第2章　圣经与基督教

Questions for Revision:

1What was the Hebrew’s major contribution to world civilization?

【答案】The history of the Hebrews was handed down orally from one generation to another in the form of folktales and stories, which were recorded later in the Old Testament, which still later became the first part of the Christian Bible. Thus the Hebrews made one of the greatest contributions to the world civilization.

2Why do we say Judaism and Christianity are closely related?

【答案】Judaism and Christianity are closely related: (1) It was the Jewish tradition which gave birth to Christianity; (2) Both originated in Palestine—the hub of migration and trade route, which led to exchange ideas over wide.

3When did the great exodus take place?

【答案】Around 1300 B.C., Moses, the famous Hebrew leader, went to see the pharaoh of Egypt, telling him that Yahweh wanted the pharaoh to end Hebrew slavery and let the Hebrew leave Egypt. With this began the Exodus, which lasted forty years.

4Who was Moses? What did he do for the Hebrews?

【答案】Moses was a famous Hebrew leader. Around 1300 B.C., Moses led the Hebrews to leave Egypt for the Promised Land. This was called the Exodus which lasted forty years. When the wandering Hebrews left the desert and entered the mountainous Sinai, Moses climbed to the top of the mountain to receive form god message, which came to be known as the Ten Commandments. He died shortly before the Hebrews arrived at their homeland.

5What are the Ten Commandments about?

【答案】The Ten Commandments are a set of rules Moses commands all Israel to obey in the name of God:

(1) Yahweh is the only God all Israel should worship;

(2) Do not carve and serve any idol to worship;

(3) Do not take the name of God in vain;

(4) Keep the Sabbath day and labor in the other six days;

(5) Honor and respect one’s parents;

(6) Do not kill;

(7) Do not commit adultery;

(8) Do not steal;

(9) Do not bear false witness against people;

(10) Do not desire one’s neighbor’s wife, nor his house, nor his field, nor his servants, nor his livestock, nor anything else.

6What writings make up the New Testament?

【答案】The New Testament consists of 14 books. The four accounts which were believed to have been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four of Jesus’ early followers, are the first part of the New Testament and tell of the birth, teaching, death and Resurrection of Jesus. Then come: the Acts of the Apostles, a history of the early Christian movement: the Epistles, or letters to the church groups around the Mediterranean; and lastly the book of Revelation, a visionary account of the final triumph of God’s purpose.

7How did the relations between Christians and the Roman government change?

【答案】The early Christian was subject to persecutions by the Roman government. Jesus Christ was crucified by the Roman government. After Jesus died, his disciplines St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Nero about 65 A.D. Nero even burned Christians in his garden in 64 A.D. For 240 years after the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, persecutions of Christians continued. The chief persecutions were under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Valerian and Diocletian. Despite these persecutions, Christians continued to spread steadily over the Mediterranean region. It began to draw men and women from all classes and the attitude of the Roman government toward Christianity began to change. By 305 Diocletian gave up his effort to destroy the young religion. When Constantine I won the throne from his rivals, he believed that God had helped him, and in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan which granted religious freedom to all and made Christianity legal. Under Constantine Christianity made great contribution of the empire. The emperors who followed Constantine I continued pro-Christian policies. In 392 A.D., Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the empire and outlawed all other religions. Now Christianity had changed from an object of oppression to a weapon in the hands of the ruling class to crush their opponents.

8How did Christian monks help Western civilization survive?

【答案】The Christian monks helped western civilization survive in many ways:

(1) The Christian monks spread Christianity to the Mediterranean region and some of them even suffered martyrdom;

(2) Some monks translated the Old Testament into Greek and St. Jerome translated the whole Bible into Latin. Later some such as John Wycliffe and William Tyndale translated the Bible into the vernacular;

(3) In the Middle Ages, people in Western Europe were mainly divided into three classes: clergy, lords and peasants. Of these three classes, the only literate section was the clergy. The Christian monks did a lot to help preserve and transmit a large part of the traditional heritage of the western culture. They not only translated the Bible into Latin or the Vernacular but also copied or translated the ancient works into the vernacular, such as the monks in these monasteries set up by Charlemagne and Alfred the Great.

9Why do we say the Bible has shaped Western culture more decisively than anything else ever written?

【答案】Judeo-Christian tradition constitutes one of the two major components of European culture. The Bible which is virtually related to every phase of human life greatly influences people’s daily life, especially in the Middle Ages when almost everyone was a Christian; The Bible has great impact upon western literature. For a long period of time, the Latin Bible was accepted as the authority and Latin was official language of the Roman Catholic Church, so most Europe literature at that time was in Latin. Besides it is generally accepted that the English Bible and Shakespeare are two great reservoirs of Modern English. Furthermore, the use of Biblical themes has been a literary tradition. In fact few great English and American writers of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century can be read and appreciated with satisfaction without a sufficient knowledge of the Bible; The study of the Christian teaching especially the Bible has become an important branch of knowledge—scholasticism which has been prevalent for centuries; The Bible has also influenced western philosophies and science. Thus the Bible has shaped western culture more decisively than anything else ever written.