Section Twelve: Division and Consensus in
Early Christianity
Important New Testament Communities
Thyatira
The map on the right indicates the seven churches mentioned in the
Apocalypse (underlined in red and some other important NT cities in
green. Note the two Antiochs, one in Syria and one in Asia Minor.
The map to the left points out a few important cities in Judea,
Samaria and Galilee (underlined in blue) Note that there are two
cities called Philadelphia, one in Asia Minor, the other is modern-day
Amman, Jordan
12.1
The First Christian Communities - Review
The Jerusalem Church of James
• The earliest Christian community described in the New Testament, led by a
single leader (episcopos-bishop), assisted by a council of elders (presbyterospriest) and aided by assistants (diaconos-deacons)
• Given the Jewish Christian nature of this Church, its style of organization may
have been modeled after the organization of the synagogue before the Roman
Wars
• Other churches (Antioch, Smyrna) with large Jewish Christian memberships
quickly adopted this same model though it must also be noted that the Christian
church in Rome, also believed to have a sizeable Jewish Christian component
with direct links to the Jerusalem Church, did not immediately follow this model
The various churches established by Paul
• Largely Gentile organizations. Their size and structure are unknown though
probably smaller house churches were used for assembly and worship
• Led by men who are sometimes called episcopos and other times presbyteros
and, on occasion, by both terms
• Open to visits and preaching by itinerant preachers and other charismatic
preachers
12.2
Reasons for the Different Church Organizations - Review
Difference of membership ?
• James’ community in Jerusalem was largely made up of Jewish (both Hebrew
and Hellenist) Christians. The same seemed to be true of the communities in
Antioch and Smyrna. It is not surprising that they maintained historical
organizational structures from Judaism with which they were familiar
• Paul’s communities were largely made up of Gentiles. The Gentile converts had
no established organizational structures to draw from. They had to do the best
that they could
Difference in size ?
• The Book of Acts tells us that the Jerusalem community took in three thousand
converts on the first day of preaching by the Apostles. Acts also tells us that
many Hellenist Jewish Christians fled to Antioch of Syria during the reign of
Herod Agrippa (41 to 44 CE) so it can be reasonably assumed that this
community was also large. Large communities require large places of assembly
and worship and require some sort of organizational structure
• Paul’s communities were, at least in the beginning, small. Structure would more
likely develop over time as the community grew
12.3
Reasons for the Different Church Organizations - New
Difference in Doctrine ?
The early Christian communities not only differed in size and in makeup (Gentile or
Jewish) but also in their understanding of just how Jewish this new Christian
community had to be. This question was particularly important when it came to
conforming to the Jewish Law. Needless to say, the Jewish Law concerning male
circumcision and dietary restrictions was foremost on the minds of new Gentile
converts
It is clear from the Book of Acts that the first serious conversions were made
among those Jews who had gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavu’ot.
Remember that the Apostles who were preaching were Jewish men speaking to Jewish
listeners from many parts of the world about how a Jewish man fulfilled prophecy that
was found in Jewish scripture. The Book of Acts says that three thousand were
converted that day both Hellenist and Hebrew Jews from Judea and from abroad
The Book of Acts tells how Peter extended his audience to include Gentiles. Chapter Ten
of Acts tells how Peter baptized the Roman centurion Cornelius who lived in Joppa. It
should be noted however that Cornelius is described as a “God-fearing man”. That
phrase was usually applied to Gentiles who had already shown an interest in Judaism.
Still, if Peter had not first received a vision from God, he may have held back from
baptizing a Gentile. Peter also had to explain himself to the Jewish Christian community
when he returned to Jerusalem. It is about at this point in the Book of Acts that the story
begins to shift its focus from Peter and the Jerusalem Church to Paul. Not
coincidentally, it is about this time that the real doctrinal questions began to be asked
12.4
Peter and Paul at Antioch
During the reign of Herod Agrippa (41-44 CE), there was a persecution in Jerusalem
against Hellenist Jews. These included Hellenist Jewish Christians. Chapter 11 of
Acts explained how many of these Hellenist Jews decided to flee to Antioch in
Syria where a Roman governor and not a Jewish King ruled. It was there that Paul
and many others from Jerusalem gathered to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
This chapter also describes how the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians
by the community in Antioch
The Book of Acts makes three things clear at this time. The Church in Antioch was
not yet fully formed as was the Church in Jerusalem. The Antioch Church seemed
initially to be significantly smaller than the Jerusalem community. The preaching
of the good news remained limited to Jewish audiences and that preaching met
with some initial success
Over time, however, a resentment grew between traditional Jews and those who
had begun to accept the message concerning Jesus. This resentment caused Paul
to encounter resistance when he tried to preach in the synagogues of Antioch. To
his surprise, Paul discovered that his message had found resonance with the
Gentiles in that city who had heard about Jesus. Paul decided that he had fulfilled
his obligation to preach first to Jewish listeners and changed the direction of his
mission. Many Gentiles converted to Christianity and the questions involving
Christian practices were raised. How closely these Gentile converts had to follow
Jewish law was a major concern for all Christians, Jews and Gentiles alike.
12.5
The Council of Jerusalem
The first confrontation between Gentile and Jewish Christianity over the issue
of the Jewish Law took place in Jerusalem around 49 CE. How this meeting
went depends on which book of the New Testament you read
The Book of Acts (Chapter 15) describes a rather collegial meeting where the
issues were discussed and a conclusion was reached that seemed to satisfy
both the concerns of Gentile Christianity as represented by Paul as well as the
concerns of Jewish Christianity as represented by Peter and James
In his letter to the Galatians, however, Paul seems to describe the meeting in a
more confrontational light. In Galatians 2:9, Paul refers to Peter, James and
John as “the so-called pillars of the Church”. He later describes how he
confronted Peter in Antioch concerning Peter’s habit of ignoring Jewish
dietary restrictions when missionaries from Jerusalem were not around but
conforming to them whenever these missionaries would show up
Paul’s complaint concerning Peter’s changing postures seem curious given
that it was Paul who proclaimed the following in his letter to the Corinthians;
“And I became to the Jews a Jew, that I might gain the Jews: To them that are under the
law, as if I were under the law, (whereas myself, I was not under the law), that I might
gain them that were under the law. To them that were without the law, as if I were without
the law...I became all things to all men, that I might save all.” (1 Cor. 9:20-22)
12.6
The Decision of the Council of Jerusalem
There were two main decisions reached at the Council of Jerusalem; male
Gentile converts would not have to undergo circumcision and all Gentile
converts would be free from most of the restrictions of Jewish dietary law
There were some restrictions placed on Gentiles, however. Gentile converts
were required to restrain from eating meat that was sacrificed to idols, from
meat taken from strangled animals, and to avoid porneia (fornication). These
proscriptions seem to be a subset of the Seven Laws of Noah that God fearers
were required to observe while living among a Jewish community (no theft or
murder, no adultery, no meat taken from a living animal etc.) Interestingly,
there is later visit by Paul to Jerusalem described in Acts where Paul seems to
be learning about these restrictions for the first time (Acts 21:25)
The compromise seemed to be accepted at first but, as more and more
Gentiles entered the early Christian communities, the gap between Gentile
Christians and Jewish Christians seemed to grow. The division seemed to
center around not just the binding nature certain aspects of Jewish Law on
Gentile Christians but whether the Jewish Law had any role at all to play in the
lives of Gentile Christians
12.7
Paul and James on the Issue of the Law
Many people look at a quote from Paul in his letter to the Romans as the
summary statement of his position on the relevance of the Jewish Law for
Gentile Christians
For we consider that a person is justified by faith* apart from works of the law. (Rom. 3:28)*
Those who held that the Jewish Law continued to play a role in the Christian
community for both Jewish and Gentile converts often point to a quote from
the letter of James to support their position on this question
So also faith, of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (Jas. 2:17) **
* It should be noted that in the Bible translated into German by Martin Luther, Luther added the
word ‘alone’ (allein in German) after the word ‘faith’ this passage. When asked why he added
this word, Luther responded that he knew best how to translate the scriptures into German
(source: An Open Letter on Translating. Martin Luther. 1530 CE)
** Luther was also so opposed to the Epistle of James that he said “I almost feel like throwing
Jimmy into the stove.” (source: Luther’s Works, Volume 34). His close associate, Philip
Melanchthon calmed Luther down on this issue as he did on many others (Luther himself
acknowledges this in his Commentary on the Galatians written in 1529.)
12.8
More From Paul on the Law
Perhaps Paul’s most impassioned statements on the subject can be found in
the Epistle to the Galatians written @ 55 CE
“By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” (Gal. 2:16)
“For if justice is by the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Gal. 2:21)
“All who rely on observing the law are under a curse....Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the Law.” (Gal. 3:10-13)
To be clear, Paul had been born and raised a Jew. Luke proclaimed that Paul
had been a Pharisee educated by Gamaliel. As such, Paul did believe that
the promise of salvation was accomplished through the Jewish people.
Paul did not, however, believe that salvation came through any set of Laws
given by God to Moses. He wrote in Galatians that salvation came from the
promises that God made to the Jewish nation through Abraham and “his
seed”, Jesus.
"The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his Seed. The Scripture does not say
'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person,
who is Christ.“ (Gal. 3:16)
12.9
More From James on the Law
Unlike Paul, James is the author of only one letter in the Christian Scriptures.
Nonetheless, that one letter has a lot to say about the role Jewish Law in Christianity
“Do you want proof that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was
active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works.* .....And in the same
way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the
messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit
is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (Jas. 2:20-26)
The referenced quote is a direct contradiction of Paul who also used
Abraham and his faith in God to demonstrate the superiority of faith over
works. It is not clear if this passage was intended as a response to Paul
Note: There we at least two men named James mentioned in the Christian scriptures; James the
brother of John and the son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus/Cleophas. It is not clear if
this second James is or is not the same man as James, the brother of Jesus and the head of the
Jerusalem Church. Most scholars today believe that James son of Alphaeus/Cleophas is a different
James than James the brother of Jesus.
- James the son of Zebedee and the brother of John was executed by Herod Agrippa @ 42 CE.
- James the brother of Jesus was executed by the Roman procurator of Jerusalem in 62 CE.
- James the son of Alphaeus/Cleophas is believed to have died by crucifixion while preaching in
Ostrakine in Egypt at a time unrecorded. The name James comes from the Hebrew name Yacob
12.10
Koinonia
While Paul did have his differences with James and Peter in regard to the
Jewish Law, he maintained koinonia with them in most other matters
including the following;
•
•
•
Jesus was both the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God
Jesus was born of a virgin and was resurrected from the dead
The God of the Hebrew Scriptures was the Father God of the Christian Triunity (i.e. Trinity) and the Hebrew Scriptures formed part of the continuity
of the story that started in Eden and culminated in the death and
resurrection of Jesus
While Paul wrote most disparagingly about the importance of the Jewish law
in his letter to the Galatians, his stance seemed to have softened somewhat in
his letter to the Romans, a church, by the way, that he did not establish
- “So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (7:12)
- “Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.” (7:16)
- “For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self” (7:22)
These quotes have been taken to mean that Paul accepted that the precepts of
the Law, understood in the light of Jesus (in the context of selfless love as
explained in the Sermon on the Mount) played an important and positive role
in the development of Christian morality. He continued to insist, however, that
it did not play a primary role in Christian salvation
12.11
Koinonia in the Prodigal Son ?
The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke15:11-32) is one of the best known
parables in the Christian Scriptures. It may also be useful in illustrating the
differences between Paul and James in their understanding of the role of the
Jewish Law in early Christianity as well as explaining how they may have
reached a common understanding (koinonia) on this issue. Let’s first review
the differences;
Paul
“a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ”
(Gal. 2:16)
Paul might have believed that the Prodigal Son was saved when he decided
that he would return to the house of his father having faith that his father
would accept him back, even if as a lowly employee
James “faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:26)
James might have felt that the Prodigal Son had to do more than decide to do
something. He would actually have to act. He would have to journey home to
his father and ask his forgiveness face to face
12.12
Koinonia in the Prodigal Son !
The relationship of the parable of the Prodigal Son to the discussion of the role of the
Law in the early Church can best be understood by focusing on the person who may be
the pivotal character in the parable, the Good Son
The loving Father in the parable is easily understood to represent God. The Prodigal
Son, perhaps not quite as clearly, represents sinners who had abandoned God but then
had undergone the metanoia, the change in thinking translated into English as
repentance, and returned to God. The gospels seem full of such people and Jesus
mentions that his primary mission is to call these very people to come home to God.
In the Father we see real love for both his sons always. In the Prodigal Son we see love
lost followed by love and happiness regained. But the key to truly understanding the
whole parable is found in the reaction of the Good Son
“Look, all these years I slaved for you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never
gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.” (Luke 15:29)
The Good Son has followed the Law. He has done everything that was required of him
but in the one line spoken by the Good Son there is evidence of obedience but no
evidence of love and no evidence of happiness. This parable shows how Paul and
James may have come to koinonia regarding the Law. The Law is given by God
specifically to Israel and, as Paul writes in Romans (2:15), can be found written on the
hearts of all men. As important as the Law is, it is not the Law though that saves. What
saves is the attitude of love, love of God and love of neighbor, from which the law is
derived, that saves. Minus the spirit of love, keepers of the Law become the Good Son
12.13
Developing View of the Jewish Law and Christian Koinonia
Christians came to believe that Jesus fulfilled all the contractual obligations
that is, the covenant, that God had established with the Jewish people so
long ago. They recognized that Paul was right in saying that Christians
needed to imitate Jesus and pay more attention to the call to love, love of
God and love of neighbor, that was at the core of the Jewish Law
Christians also recognized however that James correctly understood that
the Law required that love must be more than something spoken about. It
must be something that is lived. In the terminology used among many
Christians today, it must be more than a “said faith”.
This understanding was made clear when the writer of the gospel of
Matthew (written about twenty years or so after Paul’s letters) recalled
Jesus’ own words on this subject when a Pharisee asked him which
commandment of the Law was the greatest. Jesus replied,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (Nevi’im) hang on
these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
12.14
A Jewish View of the Law
The author of Matthew’s gospel, the most Jewish of the four gospels,
makes it clear that the koinonia that developed between Paul and Peter and
James, were not at all new concepts to anyone who really knew and
understood the Hebrew Scriptures. The words of Jesus spoken in Chapter
22 of Matthew’s gospel seems to be a direct attempt to remind his Jewish
Christian community that love of God and love of neighbor had always been
at the foundation of the Jewish Law since the time of Moses
-‫ ְׁבכָל‬,‫ְׁשמַ ע יִ ְׁש ָראֵ ל יְׁ הוָה אֱ ֹלהֵ ינּו יְׁ הוָה אֶ חָ ד וְׁ אָ הַ ְׁבתָ אֵ ת יְׁ הוָה אֱ ֹלהֶ יָך‬
‫ ְׁמאֹ דֶ ָך‬-‫ּובכָל‬
ְׁ ,‫נַפְׁ ְׁשָך‬-‫ּובכָל‬
ְׁ ‫לְׁ בָ ְׁבָך‬
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deut. 6:4-5)
:‫וְׁ אָ הַ ְׁבתָ לְׁ ֵרעֲָך כָמֹוָך‬
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18)
12.15
The Sermon on the Mount – The Christian Understanding of the Law (I)
The best example of the Christian understanding of the Jewish Law is found,
as might be suspected, also in Matthew’s gospel. Chapters five through
seven of that gospel describe Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. In this
sermon, Jesus covers two of the most important aspects of the Christian
understanding of the Law.
The first aspect describes in detail the Christian understanding of the goal
of the Law, namely, beatitude. Beatitude is a fancy word but, at its root, it
means happiness but not happiness in the normal sense of the word.
Beatitude means the blissful happiness that comes from what Paul
described in his wonderful treatise on love (1 Cor. 13) as fully knowing and
loving God and being fully known and fully loved by God
In the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a series of
illustrations outlining what truly happy people are like. They are humble.
They are righteous (but not self-righteous). They are peaceful. They have
clean hearts. They recognize that suffering causes pain but pain can lead a
person to a greater level of compassion for others. In short, the first part of
the Sermon on the Mount illustrates the change of thinking, the metanoia,
that Peter called for on Pentecost Sunday, a change from love that is more
selfless than self-centered
12.16
The Sermon on the Mount – The Christian Understanding of the Law (II)
In the second part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provides a series of
examples of how Christians should pay more attention to the need for an
internal conversion implicit in the Jewish Law
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, “You shall not kill; and whoever
kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will
be liable to judgment.” (Matt. 5:21-22)
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. (Matt. 5:27-28)
Finally, Jesus explains exactly how he sees his own role in respect to the
Jewish Law
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matt. 5:17)
It is this need, as expressed by Jesus himself, to see beyond the specific
precepts of the Law and see the call to love that was at its foundation. This
understanding allowed early Christian communities to find a way to think
about the Jewish Law with which both Paul and James could agree
12.17
Law, Metanoia and Grace
• A woman was accused of the evil of
prostitution. Jesus’ response to the
woman was pastoral. Only he knew
what was in her heart and how
she had come to that point in her
life, therefore, how sinful her acts
were
• Jesus also knew that the crowd
around her had intended to follow
the Jewish Law which told them
that death by stoning was the
punishment for prostitution. One
has to wonder how many of those
wanting to “cast the first stone” had
themselves engaged the woman’s
“services”.
The Woman Caught In Sin
The Law correctly points out that prostitution is
not an activity that leads to the beatitude offered
by God. Jesus shows the woman grace which
can lead her to change her ways and experience
the beatitude that he offers, But his last words
remind the listener that the change must be a
real, internal change
• Many Christians today like to end
the story with the pastoral response
of Jesus but the story did not end
there. Jesus called evil by its name
when he told the woman to go and
sin no more.
12.18
Hairesis (Heresy)
While the large majority of Christian communities came to accept the proper
understanding of the role of the Law as part of their faith, there were some
communities that could not accept any compromise on their understanding of
this issue.
The Marcionites belonged to a community which believed that Christianity had
no continuity with Judaism at all and that all things Jewish should be
discarded from Christian thinking, including the Jewish Law
The Ebionites, on the other hand, belonged to a community which believed
that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah (but not divine) and that one had to be in
full conformance with Jewish Law and Jewish tradition to follow Jesus as they
understood him
Early Christian communities allowed for some level of debate about Jesus as
they came to understand him but two issues were soon placed outside the
arena of debate and both centered on the nature of Jesus.
It may have taken some time but it seems clear that, by 45-50 CE, Christianity
had come to accept two things about the nature of Jesus Christ
- He was fully human (born of a woman)
- He was fully divine (the Logos, born of the Father before all ages)
Any group that denied these two truths of the Christian faith were outside of
the koinonia of Christianity. They were in a state of hairesis (separation).
12.19
Marcionite Hairesis (Jesus Not Truly Human)
Marcion was a Christian Bishop from Pontus in Asia Minor born several
decades after the deaths of Peter and Paul. Marcion didn’t care so much
about such trivialities as the role of the Jewish Law in the early Church.
Marcion saw Christianity as something completely new and felt that the God of
the Hebrew Scriptures could not in any way be the one, supreme God
revealed by Jesus. At best, the God of what Christians came to call the Old
Testament could only be an inferior deity.
Marcion used the term demi-urge (lower level spiritual being) to describe the
God of the Old Testament. Marcion also believed that there was nothing truly
human about Jesus. Jesus only appeared to be human. In fact, Jesus was not
the Son of the one God who created all things but simply the one God himself
appearing in human form.
Marcion felt that he expressed what Paul should have said especially when it
came to the subject of what Paul called “the Judaizers”. Marcion held them to
be teachers of a false God. Given that understanding, Marcion completely
rejected the Hebrew Scriptures and acknowledged only a brutalized version of
the Gospel of Luke and ten of the Epistles of Paul as sacred scripture
12.20
Ebionite Hairesis (Jesus Not Truly Divine)
If the Marcionites lined up to the left of Paul, the Ebionites lined up to the right
of Peter and James. They believed in the Christian understanding that Jesus
was the Messiah promised by God but would have nothing to do with any
notion that Jesus was divine. Most Ebionites denied the Virgin Birth but some
accepted it.
It is not clear if the name Ebionite derives from the term Ebionim which means
“the poor ones” or if the name comes from a person whom some consider to
be a founder of this group, a man named Ebion
As might be expected, the Ebionites maintained a strict observance of the
Jewish Law and only looked on the Gospel of Matthew as sacred scripture.
The Ebionites considered Paul’s mission to the gentiles to be legitimate but
believed that he became an apostate when he did not follow strict adherence
to the Law
Note: Lutheran theologian Oskar Cullman and Professor Hans-Joachim Schoeps of Erlangen
University in Bavaria, noted expert on Jewish Christianity, have both speculated that Islam’s view of
Jesus (Isa) may have been influenced by Ebionite Christianity. One of Mohammed’s wives (or
perhaps a concubine), Maria al-Qibtiyya, had been a Coptic Christian.
12.21
Two Roads to Gnosticism
Perhaps the most important heresy in early Christianity and, to some extent,
even in modern Christianity, is Gnosticism. The fundamental belief of most
forms of Gnosticism is that the revelation of God in the Jewish Scriptures is
false and the revelation of Jesus in the Christian Scriptures is superficial and
meant only for the uninitiated. The real understanding of Jesus was meant for
those who were insightful enough to understand the true knowledge (gnosis in
Greek) of the gospels. Interestingly, the Ebionites and the Marcionites, though
diametrically, opposed to each bother, both found their way into their own
particular form of Gnosticism
In the Ebionite version of Gnosticism, YHWH is the true God and the material
universe is his body. Adam was the first human to bring this revelation to
mankind. Moses was the second and Jesus the third and most perfect of
those human messengers who brought the Ebionite revelation to the world .
Salvation came from the knowledge (gnosis) of these revealed truths
In the Marcionite version of Gnosticism, YHWH is not the true God but rather
an evil demi-urge who wrongly created the material universe. Matter is the
densest form of existence and the human soul could only achieve salvation by
escaping the material world. Jesus’ death and resurrection revealed these
truths to humankind. Salvation again came from this knowledge (gnosis)
combined with faith in Jesus and what He revealed
12.22
Jewish Roots Evident in Early Christianity
There are a number of scholars who claim that the Apostle Paul intentionally moved
Christianity away from its Jewish roots and attempted to turn Jesus into a figure more
in line with mystery cult figures such as Dionysus, Mithras and Osiris, more well-known
in Hellenist circles. This claim seems hard to support given that;
•
Paul himself claimed to be a disciple of the great Rabbi Gamaliel
•
Christianity continued to recognize the God of the Hebrew Scriptures as the God
who brought the universe into being. Clearly, the Christian notion that Jesus and
the Holy Spirit share in the unity of the one God was far different from anything that
can be found in any Jewish understanding of what Christians came to call the Old
Testament (with the possible exception, as noted earlier, of Philo of Alexandria)
•
Christian worship included readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, including regular
readings from the Psalms, along with readings from the developing set of Christian
Scriptures including the “Memoirs of the Apostles”
•
Christian worship continued to include a Eucharist service which many believe was,
in essence, a ritualized Passover meal
•
By 150 CE or so, the organization model of all Christian Churches was based on
the Jerusalem Church (Bishop, Priests and Deacons) which may have reflected the
organization of some Jewish synagogues at the time of Jesus
12.23
Other Commonalities of Judaism and Christianity
There were historical events that took place in Jerusalem in the mid-first century CE
and into the beginning of the second century CE which had the effect of assuring
that Christianity and Judaism would wind up going their separate ways. These
events will be covered in the next section.
It is very likely that, even absent those historical events, Judaism and Christianity
would be destined to follow their own separate paths through history. Their
understanding of the nature of God and the person of Jesus was just too different to
allow for an ongoing koinonia.
It is important to stress however that both faiths did share one thing in common in
their understanding of God. They understood that the essence of God’s nature is
love and that love forms the basis of the relationship that God intended between
himself and his human children
These two faiths also share another thing in common. Like their human sisters and
brothers of other faiths and other belief systems, Christians and Jews, being
human, too often fail to live up to the ideals of their beliefs, especially beliefs
concerning love, love of God and love of neighbor. Both faiths, to their credit,
recognize their human frailties and work to correct the faults that result from those
frailties
12.23