- Joined
- Mar 9, 2019
Also, (and I don't know if you are doing this on purpose), you kinda imply that the incorporation of non-jews into Christianity was something that just sort of happened over time. I don't think this is the case. I remember learning that the NT was originally written in Koine Greek (the lingua-franca of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire), not Hebrew (the religious language of the Jews) or Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke in his day-to-day life). I was told the point of this was specifically to make the text available to non-Jews. Christianity was never meant to be an exclusively Jewish thing.
It did happen over time. The early leaders (still Jewish) did not branch the faith to the Gentiles immediately. They remained a small community within Jewish sectors (which was why early persecutions were so effective) in the early years. When the church eventually branched out and started adding Gentiles into the faith, they still went to the synagogues in a city FIRST before reaching out to the Gentile population. Furthermore, The Book of Acts (Acts 15:4-30 to be precise) does mention the debate on whether or not the Gentile Followers of The Way were to subject to Jewish Law (The Laws of Moses described in the Old Testament). It got so heated that leaders had to step in and settle it (Paul recounts this in the letter to the Galatian church, 2:4-10). The conclusion was reached that the Gentile believers should not be subject to Jewish Law and this represents, in my humble opinion, the severing of The Way from traditional Jewish practices.