Was the bible (NT) created as propiganda for the Romans?

Question

There were various reasons constantine suddenly decide to switch to monotheism and choose Christianity.
Was the new testiment bible therefore created purely to woo over the sceptics in the roman empire. It was mainly written by greeks, whom the romans had upmost respect and was also written entirely around the mediterannean area? Anyone help me out here?

Answer 1

Well it certainly wasn't the word of God - it was a money making effort from the start

Answer 2

The NT was already mainly written by the time Constantine became the emperor of Rome, and there was lots of small Christian communities all over the empire, so through Constantine's actions he united them.
Also do not forget that the NT was not just written in Greek but early Aramaic & Hebrew, it was later on after the Holy Roman Empire (which was after the Orthodox (Greek)church had seperated from the Roman Chruch) was set up that the bible was then translated into Latin.

Answer 3

Constantine didn't choose Christianity. He simply made it legal to practice it among the other Pagan religions. He didn't accept Christianity as his religion till his death bed. Constantine used it in order to get the Christians to shut up about his war and join his army to help fight his war. There is no evidence he ever became part of the Christian religion during his reign.

The New Test was mainly written by Jews. The Greek lang was common, along with Aramaic. I view the New Test as just a mix match of a bunch of embellished stories about a person who had made an impact on the Jews in Israel - who were no more than slaves to the Roman Gov't. There were soooo many stories floating around then, I'm surprised we only ended up with 4 Gospels in the Bible. Constantine forced the Christian Bishops into stating exactly what the religion was about (since they were always arguing). The council he held did this, mainly on the point of whether or not Jesus was God (and they still can't figure it out), but also to establish a type of statement that could be given to the Roman Gov't of that time. The council itself left several people dead, and several others exiled.

Constantine himself didn't have anything to do with forming the Christian religion. In my lowly opinion, it was formed by Paul (whom we can prove existed). What I find odd about him and his writings is, a lot of it looks to be an imitation of Mithras religion in the Roman Empire. Paul came from Tarsus, which was the main city of Mithras' worship. Paul speaks of "Christ" the same way they spoke of Mithras - Redeemer, Savior, etc... always in an abstract kind of way. It's also where you first find the whole idea that if you don't believe in Jesus' death and resurrection, you aren't saved (Jesus NEVER says this - nor do the Gospels themselves).

Answer 4

Considering that all the New Testament authors but one (a greek name Luke) were Jewish, it seems unlikely that they would have written them the help the Romans. Matthew in particular is very much geared to a Jewish audience with it continual quoting of the Jewish Tanach (Old Testament).

Realize also that there is a 350 year gap between the completion of the last NT book and the time of Constantine, so it is unlikely that the NT authors would have geared the books for him.

But they written in such a manage that they can be read, understood, and used by any culture and society. And have convinced and convicted people besides the Romans of their truth.

Seems more likely the God guided them to make them workable for any group.

Answer 5

Many parts of the New Testament were written down as early as AD 60. The New Testament was complete by AD 100 - long before Constantine. The NT was written mostly by Jewish men who were educated in both HEbrew and Greek. Greek was chosen as it was a more commonly understood language. Early church leaders spoke of the divinity of Christ and the Trinity LONG before Constantine. All historical and religious scholars agree that the New Testament has such good manuscripts that all these theories about Constatine and Rome are just completely unfounded nonesense.

Answer 6

I can give a little help.
Constantine made it illegal to persecute Christians for their religion around 312 because his mother was a Christian. The second emperor after Constantine made Christianity the state religion around 365. The last N.T. book was complete in 95. It was not written by Greeks but by Jews, except for Luke. Greek was still the lingua franca of the area (Alexander).There is far too much time between the completion of the N.T. and any legal dealings with the Romans for your idea to fly.

Answer 7

What are you talking about?
The NT. church was to leave off teaching the Law and the Prophets (basically, stop teaching the old testament), the "God" of the old testament was a war god. (This is the ride of the First Horseman in Rev. 6.) They were to learn war no more. The (New) Testament, runs in opposition to the old. New cloth will tear away from the old. Also, social equality for woman would have been a big issue. What!!!
Unheard of! Espeacially in a church, or religion in general, for that matter.
Roman propaganda is all about Democracy, and how great it is. Bringing in an era of Peace and Security. It is brought in by way of war, but, no matter, lets just overlook that.
- Isn't democracy great eh? Can't speak against it, no, don't do that.

Answer 8

I believe the New Testament was compiled sometime before Constantine's conversion. The gospels certainly were written a good 200 years before. The Pauline letters, too.

The gospels were not written by the actual apostles, but later, by Greeks most likely. Paul, however, was not a Greek but a converted Jew.

Answer 9

The four gospels were all written by people who were witnesses to events or had first hand reports and all were written specifically toward certain crowds.
Matthew was written by a Jew to Jews and many of the miracles and recordings of works in his book have extreme relivance to Jewish converts at the time.
Mark was written as a history of the miracles of Jesus and was not nescessarily written to a specific people group.
John was most likely written by John the apostle as a firsthand account of the life of Jesus according to the person who was closest to him on this earth.

Luke was written by a greek doctor partially as a report on this new religion to the romans and he goes on to write Acts a recording of the early church.

Almost all the Gospels were written around 70AD and Paul's letters span from 51AD to the 70s

Hope this helps.

Answer 10

Whatever the reason the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until the fall of Constantinople in1453 so it wasn't a bad move really.

Answer 11

Almost there ! The concept of Christianity was tailored to be accepted as a plausible alternative to the existing belief systems. It is obvious that, " Oy , Romans, that Jewish insurrectionist that you nailed up was really a God", was not a wise strategy for propagating Christianity and keeping your life! Saul/Paul understood bulls*** and distortion, and very little truth.