ABSTRACT
The Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the barbarians, consisted of three elements. First, certain philosophical beliefs, derived mainly from Plato and the Neoplatonists, but also in part from the Stoics. Second, a conception of morals and history derived from the Jews. Third, certain theories, more especially as to salvation, which were on the whole new in Christianity, though in part traceable to Orphism, and to kindred cults of the Near East. The early history of the Israelites cannot be confirmed from any source outside the Old Testament, and it is impossible to know at what point it ceases to be purely legendary. In the period of the captivity, and for some time before and after this period, Jewish religion went through a very important development. The idea that all religions but one are wicked, and that the Lord punishes idolatry, was apparently invented by these prophets.
