EARLY CHRISTIAN HISTORY

AS SEEN BY RELIGIOUS LIBERALS & HISTORIANS

First century CE:

During the first six decades of the first century CE, Judaism was composed of about two dozen competing factions: Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots, followers of John the Baptist, followers of Yeshua of Nazareth (Iesous in Greek, Iesus in Latin, Jesus in English), followers of other charismatic leaders, etc. All followed common Jewish practices, such as observing dietary restrictions, worshiping at the Jerusalem temple, sacrificing animals, observing weekly sabbaths, etc.

Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ) conducted a short ministry (one year, in the Galillee according to the synoptic gospels; perhaps three years, mainly in Judea according to the Gospel of John). His teachings closely matched those of Beit Hillel (the House of Hillel). Hillel was a great Jewish rabbi who lived in the second half of the 1st century BCE one or two generations before Yeshua's birth.

Yeshua was charged with what would be called "aggravated assault" under today's law, for his attack on merchants in the Temple. This was apparently considered treason or insurrection by the occupying Roman forces. (Crucifixion, when used on a non-slave such as Jesus, was restricted to these two crimes.) He was executed by a detail of Roman soldiers, perhaps during the springtime, sometime in the late 20's or early 30's CE. Most historians date the event in April of either the year 30 or 33. According to the Gospels, his disciples initially returned to their homeland of Galilee immediately following their leader's death.

Four decades later, in 70 CE the Roman Army attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the central focus of Jewish life: the temple. This was an absolutely devastating blow at the time; Jewish life was totally disrupted. Jews were no longer able to worship at the Temple. Out of this disaster emerged two main movements: rabbinical Judaism centered in local synagogues, and the Christian movement.

There was great diversity within the Christian movement during the first few decades after Jesus' execution. Some of Jesus' followers (and those who never met Jesus but who were inspired by his teachings) settled in Jerusalem. But others spread across the known world, teaching very different messages. "Even in the same geographical area and sometimes in the same cities, different Christian teachers taught quite different gospels and had quite different views of who Jesus was and what he did."

During the latter part of the first century CE, the three largest groups within the primitive Christian movement:

Jewish Christian movement: Jesus disciples appear to have regrouped later in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, one of Jesus' brothers. The group viewed themselves as a reform movement within Judaism; they viewed Jesus as a prophet and rabbi, but not as a deity. They organized a synagogue, worshiped and brought animals for ritual sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple. They observed the Jewish holy days, practiced circumcision of their male children, followed Kosher dietary laws, and practiced the teachings of Jesus as they interpreted them to be. They are frequently referred to today as the Jewish Christians. 2 (These should not be confused with followers of modern-day Messianic Judaism who generally follow an Evangelical Christian theology and who are sometimes also called Jewish Christians.) Many were killed, enslaved, or scattered during the Roman attack on Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Pauline Christianity: Saul, a Jew from Tarsus, originally prosecuted the Jewish Christians on behalf of the priests at the Jerusalem Temple . He experienced a powerful religious conversion, after which, he departed for places unknown for three years. Later, having changed his name to Paul, he became the single most active Christian missionary, from about 36 CE until his execution by the Romans in the mid-60's. He created a new Christian movement, containing elements from many forms of Paganism: Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, etc. He included the concept of Jesus as "The Word", as a god-man -- the savior of humanity, the product of a virgin birth who was executed, resurrected and ascended into heaven. There are dozens of points of similarity between the life of Jesus and that of Krishna, the god-man and second member of the Hindu trinity. Many of the events which the Bible describes happened to Jesus appear to have been copied from the legends of Krishna and of other god-men from Egypt to India. Paul abandoned most of the Laws of Moses and rejected many of the Jewish behavioral rules that Jesus and his disciples had followed during his ministry. Paul taught that God had unilaterally abrogated his covenants with the Jews and transferred them to his own Christian groups.

Paul went on a series of missionary journeys around the eastern Mediterranean and attracted many Gentiles (non-Jews) to his movement. He was assisted by many co-workers, both male and female. Paul organized churches in many of the areas' urban centers, in competition with Greek Paganism, Mithraism, Mystery Religions, Judaism, many competing Christian movements, and other religions. His Epistles record how he and his movement were in continual theological conflict with the Jewish Christian movement centered in Jerusalem, and with Gnostic Christians. Paul ran afoul of the Roman Empire, was arrested, and was transported to Rome where he was held under house arrest. He was executed there about 65 CE. Paul's churches survived his death and flourished. Some of his letters to various of his church groups were later accepted into the canon of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament).

Christian groups typically met in the homes of individual believers, much like home churches and cell churches do today. Leaders were both men and women. There was no central authority, no standard style of organization at the local level, no dedicated church buildings or cathedrals. The Greek words episkopos (bishop, overseer), presbuteros (elder, presbyter) and poimen (pastor, shepherd) were originally synonymous terms which referred to the leader of a group of believers.

Gnostic Christianity: Gnosticism is a philosophical and religious movement with roots in pre-Christian times. Gnostics combined elements taken from Asian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Syrian pagan religions, from astrology, and from Judaism and Christianity. "Among Gnostic Christians there were communities under the name of John and Thomas and many other lesser and later disciples." 6 They claimed to have secret knowledge about God, humanity, and the rest of the universe of which the general population was unaware. They were/are noted for their:

Novel interpretations of the Bible, the world and the rest of the universe.

Belief that the Jehovah of the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) was a defective, inferior Creator-God, also known as the Demiurge. He was viewed as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion and prone to committing genocide.

Tolerance of different religious beliefs within and outside of Gnosticism.

Lack of discrimination against women.


Some Gnostics formed separate congregations. Others joined existing Pauline Christian groups. Still others were solitary practitioners.

In addition to the above three main groups, there were many smaller religious communities, which have been referred to as Matthean Christianity, Johannine Christianity, etc. "Among Jews especially in the East there were Christian communities and literature under the name of Peter and James that stood in opposition to Paul and John." 6 Together produced over 80 gospels and hundreds of Epistles (letters). "Many of these other Gospels outside the New Testament had very different views of Jesus, produced in communities that held widely different understandings of Jesus."



Second and third centuries CE:

The three groups within the primitive Christian movement survived into the second century. One died out and the other two expanded:

The Jewish Christian movement: The failure of the Bar Kochba revolt (132 - 135 CE) was devastating for the Jewish people, including the Jewish Christians. Any Jews who remained in Palestine in 135 CE were killed, enslaved or permanently driven from the land. The Jewish Christian movement had a brief resurgence during the 2nd century CE, and then disappeared from the pages of history.
Pauline Christianity continued to spread across the known world. It started to develop a formal theology, a set of doctrines, and an unofficial canon of writings which were later to become the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). From the enormous supply of Christian gospels and epistles (letters) they chose a few that more-or-less matched the theology of the developing church. Admittance of the Gospel of John into the official canon had to overcome a great deal of resistance; many in the church felt that it had too much Gnostic content. The canon accepted:

Four gospels, written by unknown authors, but attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Acts of the Apostles, apparently written by the same author as who wrote Luke.

Thirteen Pauline Epistles -- letters which claim that they were written by Paul. Religious liberals accept that seven were written by Paul, one may have been written by him, and 5 were by unknown authors --
mostly from the second century many decades after Paul's death.

Eight general Epistles -- James, John, Peter, Hebrews and Jude, -- all by anonymous authors with the possible exception of Hebrews which may have written by Priscilla.

Revelation, a book about the end of the world.


Gnostic Christianity consisted of many separate groups with no appreciable central organization. Each group was under the leadership of a Gnostic teacher like Marcion, Valentinus, and Carpocrates. These groups shared some core beliefs, but otherwise differed greatly from each other. The Gnostic movement initially expanded, and at one point was the primary form of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean. However, due to programs of persecution and extermination by Pauline Christians, it later went into a steep decline, and ceased being a significant force by the 6th century.

After the deaths of the Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers were looked upon for guidance. They included a number of teachers and bishops: e.g. Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Origen, Polycarp, Tertullian. A hierarchical organizational structure called the "monarchial episcopate" then developed in which the individual congregational leaders recognized the authority of their area bishop in matters of doctrine and faith. There was no person or group who could speak for the church as a whole. It was only in 325 CE that bishops from throughout the Christian movement would be able to meet at the Council of Nicea and attempt to resolve differences in Christian beliefs.


References used:
Gregory J. Riley, "One Jesus, many Christs," Harper SanFrancisco, (1997), Page 4. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
Messianic Judaism, a new religious movement, is sometimes referred to as Jewish Christianity. Their theological beliefs match those of Evangelical Christianity, and bear little resemblance to the Jewish Christianity of the 1st century CE.
G.A. Mather & L.A. Nichols, "Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult," Zondervan, (1993), Pages 59 to 72.
David Levinson, "Religion: A cross cultural dictionary," Oxford University Press, (1996). Topics: Eastern Orthodoxy & Roman Catholicism.
"Constantine, the first Christian emperor," Antiquity Online, at: http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch24.htm
Gregory J. Riley, "The River of God," HarperSanFrancisco, (2001). Page 8. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
Ibid, Page 7.


Two useful books on the early Christian movement:
Gregory J. Riley, "One Jesus, many Christs," Harper SanFrancisco, (1997), Page 4. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store

Bart D. Ehrman, "Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew," Oxford University Press, (2003) Read reviews or order this book

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_chov.htm
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FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, A CHRONOLOGY:

44 BCE Julius Caesar deified by the Roman Senate

27 BCE -14 CE Reign of Emperor Augustus. Augustus was the first Roman ruler to be worshiped as a son of a god (divi filius), and the day of his birth was considered the beginning of his glad tidings or "gospel" for the world.

4 BCE Death of Herod the Great, ruler of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and surrounding territories. King Herod had been the loyal client of the Roman emperor Augustus.

4 BCE Jesus of Nazareth is born.

6 CE Territories of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea come under direct imperial control as the Roman province of Judea.

14 CE Augustus deified by the Roman Senate.

26-30 CE Ministry of John the Baptist

30 CE Death of Jesus

30 CE and later Jesus' early followers from Galilee settle in Jerusalem. They are known as "the Twelve."

35-36 CE Saul of Tarsus, a Jew, comes to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and subsequently becomes the apostle Paul.

37-100 CE Life of Josephus, the Jewish historian

48 CE Council of Jerusalem, the leaders of the new Christian movement, discuss the terms of the recent mission to the Gentiles.

50 CE Paul leaves Antioch and begins Aegean Mission. His letters to these congregations are the earliest documents now contained in the New Testament.

50-52 CE Paul's first visit to Corinth; he writes his first letter to the Thessalonians.

52 CE Paul arrives in Ephesus; he writes a letter to the Galatians and his letter to the Corinthians.

54-55 CE Paul's imprisonment in Ephesus. He writes letters to the Philippians and to Philemon; he completes a second letter to the Corinthians.

55-56 CE Paul writes a letter to the Christians in Rome in preparation for his future visit there.

58-60 CE Paul's imprisonment in Rome

60-65 CE Death of Paul

60-68 CE Death of Peter
Death of James, brother of Jesus and head of the church in Jerusalem


64 CE Great Fire in Rome; Nero blames and executes Christians

66-70 CE First Jewish Revolt against Rome. A feud between Jewish and Greek factions in the city of Ceasarea leads to fighting that quickly spreads throughout the region.

68 CE Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakki seeks and receives permission from the Roman general and future emperor Vespasian to establish a new religious school after the war in the Palestinian coastal city of Jamnia. This sets the stage for the emergence of modern Judaism.

68 CE The emperor Nero's assassination launches a year of civil war in Rome.

69-79 CE Reign of the emperor Vespasian.

70 CE Fall of Jerusalem under military leadership of Vespasian's son, Titus.

70-100 CE Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke (Luke-Acts) written.

77 CE Josephus publishes The War of the Jews

79-81 CE Reign of the emperor Domitian (Vespasian's elder son and the general who burned the Temple and quelled the Jewish Revolt).

81-96 CE Reign of the emperor Domitian (Vespasian's younger son and the object of the anti-Roman attack in the Book of Revelation).

85 CE "Curse against Heretics" (Birkath ha-minim) added to Jewish synagogue benedictions, with the intent of excluding Christians.

90-110 CE Gospel of John written

90-150 CE Gospel of Thomas and other gnostic manuscripts written

94 CE Josephus publishes The Antiquities of the Jews

96-98 CE Reign of the emperor Nerva

98-117 CE Reign of Emperor Trajan

100-165 CE Life of Justin Martyr, early Christian apologist. Justin defends Christianity as a "philosophy" worthy of the respect of the educated and as the only legitimate heir to the Israelite scriptures.

107-117 CE Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, is martyred

112-113 CE Pliny, the Roman governor of Pontus-Bithynia writes to the emperor Trajan seeking advice regarding the punishment of Christians. The emperor tells Pliny that persecuting people on unproven charges is "contrary to the spirit of our times."

117-138 CE Reign of emperor Hadrian

132-135 CE Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (Bar Kochba Revolt). By this time Christians have separated from Judaism.

150-215 CE Life of Clement of Alexandria, early Christian teacher and theologian. Clement's theology is known for its skillful blend of Christian proclamation with Greek philosophical precepts.

150-222 CE Life of Tertullian, early Christian apologist. Prolific writer and sharp witted defender of the ermerging Christian orthodoxy, until he converted to Montanism late in his life.

155 CE Martyrdom of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and younger colleague and admirer of Ignatius of Antioch.

178 CE Celsus writes True Reason, argument against Christianity

180 CE Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, asserts that the proper number of gospels is four.

185-254 CE Life of Origen. One of the great early Christian scholars and teachers, his writings had a profound effect on the development of Christian theology, particularly in the provinces of the Greek East.

203 CE Martyrdom of Perpetua in Carthage

249-251 CE First major persecution of Christians under emperor Decius

250 CE Origen publishes Contra Celsum, in response to Celsus' True Reason.

257-260 CE Persecution resumes under emperor Valerian

260 CE Persecution ends when Gallienus becomes emperor

260-340 CE Life of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, chronicler of early church and court historian to Constantine

303 CE Persecution begins under Diocletian

312 CE Battle of Milvian Bridge; Constantine adopts Christ as his patron and defeats his rival Maxentius to become sole ruler of Italy, Africa, and the entire western half of the empire.

313 CE Edict of Milan. An agreement between Constantine, ruler of the West and Licinius, ruler of the East, that assured full restitution of all confiscated Christian property and full rights for Christian worship in both halves of the Roman empire.

324 CE Constantine defeats Licinius in a battle near Adrianople. He now becomes ruler of the entire Roman empire. He moves the eastern capital from Nicomedia to Byzantine, henceforth known as Constantinople.

325 CE Council of Nicea attempts to resolve theological differences among church factions. It is agreed that Christ was both fully human and fully divine.

327 CE Death of Constantine.

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