Christianity arrival in Britain v1t€¦ · Tuesday 28th September 2010 Christianity’s Arrival in Britain , a talk by Gary Auker 2 • Britain took on its island status 8,500 years

Tuesday 28th September 2010 Christianity’s Arrival in Britain , a talk by Gary Auker 1

A talk by

Gary Auker

To

Springfield Park Baptist Church

On

Tuesday 28th September 2010

Christianity’s Arrival in Britain


• Britain took on its island status 8,500 years (6,500 BC)ago after the English Channel was flooded by the seacutting Britain off from mainland Europe. This flooding marked the beginning of the geography ofthe British Isles we know today.

• During the last 8,500 years many different peoples havejourneyed from near & far to make Britain their home.

• Each group of peoples have brought their own culturelanguage & beliefs to Britain but none has had such alasting impact as the arrival of Christianity to our shores.



Outline of Talk

• Pre-Christian Britain

• Arrival of Christianity in Britain

• The Christian Bible in Britain



Pre-Christian

Britain


Reconstruction of Stone Age House


People returned to Britain & were building houses by 8,500 BC beforethe English Channel flooded c. 6,500 BC making Britain an island again.

Remains of oldest house found in Britain. Scarborough, Yorkshire

(~ 10,500 yrs old)Stone Age people are thought to have worshipped their Ancestorsnot God(s) or Spirits in Nature.

Christianity’s Arrival in BritainBritain becomes habitable as Ice Age ends c. 9,500 BC


Britain’s early farmers : checked their calendar by watching Sun & Moon

Stonehenge erected c. 2,500 BC(about time Great Pyramids built at Giza, Egypt)

• Contrary to popular belief the Celts & their Pagan Spiritualleaders the Druids did not build Stonehenge which had stoodfor 1,900 years before the Celts arrived in Britain c. 600 BCfrom the Alpine region of Europe.

• The earlier Beaker people had arrived in Britain c. 2,500 BC

Beaker culture extent(2,900 – 1700 BC)



Gaius Julius Caesar( 100 - 44 BC )

• Wicker man – human sacrifice (burning)was described by Julius Caesar as being practised by Celts in Gaul (France). No evidence of this practice has been found.He found Celts also occupied Britain during hisexpeditions to Britain in 55 & 54 BC

• Celts believed in manyGod’s (Polytheists)

• Celts believed that allnatural world: Animals,Plants & even Rocks hadspirits residing in them.(Animism).

Celtic Paganism in Ancient Britain



Arrival of Christianity

in Britain



How did Christianity who’s main focus the Crucifixion & Resurrection occurred over 2,000 miles away from the shores of Britain manage to get here ? Roman Empire at its peak

(96 A.D. - 180 A.D.),

Roman Empire enabled Christianityto spread across most of Europe.



• Date of his martyrdom is uncertain.Mostlikely dates are 209, (251-259) AD.

• St. Alban was Britain’s 1st known Christian matyr in Roman Britain.

St. Alban

• In 2006 some Church of England clergysuggested that St. Alban should replaceSt. George as the patron saint of England.

•There were Christians in Roman Britain as early as the 3rd Century AD



Constantine’s statue in York (Eboracum), UK where he took the title Augustus (Majestic) in 306 AD

• Constantine I, the 1st Christian Emperor (306 – 337 AD), issued theEdict of Milan in 313 AD, which proclaimed religious tolerance ofChristians throughout the Roman Empire.

• Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empireduring the reign of Emperor Theodosius I ( 378 – 395 AD).

Emperor Theodosius IRuled: 378 -395 AD



• The Roman legions left Britain c. 400 AD.

• The Christians left in Britain developed in isolation from Roman Catholicism.



• In the 20-30 years after the Romans pulledout of Britain it was alleged that Pelagianismbecame rife among the British clergy.

• Pelagianism says that original sin did not taintHuman nature and that a person is still capableof choosing good or evil without special Divine aid.

• Germanus visited Britain in 429 AD to combat the threat of Pelagianism and satisfy the Popethat the British church would not break away from the Augustinian teachings of divine grace.

St. Germanus of Auxerre (c. 378 – c. 448) in Gaul (now France)


Tuesday 28th September 2010 Christianity’s Arrival in Britain , a talk by Gary Auker 14450 AD

Dark Age Britain – a collection of separate Kingdoms

• From around 450 ADPagan Germanic tribesAngles & Saxonswould start to settlein Britain.

• The land of the Angleslater became known asEngland.

• These Pagan tribesdisplaced native BritishCeltic Christians from Southern Britain

625 AD



Anglo-Saxon Paganism• The new Anglo-Saxon settlers had many Gods & sacrificed animals. • Some Gods had a day of the week named after them.

Modern Englishname

Old Englishname Meaning God / Goddess of

Monday Mōnandæg Mortal Mani day Mortal he angered the Gods

Tuesday Tiwesdæg God Tiw's day Combat & victory

Wednesday Wōdnesdæg God Woden's dayWisedom, Magic,Poetry, Prophecy, the hunt

Thursday Þūnresdæg God Thunor's day Son of Woden, God of Earth

Friday Frigedæg Goddess Frija's day Goddess of love & beauty

Saturday Sæturnesdæg Saturn's day Roman God of harvest

Sunday Sunnandæg Mortal angered Gods Sunna day Mortal she angered the Gods

GodWoden

GoddessFrija

• Anglo-Saxons also believed in other supernatural beingsor "wights", such as elves, and household deities.



Converting the Anglo-Saxons to ChristianityMissionaries came from Celtic Irish & Roman Catholic traditions.

St. Patrick born in Roman Britain

Kidnapped by Irish when 16Escaped at 22 & later returned

to convert Celtic Irish during 5th Century AD


St. AidanInvited from Iona to found

Lindisfarne Monastery 635 ADby King Oswald of Northumbria

St. Columba521 – 597 AD

Columba sailed fromIreland to found Iona Monastery

563 AD


• Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 598 AD.

• Augustine converted many of the king's subjects, including thousands during a mass baptism onChristmas Day in 597 AD.

Catholic Mission to Britain: Augustine landed on Isle of Thanet, Essex.

Augustine of Canterburyc. 530 – 604 AD

• Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great to lead a mission, to Britain to convert the pagan King Æthelberht of the Kingdom of Kent to Christianity. Although the King’s Christian wife Queen Bertha probably prepared his heart before Augustine preached.

King Æthelberht540 – 616 AD




• In 653AD St. Cedd saileddown the east coast ofBritain from Lindisfarneand landed at Bradwell.Using stone from an oldRoman fort he oversawthe building of the chapel we see today in 654 AD.

St. Peter’s Chapel (built 654AD) Bradwell, EssexThe Oldest standing Church in England.

• King Oswiu of Northumbriasent Cedd to re-evangeliseEssex & Kent after they turned away from Christianity.

Celtic Mission to Southern Britain


• The Roman Catholic view, thatthe Easter resurrection shouldalways be celebrated on a Sunday won the day.

• In 664AD the two differentstrands of Christianity inNorthumbria (Celtic & RomanCatholic) met at the Synod of Whitby to decide when Eastershould be celebrated.

Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire, UK

venue of Synod of Whitby in 664 AD


• St. Cedd had to act asinterpreter for churchleaders who spoke differentlanguages: Gaelic,Old English

St. Cedd

Bede notes: King Oswiu of Northumbria who observed Celtic (Ionian) Easter date wanted to celebrate Easter on same date as his Queen whoobserved Roman Catholic date.


Languages & Peoplesof Britain

c. 900 – 950 AD

Germanic tribes:Angles & Saxons

Danes …………………

Norse Vikings ….

Celts in Britain

Christianity’s Arrival in BritainPagan Vikings attack Lindisfarne Monastery in 793 AD

….the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the churchof God in Holy-island (Lindisfarne), by rapine and slaughter."-Anglo Saxon Chronicle (9th Century).


• It was Alfred, the Christian King of Wessex,who turned things round.Alfred saw the Viking attacks as punishmentfrom God.

• Once Alfred secured a victory over the Viking warrior Guthrum at theBattle of Eddington in May 878 AD,he set about creating a new systemof Christian learning that would reachthe illiterate country people.

King Alfred the GreatReign : 871 – 899 AD

Christian victory over the Pagan Vikings & Danes



The Christian Bible

In Britain



• Vetus Itala Bible was based on the 2nd

Century BC Septuagint for Old Testament,and on Greek manuscripts for the NewTestament. Different Church versionsbegan to appear.


• The "Vetus Itala" or Old Latin Biblewould have been the 1st Latin translation of the whole Bible usedby Christians in the Roman Empire/ Britain

• Pope Damasus I commissioned St. Jerome tostudy original NT Greek texts & Hebrew OTto correct “mistakes” (Jerome was criticized bySt. Augustine of Hippo & others for notusing the OT Greek Septuagint text).

Jeromes Latin Vulgate Biblecompleted c. 405 AD



Lindisfarne Gospels written c.715 AD

• Lindisfarne Gospels are presumedto be the work of a monk namedEadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 AD and diedin 721 AD

• Lindisfarne Gospels are Latin translations of Matthew, MarkLuke & John’s Gospels


Venerable Bede,c. 673 – 735 AD

• Bede wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoplein 731 AD

• Bede translated John’s Gospelinto Anglo-Saxon (Old English)c. 735AD

• Bede was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery ofSaint Peter now in Sunderland



Here is the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) version of a piece of scripture, as given in the West Saxon Gospels written c. 990 AD.

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Si þin nama gehalgod. to becume þin rice,gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlicanhlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urumgyltendum. and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice.

Modern English NIV (1978 AD) translation of above (Matthew 6:9-13)“9 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.



John Wycliffec. 1324 – 1384 AD

• John Wycliffe was the first person to translatethe whole New Testament, into common English from the Latin Vulgate Bible, whilst his associates translated the Old Testament, completing the so called Wycliffe Bible by 1384AD.

• He campaigned for biblically-centered reformsin the Catholic Church.

• Founded the Lollard movement a Precursor tothe Reformation.

• He opposed Papal authority to rule on secularmatters.



William TyndaleTranslated English Biblefrom Hebrew & Greek

textsLived c. 1494 – 1536 AD

• Tyndale’s translations of the Biblewas political & religious DYNAMITEin Henry VIII England.

• Tyndale was forced to flee England forthe continent where he found safe haven for a while.

• The church and state reacted stronglyagainst Tyndale’s work, banning hisNew Testament of 1526 from England.

• In addition any copy of his workfound in England were to be burned.

Henry VIIIKing of England1509 – 1547

AD



• Tyndale’s Bible translation stripped away the scriptural basis of Catholic clerical power.

• Tyndale thought Priests should no longeradminister the church: it was the job ofthe elders, which implied that the powerrested in the hands of the people.

• Many of the popular phrases and Bible verses thatpeople quote today are in the language of Tyndale. e.g Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

• Some scholars say Tyndale is: the man who more than Shakespeare who hasmolded and enriched the English language.





William Tyndale Strangled then burn’t at the Stake forheresy 1536 AD, nr. Brussels, Belgium





• Tyndale’s Bible is responsible for over 80 % of the New Testament& over 70 % of the Old Testament translation in the 1611 ADKing James version of the Bible & is still used by many Christians today.

King James Iof England

Reign: 1603 -1625 AD

King James Bible

celebrates it’s 400th

Anniversary

next year

in 2011 AD




www.springfieldparkchurch.co.uk/events.asp


Thank you for listening.

Do you have any questionsabout this talk ?



Back-up Slides



Pre-Christian

Britain



Earliest Britons: Arrived in warmer spells of Last Ice Age

Red “lady” of paviland, (is actually a man in his late 20’s) ceremonially buried with a Mammoth skull, & Ivory jewellery on Gower Peninsula Wales.Ceremonial burial shows these people respected the dead & had a sense of an after life. The skull has been dated from 27,000 to 24,000 BC & is the oldest evidence of Modern Humans (Homo Sapiens) in Britain.



Ice Age : we know next to nothing about people’s belief’sBut we do have their art preserved over 10 to 30 Millennia

Lion-Man~ 30,000 BC

Germany

Cave paintings at Lascaux, France

Dated ~ 17,000 to 15,000 BCVenus of

Dolni Vestonice29,000 – 25,000 BC

Czech Republic

Cave carvingsNottinghamshire, Britain

11,000 to 9,000 BC


Modern People living on the land we call Britain today hadto retreat further south into Europe as the 1 mile high Ice Sheet advanced over parts of the land starting around 23,000 BC during the coldest part of the Last Ice Age.


Earliest Britons: had to leave Britain

Edge of the Ice Sheet in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland today.



• World was 9oC colderthan today. This has tobe compared with today’sGlobal Warming predicted to increase World by ~3oCby end of 21st century.

• Last Ice Age was at its coldest 23,000 to 18,000 BC




Documents

Christianity arrival in Britain v1t€¦ · Tuesday 28th September 2010 Christianity’s Arrival in Britain , a talk by Gary Auker 2 • Britain took on its island status 8,500 years