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The Beginnings of Christianity
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The Christian religion is built around an itinerant Jewish
preacher, Yeshua Ben Joseph or Yeshua Ben Nazareth. Later,
Pauline Christians gave him the title Jesus Christ (Jesus
is the Greek version of Yeshua; Christ means Messiah, the
anointed one - a title often given to the King of Israel).
Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Muslims
believe that his mother, Mary, was a virgin when he was
conceived; her pregnancy was caused by the Holy Spirit,
and did not result from sexual intercourse. He was born in
Palestine probably circa 4 to 7 BC, possibly in the fall.
(Some believe that his birth occurred in the springtime,
during the time that the lambs were giving birth, when the
shepherds were watching their flocks by night; others
believe that his birth date was in the fall.) He was
raised by his Jewish family of origin in the city of
Nazareth in the Galilee. Yeshua was the eldest child in
the family, having four brothers and at least two sisters.
(broader term implied) (Our Church believes that these are
either step-siblings or cousins). At the time, Palestine
was very unstable politically. It had been under severe
Roman oppression for decades. Many Jews expected the
imminent arrival in Galilee of a king, the Messiah,
(Anointed One) who would lead them to a military victory
over the occupation forces and reign as king. This would
be followed by the Reign of God on earth. Zealots (Jewish
nationalists) were actively promoting the overthrow of the
Romans.
At the age of about 30, circa 26 AD, he was baptized by
John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus, a Jewish prophet,
and probably a member of the Essenes. The Essenes were the
smallest of the four main Jewish religious/political
groups active in Jerusalem at the time; the others being
the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots. Yeshua became an
itinerant preacher whose message found an enthusiastic
audience. He collected a set of 12 initial disciples,
during his ministry of which about 10 are fully described
in the New Testament). The prime elements of his message
were:
a call for personal repentance and realignment of behavior
which would lead to the creation of the Kingdom of God, a
new social and religious order on earth.
a call to love God with all your ability.
a call to love your neighbors, including your enemies, and
to take no aggressive acts against those that oppress you.
a new interpretation of Jewish law which gave priority to
one's responsibility to God and to one's fellow man, while
downgrading the relative importance of ritual and
ceremony.
Running afoul of the occupation army, Jesus is recorded
New Testament as being betrayed by Judas, one of his
followers. He was executed in Jerusalem about Passover
circa 30 AD by the Roman authorities. The New Testament
describes that after his death, Jesus was resurrected. He
visited with his followers for a few weeks (or for a
single day, according to Luke) and then ascended to
Heaven. Many of his followers expected that he would
return shortly and initiate the Kingdom of God on earth.
During the first six decades of the first century AD,
Judaism was composed of about two dozen competing
factions: Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots,
followers of John the Baptist, followers of Yeshua of
Nazareth (Iesous in Greek, Iesus in Latin, Jesus in
English), followers of other charismatic leaders, etc. All
followed common Jewish practices, such as observing
dietary restrictions, worshiping at the Jerusalem temple,
sacrificing animals, etc.
Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ) conducted a short
ministry (one year, in the Galilee according to the
synoptic gospels; three years, mainly in Judea according
to the Gospel of John). His teachings closely matched
those of Beit Hillel (the House of Hillel). Hillel was a
great Jewish rabbi who lived in the second half of the 1st
century BC, one or two generations before Yeshua's birth.
Jesus was charged with assault on the Roman merchants in
and around the temple. This was apparently considered
treason or insurrection by the occupying Roman forces.
(Crucifixion, when used on a non-slave such as Jesus, was
restricted to these two crimes.) He was executed by a
detail of Roman soldiers, perhaps during the springtime,
sometime in the late 20's or early 30's AD. Most
historians date the event in April of either the year 30
or 33. According to the Gospels, his disciples initially
returned to their homeland of Galilee immediately
following their leader's death.
in 70 AD the Roman Army attacked Jerusalem and destroyed
the central focus of Jewish life: the temple. This was an
absolutely devastating blow at the time; Jewish life was
totally disrupted. Jews were no longer able to worship at
the Temple. Jews started spreading out to all over the
world. Out of this emerged two main movements: rabbinical
Judaism (A rabbi is equivalent to a priest or a pastor)
centered in local synagogues, and the Christian movement.
There was great diversity within the Christian movement
during the first few decades after Jesus' execution. Some
of Jesus' followers (and those who never met Jesus but who
were inspired by his teachings) settled in Jerusalem. But
others spread across the KNOWN world, teaching very
different messages. "Even in the same geographical area
and sometimes in the same cities, different Christian
teachers taught quite different gospels and had quite
different views of who Jesus was and what he did." Gregory
J. Riley, "One Jesus, many Christ's," Harper San
Francisco, (1997),
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