Before Jerusalem Fell

Th Role ofJmish Chri@izni~ 221
focused on racial Israel and religious Judaism. The Lord Himself
ministered first to “the lost sheep of Israel.”3 Later, in the second
stage toward the end of Christ’s ministry, the Great Commission
(Matt. 20:28fT.; Acts 1:8) commanded a worldwide outreach to all
nations. But that this was only dimly understood by the early original
(Jewish) Christians is evident in light of the difficulties witnessed in
Acts 10, 11, 15, and Galatians 2.
Even in this early post-commission Christianity, believers continued
to gravitate toward the Jews: engaging in Jewish worship observances
(Acts 2: lff.; 21:26; 24:11), focusing on and radiating their
ministry from Jerusalem (Acts 2 — 5) while frequenting the Temple
(Acts 2:46; 3: lfK; 4: 1; 5:21fY.; 21:26; 26:21), attending the synagogues
(13:5, 14; 14:1; 15:21; 17:lfI; 18:4, 7, 19, 26; 19:8; 22:19; 24:12;
26: 11), designating themselves as the true heirs of Judaism (Gal.
3:27-29; 6:16; Phil. 3:3), and so forth.
The first Christians did not think of the Church primarily as an
organized society; to them it was the faithful Remnant consisting of
heirs to the divine promises; it was the New Israel and its members
were therefore the elect or chosen of God; it was the Temple of the
divine presence indwelt by the Spirit. 4
Leonhard Goppelt discusses the matter at hand by commenting that
Jesus’
disciples, however, were faithful at first in their observance of both,
as Acts unobtrusively recounts . . . , so that their special teaching
and customs offered no occasion for them not to be considered Jews.
Indeed, they had not separated themselves publicly nearly as much
as had the Essenes. Only after A.D. 70 did the requirements for
membership in Judaism become more stringent. 5
3rd ed. (New York Harper & Row, 1982), chap. 3. Cfl also Philip Schaff, HistoV oftb
Chrz.rtian Church, 8 VOIS. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, [1910] 1950), vol. 1, chap. 11:
“Theology of the Apostolic Church”; and Frederic W. Farrar, Tlu Ear~ Days of ChristianiQ
(New York: Cassell, 1884), chap. 19: ‘~udaic Christianity.” A quite liberal analysis of
thk fact, requiring cautious employment, can be found in Charles Guignebert, Tb Ear~
Hi.rto~ of Chtitiani~ (New York: Twayne, [n.d.] rep.), pp. 10SM See also Gregory Dix,
Jew am! Greek: A .$’tuaj in the l%srnitiw Church (Westminster Dacre Press, n.d.), chap. 2.
3. See Matthew 10:6ff.; 15:21K; John 1:11; cp. Romans 1:16.
4. J. G. Davies, The Ear~ Chtitian Chwh (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965),
p. 46.
5. Leonhard Goppelt, Apostolic and Post-Apostolk Times, trans. Robert A. Guelich