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Christianity in the 1st century

January 15, 2023

"New Testament Church" redirects here. For other uses, see New Testament Church (Hong Kong).

Main article: History of Christianity

Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus (c. 27–29 AD) to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles (c. 100) and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity developed out of the eschatological ministry of Jesus. Subsequent to Jesus' death, his earliest followers formed an apocalyptic messianic Jewish sect during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. Initially believing that Jesus' resurrection was the start of the end time, their beliefs soon changed in the expected Second Coming of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom at a later point in time.[1]

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet, painting by Ford Madox Brown (1852–1856), Tate Britain, London

Paul the Apostle, a Pharisee Jew who had persecuted the early Jewish Christians, converted c. 33–36[2][3][4] and started to proselytize among the Gentiles. According to Paul, Gentile converts could be allowed exemption from Jewish commandments, arguing that all are justified by their faith in Jesus.[5][6] This was part of a gradual split of early Christianity and Judaism, as Christianity became a distinct religion including predominantly Gentile adherence.[5]

Jerusalem had an early Christian community, which was led by James the Just, Peter, and John.[7] According to Acts 11:26, Antioch was where the followers were first called Christians. Peter was later martyred in Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. The apostles went on to spread the message of the Gospel around the classical world and founded apostolic sees around the early centers of Christianity. The last apostle to die was John in c. 100.[8]

Etymology

See also: Nazarene and Nazirite

Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as "The Way" (ἡ ὁδός), probably coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord."[web 1][web 2][9][10][note 1] Since, the former was actually a quote of John the Baptizer about Yeshua, Jesus, more likely it connected to Yeshua's (Jesus') own words, declaring Himself the following, saying, "I am the WAY, the Truth, and the Life no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6) Other Jews also called them "the Nazarenes,"[9] while another Jewish-Christian sect called themselves "Ebionites" (lit. "the poor"). According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" (Greek: Χριστιανός) was first used in reference to Jesus's disciples in the city of Antioch, meaning "followers of Christ," by the non-Jewish inhabitants of Antioch.[12] The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Greek: Χριστιανισμός) was by Ignatius of Antioch, in around 100 AD.[13]

Origins

Jewish–Hellenistic background

Main articles: Historical background of the New Testament, Second Temple Judaism, Hellenistic Judaism, Jewish eschatology, Covenant (biblical), and Messiah in Judaism

The earliest followers of Jesus were a sect of apocalyptic Jewish Christians within the realm of Second Temple Judaism.[14][15][16][17][18] The early Christian groups were strictly Jewish, such as the Ebionites,[14] and the early Christian community in Jerusalem, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus.[17] Christianity "emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine"[19] in the syncretistic Hellenistic world of the first century AD, which was dominated by Roman law and Greek culture.[20] Hellenistic culture had a profound impact on the customs and practices of Jews everywhere. The inroads into Judaism gave rise to Hellenistic Judaism in the Jewish diaspora which sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism. Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BC, and became a notable religio licita after the Roman conquest of Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Judea, and Egypt.[citation needed]

During the early first century AD there were many competing Jewish sects in the Holy Land, and those that became Rabbinic Judaism and Proto-orthodox Christianity were but two of these. Philosophical schools included Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots, but also other less influential sects, including the Essenes.[web 7][web 8][citation needed] The first century BC and first century AD saw a growing number of charismatic religious leaders contributing to what would become the Mishnah of Rabbinic Judaism; and the ministry of Jesus, which would lead to the emergence of the first Jewish Christian community.[web 7][web 8][citation needed]

A central concern in 1st century Judaism was the covenant with God, and the status of the Jews as the chosen people of God.[21] Many Jews believed that this covenant would be renewed with the coming of the Messiah. Jews believed the Law was given by God to guide them in their worship of the Lord and in their interactions with each other, "the greatest gift God had given his people."[22]

The Jewish messiah concept has its root in the apocalyptic literature of the 2nd century BC to 1st century BC, promising a future leader or king from the Davidic line who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and world to come.[web 9][web 10][web 11] The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah" (Hebrew: מלך משיח, romanized: melekh mashiach) or malka meshiḥa in Aramaic.[web 12]

Life and ministry of Jesus

See also: Christian views on Jesus

Sources

Main articles: Sources for the historicity of Jesus and Historiography of early Christianity

Christian sources, such as the four canonical gospels, the Pauline epistles, and the New Testament apocrypha,[web 13] include detailed stories about Jesus, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus.[23] The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] The Gospels are theological documents, which "provide information the authors regarded as necessary for the religious development of the Christian communities in which they worked."[web 13] They consist of short passages, pericopes, which the Gospel-authors arranged in various ways as suited their aims.[web 13]

Non-Christian sources that are used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include Jewish sources such as Josephus, and Roman sources such as Tacitus. These sources are compared to Christian sources such as the Pauline epistles and the Synoptic Gospels. These sources are usually independent of each other (e.g. Jewish sources do not draw upon Roman sources), and similarities and differences between them are used in the authentication process.[32][33]

Historical person

Main articles: Historical Jesus and Historicity of Jesus

There is widespread disagreement among scholars on the details of the life of Jesus mentioned in the gospel narratives, and on the meaning of his teachings.[34] Scholars often draw a distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith, and two different accounts can be found in this regard.[35]

Critical scholarship has discounted most of the narratives about Jesus as legendary, and the mainstream historical view is that while the gospels include many legendary elements, these are religious elaborations added to the accounts of a historical Jesus who was crucified under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in the 1st-century Roman province of Judea.[36][37] His remaining disciples later believed that he was resurrected.[38][39]

Academic scholars have constructed a variety of portraits and profiles for Jesus.[40][41][42] Contemporary scholarship places Jesus firmly in the Jewish tradition,[43] and the most prominent understanding of Jesus is as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet or eschatological teacher.[44][note 2] Other portraits are the charismatic healer,[note 3] the Cynic philosopher, the Jewish Messiah, and the prophet of social change.[40][41][note 4]

Ministry and eschatological expectations

Main articles: Ministry of Jesus and Life of Jesus in the New Testament

In the canonical gospels, the ministry of Jesus begins with his baptism in the countryside of Roman Judea and Transjordan, near the Jordan River, and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. [47][note 5] The Gospel of Luke (Luke 3:23) states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry.[60][61] A chronology of Jesus typically has the date of the start of his ministry estimated at around AD 27–29 and the end in the range AD 30–36.[60][61][62]

In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), Jewish eschatology stands central.[web 13] After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus teaches extensively for a year, or maybe just a few months,[web 13][note 6] about the coming Kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven), in aphorisms and parables, using similes and figures of speech.[63][web 13] In the Gospel of John, Jesus himself is the main subject.[web 13]

The Synoptics present different views on the Kingdom of God.[web 13] While the Kingdom is essentially described as eschatological (relating to the end of the world), becoming reality in the near future, some texts present the Kingdom as already being present, while other texts depict the Kingdom as a place in heaven that one enters after death, or as the presence of God on earth.[web 13][note 7]. Jesus talks as expecting the coming of the "Son of Man" from heaven, an apocalyptic figure who would initiate "the coming judgment and the redemption of Israel."[web 13] According to Davies, the Sermon on the Mount presents Jesus as the new Moses who brings a New Law (a reference to the Law of Moses, the Messianic Torah.[66]

Death and resurrection

 
The Crucifixion, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, c. 1745–1750, Saint Louis Art Museum

Jesus' life was ended by his execution by crucifixion. His early followers believed that three days after his death, Jesus rose bodily from the dead.[67][68][69][70][71] Paul's letters and the Gospels contain reports of a number of post-resurrection appearances.[72][73][74][75][76] Progressively, Jewish scriptures were reexamined in light of Jesus's teachings to explain the crucifixion and visionary post-mortem experiences of Jesus,[1][77][78] and the resurrection of Jesus "signalled for earliest believers that the days of eschatological fulfilment were at hand."[web 16] Some New Testament accounts were understood not as mere visionary experiences, but rather as real appearances in which those present are told to touch and see.[79]

The resurrection of Jesus gave the impetus in certain Christian sects to the exaltation of Jesus to the status of divine Son and Lord of God's Kingdom[80][web 16] and the resumption of their missionary activity.[81][82] His followers expected Jesus to return within a generation[83] and begin the Kingdom of God.[web 13]

Apostolic Age

 
The Cenacle on Mount Zion, claimed to be the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost. Bargil Pixner[84] claims the original Church of the Apostles is located under the current structure.
Main articles: Acts of the Apostles and Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles

Traditionally, the period from the death of Jesus until the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles is called the Apostolic Age, after the missionary activities of the apostles.[85] According to the Acts of the Apostles the Jerusalem church began at Pentecost with some 120 believers,[86] in an "upper room," believed by some to be the Cenacle, where the apostles received the Holy Spirit and emerged from hiding following the death and resurrection of Jesus to preach and spread his message.[87][88]

The New Testament writings depict what orthodox Christian churches call the Great Commission, an event where they describe the resurrected Jesus Christ instructing his disciples to spread his eschatological message of the coming of the Kingdom of God to all the nations of the world. The most famous version of the Great Commission is in Matthew 28 (Matthew 28:16–20), where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[citation needed]

Paul's conversion on the Road to Damascus is first recorded in Acts 9 (Acts 9:13–16). Peter baptized the Roman centurion Cornelius, traditionally considered the first Gentile convert to Christianity, in Acts 10. Based on this, the Antioch church was founded. It is also believed that it was Antioch where the name Christian was first used.[89]

Jewish Christianity

Main article: Jewish Christian
See also: Early Christianity and Biblical law in Christianity

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christianity first emerged as a sect of Judaism as practiced in the Roman province of Judea.[19] The first Christians were all Jews, who constituted a Second Temple Jewish sect with an apocalyptic eschatology. Among other schools of thought, some Jews regarded Jesus as Lord and resurrected messiah, and the eternally existing Son of God,[7][90][note 8] expecting the second coming of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom. They pressed fellow Jews to prepare for these events and to follow "the way" of the Lord. They believed Yahweh to be the only true God,[92] the god of Israel, and considered Jesus to be the messiah (Christ), as prophesied in the Jewish scriptures, which they held to be authoritative and sacred. They held faithfully to the Torah,[note 9] including acceptance of Gentile converts based on a version of the Noachide laws.[note 10]

The Jerusalem ekklēsia

 
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the apostolic decree of Acts 15:19–29
Main article: Jerusalem in Christianity
See also: Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles

The New Testament's Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that an early Jewish Christian community[note 11] centered on Jerusalem, and that its leaders included Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle.[93] The Jerusalem community "held a central place among all the churches," as witnessed by Paul's writings.[94] Reportedly legitimised by Jesus' appearance, Peter was the first leader of the Jerusalem ekklēsia.[95][96] Peter was soon eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord,"[97][98] which may explain why the early texts contain scant information about Peter.[98] According to Lüdemann, in the discussions about the strictness of adherence to the Jewish Law, the more conservative faction of James the Just gained the upper hand over the more liberal position of Peter, who soon lost influence.[98] According to Dunn, this was not an "usurpation of power," but a consequence of Peter's involvement in missionary activities.[99] The relatives of Jesus were generally accorded a special position within this community,[100] which also contributed to the ascendancy of James the Just in Jerusalem.[100]

According to a tradition recorded by Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis, the Jerusalem church fled to Pella at the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War (AD 66–73).[101]

The Jerusalem community consisted of "Hebrews," Jews speaking both Aramaic and Greek, and "Hellenists," Jews speaking only Greek, possibly diaspora Jews who had resettled in Jerusalem.[102] According to Dunn, Paul's initial persecution of Christians probably was directed against these Greek-speaking "Hellenists" due to their anti-Temple attitude.[103] Within the early Jewish Christian community, this also set them apart from the "Hebrews" and their Tabernacle observance.[103]

Beliefs and practices

Creeds and salvation

Main article: Salvation in Christianity

The sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include oral traditions (which included sayings attributed to Jesus, parables and teachings),[104][105] the Gospels, the New Testament epistles and possibly lost texts such as the Q source[106][107][108] and the writings of Papias.

The texts contain the earliest Christian creeds[109] expressing belief in the resurrected Jesus, such as 1 Corinthians 15:3–41:[110]

[3] For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, [4] and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,[note 12] [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. [6] Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. [7] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.[web 17]

The creed has been dated by some scholars as originating within the Jerusalem apostolic community no later than the 40s,[111][112] and by some to less than a decade after Jesus' death,[113][114] while others date it to about 56.[115] Other early creeds include 1 John 4 (1 John 4:2), 2 Timothy 2 (2 Timothy 2:8)[116] Romans 1 (Romans 1:3–4)[117] and 1 Timothy 3 (1 Timothy 3:16).

Christology

Main article: Christology

Two fundamentally different Christologies developed in the early Church, namely a "low" or adoptionist Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation Christology."[118] The chronology of the development of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within contemporary scholarship.[119][71][120][web 18]

The "low Christology" or "adoptionist Christology" is the belief "that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead,"[121] thereby raising him to "divine status."[web 19] According to the "evolutionary model"[122] c.q. "evolutionary theories,"[123] the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time,[20][124][125] as witnessed in the Gospels,[71] with the earliest Christians believing that Jesus was a human who was exalted, c.q. adopted as God's Son,[126][127] when he was resurrected.[125][128] Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism, birth, and subsequently to the idea of his eternal existence, as witnessed in the Gospel of John.[125] This evolutionary model was very influential, and the "low Christology" has long been regarded as the oldest Christology.[129][130][web 19][note 13]

The other early Christology is "high Christology," which is "the view that Jesus was a pre-existent divine being who became a human, did the Father’s will on earth, and then was taken back up into heaven whence he had originally come,"[web 19][131] and from where he appeared on earth. According to Hurtado, a proponent of an Early High Christology, the devotion to Jesus as divine originated in early Jewish Christianity, and not later or under the influence of pagan religions and Gentile converts.[132] The Pauline letters, which are the earliest Christian writings, already show "a well-developed pattern of Christian devotion [...] already conventionalized and apparently uncontroversial."[133]

Some Christians began to worship Jesus as a Lord.[134][further explanation needed]

Eschatological expectations

Main articles: Jewish eschatology, Christian eschatology, and Second coming

Ehrman and other scholars believe that Jesus' early followers expected the immediate installment of the Kingdom of God, but that as time went on without this occurring, it led to a change in beliefs.[1][web 21] In time, the belief that Jesus' resurrection signaled the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God changed into a belief that the resurrection confirmed the Messianic status of Jesus, and the belief that Jesus would return at some indeterminate time in the future, the Second Coming, heralding the expected endtime.[1][web 21] When the Kingdom of God did not arrive, Christians' beliefs gradually changed into the expectation of an immediate reward in heaven after death, rather than to a future divine kingdom on Earth,[135] despite the churches' continuing to use the major creeds' statements of belief in a coming resurrection day and world to come.[citation needed]

Angels and Devils

Coming from a Jewish background, early Christians believed in angels (derived from the Greek word for "messengers").[136] Specifically, early Christians wrote in the New Testament books that angels "heralded Jesus' birth, Resurrection, and Ascension; ministered to Him while He was on Earth; and sing the praises of God through all eternity."[136] Early Christians also believed that protecting angels—assigned to each nation and even to each individual—would herald the Second Coming, lead the saints into Paradise, and cast the damned into Hell."[136] Satan ("the adversary"), similar to descriptions in the Old Testament, appears in the New Testament "to accuse men of sin and to test their fidelity, even to the point of tempting Jesus."[136]

Practices

The Book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer, Jewish liturgical, a set of scriptural readings adapted from synagogue practice, and use of sacred music in hymns and prayer. Other passages in the New Testament gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as baptism,[web 22] fasting, reverence for the Torah, and observance of Jewish holy days.[137][138]

Baptism

Main article: Baptism in early Christianity

Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism probably predate the New Testament writings. It seems certain that numerous Jewish sects and certainly Jesus's disciples practised baptism. John the Baptist had baptized many people, before baptisms took place in the name of Jesus Christ. Paul likened baptism to being buried with Christ in his death.[note 14]

Communal meals and Eucharist

Main articles: Agape feast and Eucharist

Early Christian rituals included communal meals.[139][140] The Eucharist was often a part of the Lovefeast, but between the latter part of the 1st century AD and 250 AD the two became separate rituals.[141][142][143] Thus, in modern times the Lovefeast refers to a Christian ritual meal distinct from the Lord's Supper.[144]

Liturgy

During the first three centuries of Christianity, the Liturgical ritual was rooted in the Jewish Passover, Siddur, Seder, and synagogue services, including the singing of hymns (especially the Psalms) and reading from the scriptures.[web 23] Most early Christians did not own a copy of the works (some of which were still being written) that later became the Christian Bible or other church works accepted by some but not canonized, such as the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, or other works today called New Testament apocrypha. Similar to Judaism, much of the original church liturgical services functioned as a means of learning these scriptures, which initially centered around the Septuagint and the Targums.[145]

At first, Christians continued to worship alongside Jewish believers, but within twenty years of Jesus' death, Sunday (the Lord's Day) was being regarded as the primary day of worship.[146]

Emerging church – mission to the Gentiles

See also: Proto-orthodox Christianity

With the start of their missionary activity, early Jewish Christians also started to attract proselytes, Gentiles who were fully or partly converted to Judaism.[147][note 15]

Growth of early Christianity

See also: Great Commission and Early centers of Christianity

Christian missionary activity spread "the Way" and slowly created early centers of Christianity with Gentile adherents in the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire, and then throughout the Hellenistic world and even beyond the Roman Empire.[87][148][149][150][note 16] Early Christian beliefs were proclaimed in kerygma (preaching), some of which are preserved in New Testament scripture. The early Gospel message spread orally, probably originally in Aramaic,[151] but almost immediately also in Greek.[152] A process of cognitive dissonance reduction may have contributed to intensive missionary activity, convincing others of the developing beliefs, reducing the cognitive dissonance created by the delay of the coming of the endtime. Due to this missionary zeal, the early group of followers grew larger despite the failing expectations.[web 21]

The scope of the Jewish-Christian mission expanded over time. While Jesus limited his message to a Jewish audience in Galilee and Judea, after his death his followers extended their outreach to all of Israel, and eventually the whole Jewish diaspora, believing that the Second Coming would only happen when all Jews had received the Gospel.[1] Apostles and preachers traveled to Jewish communities around the Mediterranean Sea, and initially attracted Jewish converts.[149] Within 10 years of the death of Jesus, apostles had attracted enthusiasts for "the Way" from Jerusalem to Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Cyprus, Crete, Alexandria and Rome.[153][87][148][149] Over 40 churches were established by 100,[148][149] most in Asia Minor, such as the seven churches of Asia, and some in Greece in the Roman era and Roman Italy.[citation needed]

According to Fredriksen, when early Christians broadened their missionary efforts, they also came into contact with Gentiles attracted to the Jewish religion. Eventually, the Gentiles came to be included in the missionary effort of Hellenised Jews, bringing "all nations" into the house of God.[1] The "Hellenists," Greek-speaking diaspora Jews belonging to the early Jerusalem Jesus-movement, played an important role in reaching a Gentile, Greek audience, notably at Antioch, which had a large Jewish community and significant numbers of Gentile "God-fearers."[147] From Antioch, the mission to the Gentiles started, including Paul's, which would fundamentally change the character of the early Christian movement, eventually turning it into a new, Gentile religion.[154] According to Dunn, within 10 years after Jesus' death, "the new messianic movement focused on Jesus began to modulate into something different ... it was at Antioch that we can begin to speak of the new movement as 'Christianity'."[155]

Christian groups and congregations first organized themselves loosely. In Paul's time[when?] there were no precisely delineated territorial jurisdictions for bishops, elders, and deacons.[156][note 17]

See also: Apostolic see and Seven deacons

Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles

Main article: Paul the Apostle

Conversion

Main article: Conversion of Paul

Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author.[158] According to the New Testament, Saul of Tarsus first persecuted the early Jewish Christians, but then converted. He adopted the name Paul and started proselytizing among the Gentiles, calling himself "Apostle to the Gentiles."[159][160]

Paul was in contact with the early Christian community in Jerusalem, led by James the Just.[161] According to Mack, he may have been converted to another early strand of Christianity, with a High Christology.[162] Fragments of their beliefs in an exalted and deified Jesus, what Mack called the "Christ cult," can be found in the writings of Paul.[161][note 18] Yet, Hurtado notes that Paul valued the linkage with "Jewish Christian circles in Roman Judea," which makes it likely that his Christology was in line with, and indebted to, their views.[164] Hurtado further notes that "[i]t is widely accepted that the tradition that Paul recites in 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 must go back to the Jerusalem Church."[165]

Inclusion of Gentiles

 
Mediterranean Basin geography relevant to Paul's life, stretching from Jerusalem in the lower right to Rome in the upper left.
Main articles: Paul the Apostle and Judaism, New Perspective on Paul, and Pauline Christianity
See also: Circumcision in the Bible

Paul was responsible for bringing Christianity to Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica.[166][better source needed] According to Larry Hurtado, "Paul saw Jesus' resurrection as ushering in the eschatological time foretold by biblical prophets in which the pagan 'Gentile' nations would turn from their idols and embrace the one true God of Israel (e.g., Zechariah 8:20–23), and Paul saw himself as specially called by God to declare God's eschatological acceptance of the Gentiles and summon them to turn to God."[web 1] According to Krister Stendahl, the main concern of Paul's writings on Jesus' role and salvation by faith is not the individual conscience of human sinners and their doubts about being chosen by God or not, but the main concern is the problem of the inclusion of Gentile (Greek) Torah-observers into God's covenant.[167][168][169][web 25] The inclusion of Gentiles into early Christianity posed a problem for the Jewish identity of some of the early Christians:[170][171][172] the new Gentile converts were not required to be circumcised nor to observe the Mosaic Law.[173] Circumcision in particular was regarded as a token of the membership of the Abrahamic covenant, and the most traditionalist faction of Jewish Christians (i.e., converted Pharisees) insisted that Gentile converts had to be circumcised as well.[Acts 15:1][170][171][174][166] By contrast, the rite of circumcision was considered execrable and repulsive during the period of Hellenization of the Eastern Mediterranean,[175][176][177][web 26] and was especially adversed in Classical civilization both from ancient Greeks and Romans, which instead valued the foreskin positively.[175][176][177][178]

Paul objected strongly to the insistence on keeping all of the Jewish commandments,[166] considering it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ.[171][179] According to Paula Fredriksen, Paul's opposition to male circumcison for Gentiles is in line with the Old Testament predictions that "in the last days the gentile nations would come to the God of Israel, as gentiles (e.g., Zechariah 8:20–23), not as proselytes to Israel."[web 16] For Paul, Gentile male circumcision was therefore an affront to God's intentions.[web 16] According to Larry Hurtado, "Paul saw himself as what Munck called a salvation-historical figure in his own right", who was "personally and singularly deputized by God to bring about the predicted ingathering (the "fullness") of the nations (Romans 11:25)."[web 16]

For Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection solved the problem of the exclusion of Gentiles from God's covenant,[180][181] since the faithful are redeemed by participation in Jesus' death and rising. In the Jerusalem ekklēsia, from which Paul received the creed of 1 Corinthians 15:1–7, the phrase "died for our sins" probably was an apologetic rationale for the death of Jesus as being part of God's plan and purpose, as evidenced in the Scriptures. For Paul, it gained a deeper significance, providing "a basis for the salvation of sinful Gentiles apart from the Torah."[182] According to E. P. Sanders, Paul argued that "those who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death, and thus they escape the power of sin [...] he died so that the believers may die with him and consequently live with him."[web 27] By this participation in Christ's death and rising, "one receives forgiveness for past offences, is liberated from the powers of sin, and receives the Spirit."[183] Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God; according to Sanders, this insistence is in line with Second Temple Judaism of c. 200 BC until 200 AD, which saw God's covenant with Israel as an act of grace of God. Observance of the Law is needed to maintain the covenant, but the covenant is not earned by observing the Law, but by the grace of God.[web 28]

These divergent interpretations have a prominent place in both Paul's writings and in Acts. According to Galatians 2:1–10 and Acts chapter 15, fourteen years after his conversion Paul visited the "Pillars of Jerusalem", the leaders of the Jerusalem ekklēsia. His purpose was to compare his Gospel[clarification needed] with theirs, an event known as the Council of Jerusalem. According to Paul, in his letter to the Galatians,[note 19] they agreed that his mission was to be among the Gentiles. According to Acts,[184] Paul made an argument that circumcision was not a necessary practice, vocally supported by Peter.[7][185][note 20]

While the Council of Jerusalem was described as resulting in an agreement to allow Gentile converts exemption from most Jewish commandments, in reality a stark opposition from "Hebrew" Jewish Christians remained,[188] as exemplified by the Ebionites. The relaxing of requirements in Pauline Christianity opened the way for a much larger Christian Church, extending far beyond the Jewish community. The inclusion of Gentiles is reflected in Luke-Acts, which is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it.[189]

Persecutions

See also: Persecution of Christians in the New Testament and Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire

Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred sporadically over a period of over two centuries. For most of the first three hundred years of Christian history, Christians were able to live in peace, practice their professions, and rise to positions of responsibility.[190] Sporadic persecution took place as the result of local pagan populations putting pressure on the imperial authorities to take action against the Christians in their midst, who were thought to bring misfortune by their refusal to honour the gods.[191]

Only for approximately ten out of the first three hundred years of the church's history were Christians executed due to orders from a Roman emperor.[190] The first persecution of Christians organised by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome.[191] There was no empire-wide persecution of Christians until the reign of Decius in the third century.[web 29] The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East. With the passage in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan, in which the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius legalised the Christian religion, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased.[web 30]

Development of the Biblical canon

 
An artistic representation of St. Clement I, an Apostolic Father.
Main article: Development of the Christian biblical canon

In an ancient culture before the printing press and the majority of the population illiterate, most early Christians likely did not own any Christian texts. Much of the original church liturgical services functioned as a means of learning Christian theology. A final uniformity of liturgical services may have become solidified after the church established a Biblical canon, possibly based on the Apostolic Constitutions and Clementine literature. Clement (d. 99) writes that liturgies are "to be celebrated, and not carelessly nor in disorder" but the final uniformity of liturgical services only came later, though the Liturgy of St James is traditionally associated with James the Just.[192]

Books not accepted by Pauline Christianity are termed biblical apocrypha, though the exact list varies from denomination to denomination.[citation needed]

Old Testament

Main article: Development of the Old Testament canon

The Biblical canon began with the Jewish Scriptures. The Koine Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, later known as the Septuagint[193] and often written as "LXX," was the dominant translation from very early on.[web 31]

Perhaps the earliest Christian canon is the Bryennios List, dated to around 100, which was found by Philotheos Bryennios in the Codex Hierosolymitanus. The list is written in Koine Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew.[194] In the 2nd century, Melito of Sardis called the Jewish scriptures the "Old Testament"[195] and also specified an early canon.[citation needed]

Jerome (347–420) expressed his preference for adhering strictly to the Hebrew text and canon, but his view held little currency even in his own day.[196]

New Testament

Main article: Development of the New Testament canon

The New Testament (often compared to the New Covenant) is the second major division of the Christian Bible. The books of the canon of the New Testament include the Canonical Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation. The original texts were written by various authors, most likely sometime between c. AD 45 and 120 AD,[197] in Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, though there is also a minority argument for Aramaic primacy. They were not defined as "canon" until the 4th century. Some were disputed, known as the Antilegomena.[citation needed]

Writings attributed to the Apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century AD.[note 21]

Early orthodox writings – Apostolic Fathers

The Church Fathers are the early and influential Christian theologians and writers, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The earliest Church Fathers, within two generations of the Twelve Apostles of Christ, are usually called Apostolic Fathers for reportedly knowing and studying under the apostles personally. Important Apostolic Fathers include Clement of Rome (d. AD 99),[198] Ignatius of Antioch (d. AD 98 to 117) and Polycarp of Smyrna (AD 69–155). The earliest Christian writings, other than those collected in the New Testament, are a group of letters credited to the Apostolic Fathers. Their writings include the Epistle of Barnabas and the Epistles of Clement. The Didache and Shepherd of Hermas are usually placed among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, although their authors are unknown.[citation needed]

Taken as a whole, the collection is notable for its literary simplicity, religious zeal and lack of Hellenistic philosophy or rhetoric. They contain early thoughts on the organisation of the Christian ekklēsia, and are historical sources for the development of an early Church structure.[citation needed]

In his letter 1 Clement, Clement of Rome calls on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order.[198] Some see his epistle as an assertion of Rome's authority over the church in Corinth and, by implication, the beginnings of papal supremacy.[web 32] Clement refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church in his letter as bishops and presbyters interchangeably, and likewise states that the bishops are to lead God's flock by virtue of the chief shepherd (presbyter), Jesus Christ.[citation needed]

Ignatius of Antioch advocated the authority of the apostolic episcopacy (bishops).[199]

The Didache (late 1st century)[200] is an anonymous Jewish-Christian work. It is a pastoral manual dealing with Christian lessons, rituals, and Church organization, parts of which may have constituted the first written catechism, "that reveals more about how Jewish-Christians saw themselves and how they adapted their Judaism for Gentiles than any other book in the Christian Scriptures."[201]

Split of early Christianity and Judaism

 
A coin issued by Nerva reads
fisci Judaici calumnia sublata,
"abolition of malicious prosecution in connection with the Jewish tax"[202]

Split with Judaism

Main article: Split of early Christianity and Judaism
See also: Schisms among the Jews and List of events in early Christianity

There was a slowly growing chasm between Gentile Christians, and Jews and Jewish Christians, rather than a sudden split. Even though it is commonly thought that Paul established a Gentile church, it took a century for a complete break to manifest. Growing tensions led to a starker separation that was virtually complete by the time Jewish Christians refused to join in the Bar Kokhba Jewish revolt of 132.[203] Certain events are perceived as pivotal in the growing rift between Christianity and Judaism.[citation needed]

The destruction of Jerusalem and the consequent dispersion of Jews and Jewish Christians from the city (after the Bar Kokhba revolt) ended any pre-eminence of the Jewish-Christian leadership in Jerusalem. Early Christianity grew further apart from Judaism to establish itself as a predominantly Gentile religion, and Antioch became the first Gentile Christian community with stature.[204]

The hypothetical Council of Jamnia c. 85 is often stated to have condemned all who claimed the Messiah had already come, and Christianity in particular, excluding them from attending synagogue.[205][206][207][need quotation to verify] However, the formulated prayer in question (birkat ha-minim) is considered by other scholars to be unremarkable in the history of Jewish and Christian relations. There is a paucity of evidence for Jewish persecution of "heretics" in general, or Christians in particular, in the period between 70 and 135. It is probable that the condemnation of Jamnia included many groups, of which the Christians were but one, and did not necessarily mean excommunication. That some of the later church fathers only recommended against synagogue attendance makes it improbable that an anti-Christian prayer was a common part of the synagogue liturgy. Jewish Christians continued to worship in synagogues for centuries.[205][207]

During the late 1st century, Judaism was a legal religion with the protection of Roman law, worked out in compromise with the Roman state over two centuries (see Anti-Judaism in the Roman Empire for details). In contrast, Christianity was not legalized until the 313 Edict of Milan. Observant Jews had special rights, including the privilege of abstaining from civic pagan rites. Christians were initially identified with the Jewish religion by the Romans, but as they became more distinct, Christianity became a problem for Roman rulers. Around the year 98, the emperor Nerva decreed that Christians did not have to pay the annual tax upon the Jews, effectively recognizing them as distinct from Rabbinic Judaism. This opened the way to Christians being persecuted for disobedience to the emperor, as they refused to worship the state pantheon.[208][209][210]

From c. 98 onwards a distinction between Christians and Jews in Roman literature becomes apparent. For example, Pliny the Younger postulates that Christians are not Jews since they do not pay the tax, in his letters to Trajan.[208][209]

Later rejection of Jewish Christianity

Jewish Christians constituted a separate community from the Pauline Christians but maintained a similar faith. In Christian circles, Nazarene later came to be used as a label for those faithful to Jewish Law, in particular for a certain sect. These Jewish Christians, originally the central group in Christianity, generally holding the same beliefs except in their adherence to Jewish law, were not deemed heretical until the dominance of orthodoxy in the 4th century.[211] The Ebionites may have been a splinter group of Nazarenes, with disagreements over Christology and leadership. They were considered by Gentile Christians to have unorthodox beliefs, particularly in relation to their views of Christ and Gentile converts. After the condemnation of the Nazarenes, Ebionite was often used as a general pejorative for all related "heresies".[212][213]

There was a post-Nicene "double rejection" of the Jewish Christians by both Gentile Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The true end of ancient Jewish Christianity occurred only in the 5th century.[214] Gentile Christianity became the dominant strand of orthodoxy and imposed itself on the previously Jewish Christian sanctuaries, taking full control of those houses of worship by the end of the 5th century.[211][note 22]

Timeline

1st century timeline

Earliest dates must all be considered approximate

See also

Notes

  1. ^ It appears in the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 9:2, Acts 19:9 and Acts 19:23). Some English translations of the New Testament capitalize "the Way" (e.g. the New King James Version and the English Standard Version), indicating that this was how "the new religion seemed then to be designated"[web 3] whereas others treat the phrase as indicative—"the way",[11] "that way"[web 4] or "the way of the Lord".[web 5] The Syriac version reads, "the way of God" and the Vulgate Latin version, "the way of the Lord".[web 6]
    See also Sect of "The Way", "The Nazarenes" and "Christians": Names given to the Early Church.
  2. ^ The notion of Apocalyptic prophet is shared by E. P. Sanders,[45] a main proponent of the New Perspective on Paul, and Bart Ehrman.[web 14][web 15]
  3. ^ According to E. P. Sanders, Jesus's ideas on healing and forgiveness were in line with Second Temple Jewish thought and would not have been likely to provoke controversy among the Jewish authorities of his day."[46]
  4. ^ In a review of the state of research, Amy-Jill Levine stated that "no single picture of Jesus has convinced all, or even most scholars" and that all portraits of Jesus are subject to criticism by some group of scholars.[24]
  5. ^ Jesus' early Galilean ministry begins when after his baptism, he goes back to Galilee from his time in the Judean desert.[48] In this early period he preaches around Galilee and recruits his first disciples who begin to travel with him and eventually form the core of the early Church.[47][49] The major Galilean ministry which begins in Matthew 8 includes the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles, and covers most of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee.[50][51] The final Galilean ministry begins after the death of John the Baptist as Jesus prepares to go to Jerusalem.[52][53] In the later Judean ministry Jesus starts his final journey to Jerusalem through Judea.[54][55][56][57] The final ministry in Jerusalem is sometimes called the Passion Week and begins with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.[58] The gospels provide more details about the final ministry than the other periods, devoting about one third of their text to the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem.[59]
  6. ^ Sanders and Pelikan: "Besides presenting a longer ministry than do the other Gospels, John also describes several trips to Jerusalem. Only one is mentioned in the Synoptics. Both outlines are plausible, but a ministry of more than two years leaves more questions unanswered than does one of a few months."[web 13]
  7. ^ The Kingdom is described as both imminent (Mark 1:15) and already present in the ministry of Jesus (Luke 17:21) (Others interpret "Kingdom of God" to mean a way of living, or as a period of evangelization; no overall consensus among scholars has emerged on its meaning.[64][65]) Jesus promises inclusion in the Kingdom for those who accept his message (Mark 10:13–27)
  8. ^ According to Shaye J.D. Cohen, Jesus's failure to establish an independent Israel, and his death at the hands of the Romans, caused many Jews to reject him as the Messiah.[91] Jews at that time were expecting a military leader as a Messiah, such as Bar Kohhba.
  9. ^ Perhaps also Jewish law which was being formalized at the same time
  10. ^ Acts 15 and Acts 21
  11. ^ Hurtado: "She refrains from referring to this earliest stage of the "Jesus-community" as early "Christianity" and comprised of "churches," as the terms carry baggage of later developments of "organized institutions, and of a religion separate from, different from, and hostile to Judaism" (185). So, instead, she renders ekklēsia as "assembly" (quite appropriately in my view, reflecting the quasi-official connotation of the term, often both in the LXX and in wider usage)."[web 16]
  12. ^ See Why was Resurrection on “the Third Day”? Two Insights for explanations on the phrase "third day." According to Pinchas Lapide, "third day" may refer to Hosea 6:1–2:

    "Come, let us return to the Lord;
    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
    After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him."

    See also 2 Kings 20:8: "Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?'"
  13. ^ Ehrman:
    * "The earliest Christians held exaltation Christologies in which the human being Jesus was made the Son of God—for example, at his resurrection or at his baptism—as we examined in the previous chapter."[130]
    * Here I’ll say something about the oldest Christology, as I understand it. This was what I earlier called a “low” Christology. I may end up in the book describing it as a “Christology from below” or possibly an “exaltation” Christology. Or maybe I’ll call it all three things [...] Along with lots of other scholars, I think this was indeed the earliest Christology.[web 20]
  14. ^ Romans 6:3–4; Colossians 2:12
  15. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Proselyte: "The English term "proselyte" occurs only in the New Testament where it signifies a convert to the Jewish religion (Matthew 23:15; Acts 2:11; 6:5; etc.), though the same Greek word is commonly used in the Septuagint to designate a foreigner living in Judea. The term seems to have passed from an original local and chiefly political sense, in which it was used as early as 300 BC, to a technical and religious meaning in the Judaism of the New Testament epoch."
  16. ^ Ecclesiastical historian Henry Hart Milman writes that in much of the first three centuries, even in the Latin-dominated western empire: "the Church of Rome, and most, if not all the Churches of the West, were, if we may so speak, Greek religious colonies [see Greek colonies for the background]. Their language was Greek, their organization Greek, their writers Greek, their scriptures Greek; and many vestiges and traditions show that their ritual, their Liturgy, was Greek."[web 24]
  17. ^ Despite its mention of bishops, there is no clear evidence in the New Testament that supports the concepts of dioceses and monepiscopacy, i.e. the rule that all the churches in a geographic area should be ruled by a single bishop. According to Ronald Y. K. Fung, scholars point to evidence that Christian communities such as Rome had many bishops, and that the concept of monepiscopacy was still emerging when Ignatius was urging his tri-partite structure on other churches.[157]
  18. ^ According to Mack, "Paul was converted to a Hellenized form of some Jesus movement that had already developed into a Christ cult. [...] Thus his letters serve as documentation for the Christ cult as well."[163]
  19. ^ Four years after the Council of Jerusalem, Paul wrote to the Galatians about the issue, which had become a serious controversy in their region. There was a burgeoning movement of Judaizers in the area that advocated adherence to the Mosaic Law, including circumcision. According to McGrath, Paul identified James the Just as the motivating force behind the Judaizing movement. Paul considered it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith and addressed the issue with great detail in Galatians 3.[174]
  20. ^ According to 19th-century German theologian F. C. Baur early Christianity was dominated by the conflict between Peter who was law-observant, and Paul who advocated partial or even complete freedom from the Law.[citation needed] Scholar James D. G. Dunn has proposed that Peter was the "bridge-man" between the two other prominent leaders: Paul and James the Just. Paul and James were both heavily identified with their own "brands" of Christianity. Peter showed a desire to hold on to his Jewish identity, in contrast with Paul. He simultaneously showed a flexibility towards the desires of the broader Christian community, in contrast to James. Marcion and his followers stated that the polemic against false apostles in Galatians was aimed at Peter, James and John, the "Pillars of the Church", as well as the "false" gospels circulating through the churches at the time. Irenaeus and Tertullian argued against Marcionism's elevation of Paul and stated that Peter and Paul were equals among the apostles. Passages from Galatians were used to show that Paul respected Peter's office and acknowledged a shared faith.[186][187]
  21. ^ Three forms are postulated, from Gamble, Harry Y, "18", The Canon Debate, p. 300, note 21, (1) Marcion's collection that begins with Galatians and ends with Philemon; (2) Papyrus 46, dated about 200, that follows the order that became established except for reversing Ephesians and Galatians; and (3) the letters to seven churches, treating those to the same church as one letter and basing the order on length, so that Corinthians is first and Colossians (perhaps including Philemon) is last.
  22. ^ Jewish Virtual Library: "A major difficulty in tracing the growth of Christianity from its beginnings as a Jewish messianic sect, and its relations to the various other normative-Jewish, sectarian-Jewish, and Christian-Jewish groups is presented by the fact that what ultimately became normative Christianity was originally but one among various contending Christian trends. Once the "gentile Christian" trend won out, and the teaching of Paul became accepted as expressing the doctrine of the Church, the Jewish Christian groups were pushed to the margin and ultimately excluded as heretical. Being rejected both by normative Judaism and the Church, they ultimately disappeared. Nevertheless, several Jewish Christian sects (such as the Nazarenes, Ebionites, Elchasaites, and others) existed for some time, and a few of them seem to have endured for several centuries. Some sects saw in Jesus mainly a prophet and not the "Christ," others seem to have believed in him as the Messiah, but did not draw the christological and other conclusions that subsequently became fundamental in the teaching of the Church (the divinity of the Christ, trinitarian conception of the Godhead, abrogation of the Law). After the disappearance of the early Jewish Christian sects and the triumph of gentile Christianity, to become a Christian meant, for a Jew, to apostatize and to leave the Jewish community.[web 8]

References

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  18. ^ Larry Hurtado, The Origin of “Divine Christology”?
  19. ^ a b c Ehrman, Bart D. (14 February 2013). "Incarnation Christology, Angels, and Paul". The Bart Ehrman Blog. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  20. ^ Bart Ehrman (6 Feb. 2013), The Earliest Christology
  21. ^ a b c Bart Ehrmann (June 4, 2016), Were Jesus’ Followers Crazy? Was He?
  22. ^ "Baptism". jewishencyclopedia.com.
  23. ^ "Liturgy". jewishencyclopedia.com.
  24. ^ "Greek Orthodoxy – From Apostolic Times to the Present Day". ellopos.net.
  25. ^ Stephen Westerholm (2015), The New Perspective on Paul in Review, Direction, Spring 2015 · Vol. 44 No. 1 · pp. 4–15
  26. ^ Kohler, Kaufmann; Hirsch, Emil G.; Jacobs, Joseph; Friedenwald, Aaron; Broydé, Isaac. "Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Retrieved 2020-01-03. Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons.
  27. ^ E.P. Sanders, Saint Paul, the Apostle, Encyclopedia Britannica
  28. ^ Jordan Cooper, E.P. Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul
  29. ^ Martin, D. 2010. "The 'Afterlife' of the New Testament and Postmodern Interpretation" 2016-06-08 at the Wayback Machine (lecture transcript 2016-08-12 at the Wayback Machine). Yale University.
  30. ^ . Religion Facts. Archived from the original on 2014-03-25. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
  31. ^ "Swete's Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p. 112". Ccel.org. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  32. ^ "Pope St. Clement I". newadvent.org.
  33. ^ "Rome". jewishencyclopedia.com.
  34. ^ "Apostle Paul's Third Missionary Journey Map". biblestudy.org.
  35. ^ "Fiscus Judaicus". jewishencyclopedia.com.

Further reading

Books

  • Bockmuehl, Markus N.A. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Jesus. Cambridge University Press (2001). ISBN 0-521-79678-4.
  • Bourgel, Jonathan, From One Identity to Another: The Mother Church of Jerusalem Between the Two Jewish Revolts Against Rome (66–135/6 EC). Paris: Éditions du Cerf, collection Judaïsme ancien et Christianisme primitive, (French). ISBN 978-2-204-10068-7
  • Brown, Raymond E.: An Introduction to the New Testament (ISBN 0-385-24767-2)
  • Conzelmann, H. and Lindemann A., Interpreting the New Testament. An Introduction to the Principles and Methods of N.T. Exegesis, translated by S.S. Schatzmann, Hendrickson Publishers. Peabody 1988.
  • Dormeyer, Detlev. The New Testament among the Writings of Antiquity (English translation), Sheffield 1998
  • Dunn, James D.G. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul. Cambridge University Press (2003). ISBN 0-521-78694-0.
  • Dunn, James D.G. Unity and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity. SCM Press (2006). ISBN 0-334-02998-8.
  • Edwards, Mark (2009). Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0754662914.
  • Fredriksen, Paula (2018), When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation, Yale University Press
  • Freedman, David Noel (Ed). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (2000). ISBN 0-8028-2400-5
  • Hurtado, Larry (2005), Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8028-3167-5
  • Mack, Burton L.: Who Wrote the New Testament?, Harper, 1996
  • Mills, Watson E. Acts and Pauline Writings. Mercer University Press (1997). ISBN 0-86554-512-X.
  • Malina, Bruce J.: Windows on the World of Jesus: Time Travel to Ancient Judea. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville (Kentucky) 1993
  • Malina, Bruce J.: The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology. 3rd edition, Westminster John Knox Press Louisville (Kentucky) 2001
  • Malina, Bruce J.: Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John Augsburg Fortress Publishers: Minneapolis 1998
  • Malina, Bruce J.: Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels Augsburg Fortress Publishers: Minneapolis 2003
  • McKechnie, Paul. The First Christian Centuries: Perspectives on the Early Church. Apollos (2001). ISBN 0-85111-479-2
  • Stegemann, Ekkehard and Stegemann, Wolfgang: The Jesus Movement: A Social History of Its First Century. Augsburg Fortress Publishers: Minneapolis 1999
  • Stegemann, Wolfgang, The Gospel and the Poor. Fortress Press. Minneapolis 1984 ISBN 0-8006-1783-5
  • Thiessen, Henry C. Introduction to the New Testament, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids 1976
  • Wilson, Barrie A. "How Jesus Became Christian". St. Martin's Press (2008). ISBN 978-0-679-31493-6.
  • Wright, N.T., "The New Unimproved Jesus", in Christianity Today, 1993-09-13
  • Zahn, Theodor, Introduction to the New Testament, English translation, Edinburgh, 1910.

Book series

  • Dunn, James D.G. (2005), Christianity in the Making Volume 1: Jesus Remembered, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
  • Dunn, James D.G. (2009), Christianity in the Making Volume 2: Beginning from Jerusalem, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
  • Dunn, James D.G. (2009), Christianity in the Making Volume 3: Neither Jew nor Greek, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to First Century Christianity.
  • Extensive online NT resources (incl. commentaries), Tyndale Seminary
  • Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Christian Origins

January 15, 2023
christianity, century, testament, church, redirects, here, other, uses, testament, church, hong, kong, main, article, history, christianity, covers, formative, history, christianity, from, start, ministry, jesus, death, last, twelve, apostles, thus, also, know. New Testament Church redirects here For other uses see New Testament Church Hong Kong Main article History of Christianity Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus c 27 29 AD to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles c 100 and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age Early Christianity developed out of the eschatological ministry of Jesus Subsequent to Jesus death his earliest followers formed an apocalyptic messianic Jewish sect during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century Initially believing that Jesus resurrection was the start of the end time their beliefs soon changed in the expected Second Coming of Jesus and the start of God s Kingdom at a later point in time 1 Jesus Washing Peter s Feet painting by Ford Madox Brown 1852 1856 Tate Britain London Paul the Apostle a Pharisee Jew who had persecuted the early Jewish Christians converted c 33 36 2 3 4 and started to proselytize among the Gentiles According to Paul Gentile converts could be allowed exemption from Jewish commandments arguing that all are justified by their faith in Jesus 5 6 This was part of a gradual split of early Christianity and Judaism as Christianity became a distinct religion including predominantly Gentile adherence 5 Jerusalem had an early Christian community which was led by James the Just Peter and John 7 According to Acts 11 26 Antioch was where the followers were first called Christians Peter was later martyred in Rome the capital of the Roman Empire The apostles went on to spread the message of the Gospel around the classical world and founded apostolic sees around the early centers of Christianity The last apostle to die was John in c 100 8 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Origins 2 1 Jewish Hellenistic background 2 2 Life and ministry of Jesus 2 2 1 Sources 2 2 2 Historical person 2 2 3 Ministry and eschatological expectations 2 2 4 Death and resurrection 3 Apostolic Age 4 Jewish Christianity 4 1 The Jerusalem ekklesia 4 2 Beliefs and practices 4 2 1 Creeds and salvation 4 2 2 Christology 4 2 3 Eschatological expectations 4 2 4 Angels and Devils 4 3 Practices 4 3 1 Baptism 4 3 2 Communal meals and Eucharist 4 3 3 Liturgy 5 Emerging church mission to the Gentiles 5 1 Growth of early Christianity 5 2 Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles 5 2 1 Conversion 5 2 2 Inclusion of Gentiles 6 Persecutions 7 Development of the Biblical canon 7 1 Old Testament 7 2 New Testament 8 Early orthodox writings Apostolic Fathers 9 Split of early Christianity and Judaism 9 1 Split with Judaism 9 2 Later rejection of Jewish Christianity 10 Timeline 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Sources 15 Further reading 15 1 Books 15 2 Book series 16 External linksEtymology EditSee also Nazarene and Nazirite Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as The Way ἡ ὁdos probably coming from Isaiah 40 3 prepare the way of the Lord web 1 web 2 9 10 note 1 Since the former was actually a quote of John the Baptizer about Yeshua Jesus more likely it connected to Yeshua s Jesus own words declaring Himself the following saying I am the WAY the Truth and the Life no one comes to the Father but by Me John 14 6 Other Jews also called them the Nazarenes 9 while another Jewish Christian sect called themselves Ebionites lit the poor According to Acts 11 26 the term Christian Greek Xristianos was first used in reference to Jesus s disciples in the city of Antioch meaning followers of Christ by the non Jewish inhabitants of Antioch 12 The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity Greek Xristianismos was by Ignatius of Antioch in around 100 AD 13 Origins EditJewish Hellenistic background Edit Main articles Historical background of the New Testament Second Temple Judaism Hellenistic Judaism Jewish eschatology Covenant biblical and Messiah in Judaism The earliest followers of Jesus were a sect of apocalyptic Jewish Christians within the realm of Second Temple Judaism 14 15 16 17 18 The early Christian groups were strictly Jewish such as the Ebionites 14 and the early Christian community in Jerusalem led by James the Just brother of Jesus 17 Christianity emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine 19 in the syncretistic Hellenistic world of the first century AD which was dominated by Roman law and Greek culture 20 Hellenistic culture had a profound impact on the customs and practices of Jews everywhere The inroads into Judaism gave rise to Hellenistic Judaism in the Jewish diaspora which sought to establish a Hebraic Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BC and became a notable religio licita after the Roman conquest of Greece Anatolia Syria Judea and Egypt citation needed During the early first century AD there were many competing Jewish sects in the Holy Land and those that became Rabbinic Judaism and Proto orthodox Christianity were but two of these Philosophical schools included Pharisees Sadducees and Zealots but also other less influential sects including the Essenes web 7 web 8 citation needed The first century BC and first century AD saw a growing number of charismatic religious leaders contributing to what would become the Mishnah of Rabbinic Judaism and the ministry of Jesus which would lead to the emergence of the first Jewish Christian community web 7 web 8 citation needed A central concern in 1st century Judaism was the covenant with God and the status of the Jews as the chosen people of God 21 Many Jews believed that this covenant would be renewed with the coming of the Messiah Jews believed the Law was given by God to guide them in their worship of the Lord and in their interactions with each other the greatest gift God had given his people 22 The Jewish messiah concept has its root in the apocalyptic literature of the 2nd century BC to 1st century BC promising a future leader or king from the Davidic line who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and world to come web 9 web 10 web 11 The Messiah is often referred to as King Messiah Hebrew מלך משיח romanized melekh mashiach or malka meshiḥa in Aramaic web 12 Life and ministry of Jesus Edit See also Christian views on Jesus Sources Edit Main articles Sources for the historicity of Jesus and Historiography of early Christianity Christian sources such as the four canonical gospels the Pauline epistles and the New Testament apocrypha web 13 include detailed stories about Jesus but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus 23 The only two events subject to almost universal assent are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 The Gospels are theological documents which provide information the authors regarded as necessary for the religious development of the Christian communities in which they worked web 13 They consist of short passages pericopes which the Gospel authors arranged in various ways as suited their aims web 13 Non Christian sources that are used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include Jewish sources such as Josephus and Roman sources such as Tacitus These sources are compared to Christian sources such as the Pauline epistles and the Synoptic Gospels These sources are usually independent of each other e g Jewish sources do not draw upon Roman sources and similarities and differences between them are used in the authentication process 32 33 Historical person Edit Main articles Historical Jesus and Historicity of Jesus There is widespread disagreement among scholars on the details of the life of Jesus mentioned in the gospel narratives and on the meaning of his teachings 34 Scholars often draw a distinction between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith and two different accounts can be found in this regard 35 Critical scholarship has discounted most of the narratives about Jesus as legendary and the mainstream historical view is that while the gospels include many legendary elements these are religious elaborations added to the accounts of a historical Jesus who was crucified under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in the 1st century Roman province of Judea 36 37 His remaining disciples later believed that he was resurrected 38 39 Academic scholars have constructed a variety of portraits and profiles for Jesus 40 41 42 Contemporary scholarship places Jesus firmly in the Jewish tradition 43 and the most prominent understanding of Jesus is as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet or eschatological teacher 44 note 2 Other portraits are the charismatic healer note 3 the Cynic philosopher the Jewish Messiah and the prophet of social change 40 41 note 4 Ministry and eschatological expectations Edit Main articles Ministry of Jesus and Life of Jesus in the New Testament In the canonical gospels the ministry of Jesus begins with his baptism in the countryside of Roman Judea and Transjordan near the Jordan River and ends in Jerusalem following the Last Supper with his disciples 47 note 5 The Gospel of Luke Luke 3 23 states that Jesus was about 30 years of age at the start of his ministry 60 61 A chronology of Jesus typically has the date of the start of his ministry estimated at around AD 27 29 and the end in the range AD 30 36 60 61 62 In the Synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke Jewish eschatology stands central web 13 After being baptized by John the Baptist Jesus teaches extensively for a year or maybe just a few months web 13 note 6 about the coming Kingdom of God or in Matthew the Kingdom of Heaven in aphorisms and parables using similes and figures of speech 63 web 13 In the Gospel of John Jesus himself is the main subject web 13 The Synoptics present different views on the Kingdom of God web 13 While the Kingdom is essentially described as eschatological relating to the end of the world becoming reality in the near future some texts present the Kingdom as already being present while other texts depict the Kingdom as a place in heaven that one enters after death or as the presence of God on earth web 13 note 7 Jesus talks as expecting the coming of the Son of Man from heaven an apocalyptic figure who would initiate the coming judgment and the redemption of Israel web 13 According to Davies the Sermon on the Mount presents Jesus as the new Moses who brings a New Law a reference to the Law of Moses the Messianic Torah 66 Death and resurrection Edit The Crucifixion by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo c 1745 1750 Saint Louis Art Museum Jesus life was ended by his execution by crucifixion His early followers believed that three days after his death Jesus rose bodily from the dead 67 68 69 70 71 Paul s letters and the Gospels contain reports of a number of post resurrection appearances 72 73 74 75 76 Progressively Jewish scriptures were reexamined in light of Jesus s teachings to explain the crucifixion and visionary post mortem experiences of Jesus 1 77 78 and the resurrection of Jesus signalled for earliest believers that the days of eschatological fulfilment were at hand web 16 Some New Testament accounts were understood not as mere visionary experiences but rather as real appearances in which those present are told to touch and see 79 The resurrection of Jesus gave the impetus in certain Christian sects to the exaltation of Jesus to the status of divine Son and Lord of God s Kingdom 80 web 16 and the resumption of their missionary activity 81 82 His followers expected Jesus to return within a generation 83 and begin the Kingdom of God web 13 Apostolic Age Edit The Cenacle on Mount Zion claimed to be the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost Bargil Pixner 84 claims the original Church of the Apostles is located under the current structure Main articles Acts of the Apostles and Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles Traditionally the period from the death of Jesus until the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles is called the Apostolic Age after the missionary activities of the apostles 85 According to the Acts of the Apostles the Jerusalem church began at Pentecost with some 120 believers 86 in an upper room believed by some to be the Cenacle where the apostles received the Holy Spirit and emerged from hiding following the death and resurrection of Jesus to preach and spread his message 87 88 The New Testament writings depict what orthodox Christian churches call the Great Commission an event where they describe the resurrected Jesus Christ instructing his disciples to spread his eschatological message of the coming of the Kingdom of God to all the nations of the world The most famous version of the Great Commission is in Matthew 28 Matthew 28 16 20 where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and baptize all nations in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit citation needed Paul s conversion on the Road to Damascus is first recorded in Acts 9 Acts 9 13 16 Peter baptized the Roman centurion Cornelius traditionally considered the first Gentile convert to Christianity in Acts 10 Based on this the Antioch church was founded It is also believed that it was Antioch where the name Christian was first used 89 Jewish Christianity EditMain article Jewish Christian See also Early Christianity and Biblical law in Christianity After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christianity first emerged as a sect of Judaism as practiced in the Roman province of Judea 19 The first Christians were all Jews who constituted a Second Temple Jewish sect with an apocalyptic eschatology Among other schools of thought some Jews regarded Jesus as Lord and resurrected messiah and the eternally existing Son of God 7 90 note 8 expecting the second coming of Jesus and the start of God s Kingdom They pressed fellow Jews to prepare for these events and to follow the way of the Lord They believed Yahweh to be the only true God 92 the god of Israel and considered Jesus to be the messiah Christ as prophesied in the Jewish scriptures which they held to be authoritative and sacred They held faithfully to the Torah note 9 including acceptance of Gentile converts based on a version of the Noachide laws note 10 The Jerusalem ekklesia Edit James the Just whose judgment was adopted in the apostolic decree of Acts 15 19 29 Main article Jerusalem in Christianity See also Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles The New Testament s Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that an early Jewish Christian community note 11 centered on Jerusalem and that its leaders included Peter James the brother of Jesus and John the Apostle 93 The Jerusalem community held a central place among all the churches as witnessed by Paul s writings 94 Reportedly legitimised by Jesus appearance Peter was the first leader of the Jerusalem ekklesia 95 96 Peter was soon eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just the Brother of the Lord 97 98 which may explain why the early texts contain scant information about Peter 98 According to Ludemann in the discussions about the strictness of adherence to the Jewish Law the more conservative faction of James the Just gained the upper hand over the more liberal position of Peter who soon lost influence 98 According to Dunn this was not an usurpation of power but a consequence of Peter s involvement in missionary activities 99 The relatives of Jesus were generally accorded a special position within this community 100 which also contributed to the ascendancy of James the Just in Jerusalem 100 According to a tradition recorded by Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis the Jerusalem church fled to Pella at the outbreak of the First Jewish Roman War AD 66 73 101 The Jerusalem community consisted of Hebrews Jews speaking both Aramaic and Greek and Hellenists Jews speaking only Greek possibly diaspora Jews who had resettled in Jerusalem 102 According to Dunn Paul s initial persecution of Christians probably was directed against these Greek speaking Hellenists due to their anti Temple attitude 103 Within the early Jewish Christian community this also set them apart from the Hebrews and their Tabernacle observance 103 Beliefs and practices Edit Creeds and salvation Edit Main article Salvation in Christianity The sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include oral traditions which included sayings attributed to Jesus parables and teachings 104 105 the Gospels the New Testament epistles and possibly lost texts such as the Q source 106 107 108 and the writings of Papias The texts contain the earliest Christian creeds 109 expressing belief in the resurrected Jesus such as 1 Corinthians 15 3 41 110 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures note 12 5 and that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time most of whom are still alive though some have died 7 Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles web 17 The creed has been dated by some scholars as originating within the Jerusalem apostolic community no later than the 40s 111 112 and by some to less than a decade after Jesus death 113 114 while others date it to about 56 115 Other early creeds include 1 John 4 1 John 4 2 2 Timothy 2 2 Timothy 2 8 116 Romans 1 Romans 1 3 4 117 and 1 Timothy 3 1 Timothy 3 16 Christology Edit Main article Christology Two fundamentally different Christologies developed in the early Church namely a low or adoptionist Christology and a high or incarnation Christology 118 The chronology of the development of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within contemporary scholarship 119 71 120 web 18 The low Christology or adoptionist Christology is the belief that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead 121 thereby raising him to divine status web 19 According to the evolutionary model 122 c q evolutionary theories 123 the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time 20 124 125 as witnessed in the Gospels 71 with the earliest Christians believing that Jesus was a human who was exalted c q adopted as God s Son 126 127 when he was resurrected 125 128 Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism birth and subsequently to the idea of his eternal existence as witnessed in the Gospel of John 125 This evolutionary model was very influential and the low Christology has long been regarded as the oldest Christology 129 130 web 19 note 13 The other early Christology is high Christology which is the view that Jesus was a pre existent divine being who became a human did the Father s will on earth and then was taken back up into heaven whence he had originally come web 19 131 and from where he appeared on earth According to Hurtado a proponent of an Early High Christology the devotion to Jesus as divine originated in early Jewish Christianity and not later or under the influence of pagan religions and Gentile converts 132 The Pauline letters which are the earliest Christian writings already show a well developed pattern of Christian devotion already conventionalized and apparently uncontroversial 133 Some Christians began to worship Jesus as a Lord 134 further explanation needed Eschatological expectations Edit Main articles Jewish eschatology Christian eschatology and Second coming Ehrman and other scholars believe that Jesus early followers expected the immediate installment of the Kingdom of God but that as time went on without this occurring it led to a change in beliefs 1 web 21 In time the belief that Jesus resurrection signaled the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God changed into a belief that the resurrection confirmed the Messianic status of Jesus and the belief that Jesus would return at some indeterminate time in the future the Second Coming heralding the expected endtime 1 web 21 When the Kingdom of God did not arrive Christians beliefs gradually changed into the expectation of an immediate reward in heaven after death rather than to a future divine kingdom on Earth 135 despite the churches continuing to use the major creeds statements of belief in a coming resurrection day and world to come citation needed Angels and Devils Edit Coming from a Jewish background early Christians believed in angels derived from the Greek word for messengers 136 Specifically early Christians wrote in the New Testament books that angels heralded Jesus birth Resurrection and Ascension ministered to Him while He was on Earth and sing the praises of God through all eternity 136 Early Christians also believed that protecting angels assigned to each nation and even to each individual would herald the Second Coming lead the saints into Paradise and cast the damned into Hell 136 Satan the adversary similar to descriptions in the Old Testament appears in the New Testament to accuse men of sin and to test their fidelity even to the point of tempting Jesus 136 Practices Edit The Book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer Jewish liturgical a set of scriptural readings adapted from synagogue practice and use of sacred music in hymns and prayer Other passages in the New Testament gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as baptism web 22 fasting reverence for the Torah and observance of Jewish holy days 137 138 Baptism Edit Main article Baptism in early Christianity Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism probably predate the New Testament writings It seems certain that numerous Jewish sects and certainly Jesus s disciples practised baptism John the Baptist had baptized many people before baptisms took place in the name of Jesus Christ Paul likened baptism to being buried with Christ in his death note 14 Communal meals and Eucharist Edit Main articles Agape feast and Eucharist Early Christian rituals included communal meals 139 140 The Eucharist was often a part of the Lovefeast but between the latter part of the 1st century AD and 250 AD the two became separate rituals 141 142 143 Thus in modern times the Lovefeast refers to a Christian ritual meal distinct from the Lord s Supper 144 Liturgy Edit During the first three centuries of Christianity the Liturgical ritual was rooted in the Jewish Passover Siddur Seder and synagogue services including the singing of hymns especially the Psalms and reading from the scriptures web 23 Most early Christians did not own a copy of the works some of which were still being written that later became the Christian Bible or other church works accepted by some but not canonized such as the writings of the Apostolic Fathers or other works today called New Testament apocrypha Similar to Judaism much of the original church liturgical services functioned as a means of learning these scriptures which initially centered around the Septuagint and the Targums 145 At first Christians continued to worship alongside Jewish believers but within twenty years of Jesus death Sunday the Lord s Day was being regarded as the primary day of worship 146 Emerging church mission to the Gentiles EditSee also Proto orthodox Christianity With the start of their missionary activity early Jewish Christians also started to attract proselytes Gentiles who were fully or partly converted to Judaism 147 note 15 Growth of early Christianity Edit See also Great Commission and Early centers of Christianity Christian missionary activity spread the Way and slowly created early centers of Christianity with Gentile adherents in the predominantly Greek speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire and then throughout the Hellenistic world and even beyond the Roman Empire 87 148 149 150 note 16 Early Christian beliefs were proclaimed in kerygma preaching some of which are preserved in New Testament scripture The early Gospel message spread orally probably originally in Aramaic 151 but almost immediately also in Greek 152 A process of cognitive dissonance reduction may have contributed to intensive missionary activity convincing others of the developing beliefs reducing the cognitive dissonance created by the delay of the coming of the endtime Due to this missionary zeal the early group of followers grew larger despite the failing expectations web 21 The scope of the Jewish Christian mission expanded over time While Jesus limited his message to a Jewish audience in Galilee and Judea after his death his followers extended their outreach to all of Israel and eventually the whole Jewish diaspora believing that the Second Coming would only happen when all Jews had received the Gospel 1 Apostles and preachers traveled to Jewish communities around the Mediterranean Sea and initially attracted Jewish converts 149 Within 10 years of the death of Jesus apostles had attracted enthusiasts for the Way from Jerusalem to Antioch Ephesus Corinth Thessalonica Cyprus Crete Alexandria and Rome 153 87 148 149 Over 40 churches were established by 100 148 149 most in Asia Minor such as the seven churches of Asia and some in Greece in the Roman era and Roman Italy citation needed According to Fredriksen when early Christians broadened their missionary efforts they also came into contact with Gentiles attracted to the Jewish religion Eventually the Gentiles came to be included in the missionary effort of Hellenised Jews bringing all nations into the house of God 1 The Hellenists Greek speaking diaspora Jews belonging to the early Jerusalem Jesus movement played an important role in reaching a Gentile Greek audience notably at Antioch which had a large Jewish community and significant numbers of Gentile God fearers 147 From Antioch the mission to the Gentiles started including Paul s which would fundamentally change the character of the early Christian movement eventually turning it into a new Gentile religion 154 According to Dunn within 10 years after Jesus death the new messianic movement focused on Jesus began to modulate into something different it was at Antioch that we can begin to speak of the new movement as Christianity 155 Christian groups and congregations first organized themselves loosely In Paul s time when there were no precisely delineated territorial jurisdictions for bishops elders and deacons 156 note 17 See also Apostolic see and Seven deacons Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles Edit Saint Paul by El Greco Main article Paul the Apostle Conversion Edit Main article Conversion of Paul Paul s influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author 158 According to the New Testament Saul of Tarsus first persecuted the early Jewish Christians but then converted He adopted the name Paul and started proselytizing among the Gentiles calling himself Apostle to the Gentiles 159 160 Paul was in contact with the early Christian community in Jerusalem led by James the Just 161 According to Mack he may have been converted to another early strand of Christianity with a High Christology 162 Fragments of their beliefs in an exalted and deified Jesus what Mack called the Christ cult can be found in the writings of Paul 161 note 18 Yet Hurtado notes that Paul valued the linkage with Jewish Christian circles in Roman Judea which makes it likely that his Christology was in line with and indebted to their views 164 Hurtado further notes that i t is widely accepted that the tradition that Paul recites in 1 Corinthians 15 1 7 must go back to the Jerusalem Church 165 Inclusion of Gentiles Edit Mediterranean Basin geography relevant to Paul s life stretching from Jerusalem in the lower right to Rome in the upper left Main articles Paul the Apostle and Judaism New Perspective on Paul and Pauline Christianity See also Circumcision in the Bible Paul was responsible for bringing Christianity to Ephesus Corinth Philippi and Thessalonica 166 better source needed According to Larry Hurtado Paul saw Jesus resurrection as ushering in the eschatological time foretold by biblical prophets in which the pagan Gentile nations would turn from their idols and embrace the one true God of Israel e g Zechariah 8 20 23 and Paul saw himself as specially called by God to declare God s eschatological acceptance of the Gentiles and summon them to turn to God web 1 According to Krister Stendahl the main concern of Paul s writings on Jesus role and salvation by faith is not the individual conscience of human sinners and their doubts about being chosen by God or not but the main concern is the problem of the inclusion of Gentile Greek Torah observers into God s covenant 167 168 169 web 25 The inclusion of Gentiles into early Christianity posed a problem for the Jewish identity of some of the early Christians 170 171 172 the new Gentile converts were not required to be circumcised nor to observe the Mosaic Law 173 Circumcision in particular was regarded as a token of the membership of the Abrahamic covenant and the most traditionalist faction of Jewish Christians i e converted Pharisees insisted that Gentile converts had to be circumcised as well Acts 15 1 170 171 174 166 By contrast the rite of circumcision was considered execrable and repulsive during the period of Hellenization of the Eastern Mediterranean 175 176 177 web 26 and was especially adversed in Classical civilization both from ancient Greeks and Romans which instead valued the foreskin positively 175 176 177 178 Paul objected strongly to the insistence on keeping all of the Jewish commandments 166 considering it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ 171 179 According to Paula Fredriksen Paul s opposition to male circumcison for Gentiles is in line with the Old Testament predictions that in the last days the gentile nations would come to the God of Israel as gentiles e g Zechariah 8 20 23 not as proselytes to Israel web 16 For Paul Gentile male circumcision was therefore an affront to God s intentions web 16 According to Larry Hurtado Paul saw himself as what Munck called a salvation historical figure in his own right who was personally and singularly deputized by God to bring about the predicted ingathering the fullness of the nations Romans 11 25 web 16 For Paul Jesus death and resurrection solved the problem of the exclusion of Gentiles from God s covenant 180 181 since the faithful are redeemed by participation in Jesus death and rising In the Jerusalem ekklesia from which Paul received the creed of 1 Corinthians 15 1 7 the phrase died for our sins probably was an apologetic rationale for the death of Jesus as being part of God s plan and purpose as evidenced in the Scriptures For Paul it gained a deeper significance providing a basis for the salvation of sinful Gentiles apart from the Torah 182 According to E P Sanders Paul argued that those who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death and thus they escape the power of sin he died so that the believers may die with him and consequently live with him web 27 By this participation in Christ s death and rising one receives forgiveness for past offences is liberated from the powers of sin and receives the Spirit 183 Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God according to Sanders this insistence is in line with Second Temple Judaism of c 200 BC until 200 AD which saw God s covenant with Israel as an act of grace of God Observance of the Law is needed to maintain the covenant but the covenant is not earned by observing the Law but by the grace of God web 28 These divergent interpretations have a prominent place in both Paul s writings and in Acts According to Galatians 2 1 10 and Acts chapter 15 fourteen years after his conversion Paul visited the Pillars of Jerusalem the leaders of the Jerusalem ekklesia His purpose was to compare his Gospel clarification needed with theirs an event known as the Council of Jerusalem According to Paul in his letter to the Galatians note 19 they agreed that his mission was to be among the Gentiles According to Acts 184 Paul made an argument that circumcision was not a necessary practice vocally supported by Peter 7 185 note 20 While the Council of Jerusalem was described as resulting in an agreement to allow Gentile converts exemption from most Jewish commandments in reality a stark opposition from Hebrew Jewish Christians remained 188 as exemplified by the Ebionites The relaxing of requirements in Pauline Christianity opened the way for a much larger Christian Church extending far beyond the Jewish community The inclusion of Gentiles is reflected in Luke Acts which is an attempt to answer a theological problem namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non Jewish church the answer it provides and its central theme is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it 189 Persecutions EditSee also Persecution of Christians in the New Testament and Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred sporadically over a period of over two centuries For most of the first three hundred years of Christian history Christians were able to live in peace practice their professions and rise to positions of responsibility 190 Sporadic persecution took place as the result of local pagan populations putting pressure on the imperial authorities to take action against the Christians in their midst who were thought to bring misfortune by their refusal to honour the gods 191 Only for approximately ten out of the first three hundred years of the church s history were Christians executed due to orders from a Roman emperor 190 The first persecution of Christians organised by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome 191 There was no empire wide persecution of Christians until the reign of Decius in the third century web 29 The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of Christianity in the East With the passage in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan in which the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius legalised the Christian religion persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased web 30 Development of the Biblical canon Edit An artistic representation of St Clement I an Apostolic Father Main article Development of the Christian biblical canon In an ancient culture before the printing press and the majority of the population illiterate most early Christians likely did not own any Christian texts Much of the original church liturgical services functioned as a means of learning Christian theology A final uniformity of liturgical services may have become solidified after the church established a Biblical canon possibly based on the Apostolic Constitutions and Clementine literature Clement d 99 writes that liturgies are to be celebrated and not carelessly nor in disorder but the final uniformity of liturgical services only came later though the Liturgy of St James is traditionally associated with James the Just 192 Books not accepted by Pauline Christianity are termed biblical apocrypha though the exact list varies from denomination to denomination citation needed Old Testament Edit Main article Development of the Old Testament canon The Biblical canon began with the Jewish Scriptures The Koine Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures later known as the Septuagint 193 and often written as LXX was the dominant translation from very early on web 31 Perhaps the earliest Christian canon is the Bryennios List dated to around 100 which was found by Philotheos Bryennios in the Codex Hierosolymitanus The list is written in Koine Greek Aramaic and Hebrew 194 In the 2nd century Melito of Sardis called the Jewish scriptures the Old Testament 195 and also specified an early canon citation needed Jerome 347 420 expressed his preference for adhering strictly to the Hebrew text and canon but his view held little currency even in his own day 196 New Testament Edit Main article Development of the New Testament canon The New Testament often compared to the New Covenant is the second major division of the Christian Bible The books of the canon of the New Testament include the Canonical Gospels Acts letters of the Apostles and Revelation The original texts were written by various authors most likely sometime between c AD 45 and 120 AD 197 in Koine Greek the lingua franca of the eastern part of the Roman Empire though there is also a minority argument for Aramaic primacy They were not defined as canon until the 4th century Some were disputed known as the Antilegomena citation needed Writings attributed to the Apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities The Pauline epistles were circulating perhaps in collected forms by the end of the 1st century AD note 21 Early orthodox writings Apostolic Fathers EditThe Church Fathers are the early and influential Christian theologians and writers particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history The earliest Church Fathers within two generations of the Twelve Apostles of Christ are usually called Apostolic Fathers for reportedly knowing and studying under the apostles personally Important Apostolic Fathers include Clement of Rome d AD 99 198 Ignatius of Antioch d AD 98 to 117 and Polycarp of Smyrna AD 69 155 The earliest Christian writings other than those collected in the New Testament are a group of letters credited to the Apostolic Fathers Their writings include the Epistle of Barnabas and the Epistles of Clement The Didache and Shepherd of Hermas are usually placed among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers although their authors are unknown citation needed Taken as a whole the collection is notable for its literary simplicity religious zeal and lack of Hellenistic philosophy or rhetoric They contain early thoughts on the organisation of the Christian ekklesia and are historical sources for the development of an early Church structure citation needed In his letter 1 Clement Clement of Rome calls on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order 198 Some see his epistle as an assertion of Rome s authority over the church in Corinth and by implication the beginnings of papal supremacy web 32 Clement refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church in his letter as bishops and presbyters interchangeably and likewise states that the bishops are to lead God s flock by virtue of the chief shepherd presbyter Jesus Christ citation needed Ignatius of Antioch advocated the authority of the apostolic episcopacy bishops 199 The Didache late 1st century 200 is an anonymous Jewish Christian work It is a pastoral manual dealing with Christian lessons rituals and Church organization parts of which may have constituted the first written catechism that reveals more about how Jewish Christians saw themselves and how they adapted their Judaism for Gentiles than any other book in the Christian Scriptures 201 Split of early Christianity and Judaism Edit A coin issued by Nerva readsfisci Judaici calumnia sublata abolition of malicious prosecution in connection with the Jewish tax 202 Split with Judaism Edit Main article Split of early Christianity and Judaism See also Schisms among the Jews and List of events in early Christianity There was a slowly growing chasm between Gentile Christians and Jews and Jewish Christians rather than a sudden split Even though it is commonly thought that Paul established a Gentile church it took a century for a complete break to manifest Growing tensions led to a starker separation that was virtually complete by the time Jewish Christians refused to join in the Bar Kokhba Jewish revolt of 132 203 Certain events are perceived as pivotal in the growing rift between Christianity and Judaism citation needed The destruction of Jerusalem and the consequent dispersion of Jews and Jewish Christians from the city after the Bar Kokhba revolt ended any pre eminence of the Jewish Christian leadership in Jerusalem Early Christianity grew further apart from Judaism to establish itself as a predominantly Gentile religion and Antioch became the first Gentile Christian community with stature 204 The hypothetical Council of Jamnia c 85 is often stated to have condemned all who claimed the Messiah had already come and Christianity in particular excluding them from attending synagogue 205 206 207 need quotation to verify However the formulated prayer in question birkat ha minim is considered by other scholars to be unremarkable in the history of Jewish and Christian relations There is a paucity of evidence for Jewish persecution of heretics in general or Christians in particular in the period between 70 and 135 It is probable that the condemnation of Jamnia included many groups of which the Christians were but one and did not necessarily mean excommunication That some of the later church fathers only recommended against synagogue attendance makes it improbable that an anti Christian prayer was a common part of the synagogue liturgy Jewish Christians continued to worship in synagogues for centuries 205 207 During the late 1st century Judaism was a legal religion with the protection of Roman law worked out in compromise with the Roman state over two centuries see Anti Judaism in the Roman Empire for details In contrast Christianity was not legalized until the 313 Edict of Milan Observant Jews had special rights including the privilege of abstaining from civic pagan rites Christians were initially identified with the Jewish religion by the Romans but as they became more distinct Christianity became a problem for Roman rulers Around the year 98 the emperor Nerva decreed that Christians did not have to pay the annual tax upon the Jews effectively recognizing them as distinct from Rabbinic Judaism This opened the way to Christians being persecuted for disobedience to the emperor as they refused to worship the state pantheon 208 209 210 From c 98 onwards a distinction between Christians and Jews in Roman literature becomes apparent For example Pliny the Younger postulates that Christians are not Jews since they do not pay the tax in his letters to Trajan 208 209 Later rejection of Jewish Christianity Edit Jewish Christians constituted a separate community from the Pauline Christians but maintained a similar faith In Christian circles Nazarene later came to be used as a label for those faithful to Jewish Law in particular for a certain sect These Jewish Christians originally the central group in Christianity generally holding the same beliefs except in their adherence to Jewish law were not deemed heretical until the dominance of orthodoxy in the 4th century 211 The Ebionites may have been a splinter group of Nazarenes with disagreements over Christology and leadership They were considered by Gentile Christians to have unorthodox beliefs particularly in relation to their views of Christ and Gentile converts After the condemnation of the Nazarenes Ebionite was often used as a general pejorative for all related heresies 212 213 There was a post Nicene double rejection of the Jewish Christians by both Gentile Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism The true end of ancient Jewish Christianity occurred only in the 5th century 214 Gentile Christianity became the dominant strand of orthodoxy and imposed itself on the previously Jewish Christian sanctuaries taking full control of those houses of worship by the end of the 5th century 211 note 22 Timeline Edit1st century timelineThis article s factual accuracy is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on Talk Christianity in the 1st century Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced March 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Earliest dates must all be considered approximate 6 BC Judean King Herod Archelaus deposed by the Roman Emperor Augustus Samaria Judea and Idumea annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration 215 capital at Caesarea Quirinius became Legate Governor of Syria conducted Census of Quirinius opposed by the Zealots JA18 Luke 2 1 3 Acts 5 37 c 4 BC Jesus is born in Bethlehem Judea according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew 7 26 AD Brief period of peace relatively free of revolt and bloodshed in Iudaea and Galilee 216 217 9 Pharisee leader Hillel the Elder dies temporary rise of Shammai 14 37 Rule of the Roman Emperor Tiberius 18 36 Caiaphas appointed High Priest of Herod s Temple by Prefect Valerius Gratus deposed by Syrian Legate Lucius Vitellius 19 Jews Jewish Proselytes Astrologers expelled from Rome 218 web 33 26 36 Pontius Pilate Prefect governor of Iudaea recalled to Rome by Syrian Legate Vitellius on complaints of excess violence JA18 4 2 28 or 29 John the Baptist began his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius Luke 3 1 2 Matt 3 1 2 30 Great Commission of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations 219 30 36 Jesus is crucified on order of Pontius Pilate Christians believe he rose from the dead 3 days later Pentecost a day in which 3000 Jews from a variety of Mediterranean basin nations are converted to faith in Jesus Christ 34 Philip baptizes a convert in Gaza an Ethiopian eunuch who was already a God fearer 220 39 Peter preaches to a Gentile audience in the house of the Roman soldier Cornelius who was already a God fearer 220 37 41 Crisis under Caligula 221 42 Mark goes to Egypt 222 44 James the Great According to ancient local tradition on 2 January of the year AD 40 the Virgin Mary appeared to James on a Pilar on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta while he was preaching the Gospel in Hispania modern day Spain Following that apparition James returned to Judea where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44 during a Passover Nisan 15 Acts 12 1 3 44 Death of Herod Agrippa I JA19 8 2 Acts 12 20 23 44 46 Theudas beheaded by Procurator Cuspius Fadus for saying he would part the Jordan river like Moses and the Red Sea or Joshua and the Jordan JA20 5 1 Acts 5 36 37 places it before the Census of Quirinius 45 49 Mission of Barnabas and Paul Acts 13 1 14 28 to the island of Cyprus Pisidian Antioch Iconium Lystra and Derbe there they were called gods in human form then return to Syrian Antioch Map1 47 St Thomas Christianity now in several forms is begun in India by Thomas 47 Paul formerly known as Saul of Tarsus begins his first missionary journey to Asia Minor modern day Turkey 223 48 100 Herod Agrippa II appointed King of the Jews by Claudius seventh and last of the Herodians 50 Passover riot in Jerusalem 20 30 000 killed JA20 5 3 JW2 12 1 50 Council of Jerusalem on admitting Gentiles into the Church 223 50 Council of Jerusalem and the Apostolic Decree Acts 15 1 35 same as Galatians 2 1 10 which is followed by the Incident at Antioch 224 at which Paul publicly accused Peter of Judaizing towards the Gentiles 2 11 21 225 51 Paul begins his second missionary journey a trip that takes him through Asia Minor modern day Turkey and on into Greece 226 50 53 Paul s second mission Acts 15 36 18 22 split with Barnabas preaches the Gospel in Galatia Phrygia Macedonia Philippi Thessalonica Berea Athens Corinth he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken then returns to Antioch 1 Thessalonians Galatians written Map2 51 52 or 52 53 proconsulship of Gallio according to an inscription only fixed date in chronology of Paul 227 52 Thomas arrives in India and founds an early Christian church that subsequently split into the Syro Malabar Catholic Church and the Malankara Church and its various descendants 228 54 Paul begins his third missionary journey web 34 53 57 Paul s third mission Acts 18 23 22 30 to Galatia Phrygia Macedonia Corinth Ephesus Greece and Jerusalem where James the Just challenged him about rumor of teaching antinomianism 21 21 he addressed a crowd in their language most likely Aramaic Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Philippians written Map3 55 Egyptian prophet allusion to Moses and 30 000 unarmed Jews doing the Exodus reenactment massacred by Procurator Antonius Felix JW2 13 5 JA20 8 6 Acts 21 38 58 Paul arrested accused of being a revolutionary ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes teaching resurrection of the dead imprisoned in Caesarea Acts 23 26 59 Paul shipwrecked on the island of Malta there he was called a god Acts 28 6 60 Paul sent to Rome under Roman guard evangelizes on Malta after shipwreck 226 60 Paul in Rome greeted by many brothers NRSV believers three days later called together the Jewish leaders who hadn t received any word from Judea about him but were curious about this sect which everywhere is spoken against he tried to convince them from the Law and Prophets with partial success said the Gentiles would listen and spent two years proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 28 15 31 Epistle to Philemon written 62 James the Just stoned to death for law transgression by High Priest Ananus ben Artanus popular opinion against act results in Ananus being deposed by new procurator Lucceius Albinus JA20 9 1 63 107 Simeon 2nd Bishop of Jerusalem crucified under Trajan 64 68 after July 18 Great Fire of Rome Nero blamed and persecuted the Christians 64 67 76 79 Pope Linus succeeds Peter as Episcopus Romanus Bishop of Rome 65 Q document a hypothetical Greek text thought by many critical scholars to have been used in writing of Matthew and Luke 66 Thaddeus establishes the Christian church of Armenia 229 66 73 First Jewish Roman War destruction of Herod s Temple Qumran community destroyed site of Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 68 107 Ignatius third Bishop of Antioch fed to the lions in the Roman Colosseum advocated the Bishop Eph 6 1 Mag 2 1 6 1 7 1 13 2 Tr 3 1 Smy 8 1 9 1 rejected Sabbath on Saturday in favor of The Lord s Day Sunday Mag 9 1 rejected Judaizing Mag 10 3 first recorded use of the term catholic Smy 8 2 69 Andrew is crucified in Patras on the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece 230 70 10 Gospel of Mark written in Rome by Peter s interpreter 1 Peter 5 13 original ending apparently lost endings added c 400 see Mark 16 70 Signs Gospel written hypothetical Greek text used in Gospel of John to prove that Jesus is the Messiah 70 100 additional Pauline epistles 70 200 Didache Other Gospels Gospel of the Saviour Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Oxyrhynchus Gospels Egerton Gospel Fayyum Fragment Dialogue of the Saviour Jewish Christian Gospels Gospel of the Ebionites Gospel of the Hebrews Gospel of the Nazarenes 76 79 88 Pope Anacletus first Greek Pope who succeeds Linus as Episcopus Romanus Bishop of Rome 80 First Christians reported in Tunisia and Gaul modern day France 219 80 20 Gospel of Matthew theoretically based on Mark and Q most popular in early Christianity 80 20 Gospel of Luke theoretically based on Mark and Q also Acts of the Apostles by same author 88 101 Clement fourth Episcopus Romanus Bishop of Rome wrote Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians Apostolic Fathers 90 Council of Jamnia of Judaism disputed Domitian applied the Fiscus Iudaicus tax even to those who merely lived like Jews web 35 90 10 1 Peter 94 Testimonium Flavianum disputed section of the Jewish Antiquities by Josephus in Aramaic translated to Koine Greek 95 30 Gospel of John and Epistles of John 95 10 Book of Revelation written by John son of Zebedee and or a disciple of his 100 30 Epistle of Barnabas Apostolic Fathers 100 25 Epistle of James 100 10 Epistle of Jude written probably by doubting relative of Jesus Mark 6 3 rejected by some early Christians due to its reference to apocryphal Book of Enoch v14 Epistle to the Hebrews written 100 First Christians are reported in Monaco Mauretania Caesariensis modern day Algeria and the Anuradhapura Kingdom modern day Sri Lanka 219 a missionary goes to Arbela old sacred city of the Assyrians 231 See also Edit Christianity portal History portal Ancient Rome portal Bible portalChristian martyrs Christianity and Judaism Christianization Christian symbolism Early Christian symbols Chronological list of saints in the 1st century Council of Jerusalem Classical antiquity Early centers of Christianity Early Christian art and architecture Hellenistic Judaism History of Christian theology History of Christianity History of the Eastern Orthodox Church History of the Catholic Church Historiography of early Christianity Jesuism Mandaeism Persecution of Christians in the New Testament Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire Spread of Christianity Apostolic Age Timeline of Christian missions Timeline of Christianity Timeline of the Catholic ChurchNotes Edit It appears in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 9 2 Acts 19 9 and Acts 19 23 Some English translations of the New Testament capitalize the Way e g the New King James Version and the English Standard Version indicating that this was how the new religion seemed then to be designated web 3 whereas others treat the phrase as indicative the way 11 that way web 4 or the way of the Lord web 5 The Syriac version reads the way of God and the Vulgate Latin version the way of the Lord web 6 See also Sect of The Way The Nazarenes and Christians Names given to the Early Church The notion of Apocalyptic prophet is shared by E P Sanders 45 a main proponent of the New Perspective on Paul and Bart Ehrman web 14 web 15 According to E P Sanders Jesus s ideas on healing and forgiveness were in line with Second Temple Jewish thought and would not have been likely to provoke controversy among the Jewish authorities of his day 46 In a review of the state of research Amy Jill Levine stated that no single picture of Jesus has convinced all or even most scholars and that all portraits of Jesus are subject to criticism by some group of scholars 24 Jesus early Galilean ministry begins when after his baptism he goes back to Galilee from his time in the Judean desert 48 In this early period he preaches around Galilee and recruits his first disciples who begin to travel with him and eventually form the core of the early Church 47 49 The major Galilean ministry which begins in Matthew 8 includes the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles and covers most of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee 50 51 The final Galilean ministry begins after the death of John the Baptist as Jesus prepares to go to Jerusalem 52 53 In the later Judean ministry Jesus starts his final journey to Jerusalem through Judea 54 55 56 57 The final ministry in Jerusalem is sometimes called the Passion Week and begins with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem 58 The gospels provide more details about the final ministry than the other periods devoting about one third of their text to the last week of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem 59 Sanders and Pelikan Besides presenting a longer ministry than do the other Gospels John also describes several trips to Jerusalem Only one is mentioned in the Synoptics Both outlines are plausible but a ministry of more than two years leaves more questions unanswered than does one of a few months web 13 The Kingdom is described as both imminent Mark 1 15 and already present in the ministry of Jesus Luke 17 21 Others interpret Kingdom of God to mean a way of living or as a period of evangelization no overall consensus among scholars has emerged on its meaning 64 65 Jesus promises inclusion in the Kingdom for those who accept his message Mark 10 13 27 According to Shaye J D Cohen Jesus s failure to establish an independent Israel and his death at the hands of the Romans caused many Jews to reject him as the Messiah 91 Jews at that time were expecting a military leader as a Messiah such as Bar Kohhba Perhaps also Jewish law which was being formalized at the same time Acts 15 and Acts 21 Hurtado She refrains from referring to this earliest stage of the Jesus community as early Christianity and comprised of churches as the terms carry baggage of later developments of organized institutions and of a religion separate from different from and hostile to Judaism 185 So instead she renders ekklesia as assembly quite appropriately in my view reflecting the quasi official connotation of the term often both in the LXX and in wider usage web 16 See Why was Resurrection on the Third Day Two Insights for explanations on the phrase third day According to Pinchas Lapide third day may refer to Hosea 6 1 2 Come let us return to the Lord for he has torn us that he may heal us he has struck us down and he will bind us up After two days he will revive us on the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him See also 2 Kings 20 8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day Ehrman The earliest Christians held exaltation Christologies in which the human being Jesus was made the Son of God for example at his resurrection or at his baptism as we examined in the previous chapter 130 Here I ll say something about the oldest Christology as I understand it This was what I earlier called a low Christology I may end up in the book describing it as a Christology from below or possibly an exaltation Christology Or maybe I ll call it all three things Along with lots of other scholars I think this was indeed the earliest Christology web 20 Romans 6 3 4 Colossians 2 12 Catholic Encyclopedia Proselyte The English term proselyte occurs only in the New Testament where it signifies a convert to the Jewish religion Matthew 23 15 Acts 2 11 6 5 etc though the same Greek word is commonly used in the Septuagint to designate a foreigner living in Judea The term seems to have passed from an original local and chiefly political sense in which it was used as early as 300 BC to a technical and religious meaning in the Judaism of the New Testament epoch Ecclesiastical historian Henry Hart Milman writes that in much of the first three centuries even in the Latin dominated western empire the Church of Rome and most if not all the Churches of the West were if we may so speak Greek religious colonies see Greek colonies for the background Their language was Greek their organization Greek their writers Greek their scriptures Greek and many vestiges and traditions show that their ritual their Liturgy was Greek web 24 Despite its mention of bishops there is no clear evidence in the New Testament that supports the concepts of dioceses and monepiscopacy i e the rule that all the churches in a geographic area should be ruled by a single bishop According to Ronald Y K Fung scholars point to evidence that Christian communities such as Rome had many bishops and that the concept of monepiscopacy was still emerging when Ignatius was urging his tri partite structure on other churches 157 According to Mack Paul was converted to a Hellenized form of some Jesus movement that had already developed into a Christ cult Thus his letters serve as documentation for the Christ cult as well 163 Four years after the Council of Jerusalem Paul wrote to the Galatians about the issue which had become a serious controversy in their region There was a burgeoning movement of Judaizers in the area that advocated adherence to the Mosaic Law including circumcision According to McGrath Paul identified James the Just as the motivating force behind the Judaizing movement Paul considered it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith and addressed the issue with great detail in Galatians 3 174 According to 19th century German theologian F C Baur early Christianity was dominated by the conflict between Peter who was law observant and Paul who advocated partial or even complete freedom from the Law citation needed Scholar James D G Dunn has proposed that Peter was the bridge man between the two other prominent leaders Paul and James the Just Paul and James were both heavily identified with their own brands of Christianity Peter showed a desire to hold on to his Jewish identity in contrast with Paul He simultaneously showed a flexibility towards the desires of the broader Christian community in contrast to James Marcion and his followers stated that the polemic against false apostles in Galatians was aimed at Peter James and John the Pillars of the Church as well as the false gospels circulating through the churches at the time Irenaeus and Tertullian argued against Marcionism s elevation of Paul and stated that Peter and Paul were equals among the apostles Passages from Galatians were used to show that Paul respected Peter s office and acknowledged a shared faith 186 187 Three forms are postulated from Gamble Harry Y 18 The Canon Debate p 300 note 21 1 Marcion s collection that begins with Galatians and ends with Philemon 2 Papyrus 46 dated about 200 that follows the order that became established except for reversing Ephesians and Galatians and 3 the letters to seven churches treating those to the same church as one letter and basing the order on length so that Corinthians is first and Colossians perhaps including Philemon is last Jewish Virtual Library A major difficulty in tracing the growth of Christianity from its beginnings as a Jewish messianic sect and its relations to the various other normative Jewish sectarian Jewish and Christian Jewish groups is presented by the fact that what ultimately became normative Christianity was originally but one among various contending Christian trends Once the gentile Christian trend won out and the teaching of Paul became accepted as expressing the doctrine of the Church the Jewish Christian groups were pushed to the margin and ultimately excluded as heretical Being rejected both by normative Judaism and the Church they ultimately disappeared Nevertheless several Jewish Christian sects such as the Nazarenes Ebionites Elchasaites and others existed for some time and a few of them seem to have endured for several centuries Some sects saw in Jesus mainly a prophet and not the Christ others seem to have believed in him as the Messiah but did not draw the christological and other conclusions that subsequently became fundamental in the teaching of the Church the divinity of the Christ trinitarian conception of the Godhead abrogation of the Law After the disappearance of the early Jewish Christian sects and the triumph of gentile Christianity to become a Christian meant for a Jew to apostatize and to leave the Jewish community web 8 References Edit a b c d e f Fredriksen 2018 Bromiley Geoffrey W ed 1979 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia A D Vol 1 Fully Revised ed Grand Rapids Michigan Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co p 689 ISBN 0 8028 3781 6 Barnett 2002 p 21 L Niswonger Richard 1993 New Testament History Zondervan Publishing Company p 200 ISBN 0 310 31201 9 a b Klutz Todd 2002 2000 Part II Christian Origins and Development Paul and the Development of Gentile Christianity In Esler Philip F ed The Early Christian World Routledge Worlds 1st ed New York and London Routledge pp 178 190 ISBN 9781032199344 Seifrid Mark A 1992 Justification by Faith and The Disposition of Paul s Argument Justification by Faith The Origin and Development of a Central Pauline Theme Novum Testamentum Supplements Leiden Brill Publishers pp 210 211 246 247 ISBN 90 04 09521 7 ISSN 0167 9732 a b c McGrath 2006 p 174 Zahn Theodor John the Apostle The New Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge Vol VI Philip Schaff ed CCEL a b Cwiekowski 1988 pp 79 80 Pao 2016 p 65 Jubilee Bible 2000 full citation needed E Peterson 1959 Christianus In Fruhkirche Judentum und Gnosis publisher Herder Freiburg pp 353 72 Elwell amp Comfort 2001 pp 266 828 a b Ehrman 2005 Hurtado 2005 pp 13 55 Freeman Charles 2010 Breaking Away The First Christianities A New History of Early Christianity New Haven and London Yale University Press pp 31 46 doi 10 12987 9780300166583 ISBN 978 0 300 12581 8 JSTOR j ctt1nq44w LCCN 2009012009 S2CID 170124789 Retrieved 2021 07 20 a b Wilken 2013a Lietaert Peerbolte Bert Jan 2013 How Antichrist Defeated Death The Development of Christian Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Early Church In Krans Jan Lietaert Peerbolte L J Smit Peter Ben Zwiep Arie W eds Paul John and Apocalyptic Eschatology Studies in Honour of Martinus C de Boer Novum Testamentum Supplements Vol 149 Leiden Brill Publishers pp 238 255 doi 10 1163 9789004250369 016 ISBN 978 90 04 25026 0 ISSN 0167 9732 S2CID 191738355 Retrieved 2021 07 20 a b Burkett 2002 p 3 a b Mack 1995 p page needed Ehrman 2012 p 272 Ehrman 2012 p 273 Powell Mark Allan 1998 Jesus as a Figure in History How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee p 181 ISBN 978 0 664 25703 3 a b Levine Amy Jill 2006 Amy Jill Levine et al eds The Historical Jesus in Context Princeton University Press pp 1 2 ISBN 978 0 691 00992 6 Dunn James D G 2003 Jesus Remembered p 339 ISBN 978 0 8028 3931 2 States that baptism and crucifixion are two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent William R Herzog 2005 Prophet and Teacher An Introduction to the Historical Jesus pp 1 6 ISBN 978 0664225285 Crossan John Dominic 1995 Jesus A Revolutionary Biography HarperOne p 145 ISBN 978 0 06 061662 5 That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be since both Josephus and Tacitus agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact Craig A Evans 2001 Jesus and His Contemporaries Comparative Studies pp 2 5 ISBN 978 0391041189 Tuckett Christopher M 2001 Markus N A Bockmuehl ed The Cambridge Companion to Jesus pp 122 26 ISBN 978 0521796781 Ehrman Bart D 1999 Jesus Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Oxford University Press pp ix xi ISBN 978 0195124736 Chilton Bruce Evans Craig A 2002 Authenticating the Activities of Jesus pp 3 7 ISBN 978 0391041646 Bockmuehl Markus N A 2001 The Cambridge Companion to Jesus pp 121 25 ISBN 978 0521796781 Chilton Bruce Evans Craig A 1998 Studying the Historical Jesus Evaluations of the State of Current Research pp 460 70 ISBN 978 9004111424 Jesus as a Figure in History How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee by Mark Allan Powell 1998 ISBN 0 664 25703 8 p 181 Graham Stanton The Gospels and Jesus 2nd ed Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 p xxiii Ehrman 2012 Graham Stanton The Gospels and Jesus 2nd ed Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 pp 143ff Porter Stanley E 1999 Resurrection the Greeks and the New Testament in Porter Stanley E Hayes Michael A Tombs David eds Resurrection Sheffield Academic Press Ehrman The Triumph of Christianity How a Forbidden religion swept the World a b Andreas J Kostenberger L Scott Kellum 2009 The Cradle the Cross and the Crown An Introduction to the New Testament pp 124 125 ISBN 978 0 8054 4365 3 a b Mitchell Margaret M Young Frances M 2006 The Cambridge History of Christianity Vol 1 Cambridge University Press p 23 ISBN 978 0 521 81239 9 William R Herzog 2005 Prophet and Teacher An Introduction to the Historical Jesus p 8 ISBN 0664225284 Theissen Gerd and Annette Merz The historical Jesus a comprehensive guide Fortress Press 1998 translated from German 1996 edition Ehrman Bart D Jesus Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Oxford University Press 1999 ISBN 978 0195124743 E P Sanders 1993 The Historical Figure of Jesus E P Sanders 1993 The Historical Figure of Jesus p 213 a b McGrath 2006 pp 16 22 The Gospel according to Matthew by Leon Morris ISBN 0 85111 338 9 p 71 Redford 2007 pp 117 130 A theology of the New Testament by George Eldon Ladd 1993 p 324 Redford 2007 pp 143 160 Cox amp Easley 2007 pp 97 110 Redford 2007 pp 165 180 The Christology of Mark s Gospel by Jack Dean Kingsbury 1983 ISBN 0 8006 2337 1 pp 91 95 The Cambridge companion to the Gospels by Stephen C Barton ISBN 0 521 00261 3 pp 132 33 Cox amp Easley 2007 pp 121 135 Redford 2007 pp 189 207 Cox amp Easley 2007 pp 155 170 Matthew by David L Turner 2008 ISBN 0 8010 2684 9 p 613 a b The Cradle the Cross and the Crown An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas J Kostenberger L Scott Kellum 2009 ISBN 978 0 8054 4365 3 p 140 a b Paul L Maier The Date of the Nativity and Chronology of Jesus in Chronos kairos Christos nativity and chronological studies by Jerry Vardaman Edwin M Yamauchi 1989 ISBN 0 931464 50 1 pp 113 29 Barnett 2002 pp 19 21 Theissen Gerd Merz Annette 1998 The Historical Jesus a Comprehensive Guide Fortress Press pp 316 46 ISBN 978 1 4514 0863 8 Archived from the original on 2020 08 05 Retrieved 2020 10 08 Familiar Stranger An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth by Michael James McClymond 2004 ISBN 0802826806 pp 77 79 Studying the Historical Jesus Evaluations of the State of Current Research by Bruce Chilton and Craig A Evans 1998 ISBN 9004111425 pp 255 57 Lawrence 2017 p 60 Grant 1977 p 176 Maier 1975 p 5 Van Daalen 1972 p 41 Kremer 1977 pp 49 50 a b c Ehrman 2014 Gundry 1976 p page needed Weiss 1910 p 345 Davies 1965 pp 305 308 Wilckens 1970 pp 128 131 Smith 1969 p 406 Komarnitsky 2014 Bermejo Rubio 2017 Luke 24 38 40 John 20 27 Ehrman 2014 pp 109 10 Koester Helmut 2000 Introduction to the New Testament Vol 2 History and Literature of Early Christianity Walter de Gruyter pp 64 65 Vermes Geza 2008 The Resurrection London Penguin pp 151 52 Matt 24 34 Bargil Pixner The Church of the Apostles found on Mount Zion Biblical Archaeology Review 16 3 May June 1990 centuryone org Archived 2018 03 09 at the Wayback Machine Franzen 1988 p 20 Acts 1 13 15 a b c Vidmar 2005 pp 19 20 Schreck The Essential Catholic Catechism 1999 p 130 Acts 11 26 Cohen 1987 pp 167 68 Cohen 1987 p 168 G Bromiley ed 1982 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia God Fully Revised Vol Two E J Eerdmans Publishing Company pp 497 99 ISBN 0 8028 3782 4 Galatians 2 9 Acts 1 13 Hurtado 2005 p 160 Pagels 2005 p 45 Ludemann amp Ozen 1996 p 116 Pagels 2005 pp 45 46 a b c Ludemann amp Ozen 1996 pp 116 17 Bockmuehl Markus N A 2010 The Remembered Peter In Ancient Reception and Modern Debate Mohr Siebeck p 52 a b Taylor 1993 p 224 Eusebius Church History 3 5 3 Epiphanius Panarion 29 7 7 8 30 2 7 On Weights and Measures 15 On the flight to Pella see Bourgel Jonathan 2010 The Jewish Christians Move from Jerusalem as a pragmatic choice In Dan Jaffe ed Studies in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity Leyden Brill pp 107 138 P H R van Houwelingen Fleeing forward The departure of Christians from Jerusalem to Pella Westminster Theological Journal 65 2003 181 200 Dunn 2009 pp 246 47 a b Dunn 2009 p 277 Burkett 2002 Dunn James D G 2013 The Oral Gospel Tradition Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 8028 6782 7 Horsley Richard A Whoever Hears You Hears Me Prophets Performance and Tradition in Q Horsley Richard A and Draper Jonathan A eds Trinity Press 1999 ISBN 978 1 56338 272 7 Recent Studies of Oral Derived Literature and Q pp 150 74 Dunn James D G Jesus Remembered Wm B Eerdmans Publishing 2003 ISBN 978 0 8028 3931 2 Oral Tradition pp 192 210 Mournet Terence C Oral Tradition and Literary Dependency Variability and Stability in the Synoptic Tradition and Q Mohr Siebeck 2005 ISBN 978 3 16 148454 4 A Brief History of the Problem of Oral Tradition pp 54 99 Cullmann 1949 p page needed Neufeld 1964 p 47 O Collins 1978 p 112 Hunter 1973 p 100 Pannenberg 1968 p 90 Cullmann 1966 p 66 Perkins Pheme 1988 Reading the New Testament An Introduction originally published 1978 Mahwah NJ Paulist Press p 20 ISBN 978 0809129393 Bultmann Theology of the New Testament vol 1 pp 49 81 Pannenberg 1968 pp 118 283 367 Ehrman 2014 p 125 Loke 2017 Talbert 2011 pp 3 6 Ehrman 2014 pp 120 122 Netland 2001 p 175 Loke 2017 p 3 Ehrman 2003 a b c Bart Ehrman How Jesus became God Course Guide Loke 2017 pp 3 4 Talbert 2011 p 3 Geza Vermez 2008 The Resurrection pp 138 39 Bird 2017 pp ix xi a b Ehrman 2014 p 132 Ehrman 2014 p 122 Hurtado 2005 p 650 Hurtado 2005 p 155 Dunn 2005 Ehrman Bart 2006 Peter Paul and Mary Magdalene The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend Oxford University Press USA ISBN 0 19 530013 0 a b c d Hitchcock James 2012 History of the Catholic Church from the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium Ignatius Press p 23 ISBN 978 1 58617 664 8 OCLC 796754060 White 2004 p 127 Ehrman 2005 p 187 Coveney John 2006 Food Morals and Meaning The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating Routledge p 74 ISBN 978 1134184484 For the early Christians the agape signified the importance of fellowship It was a ritual to celebrate the joy of eating pleasure and company Burns Jim 2012 Uncommon Youth Parties Gospel Light Publications p 37 ISBN 978 0830762132 During the days of the Early Church the believers would all gather together to share what was known as an agape feast or love feast Those who could afford to bring food brought it to the feast and shared it with the other believers Walls Jerry L Collins Kenneth J 2010 Roman but Not Catholic What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation Baker Academic p 169 ISBN 978 1493411740 So strong were the overtones of the Eucharist as a meal of fellowship that in its earliest practice it often took place in concert with the Agape feast By the latter part of the first century however as Andrew McGowan points out this conjoined communal banquet was separated into a morning sacramental ritual and a prosaic communal supper Davies Horton 1999 Bread of Life and Cup of Joy Newer Ecumenical Perspectives on the Eucharist Wipf amp Stock Publishers p 18 ISBN 978 1579102098 Agape love feast which ultimately became separate from the Eucharist Daughrity Dyron 2016 Roots Uncovering Why We Do What We Do in Church ACU Press p 77 ISBN 978 0891126010 Around AD 250 the lovefeast and Eucharist seem to separate leaving the Eucharist to develop outside the context of a shared meal agape Dictionary of the Christian Church Oxford Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978 0 19 280290 3 Salvesen Alison G Law Timothy Michael eds 2021 The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint Oxford Oxford University Press p 22 ISBN 978 0199665716 Davidson 2005 p 115 a b Dunn 2009 p 297 a b c Hitchcock Geography of Religion 2004 p 281 a b c d Bokenkotter 2004 p 18 Franzen 1988 p 29 Ehrman 2012 pp 87 90 Jaeger Werner 1961 Early Christianity and Greek Paideia Harvard University Press pp 6 108 09 ISBN 978 0674220522 Retrieved 2015 02 26 Duffy 2015 p 3 Dunn 2009 p 302 Dunn 2009 p 308 Harris Stephen L Understanding the Bible Palo Alto Mayfield 1985 Ronald Y K Fung as cited in John Piper Wayne Grudem 2006 Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood A Response to Evangelical Feminism Crossway p 254 ISBN 978 1 4335 1918 5 Retrieved 2012 10 28 Cross amp Livingstone 2005 Paul Black C Clifton Smith D Moody Spivey Robert A eds 2019 1969 Paul Apostle to the Gentiles Anatomy of the New Testament 8th ed Minneapolis Fortress Press pp 187 226 doi 10 2307 j ctvcb5b9q 17 ISBN 978 1 5064 5711 6 OCLC 1082543536 S2CID 242771713 Galatians 1 15 16 2 7 9 Romans 11 13 1 Timothy 2 7 2 Timothy 1 11 a b Mack 1997 p page needed Mack 1997 p 109 Mack Burton L 1988 The Congregations of the Christ A Myth of Innocence Mark and Christian Origins Fortress Press p 98 ISBN 978 0 8006 2549 8 Hurtado 2005 pp 156 157 Hurtado 2005 p 168 a b c Cross amp Livingstone 2005 pp 1243 1245 Stendahl 1963 Dunn 1982 p n 49 Finlan 2004 p 2 a b Bokenkotter 2004 pp 19 21 a b c Hurtado 2005 pp 162 165 McGrath 2006 pp 174 175 Bokenkotter 2004 p 19 a b McGrath 2006 pp 174 75 a b Hodges Frederick M 2001 The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos Circumcision Foreskin Restoration and the Kynodesme PDF Bulletin of the History of Medicine Johns Hopkins University Press 75 Fall 2001 375 405 doi 10 1353 bhm 2001 0119 PMID 11568485 S2CID 29580193 Retrieved 2020 01 03 a b Rubin Jody P July 1980 Celsus Decircumcision Operation Medical and Historical Implications Urology Elsevier 16 1 121 24 doi 10 1016 0090 4295 80 90354 4 PMID 6994325 Retrieved 2020 01 03 a b Fredriksen 2018 pp 10 11 Neusner Jacob 1993 Approaches to Ancient Judaism New Series Religious and Theological Studies Scholars Press p 149 Circumcised barbarians along with any others who revealed the glans penis were the butt of ribald humor For Greek art portrays the foreskin often drawn in meticulous detail as an emblem of male beauty and children with congenitally short foreskins were sometimes subjected to a treatment known as epispasm that was aimed at elongation McGrath 2006 pp 174 76 Cross amp Livingstone 2005 pp 1244 1245 Mack 1997 pp 91 92 Hurtado 2005 p 131 Charry Ellen T 1999 By the Renewing of Your Minds The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine Oxford University Press p 35 36 Acts 15 McManners Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity 2002 p 37 Keck 1988 p page needed Pelikan 1975 p 113 Cross amp Livingstone 2005 p 1244 Burkett 2002 p 263 a b Moss Candida 2013 The Myth of Persecution How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom HarperCollins p 129 ISBN 978 0 06 210452 6 a b Croix 2006 pp 105 52 The traditional title is The Divine Liturgy of James the Holy Apostle and Brother of the Lord Ante Nicene Fathers by Philip Schaff in the public domain McDonald amp Sanders 2002 p 72 published by J P Audet in JTS 1950 v1 pp 135 54 cited in The Council of Jamnia and the Old Testament Canon Archived February 10 2007 at the Wayback Machine Robert C Newman 1983 A dictionary of Jewish Christian relations Dr Edward Kessler Neil Wenborn Cambridge University Press 2005 ISBN 0 521 82692 6 p 316 Decock Paul B 2008 Jerome s turn to the Hebraica Veritas and his rejection of the traditional view of the Septuagint Neotestamentica 42 2 205 222 ISSN 0254 8356 JSTOR 43048677 Retrieved 2021 01 31 Bart D Ehrman 1997 The New Testament A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings Oxford University Press p 8 ISBN 978 0 19 508481 8 The New Testament contains twenty seven books written in Greek by fifteen or sixteen different authors who were addressing other Christian individuals or communities between the years 50 and 120 see box 1 4 As we will see it is difficult to know whether any of these books was written by Jesus own disciples a b Durant Will Caesar and Christ New York Simon and Schuster 1972 Magnesians 2 6 7 13 Trallians 2 3 Smyrnaeans 8 9 Draper 2006 p 178 Milavec 2003 p vii As translated by Molly Whittaker Jews and Christians Graeco Roman Views Cambridge University Press 1984 p 105 Davidson 2005 p 146 Franzen 1988 p 25 a b Wylen 1995 p 190 Berard 2006 pp 112 113 a b Wright 1992 pp 164 165 a b Wylen 1995 pp 190 192 a b Dunn 1999 pp 33 34 Boatwright Gargola amp Talbert 2004 p 426 a b Dauphin 1993 pp 235 240 242 Tabor 1998 Esler 2004 pp 157 159 Dunn James 1991 The Partings of the Ways H H Ben Sasson A History of the Jewish People Harvard University Press 1976 ISBN 0 674 39731 2 p 246 John P Meier A Marginal Jew Rethinking the Historical Jesus v 1 ch 11 H H Ben Sasson A History of the Jewish People Harvard University Press 1976 ISBN 0 674 39731 2 p 251 Suetonius Lives of the Twelve Caesars Tiberius 36 a b c Barnett 2002 p 23 a b Hurtado 2005 pp 15 38 39 41 42 H H Ben Sasson A History of the Jewish People Harvard University Press 1976 ISBN 0 674 39731 2 The Crisis Under Gaius Caligula pp 254 56 Kane 1982 p 10 a b Walker 1959 p 26 Catholic Encyclopedia Judaizers see section titled The Incident at Antioch Dunn James D G Autumn 1993 Reinhartz Adele ed Echoes of Intra Jewish Polemic in Paul s Letter to the Galatians Journal of Biblical Literature Society of Biblical Literature 112 3 459 477 doi 10 2307 3267745 ISSN 0021 9231 JSTOR 3267745 a b Walker 1959 p 27 Pauline Chronology His Life and Missionary Work from Catholic Resources by Felix Just S J Neill 1986 pp 44 45 Wood Roger Jan Morris and Denis Wright Persia Universe Books 1970 p 35 Herbermann 1913 p 737 Latourette 1941 vol I p 103 Sources EditPrinted sources Barnett Paul 2002 Jesus the Rise of Early Christianity A History of New Testament Times InterVarsity Press ISBN 0 8308 2699 8 Berard Wayne Daniel 2006 When Christians Were Jews That Is Now Cowley Publications ISBN 1 56101 280 7 Bermejo Rubio Fernando 2017 Feldt Laura Valk Ulo eds The Process of Jesus Deification and Cognitive Dissonance Theory Numen Leiden Brill Publishers 64 2 3 119 152 doi 10 1163 15685276 12341457 eISSN 1568 5276 ISSN 0029 5973 JSTOR 44505332 S2CID 148616605 Bird Michael F 2017 Jesus the Eternal Son Answering Adoptionist Christology Wim B Eerdmans Publishing Boatwright Mary Taliaferro Gargola Daniel J Talbert Richard John Alexander 2004 The Romans From Village to Empire Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 511875 8 Bokenkotter Thomas 2004 A Concise History of the Catholic Church Revised and expanded ed Doubleday ISBN 0 385 50584 1 Brown Schuyler The Origins of Christianity A Historical Introduction to the New Testament Oxford University Press 1993 ISBN 0 19 826207 8 Boyarin Daniel 2012 The Jewish Gospels the Story of the Jewish Christ The New Press ISBN 978 1 59558 878 4 Burkett Delbert 2002 An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 00720 7 Cohen Shaye J D 1987 From the Maccabees to the Mishnah The Westminster Press ISBN 0 664 25017 3 Cox Steven L Easley Kendell H 2007 Harmony of the Gospels ISBN 978 0 8054 9444 0 Croix G E M de Sainte 1963 Why Were The Early Christians Persecuted Past and Present 26 1 6 38 doi 10 1093 past 26 1 6 Croix G E M de Sainte 2006 Whitby Michael ed Christian Persecution Martyrdom And Orthodoxy Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 927812 1 Cross F L Livingstone E A eds 2005 The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 3rd Revised ed Oxford Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 acref 9780192802903 001 0001 ISBN 978 0 19 280290 3 Cullmann Oscar 1949 The Earliest Christian Confessions translated by J K S Reid London Lutterworth Cullmann Oscar 1966 A J B Higgins ed The Early Church Studies in Early Christian History and Theology Philadelphia Westminster Cwiekowski Frederick J 1988 The Beginnings of the Church Paulist Press Dauphin C 1993 De l Eglise de la circoncision a l Eglise de la gentilite sur une nouvelle voie hors de l impasse Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Liber Annuus XLIII archived from the original on 2013 03 09 Davidson Ivor 2005 The Birth of the Church From Jesus to Constantine AD 30 312 Oxford Davies W D 1965 Paul and Rabbinic Judaism 2nd ed London Draper JA 2006 The Apostolic Fathers the Didache Expository Times Vol 117 no 5 Duffy Eamon 13 January 2015 1997 Saints and Sinners A History of the Popes Fourth Edition Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 20708 8 Dunn James D G 1982 The New Perspective on Paul Manson Memorial Lecture 4 november 1982 Dunn James D G 1999 Jews and Christians The Parting of the Ways AD 70 to 135 Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 0 8028 4498 7 Dunn James D G The Canon Debate In McDonald amp Sanders 2002 Dunn James D G 2005 Christianity in the Making Jesus Remembered vol 1 Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 978 0 8028 3931 2 Dunn James D G 2009 Christianity in the Making Beginning from Jerusalem vol 2 Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 978 0 8028 3932 9 Dunn James D G Autumn 1993 Echoes of Intra Jewish Polemic in Paul s Letter to the Galatians Journal of Biblical Literature Society of Biblical Literature 112 3 459 77 doi 10 2307 3267745 JSTOR 3267745 Eddy Paul Rhodes Boyd Gregory A 2007 The Jesus Legend A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition Baker Academic ISBN 978 0 8010 3114 4 Ehrman Bart D 2003 Lost Christianities The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 972712 4 LCCN 2003053097 Ehrman Bart D 2005 2003 At Polar Ends of the Spectrum Early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites Lost Christianities The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew Oxford Oxford University Press pp 95 112 ISBN 978 0 19 518249 1 Ehrman Bart 2012 Did Jesus Exist The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth Harper Collins ISBN 978 0 06 208994 6 Ehrman Bart 2014 How Jesus became God The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee Harper Collins Elwell Walter Comfort Philip Wesley 2001 Tyndale Bible Dictionary Tyndale House Publishers ISBN 0 8423 7089 7 Esler Philip F 2004 The Early Christian World Routledge ISBN 0 415 33312 1 Finlan Stephen 2004 The Background and Content of Paul s Cultic Atonement Metaphors Society of Biblical Literature Franzen August 1988 Kirchengeschichte Fredriksen Paula 2018 When Christians Were Jews The First Generation New Haven and London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 19051 9 Grant M 1977 Jesus An Historian s Review of the Gospels New York Scribner s Gundry R H 1976 Soma in Biblical Theology Cambridge Cambridge University Press Herbermann Charles George 1913 The Catholic Encyclopedia The Encycylopedia Press Hunter Archibald 1973 Works and Words of Jesus Hurtado Larry W 2004 Lord Jesus Christ Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity Grand Rapids Michigan and Cambridge U K Wm B Eerdmans ISBN 978 0 8028 3167 5 Hurtado Larry W 2005 How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus Grand Rapids Michigan and Cambridge U K Wm B Eerdmans ISBN 978 0 8028 2861 3 Johnson L T The Real Jesus San Francisco Harper San Francisco 1996 Kane J Herbert 1982 A Concise History of the Christian World Mission Baker Keck Leander E 1988 Paul and His Letters Fortress Press ISBN 0 8006 2340 1 Komarnitsky Kris 2014 Cognitive Dissonance and the Resurrection of Jesus The Fourth R Magazine 27 5 Kremer Jakob 1977 Die Osterevangelien Geschichten um Geschichte Stuttgart Katholisches Bibelwerk Latourette Kenneth Scott 1941 1937 A History of the Expansion of Christianity Vol 1 New York and London Harper and Brothers Lawrence Arren Bennet 2017 Comparative Characterization in the Sermon on the Mount Characterization of the Ideal Disciple Wipf and Stock Publishers Loke Andrew Ter Ern 2017 The Origin of Divine Christology vol 169 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 108 19142 5 Ludemann Gerd What Really Happened to Jesus trans J Bowden Louisville Kentucky Westminster John Knox Press 1995 Ludemann Gerd Ozen Alf 1996 De opstanding van Jezus Een historische benadering Was mit Jesus wirklich geschah Die Auferstehung historisch betrachtet The Have Averbode McDonald L M Sanders J A eds 2002 The Canon Debate Hendrickson Mack Burton L 1995 Who wrote the New Testament The making of the Christian myth Harper San Francisco ISBN 978 0 06 065517 4 Mack Burton L 1997 1995 Wie schreven het Nieuwe Testament werkelijk Feiten mythen en motieven Who Wrote the New Testament The Making of the Christian Myth Uitgeverij Ankh Hermes bv Maier P L 1975 The Empty Tomb as History Christianity Today McGrath Alister E 2006 Christianity An Introduction Wiley Blackwell ISBN 1 4051 0899 1 Milavec Aaron 2003 The Didache Faith Hope amp Life of the Earliest Christian Communities 50 70 C E Newman Press ISBN 978 0 8091 0537 3 Moss Candida 2012 Current Trends in the Study of Early Christian Martyrdom Bulletin for the Study of Religion 41 3 22 29 doi 10 1558 bsor v41i3 22 Neill Stephen 1986 A History of Christian Missions Penguin Books Comprehensive survey Netland Harold 2001 Encountering Religious Pluralism The Challenge to Christian Faith amp Mission InterVarsity Press Neufeld 1964 The Earliest Christian Confessions Grand Rapids Eerdmans O Collins Gerald 1978 What are They Saying About the Resurrection New York Paulist Press Pagels Elaine 2005 De Gnostische Evangelien The Gnostic Gospels Servire Pannenberg Wolfhart 1968 Jesus God and Man translated by Lewis Wilkins Duane Pribe Philadelphia Westminster Pao David W 2016 Acts and the Isaianic New Exodus Wipf and Stock Publishers Pelikan Jaroslav Jan 1975 The Christian Tradition The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100 600 University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 65371 4 Redford Douglas 2007 The Life and Ministry of Jesus The Gospels ISBN 978 0 7847 1900 8 Rowland Christopher 1985 Christian Origins An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism SPCK ISBN 9780281041107 Smith J L September 1969 Resurrection Faith Today PDF Theological Studies 30 3 393 419 doi 10 1177 004056396903000301 S2CID 59022803 Retrieved 2022 02 10 Stendahl Krister July 1963 The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West PDF Harvard Theological Review Cambridge Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School 56 3 199 215 doi 10 1017 S0017816000024779 ISSN 1475 4517 JSTOR 1508631 LCCN 09003793 S2CID 170331485 Archived PDF from the original on 2021 12 24 Retrieved 2022 02 12 Tabor James D 1998 Ancient Judaism Nazarenes and Ebionites The Jewish Roman World of Jesus Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Talbert Charles H 2011 The Development of Christology during the First Hundred Years and Other Essays on Early Christian Christology Supplements to Novum Testamentum 140 Leiden Brill Publishers Taylor Joan E 1993 Christians and the Holy Places The Myth of Jewish Christian Origins Oxford University Press ISBN 0198147856 Thiessen Matthew September 2014 Breytenbach Cilliers Thom Johan eds Paul s Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2 17 29 Novum Testamentum Leiden Brill Publishers 56 4 373 391 doi 10 1163 15685365 12341488 eISSN 1568 5365 ISSN 0048 1009 JSTOR 24735868 Van Daalen D H 1972 The Real Resurrection London Collins Vidmar 2005 The Catholic Church Through the Ages Walker Williston 1959 A History of the Christian Church full citation needed Weiss Johannes 1910 Der erste Korintherbrief 9th ed Gottingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht White L Michael 2004 From Jesus to Christianity HarperCollins ISBN 0 06 052655 6 Wilken Robert Louis 2013a Beginning in Jerusalem The First Thousand Years A Global History of Christianity New Haven and London Yale University Press pp 6 16 ISBN 978 0 300 11884 1 JSTOR j ctt32bd7m LCCN 2012021755 S2CID 160590164 Wilken Robert Louis 2013b Divisions Within The First Thousand Years A Global History of Christianity New Haven and London Yale University Press pp 37 46 ISBN 978 0 300 11884 1 JSTOR j ctt32bd7m LCCN 2012021755 S2CID 160590164 Wilckens Ulrich 1970 Auferstehung Stuttgart and Berlin Kreuz Verlag Wright N T 1992 The New Testament and the People of God Fortress Press ISBN 0 8006 2681 8 Wylen Stephen M 1995 The Jews in the Time of Jesus An Introduction Paulist Press ISBN 0 8091 3610 4 Web sources a b Larry Hurtado August 17 2017 Paul the Pagans Apostle Sect of The Way The Nazarenes amp Christians Names given to the Early Church Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary on Acts 19 Bible Hub Retrieved 2015 10 08 See also Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary American King James Version Douai Rheims Bible Gill s Exposition commentary on Acts 19 23 Bible Hub Retrieved 2015 10 08 a b Shiffman Lawrence H 2018 How Jewish Christians Became Christians My Jewish Learning a b c Christianity Severance from Judaism Jewish Virtual Library AICE 2008 Retrieved 2018 12 17 Schochet Jacob Immanuel Moshiach ben Yossef Tutorial moshiach com Archived from the original on 2002 12 20 Retrieved 2012 12 02 Blidstein Gerald J 2008 Messiah Encyclopaedia Judaica The Gale Group Retrieved 2012 12 02 via Jewish Virtual Library and Telushkin Joseph The Messiah The Jewish Virtual Library Jewish Literacy NY William Morrow and Co 1991 Reprinted by permission of the author Retrieved 2012 12 02 Flusser David Second Temple Period Messiah Encyclopaedia Judaica 2008 The Gale Group Retrieved 2012 12 02 a b c d e f g h i j k l E P Sanders Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jesus Encyclopedia Britannica Bart Ehrman 1 April 2018 An Easter Reflection 2018 The Bart Ehrman Blog Bouma Jeremy 27 March 2014 The Early High Christology Club and Bart Ehrman An Excerpt from How God Became Jesus Zondervan Academic Blog HarperCollins Retrieved 2018 05 02 a b c d e f Larry Hurtado December 4 2018 When Christians were Jews Paula Fredriksen on The First Generation 1 Corinthians 15 3 15 41 oremus Bible Browser Larry Hurtado The Origin of Divine Christology a b c Ehrman Bart D 14 February 2013 Incarnation Christology Angels and Paul The Bart Ehrman Blog Retrieved 2018 05 02 Bart Ehrman 6 Feb 2013 The Earliest Christology a b c Bart Ehrmann June 4 2016 Were Jesus Followers Crazy Was He Baptism jewishencyclopedia com Liturgy jewishencyclopedia com Greek Orthodoxy From Apostolic Times to the Present Day ellopos net Stephen Westerholm 2015 The New Perspective on Paul in Review Direction Spring 2015 Vol 44 No 1 pp 4 15 Kohler Kaufmann Hirsch Emil G Jacobs Joseph Friedenwald Aaron Broyde Isaac Circumcision In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature Jewish Encyclopedia Kopelman Foundation Retrieved 2020 01 03 Contact with Grecian life especially at the games of the arena which involved nudity made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists or antinationalists and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm making themselves foreskins I Macc i 15 Josephus Ant xii 5 1 Assumptio Mosis viii I Cor vii 18 Tosef Shab xv 9 Yeb 72a b Yer Peah i 16b Yeb viii 9a All the more did the law observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision I Macc i 48 60 ii 46 and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law even at the risk of their lives by themselves circumcising their sons E P Sanders Saint Paul the Apostle Encyclopedia Britannica Jordan Cooper E P Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul Martin D 2010 The Afterlife of the New Testament and Postmodern Interpretation Archived 2016 06 08 at the Wayback Machine lecture transcript Archived 2016 08 12 at the Wayback Machine Yale University Persecution in the Early Church Religion Facts Archived from the original on 2014 03 25 Retrieved 2014 03 26 Swete s Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek p 112 Ccel org Retrieved 2019 05 20 Pope St Clement I newadvent org Rome jewishencyclopedia com Apostle Paul s Third Missionary Journey Map biblestudy org Fiscus Judaicus jewishencyclopedia com Further reading EditBooks Edit Bockmuehl Markus N A ed The Cambridge Companion to Jesus Cambridge University Press 2001 ISBN 0 521 79678 4 Bourgel Jonathan From One Identity to Another The Mother Church of Jerusalem Between the Two Jewish Revolts Against Rome 66 135 6 EC Paris Editions du Cerf collection Judaisme ancien et Christianisme primitive French ISBN 978 2 204 10068 7 Brown Raymond E An Introduction to the New Testament ISBN 0 385 24767 2 Conzelmann H and Lindemann A Interpreting the New Testament An Introduction to the Principles and Methods of N T Exegesis translated by S S Schatzmann Hendrickson Publishers Peabody 1988 Dormeyer Detlev The New Testament among the Writings of Antiquity English translation Sheffield 1998 Dunn James D G ed The Cambridge Companion to St Paul Cambridge University Press 2003 ISBN 0 521 78694 0 Dunn James D G Unity and Diversity in the New Testament An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christianity SCM Press 2006 ISBN 0 334 02998 8 Edwards Mark 2009 Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church Ashgate ISBN 978 0754662914 Fredriksen Paula 2018 When Christians Were Jews The First Generation Yale University Press Freedman David Noel Ed Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Wm B Eerdmans Publishing 2000 ISBN 0 8028 2400 5 Hurtado Larry 2005 Lord Jesus Christ Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 978 0 8028 3167 5 Mack Burton L Who Wrote the New Testament Harper 1996 Mills Watson E Acts and Pauline Writings Mercer University Press 1997 ISBN 0 86554 512 X Malina Bruce J Windows on the World of Jesus Time Travel to Ancient Judea Westminster John Knox Press Louisville Kentucky 1993 Malina Bruce J The New Testament World Insights from Cultural Anthropology 3rd edition Westminster John Knox Press Louisville Kentucky 2001 Malina Bruce J Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John Augsburg Fortress Publishers Minneapolis 1998 Malina Bruce J Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels Augsburg Fortress Publishers Minneapolis 2003 McKechnie Paul The First Christian Centuries Perspectives on the Early Church Apollos 2001 ISBN 0 85111 479 2 Stegemann Ekkehard and Stegemann Wolfgang The Jesus Movement A Social History of Its First Century Augsburg Fortress Publishers Minneapolis 1999 Stegemann Wolfgang The Gospel and the Poor Fortress Press Minneapolis 1984 ISBN 0 8006 1783 5 Thiessen Henry C Introduction to the New Testament Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids 1976 Wilson Barrie A How Jesus Became Christian St Martin s Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 679 31493 6 Wright N T The New Unimproved Jesus in Christianity Today 1993 09 13 Zahn Theodor Introduction to the New Testament English translation Edinburgh 1910 Book series Edit Dunn James D G 2005 Christianity in the Making Volume 1 Jesus Remembered Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Dunn James D G 2009 Christianity in the Making Volume 2 Beginning from Jerusalem Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Dunn James D G 2009 Christianity in the Making Volume 3 Neither Jew nor Greek Wm B Eerdmans PublishingExternal links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to First Century Christianity New Testament Reading Room Extensive online NT resources incl commentaries Tyndale Seminary Scholarly articles on the New Testament from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library Internet Ancient History Sourcebook Christian Origins Guide to Early Church DocumentsHistory of Christianity Early ChristianityHistorical background of the New Testament Firstcentury Followed by Christianity inthe ante Nicene periodBC C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Christianity in the 1st century amp oldid 1132966999, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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