THE MINISTRY OF JESUS#

Jesus was born, according to the modern calendar, about 4 BC or earlier, while Herod the Great, by the will of Rome, was the king of Judea. After an apparently normal Jewish youth that was largely uneventful, he reached a turning point in his life, when, “about thirty years old” (Luke 3:23), he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Accompanying his baptism Jesus received a divine affirmation of his unique relationship to God as his much-loved Son.

Soon after, John was imprisoned and Jesus took up John’s preaching, announcing that “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15). There ensued a ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing; and Jesus gathered a close circle of twelve disciples, who spent their time with him and on occasion were sent out in extension of his ministry.

One of the reactions to Jesus was the confession, first voiced by the leader of the Twelve, Peter, that “You are the Christ [Messiah]” (Mark 8:29), the eagerly awaited “anointed of the Lord” who would bring deliverance to the Jewish people. It was a confession welcomed by many, doubted by others, and feared by still others in positions of power. Jesus’ popularity provoked jealousy and opposition from some Pharisees and a range of sentiments from uneasiness to profound disturbance among the political leaders.

On this charge the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem secured the sentence of death against Jesus from the Roman governor Pilate, who ordered his crucifixion, a punishment applied to the worst criminals and those considered politically dangerous. After his crucifixion, the hopes of Jesus’ disciples, even those closest to him, were crushed.

The resurrection was God’s vindication of Jesus. It confirmed that his death was not simply the death of another good man but had atoning significance. Those two affirmations—the atoning death of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–5)—became the pillars of the Christian faith.

The resurrected Jesus commissioned his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then to proclaim his message to all.

THE CHURCH IN JERUSALEM AND JAMES#

The church in Jerusalem#

The appearances of the resurrected Jesus brought the disciples together again and confirmed their faith in him. The experience of the coming of the Holy Spirit, recorded in Acts 2, launched the church as a distinct entity on a mission of proclaiming Jesus as “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

There was initially no radical break with Jewish institutions. The early Jerusalem church frequented the temple and observed Jewish customs. It constituted a “synagogue” with some distinctive rites and beliefs, but there were other such groups in the broad spectrum of Judaism.

To those core beliefs there was now added the conviction that the Jesus who had been rejected by the Jewish leadership and crucified by the Roman authorities was the promised deliverer through whom the end-time blessings were beginning to be realized, notably the forgiveness of sins and gift of the Holy Spirit.

This new conviction—guaranteed to the disciples by their faith in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead—along with the rapid growth of the new community, drawing members from those who had earlier followed Jesus and from those impressed with the lifestyle and wonders manifest in his movement, soon brought the disciples into conflict with the Jerusalem authorities.

The church early drew adherents from strict Law-observant Jews, from faithful Jews who were not so strict in keeping the Law, from Gentile proselytes, and from those more Hellenized in their attitudes. Internal tension soon manifested itself between those designated by the culturally descriptive terms Hebrews (Hebraic Jews) and Hellenists (Grecian Jews).

Broadly speaking, we may identify three groups in the Jerusalem church:

1. the followers of Jesus from his Galilaean ministry, led by Peter and the Twelve

2. Judaean converts, who came to look for leadership to James, brother of Jesus and also known as “James the Just”;

3. those from the Greek Diaspora and others in Jerusalem sympathetic to them, of whom Stephen became the spokesman.

These early disciples represented three different attitudes toward the Law, attitudes that did not exactly correspond to the three groupings:

1. interpret the Law broadly in terms of its main emphases (a view that was congenial to the later use of typology)

2. keep all the Law (the converted Pharisees)

3. preference for the tabernacle in the wilderness and the universalist strain in the Old Testament in opposition to the temple (represented by Stephen).

All three views contributed something to Paul’s more sophisticated interpretation of the Law—employing typology, taking the Law seriously but not always literally, and developing the universalism implicit in some of the Prophets.

James, brother of Jesus#

With the scattering of the Hellenists following the execution of Stephen and then the killing of the apostle James, brother of John, and the imprisonment of Peter by king Herod Agrippa I, increasingly James, brother of Jesus, came to prominent leadership in the Jerusalem church. His rise to prominence would have been quite unexpected during Jesus’ ministry, but an appearance of the resurrected Jesus changed him from disbelief to devoted advocate. His family ties with Jesus and his acceptance of him as Lord gave James a personal authority.

Along with the elders, James provided leadership when the Twelve moved to other fields of activity. This arrangement provided a model for the second-century church’s organization of a bishop assisted by elders in each city. The one document in the New Testament ascribed to James, the letter bearing his name, shows the influence of the practical wisdom literature of Judaism as refracted through the teachings of Jesus.

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, a promising rabbinic student in Jerusalem, brought a dynamic new impulse into the Christian movement. His conversion carried with it a commission from the risen Jesus to be an apostle to the nations. He reached an agreement with Peter and the leaders in Jerusalem that his call to go to the Gentiles corresponded to Peter’s mission to the circumcised (Galatians 2:7–9). An opening had already been made to the Gentiles by the Hellenists scattered from Jerusalem (Acts 11:20) and sanctioned by the experience of Peter in Caesarea (Acts 10—11).

The most significant controversy in the early church concerned the terms of acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community:

Must they come as full proselytes, receiving circumcision and an obligation to follow the Law, or was faith in Jesus and baptism sufficient to bring them under the covenant?

Paul became the protagonist for a Law-free gospel for the Gentiles; some elements in the Jerusalem church insisted on the necessity of circumcision; Peter and James, each from their own perspectives, tried to mediate (Acts 15).

The departure from Jerusalem of other elements left the more religiously and culturally conservative Jews as the predominant element in the Jerusalem church. The Hellenizers found a center in Antioch of Syria.

THE CHURCH IN ANTIOCH#

The church began in Antioch when believers from Jerusalem were scattered because of the persecution arising from the preaching of Stephen. These more Hellenized Christians brought the message of Jesus to Greeks, so that it was in Antioch that the new name “Christians” (Acts 11:26) came into use to designate this new people that included both Jews and Gentiles and was beginning to be distinguished as being neither.

The dropping of the requirement of circumcision did not resolve, indeed intensified, the question of table fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. The question came to a head at Antioch, where Paul’s insistence on not binding Jewish food laws on Gentile believers, in contrast to Peter and Barnabas’s willingness to compromise (Galatians 2:11– 14), made that city the center from which the Gentile mission of the church spread.

Under the initiative of the Spirit, Paul and Barnabas went forth from Antioch on journeys to spread the gospel of Jesus. Their mission took them to the synagogues of Diaspora Jews in the Greek cities of Cyprus and Asia Minor, preaching first to Jews and then to Gentile adherents of Judaism who were associated in varying ways with the synagogues.

PAUL#

Paul has sometimes been called the “second founder” of Christianity, a title of which he would not have approved. He looms large in the story of early Christianity because of the prominence Luke gives him in the Acts of the Apostles and the number of his letters in the canon of the New Testament. Paul was spiritually a Jew, legally a Roman, and intellectually a Greek—three trump cards for a missionary in the first century.

Paul understood his apostolic calling in a missionary sense and the extent of his travels is truly astounding. He carried the gospel of Jesus across Asia Minor, through Greece, and eventually—although as a prisoner—to Rome itself. Later reports said he fulfilled his intention to go to Spain, thus traversing the breadth of the Mediterranean Sea.

In his travels, Paul first approached Jews in their synagogues and then worked among Gentile sympathizers who were contacted through the synagogues. Because Paul’s gospel did not require Gentiles to observe the Law of Moses, these believers soon found it impossible to remain within the established Jewish communities, so Paul formed them into new communities with their own characteristics.

Paul’s championing of his mission to the Gentiles involved him as a key participant in the major issue in the church of his time—defining the terms of acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian Israel. Paul’s literary contributions to that struggle are principally his letters to the churches of Galatia, where Judaizers insisted on Gentile acceptance of circumcision, and to the church in Rome, where Paul sought to unify its Christian groups in acceptance of his program of mission work.

Paul’s reply was that the basis of Abraham’s acceptance by God was his faith (“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness,” Genesis 15:6) before he received the seal of circumcision. Therefore, Paul argued, those who share the same faith as Abraham receive righteousness in the same way and become the nations blessed in him without the necessity of the sign of circumcision.

Paul’s pastoral sensitivity and ability to draw on both Hebrew Scriptures and Greek moral philosophy in the instruction of his converts are seen in his letters, especially to the Greek churches in Thessalonica, Corinth, and Philippi. His letters were circulated among the Christian congregations and became the basis of guidance for a distinctive Christian lifestyle.

Extra-canonical sources relate Paul’s execution by beheading in Rome under the emperor Nero in the mid-sixties. His death in Rome linked him in the church’s memory with Peter—the common experience of the martyrdom of the apostle to the uncircumcision and the apostle to the circumcision in the same city served as a symbol of the unity of the faith.

THE CHURCH IN ROME AND PETER#

Visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, are reported to have been present at Jerusalem on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:10), and some of them may have carried the faith in Jesus back to Rome.

Whatever the origins, there was already a large number of Christians, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, in Rome when Paul wrote his major letter to the Romans in the mid-to-late fifties. Drawn from a cosmopolitan background, the church was Greek-speaking. A later tradition reported by Eusebius assigned Peter a twenty-five-year episcopate in Rome, which would put his arrival there in the early forties. The silence of both Acts and Romans argues that Peter’s arrival in Rome must be placed later than that.

It is impossible to trace Peter’s journeys after his departure from Jerusalem, but his presence in Antioch is attested by Paul, a ministry in parts of Asia Minor is implied by 1 Peter, and the presence of a “Peter party” in Corinth suggests his activity there at some point.

Second-century sources offer strong evidence for the presence of both Paul and Peter in Rome and their martyrdom there, and the reference to the church in “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13 is probably to be taken as a veiled reference to Rome as the place from which this Petrine letter was written.

• Clement of Rome (c. 96) and Ignatius of Antioch (c. 116), writing to Rome, associated both Peter and Paul with the church in Rome, and Clement implied their martyrdoms there.

• Dionysius of Corinth (c. 170) is the earliest explicit declaration of Peter’s martyrdom in Rome, but his testimony is weakened somewhat by the erroneous declaration, if pressed too strictly, that Peter and Paul “were martyred at the same time.”

• Not long after, the Acts of Peter relates an eventful ministry of Peter in Rome and concludes with the story of Peter being crucified head downward at his request (a manner of death that is referred to also by Origen).

• Gaius of Rome, about 200, could point to the “trophies [or memorials] of the apostles,” marking the sites of their martyrdoms—of Paul on the Ostian Way (the site of the church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls) and of Peter on the Vatican (which memorial has been found, beneath the high altar, in the excavations under St. Peter’s basilica).

Church fathers at the end of the second and beginning of the third century speak of Peter and Paul as the “founders” of the church at Rome. The statement could be true of their giving stability and organizational structure to the church, and even more so as referring to the significance of their martyrdoms as giving testimony to the truth of the gospel that lay at the foundation of the church.

Nevertheless, to call Peter “pope” or even sole bishop is anachronistic.

By the end of the apostolic age the Roman church was already a numerous and important community, but the church in Ephesus in the closing years of the first century appears to have been the larger as well as being in the center of the most influential region of Christians.

THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS AND JOHN#

The beginning of the church in Ephesus is associated with the work of Paul and his co-laborers. There were already disciples of John the Baptist in the city. One of these, Apollos, was an eloquent speaker, and when brought to faith in Jesus, he became a powerful advocate of the new faith in Ephesus and then in Corinth. Paul’s longest recorded stay at one locality—over two years—was in Ephesus in the early fifties. From there he apparently supervised the work of other evangelists who carried the Christian message throughout the province of Asia (western Turkey).

As Paul was the leading figure in the early history of the church of Ephesus, the apostle John, if we may accept church tradition, was the leading figure at the end of the first century. Ephesus early became a center associated with Christian literary activity.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus. Other New Testament books were written to Ephesus: Ephesians (which may have been a circular letter intended for other churches as well), 1 and 2 Timothy (tradition went further and made Timothy the first bishop of Ephesus), and the first of the seven letters in Revelation (2:1–7).

The Johannine letters put a great stress on the original apostolic message and the union of deity and humanity in Jesus Christ in opposition to those who, separating from the Christian community, denied the humanity of Christ and failed to practice brotherly love.

The seven letters at the beginning of Revelation show some of the internal problems of compromise with pagan customs, including its immorality; but the book as a whole draws especially on Jewish apocalyptic themes to strengthen the churches against the challenge of persecution from a pagan society in alliance with the imperial cult. Eschatological fervor endured longer in the interior of Asia Minor than elsewhere in the Greek church.

The Gospel of John is the only book in the New Testament to preserve anecdotal references to Thomas, and the Gospel of John shares with the sayings Gospel of Thomas an interest in the wisdom sayings of Jesus.

THE CHURCH IN SYRIA AND THOMAS#

From second-century sources it is evident that quite early there was an expansion of Christianity east of Antioch as well as the expansion west of Antioch that Luke describes. The classical church Syriac language developed in eastern Syria (Edessa, Nisibis) from the Aramaic that had been the common language of diplomacy and commerce in Mesopotamia and surrounding regions since the Persian empire.

Syriac-speaking Christianity preserved traditions of an association with the apostle Thomas. Those traditions, incorporated in the fifth-century Doctrina Addai, claimed the gospel was first preached in Edessa by Addai at the encouragement of Thomas.

The bilingual nature of the region is shown not only by such dual language editions, but also by uncertainty of the original language of some works, such as the Odes of Solomon and Tatian’s Diatessaron.

Syriac Christianity was wider than the Thomas tradition but like it preserved elements from the Semitic heritage of the early church. This included a spirituality shaped by wisdom speculations. Another feature of early Syriac-speaking Christianity, notable in the Acts of Thomas, is a decided asceticism, especially in sexual matters.

CHURCH LIFE IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE#

The account above of different regions and different individuals who had a leading role in the early church points to the variety of expressions in the earliest Christianity. Along with the variety of emphases and interpretations, there was a common faith in Jesus and a common core of apostolic teachings that set limits to the diversity. Frequent travel and communication by letters and messengers prevented most communities from developing in isolation from other believers.

Although the Old Testament Scriptures received from Judaism were treated in different ways, there was a common acceptance of them as the Word of God and commitment to interpret them in the light of the new revelation in Jesus Christ. Moreover, certain common practices served as uniting factors from quite early times. Some of the distinctive practices that were to characterize the church through its history began in the apostolic age: baptism, the Lord’s supper, Sunday assemblies, and moral emphases.

Baptism#

John’s baptism, like certain Jewish ceremonial washings, was by immersion but was distinguished from them by being a one-time repentance baptism for the forgiveness of sins and by being performed by an administrator rather than being self-administered (hence John’s name, “the Baptizer”).

Christian baptism shared these features with John’s baptism but was further distinguished by including confession of the name of Jesus and the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit (in Jewish expectation the sign of the coming of the eschatological age). Different theological emphases characterized the interpretation of baptism by different authors—e.g., the imagery of death and resurrection by Paul and of rebirth by John—but the practice itself was essentially the same.

The Lord’s supper#

From the beginning the disciples continued the practice of common meals they had known during the ministry of Jesus, only now there was a difference. The breaking of the bread and drinking of the cup, each accompanied by a blessing (or thanksgiving) to God, now was a remembrance of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and his subsequent passion and resurrection. The setting of a common meal was preserved in the names “breaking of bread” (the act at which time a blessing was said and with which Jewish meals began) and “Lord’s supper” (as distinguished from ordinary dinners).

The special meaning of the breaking of bread and the cup of blessing, on the occasions of community celebrations, always was distinct in theological significance from the meal itself (even when understood as expressing “communion,” or fellowship), and in time was separated in practice from the meal, perhaps as a result of Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 and certainly by the time Matthew (26:26–29) and Mark (12:22–25) recorded the institution, although occurring in a meal setting, as something distinct from the meal itself.

The special meetings of Christians included observance of the “Lord’s supper,” prayer, singing, reading from the Scriptures, and messages of instruction and exhortation. Although Christians might be together more frequently, even “daily,” these meetings occurred at a minimum, in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus, on “the first day of the week” (the Jewish name), that is, the “Lord’s day” (the distinctive Christian name), a pattern that John indicates began with the resurrection appearances of Jesus (John 20:19, 26). Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath as well as having Christian assemblies on the following day. Converts directly from paganism found no significance for themselves in the Jewish observance.

Moral emphases#

Although incorporating some traditional Jewish formulations, Christians related their daily observance of prayer to Jesus and his teachings about prayer. Generosity in giving for the support of the poor, also with antecedents in Jewish practice, characterized Christian communities from the beginning. Christians also continued the moral teachings that had been developed in Judaism. These were applied in the contemporary environment to matters of family, occupation, and social structure.

Matters of morality were not approached, however, in the same way as in Judaism. The relating of all conduct to the commands to love God and love one’s neighbor, combined with the motivation of imitating the love of God shown in the life of Jesus, gave a distinctive organizing principle to Christian moral teaching.