i haven't been to a book shop for months but thankfully i do still get books sent to me from
amazon and this tome arrived today in the post it's called " After the New Testament : A Reader
in Early Christianity " 100 to 300 C.E (common era) A.D by Bart Ehrman . and this is published by Oxford
university press and i said right it's a little gem this actually . and it says on the back cover :
revealing the rich diversity of the early christian movement . this book brings together
an extensive collection of texts from the second and third centuries both orthodox
and heterodox (in inverted commas) selections include the writings of the apostolic fathers ,
the writings of Nag Hammadi , the early pseudopigrapha , martyrologies , anti-jewish
tract dates , hysteriologies , canon list church orders , liturgical texts and theological treaties .
featuring large textual excerpts , entire documents wherever possible , concise introductions and lucid
up-to-date translations . this is ideal for courses in early christianity , christian origins and early
church history . and indeed it's got some rave reviews from academics on the back and
looking through this i just wanted to share with you some of the letters written by
so-called jewish christians and these are not people who followed the apostle paul but continued
to obey the jewish law to all intents and purposes they were jews who accepted jesus as the messiah ,
as a human messiah and as a prophet . one of the texts is the gospel of the ebionites
which i'm not going to read today but because i want to look at a letter i wasn't really
familiar with it's called " the letter of Peter to James and its reception " and i'll just read to you
what Bart Ehrman has to say about it and then i'll read a couple of extracts
from the letter because it's really really interesting . if you're interested in the
great diversity of doctrine and faith in early christianities to such a degree that you could
even speak of early christianities plural . people have very very different beliefs about the law ,
about Jesus , about god or even if there was one god , maybe more there's more than one god
anyway that's a different subject . in the letter of Peter to James
this introduction is by Bart Ehrman he says : the letter of Peter to James is one of a number of
early christian writings produced in the name of Jesus disciple Simon Peter . it does not survive
as an independently a transmitted letter but only as the preface to the homilies of clement
a collection of stories and sermons by clement of Rome . the account of its reception
by James (that's the brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem) is also part of this
preface . the date of the composition of these works is difficult to determine but they are probably to
be situated in the early 3rd century . the letter of Peter urges James to pass along the accompanying
sermons carefully and only to those who are worthy to receive them . the clear concern is
that Peter's teachings not be corrupted by those who have a different understanding of the truth .
both the letter and the reception are jewish christian writings as seen in their emphasis on
emulating the actions of Moses on keeping the law and on opposition to the person Peter calls
the man who is my enemy commonly understood to be none other than the apostle Paul .
who taught that salvation comes to all people jew and gentile
apart from following the law of moses and who urged gentiles not to be circumcised .
you see in the letter of galatians he talks about that : Paul's notion stood in sharp contrast
to the views of jewish christians like the ebionites as seen here for example
in the insistence by James the brother of Jesus himself that only one who has been circumcised is
a believing christian . so that's Bart Ehrman's introduction . and the letter of James begins
so the letter of Peter to James begins : Peter to James the lord and bishop of the holy church
peace be with you always from the father of all through Jesus christ
knowing well that you my brother eagerly take pains about what is for the benefit of us all .
i earnestly beseech you not to pass on to anyone of the gentiles
the books of my preachings which i hear forward to you . and of course we
know in Matthew's gospel that Jesus said that he was only sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel and Peter here is saying in effect that he was only sent to preach to the jews .
nor to anyone of our own tribe before probation . (so even to the jews they have to be tested
first) . but if someone worthy of them has been examined and found to be worthy then you may
hand over to him in the same way as Moses handed over his office of a teacher to the seventy . so
here is Peter comparing himself with Moses the jewish prophet . and then skipping to chapter two
the letter of Peter to James says : in order now that the same may also take place among us
hand over the books of my preaching in the same mysterious way to our 70 brethren that they may
prepare those who are candidates for positions as teachers . for if we do not proceed in this way ,
our word of truth will be split into many options . this i do not know as a prophet but i have already
the beginning of the evil before me . for some among the gentiles have rejected my
lawful preaching and have preferred a lawless and absurd doctrine of the man who is my enemy .
so this is Peter talking about Paul referring to him as the lawless and absurd doctrine of the man
who is my enemy . and indeed some have attempted whilst i am still alive to distort my words
by interpretations of many sorts as if i taught the disillusion of the law and although i was of
this opinion did not express it openly but that may God forbid . so Peter is absolutely rejecting
the idea that openly or in a private way that he rejected the law . now he upheld the law of Moses
(he says) . and god forbid that i should have preached anything other than that (he says) . for to do such
a thing means to act contrary to the law of god which was made known by Moses and was confirmed by
our lord in in its everlasting continuance . so he's saying here that Jesus himself taught that the law
would continue , the jewish law should be obeyed . for he said the heaven and the earth will pass away
but one jot or tittle shall not pass away from the law . now this is a quote from
Matthew 24 to 35 and 5 18. there's two verses there in Matthew . that's pretty clear so
ending that there and just reminding ourselves of what Paul taught in his letter to the ephesians
Paul says : he Jesus has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances so that he might
create in himself one new humanity in the place of two thus making peace . so he believes that jesus
taught the abolition of the law even though in Matthew's gospel chapter 5 verse 17 he says do not
think i have come to abolish the law . i have not come to abolish it but to fulfill . so the precise
opposite of what Paul is teaching . and in this letter of Peter to James , Peter is crystal clear
that he himself upholds that teaching of Jesus which we see in Matthew's gospel
and calling Paul who is my enemy . i think that's probably enough for now , now i just
we ought to say and Bart Ehrman would doubtless say and i would agree with him
i don't think this letter is actually from the historical Peter to James .
for a start people like all of virtually , all of Jesus disciples what we would perhaps call
today peasants . they were uneducated and in fact there's a verse in acts and the sanhedrin actually
says that they are untutored , they are uneducated people . they didn't go to galilean university
and learn how to read and write , they couldn't read , they couldn't write , they weren't in a
position to write letters and neither was James . so i think that this is even though it's not by
Peter nevertheless it does reflect the views i think of jewish christianity and very likely
would be Peter's view as well historically . so even though it's not by him i think it probably
faithfully reflects the historical Peter's own views and definitely reflects the reviews of
James because even in the new testament in acts it has james clearly upholding the jewish law . so
this is a very different kind of christianity than you'll hear preached about today in the churches .
it's very different from Paul's christianity but it bears witness to the great diversity of
christianities we see in the early centuries . jewish christianity ultimately became extinct
perhaps to be reborn as islam , as another text i quoted another video once said : islam in a sense
carries that same belief about Jesus being a prophet , a messiah not god and teaching in
the main the continuance of the jewish law and not teaching its abolition as Paul did .
anyway , i hope that was of some interest . until next time