Early Christianity
Early Christianity
Before Christianity became one thing, Christians argued fiercely over what it was
1. Christianity began as a Jewish movement
Jesus, his earliest followers, Paul, and the first Jerusalem leadership all emerged from the Jewish world of the first century. The earliest disputes were therefore not initially “Christians versus Jews,” but arguments inside and around Judaism about Jesus, Torah, Gentile inclusion, resurrection, and messianic expectation.
2. Early Christians disagreed about enormous things
Ancient Christian communities debated Jesus’ nature, the creator God, resurrection, scripture, authority, prophecy, asceticism, and salvation. Groups later labeled Ebionites, Marcionites, Valentinians, and other “heretics” show that early Christianity was not born with every later boundary already settled.
Marcion
Rejected the Jewish scriptures as revelation of the same God proclaimed by Jesus and promoted a sharply restricted Christian collection.
Proto-orthodox Christians
Defended continuity with Israel’s scriptures, four Gospels, apostolic tradition, and forms of belief that eventually became dominant catholic Christianity.
3. The New Testament canon developed over time
Paul’s letters circulated early, Gospel collections developed, and Christian authors quoted many writings. By the late second century a recognizable core existed, but disputes over books such as Hebrews, Revelation, James, 2 Peter, and others continued in different regions.
The familiar 27-book New Testament is therefore historically early but not delivered with Jesus as a bound table of contents.
4. Councils did not invent Jesus, but they did define boundaries
The Council of Nicaea in 325 addressed the relationship between the Father and Son amid the Arian controversy. Constantinople in 381 further shaped the creed that became standard. Later councils fought over how Christ’s divinity and humanity should be described.
Imperial politics mattered, but reducing the councils to “Constantine invented Christianity” is equally bad history. The theological arguments predated imperial sponsorship and drew on earlier Christian texts and worship.
5. How bishops and Rome became powerful
Local churches developed leadership structures involving bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Major apostolic cities acquired prestige, and the bishop of Rome gradually accumulated exceptional authority in western Christianity. Eastern Christianity developed differently, eventually producing the long institutional divide between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
What can we actually say with confidence?
- High confidence: Christianity emerged from first-century Judaism.
- High confidence: significant theological diversity existed among early Christians.
- High confidence: the 27-book New Testament canon developed through a historical process.
- High confidence: Nicaea debated how Jesus’ divinity should be articulated; it did not vote on whether Jesus had ever existed or simply invent his divinity from nothing.
- Important distinction: later labels such as orthodox and heretical describe outcomes of historical conflicts as well as theological judgments.
Sources & further reading
Compare the New Testament with the Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, surviving non-canonical Christian writings, and the texts of the early ecumenical creeds and councils.