in Paul's day. In his epistles he wrote to various cultural centers of the Hellenic world and brought the faith into their homes. But he shaped this nascent movement into a global religion that would spread like wildfire throughout the Mediterranean, due to its mass appeal. Paul completed the break between Christianity and Judaism in his teachings, which gave the faith new influence among the Hellenic peoples. Throughout history, Judaism has attracted only a small minority of people, and it was so during the spread of Christianity. Before Paul, the first believers were only Jewish disciples of Jesus. They still adhered to Jewish law, but believed that the Messiah had come in the form of Jesus. But with the advent of Paul's teachings, they became Christians, forever separating themselves from their Hebrew foundation and origin. In addition to changing the language from Hebrew to Greek, Paul criticized the importance of law and ritual in celebrating the faith. Although rituals unique to Christianity were to come, namely Holy Communion, Paul maintained that faith is enough. It asserted that all are justified by faith in God, that faith transcends law and ritual, and emphasized individual worship. Perhaps most importantly, he asserted that there was no favoritism toward God, nor any chosen people..