The Evolution of Early ChristianityThe Evolution of Early Christianity. A Genetic Study of First Century Christianity in Relation to Its Religious Environment. Shirley Jackson Case

This chapter explores the origin and order of the Writings along with their emergence from the larger corpus of prophets included in the Hebrew Bible. It focuses also on the somewhat mixed reception of some of those texts in Judaism and early Christianity as well as the tripartite structure of the Hebrew Bible compared with the quadripartite structure of the Christian Old Testament, as well as the question of whether the latter was a Christian innovation or derived from an element of Judaism in the first century ce before Christians separated from Judaism. The recent questions about the significance of the order of the Christian Old Testament canon will also be examined below.

Power, Exile, and Religion in the Roman Empire

Philo of Alexandria ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300175233.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Maren R. Niehoff

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Early Christianity ◽

First Century ◽

Jerusalem Temple ◽

Civic Virtues

This chapter examines how Philo emerged as a central author in the discourse on power, exile, and religion in first-century Rome. Highly aware of the tyrannical features of Claudius's rule, he develops a sophisticated language of projecting criticism onto Claudius's predecessor Gaius. Like his contemporary Seneca, Philo connects the loss of power—namely, exile—with philosophy, suggesting that it is a space for reasserting and refashioning one's identity. Close parallels appear between the Roman version of exile, exemplified by Flaccus, and the Jewish version of exile, exemplified by the Alexandrian Jews during the pogrom in their city. Within this distinctly Roman context, Philo develops a fascinating new notion of Judaism, which he defines by nobility of mind, the Jerusalem Temple, urbanity, and civic virtues. This dramatic refashioning of Judaism has significant implications for early Christianity and subsequent Greek authors in the Roman Empire.

Shirley Jackson Case, Historian of Early Christianity: An Appraisal

The Journal of Religion ◽

10.1086/483799 ◽

1949 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 30-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paul Schubert

Keyword(s):

Early Christianity ◽

Shirley Jackson

Nuwe-Testamentiese perspektiewe op die Sabbat en die Sondag

Verbum et Ecclesia ◽

10.4102/ve.v18i1.1127 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 97-110

Author(s):

S. J. Joubert

Keyword(s):

New Testament ◽

Early Christianity ◽

First Century ◽

Early Christian ◽

Strong Emphasis ◽

The New Testament ◽

To Come ◽

Available Information ◽

Interpretative Framework

New Testament perspectives on the Sabbath and the Sunday In order to come to terms with New Testament views on the Sabbath and the Sunday, an investigation of Jewish schematizations of time and of the Sabbath in particular, around the first century A.D. is undertaken. This is followed by a discussion of relevant New Testament texts on the Sabbath and the Sunday. Finally, the available information from the New Testament is placed within the interpretative framework of the “Christ event” which inaugurated the eschaton, and which also replaced the strong emphasis on specific holy days within early Christianity. However, the Sunday was probably chosen by some early Christian groups as the most suitable day to commemorate the resurrection of Christ.

Sin in the New Testament

10.1093/oso/9780190465735.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jeffrey Siker

Keyword(s):

New Testament ◽

Early Christianity ◽

First Century ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Jerusalem Temple ◽

Early Christian ◽

Roman World ◽

Greco Roman ◽

The New Testament ◽

Christian Message

This book examines what the different New Testament writings have to say about sin within the broader historical and theological contexts of first-century Christianity. These contexts include both the immediate world of Judaism out of which early Christianity emerged, as well as the larger Greco-Roman world into which Christianity quickly spread as an increasingly Gentile religious movement. The Jewish sacrificial system associated with the Jerusalem Temple was important for dealing with human sin, and early Christians appropriated the language and imagery of sacrifice in describing the salvific importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Greco-Roman understandings of sin as error or ignorance played an important role in the spreading of the Christian message to the Gentile world. The book details the distinctive portraits of sin in each of the canonical Gospels in relation to the life and ministry of Jesus. Beyond the Gospels the book develops how the letters of Paul and other early Christian writers address the reality of sin, again primarily in relation to the revelatory ministry of Jesus.

Relating to Judaism, Experiencing the Sacred

The Temple in Early Christianity ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300197884.003.0010 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 285-313

Author(s):

Eyal Regev

Keyword(s):

Identity Formation ◽

Social Movement ◽

New Testament ◽

Early Christianity ◽

First Century ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

Early Christian ◽

The New Testament ◽

The Temple ◽

Point Of Reference

This chapter examines how early Christian attitude toward the Temple changed and why. First-century early Christianity was a religious and social movement at the beginning of the process of identity formation. Its members had yet to determine who they were: what part of their identity was contiguous with Judaism and what part comprised all-new elements. During this process they undoubtedly looked to other non-Christian Jews as a point of reference. Literary engagement with the Temple granted the New Testament writers and their contemporary readers the opportunity to express their debt to Jewish tradition, while at the same time their distinctiveness from it. Moreover, this engagement enhanced their sense of being powerful, genuine, and sacred—that is, close to God. For them, the Temple is a means of experiencing the sacred in both old and new fashion, somewhere on the spectrum between what would later be termed “Judaism” and “Christianity.”

Wetenschappelijk onderzoek op het gebied van het Nieuwe Testament en grensgebieden in Nederland en Nederlandstalig Belgie, 1993- 19991

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies ◽

10.4102/hts.v55i4.1629 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 55 (4) ◽

Author(s):

M. De Jonge

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

New Testament ◽

Early Christianity ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Research Trends ◽

First Century ◽

Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ◽

Cultural Environment ◽

Religion And Theology ◽

The New Testament

Scientific research on the New Testament and related fields in the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium, 1993-1999. The article gives an overview of recent and current New Testament research in the Netherlands and Belgium. The institutions and circumstances within which research is done, are discussed. The article points out that theological faculties function within an increasingly secularising society. In spite of this, and the problems the churches are experiencing, there still is a remarkable interest in religion and theology both within and outside of church and university circles. Research trends include a focus on the cultural environment of early Christianity, the history and literature of Christianity ater the first century and a linguistic and literary approach. The interest in Biblical theological issues is much more limited. These trends and the researchers working in the various fields are discussed in detail. The article concludes that much has been done in the field of New Testament research in the Dutch-speaking world in spite of fairly unfavourable circumstances.