The christian church began as an entirely Jewish enterprise yet today there is no such a thing as a Christian Jewish church certainly not one that has an uninterrupted line going back to apostolic times. It is the gentile one that continues to this day.
So isn't that surprising? What happened to the early Jewish church that founded the gentile church, when and how did it disappear? It's worth noting (as far as I know) that it never gave up the Mosaic law and always kept separate from the gentile Christians. Even so they were fiercely persecuted by the Jews simply for accepting Jesus as the Messiah.
The original Jewish Christian church, what happened to it?
by greendawn 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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greendawn
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oompa
According to the Bible, non-jews began to be accepted into this church, starting with Corneilius I believe. This dramatically widened out the scope of beliefs brought into the church as they had "pagan" backgrounds along with all of its teachings.
I would think that technically, the all Jewish Christian church ended with as soon as the the first not Jew was signed up.
why do you ask?...oompa
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Narkissos
On large-scale maps rivers appear to have only one source. In reality it takes many springs (and much rain all along their courses) to make them.
So with "Christianity": the author of Acts wants his readers to believe that The (united) "Church" began in Jerusalem at Pentecost. For this very reason he even suppresses from the companion Gospel ("Luke") every hint that the disciples would go back to Galilee after Jesus' death: everything has to start from Jerusalem. This is, of course, completely artificial. For instance, Apollos who precedes Paul in Corinth is from Alexandria in Egypt. Is he a "Christian"? His teaching is essential to the "church" in Corinth, yet, awkwardly, Acts 19 presents him as a disciple of John who has to learn "true Christianity" from the Pauline circle. Is James (who pops up from nowhere in Acts 12 as the accepted head of Jerusalem's "church") a "Christian"? By Josephus (and/or? Hegesippus' testimonies one might doubt it.
Actually, during most of the 1st century "Christianity" is not yet a clear religious identity, this later label covers many different teachings to which "Jesus" is not always central; the clear attestation of the antagonism between Judeo-Christians and a roughly unified Gentile (post-Pauline) church only comes later, and it still doesn't cover the whole scope of Christianity (e.g. Johannism).
However, those (later) Judeo-Christians were definitely the losers in history -- rejected as minim by Pharisaic Judaism and as heretics by the Gentile Christianity which gradually settled in the Roman empire. But it did survive in several sects (Nazoreans, Ebionites, etc.) and, as has often been pointed out, some of its ideas were probably taken up by Islam in the 7th century...
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REBORNAGAIN
That's a question I should ask when I meet up with a local Rabbi. *stillawaitinghiscall* I'm trying to learn a little about everything, after the JW's restricted me.
LINDA
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greendawn
Oompa it's fascinating to know why the jewish church that gave rise to the gentile church and is therefore the mother church of christianity has itself disappeared.
Narkissos, there is a lot to think about in your post I will check out some history, your view is that early christianity was not a coherent group as presented in the Gospels/Acts but I doubt that there wasn't a standard faith beyond the Jewish christian/gentile christian split over the applicability of the mosaic law over christians. -
oompa
Green---have you tried following the trail of severed foreskins?
ouch....oompa
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moshe
Maybe, the Jews took the words of Jesus at face value. When Jesus did not return as promised, after the generation had passed that witnessed the key events, then, well, the Jews became non-believers in Jesus.