Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8448 Plough Quarterly • Spring 2016 plague was raging in the metropolis of Alexandria, the local bishop Dionysius wrote in a letter: The most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joy- fully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves and willingly receiving their pains. . . . But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied. 24 Even those inclined to dismiss such texts as over-generalizations must still admit: here is at the very least a description of how the Christians saw themselves and of how they wanted to be. Until now I have based my argument on Christian sources. Now I would like to cite at least one pagan source – and it is not the only one that could be cited. The Roman emperor Julian, a firm opponent of Christianity, writes in the year 362 to Arsakios, the heathen high priest of Galatia: Atheism [i.e., the Christian faith!] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them. 25 And in a similar programmatic letter to Theodoros, the high priest of the province of Asia, Emperor Julian writes: I am of the opinion that, because it has reached a point that the poor are ignored and neglected by our priests, the godless Galileans, who noticed this, have resorted to this practice of philanthropy. 26 Even though Julian accuses the Christians of ulterior motives in their practice of agapē, his letter indicates that the apologists were evidently writing factually: the church’s social system functioned so well that it supported even non-Christians. This solidarity must have made a deep impression on outsiders; it was one of the reasons for the rapid spread of Christianity. Imminent Expectation Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, the reign of God. In itself, this would have been nothing new. Many people in Israel believed in God’s reign. And many Jewish groups of Jesus’ time hoped that this reign would soon be revealed and that, in the near future, it would arrive and triumph.