The followers of Jesus of Nazareth. How the persecution began

The followers of Jesus of Nazareth How the persecution began The Theologian No. 120, updated on 2.10.2023 [This article posted on 10/2/2023 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://theologe.de/nachfolger-von-jesus-wie-die-verfolgung-begann.htm.] Introduction Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, taught and lived the simple message of love for God and neighbor. In His Sermon on the Mount, He inspired many people who were determined to fundamentally change their lives in this direction. This provoked and still provokes resistance from the priestly caste of all religions, because Jesus, the Christ, taught neither priests nor a religion and its cults, nor a religiously based system of rule, but God, the Free Spirit, in all life without priests, without religiously anointed leaders, without dogmas, without sacraments and rituals. Painting: Judicial murder of the follower of Jesus Stephen by stoning, Adam Elsheimer, 1603, National Gallery of Scotland Initially, the representatives of the priestly religion in Jewish garb declared themselves enemies of the Jew Jesus of Nazareth and enforced his execution by the Romans. After they had lost their power following the destruction of their temple by the Romans in the year 70, it was subsequently the imperial idolatrous cults of the ruling Romans with their rulers who were a thorn in the side of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, although Jesus, the Christ, did not found a competing political movement, but called individuals to repentance and to corresponding communities and taught: "My kingdom is not of this world", it is "within you". Parallel to this external threat to His followers from the priests and religious and state leaders, the infiltration of early Christian communities by power-oriented intellectuals and those influenced by priests or who were priestly in character, who outwardly pretended to also want to follow Jesus of Nazareth, took place as early as the 1st century. However, their influence soon gave rise to a new caste of gown-wearing priests who, in the first and then especially in the following centuries, developed into a massive opposition to Jesus of Nazareth and His message of the coming kingdom of peace - in other words, new priests, this time in Catholic garb. This religion - like its predecessors in the persecution of the followers of Jesus - is ultimately a variant of the idolatrous system of Baal. You can read about how it followed on from the persecution of the early Christians in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages with escalating cruelty in Der Theologe No. 92 - Urchristentum im Freien Geist - von der Kirche verfolgt. Here, in The Theologian No. 120, you can read how this came about. So how did the persecution of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth begin, and how did it develop - illustrated with a few examples and summarized reflections - until the eve of the change of power under the emperors Constantine and Theodosius in the 4th century, during which the priestly cult of Catholicism rose to become the only state religion of the empire through its massive privileges, which has lasted into the 21st century, but is now declining ever faster.