After Jesus Before Christianity
A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
After Jesus Before Christianity
A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
About This Book
From the creative minds of the scholarly group behind the groundbreaking Jesus Seminar comes this provocative and eye-opening look at the roots of Christianity that offers a thoughtful reconsideration of the first two centuries of the Jesus movement, transforming our understanding of the religion and its early dissemination.
Christianity has endured for more than two millennia and is practiced by billions worldwide today. Yet that longevity has created difficulties for scholars tracing the religion's roots, distorting much of the historical investigation into the first two centuries of the Jesus movement. But what if Christianity died in the fourth or fifth centuries after it began? How would that change how historians see and understand its first two hundred years?
Considering these questions, three Bible scholars from the Westar Institute summarize the work of the Christianity Seminar and its efforts to offer a new way of thinking about Christianity and its roots. Synthesizing the institute's most recent scholarshipâbringing together the many archaeological and textual discoveries over the last twenty yearsâthey have found:
- There were multiple Jesus movements, not a singular one, before the fourth century
- There was nothing called Christianity until the third century
- There was much more flexibility and diversity within Jesus's movement before it became centralized in Rome, not only regarding the Bible and religious doctrine, but also understandings of gender, sexuality and morality.
Exciting and revolutionary, After Jesus Before Christianity provides fresh insights into the real history behind how the Jesus movement became Christianity.
After Jesus Before Christianity includes more than a dozen black-and-white images throughout.
Frequently asked questions
Information
1
The Experiment
- Jesus came down from heaven to establish the Christian church. He was a fantastic person whose birth marks the very beginning of civilizations. He taught the truth and did god-sized things. He handed on his complete teachings to his most loyal followers, the apostles.
- These apostles then relayed correctly to the bishops of the early churches all of the great things Jesus said and did.
- These first bishops correctly passed down Jesusâs teachings and magnificent deeds to the next two-plus centuries of bishops.
- The faithful line of bishops summarized perfectly Jesusâs teachings and acts in the fourth-century Nicene Creed, which carried full truth and authority to the twenty-first century.
WHAT WE DISCOVERED
- They Resisted the Roman Empire A wide set of what we call Jesus clubs, movements for the Savior, communities of the Anointed, and schools of the Lord successfully resisted the Roman Empire. These peoplesâ resistance against Rome often kept violence at bay and gave their people courage and an experience of safety. A key dimension of their resistance to empire was invoking Godâs compassionate and strange empire, or kingdom, as later translators have it, in contrast to Romeâs cruel and dominating one. These various groups made fun of Roman military power and mocked Romeâs claim of divine power, even though they themselves had almost no power. The Empire of God challenged the Empire of Rome. Caesar Augustus as Lord conflicted with Jesus Anointed as Lord.
- They Practiced Gender Bending A wide range of Jesus peoples practiced gender bendingâthat is, gender roles were fluid and flexible. One of their primary identities was that they were neither male nor female, but all were âoneâ through different lived, experienced realities of gender pluralism. Women, and a significant number of men, rejected both male dominance and female passivity. A wide swath of Jesus groups rejected marriage and traditional families, with the envoy Paul often leading the way. Although some Anointed groups and individuals supported male dominance and demanded female obedience to men, many men shifted toward acting more vulnerable and less domineering. Women cut their hair and dressed like men. These gendered activities and actions brokered new possibilities for identity among various Jesus peoples, well beyond the regular masculine/feminine dichotomies of the first two centuries.
- They Lived in Chosen Families With traditional families increasingly broken and dispersed, a variety of Jesus groups started living in experimental family groups. These new family groups were voluntary; that is, they lived together increasingly outside of blood or married relationships. Whereas previously the primary relations for living arrangements were extended families of multiple generations with cousins, aunts, and uncles in the mix, Jesus people associated daily with each other according to mutual support and affection. More and more âsupper clubsâ became crucial and core associations of daily life. Economic sharing provided ways that members of these groups bonded. In some cases, larger housing arrangements came into play for the groups through a donor exhibiting compassion. Although most of these new kinds of families were small, occasionally a wealthy person provided larger space for bigger groups.
- They Claimed Belonging to Israel The largest and most common identity of Jesus groups was their allegiance to Israel, regardless of whether the groups or members came from Israel-based bloodlines. This bond applied whether they lived in geographical Israel or around the Mediterranean basin. Small and large groups understood themselves to be following the God of Israel, read Israel-based holy writings, prayed and meditated according to the various Israel-based forms, bathed ritually according to Israelâs traditions, andâperhaps most of allâgave allegiance to their Israel-born teacher and leader, Jesus. Since Jesus belonged to Israel by blood and practice, the larger Jesus movements assumed and explicitly practiced Israelâs ways. But after the Bar Kokhba War (132â136 CE), the second major revolt against the Roman Empire of the people inhabiting the territory known as Roman Palestine, this allegiance was increasingly challenged.
- They Had Diverse Organizational Structures As was the case with larger Israel itself, the many different groups, schools, clubs, and Anointed communities had a variety of practices, beliefs, and organizational patterns. These peoples had no central leadership and so had neither interest in telling nor the ability to tell the myriad groups how to practice or what to believe. The models for such organization were local and occasionally regional, and so Jesus groups generally followed the diverse club organizational rules or the varieties of synagogue practices around the Mediterranean. The idea of Christian synods and ecumenical councils lay in the distant future. As occurred both in local clubs and in synagogue patterns, it was normal for different groups to dispute with one another about practices and beliefs.
- They Had Persisting Oral Traditions Writing did not dominate the life of the early communities of the Anointed to the same degree as surviving documents have dominated how we have imagined their life. There was nothing like the New Testament in the first two centuries CE. Throughout those centuries, Jesus peoples celebrating, arguing, and debating combined many forms of speaking and writing. Readingâas in all Mediterranean culturesâwas done together publicly, especially when the few people who could read would read to a whole group. But often there was no reading. There was significant writing among the different groups, but this writing was part of a boisterous, complicated community dialogue, group reading, ritual practice, andâmost of allâintense discussion. Much material overlapped Israelâs developing readings of Torah, the Prophets, and Wisdom literature, the writings increasingly being set apart, designated as particularly meaningful for the life and identity of these peoples. Other writings were letters between communities, partially developed stories, and songs from within communities. Important writing was also done through a few words etched in stone and referenced as rules or statutes for Jesus clubs and associations.
Papers Relevant to This Chapter by Seminar Participants
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword by Sue Monk Kidd
- How This Book Came Into Being
- Contributors
- 1. The Experiment
- 2. If Not Christian, What?
- Part I: Living with the Empire
- Part II: Belonging and Community
- Part III: Real Variety, Fictional Unity
- Part IV: Falling Into Writing
- Notes
- Ancient Writings in Translation: A Guide
- About the Authors
- Copyright
- About the Publisher