Introduction
It is well known that Christianity has its roots in Judaism; our question is why Judaism and Christianity parted ways. Was Christianity always destined to be a new and distinct religion? Was it doctrine or circumstances that drove a wedge between Christianity and Judaism?[1]
In this article we will examine the role of early Christianity as a sect amongst many and how that situation changed. We will see how on the one hand Christianity developed doctrinally in ways that drew it apart from other Jewish sects. We will also see how Judaism was reformed and reborn at the end of the first century as Rabbinical Judaism.
Early Christianity: A Sect Amongst Many
It is somewhat of a misnomer to speak about Judaism in the early first century as though it were a single religion. In fact, at the time of Jesus there were various sects each with distinctive beliefs. The New Testament refers to two of these sects, namely the Pharisees and the Sadducees. From Josephus were learn of a third group called the Essenes, often identified with the Qumran covenanters. In addition to these sects, we can also point to Hellenized Jews like Philo of Alexandria who is probably indicative of a wider tendency amongst Diaspora Jews to adopt ideas and practices of their Gentile neighbours. These various sects held different, and sometimes contradictory, beliefs. Famously, Paul uses the difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees of the over the question of the resurrection to stir up contention in the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:7-9). These groups also differed regarding providence, the Sadducees believing God to be generally disinterested with the world, whilst the Pharisees regarded God as intimately concerned with the dealings of mankind.[2] The Essenes place great emphasis on the role of Fate in preference to free-will.[3] Nevertheless these heterogeneous groups each still retained their identity as being fundamentally Jewish as loosely defined by their belief in one God, their acceptance of the Law and their association (to lesser or greater degree) with the Temple and its rituals.
The earliest groups of the followers of Christ fit within the mould as one more Jewish sect. Jesus himself, of course, was a Jew, circumcised the eighth day (Luke 2:21) and fully engaged with the rituals of the Temple (e.g. Luke 2:41-42, 22:7-13). Though Jesus taught a distinctive doctrine, it is to be questioned whether he intended to found a new religion so much as redirect the energies of the old. After Jesus’ ascension the early apostles continued to behave overtly Jewish, their preaching being centred around the Temple (Acts 3:1f, 5:12, 42, etc.). Although the early Christians were persecuted by the Jewish authorities, it was the synagogues that were the early Christian mission field and their congregations that we their converts. As one writer puts it “there is evidence to suggest the prior presence of Jews in almost every location where we can trace the spread of Christianity in its first two centuries”.[4] It is likely that the early Christian ecclesias were a development from the synagogue system; the world ‘ecclesia’ was sometimes used synonymously for ‘synagogue’. The excavations of early Christian and Jewish buildings in Dura Europos in Syria certainly bear out this comparison.
The Roman authorities did not make any distinction between Jews and Christians. Claudius dispelled Jews and Christians from Rome without discrimination (Acts 18:2). In his account of the expulsion, the Roman historian Suetonius presents the rather muddled idea that the Jews were expelled because of “disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus” (Life of Claudius xxv.4). When Paul is brought before the Roman governor Gallio by the Jews of Corinth, Gallio dismisses the case as a purely Jewish matter making no distinction between Jews and Christians (Acts 18:14-16). Regarding the persecution of Christians by Domitian, Dio Cassius records their offence as “Jewish customs” making no mention of the name “Christian” (Epitome LXVII.14). Not only did the Roman authorities fail to distinguish early Christians from Jews, it seems that many Jews also regarded the early Christians as fellows. When Paul arrives in Rome he is greeted as a brother (Acts 28:17, 21) and is given a patient hearing (Acts 28:22-29).
Early Tensions
Acts and the letters of Paul attest to two tensions that existed in the early ecclesias. Firstly there was the issue of whether Gentiles could be baptised, and second there was the issue of whether Christians should keep the Law. The first of the issues, though controversial, would not have threatened the association between Christians and Jews. After all Jews preached and Jews made proselytes. The issue was controversial amongst early Christians because the issue was controversial amongst first century Jews, some actively seeking converts, others denying any association with the Gentiles. It was the second issue that marked a significant shift away from Judaism. As we noted above, the various different sects of Judaism were united by their mutual acceptance of the Law. Paul’s teaching that neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ need keep the Law would have driven a wedge between Christians and Jews both doctrinally and socially.
Callan seeks to explain the divergence of Christianity from Judaism on this issue of whether or not Christians should keep the Law:
It is conceivable that the Christians might have remained a sect of Judaism if they had not admitted Gentiles to their company without requiring that they keep the Law.[5]
However, though this was what undoubtedly distinguished Christians from Jews in the minds of Christians, it is not clear how successfully this distinction was made in the minds of Jews. The letters of Paul are full of his own efforts to dissuade Christians from keeping the Law and to guard against the influence of those who said Christians must keep the Law. The close kinship between Christians and wider Judaism explains how it was that these Judaizers were able to gain a foothold within the ecclesias. As long there was this group of Jews who wanted to accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and yet still keep the Law, there would remain a connection between Christianity and Judaism.
The Breaking Point
The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 could have marked the end of Judaism. The Temple, that provided a central focal point for Jewish consciousness, had been destroyed. The Sanhedrin was dissolved, the Temple was in ruins, the sacrifices and rituals were at an end.[6] The Jewish religion might have disappeared from history. In actuality many Jewish sects did disappear. The Sadducees, who were intimately associated with the Temple, lost all importance. However, the Pharisees, who were associated with the synagogues, were in a better position to survive the loss of the Temple. Though Jerusalem lay in ruins, other Jewish cities and their synagogues survived. At Jamnia (Jabneh), Rabbi Johanan ben Sakkai gathered around him a community of rabbis that gained increasing recognition from the wider Jewish community. This community not only provided a new centre for Jewish religion but also seems to have acted as a court of law.[7] This Pharisaic community was given recognition by the Romans.[8] This recognition meant that the Jamnia community was able to operate with a degree of authority unavailable to any other Jewish community and thus this community became architects of a new Jewish orthodoxy: Rabbinic Judaism.
In an effort to conform adherents to fixed doctrinal outlook, the Jamnia attempted to exclude “deviant Jews”, including the Christians.[9] The antagonism of the Rabbis towards Christians is illustrated in the eighteenth blessing of the ‘Amidah, which was composed at this time. This so-called ‘blessing of the heretics’ (birkat ha-minim) included the line “may the Nazarenes and the heretics perish quickly; may they be erased from the Book of Life” (berikot 28b-29a). Justin Martyr also mentions this cursing of Christians in the synagogues (Dialogue with Trypho 16). This new increased antagonism towards Christianity from the Jews is probably reflected[10] in Revelation in the phrase “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9, 3:9).
It was almost certainly by the efforts of the Rabbis at Jamnia that the Roman authorities began to distinguish between Jews and Christians. As we have seen, initially the Roman authorities made little distinction between Jews and Christians, and thus the Roman persecutions fell indiscriminately upon both. For instance, Eusebius, the Christian historians, records that the Christians were persecuted under Domitian (HE 3.17-20), whilst the Talmud records that the Jews were also persecuted under the Domitian (Deut. Rabbah 2.24).[11] The Christians had little recourse, but the Patriarch of Jamnia, Gamaliel II, had influence in Rome. The Talmud records that in an effort to escape these persecutions Gamaliel travelled to Rome and endeavoured to convince the emperor Domitian that Jews were not Christians, and thus not worthy of persecution.[12] Though we do not have the record of this discussions, we know the eventual outcome as the Jews, for a time at least, were granted tolerance whilst the Christians would continue to be persecuted by the Romans well into the fourth century.
Conclusion
Early Christianity arose and developed within Judaism. Though some of the Christian ideas were novel, they did not exclude the early Christians from their place in the wider Jewish community. However, several developments forced the Christians to part ways from Judaism. Firstly, the admission of Gentiles and freedom from the Law of Moses set Christianity apart from the doctrinal scope of Judaism. Secondly, the reformation of Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem led to a new form of Judaism emerging that was antagonist towards Christians, condemning them as heretics.
[1] The modern standard introduction to this topic is J. D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways (London: SCM Press, 1991).
[2] A. J. Saldarini, Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Society (Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1988) 290; D. Flusser, “The Jewish Religion in the Second Temple Period” in Society and Religion in the Second Temple Period (eds. M. Avi-Yonah & Z. Baras; London: W. H. Allen, 1977) 8.
[3] G. Vermes & M. Goodman, The Essenes according to the Classical Sources (Sheffield: JSOT Press 1989) 6.
[4] J. M. B. Barclay, “The Jews of the Diaspora” in Early Christian Thought in its Jewish Context (eds., J. Barclay & J. Sweet; Cambridge University Press, 1996), 27.
[5] T. Callan, Forgetting the Root: The Emergence of Christianity from Judaism (New York: Paulist Press, 1986), 106.
[6] G. B. Caird, The Apostolic Age (London: Duckworth 1975), 34.
[7] Caird, Apostolic Age, 34.
[8] P. Carrington, The Early Christian Church, (2 vols; Cambridge University Press, 1957), 1:241.
[9] Callan, Forgetting the Root, 38.
[10] [Ed AP] Or foreshadowed, depending on your view of the date of Revelation.
[11] M. B. Lerner, The World of Sages: Rabban Gamaliel of Jabneh (Tel-Aviv: Everyman’s University Press, 1984) 79.
[12] S. Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings (Oxford University Press, 1978) 248.
The Kingdom of God has been a cornerstone of the gospel from the earliest church