Emperor Constantine Essay Example for Free

Emperor Constantine Essay The relationship between the man and religion is centuries old and so is relationship between the man and the God. God in many forms have profoundly been capturing the hearts and souls of humans. In whatever phase of life this world has taken the man into, religion has always predominated the man’s life and so along with it several questions? Since, the Western world’s explorations started way back in14th Century, Christianity also spread, dug its roots in many parts of the world and spread its own interpretations about the Jesus, and his teachings. see more:to be human is to err It is evidently true that now people have ardent belief that Jesus was both human as well as divine and the life of Jesus on this Earth was both of ordinary man as well as supreme but this belief was not always there. It was the period between first and third century; people never tried to ponder on this theological aspect of their so ardent belief. Even Church did not have time to delve and search about this aspect as they were occupied in missionary activities and striving to protect themselves from persecutions. But the time suddenly changed when Emperor Constantine put an ultimate end to persecutions and also gave his moral and financial support to the Church. His support bore fruit and Christians organized themselves. In the year 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea, there was a debate among the Scholars and religious preachers. The debate was on the topic, Was Jesus a human or divine? Arius, both a priest and a preacher from Alexander said that Jesus was a human but was the first to be created by God but his opponents gave a strong argument by saying that if Jesus had been only a common human being like you and me then his death and finally resurrection would never have been so powerful to redeem our sins. If it was Jesus who had to provide salvation to humans then he ought to be divine. The opponents won and their views and ideologues appeared in Nicaean creed, where it is written, Jesus is true God of true God, begotten, not made. (Flesher, 2003) Another debate took place at Ephesus in 431 A. D. and the topic was if Jesus was human as well as divine then how can these both natures be culminated in one? Many Christians from Abtioch in Syria said that Jesus had traits of both divine and human nature but he used it differently. For e. g. If Jesus is God, he performs miracles but when Jesus plays the role of human then he suffers like a human and died. The Christians from Alexandria argued that though these two natures were blended together but these characteristics were not of equal measure. His divine power was more powerful as with his divinity, he had led human kind towards salvation and redemption of sins. His physical and normal human beings traits are not of much importance. These debates did not come into any conclusion. Again the Fourth Council was held at Chalcedon 20 years later, when Bishops thought to resolve the problem by taking middle position and got into belief that Jesus was both human as well as divine and with both these natures blended, gave human beings the path of righteousness. As a human being, he got himself prone to temptation, sins but his divine power overcame his human instinct, and this divinity in him takes the humans on the path of salvation. This formulation became the basis for the Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy, but this belief was not adopted by every one especially Churches of Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia and Armenia. (Flesher, 2003). â€Å"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us† (ESV. Bible John 1:14). When Jesus was born, he was human being which his closest disciple also said, â€Å"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness † (1 John 1:1). John established him as a human being when he conveyed that Jesus disciples saw, touched and heard Him. (The Good News Magazine, Online Edition) He also felt hunger, thirst when he went on fast and fatigue too. Geza Vermes in his The Changing Faces of Jesus delve into the different facets of Jesus, taking into consideration the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. The author said that as soon as the first century came to an end, Christianity forgot about the real Jesus and his messages. â€Å"Jesus, the religious man with an irresistible charismatic charm, was metamorphosed into Jesus the Christ, the transcendent object of the Christian religion. † (Vermes, 2000) In the most polemic tone, Geza Vermes (2000) said that: â€Å"As a historian I consider Jesus, the primitive church and the New Testament as part and parcel of first-century Judaism and seek to read them as such rather than through the eyes of a theologian who may often be conditioned, and subconsciously influenced, by two millennia of Christian belief and church directives. † Vermes consulted Gospel of John, which had endorsed the divine status to Jesus and then moved on to the Pauline letters, the book of acts and the Synoptic Gospels and said that if one goes by Synoptic Gospels, historical and Jewish religious tenor, Jesus is shown as a prophet – a holy man, a charismatic healer and exorcist. He also said that Jesus was a teacher to preach the words of God to the people on this Earth, as the other holy men of Jewish did. He went further to say that Jesus was a Hasid, a holy man from Galilean equivalent to other holy men as Hanina ben Dosa. Jesus always said that he was the son of man and just like other Galileans. Jesus did not indulge in halakhic matters. He even said that Jesus never wanted to form a new religion, as advocated by the Early Christian churches. Even Paul also never considered Jesus as a divine being or as a historical person. For Paul, Jesus is a redeemer of sins. He too said that Jesus was unmarried and no one else except Jesus has left a legacy of his magical words to take the human beings out of their sins towards the path of God and true living.