The ancient Church, at first comprised only of Torah-observant Jews thereby appearing to other Jews as a Jewish sect, exhibited many of the ideas, values, and characteristics of the indigenous Jewish population of Palestine. These included animal sacrifice at the Temple,^F1 ritual circumcision,^F2 weekly Sabbath and annual Sabbath observance,^F3 restrictive dietary practices,^F4 and proclamation of the resurrection of the dead.^F5

The Judeo-Christian paradigm of the ancient Church of God, derived from the social conditioning resident in first-century Judaism coupled with the gospel message, provided a certain cultural continuity for Jews throughout the Apostolic Age. For a long time both Jews and Romans viewed the Church of God simply as a deviating movement within first-century Judaism. In fact, the religio licita, or "legal religion," sanction granted by imperial Rome to the Jews, permitted the apostles and their followers to freely engage in evangelistic activity throughout the Roman empire for many years.^F6

The first four decades of the ancient Church, led by the apostles themselves, was a time of rapid growth and development wherein early Christians of Jewish descent became more and more aware, that in religious terms, they were not exactly Jewish anymore. Their teachings and beliefs differed significantly from those of the Jerusalem establishment and various first-century Judaisms, and in particular from the halakah of the Scribes and the Pharisees. For example, quite early, perhaps not later than CE 35, the Judeo-Christian community admitted uncircumcised Gentiles into its fellowship in Judea (Acts 10:1-11:18) and soon thereafter in Antioch (Acts 11:19-21).

These actions not only served as repudiations of Pharisaic halakhic practices in regard to ritual cleanness but the Pharisaic view of Gentiles as well. This served to further alienate Judeo-Christianity from conventional first-century Judaisms. Both Judeo-Christianity and rabbinic Judaism arose out of the same nexus of events in the Herodian period. These two branches of Jewish thought, growing from their common Hebraic monotheistic roots, went their separate ways with each community believing it alone was the true Israel of God.

^F1The members of the mother church at Jerusalem took part in some aspects of temple worship, but no longer of necessity participated in animal sacrifice, as Jesus of Nazareth had been the supreme sacrifice, e.g., James advised Paul to purify himself in Temple rites with three others who were completing vows (Acts 21:23-24). Nevertheless, Christians were to be living sacrifices having surrendered themselves to God (Romans 12:1) with Jesus being the final sacrifice (Hebrews 10:1-10). In Judeo-Christian thinking neither Jews nor Gentiles needed to offer animal sacrifice since the Old Covenant ended with the death of Jesus (Hebrews 8:7-13).

^F2Inferred from the negative pregnant of Acts 21:21. The members of the mother church at Jerusalem continued, as a cultural practice, to circumcise their male children, otherwise the congregation itself would have been subject to the criticisms leveled at Paul as related to him by James. The implication in this set of verses, Acts 21:17-26, is that the apostle Paul did indeed teach Jews in the Hellenistic Diaspora that they no longer needed to ritually circumcise their children nor observe the Mosaic customs. The Ebionites, thereafter, held the apostle Paul in contempt (Origin, Homilies in Jeremiahomilien 19.2; Klijn and Reinink 1973:129).

^F3The internal evidence in the New Testament attesting to the observance of the Sabbath and the seven annual Sabbaths by Judeo-Christians is sparse. Most Christians resist any interpretation of the few scriptures dealing with the subject of weekly Sabbaths, annual Sabbaths, and biblical festivals, that would suggest or infer that Christians should celebrate or observe them. These practices by Judeo-Christians, however, are demonstrable in the extant literature of the Greco-Roman Church such as the writings of the ante-Nicene, the Nicene, and the post-Nicene fathers. The Lord�s-day and Easter celebrations developed as a doctrinal concept during the history of Christianity since apostolic times and the writing of the Scriptures. Reading such concepts into the New Testament, a Judeo-Christian document, is an anachronistic effort.

^F4In the account of Peter�s vision at Joppa the writer of Acts records that as late as CE 40 the apostle Peter refrained from eating unclean meats (Acts 10:14; 11:8; cf. Leviticus 11). Peter�s statement demonstrates that at that point in time the early Judeo-Christian community regarded the unclean animals of Leviticus 11 as unfit for human consumption. The statement shows that Peter did not understand Jesus to declare all animal flesh as fit for humans to eat at Mark 7:19 or during his ministry. Jesus could not have taught violation of the Torah without violating the Torah himself. By CE 50 and the events recorded in Acts 15 Peter and the apostles appear to be of a another opinion based, not upon eisegesis, but rather on their coming to understand that the Mosaic covenant ended with Jesus' death. The emphasis in New Testament writings from CE 50, even though Jewish culture continued to remain a significant part of Judeo-Christianity for many centuries, was upon the nature of the new covenant and its implications for Christian life.

^F5I Corinthians 15:12-58; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Acts 23:6; 24:15. See Acts 8:5, 8:12-15; 10:45-48; 11:1-18; 15:1-6, 15:19.

^F6In BCE 46, Julius Caesar granted the Jews religio licita status allowing them to worship freely throughout the Roman empire. This privilege stemmed from the relationship of Caesar with Hyrcanus, son of Alexander, and the aid he had given the Romans in years past. Caesar vested the power of ethnarch of the Jews on Hyrcanus and his children and granted religio licita to Judaism, which contributed to Judaism�s survival after the demise of the Jewish state. See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14.10.2-8;Whiston 1957:422-424; Zeitlin 1962:375-376.

Page last edited: 01/26/06 07:12 PM

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