One God, Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Lecture 5 - The Spread ofChristianity

Introduction:

A look at the first crucial centuries in the life of Christianity and how it grew from

marginal, to persecuted, to tolerated, to official status within the Roman Empire.

A. The Parting of the Ways

1. The Ingathering of the Gentiles
   a. Though the letters of Paul are the closest to the times of Jesus, the
   Acts of the Apostles (New Testament) tells the story of the growth of
   Christianity. It begins with Jesus’ bodily ascension into heaven.
   b. Jesus’ 12 chosen collect in Jerusalem for Shavuoth (Pentecost in
   Greek) where the Holy Spirit (of God) comes upon them and stirs them
   to preach the cause of the Jesus movement (later called “Christianity”).
   c. Among the Jewish/Christian community in Jerusalem, dissension aris-
   es between Hebrew-speakers and the Greek-speakers.
   d. This dissension leads to the stoning of a Christian disciple named
   Stephen, who is a Greek-speaking Jew. This is the first instance of
   having a witness (Greek: martyros) to the new faith.
   e. At this stoning is a Jew from the Diaspora named Saul who is thor-
   oughly Hellenized. He is living in Jerusalem and is appalled by the
   preaching of Stephen. He begins a priestly sanctioned campaign of
   persecuting the followers of Jesus.
   f. Then Saul is converted after a personal experience of Jesus and
   changes his name to Paul. He begins evangelizing Syria, accepting
   Gentiles into the Jesus community, without benefit of prior conversion
   (or circumcision) to Judaism.

Before beginning this lecture you may want to...

Read Paul’sLetter to the Galatians, and Acts of the Apostles(Bible, RSV).

Consider this...

1. What would have happened to the Jesus movement if Saul had not
   been converted?


2. How did the influx of Gentiles affect the Jewish community?


3. How did the Christians become objects for persecution?

LECTURE FIVE