Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus (–29 AD) to the death of the last of the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

() and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity developed out of the

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

ministry of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

. 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 The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...

of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom at a later point in time. Paul the Apostle, a Pharisee Jew who had persecuted the early Jewish Christians, converted –36 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. This was part of a gradual

split of early Christianity and Judaism Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus a ...

, as Christianity became a distinct religion including predominantly Gentile adherence.

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

had an early Christian community, which was led by James the Just,

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

, and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

. According to Acts 11:26, Antioch was where the followers were first called Christians. Peter was later

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

ed in Rome, the capital of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. The apostles went on to spread the message of the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

around the classical world and founded apostolic sees around the early centers of Christianity. The last apostle to die was John in .

Etymology

Early

Jewish Christians Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus a ...

referred to themselves as "The Way" (), probably coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord."Larry Hurtado (August 17, 2017)
''"Paul, the Pagans’ Apostle"''
/ref>''Sect of “The Way”, “The Nazarenes” & “Christians” : Names given to the Early Church''
/ref> 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," while another Jewish-Christian sect called themselves "

Ebionites Ebionites ( grc-gre, Ἐβιωναῖοι, ''Ebionaioi'', derived from Hebrew (or ) ''ebyonim'', ''ebionim'', meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect, which viewed poverty as a blessing, that existed during ...

" (lit. "the poor"). According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" () 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. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" () was by

Ignatius of Antioch Ignatius of Antioch (; Greek: Ἰγνάτιος Ἀντιοχείας, ''Ignátios Antiokheías''; died c. 108/140 AD), also known as Ignatius Theophorus (, ''Ignátios ho Theophóros'', lit. "the God-bearing"), was an early Christian writer ...

, in around 100 AD.

Origins

Jewish–Hellenistic background

The earliest followers of

were a sect of apocalyptic

within the realm of

Second Temple Judaism Second Temple Judaism refers to the Jewish religion as it developed during the Second Temple period, which began with the construction of the Second Temple around 516 BCE and ended with the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The Second Temple ...

. The early Christian groups were strictly Jewish, such as the

, and the early Christian community in

, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus. Christianity "emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine" in the syncretistic Hellenistic world of the first century AD, which was dominated by Roman law and Greek culture. 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 Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

, Syria,

Judea Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous sou ...

, and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. During the early first century AD there were many competing Jewish sects in the Holy Land, and those that became

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonia ...

and

Proto-orthodox Christianity The term proto-orthodox Christianity or proto-orthodoxy is often erroneously thought to have been coined by New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, who borrowed it from Bentley Layton (a major scholar of Gnosticism and Coptologist at Yale), and des ...

were but two of these. Philosophical schools included Pharisees,

Sadducees The Sadducees (; he, צְדוּקִים, Ṣədūqīm) were a socio- religious sect of Jewish people who were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. T ...

, and

Zealots The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jew ...

, but also other less influential sects, including the

Essenes The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st ce ...

. The first century BC and first century AD saw a growing number of charismatic religious leaders contributing to what would become the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

; and the ministry of Jesus, which would lead to the emergence of the first Jewish Christian community. A central concern in 1st century Judaism was the covenant with God, and the status of the

Jews as the chosen people In Judaism, the concept of the Jews as the chosen people ( he, הָעָם הַנִבְחַר ''ha-ʿam ha-nivḥar , IPA: haʕam hanivħar'') is the belief that the Jews, via descent from the ancient Israelites, are the chosen people, i.e. select ...

of God. 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." The

Jewish messiah The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or ...

concept has its root in the apocalyptic literature of the 2nd century BC to 1st century BC, promising a future leader or

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

from the Davidic line who is expected to be anointed with

holy anointing oil The holy anointing oil ( he, שמן המשחה, , "oil of anointing") formed an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood and the High Priest as well as in the consecration of the articles of the Tabernacle (Exodus 30:26) and subsequent ...

and rule the Jewish people during the

Messianic Age In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age is the future period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil. Many believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the cons ...

and world to come. The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah" ( he, מלך משיח, translit=melekh mashiach) or ''malka meshiḥa'' in Aramaic.

Life and ministry of Jesus

Sources

Christian sources, such as the four

canonical gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

, the Pauline epistles, and the

New Testament apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cite ...

, include detailed stories about Jesus, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus. The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. States that baptism and crucifixion are "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent". 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." They consist of short passages, ''

pericope A pericope (; Greek , "a cutting-out") in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture. Also can be used as a way to identify certain themes in a cha ...

s'', which the Gospel-authors arranged in various ways as suited their aims. Non-Christian sources that are used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include Jewish sources such as

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

, 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.

Historical person

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. 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. Critical scholarship has discounted most of the narratives about Jesus as

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

ary, 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

. His remaining disciples later believed that he was resurrected.Ehrman, ''The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden religion swept the World'' Academic scholars have constructed a variety of portraits and profiles for Jesus. Contemporary scholarship places Jesus firmly in the Jewish tradition,Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition) and the most prominent understanding of Jesus is as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet or eschatological teacher. Other portraits are the charismatic healer, the Cynic philosopher, the Jewish Messiah, and the prophet of social change.

Ministry and eschatological expectations

In the

, the ministry of Jesus begins with his baptism in the countryside of Roman Judea and Transjordan, near the Jordan River, and ends in

, following the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

with his disciples. The

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

() states that

was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry.''The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament''
by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 p. 140. 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 pp. 113–29 A

chronology of Jesus A chronology of Jesus aims to establish a timeline for the events of the life of Jesus. Scholars have correlated Jewish and Greco-Roman documents and astronomical calendars with the New Testament accounts to estimate dates for the major even ...

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. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), Jewish eschatology stands central. After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus teaches extensively for a year, or maybe just a few months, about the coming Kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven), in

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by ...

s and parables, using

simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...

s and

figures of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...

. In the Gospel of John, Jesus himself is the main subject. The Synoptics present different views on the Kingdom of God. While the Kingdom is essentially described as

(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.. 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." 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.

Death and resurrection

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. Paul's letters and the Gospels contain reports of a number of post-resurrection appearances. Progressively, Jewish scriptures were reexamined in light of Jesus's teachings to explain the crucifixion and visionary post-mortem experiences of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus "signalled for earliest believers that the days of eschatological fulfilment were at hand."Larry Hurtado (December 4, 2018)
{{"'When Christians were Jews": Paula Fredriksen on "The First Generation{{'"
/ref> 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. 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{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, pp=109–10 and the resumption of their missionary activity. His followers expected Jesus to return within a generation and begin the Kingdom of God.{{r, group=web, "EB.Sanders.Pelikan.Jesus"

Apostolic Age

{{Main, Acts of the Apostles, Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles Traditionally, the period from the death of Jesus until the death of the last of the

is called the Apostolic Age, after the missionary activities of the apostles.{{sfn, Franzen, 1988, p=20 According to the Acts of the Apostles the Jerusalem church began at Pentecost with some 120 believers, in an "upper room," believed by some to be the

Cenacle The Cenacle (from the Latin , "dining room"), also known as the Upper Room (from the Koine Greek and , both meaning "upper room"), is a room in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls, traditionally held to be the site o ...

, where the apostles received the Holy Spirit and emerged from hiding following the death and resurrection of Jesus to preach and spread his message.{{sfn, Vidmar, 2005, pp=19–20Schreck, ''The Essential Catholic Catechism'' (1999), p. 130 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

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

s of the world. The most famous version of the Great Commission is in

Matthew 28 Matthew 28 is the twenty-eighth and final chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This chapter records that Jesus is risen, describes the actions of the first witnesses to this event, and ends with the Great Commission. Text The ...

({{bibleref2, Matthew, 28:16–20), where on a mountain in Galilee Jesus calls on his followers to make disciples of and

baptize Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

all nations in the name of the

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced Paul's conversion on the Road to Damascus is first recorded in

Acts 9 Acts 9 is the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Saul's conversion and the works of Saint Peter.Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bible Handbook'': an abbreviated Bible commentary. 23rd edit ...

({{bibleverse, , Acts, 9:13–16). Peter

d the Roman centurion Cornelius, traditionally considered the first Gentile convert to Christianity, in {{bibleverse, 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.

Jewish Christianity

{{Main, Jewish Christian {{See also, Early Christianity, 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.{{sfn, Burkett, 2002, p=3 The first Christians were all

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, who constituted a Second Temple Jewish sect with an apocalyptic eschatology. Among other schools of thought, some Jews regarded Jesus as

Lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

and resurrected messiah, and the eternally existing Son of God,{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, p=174{{sfn, Cohen, 1987, pp=167–68{{refn, group=note, 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.{{sfn, Cohen, 1987, p=168 Jews at that time were expecting a military leader as a Messiah, such as Bar Kohhba. expecting the

second coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...

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 Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he poss ...

to be the only true God, the god of Israel, and considered Jesus to be the messiah ( Christ), as prophesied in the

Jewish scriptures The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Jewish law which was being formalized at the same time including acceptance of Gentile converts based on a version of the Noachide laws.{{refn, group=note, {{bibleverse, , Acts, 15 and {{bibleverse, , Acts, 21

The Jerusalem ''ekklēsia''

{{Main, Jerusalem in Christianity {{See also, Historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles The

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

's Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that an early Jewish Christian community{{refn, group=note, Hurtado: "She refrains from referring to this earliest stage of the "Jesus-community" as early "Christianity" and {{sic, comprised , hide=y, 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)." centered on Jerusalem, and that its leaders reportedly included

, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle. The Jerusalem community "held a central place among all the churches," as witnessed by Paul's writings.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, p=160 Reportedly legitimised by Jesus' appearance, Peter was the first leader of the Jerusalem ''ekklēsia''.{{sfn, Pagels, 2005, p=45{{sfn, Lüdemann, Özen, 1996, p=116 Peter was soon eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord,"{{sfn, Pagels, 2005, pp=45–46{{sfn, Lüdemann, Özen, 1996, pp=116–17 which may explain why the early texts contain scant information about Peter.{{sfn, Lüdemann, Özen, 1996, pp=116–17 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.{{sfn, Lüdemann, Özen, 1996, pp=116–17 According to Dunn, this was not an "usurpation of power," but a consequence of Peter's involvement in missionary activities. The

relatives of Jesus Relatives can refer to: * Kinship * ''Relatives'' (1985 film), a 1985 Australian movie * ''Relatives'' (2006 film), a 2006 Hungarian movie * "Relatives", a song by Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; ...

were generally accorded a special position within this community,{{sfn, Taylor, 1993, p=224 which also contributed to the ascendancy of James the Just in Jerusalem.{{sfn, Taylor, 1993, p=224 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). 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.{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, pp=246–47 According to Dunn, Paul's initial persecution of Christians probably was directed against these Greek-speaking "Hellenists" due to their anti-Temple attitude.{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=277 Within the early Jewish Christian community, this also set them apart from the "Hebrews" and their

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

observance.{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=277

Beliefs and practices

Creeds and salvation

{{Main, Salvation in Christianity The sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include

oral traditions Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...

(which included sayings attributed to Jesus, parables and teachings),{{sfn, Burkett, 2002 the Gospels, the New Testament epistles and possibly lost texts such as the

Q source The Q source (also called Q document(s), Q Gospel, or Q; from german: Quelle, meaning "source") is a hypothetical written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings (λόγια : ). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew ...

and the writings of Papias. The texts contain the earliest Christian creeds{{sfn, Cullmann, 1949, p={{pn, date=February 2022 expressing belief in the resurrected Jesus, such as {{bibleverse, 1, Corinthians, 15:3–41:{{sfn, Neufeld, 1964, p=47 {{Blockquote, 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, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,{{refn, group=note, name="third day", Se
''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 {{bibleref2, 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 {{bibleref2, 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?'" and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.{{cite web , website=oremus Bible Browser , url=http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1+Corinthians+15:3%E2%80%9315:41&version=nrsv , title=1 Corinthians ''15:3–15:41'' The creed has been dated by some scholars as originating within the Jerusalem apostolic community no later than the 40s,{{sfn, O'Collins, 1978, p=112{{sfn, Hunter, 1973, p=100 and by some to less than a decade after Jesus' death,{{sfn, Pannenberg, 1968, p=90{{sfn, Cullmann, 1966, p=66 while others date it to about 56. Other early creeds include

1 John 4 The First Epistle of John is the first of the Johannine epistles of the New Testament, and the fourth of the catholic epistles. There is no scholarly consensus as to the authorship of the Johannine works. The author of the First Epistle is term ...

({{bibleverse, 1, John, 4:2), 2 Timothy 2 ({{bibleverse, 2, Timothy, 2:8) Romans 1 ({{bibleverse, , Romans, 1:3–4){{sfn, Pannenberg, 1968, pp=118, 283, 367 and

1 Timothy 3 1 Timothy 3 is the third chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author was traditionally identified as Paul the Apostle since as early as AD 180,Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible P ...

({{bibleverse, 1, Timothy, 3:16).

Christology

{{Main, Christology Two fundamentally different Christologies developed in the early Church, namely a "low" or adoptionist Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation Christology."{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, p=125 The chronology of the development of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within contemporary scholarship.{{sfn, Loke, 2017{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014{{sfn, Talbert, 2011, pp=3–6Larry Hurtado
''The Origin of “Divine Christology”?''
/ref> The "low Christology" or "adoptionist Christology" is the belief "that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead,"{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, pp=120, 122 thereby raising him to "divine status."{{cite web, last1=Ehrman, first1=Bart D., author-link1=Bart D. Ehrman, title=Incarnation Christology, Angels, and Paul , url=https://ehrmanblog.org/incarnation-christology-angels-and-paul-for-members/, website=The Bart Ehrman Blog, access-date=May 2, 2018, date=February 14, 2013 According to the "evolutionary model"{{sfn, Netland, 2001, p=175 c.q. "evolutionary theories,"{{sfn, Loke, 2017, p=3 the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time,{{sfn, Mack, 1995, p={{pn, date=February 2022 {{sfn, Ehrman, 2003Bart Ehrman, ''How Jesus became God'', Course Guide as witnessed in the Gospels,{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014 with the earliest Christians believing that Jesus was a human who was exalted, c.q. adopted as God's Son,{{sfn, Loke, 2017, pp=3–4{{sfn, Talbert, 2011, p=3 when he was resurrected. 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. This evolutionary model was very influential, and the "low Christology" has long been regarded as the oldest Christology.{{sfn, Bird, 2017, pp=ix, xi{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, p=132{{refn, group=note, 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."{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, p=132
* 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.Bart Ehrman (6 Feb. 2013)
''The Earliest Christology''
/ref> 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,"{{sfn, Ehrman, 2014, p=122 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.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, p=650 The Pauline letters, which are the earliest Christian writings, already show "a well-developed pattern of Christian devotion ..already conventionalized and apparently uncontroversial."{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, p=155 Some Christians began to worship Jesus as a Lord.{{sfn, Dunn, 2005{{explain, date=February 2020

Eschatological expectations

{{Main, Jewish eschatology, Christian eschatology, 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.{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018Bart Ehrmann (June 4, 2016)
''Were Jesus’ Followers Crazy? Was He?''
/ref> 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

, heralding the expected endtime.{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018 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, despite the churches' continuing to use the major creeds' statements of belief in a coming resurrection day and world to come.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced

Angels and Devils

Coming from a Jewish background, early Christians believed in

angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...

(derived from the Greek word for "messengers").{{Cite book , last=Hitchcock , first=James , url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/796754060 , title=History of the Catholic Church : from the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium , date=2012 , publisher=Ignatius Press , isbn=978-1-58617-664-8 , pages=23 , oclc=796754060 Specifically, early Christians wrote in the

New Testament books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

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." Early Christians also believed that protecting angels—assigned to each nation and even to each individual—would herald the

, lead the saints into

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

, and cast the damned into Hell." 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."

Practices

The Book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer, Jewish

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

, a set of scriptural readings adapted from synagogue practice, and use of

sacred music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

in hymns and prayer. Other passages in the New Testament gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

,{{cite web, url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=222&letter=B&search=Baptism, title=Baptism , website=jewishencyclopedia.com fasting, reverence for the Torah, and observance of Jewish holy days.{{sfn, White, 2004, p=127{{sfn, Ehrman, 2005, p=187

Baptism

{{main, 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.

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.{{refn, group=note, Romans 6:3–4; Colossians 2:12

Communal meals and Eucharist

{{Main, Agape feast, Eucharist Early Christian rituals included communal meals.{{cite book, last=Coveney, first=John, title=Food, Morals and Meaning: The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating, date=2006, publisher=Routledge, language=en, isbn=978-1134184484, page=74, quote=For the early Christians, the ''agape'' signified the importance of fellowship. It was a ritual to celebrate the joy of eating, pleasure and company.{{cite book, last=Burns , first=Jim, title=Uncommon Youth Parties, date=2012, publisher=Gospel Light Publications, language=en, isbn=978-0830762132, page=37, quote=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. The

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

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.{{cite book, last1=Walls, first1=Jerry L., last2=Collins, first2=Kenneth J., title=Roman but Not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation, date=2010, publisher= Baker Academic, language=en, isbn=978-1493411740, page=169, quote=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 nd aprosaic communal supper."{{cite book, last=Davies, first=Horton, title=Bread of Life and Cup of Joy: Newer Ecumenical Perspectives on the Eucharist, date=1999, publisher= Wipf & Stock Publishers, isbn=978-1579102098, page=18 , quote=Agape (love feast), which ultimately became separate from the Eucharist...{{cite book, last=Daughrity, first=Dyron, title=Roots: Uncovering Why We Do What We Do in Church , date=2016 , publisher=ACU Press, language=en, isbn=978-0891126010, page=77, quote=Around AD 250 the lovefeast and Eucharist seem to separate, leaving the Eucharist to develop outside the context of a shared meal. Thus, in modern times the Lovefeast refers to a Christian ritual meal distinct from the Lord's Supper.{{cite dictionary , place=Oxford , title=Dictionary of the Christian Church , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=2005 , isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 , entry=agape

Liturgy

During the first three centuries of Christianity, the

Liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

ritual was rooted in the Jewish Passover,

Siddur A siddur ( he, סִדּוּר ; plural siddurim ) is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books are ''tefillot'' () among Sephardi Jews, '' ...

Seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...

, and synagogue services, including the singing of

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...

s (especially the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

) and reading from the

scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

.{{cite web, url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=475&letter=L&search=Liturgy#1418, title=Liturgy , website=jewishencyclopedia.com Most early Christians did not own a copy of the works (some of which were still being written) that later became the

Christian Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

or other church works accepted by some but not canonized, such as the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, or other works today called

. Similar to Judaism, much of the original church

services functioned as a means of learning these scriptures, which initially centered around the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

and the Targums.{{cite book , editor1-last=Salvesen , editor1-first=Alison G , editor2-last=Law , editor2-first=Timothy Michael , title=The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint , date=2021 , publisher=Oxford University Press , location=Oxford , isbn=978-0199665716 , page=22 At first, Christians continued to worship alongside Jewish believers, but within twenty years of Jesus' death, Sunday (the

Lord's Day The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed ...

) was being regarded as the primary day of worship.{{sfn, Davidson, 2005, p=115

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.{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=297{{refn, group=note, name="proselyte
Catholic Encyclopedia: Proselyte
"The English term "proselyte" occurs only in the New Testament where it signifies a convert to the Jewish religion ({{bibleverse, , Matthew, 23:15, NAB; {{bibleverse, , Acts, 2:11, NAB; {{bibleverse-nb, , Acts, 6:5, NAB; etc.), though the same Greek word is commonly used in the

to designate a foreigner living in

. 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."

Growth of early Christianity

{{See also, Great Commission, Early centers of Christianity

Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...

ary activity spread "the Way" and slowly created early centers of Christianity with Gentile adherents in the predominantly

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire, and then throughout the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

world and even beyond the

.{{sfn, Vidmar, 2005, pp=19–20{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, p=18{{sfn, Franzen, 1988, p=29{{refn, group=note, 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 ee_Greek_colonies_for_the_background.html" ;"title="Greek_colonies.html" ;"title="ee Greek colonies">ee Greek colonies for the background">Greek_colonies.html" ;"title="ee Greek colonies">ee 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."{{cite web, url=http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-orthodox-history.asp, title=Greek Orthodoxy – From Apostolic Times to the Present Day, work=ellopos.net Early Christian beliefs were proclaimed in ''kerygma'' (preaching), some of which are preserved in

scripture. The early Gospel message spread orally, probably originally in

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

,{{sfn, Ehrman, 2012, pp=87–90 but almost immediately also in

. A process of

cognitive dissonance In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...

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.Bart Ehrmann (June 4, 2016)
''Were Jesus’ Followers Crazy? Was He?''
/ref> 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.{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018 Apostles and preachers traveled to

Jewish communities Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the ...

around the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, and initially attracted Jewish converts.{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, p=18 Within 10 years of the death of Jesus, apostles had attracted enthusiasts for "the Way" from

to Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

and Rome.{{sfn, Duffy, 2015, p=3{{sfn, Vidmar, 2005, pp=19–20{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, p=18 Over 40 churches were established by 100,Hitchcock, ''Geography of Religion'' (2004), p. 281{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, p=18 most in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, such as the

seven churches of Asia The Seven Churches of Revelation, also known as the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse and the Seven Churches of Asia, are seven major Churches of Early Christianity, as mentioned in the New Testament Book of Revelation. All of them are located in ...

, and some in

Greece in the Roman era Greece in the Roman era describes the Roman conquest of Greece, as well as the period of Greek history when Greece was dominated first by the Roman Republic and then by the Roman Empire. The Roman era of Greek history began with the Corinthian ...

and Roman Italy.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced 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.{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018 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."{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=297 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.{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=302 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'."{{sfn, Dunn, 2009, p=308 Christian groups and congregations first organized themselves loosely. In

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

's time{{when, date=February 2020 there were no precisely delineated territorial jurisdictions for bishops, elders, and

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

s. Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.{{refn, group=note, 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. {{See also, Apostolic see, Seven deacons

Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles

{{Main, Paul the Apostle

Conversion

{{Main, Conversion of Paul Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author.{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, loc="Paul" 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 Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...

among the Gentiles, calling himself "Apostle to the Gentiles." Paul was in contact with the early Christian community in

, led by James the Just.{{sfn, Mack, 1997, p={{pn, date=February 2022 According to Mack, he may have been converted to another early strand of Christianity, with a High Christology.{{sfn, Mack, 1997, p=109 Fragments of their beliefs in an exalted and deified Jesus, what Mack called the "Christ cult," can be found in the writings of Paul.{{sfn, Mack, 1997, p={{pn, date=February 2022 {{refn, group=note, 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." 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.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=156–157 Hurtado further notes that " is widely accepted that the tradition that Paul recites in 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 must go back to the Jerusalem Church."{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, p=168

Inclusion of Gentiles

Broad overview of geography relevant to paul of tarsus

{{Main, Paul the Apostle and Judaism, New Perspective on Paul, Pauline Christianity {{See also, Circumcision in the Bible Paul was responsible for bringing Christianity to Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica.{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, pp=1243–1245{{better source needed, date=February 2020 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., {{bibleref2, 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." 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.{{sfn, Stendahl, 1963{{sfn, Dunn, 1982, p=n.49{{sfn, Finlan, 2004, p=2Stephen Westerholm (2015)
''The New Perspective on Paul in Review''
Direction, Spring 2015 · Vol. 44 No. 1 · pp. 4–15 The inclusion of Gentiles into early Christianity posed a problem for the Jewish identity of some of the early Christians:{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, pp=19–21{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=162–165{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, pp=174–175 the new Gentile converts were not required to be circumcised nor to observe the Mosaic Law.{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, p=19 Circumcision in particular was regarded as a token of the membership of the

Abrahamic covenant According to the Old Testament, the covenant of the pieces or covenant between the parts () is an important event in Jewish history. In this seminal event God revealed himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him (in the site known nowadays a ...

, and the most traditionalist faction of Jewish Christians (i.e., converted Pharisees) insisted that Gentile converts had to be circumcised as well.{{Bibleref2c, Acts, 15:1{{sfn, Bokenkotter, 2004, pp=19–21{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=162–165{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, pp=174–75{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, pp=1243–1245 By contrast, the rite of circumcision was considered execrable and repulsive during the period of

Hellenization Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in the H ...

of the Eastern Mediterranean,{{cite journal , last=Hodges , first=Frederick M. , year=2001 , title=The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme , journal=

Bulletin of the History of Medicine The ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1933. It is an official publication of the American Association for the History of Medicine and of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History ...

, publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press , volume=75 , issue=Fall 2001 , pages=375–405 , url=http://www.cirp.org/library/history/hodges2/ , format=PDF , pmid=11568485 , doi=10.1353/bhm.2001.0119 , s2cid=29580193 , access-date=3 January 2020 {{cite journal , last1=Rubin , first1=Jody P. , title=Celsus' Decircumcision Operation: Medical and Historical Implications , journal=

Urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

, publisher=

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...

, volume=16 , issue=1 , pages=121–24 , date=July 1980 , url=http://www.cirp.org/library/restoration/rubin/ , pmid=6994325 , doi=10.1016/0090-4295(80)90354-4 , access-date=3 January 2020{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018, pp=10–11{{cite web , url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4391-circumcision#anchor4 , title=Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature , last1=Kohler , first1=Kaufmann , last2=Hirsch , first2=Emil G. , last3=Jacobs , first3=Joseph , last4=Friedenwald , first4=Aaron , last5=Broydé , first5=Isaac , author1-link=Kaufmann Kohler , author2-link=Emil G. Hirsch , author3-link=Joseph Jacobs , author5-link=Isaac Broydé , publisher=

Kopelman Foundation Joshua Kopelman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. Kopelman is best known as a founder of First Round Capital, a pioneering seed-stage venture fund that led the seed round in Uber. Josh has consistently been ran ...

, website= Jewish Encyclopedia , access-date=3 January 2020 , quote=Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena hich_involved_nudity.html" ;"title="nudity.html" ;"title="hich involved nudity">hich involved nudity">nudity.html" ;"title="hich involved nudity">hich 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 Antiochus is a Greek male first name, which was a dynastic name for rulers of the Seleucid Empire and the Kingdom of Commagene. In Jewish historical memory, connected with the Maccabean Revolt and the holiday of Hanukkah, "Antiochus" refers spec ...

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. and was especially adversed in

Classical civilization Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

both from

ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

and

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, which instead valued the

foreskin In male human anatomy, the foreskin, also known as the prepuce, is the double-layered fold of skin, mucosal and muscular tissue at the distal end of the human penis that covers the glans and the urinary meatus. The foreskin is attached to the ...

positively.{{sfn, Fredriksen, 2018, pp=10–11 Paul objected strongly to the insistence on keeping all of the Jewish commandments,{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, pp=1243–1245 considering it a great threat to his doctrine of salvation through faith in Christ.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=162–165{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, pp=174–76 According to

Paula Fredriksen Paula Fredriksen (born January 6, 1951, Kingston, Rhode Island) is an American historian and scholar of early Christianity. She held the position of William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of Scripture at Boston University from 1990 to 2010. Now emerit ...

, 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., {{bibleverse, Zechariah, 8:20–23, niv), not as proselytes to Israel." For Paul, Gentile male circumcision was therefore an affront to God's intentions. 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 ({{bibleverse, Romans, 11:25, niv)." For Paul, Jesus' death and resurrection solved the problem of the exclusion of Gentiles from God's covenant,{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, pp=1244–1245{{sfn, Mack, 1997, pp=91–92 since the faithful are redeemed by participation in Jesus' death and rising. In the Jerusalem ''ekklēsia'', from which Paul received the creed of {{bibleverse, 1 Corinthians, 15:1–7, NRSV, 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."{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, p=131 According to

E. P. Sanders Ed Parish Sanders (April 18, 1937 – November 21, 2022) was an American New Testament scholar and a principal proponent of the "New Perspective on Paul". He was a major scholar in the scholarship on the historical Jesus and contributed to the v ...

, 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."E.P. Sanders
''Saint Paul, the Apostle''
Encyclopedia Britannica 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." Paul insists that salvation is received by the grace of God; according to Sanders, this insistence is in line with

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.Jordan Cooper
''E.P. Sanders and the New Perspective on Paul''
/ref> These divergent interpretations have a prominent place in both Paul's writings and in Acts. According to {{bibleverse, Galatians, 2:1–10, niv 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{{clarify, date=February 2020 with theirs, an event known as the Council of Jerusalem. According to Paul, in his letter to the Galatians,{{refn, group=note, 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 The Judaizers were a faction of the Jewish Christians, both of Jewish and non-Jewish origins, who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. They tried to enforce Jewish circumcision upon the Gentile c ...

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 {{bibleref, Galatians, 3, NRSV.{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, pp=174–75 they agreed that his mission was to be among the Gentiles. According to Acts, Paul made an argument that circumcision was not a necessary practice, vocally supported by Peter.{{sfn, McGrath, 2006, p=174McManners, ''Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity'' (2002), p. 37{{refn, group=note, According to 19th-century German theologian F. C. Baur early Christianity was dominated by the conflict between

who was law-observant, and

who advocated partial or even complete freedom from the Law.{{citation needed, date=March 2019 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 Marcion of Sinope (; grc, Μαρκίων ; ) was an early Christian theologian in early Christianity. Marcion preached that God had sent Jesus Christ who was an entirely new, alien god, distinct from the vengeful God of Israel who had created ...

and his followers stated that the polemic against false apostles in

Galatians Galatians may refer to: * Galatians (people) * Epistle to the Galatians, a book of the New Testament * English translation of the Greek ''Galatai'' or Latin ''Galatae'', ''Galli,'' or ''Gallograeci'' to refer to either the Galatians or the Gauls in ...

was aimed at Peter, James and

, the "Pillars of the Church", as well as the "false" gospels circulating through the churches at the time.

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...

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.{{sfn, Keck, 1988, p={{pn, date=February 2022 {{sfn, Pelikan, 1975, p=113 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,{{sfn, Cross, Livingstone, 2005, p=1244 as exemplified by the

. 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.{{sfn, Burkett, 2002, p=263

Persecutions

{{See also, Persecution of Christians in the New Testament , 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.{{cite book, last=Moss, first=Candida, author-link=Candida Moss, title=The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom, date=2013, publisher=HarperCollins, isbn=978-0-06-210452-6, page=129 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.{{sfn, Croix, 2006, pp=105–52 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. The first persecution of Christians organised by the Roman government took place under the emperor

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...

in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome.{{sfn, Croix, 2006, pp=105–52 There was no empire-wide persecution of Christians until the reign of Decius in the third century.Martin, D. 2010
"The 'Afterlife' of the New Testament and Postmodern Interpretation"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608093412/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Bh_SAEU90 , date=2016-06-08
lecture transcript
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812141627/https://cosmolearning.org/video-lectures/the-afterlife-of-the-new-testament-and-postmodern-interpretation-6819/ , date=2016-08-12 ). Yale University. The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman emperor Galerius, officially ending the Diocletianic persecution of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

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.{{cite web , title=Persecution in the Early Church , url=http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/history/persecution.htm , publisher=Religion Facts , access-date=2014-03-26 , archive-date=2014-03-25 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325154903/http://religionfacts.com/christianity/history/persecution.htm , url-status=dead

Development of the Biblical canon

{{Main, Development of the Christian biblical canon In an ancient culture before the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

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 Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

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 The Liturgy of Saint James is a form of Christian liturgy used by some Eastern Christians of the Byzantine rite and West Syriac Rite. It is developed from an ancient Egyptian form of the Basilean anaphoric family, and is influenced by the traditi ...

'' is traditionally associated with James the Just. Books not accepted by Pauline Christianity are termed biblical apocrypha, though the exact list varies from denomination to denomination.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced

Old Testament

{{Main, Development of the Old Testament canon The Biblical canon began with the Jewish

Scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

. The Koine Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, later known as the ''

''{{sfn, McDonald, Sanders, 2002, p=72 and often written as "LXX," was the dominant translation from very early on.{{cite web, url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/swete/greekot/Page_112.html , title=Swete's Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p. 112 , publisher=Ccel.org , access-date=2019-05-20 Perhaps the earliest Christian canon is the ''Bryennios List'', dated to around 100, which was found by

Philotheos Bryennios Philotheos Bryennios ( el, Φιλόθεος Βρυέννιος; 7 April 1833 – November 18, 1917) was a Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia, and the discoverer in 1873 of an important manuscript with copies of early Church documents. Life ...

in the Codex Hierosolymitanus. The list is written in Koine Greek,

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. In the 2nd century,

Melito of Sardis Melito of Sardis ( el, Μελίτων Σάρδεων ''Melítōn Sárdeōn''; died ) was the bishop of Sardis near Smyrna in western Anatolia, and a great authority in early Christianity. Melito held a foremost place in terms of bishops in Asia ...

called the Jewish scriptures the " Old Testament" and also specified an early

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced

Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...

(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.

New Testament

{{Books of the New Testament {{Main, Development of the New Testament canon The

(often compared to the

New Covenant The New Covenant (Hebrew '; Greek ''diatheke kaine'') is a biblical interpretation which was originally derived from a phrase which is contained in the Book of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:31-34), in the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament of the ...

) is the second major division of the Christian Bible. The books of the canon of the New Testament include the

Canonical Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

, letters of the Apostles, and

Revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...

. The original texts were written by various authors, most likely sometime between c. AD 45 and 120 AD,{{cite book , author=Bart D. Ehrman , title=The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings , url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xpoNAQAAMAAJ , year=1997 , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=978-0-19-508481-8 , page=8 , quote=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. in Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, though there is also a minority argument for

Aramaic primacy The Aramaic original New Testament theory is the belief that the Christian New Testament was originally written in Aramaic. There are six versions of the New Testament in Aramaic languages: #the ''Vetus Syra'' (Old Syriac), a translation fr ...

. They were not defined as "canon" until the 4th century. Some were disputed, known as the Antilegomena.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced 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 The 1st century was the century spanning AD 1 ( I) through AD 100 ( C) according to the Julian calendar. It is often written as the or to distinguish it from the 1st century BC (or BCE) which preceded it. The 1st century is considered part of t ...

.{{refn, group=note, Three forms are postulated, from {{Citation , title = The Canon Debate , chapter = 18 , page = 300, note 21 , first = Harry Y , last = Gamble , quote = (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.

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), Durant, Will. ''Caesar and Christ''. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972

(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 A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...

are usually placed among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, although their authors are unknown.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced 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, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced In his letter 1 Clement, Clement of Rome calls on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order. Some see his epistle as an assertion of Rome's authority over the church in Corinth and, by implication, the beginnings of papal supremacy.{{cite web, url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04012c.htm, title=Pope St. Clement I, website=newadvent.org Clement refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church in his letter as bishops and

presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning a ...

s interchangeably, and likewise states that the bishops are to lead God's flock by virtue of the chief shepherd (presbyter), Jesus Christ.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced

advocated the authority of the apostolic episcopacy (bishops). The Didache (late 1st century){{sfn, Draper, 2006, p=178 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."{{sfn, Milavec, 2003, p=vii

Split of early Christianity and Judaism

Split with Judaism

{{Main, Split of early Christianity and Judaism {{See also, Schisms among the Jews, 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.{{sfn, Davidson, 2005, p=146 Certain events are perceived as pivotal in the growing rift between Christianity and Judaism.{{Citation needed, date=August 2020, reason=Unsourced 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.{{sfn, Franzen, 1988, p=25 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.{{sfn, Wylen, 1995, p=190{{sfn, Berard, 2006, pp=112–113{{sfn, W1992, pp=164–165{{quote needed, date=January 2020 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.{{sfn, Wylen, 1995, p=190{{sfn, W1992, pp=164–165 During the late 1st century, Judaism was a legal religion with the protection of

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

, 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

. This opened the way to Christians being persecuted for disobedience to the emperor, as they refused to worship the state pantheon.{{sfn, Wylen, 1995, pp=190–192{{sfn, Dunn, 1999, pp=33–34{{sfn, BoatwGargola, Talbert, 2004, p=426 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.{{sfn, Wylen, 1995, pp=190–192{{sfn, Dunn, 1999, pp=33–34

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.{{sfn, Dauphin, 1993, pp=235, 240–242 The

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".{{sfn, Tabor, 1998{{sfn, Esler, 2004, pp=157–159 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. 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.{{sfn, Dauphin, 1993, pp=235, 240–242{{refn, group=note, 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

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,

, 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 In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

and not the "Christ," others seem to have believed in him as the Messiah, but did not draw the

christological In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Di ...

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.{{r, group=web, "JVL"

Timeline

{{hidden, 1st century timeline, {{disputed, talkpage=Talk:Christianity in the 1st century#Bethlehem, date=March 2019 ''Earliest dates must all be considered approximate'' *6 BC Judean King Herod Archelaus deposed by the Roman Emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

; Samaria,

, and Idumea annexed as

Iudaea Province Judaea ( la, Iudaea ; grc, Ἰουδαία, translit=Ioudaíā ) was a Roman province which incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea from 6 CE, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of ...

under direct Roman administration, capital at Caesarea,

Quirinius Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (c. 51 BC – AD 21), also translated as Cyrenius, was a Roman aristocrat. After the banishment of the ethnarch Herod Archelaus from the tetrarchy of Judea in AD 6, Quirinius was appointed legate governor of Syria, to ...

became Legate (Governor) of Syria, conducted

Census of Quirinius The Census of Quirinius is generally believed to be a census of Judea taken by Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, governor of Roman Syria, upon the imposition of direct Roman rule in 6 CE. The Gospel of Luke uses it to date the birth of Jesus, wh ...

, opposed by the

JA18
{{bibleverse, , Luke, 2:1–3, {{bibleverse, , Acts, 5:37). *c. 4 BC Jesus is born in

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

(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 *9 Pharisee leader Hillel the Elder dies, temporary rise of

Shammai Shammai (50 BCE – 30 CE, he, שַׁמַּאי, ''Šammaʾy'') was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah. Shammai was the most eminent contemporary of Hill ...

*14–37 Rule of the Roman Emperor Tiberius *18–36

Caiaphas Joseph ben Caiaphas (; c. 14 BC – c. 46 AD), known simply as Caiaphas (; grc-x-koine, Καϊάφας, Kaïáphas ) in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest who, according to the gospels, organized a plot to kill Jesus. He famous ...

, appointed High Priest of

Herod's Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...

by Prefect Valerius Gratus, deposed by Syrian Legate

Lucius Vitellius Lucius Vitellius (before 7 BC – AD 51) was the youngest of four sons of procurator Publius Vitellius and the only one who did not die through politics. He was consul three times, which was unusual during the Roman empire for someone who was ...

*19

, Jewish

Proselytes The biblical term "proselyte" is an anglicization of the Koine Greek term προσήλυτος (''proselytos''), as used in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the ...

Astrologers Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, expelled from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

{{cite web, url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=352&letter=R&search=Sejanus#1006, title=Rome , website=jewishencyclopedia.com *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

began his ministry in the "15th year of Tiberius" ({{bibleverse, Luke, , 3:1–2) ({{bibleverse, , Matt, 3:1–2) *30 – Great Commission of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations;{{sfn, Barnett, 2002, p=23 *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 The Ethiopian eunuch ( gez, ኢትዮጵያዊው ጃንደረባ) is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible; the story of his conversion to Christianity is recounted in Acts 8. Biblical narrative Philip the Evangelist was told by an angel ...

who was already a

God-fearer God-fearers ( grc-x-koine, φοβούμενοι τὸν Θεόν, ''phoboumenoi ton Theon'') or God-worshippers ( grc-x-koine, θεοσεβεῖς, ''Theosebeis'') were a numerous class of Gentile sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism that existed ...

.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=15, 38-39, 41-42 *39 –

preaches to a Gentile audience in the house of the Roman soldier Cornelius, who was already a

.{{sfn, Hurtado, 2005, pp=15, 38-39, 41-42 *37–41 Crisis under Caligula *42 – Mark goes to

{{sfn, Kane, 1982, p=10 *44? James the Great: According to ancient local tradition, on 2 January of the year AD 40, the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

appeared to James on a Pilar on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the Gospel in

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hisp ...

(modern-day

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

). Following that apparition, James returned to Judea, where he was beheaded by King

Herod Agrippa I Herod Agrippa (Roman name Marcus Julius Agrippa; born around 11–10 BC – in Caesarea), also known as Herod II or Agrippa I (), was a grandson of Herod the Great and King of Judea from AD 41 to 44. He was the father of Herod Agrippa II, the ...

in the year 44 during a Passover (Nisan 15) ({{bibleverse, Acts, , 12:1–3). *44 Death of

JA19
8.2, {{bibleverse, , Acts, 12:20–23) *44–46?

Theudas Theudas (; ; died c. 46 AD) was a Jewish rebel of the 1st century AD. Scholars attribute to his name a Greek etymology possibly meant as "flowing with water", although with a Hellenist-styled ending. At some point between 44 and 46 AD, Theudas le ...

beheaded by

Procurator Procurator (with procuracy or procuratorate referring to the office itself) may refer to: * Procurator, one engaged in procuration, the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency * ''Procurator'' (Ancient Rome), the title o ...

Cuspius Fadus Cuspius Fadus was an Ancient Roman '' eques'' and the 1st procurator of Iudaea Province in 44–46. History After the death of King Marcus Julius Agrippa, in 44, he was appointed procurator by Claudius. During his administration, peace was re ...

for saying he would part the Jordan river (like Moses and the Red Sea or

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

and the Jordan)
JA20
5.1, {{bibleverse, , Acts, 5:36–37 places it before the

) *45–49? Mission of

Barnabas Barnabas (; arc, ܒܪܢܒܐ; grc, Βαρνάβας), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Name ...

and Paul ({{bibleverse, , 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 India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

by Thomas. * 47 –

(formerly known as Saul of Tarsus) begins his first missionary journey to

(modern-day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

).{{sfn, Walker, 1959, p=26 *48–100

Herod Agrippa II Herod Agrippa II (; AD 27/28 – or 100), officially named Marcus Julius Agrippa and sometimes shortened to Agrippa, was the last ruler from the Herodian dynasty, reigning over territories outside of Judea as a Roman client. Agrippa II fled ...

appointed King of the Jews by Claudius, seventh and last of the

Herodians The Herodians (''Herodiani'') were a sect of Hellenistic Jews mentioned in the New Testament on two occasions — first in Galilee, and later in Jerusalem — being hostile to Jesus (, ; ; cf. also , , ). In each of these cases their name is co ...

*50 Passover riot in

, 20–30,000 killed (JA20.5.3
JW2
12.1) *50 – Council of Jerusalem on admitting Gentiles into the Church{{sfn, Walker, 1959, p=26 *50? Council of Jerusalem and the "Apostolic Decree", {{bibleverse, Acts, , 15:1–35, same as {{bibleverse, , Galatians, 2:1–10?, which is followed by the "Incident at Antioch", at which Paul publicly accused Peter of " Judaizing" towards the Gentiles ({{bibleverse-nb, , Galatians, 2:11–21){{cite journal , last=Dunn , first=James D. G. , author-link=James Dunn (theologian) , date=Autumn 1993 , title=Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians , editor-last=Reinhartz , editor-first=Adele , editor-link=Adele Reinhartz , journal=

Journal of Biblical Literature The ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' (''JBL'') is one of three academic journals published by the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). First published in 1881, ''JBL'' is the flagship journal of the field. ''JBL'' is published quarterly and incl ...

, publisher= Society of Biblical Literature , volume=112 , issue=3 , pages=459–477 , doi=10.2307/3267745 , issn=0021-9231 , jstor=3267745 *51 – Paul begins his second missionary journey, a trip that takes him through

(modern-day

) and on into

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

{{sfn, Walker, 1959, p=27 *50–53? Paul's second mission ({{bibleverse, , Acts, 15:36–18:22), split with Barnabas, preaches the Gospel in Galatia, Phrygia, Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Corinth, "he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken", then returns to Antioch;

1 Thessalonians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle, and is addressed to the church in Thessalonica, in modern-day Greece. It is likely among th ...

written
Map2
*51–52 or 52–53 proconsulship of Gallio according to an inscription, only fixed date in chronology of Paul *52 – Thomas arrives in

and founds an early Christian church that subsequently split into the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Malankara Church (and its various descendants){{sfn, Neill, 1986, pp=44–45 *54 – Paul begins his third missionary journey{{cite web, title=Apostle Paul's Third Missionary Journey Map, website=biblestudy.org, url=http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/pauls-third-journey-map.html *53–57? Paul's third mission ({{bibleverse, , 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 Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί 'anti''"against" and νόμος 'nomos''"law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term ha ...

({{bibleverse-nb, Acts, , 21:21), he addressed a crowd in their language (most likely

);

, 1 Corinthians,

2 Corinthians The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author named Timothy, and is addressed to the church in Corinth and Christians in the ...

, Philippians written
Map3
*55? " Egyptian prophet" (allusion to Moses) and 30,000 unarmed Jews doing

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim'': ) is the founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah (or Pentateuch, corresponding to the first five books of the Bible), namely E ...

reenactment massacred by

Antonius Felix Antonius Felix (possibly Tiberius Claudius Antonius Felix, in Greek: ὁ Φῆλιξ; born circa 5–10) was the 4th Roman procurator of Judea Province in 52–60, in succession to Ventidius Cumanus. Life Felix was the younger brother of t ...

(JW2.13.5, JA20.8.6, {{bibleverse, 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 ({{bibleverse, Acts, , 23–26) *59? Paul shipwrecked on the island of Malta, there he was called a god ({{bibleverse, Acts, , 28:6) * 60 – Paul sent to

under Roman guard, evangelizes on Malta after shipwreck{{sfn, Walker, 1959, p=27 *60? Paul in Rome: greeted by many "brothers" (

NRSV The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches.Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

Prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

", with partial success, said the Gentiles would listen and spent two years proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching the "Lord Jesus Christ" ({{bibleverse, Acts, , 28:15–31);

Epistle to Philemon The Epistle to Philemon is one of the books of the Christian New Testament. It is a prison letter, co-authored by Paul the Apostle with Timothy, to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. It deals with the themes of forgiveness and recon ...

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 Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, so ...

, 2nd Bishop of Jerusalem, crucified under Trajan *64–68 after July 18 Great Fire of Rome,

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 Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

Wood, Roger, Jan Morris and Denis Wright. ''Persia''. Universe Books, 1970, p. 35. *66–73 First Jewish–Roman War: destruction of

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

community destroyed, site of Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 *68–107?

Ignatius Ignatius is a male given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name Religious * Ignatius of Antioch (35–108), saint and martyr, Apostolic Father, early Christian bishop * Ignatius of Constantinople (797–877), Cath ...

, third

Bishop of Antioch Patriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the bishop of Antioch (modern-day Antakya, Turkey). As the traditional "overseer" (ἐπίσκοπος, ''episkopos'', from which the word ''bishop'' is derived) of the first gentile Christian ...

, fed to the lions in the

Roman Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world to ...

, advocated the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

(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 The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

" (Smy 8:2). *69 – Andrew is crucified in Patras on the Peloponnese peninsula of

{{sfn, Herbermann, 1913, p=737 *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 Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins after the sabbath, with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bringing spices to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body. There the ...

*70?

Signs Gospel The Signs Gospel or the ''semeia'' source is a hypothetical gospel account of the life of Jesus Christ which some scholars have suggested could have been a primary source document for the Gospel of John. This theory has its basis in source critic ...

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 The Gospel of Peter ( grc, κατά Πέτρον ευαγγέλιον, kata Petron euangelion), or the Gospel according to Peter, is an ancient text concerning Jesus Christ, only partially known today. It is considered a non-canonical gospel and ...

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is an extra-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate ...

, Oxyrhynchus Gospels,

Egerton Gospel The Egerton Gospel (British Library Egerton Papyrus 2) refers to a collection of three papyrus fragments of a codex of a previously unknown gospel, found in Egypt and sold to the British Museum in 1934; the physical fragments are now dated to the ...

, Fayyum Fragment, Dialogue of the Saviour; Jewish Christian Gospels: Gospel of the Ebionites,

Gospel of the Hebrews The Gospel of the Hebrews ( grc, τὸ καθ' Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον), or Gospel according to the Hebrews, is a lost Jewish–Christian gospel. The text of the gospel is lost, with only fragments of it surviving as brief quot ...

Gospel of the Nazarenes The Gospel of the Nazarenes (also ''Nazareans'', ''Nazaraeans'', ''Nazoreans'', or ''Nazoraeans'') is the traditional but hypothetical name given by some scholars to distinguish some of the references to, or citations of, non-canonical Jewish-Chri ...

*76/79(?)–88 Pope Anacletus first Greek Pope, who succeeds Linus as ''Episcopus Romanus'' ("Bishop of Rome") * 80 – First Christians reported in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

(modern-day

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

){{sfn, Barnett, 2002, p=23 *80(+/−20)?

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

, theoretically based on Mark and Q, most popular in early Christianity *80(+/−20)?

, 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 Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

(disputed), Domitian applied the

Fiscus Iudaicus The or (Latin for "Jewish tax") was a Roman Empire#Taxation, tax imposed on History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Jews in the Roman Empire after the Siege of Jerusalem (70), destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in AD 70. Revenues were d ...

tax even to those who merely "lived like Jews"{{cite web, url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=183&letter=F&search=Fiscus%20Iudaicus, title=Fiscus Judaicus , website=jewishencyclopedia.com *90(+/−10)?

1 Peter The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. The author presents himself as Peter the Apostle. The ending of the letter includes a statement that implies that it was written from " Babylon", which is possibly a reference to Rome ...

*94 "

Testimonium Flavianum The extant manuscripts of the book ''Antiquities of the Jews'', written by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus around AD 93–94, contain two references to Jesus of Nazareth and one reference to John the Baptist. The first a ...

", disputed section of the ''

Jewish Antiquities ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ( la, Antiquitates Iudaicae; el, Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume Historiography, historiographical work, written in Greek language, Greek, by historian Josephus, F ...

'' by

, translated to Koine Greek *95(+/−30)? Gospel of John and

Epistles of John The Johannine epistles, the Epistles of John, or the Letters of John are three of the catholic epistles of the New Testament, thought to have been written between 85 and 100 AD. Most scholars agree that all three letters are written by the same a ...

*95(+/−10)?

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...

written, by John (son of Zebedee) and/or a disciple of his *100(+/−30)? Epistle of Barnabas (Apostolic Fathers) *100(+/−25)?

Epistle of James The Epistle of James). is a general epistle and one of the 21 epistles ( didactic letters) in the New Testament. James 1:1 identifies the author as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" who is writing to "the twelve tribes ...

*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 The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, to the Hebrews) is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. Most ...

written *100 – First Christians are reported in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, Mauretania Caesariensis (modern-day

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

), and the Anuradhapura Kingdom (modern-day Sri Lanka);{{sfn, Barnett, 2002, p=23 a missionary goes to Arbela, old sacred city of the Assyrians.{{sfn, Latourette, 1941, loc=vol. I, p. 103 , titlestyle=background-color:lavender;

Notes

{{Reflist, group=note, 2

References

{{Reflist, 30em

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London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, publisher=

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

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Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

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Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, publisher=

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

on behalf of the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

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Novum Testamentum ''Novum Testamentum'' is an academic journal covering various aspects of the New Testament. Biblical studies journals Publications established in 1956 Brill Publishers academic journals Quarterly journals English-language journals {{bible-journal ...

, location= Leiden , publisher= Brill Publishers , volume=56 , issue=4 , pages=373–391 , doi=10.1163/15685365-12341488 , eissn=1568-5365 , issn=0048-1009 , jstor=24735868 * {{Citation , last=Van Daalen , first=D. H. , title=The Real Resurrection , place=London , publisher=Collins , year=1972 * {{Citation , last =Vidmar , year =2005 , title =The Catholic Church Through the Ages * {{Citation , last=Walker , first=Williston , year=1959 , title=A History of the Christian Church{{fcn, date=February 2022 * {{Citation , last=Weiss , first=Johannes , title=Der erste Korintherbrief , edition=9th , place=Göttingen , publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , year=1910 * {{Citation , last=White , first=L. Michael , title=From Jesus to Christianity , publisher=HarperCollins , year=2004 , isbn=0-06-052655-6 * {{cite book , last=Wilken , first=Robert Louis , year=2013a , chapter=Beginning in Jerusalem , title=The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iW1-JImrwQUC&pg=PA6 , location= New Haven and

, publisher=

, pages=6–16 , isbn=978-0-300-11884-1 , jstor=j.ctt32bd7m , lccn=2012021755 , s2cid=160590164 * {{cite book , last=Wilken , first=Robert Louis , year=2013b , chapter=Divisions Within , title=The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iW1-JImrwQUC&pg=PA37 , location= New Haven and

, publisher=

, pages=37–46 , isbn=978-0-300-11884-1 , jstor=j.ctt32bd7m , lccn=2012021755 , s2cid=160590164 * {{Citation , last=Wilckens , first=Ulrich , title=Auferstehung , place=Stuttgart and Berlin , publisher=Kreuz Verlag , year=1970 * {{Citation , last=Wright , first=N.T. , title=The New Testament and the People of God , publisher=Fortress Press , year=1992 , isbn=0-8006-2681-8 * {{Citation , last=Wylen , first=Stephen M. , title=The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction , publisher=Paulist Press , year=1995 , isbn=0-8091-3610-4 {{Refend Web-sources {{Reflist, group=web, refs= E.P. Sanders, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan
''Jesus''
Encyclopedia Britannica {{cite web, last=Schochet, first=Jacob Immanuel , title=Moshiach ben Yossef, work=Tutorial, publisher=moshiach.com , url=http://www.moshiach.com/discover/tutorials/moshiach_ben_yossef.php, access-date=2 December 2012, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021220182918/http://www.moshiach.com/discover/tutorials/moshiach_ben_yossef.php, archive-date=20 December 2002, url-status=dead {{cite web , date =2008 , title=Christianity: Severance from Judaism , website = Jewish Virtual Library , publisher = AICE , url =https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/christianity-2 , access-date=17 December 2018 {{cite encyclopedia, last=Blidstein, first=Gerald J., year=2008 , title=Messiah , url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_13744.html , via=Jewish Virtual Library and , encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica , publisher=The Gale Group, access-date=2 December 2012 {{cite web, last=Flusser, first=David, title=Second Temple Period, url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_13744.html, work=Messiah, publisher=Encyclopaedia Judaica 2008 The Gale Group, access-date=2 December 2012 {{cite web, last=Telushkin, first=Joseph, title=The Messiah, url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/messiah.html, publisher=The Jewish Virtual Library Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author., access-date=2 December 2012 {{cite web , last =Shiffman , first =Lawrence H. , date =2018 , title =How Jewish Christians Became Christians , website =My Jewish Learning , url =https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-jewish-christians-became-christians/

External links

{{Wikiquote, 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
{{Christianity by century , period = Early Christianity , prev = Historical background of
the New Testament , years = First
century , followed = Christianity in
the ante-Nicene period {{Christian History, collapsed {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Christianity in the 1st century 01 01 Early Christianity and Judaism

Etymology

Origins

Jewish–Hellenistic background

Life and ministry of Jesus

Sources

Historical person

Ministry and eschatological expectations

Death and resurrection

Apostolic Age

Jewish Christianity

The Jerusalem ''ekklēsia''

Beliefs and practices

Creeds and salvation

Christology

Eschatological expectations

Angels and Devils

Practices

Baptism

Communal meals and Eucharist

Liturgy

Emerging church – mission to the Gentiles

Growth of early Christianity

Paul and the inclusion of Gentiles

Conversion

Inclusion of Gentiles

Persecutions

Development of the Biblical canon

Old Testament

New Testament

Early orthodox writings – Apostolic Fathers

Split of early Christianity and Judaism

Split with Judaism

Later rejection of Jewish Christianity

Timeline

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

Books

Book series

External links