The following excerpt comes from an elaborate accusation of deicide that begins as follows and concludes, “ You dashed the Lord to the ground; you, too, were dashed to the ground, and lie quite dead. ”
72 This one was murdered. And where was he murdered? In the very center of Jerusalem! Why? Because he had healed their lame, and had cleansed their lepers, and had guided their blind with light, and had raised up their dead. For this reason he suffered. Somewhere it has been written in the law and prophets, “ They paid me back evil for good , and my soul with barrenness” (Psalm ), “plotting evil against me” (Psalm 34:4; 40:8), saying, “Let us bind this just man because he is troublesome to us” (Isaiah 3:10 LXX).
73 Why, O Israel did you do this strange injustice ? You dishonored the one who had honored you. You held in contempt the one who held you in esteem. You denied the one who publicly acknowledged you. You renounced the one who proclaimed you his own. You killed the one who made you to live. Why did you do this, O Israel?
The institutionalization of Christianity created a hierarchy not only in principle, but in how Christianity was lived for the average Christian. For the bishops, as we have seen, life became very political. Often the general needs of the society fell under the job description of the bishop when there was not a civil authority to effectively govern. Continue reading “4.4. How should religious life be practiced?”