The Origin of Christianity
The Late Geza Vermes on the transition from Jewish Christians to Gentiles
A turning point in the Jesus movement, Peter baptizes the Roman centurion Cornelius, the first non-Jewish Christian, in Jerusalem (Acts 10), as shown in one of five baptism scenes on a 12th-century baptismal font in St. Bartholomew’s Church in Liège, Belgium. Image: Jean-Pol Grandmont.
Today the concept of “Jewish Christians” may sound like a confusion of two religions. However, to understand the origin of Christianity, one must begin with the population of Jewish Christians who lived during Jesus’ lifetime. In the November/December 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Dead Sea Scroll and early Christianity scholar Geza Vermes explored the origin of Christianity by examining the characteristics of the Jewish Jesus movement to see how it developed into a distinctly gentile religion.
In the New Testament, Jesus only preaches to a Jewish audience. Geza Vermes described the mission of the 11 apostles to preach to “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19) as a “‘post-Resurrection’ idea.” After the crucifixion, the apostles began to champion a new faith in Jesus and the ranks of the Jesus movement (known as “the Way” at the time) swelled to 3,000 Jewish converts. At first, these followers were distinctly Jewish, following Mosaic law, Temple traditions and dietary customs.
FREE ebook: Paul: Jewish Law and Early Christianity. Paul’s dual roles as a Christian missionary and a Pharisee.
In BAR, Geza Vermes wrote: “Acts identifies the demographic watershed regarding the composition of the Jesus movement. It began around 40 C.E. with the admission into the church of the family of the Roman centurion Cornelius in Caesarea (Acts 10). Later came the gentile members of the mixed Jewish-Greek church in Antioch (Acts 11:19–24; Galatians 2:11–14), as well as the many pagan converts of Paul in Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. With them the Jewish monopoly in the new movement came to an end. Jewish and gentile Christianity was born.”
As gentiles joined the Jesus movement, focus on Jewish law decreased and we start to see the origin of Christianity as a distinct religion. Jewish Christians in Jerusalem participated in separate Jewish services from the gentile Christian population, and while the two groups agreed on Jesus’ message and importance, the separate rites and communities led to increasing division between the groups.
Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!
Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more
The early-second-century Epistle of Barnabas is one of the earliest expressions of gentile Christianity and describes Jesus as quasi-divine. Photo: ©The British Library.
Geza Vermes presents the late first century C.E. Jewish Christian Didache as an important text for understanding the Jewish Jesus movement. The Christian document focuses on Mosaic Law and the love of God and the neighbor, and describes the observance of Jewish traditions alongside baptism and the recitation of “Our Father.” The Didache treats Jesus as a charismatic prophet, referring to Jesus with the term pais, a word for servant or child that is also used for King David, rather than the “Son of God.”
By contrast, the early second century Epistle of Barnabas shows a distinctly gentile Christianity in its presentation of the Hebrew Bible as allegory instead of covenantal fact. The clearly divinized Jesus in this document is distanced from the Jewish Christians and the divide between the Christian communities continued to widen over time. Geza Vermes writes that after Hadrian’s suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt, the Jewish Christians quickly became a minority group in the newly established church. At this point we can see the origin of Christianity as a distinctly non-Jewish religion; late in the second century, the Jewish Christians either rejoined their Jewish peers or become part of the newly gentile Christian church.
For more on the origin of Christianity, read Geza Vermes’s “From Jewish to Gentile: How the Jesus Movement Became Christianity” as it appeared in Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2012.
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library
Jesus in Arabia: Tracing the Spread of Christianity into the Desert
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in November 2012.
Related Posts
Must-Read Free eBooks
Want more Bible history?
Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update.
Unlock Unlimited Access to the Bible's Past
Unlock Unlimited Access to the Bible's Past
Become an All-Access Member to explore the Bible's rich history. Get Biblical Archaeology Review in print, full online access, and FREE online talks. Plus, enjoy special Travel/Study discounts. Don't miss out—begin your journey today!
Geza Vermes say: “At first, these followers were distinctly Jewish, following Mosaic law, Temple traditions and dietary customs.”
From Pentecost 33 CE when over 3 000 were baptised, they, as Christians, no longer followed the Mosaic Law. The Law was finished, ended, gone, kaput…… Jesus by his death, fulfilled the Law.
Paul, or any other apostles, never taught the Law after their conversion to Christianity.
Apparently, when you read Acts you stopped at chapter 2, because all through Acts, they were following the law. The fact that they were still celebrating Pentecost, which was 50 days after the Messiah died and 10 days after he returned to Heaven, should tell you that they kept the law. Acts 15 shows that the Hebrews were still being circumcised. Peter was keeping the dietary laws in 10:9-18. They (including Paul) were still keeping Pentecost in 20:16 and Unleavened Bread in 12:3 and 20:6. They kept the Sabbath 13:13-52, 15:21, 17:2, 18:1-4, 21:20-24, 28:23.
And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
(Act 21:20)
And this is what Paul said.
But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
(Act 24:14)
You have been believing what you have been taught rather than studying for yourself.
Thank you for making the different in Bible history.
I feel as this was helpful in my report and thank you for helping me with mEmma knowing a little more
BAS – Please do not use the Apocrypha to try and and back thoughts or ideas that are blatantly unscriptual.
It is the Holy Bible that is the word of God and this certainly does not include any books of the Apocrypha, as they are no part of the Bible canon……….there is a very good reason that they do not belong in God’s Word, and that is their contradictory nature to the truth.
The only PROBABLE value of some of those books is for their historical value, again, I would say VERY LIMITED value, if any.
BAS – The illustration you have posted on this page is “stretching the truth” quite a bit. If we look as Jesus baptism, as the example for Christians, we know that it was to be total immersion – what it was not, was something that could be carried out in a font, or any sprinkling of water.
Another factor of baptism is the person undergoing it, has to have accepted Christ and his teachings – or in other words they have accepted Christ as their personal saviour and they must have already dedicated their lives to do God’s will.
Dedication is personal, between God, and the individual, and baptism is an outward showing of that ones dedication to do the will of God.
The most interesting thing about the Jewish Christians is that their ideas didn’t die out — they became central to Islam. Muslims, with their view of Jesus as God’s prophet and their embrace of Divine Law and rejection of the Pauline notion of atonement through Christ’s death, are the direct heirs of the Nazarene and Ebionite traditions. And I would venture to suggest that James the brother of Jesus would have been more comfortable in a mosque than in one of Paul’s Gentile churches.