Chapter 25

Rivals to Early Christianity

All Roads Lead to Rome

Map of the land and sea trade routes of the Roman Empire in 200 CE

Though it was never a given that the Roman church would win out over its rivals, in retrospect it had key advantages simply by being headquartered in the empire’s capital. With its central location and myriad sea and land-based trade routes connecting it with all parts of the empire and beyond, ideas disseminating from Rome could more easily be spread. Having the largest population of any city in the world allowed it a faster growth rate as well. (Converting 1% of the 1 million inhabitants of the city of Rome to Catholicism would be far more impactful than, for example, than converting 1% of the 200,000 people living in Ephesus to Marcionite Christianity). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Rome was the center of the vast bureaucracy that steered the ship of the state. Converting the leader of a major city like Antioch to Christianity would surely be influential, but converting the leader of Rome would forever alter history.

Not all of the Roman church’s competition was coming from other branches of Christianity or from the traditional worship of the Graeco-Roman Gods. The various other salvation religions we’ve looked at were still going strong at this time, and the faith known as Mithraism—described in Chapter 10—was gaining popularity at an impressive rate.

Ruins of a Mithraeum in Rome that Christians later covered over with a church

Had events unraveled a little differently, it is not unthinkable that this religion rather than Christianity could have gone on to become the official religion of the empire—archeologists have unearthed over 400 of the faith’s unmistakable arched-ceiling, semi-underground temples called Mithrea spanning every province of the empire from Egypt to Portugal, and Germany to Britain, as well as further east into what is today Iran.¹ One expert has estimated that, at the height of the religion, the city of Rome alone would have had “not less than 680 to 690” mitharea.²

The Decian Persecution

Artist depiction of Elagabalus presented with the head of Emperor Marcrinus

The Roman Empire entered the 200s CE in tattered shape after a long series of assassinated emperors, clashing internal factions, and another hugely expensive war of conquest against Parthia—immediately followed by the ceding of all newly conquered land in return for peace.³

In 203 CE, a Syrian child assigned male was born heir to the high priesthood of a popular local solar deity who shared the child’s name: Elagabulus. A decade and a half later, in 218 CE, a Roman political faction plotted against the Emperor Macrinus, and claimed that young Elagabalus had been secretly sired by a former emperor, and they hailed the 14-year-old as the new ruler of the Roman Empire.⁴ Soon after this, with the coup successful, the Syrian teen was presented with Macrinus’s head.⁵

Artist depiction of Roman Empress Elagabalus

The reign of Elagabalus has been buried under centuries of slanderous reports, and it is difficult to sift truth from fiction.⁶ One certainty is that the Syrian version of Ba’al was imported to Rome under the guise of Sol Invictus (“Invincible Sun”), and was made the Roman pantheon’s new chief deity, above even Jupiter.⁷ Elagabalus is described by a contemporary Roman historian as having worn makeup, feminine wigs, and having removed all body hair. When referred to as “lord” by a member of the court, Elagabalus replied, “Do not call me ‘lord’, for I am a lady.” Elagabalus had a series of relationships with both women and men, ⁸ and to the latter enjoyed being called “mistress, wife, and queen”.⁹ She is said to have spoken in a soft, feminine voice, and offered a vast sum of money to any physician who could provide her with a vagina,¹⁰ and for all these reasons, it seems entirely fitting to refer to Elagabalus as the only known transgender empress of Rome. During her four-year reign, the Senate had its first two women participants,¹¹ but this innovation was immediately undone upon her assassination at age 18.¹²

Artist depiction of ancient Romans dying in the streets from plague

Over the following decades, the empire faced dire threats. Germanic and other northern tribes such as the Goths, Vandals, Alamanni, and Carpi were invading Roman Gaul and making raids all across the northern borders of the empire in Europe.¹³ Meanwhile, plague swept across the provinces, killing as many as 5,000 people a day in Rome, and reducing the population of Alexandria in Egypt by more than half. Corpses lay strewn across cities and towns. The economy and food production ground to a halt, having disastrous effects on the ability of the empire to defend itself from invaders.¹⁴

Surviving certificate from the Decian persecution discovered in Egypt

In 249 CE, the emperor known as Philip the Arab was bested in battle and succeeded by one of his generals named Decius who hoped to return the empire to the glory days it had known during the so-called Pax Romana under leaders like his personal hero Trajan a century earlier.¹⁵ In addition to securing the empire’s borders, building grand public baths, and restoring the Colosseum after it had been damaged by lightning strikes, he also sought to uplift public morality and piety by renovating the state religion.¹⁶ In 250 CE, he issued an edict requiring all inhabitants of the empire to make an offering “for the safety of the empire”, pledging their loyalty to the ancestral gods, and consuming the sacrificial food and drink before a magistrate who would then issue them a certificate of record.¹⁷ Anyone defying this order risked torture and execution,¹⁸ though Jews were exempt.¹⁹

Artist depiction of Pope Fabius locked in prison

Though later Christians would paint a picture of heroic early martyrs defying a villainous pagan empire bent on their utter destruction,²⁰ modern historians consider this act by Decius to represent the only empire-wide persecution up to this time for which there is convincing evidence.²¹ It is unknown how many Christians abandoned their faith—or pretended to—to avoid arrest. Some are known to have made a show of defiance in choosing death over abasement—including Pope Fabius in Rome who perished in prison.²² But the Christian populations of this time were likely hit harder by the recent plague than they were by judicial executions. During the reign of the successor pope, Cornelius, there is estimated to have been 50,000 Christians living in the capital.²³ A year after issuing the edict, emperor Decius was killed in battle against the Goths.²⁴

Elchasaism

Artist depiction of a 96-mile tall Jesus and sister Holy Spirit giving a new holy book to a Elchasai

In his book The Refutation of All Heresies, Hippolytus related a story that, around the year 220 CE, a Jewish-Christian man arrived in Rome carrying a book he said he had received in Persia by a righteous man named Elchasai (“Hidden Power”). The book was said to have been revealed to Elchasai by a 96-mile tall angel, who was the Son of God—and standing beside him at the same height was his sister, the Holy Spirit. The book’s contents were described as announcing a special new second remission of sins, along with a new baptism that allows the forgiveness of even the worst manner of sins.²⁵

Artist depiction of the lost Elchaisite scriptures

Two later church elders also wrote of a group of Christians they refer to as the Elchaisaites, describing them as utterly rejecting the apostle Paul,²⁶ and claiming to have a new book of revelation which condemns virginity and abstinence. It also apparently sanctioned making of sacrifices to idols if it is done only perfunctorily to avoid persecution or death.²⁷ The unique holy book of the Elchaisites was said to be in use among various groups of Ebionites and other Jewish-Christians practicing daily baptizing rituals.²⁸

Manichaeism

In 216 CE, in the capital of the Parthian Empire—near what is today Baghdad in Iraq—a son was born to an Elchesaite Jewish-Christian couple who would go on to be known as Mani (“Light” or “Enlightened”).²⁹ He later wrote that at ages 12 and 24 he received sacred visions which prompted him to leave his parents’ faith and begin a new religious movement to spread the true message of Jesus in a new gospel.³⁰

Mani presents the Persian Emperor with his new holy book

Exiled from his homeland for his deviant doctrines, Mani traveled to India where he studied Hinduism, Buddhism, and other related sects.³¹ He then returned home to what was now the Sassanid Persian Empire. Despite Zoroastrianism being the official religion of the empire, Mani gained an audience with its ruler Shapur, and dedicated to him a book he had written called The Text of Two Principles, which became a foundational sacred text of Manichaeism.³² Mani presented himself as not merely a prophet, but the final prophet God would send. He described a version of history in which God had sent a series of holy men who revealed great wisdom to humankind, most notably: Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, and now himself.³³ Taking the titles “apostle of Jesus Christ” and “apostle of the true God”, he further identified himself as the promised Paraclete (“Helper”, “Advocate”), who in the fourth gospel (attributed to John), Jesus told his disciples would arrive after his death.³⁴

Artist depiction of Mani levitating in the palace courtyard

While the Sassanid emperor was not converted to this nascent religious movement, he welcomed Mani as a member of his imperial court where the prophet gained a reputation for performing miracles such as healings, levitation, and teleportation. He was also a renowned painter.³⁵

Mani went on to write several more works, all of which only survive in parts.³⁶ From them, it is clear that Mani kept the extreme dualism of Zoroastrianism’s constant struggle between Light and Dark. From gnostic Christianity he incorporated the notion that Jesus had revealed the celestial nature of the soul which longed to reunite with the divine. Mani had copies of the Enoch apocalypses used by the Essenes, and quoted from them in his works, greatly informing his cosmology.³⁷ He also made use of the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, and the Acts of Thomas,³⁸ chronicling, as we’ve seen, the apostle’s missionary journey to India.

Artist depiction of sinners cast into the Manichaean vision of hell

Mani also retained from Christianity its vision of the End Times judgment in which Jesus separates the righteous from the sinners, casting the latter into Hell with the Devil.³⁹ From Hindu culture he adopted a simplified version of a caste system in which a small number of the “Elect” would strive for salvation by living their lives by a strict ascetic code of virtue while assisted in this endeavor by the “Hearers”—the lower caste of believers who lived to assist the Elect in their journey. Borrowing the notion of the transmigration of souls from Buddhism, these Hearers attempted to live virtuously enough to be born as an Elect in their next incarnation.⁴⁰

After Shapur and his successor Hormizd’s imperial support of Mani, a new emperor took the throne who considered himself a traditionalist Zoroastrian reformer, and he thus acted with great intolerance toward other religious movements of the realm. In this atmosphere, Mani was thrown in prison at age 58.⁴¹ Accounts of his death in 274 CE vary, with some saying he was flayed and had his body hung over the city gate of the intellectual capital of the Sassanid Empire, Gundeshapur. Others present his death as a crucifixion in the style of Jesus,⁴² while more probably he simply died in prison—though he may have had his head removed after death and set on display.⁴³

Map showing the spread of Manichaeism along the Silk Road

Manichaeism spread with remarkable speed through the east and west, reaching Egypt by 244 CE and Rome by 280 CE.⁴⁴ By 302 CE it faced persecution by Roman Emperor Diocletian, with its holy books targeted for destruction and anyone openly practicing the religion subject to having all their possessions confiscated, and being sent to work in the mines.⁴⁵ Nonetheless, just ten years later there are reports of Manichaean monasteries in the capital.⁴⁶ To the east, the religion was spread along the famous Silk Road trading route, establishing itself in China by the 600s CE.⁴⁷ Though facing similar or worse persecutions in the Tang and Ming dynasties, Manichaean communities survived there until at least the 1400s CE.⁴⁸ In Africa, the hugely influential ascetic theologian Augustine of Hippo was a member of the Manichaean faith until he converted to Roman Catholicism at age 32.⁴⁹

Continue Reading:

Chapter 26: Christianity Entrenched

Footnotes

1
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2
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Southern, P. (2015). The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. Taylor & Francis.
4
Ball, W. (2000). Rome in the East. Routledge.
5
Scott, A.G. (2018). Emperors and Usurpers: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio’s Roman History. Oxford University Press.
6
Ball, W. (2000). Rome in the East. Routledge.
7
Halsberghe, G. (2015). The Cult of Sol Invictus. Netherlands: Brill.
8
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Cassius Dio: Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician. (2016). Brill.
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Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before the Modern. (2021). Cornell University Press.
11
Burns, J. (2006). Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars. Taylor & Francis.
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Hay, J. S. (1911). The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus. United Kingdom: Macmillan.
13
Southern, P. (2015). The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. Taylor & Francis.
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18
Moss, C. (2013). The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom. HarperCollins.
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Augustine, S. (2008). The Confessions. OUP Oxford.
37
“MANICHEISM,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2014, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/manicheism-parent
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Runciman, S. (1982). The Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
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Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, March 6). Manichaeism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism
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49
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