EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Early Christian Life

Early Christian Beliefs and History

After Jesus' ascension to heaven forty days following his resurrection, his disciples were gathered, full of fear, wondering what to do next. This first preaching of the Christian message has been called the Birthday of the Church. The early Christian message was not complex. It is summarized in the apostle Peter's speech in Acts 2, which says that God is now working in a special way; Jesus was the God's ambassador; acknowledged Messiah, and these are the “final days” before the coming of a new world and God's judgment. Early Christian practice required those who believed to be baptized as a sign of rebirth, to share their possessions, and to care for widows and orphans.

What we know of Jesus and early Christianity comes largely from the New Testament. The New Testament, which is also at the core of Christianity, is used in religious services, read regularly, and carried throughout the world. (Miles, 12-15)

The New Testament is divided into four parts: (1) the Gospels, (2) the Acts of the Apostles, (3) the Epistles, and (4) Revelation. The Gospels describe the life and teachings of Jesus. Although we now know that the facts surrounding their authorship are complex, tradition has attributed the Gospels to four early followers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who are called evangelists (Greek: “good news person”). The Acts of the Apostles tells of the initial spread of Christianity, although its historical accuracy cannot be confirmed. The Epistles are letters to early Christians, primarily by Paul. The New Testament ends with a visionary book, Revelation, which foretells in symbolic language the triumph of Christianity. Altogether, there are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. (Norris, 30-35)

All the books of the New Testament were written in Greek, the language of culture and commerce in the classical Mediterranean world in the first century of the Common Era. The quality of the Greek varies; in the Book of Revelation the language is considered rough, while in the Books of Luke and Acts it is considered particularly graceful.

We know of the life of Jesus primarily from the Gospels, which are written in an extremely pictorial way. They are filled with powerful stories and images and have been the source of great inspiration for much later Christian art. Each of the four gospels is as unique in its artistry and style as four portraits of the same person painted by four different artists would be: the resulting portraits would certainly be recognizably similar but also different in such details as choice of background, clothing, angle of perspective, and so on. The same is true of the “portraits” of Jesus that are painted in the Gospels: each gospel writer shows Jesus in a different way. (Steve, 18-20)

Because the first three gospels, despite their differences, show a family resemblance in stories, language, and order, they are called the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic literally means “together-see” in Greek, implying a similar ...