Are Those Jewish Roots?It took me several decades to break out of the Pauline, Hellenistic view of Jesus and to add a few sprinkles of the Petrine, Judean concepts. When one opens their eyes, it is clear that there was a major battle going on between the Church in Jerusalem led by James, the brother of Jesus, Peter, and Paul. Agabus warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul was a stubborn type. Henry Hart Milman (1791 – 1868) was an English historian and ecclesiastic who had done considerable study of Christianity and he wrote, " Christianity was born of Judaism: it was the offspring of the Old Testament." Many times as a young Christian, I felt like Marcion in that the God of the Old Testament seemed to have nothing to do with the God of the New Testament. So, why were these two testaments joined at the hip? Why the concept of Judeao-Christian? When one reads from a deeper level, three things become obvious about the early church DIVAGATIONS. 1-The Apostles and disciples didn't start out with the idea of preaching the Gospels (not yet in existence by the way) to the rest of the world. Paul with all of his deeply Jewish roots broke from the ranks and took the concept of the Christos Westward, leaving behind the Jews at Jerusalem who kept the faith that Jesus would return soon as the risen Messiah and deliver them from the oppression of the Romans. The years 68-70CE would quash all those ideas and Christianity would begin to close ranks, take their marching orders from Paul, and others, and seize the opportunity to join with the establishment in the early 4th century. Yes, the roots of Christianity are Jewish, but what's above the ground (fruit) looks much different than what's below (roots). |