Page 38 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

In weighing the positive and negative elements of the Roman Empire,
the helpful elements far outweighed the hindrances. The Romans had
prepared the world for the spread of Christianity because “the time had
fully come” (Galatians 4:4).

The World of the Greeks

The Romans were known for their might, but the Greeks were famous
for their intellect. As Cairns points out:

The city of Rome may be associated with Christianity’s political
environment, but it was Athens that helped to provide an
intellectual environment that aided the propagation of the gospel.
The Romans may have been political conquerors of the Greeks,
but as Horace indicated in his poetry, the Greeks conquered the
Romans culturally. (42)

Let’s consider some of the major contributions of the Greeks.

Universal Language

The Holy Spirit needed a universal language for the spreading of the
gospel, and Greek was the chosen medium of communication. The record
of how Greek became the common language of the Roman Empire is
fascinating. Alexander the Great, his soldiers, and Greek merchants had
conquered the world before the Romans.

Their language was a dialect of Athens, and it spread rapidly throughout
the Mediterranean world during the period of history immediately prior
to the Roman era.

All languages of mankind evolve and change from generation to
generation. All of us know this by experience. The language we speak
today is different from the one our father and grandfather used. A good
example of this point is to observe literature written two hundred years
ago. You will quickly notice that there are significant differences in the
language compared to the language used in contemporary literature.

Even though the Greek Empire was destroyed, a form of Greek known
as Koine endured. It became the common man’s means of communication.

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