Julian the Apostate

Though educated by the leading theologians of his day, Julian the Apostate did not think that Rome would benefit from embracing Christianity. Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols describes the shift toward paganism that occurred under the rule of this emperor.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we will be visiting with a fascinating Roman emperor. And we will be revisiting a moment in history and the record of it by a certain Roman historian that is also equally and utterly fascinating. We are talking about Julian the Apostate. He was emperor of Rome from 361 to 363. He is, in fact, the nephew of Constantine. And as you know, Constantine, who was the one who brought Christianity to the Roman Empire, Constantine died in 337. When he died, the Roman Empire, divided as it was, was ruled by his sons. And one of the sons that emerged in all of this was Constantius the II. He ruled from 337 to 361.

Meanwhile, Julian was off engaging in military campaigns throughout France and Germany. And in 360, his soldiers put him in as the Caesar Augustus for the Western Empire. This was, of course, a threat to Constantius the II and so, the two go to war. But a battle was never fought. In 361, Constantius the II died of a fever. And so, Julian the Apostate becomes emperor of Rome in 361 until his death in 363.

Now, why was he called Julian the Apostate? Well, as a nephew of Constantine, he was brought up as a Christian. He would've had a sterling Christian education—he was taught by bishops and leading theologians. But by the time he turned 20, he set all that aside. Julian believed that Christianity was bad for Rome. He believed that Christianity would lead to the ruin of the empire, and he was determined to throw off Christianity from Rome and to return Rome to its prior glory. Which meant returning it to its prior traditions, returning it to its prior philosophy and to its prior paganism and the rituals and the temples.

Now, he did all this, especially in the city of Antioch. He relocated there in 361. He set up his camp there from which he could wage war against the Persians because he wanted to shore up the Western Empire and, again, sort of restore that glory to Rome. And Antioch, of course, is a famous city. It's the city where the Christians were, in fact, first called Christians. And so, in this very important city, Julian reinstates temple worship, he removes Christians from churches, and this causes all kinds of consternation. But then it's outdone by a very curious moment in history when Julian sets about the rebuilding of a third temple in Jerusalem. This, too, was an affront against Christianity. He wanted to restore Judaism to Jerusalem and to remove the Christians from Jerusalem. And so, he set out to build a third temple.

Well, I'm going to let the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, take it from there, and in his Roman antiquities, he tells the story that, while Julian was weighing every possible variety of events with anxious thought and he was pushing on with burning zeal at many preparations for his campaign, that is his military campaign against the Persians, he was also turning his activity and eager to extend the memory of his reign, that is establish his legacy by great works. And one of those great works, this story goes on to tell us, was planning at vast cost to rebuild the splendid temple at Jerusalem. So, he enlists Alypius of Antioch, and they set off on the rebuilding. But then Marcellinus records this: "Although this Alypius pushed the work on with vigor, aided by the governor of the province, terrifying balls of flame kept bursting forth near the foundations of the temple and made the place inaccessible to the workmen." He continues, "Some of the workmen were burned to death, and since in this way, the element persistently repelled them, the enterprise was halted." Well, I'm not sure we can blame these workmen. It's hard enough to build a temple, let alone battling terrifying balls of flame that simply burst forth from the foundation. Historians have all sorts of ideas of what was going on here. We'll just leave it to this curious moment in history and to this curious reign of Julian the Apostate, that emperor who tried to return to the glory that was once Rome. Well, that's Julian the Apostate, and I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.