로마 황제 숭배와 유대-크리스트교와의 갈등

A Study on the conflicts between emperor worship and Judeo-Christianity

The main aim of this paper is to study backgrounds of the conflicts between Judeo-Christianity and emperor worship in the age of the Roman Empire. In the beginning, I trace the various aspects of the imperial worship and try to clarify that the imperial worship was variously appeared according to periods, classes, areas, as well as those worshippers’ propensity. However, there were sects who denied emperor worship all the time-they were Jews and Christians. The reason of the constant conflicts between them and the Roman authority was basically about their belief on the only God, the question of monotheism and polytheism. Jews originally had no kings except Jehovah, their true God-King, though they later established a kingdom represented by the king David. Jews and Christians refused to worship Roman emperor as a godlike being, while all the other residents of the Roman Empire had no problem with that, or rather eagerly worshiped them. The martyr of Polycarp in the 2nd century AD clearly shows that the core reason of the persecution of the Christians by the Roman government was their refusal of the emperor worship. Furthermore, Christianity looked very dangerous to the most pagans of that period to harm the very base of the society, where they live on. Lastly, it is very interesting to note that the ceremony of imperial worship and christianity seemed to gradually resemble each other-we could trace not only conflicts between them but also confluences between them.

The main aim of this paper is to study backgrounds of the conflicts between Judeo-Christianity and emperor worship in the age of the Roman Empire. In the beginning, I trace the various aspects of the imperial worship and try to clarify that the imperial worship was variously appeared according to periods, classes, areas, as well as those worshippers’ propensity. However, there were sects who denied emperor worship all the time-they were Jews and Christians. The reason of the constant conflicts between them and the Roman authority was basically about their belief on the only God, the question of monotheism and polytheism. Jews originally had no kings except Jehovah, their true God-King, though they later established a kingdom represented by the king David. Jews and Christians refused to worship Roman emperor as a godlike being, while all the other residents of the Roman Empire had no problem with that, or rather eagerly worshiped them. The martyr of Polycarp in the 2nd century AD clearly shows that the core reason of the persecution of the Christians by the Roman government was their refusal of the emperor worship. Furthermore, Christianity looked very dangerous to the most pagans of that period to harm the very base of the society, where they live on. Lastly, it is very interesting to note that the ceremony of imperial worship and christianity seemed to gradually resemble each other-we could trace not only conflicts between them but also confluences between them.