Early Christianity

Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Faculty Publications 2016 Early Christianity Gaye Strathearn Brigham Young University - Provo, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub Part of the Christianity Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Strathearn, Gaye, "Early Christianity" (2016). Faculty Publications. 3519. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/3519 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Chapter 30 Early Christianity Gaye Strathearn How We Know What We Know An understanding of Christianity’s expansion into the Roman world during the first three hundred years comes from numerous sources, including the New Testament (Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation), Jewish writings (Josephus and Philo), Roman historical sources (such as Tacitus and Pliny the Younger), and other Christian texts such as the Didache, Apostolic Fathers, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and the Nag Hammadi Library. Archaeological discoveries have also revealed artifacts, numerous inscriptions and papyri, and buildings used by Christians. As Jesus stood on the Mount of Olives at the end Teaching All Nations of his forty-day resurrected ministry, he directed In response to Jesus’s command, Philip, and then his apostles to be witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Peter and John, went first to teach in Samaria Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 8:5–25). Philip next taught a Gentile, an (Acts 1:8; see also Matthew 28:19–20). In giving Ethiopian eunuch, who seems to have been one this direction, he rescinded the command he of a group of Gentiles who had converted to gave when he first called them to “Go nowhere Judaism (Acts 8:27–28). Gentile converts were not among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the unusual. Josephus records that “the masses [i.e., Samaritans” (Matthew 10:5). The shift in empha- Gentiles] have long since shown a keen desire to sis and direction brought significant challenges adopt our religious observances” and that the Jews for the fledgling church. It is in the church’s welcomed those who wished to adopt their laws response to meet those challenges that we see (Against Apion 2.28, 39). many developments that transformed a small, The difficulties, however, arose with efforts to post-resurrection group of believers in a remote take the gospel to Gentiles who had not converted part of the Roman Empire into a force that even- to Judaism. Even Peter initially seemed reluctant tually would take over the Empire, all within the to expand missionary activities in that direction space of just three hundred years. A Bible Reader’s History of the Ancient World God-fearers God-fearers were Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism but did not convert (or did not convert fully), probably because they did not want to partic- ipate fully in the law of Moses. According to Philo, they were not, therefore, true converts (Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.2). Two Greek phrases are used in the New Testament and other sources to identify God-fearers. “Those who fear God” is a phrase that is mentioned frequently in Acts, including with respect to Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:2, 22, 35) and Gentiles in the synagogue on Paul’s first missionary journey (13:16, 26). An additional phrase is “those who worship God” when it refers to Gentiles. For example, when Josephus described those who sent contributions to the temple, he made a distinction between the “Jews throughout the habitable world” and “those that worshipped God” (Antiquities of the Jews 14.7.2). An inscription is found in the theater at Miletus: topos eioudeōn tōn kai theosebion, “place of the Jews who are also God-fearers.” It is not clear whether the seats are reserved for Jews who are God-fearers or whether the engraver of the inscription made a mistake and transposed the words ton and kai, “place of the Jews and the God-fearers.” until he received a very pointed revelation that group known as Judaizers—Jewish Christians commanded him to eat unclean animals (repre- who believed that the law of Moses was still senting taking the gospel to Gentiles) and to meet valid and that Gentiles who converted to Christ with the Roman centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:9– must comply with its ritual practices. Although 17). Cornelius believed in the God of Israel (Acts Jesus reinterpreted the law of Moses—making 10:2), but unlike the Ethiopian eunuch, he was it applicable for Jews in the first century and not a convert but part of a group of Jewish sympa- raising the standard of righteousness (Matthew thizers known as “God-fearers.” As Peter met with 5:17–48)—other rabbis of his time, such as Hillel Cornelius and his household and learned of their and Shammai, were doing likewise. After Christ’s story, he began to understand the meaning of his death, many Christians continued to attend the revelation: “I truly understand that God shows no synagogue on the Sabbath, although they had partiality” (v. 34). After he witnessed the outpour- additional meetings to partake of the bread and ing of the Holy Spirit on them, he acknowledged wine in remembrance of Jesus (1 Corinthians their right to be baptized. “‘Can anyone withhold 11:20–29). They continued to observe the law (Acts the water for baptizing these people who have 21:20) and to visit the temple (Acts 21:23–26). received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he For the Judaizers, there were two activities ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus that epitomized the law of Moses and which Christ” (vv. 47–48). they argued should be required of Gentile con- The reaction of members of the Jerusalem verts: circumcision and table fellowship, that is, church reminds us how difficult it was for the only eating with Jews. During the Maccabean early Jewish Christians to accept this expanded Revolt, these practices, along with Sabbath wor- missionary focus. When they heard the news of ship, had become the symbols of Jewish identity Cornelius’s conversion, certain members of the (1 Maccabees 1:14, 62–63; Tacitus, Histories and Jewish church “criticized” Peter because he min- Annals 5.5.2). As long as Christianity was largely gled with “uncircumcised men” and ate with confined to Jews, such requirements were accept- them (Acts 11:1–3). They seem to be part of a able. It should not be surprising, however, that as 192 Chapter 30: Early Christianity Christianity began to expand its missionary focus the pattern for Paul’s missionary agenda. Upon into Gentile lands, such parameters for conver- arrival in a new city, he went to the synagogue, sion came into question. whose audience often consisted of both Jews and Gentiles (converts and God-fearers; Acts 13:14–16, 26). This pattern of teaching in synagogues was Paul’s First Mission—Paul in the repeated throughout his missionary journeys. Synagogues To date, no synagogues from the first century Anatolia was an important field of labor for have been found at any of the sites in which Paul the apostles Paul and John. Paul was born in taught. Nevertheless, we do know from literary a south-central Anatolian city called Tarsus. sources that in the first century, there were Jewish Although he was “brought up” in Jerusalem (Acts communities in the Diaspora generally and spe- 22:3), he returned to Tarsus for a short period after cifically in Anatolia. Philo reports that Jerusalem his conversion (Acts 9:30; Galatians 1:21). It was had sent out many colonies throughout the world, here that Barnabas found him and invited him to including “the greater part of Asia Minor” (Gaius help with the missionary work in Antioch of Syria 281). Josephus tells of Jews in Sardis (Antiquities (Acts 11:25–26). Eventually, Paul would embark 14.235, 259–261) and Ephesus (Antiquities 14.228, upon three missionary journeys through Cyprus, 234, 240). Anatolia, and Greece (Acts 13–20). However, the material evidence for Jewish His first mission with Barnabas began in communities comes from later periods. For exam- Antioch. From there they traveled to Cyprus ple, in Corinth there is a stone lintel with a partial (Barnabas’s homeland) and central Anatolia, to inscription, “[syna]gogue of the Hebr[ews],” but the cities Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, its late date (second to third century) probably and Derbe, before returning to Antioch. In says little about the Jewish community when Paul his account, Luke, the author of Acts, outlines was there. Likewise, the famous library of Celsus in Ephesus, which was completed in 135, has a stone step leading into the library with a menorah inscribed in it. This may be evidence of a Jewish community, but it is difficult to date and would not have predated 135 unless it is a stone in sec- ondary use. The synagogues that have been discovered in the Diaspora were generally different from those in the Holy Land, which usually had a large hall with benches along the sides, and a mikveh (ritual bath) nearby. In the Diaspora, however, synagogue architecture is more reliant on local influ- ence than on any fixed pattern from the Holy Land. This means that it is often difficult to identify and date a synagogue by its architectural plan. Diaspora synagogues had both religious and social functions and sometimes can only be identified by Jewish inscriptions or symbols.

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