Three Hundred Years of Tug-of-War

From the viewpoint of the empire the most troubling areas in Roman Asia were the two sore spots of Armenia and Judaea. Armenia was the focus of unending trouble with Persia. It had always been more oriental than Greek or Roman. Traditionally, despite its fierce pride in its own independence, it had come to be regarded as a fief of the Parthian emperor’s second son, and thus it was at first more a Persian than a Roman client-kingdom. Rome began to claim it as part of its own sphere of influence after a Roman victory in 69. B.C., in the days of the Republic, but only after three hundred years of tug-of-war between Rome and Persia did it finally turn Western, and then as much because of Western Christianity as of Roman power. Christian merchants are said to have been the first to introduce the new faith into the kingdom, but the “apostle to Armenia” was the great Gregory the Illuminator, who converted the Armenian king, Tiridates I (261-317) around the end of the third century. All Armenia, it is said, quickly became at least nominally Christian a decade or two before the conversion of Constantine. For this reason Armenia is often called the first Christian nation, though such a claim, as we shall see, must be qualified.

-Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. I, pp. 8-9

Just tonight while having dinner with some Iranian believers I heard them use the term Gregorian Orthodox when referring to the ethnic Armenian Christians of their homeland. When they said this, I wondered which Gregory was being referred to. Well, it seems this would be him, Gregory the Illuminator, the one whose ministry led to the official Christianization of Armenia. However, let’s not forget the brave Christian merchants who were the true pioneers and ‘apostles’ of Christianity in that land who undoubtedly prepared the ground for Gregory’s later success.

The other ancient kingdom claiming the title of ‘first Christian nation’ would be Osrhoene, another small client state constantly fought over by Rome and Persia. Its capital was the city of Edessa, in modern-day şanliurfa, Turkey. It’s interesting to note that it was not Rome that first attempted the merger of Christianity and the state. Rather, it was these two minor border kingdoms, one of which most have never even heard of.

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