)eh recently linked to the quotlibeta forum where there is a very interesting discussion on 'Christian Beginnings - from Nazareth to Nicea' a book by a respected and eminent scholar, Geza Vermes. It quotes from an article on the subject matter of the book which deals with the early church.
The distinction between Jewish Christians and Gentiles is explored in detail. Initially, Jesus was not considered a deity - and the many references Christians cite for their 'Nicean creed' or Trinitarian views are challenged as being later additions or later interpretations.
What is clear is that the earliest 'Jewish Christians' did not view Jesus as the later 'Gentile Christians' did. Vermes talks about the 'Pauline-Johannine' concepts of atonement and redemption being missing from the earliest Jewish Christian beliefs.
Below I extract some parts from Vermes article (and the link is given at the end), but it is interesting to read through the debate on Quodlibeta as well - there the objections/arguments from Trinitarian Christians are dealt with quite comprehensively by the poster 'sankari':
http://jameshannam.proboards.com/index. ... 135&page=1
(Thanks eh for linking to that forum - most enlightening thread there).
Here are the quotes from Vermes' article:
The combined expression "Jewish Christian", made up of two seemingly contradictory concepts, must strike readers not specially trained in theology or religious history as an oxymoron. For how can someone simultaneously be a follower of both Moses and Jesus? Yet at the beginning of the Christian movement, in the first hundred years of the post-Jesus era, encounters with Jewish Christians distinguishable from Gentile Christians were a daily occurrence both in the Holy Land and in the diaspora.
..
Among the oldest Christian writings, two in particular offer a splendid insight into the divergences between the two branches of the Jesus followers. The 16 chapters of the Didache, or Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles, probably composed in Palestine or Syria, is our last major Jewish Christian document preserved in full, and the Epistle of Barnabas is one of the earliest expressions of Gentile Christianity, filled with anti-Jewish strictures.
The existence of the Didache was known as long ago as the fourth century. Eusebius mentions it. However, the full Greek text was first published by Philotheos Bryennios in 1883 from an 11th-century manuscript identified by him ten years earlier. It contains no identifiable chronological pointers, but is generally assigned to the second half of the first century CE, thus probably antedating some of the writings of the New Testament.
Its religious programme is built on the essential summary of the Mosaic Law, the love of God and of the neighbour, to which is added the so-called "golden rule" in its negative Jewish form, "Whatever you do not want to happen to you, do not do to another" (Did. 1.2), instead of the positive Gospel version, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Mt. 7:12; Lk 6:31). The lifestyle recommended is that of the primitive Jerusalem community described in the Acts, including religious communism: "Share all things with your brother and do not say that anything is your own" (Did. 4.. The Didache seems to recommend the observance of the entire Mosaic Law or at least as much of it as is possible (Did. 6.2).
Perhaps the most significant element of the doctrine handed down in the Didache concerns its understanding of Jesus. This primitive Judaeo-Christian writing contains none of the theological ideas of Paul about the redeeming Christ or of John's divine Word or Logos. Jesus is never called the "Son of God". Astonishingly, this expression is found only once in the Didache where it is the self-designation of the Antichrist, "the seducer of the world" (Did. 16.4). The only title assigned to Jesus in the Judaeo-Christian Didache is the Greek term pais, which means either servant or child. However, as Jesus shares this designation in relation to God with King David (Did. 9.2; see also Acts 4:25), it is clear that it must be rendered as God's "Servant". If so, the Didache uses only the lowliest Christological qualification about Jesus.
In short, the Jesus of the Didache is essentially the great eschatological teacher, who is expected to reappear soon to gather together and transfer the dispersed members of his church to the Kingdom of God. The Pauline-Johannine ideas of atonement and redemption are nowhere visible in this earliest record of Judaeo-Christian life. While handed down by Jewish teachers to Jewish listeners, the image of Jesus remained close to the earliest tradition underlying the Synoptic Gospels, and the Christian congregation of the Didache resembled the Jerusalem church portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles.
The switch in the perception of Jesus from charismatic prophet to superhuman being coincided with a geographical and religious change, when the Christian preaching of the Gospel moved from the Galilean-Judaean Jewish culture to the pagan surroundings of the Graeco-Roman world. At the same time, under the influence of Paul's organising genius, the church acquired a hierarchical structure governed by bishops with the assistance of presbyters and deacons. The disappearance of the Jewish input opened the way to a galloping "gentilisation" and consequent de-judaisation and anti-judaisation of nascent Christianity, as may be detected from a glance at the Epistle of Barnabas.
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/4204/full
Cheers,
Shafique
