The oldest book in the New Testament and ancient Rome

I Thessalonians.

The New Revised Standard Version of I Thessalonians has some valuable information under its opening paragraph “Addressees". To quote:

"Paul wrote I Thessalonians, the oldest book in the New Testament, to the church in Thessalonica, a port located on the northern shore of the Aegean Sea. This city was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and was devoted to the imperial cult of Rome, but culturally it remained a Greek city governed by Greek law. Its location on the Via Egnatia, which ran from Byzantium to the Adriatic Sea, ensured commercial prosperity."

How important these trade routes are to our grasp of history and geography! Byzantium is right over on the left of the map Julie has supplied and the route is sort of straight all the way to the Adiatic, through Phillipi.

So, what is “the imperial cult of Rome” mentioned in the quote above? Wikipedia says that it gave divine authority to emporers and some members of their families.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_cult_(ancient_Rome)

These lead to a further question. If divine implies God or gods, what were these in ancient Rome? A little research under the “Roman Gods” brought up the web site called Roman Empire (http://www.roman-empire.net/children/gods.html), which tells us that there were many different gods and goddesses. 

Everything had a god or goddess in charge: 

. Mars was the god of war; 

. Minerva the goddess of wisdom, intelligence and learning; 

. Venus the goddess of love and beauty; 

. Vulcan the god of blacksmiths and volcanoes. 

. There were also household gods. 

All the gods were classified under what was called the Pantheon. And it is so interesting that these gods still hold a fascination for scholars of our time. (Are they still pushing God aside while they associate with these gods?)

What a job to change the people's thinking to the worship of one God. Even so, Constantine I is credited with having done just that. The web site Roman Gods tells us that in AD 312 Constantine had a dream which he felt had come from the god of the Christians. This was before an important battle. He won the battle and was so grateful that, according to one website, he turned "his entire empire over to this new religion.” http://www.roman-empire.net/children/gods.html
The Roman empire stayed Christian ever after.

Mary Baker Eddy, in her wonderful No and Yes (a great little book to carry in one's handbag for inspiration at odd moments and places), mentions “pantheon.” Here she discusses human philosophy:

Christian Science rends this veil in the pantheon of many gods, and reproduces the teachings of Jesus, whose philosophy is incontestable, bears the strain of time, and brings in the glories of eternity; “for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (p. 21:20).

The paragraph begins with:

Human philosophy has an undeveloped God, who unfolds Himself through material modes, wherein the human and divine mingle in the same realm and consciousness. This is rank infidelity,; because by it we lose God's ways and perpetuate the supposed power and reality of evil ad infinitum (21:15-20).

She also writes: “Human philosophy has ninety-nine parts of error to the one-hundredth part of Truth, – an unsafe decoction for the race” (21:2-5).

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Readers whose interest in Constantine might have been aroused by Joyce's post here, may find a National Geographic article of interest - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/timeline_10.html -
especially regarding Emperor Constantine and Christianity. Present-day Istanbul was once called Constantinople (after the Emporer).