one of these surprising things that await any student of the new testament when they study
the text academically whether at university or at home reading academic texts is just how unorthodox
and heretical the earliest christian beliefs were compared to the later beliefs of the church
and i just want to share with you what some of these beliefs actually were because they are i
found them quite surprising when i first read about them and i'm going to use as my guide
jimmy dunn's book unity and diversity in the new testament and inquiry into the character
of earliest christianity and jimmy down as i've said before is a leading new testament scholar
professor at the university of durham and he says in his book page 255 under the chapter just how
orthodox was earliest palestinian christianity he says the following the first christians were jews
luke's account of the range of nationalities present at pentecost this is uh the great falling
of the holy spirit in acts chapter 2 where they where they all receive the holy spirit people from
all the nations of the earth apparently are congregated there but they were all jews and
proselytes in other words they weren't gentiles these were committed people committed to judaism
and even though they believe that jesus was the messiah and risen from the dead
that did not alter their standing or outlook as jews and dun continues they apparently continue
to observe the law without question this is the jewish law the 613 commandments given to moses
not interpreting their traditions of jesus's words and actions in a manner hostile to the law i think
in what they understood about jesus teaching told them to reject the law hence the pharisees seem
to have seen in them little or nothing of the threat which jesus had posed acts 5 33 onwards
and not a few became members of the jesus sect while still remaining pharisees acts 15 5 21-20
hence to the shock of the cornelius episode to the jerusalem believers it had not occurred to
them that faith in jesus the christ might make the purity law irrelevant so they had no understanding
from jesus that he had abolished the law or made what was unclean clean in regards to food at all
he continues they evidently continue to be firmly attached to the temple the jerusalem temple
attending daily at the hour hours of prayer acts 2 46 and 3 1
regularly coming together there for mutual support and in order to teach and evangelize the the hour
of prayers the hour of sacrifice is not like going to church in the church of england or episcopalian
church for prayers this is the temple was built for sacrifice and that's why uh it existed another
characteristic was their distinctive belief in the imminent parousia of jesus that's the return
of jesus the son of man this seems to uh this belief however seems to have stayed within the
framework of jewish eschatological hope this is probably the chief reason why
they remain so firmly rooted in jerusalem and centered on the temple for the temple
was the obvious focal point of the imminent consummation as malachi 3 1 clearly indicated
this would also explain why there was such a lack of concern for the gentiles or for mission outside
of jerusalem amongst the earliest jerusalem community they didn't go into all the nations
to evangelize as later christian tradition believed they did they stayed in jerusalem
they stayed amongst the jews as jews they were still only thinking in terms of israel acts 1 6
22 and following and 239 all that are far off which refers to the jews of the diaspora
in short he says it is evident that the earliest community in no sense
felt themselves to be a new religion distinct from judaism this is a really important point
today after 2 000 years of christian tradition we think of christianity and judaism isn't completely
separate and independent religions but actually the earliest community after jesus ascended into
heaven were jews practicing jews and within the jewish faith there was no sense of a boundary line
drawn between themselves and their fellow jews they saw themselves simply as fulfilled judaism
the beginning of eschatological israel and the jewish authorities evidently did not see them
as anything very different from themselves they held one or two eccentric beliefs so did other
jewish sects but otherwise they were holy jewish indeed we may put the point even more strongly
since judaism has always been concerned more with orthopraxy than with orthodoxy
right practice rather than right belief the earliest christians were not simply jews but
in fact continue to be quite orthodox jews these were no liberals jews there were no apostate jews
these were very traditional committed jews notice then that this is the group with whom
christianity proper all began only their belief in jesus as messiah and risen and their belief
that the last days were upon them mark them out as different from the majority of their fellow jews
none of the other great christian distinctiveness distinctives that come to expression in and
through paul are present so none of the great theological beliefs developed by paul much later
on you know the idea that jesus the messiah died for people's sins is absent the idea the law has
been abolished is absent the idea that they talk that the temple is no longer central is absent
and so the idea that that gentiles don't follow the law if they become part of judaism is absent
rather altogether it is a form of christianity which we today would scarcely recognize jewish
christianity indeed or perhaps more precisely a form of jewish massanism a messianic renewal
movement within pre-70s judaism so this is before the temple was destroyed in a.d 70 of course
and then dunn says if we now shift our glance from the beginning of christianity forward 150 years or
so into the second century and beyond it's a once becomes evident and this is very interesting that
the situation has significantly altered to put it mildly jewish christianity so far from being the
only form of christianity is now being classified as unorthodox and heretical there seem to have
been several groups of jewish christians whose beliefs put them beyond the pale of the emerging
great church one at least preserved an ancient title for early christians nazareans acts 24 5.
the quran of course says something very interesting about these people what were they
called in the koran the name probably embodied a claim to preserve the true tradition against
the antinomian christian communities elsewhere anthony meaning those who were against the law
who rejected the law now the best known sect whose name became a kind of stereotype in the great
church polemic against jewish christians was the ebionites the ebionites that's a name to remember
if you want to really grasp the original faith of the early church rather than paul's christianity
the ebionites and dunn outlines three significant characteristics of this of this now heretical
jewish christian faith first one not surprisingly is their faithful adherence to the jewish law
justin martyr the second century gentile convert to paul's christianity very famous early father
knew of jews who believed in christ and who kept the law without insisting that all christians
should but he also knew others who not only kept the law themselves but who also compelled
gentile believers to keep it too so uh that's very interesting and then the next section here and i'm
skipping a lot of the detail here just to give you a a concise flavor rather than exhaustive survey
is uh what dun caused the exultation of james and the denigration of paul the exaltation of
james the brother the actual brother of jesus and the denigration of paul that's obviously the
apostle paul it is clearest in the clementine literature now the clementine literature was
a body of jewish christian writings from the second century it is clearest in the clementine
literature where james appears as the head of the jerusalem jerusalem church from the first
ordained bishop in it by the lord as for peter he and the other apostles are shown as subordinate
to james and must give account of their work to him which is very interesting
so james is the very very head of the church exaltation of james is accompanied as i said by
denigration of paul so you know really putting him down ironers origen eusebius and epiphanius
number rejection of paul as one of the characteristics of the ebionite faith
and of the other jewish christian sects as well in the clementines this jewish writings again paul
is vehemently attacked peter calls him the man who is my enemy and dismisses his claim to have
seen the risen christ wow in jewish christianity in general paul was the arch enemy responsible
for the rest of christianity's rejection of the law and himself an apostate from the law
i mean this is seriously interesting paul was seen as an absolute danger heretic apostate from the
original uh jewish christian faith of the earliest church he was not seen as some kind of hero he was
an enemy the enemy because of course he taught people to abandon key aspects of the jewish faith
um and perhaps now the most uh significant uh belief of the ebionites was called adoptionism
one of the most frequently attested features of ebionite christology is the uh is found in uh
clearest expression in one of the early father's description of it as a chap called epiphanius
and he describes there the ebionite view is this christ they call the prophet of truth and christ
the son of god on account of his progress in virtue and the exaltation which descended upon
him from above they want him to be only a prophet and man and son of god and christ and mere man
as we said before who attained by a virtuous life the right to be called son of god
so for the ebonites the original christian belief uh in the earliest community all the way
through to the second century these are people who inherited and continued that tradition jesus was a
prophet a man uh who by virtue of his excellence could be called son of god but certainly was not
divine and done continues uh if these are indeed the three principle features of heretical jewish
christianity then a striking point emerges this is the features of second century ebionite views
heretical jewish christianity would appear to be not so very different from the faith of the first
jewish believers wow um and then he uh continued here a bit about the ed it gives a bit more
information here about the adoptionist christology the idea that in a sense jesus was adopted by god
on an honorary kind of designation as son of god but not literally begotten of god through
all ages and divine anything like that uh the adoptionist christology of the ebonites too
seems to have a firm anchor point in the earliest christian attempts to express
faith in jesus the christ if you look at acts 2 36 acts 13 33 for example and also note acts 2
22 jesus of nazareth a man attested to you by god so he was a man credited or tested by god
and also 10 38 jesus was able to do to do good and heal for god was with him doesn't say he
was god but god was with him very interesting and then just to conclude this um before i weary your
patience totally final paragraph and this is um jimmy dunn's summary of this and this the author
jimmy dunn is a christian he believes in the trinity he's an ordained minister of the church
but he's an honest historian which is why he is so uh honored by other historians and scholars for
his integrity and his research and he says this in short apart from the different attitudes to the
temple cult the measure of agreement between the earliest jewish believers and the ebio
knights is quite striking the heretical jewish christianity of the second and third centuries
apparently has no closer parallel than the earliest christian community in jerusalem
indeed on the basis of this evidence the heretical jewish christianity of the later centuries
could quite properly claim to be more truly the heir of earliest christianity than any other
expression of christianity wow so i'll just read that again the this is they
talk about the ebionics the heretical jewish christianity of the second and third centuries
has no closer parallel than the earliest christian community in jerusalem heretical
jewish christianity of the later centuries could quite properly claim to be more truly the heir
of earliest christianity than any other expression of christianity than than paul then
the catholic church then the gnostics then whoever whatever whatever and what do they believe the