DOCSLIB.ORG

The Conversion of the Goths and Franks

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Conversion of the Goths and Franks The Conversion of the Goths and Franks Cosmic Conflict • Gen. 3:15–“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and you shalt bruise his heel. Christian population of the Roman Empire when Constantine came to power: 5% - 12% The Goths and the Roman Empire Goths . Visigoths . Ostrogoths . Vandals Roman legionaries recruited from the Goths Some Roman Emperors of Gothic lineage Mongol Invasions (3rd and 5th centuries) . Led to migrations of the Huns and Goths . Incursions into the Empire Christian Missions to the Goths 1. Catholic (Nicene) . Through captives and refugees from persecution . John Chrysostom (400) 2. Audians . Named for Audius . Spread Christianity outside the empire . Active among the Scythians and Goths . Monasteries and bishops established . Nearly eradicated Christian Missions to the Goths 3. Arian – Most Goths were Arians – Arius • Heretical Bishop • Council of Nicea (325) Ulfilas (311-380) . Designed an alphabet to translate the Bible into Gothic . Some portions of that translation are preserved today Pre-Reformation Missions 500 B.C. 0 500 1000 A.D. 1500 Influence of Persian Empire (500 B.C. – A.D. 400) Grecian Influence (323 B.C. – A.D. 400) Mar Thoma Church (A.D. 50 – 1500) Coptic Church (A.D. 50-1500) Roman Republic Empire (27 B.C.–476 (500-27 B.C.) A.D.) Constantine (A.D. 306-337) A.D. 400, Augustine Bishop of Hippo Ulfilas – Missionary to the Goths (311-380) 400, Chrysostom sends missionaries to Goths 496, Clovis, King of the Franks, converts to Christianity Christianity’s Advance Rome sacked by Alaric and the Visigoths (410) Adopted substantial amount of Roman culture and religion Clovis and the Franks . Had occupied Gaul . Converted to Christianity within two decades of the fall of Rome Visigoths transitioned from Arianism to Nicene Christianity Europe and Islam Hegira (flight from Mecca to Medina) 622 A.D. Mohammed’s death 632 A.D. Visigoths in Spain fell to Arab armies in the seventh century Islamic armies checked at Tours in France . 100 years after Mohammed’s death 732 A.D. Victor Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) North Africa and Islam Faith uprooted by Islamic conquerors 60% of Monasteries and Bishoprics . Heartland of Christianity Islam virtually displaced Christianity in North Africa Christian Missionary Methods in History 1. Grass roots evangelism (e.g., Samaria in Acts 8; Antioch in Acts11) 2. Open-air preaching (Peter in Acts 2, Paul in Acts 17) 3. Modeling koinonia (love in community) 4. Urban church-planting teams (Apostle Paul: Acts 13-20, Titus 1:5, etc.) Christian Missionary Methods in History (Continued) 5. Nonformal learning along with formal and informal learning in house churches - decentralized connectionalism (handout) 6. Philanthropic social services - care of the sick and dying and abandoned infants, burials for the dead left untended, relief for poor widows and orphans, visits to prisoners, etc. 7. Literacy and Bible translation (Ulfilas) Trinitarian Purpose of Missions The purpose of missions is Trinitarian: to glorify the Triune God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, which God the Father has given unto God the Son (Isa. 49:6), and in which the people of God are privileged to participate by the Son’s express invitation and command (John 20:21 and Matt. 28:18-20) through the enablement of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). S. H. Larsen Observations Regarding Missions “Missions is messy” God did not commit the task of world evangelization and discipleship to sinless angels, but to redeemed sinners, and only in this life before they are fully sanctified. So all missionaries are finite and fallible. Yet through it all, Jesus Christ is building His Church (Matt. 18:18b). Without commonalities, we have no bridge of understanding by which to communicate the Gospel, and our message is left incomprehensible. Yet without biblical contrasts, syncretism will corrupt the message. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Introduction, Phonological, Morphological, Syntactic to The
    AN INTRODUCTION, PHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, SYNTACTIC, TO THE GOTHIC OF ULFILAS. BY T. LE MARCHANT DOUSE. LONDON: TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 1886, PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, BED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PREFACE. THIS book was originally designed to accompany an edition of Ulfilas for which I was collecting materials some eight or nine years ago, but which various con- siderations led me to lay aside. As, however, it had long seemed to me equally strange and deplorable that not a single work adapted to aid a student in acquiring a knowledge of Gothic was to be found in the English book-market, I pro- ceeded to give most of the time at my disposal to the " building up of this Introduction," on a somewhat larger scale than was at first intended, in the hope of being able to promote the study of a dialect which, apart from its native force and beauty, has special claims on the attention of more than one important class of students. By the student of linguistic science, indeed, these claims are at once admitted ; for the Gothic is one of the pillars on which rests the comparative grammar of the older both Indo-European languages in general, and also, pre-eminently, of the Teutonic cluster of dialects in particular. a But good knowledge of Gothic is scarcely less valuable to the student of the English language, at rate, of the Ancient or any English Anglo-Saxon ; upon the phonology of which, and indeed the whole grammar, the Gothic sheds a flood of light that is not to be got from any other source.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson 18 - the Situation in the West After the Fall of Rome
    Church History Lesson 18 - The Situation in the West After the Fall of Rome 1. Introduction - A Crumbling Empire 1.1. In the last session we looked at a number of Christological controversies which embroiled the church, and consequently the Empire, up until the council of Chalcedon in 451. 1.2. As we saw, these controversies involved both the East and the West, but there were of far greater concern in the East than in the West, and the majority of bishops attending the various councils were overwhelmingly from the East. 1.3. Although there were a number of reasons for this, one of the major reasons was the rapidly changing situation in the West. After Rome was sacked for the first time in 410 AD, it sent shockwaves through the whole empire, but especially in the West. Although the Eastern part of the Empire continued in one form or another for over 1,000 years more, the situation in the West was far different. 1.4. Today we will take a brief look at what happened in the West after the first sacking of Rome in 410, and see how this affected life and the church in the West for the next 300 years or so. 2. The Barbarian Invasions 2.1. The events that most affected life and the church in the West were a series of invasions by “barbarian” tribes. 2.2. Obviously the first major invasion was when Alaric and his band of Visigoths, who invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410. It was the shockwaves from this event that caused Augustine to write his opus City of God.
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Texts and English Translations of the Bible: A
    GREEK TEXTS AND ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE: A COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS GREEK NEW TESTAMENT OF THE 16th CENTURY AND THE ALEXANDRIAN TEXT OF WESTCOTT AND HORT (19th CENTURY) AND ALAND AND METZGER (20th CENTURY) CONCERNING VARIANT TEXTS THAT PERTAIN TO THE ORTHODOX CHRISTOLOGY OF THE COUNCIL OF NICEA, A.D. 325 Gil L. Samples, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2002 APPROVED: Laura I. Stern, Major Professor Harold Tanner, Chair of the Department of History Henry Eaton, Committee Member Adrian R. Lewis, Committee Member C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Samples, Gil L. Greek texts and English translations of the Bible: a comparison and contrast of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament of the 16th century and the Alexandrian text of Westcott and Hort (19th century) and Aland and Metzger (20th century) concerning variant texts that pertain to the orthodox Christology of the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325. Master of Arts (History), December 2002, 155 pp., 149 titles. The argument of this paper is that certain salient passages in the New Testament concerning Christology, as it was defined in the Nicene creed in A.D. 325, reflect such orthodoxy better in the Textus Receptus Greek texts and the English translations made from them than do the Alexandrian texts. Arian theology, which was condemned as heretical at Nicea, is examined. Patristic quotations, historical texts, and arguments of the scholars are cited and traced, along with a comparison of Christological verses.
    [Show full text]
  • Jordanes and the Invention of Roman-Gothic History Dissertation
    Empire of Hope and Tragedy: Jordanes and the Invention of Roman-Gothic History Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Brian Swain Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Timothy Gregory, Co-advisor Anthony Kaldellis Kristina Sessa, Co-advisor Copyright by Brian Swain 2014 Abstract This dissertation explores the intersection of political and ethnic conflict during the emperor Justinian’s wars of reconquest through the figure and texts of Jordanes, the earliest barbarian voice to survive antiquity. Jordanes was ethnically Gothic - and yet he also claimed a Roman identity. Writing from Constantinople in 551, he penned two Latin histories on the Gothic and Roman pasts respectively. Crucially, Jordanes wrote while Goths and Romans clashed in the imperial war to reclaim the Italian homeland that had been under Gothic rule since 493. That a Roman Goth wrote about Goths while Rome was at war with Goths is significant and has no analogue in the ancient record. I argue that it was precisely this conflict which prompted Jordanes’ historical inquiry. Jordanes, though, has long been considered a mere copyist, and seldom treated as an historian with ideas of his own. And the few scholars who have treated Jordanes as an original author have dampened the significance of his Gothicness by arguing that barbarian ethnicities were evanescent and subsumed by the gravity of a Roman political identity. They hold that Jordanes was simply a Roman who can tell us only about Roman things, and supported the Roman emperor in his war against the Goths.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of Athanasius and the Views of His Character
    The Importance of Athanasius and the Views of His Character J. Steven Davis Submitted to Dr. Jerry Sutton School of Divinity Liberty University September 19, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Research Proposal Abstract .............................................................................................................................11 Background ......................................................................................................................11 Limitations ........................................................................................................................18 Method of Research .........................................................................................................19 Thesis Statement ..............................................................................................................21 Outline ...............................................................................................................................21 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................27 Chapter II: Background of Athanasius An Influential Figure .......................................................................................................33 Early Life ..........................................................................................................................33 Arian Conflict ...................................................................................................................36
    [Show full text]
  • 4 from Where Did the Anabaptists Come
    4 From Where Did the Anabaptists come? They came from “no where.” Right out of the Dark Ages, out of incredibly corrupt state churches, the Anabaptists (Ludwig Keller and E. H. Broadbent notwithstanding) stepped as a totally new and different movement. Were they somehow connected to the first Christians? No, they were not. The early Christians were Jewish, Greek, or Latin people in flowing robes. The Anabaptists were north Europeans in black hats and broadfall trousers. The Anabaptists, although they respected the early Christians, made no attempt to “reproduce” them exactly. A thousand miles and a thousand years apart, they had little in common except the New Testament and the secret of the great strength . Once this became clear to me I started seeing things in history: Jewish Christians After Pentecost, Jews from Parthia, Media, Elam, Babylon, Cappadocia, and other places joined the Jews of Judaea who believed in Christ. Jewish Christians, all of whom could trace their ancestry back to Abraham, were circumcised and wore beards. They ate Kosher foods and kept the Sabbath holy. But 16 The Secret of the Strength . they followed Christ, and Christianity soon broke out of the bounds of Judaism. Greek Christians After Paul’s conversion and Peter’s visit to Cornelius, hundreds and eventually thousands of Greeks from all over Alexander’s former realm—Greek merchants and lawyers, Greek doctors, educated Greeks, Greeks given to profound thought, athletic Greeks, Greeks used to idolatry and total abandon to immorality, Greek masters and slaves—repented, believed, and got baptised. They followed Christ, and it wasn’t long until Christianity was predominantly Greek, centred in Hellenistic Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor.
    [Show full text]
  • Timeline 100 BC ‒ 44 Julius Caesar, Roman General and Writer BC 27 BC Death of Marcus T., Author on the Affairs of the Countryside 55-117 C.120 Tacitus (P
    Timeline 100 BC ‒ 44 Julius Caesar, Roman general and writer BC 27 BC Death of Marcus T., author On the Affairs of the Countryside 55-117 c.120 Tacitus (P. Cornelius Tacitus) 97/98 Publication of On Germany 70 Death of Lucius Junius Columella, author of On Agriculture c.100 Mithraism appears as a cult in the Roman Empire. c.155 Martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna c.232-c.303 Porphyry, Neoplatonic philosopher 235-84 The ‘third-century crisis’ of usurpations and revolts 284-305 Reign of Emperor Diocletian 286 Empire divided between two augusti: Diocletian in the East, and Maximian in the West 301 Edict of Prices, shortly after an edict on tax-reform c.311-83 Ulfilas, missionary to the Goths, translator of the Bible into Gothic 306-37 Reign of Emperor Constantine 306 306 Constantine elected emperor ('raised to the purple’) at York 312 Battle of Milvian Bridge; Conversion of Constantine to Christianity 313 Edict of Milan 314 Council of Arles on Donatism 324 Victory over the eastern emperor Licinius; founding of Constantinople 325 Council of Niceaea on Arianism Basilica Nova¸ Rome Church of Santa Constanza, Rome c.315/c.336- St Martin, bishop of Tours 397 c. 360 Monastery of Ligugé founded c.345-402 Symmachus, senatorial aristocrat in the West c. 330-79 St Basil ‘the Great’ 357-8 Visits monks in Egypt and the Holy Land 358-9 Rule of St Basil c. 339-97 St Ambrose, bishop of Milan c. 360-after 430 John Cassian, monk, author of the Institutes and the Conferences 353/5-431 Paulinus, founder of the monastery of Nola (southern Italy) 357 Battle of Strasbourg 360-3 Reign of the pagan Emperor Julian the Apostate 363 Julian killed in the course of a Persian campaign 364-78 Reign of Emperor Valens in the East 372 Monastery of Marmoûtiers founded 376 Visigoths cross the River Danube and settle in the Roman province of Thrace 378 Valens defeated and killed by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople.
    [Show full text]
  • Visigoths and Romans: Integration and Ethnicity
    Neal 1 Jennifer Neal May 9, 2011 Final Thesis Visigoths and Romans: Integration and Ethnicity Outside of Inginius’ fine home in Narbo, the January weather was far from pleasant. Inside the main apartments of the house, a woman and man sat beside each other enacting a Christian marriage ceremony. Emblems lay heavy against the woman’s body, indicating her imperial rank. Poised and proper as ever, she glanced again at the man who sat beside her wearing the garb of a Roman general and looking pleased. The audience gazed at her, exclaiming quietly at her beauty and the simple gown that draped from her shoulders. She smiled and turned her attention to the youths standing before her. Fifty young men, all dressed in different colors of silk, held platters that overflowed with gold and jewels so precious they nearly took her breath away. The irony almost drew a laugh from her lips. All of the wealth on those platters might be gifts meant to impress her, but they had been stolen from the coffers of her fellow Roman nobles during the Sack of Rome.1 That woman was Galla Placidia. The year was 414 and Galla Placidia, Roman princess and half-sister of Honorius, emperor of the Western Empire, sat next to Athaulf, barbarian king of the Visigoths.2 Willing as she was to marry Athaulf, there was no disguising the fact that he and his army of barbarians had pillaged her home and the surrounding areas to gain the treasure he now presented to her. Yet for all his Roman trappings, Athaulf was no Roman.
    [Show full text]
  • Athanaric the Visigoth: Monarchy Or J
    earlier one, any more than we can accept the pos- sibiliQ of arrioing at the name Jor the Gothic Athanaric the judge from Celtic, in a way in which tl~is possible for rciks. ,Such an obseruation, otherwise trivial in itsel_r, .rerues to characteriie the methodr Visigoth: arid Limits of the Blnctional compariso~~.This yields historical insighls which appb to the in- dividual case in question: along with new con- monarchy or sideratio~uconcerning rcx-rciks, an ar~qument i.s de~eloped againrt tlie opinion tliat Atizanaric's ,judgeship was olle of a lower rank than genuine J'udgeship. kingship, before which tiie GotIiZC clii@-for whateuer reasoz -- was supposed io haue draron back infear. This makes his judgeship look more A study in like an 'i~utitutionalized magisiracy', exercising rgal power for a set term, than a mere ethnic dignip. Further, the compariron estab1khe.r that the comparative Celtic, as well as tlie Gothic, judqechip was pouibly held in dual,fashio~z,or could be held tltat history wq, bcfore the period under o6,seruaiion; howeuer, the pairs to be dealt with here do 1101 represent afly 'Dioscurian' doi~blechiefdom but rather pairs of Herwig Wolfram chieftains riualling each olher. The archaic ex- perience may serue i~ithis instarice o~ilyas a model fol- siiaping lhe traditio~i. Finally, it is recognized - and thir co111d well be our most importa~~tfinding- that the judgeship is limiled, not onb in time but also in territoly: il 7he declcion to risk an attempt atfunctional com- had valid ,jurisdictiot~ o~zbi~zside the tribal ler- parison between two historicaljgures ouer a period ritoiy ilself.
    [Show full text]
  • To the People of Antioch and the Bishops of Africa
    A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. SECOND SERIES TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH PROLEGOMENA AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. VOLUMES I–VII. UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D., PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. AND HENRY WACE, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. VOLUME IV ATHANASIUS: TO THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH AND TO THE BISHOPS OF AFRICA T&T CLARK EDINBURGH __________________________________________________ WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 481 Introduction to Tomus Ad Antiochenos. ———————————— THE word ‘tome’ (τόμος) means either a section, or, in the case of such a document as that before us, a concise statement. It is commonly applied to synodical letters (cf. the ‘Tome’ of Leo, A.D. 450, to Flavian). Upon the accession of Julian (November, 361) the Homœan ascendancy which had marked the last six years of Constantius collapsed. A few weeks after his accession (Feb. 362) an edict recalled all the exiled Bishops. On Feb. 21 Athanasius re-appeared in Alexandria. He was joined there by Lucifer of Cagliari and Eusebius of Vercellæ, who were in exile in Upper Egypt. Once more free, he took up the work of peace which had busied him in the last years of his exile (see Prolegg. ch. ii. §9). With a heathen once more on the throne of the Cæsars, there was everything to sober Christian party spirit, and to promise success to the council which met under Athanasius during the ensuing summer. Among the twenty-one bishops who formed the assembly the most notable are Eusebius of Vercellæ, Asterius of Petra, and Dracontius of Lesser Hermopolis and Adelphius of Onuphis, the friends and correspondents of Athanasius.
    [Show full text]
  • HYPOTHESES on the LIFE of JORDANES Como Si De Esta Gente Yo Trazase Mi Origen: Hipótesis Sobre La Vida De Jordanes
    AS IF FROM THIS PEOPLE I TRACED MY ORIGIN AS IF FROM THIS PEOPLE I TRACED MY ORIGIN: HYPOTHESES ON THE LIFE OF JORDANES Como si de esta gente yo trazase mi origen: hipótesis sobre la vida de Jordanes OTÁVIO LUIZ VIEIRA PINTO UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, REINO UNIDO [email protected] Introduction The De Origene actibusque Getarum, universally known as Getica, is one of the most well-known texts of the Early Middle Ages (Liebeschuetz, 2011; Bodelón, 2005; Amory, 2003; Christensen, 2002; Gillet, 2000; Weißensteiner, 1994; Bradley, Humanities Commons 1993; Goffart, 1988; Croke, 1987; O’Donnell,provided by 1982). It is View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk CORE brought to you by commonly regarded as one of the first accounts on the pre-Roman history of a barbarian gens – in this case, the Goths – written by a non-Roman, known as Jordanes (Wolfram, 1990: 27). In this sense, the Getica is a valuable text for scholars looking into ethnical traditions and cultural frameworks that might have been TAVIO UIZ IEIRA INTO O L V P , “As if from this People I Traced my Origin: Hypotheses on the Life of Jordanes”, Calamus 1 (2017): 197-222. ISSN 2545-627X. Recibido 15/11/2015, aceptado 04/05/2016 197 OTÁVIO VIEIRA PINTO lost or ignored by Roman authors, centred in their own cultural and literary scopes.1 In the past decades, the Getica sparkled countless historiographical debates concerning its factual accuracy, its general purpose and its effectiveness in dealing with veridical Gothic matters.2 Because it was written as Justinian was finishing – and winning – his campaign against the Ostrogoths in Italy, some researchers, such as Walter Goffart, saw in it a propagandistic tone, whose value was embedded in a contextual setup rather than a proper historical narrative (Goffart, 1988: 20- 111).
    [Show full text]
  • The Greek Sources of the Gothic Bible Translation
    ISSN 2029-4050. VERTIMO STUDIJOS. 2009. 2 THE GREEK SOURCES OF THE GOTHIC BIBLE TRANSLATION Artūras Ratkus Trinity College University of Cambridge United Kingdom [email protected] Almost all of what we know about the structure and properties of Gothic comes from the Gothic translation of the New Testament from Greek. No analysis of Gothic syntax is therefore feasible without reference to the Greek original. This is problematic, however, as the autograph that was used in translating the Bible into Gothic does not exist, and the choice of the Greek edition of the New Testament for comparative study is a matter of debate. The article argues that, in spite of the general structural affinity of the Gothic text to the Greek, the numerous observed deviations from the Greek represent authentic properties of Gothic—it has been argued in the literature, based on such deviations, that Gothic is an SOV language. A comparison of the Gothic Bible and different versions of the Greek New Testa- ment gives a taxonomy of structural and linguistic differences. Based on this, I ar- gue that the correct version of the Greek Bible to use when analysing the structural properties of Gothic is the Byzantine text form, represented by the Majority Text of the New Testament. WULFILA: HISTORY AND CONTEXT Even though the source text(s) which served as the base for the translation of the Gothic Bible cannot be established with absolute certainty, one aspect of Gothic studies which makes it somewhat less controversial than Greek New Testament scholarship is the fact that the Gothic Bible is more than likely to be the work of one person, namely, bishop Wulfila of the Goths1, 2 (c.
    [Show full text]