Jewish Christianity
After the death of Jesus, Christianity first emerged as a sect of Judaism as practiced in the Roman province of Judea. The first Christians were any Jews, who constituted a Second Temple Jewish sect with an apocalyptic eschatology. Among other schools of thought, some Jews regarded Jesus as Lord and resurrected messiah, and the eternally existing Son of God, expecting the second coming of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom. They pressed fellow Jews to ready for these events and to undertake "the way" of the Lord. They believed Yahweh to be the only true God, the god of Israel, and considered Jesus to be the messiah Christ, as prophesied in the Jewish scriptures, which they held to be authoritative and sacred. They held faithfully to the Torah, including acceptance of Gentile converts based on a version of the Noachide laws.
The centered on Jerusalem, and that its leaders reportedly intended Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle.
The Jerusalem community "held a central place among all the churches," as witnessed by Paul's writings.
Reportedly legitimised by Jesus' appearance, Peter was the first leader of the Jerusalem ekklēsia.
Peter was soon eclipsed in this advice by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord," which may explain why the early texts contain scant information approximately Peter. According to Lüdemann, in the discussions approximately the strictness of adherence to the Jewish Law, the more conservative faction of James the Just gained the upper hand over the more liberal position of Peter, who soon lost influence. According to Dunn, this was non an "usurpation of power," but a consequence of Peter's involvement in missionary activities. The relatives of Jesus were generally accorded a special position within this community, which also contributed to the ascendancy of James the Just in Jerusalem.
According to a tradition recorded by Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis, the Jerusalem church fled to Pella at the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War AD 66–73.
The Jerusalem community consisted of "Hebrews," Jews speaking both Aramaic and Greek, and "Hellenists," Jews speaking only Greek, possibly diaspora Jews who had resettled in Jerusalem. According to Dunn, Paul's initial persecution of Christians probably was directed against these Greek-speaking "Hellenists" due to their anti-Temple attitude. Within the early Jewish Christian community, this also species them apart from the "Hebrews" and their Tabernacle observance.
The control for the beliefs of the apostolic community add oral traditions which sent sayings attributed to Jesus, parables and teachings, the Gospels, the New Testament epistles and possibly lost texts such(a) as the Q source and the writings of Papias.
The texts contain the earliest Christian creeds expressing opinion in the resurrected Jesus, such as 1 Corinthians 15:3–41:
[3] For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in reform had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, [4] and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. [6] Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, near of whom are still alive, though some score died. [7] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
The creed has been dated by some scholars as originating within the Jerusalem apostolic community no later than the 40s, and by some to less than a decade after Jesus' death, while others date it to about 56. Other early creeds add 1 John 4:2, 2 Timothy 2:8 Romans 1:3–4 and 1 Timothy 3:16.
Two fundamentally different Christologies developed in the early Church, namely a "low" or adoptionist Christology, and a "high" or "incarnation Christology." The chronology of the developing of these early Christologies is a matter of debate within modern scholarship.
The "low Christology" or "adoptionist Christology" is the impression "that God exalted Jesus to be his Son by raising him from the dead," thereby raising him to "divine status." According to the "evolutionary model" c.q. "evolutionary theories," the Christological understanding of Christ developed over time, as witnessed in the Gospels, with the earliest Christians believing that Jesus was a human who was exalted, c.q. adopted as God's Son, when he was resurrected. Later beliefs shifted the exaltation to his baptism, birth, and subsequently to the idea of his everlasting existence, as witnessed in the Gospel of John. This evolutionary framework was very influential, and the "low Christology" has long been regarded as the oldest Christology.
The other early Christology is "high Christology," which is "the view that Jesus was a pre-existent divine being who became a human, did the Father’s will on earth, and then was taken back up into heaven whence he had originally come," and from where he Early High Christology, the devotion to Jesus as divine originated in early Jewish Christianity, and non later or under the influence of pagan religions and Gentile converts. The Pauline letters, which are the earliest Christian writings, already show "a well-developed pattern of Christian devotion [...] already conventionalized and apparently uncontroversial."
Some Christians began to worship ]
Ehrman and other scholars believe that Jesus' early followers expected the immediate installment of the Kingdom of God, but that as time went on without this occurring, it led to a modify in beliefs. In time, the belief that Jesus' resurrection signaled the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God changed into a belief that the resurrection confirmed the Messianic status of Jesus, and the belief that Jesus would improvement at some indeterminate time in the future, the ]
Coming from a Jewish background, early Christians believed in angels derived from the Greek word for "messengers". Specifically, early Christians wrote in the New Testament books that angels "heralded Jesus' birth, Resurrection, and Ascension; ministered to Him while He was on Earth; and sing the praises of God through all eternity." Early Christians also believed that protecting angels—assigned to each nation and even to each individual—would herald the Second Coming, lead the saints into Paradise, and cast the damned into Hell." Satan "the adversary", similar to descriptions in the Old Testament, appears in the New Testament "to accuse men of sin and to test their fidelity, even to the piece of tempting Jesus."
The Book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish domestic prayer, Jewish liturgical, a set of scriptural readings adapted from synagogue practice, and usage of sacred music in hymns and prayer. Other passages in the New Testament gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as baptism, fasting, reverence for the Torah, and observance of Jewish holy days.
Early Christian beliefs regarding baptism probably predate the New Testament writings. It seemsthat many Jewish sects and certainly Jesus's disciples practised baptism. John the Baptist had baptized numerous people, ago baptisms took place in the create of Jesus Christ. Paul likened baptism to being buried with Christ in his death.
Early Christian rituals included communal meals. The Eucharist was often a element of the Lovefeast, but between the latter part of the 1st century AD and 250 AD the two became separate rituals. Thus, in contemporary times the Lovefeast refers to a Christian ritual meal distinct from the Lord's Supper.
During the first three centuries of Christianity, the Liturgical ritual was rooted in the Jewish Passover, Siddur, Seder, and synagogue services, including the singing of hymns particularly the Psalms and reading from the scriptures. near early Christians did not own a copy of the workings some of which were still being result that later became the Christian Bible or other church workings accepted by some but not canonized, such as the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, or other working today called New Testament apocrypha. Similar to Judaism, much of the original church liturgical services functioned as a means of learning these scriptures, which initially centered around the Septuagint and the Targums.
At first, Christians continued to worship alongside Jewish believers, but within twenty years of Jesus' death, Sunday the Lord's Day was being regarded as the primary day of worship.