EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE GODS

 

EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE GODS

Brett Todd

In a past article titled, “The Blessed Trinity” (November 29, 2021), which you can read in this blog, This Is Not Sunday School, I stated that the idea of three persons who make up one God is not spoken of in the Bible.  You cannot find the word Trinity nor the concept of “Three in one” in the Bible.  This idea is a later development of Christianity.  So, it should not surprise you that early Christians did have different ideas of God or the Gods.  

In early Christianity, there was much diversity to the chagrin of other Christians who thought everyone should believe the way they believed. This is true when we talk about God and the Gods.  Bart Ehrman, a noted scholar of the New Testament and Early Christianity, tells us that there were early Christian groups who believed there were two Gods, others 30 Gods, and even those Christians who believed there were 365 Gods (Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faith We Never knew).  Keep in mind that this is only a small sample of the diversity found in early Christianity.  There were other Christian groups who believed other things about God or the Gods as well. 

One such group of early Christians was the Marcionites who believed in two Gods.  Their influential leader and Christian theologian, Marcion, believed that the Jewish God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, was actually an evil God while the God of the New Testament was a kind and loving God.  I’m sure you have heard it said, though untrue, that God in the Old Testament is unloving and wrathful, while God in the New Testament is loving.   Well, this is precisely what Marcion believed.

Though Marcion’s idea of a good God and a bad God is quite foreign to the teachings in New Testament, the idea of two Gods is not.  Let me explain what I mean.

In the Gospel of John, we read that in the very beginning Jesus, the Word, was with God and was God.  Note, it does not say these two Gods were one and the same God.  This is how John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  The original language of the New Testament is a little more explicit here, it reads, “In the beginning, the Word [Jesus] was “face to face” with God, and the Word [Jesus] was God.”  Essentially what you have here are two persons called God, looking at each other.  Again, it is important to remember that the idea of the Trinity or oneness (of essence) is not explicitly taught in the Gospel of John.

Clearly, in the Gospel of John, we have two persons called God who are working in tandem with each other in unity just as Jesus wants us to be one with him and God. You may remember the prayer of Jesus to God the Father in John, “so that they [Jesus’ followers] may be one, as we are one” (John 17:22). There is no sense in the Gospel of John that God the Father and Jesus are one and the same God.

In our next study, we will look at the Book of Enoch which is quoted and referred to in the New Testament of the Bible.  What is the Book of Enoch?

WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS? PAUL, PETER, AND JAMES

 

WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS? PAUL, PETER, AND JAMES

Brett Todd

There is an interesting ancient letter written by, supposedly, the Apostle Peter to James, the brother of Jesus.  All scholars that I’m aware of agree that Peter never wrote this letter.  Rather, this is an ancient forgery written by someone we don’t know in the name of Peter.  This practice was obviously widely practiced because we even have letters in the New Testament of our Bible that were forgeries written in the name of Paul or Peter.  For example, we know that Paul did not write First or Second Timothy.  They are simply forgeries and there are other forgeries in the Bible as well.

In this letter, “Epistle of Peter to James” which is dated around the early 3rd century, Peter calls the Apostle Paul, “the man who is my enemy” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII).  Here, scholars agree that this man who is Peter’s enemy is none other than Paul.

Though it is true that Peter did not write this letter and that this letter is an ancient forgery, it may reflect the conflict between Christian Jews and Gentile during this period and earlier.  As we take a closer look at ancient Christian history, there seemed to be a continual and furthering split between Jew and Gentile Christians.

 

So where did this conflict begin and is there anything in the Bible that would suggest that the Apostle Paul, Peter, and the brother of James were anything but friends?

In the book of Galatians (genuine letter of Paul) found in the New Testament of the Bible, Paul complains about Peter.  This is what he said, “But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face…” (Galatians 2:11). What was Paul’s complaint?  There were “false brothers” (2:4), whether Peter and James or their followers, who went to Paul’s new Gentile converts in Galatia to convince them to live like Jews, which included circumcision.  But as you probably already know, Paul was against circumcision.  This is what Paul said about the practice of Jewish circumcision, “Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.” (Galatians 5:2).  

Later, to the surprise of many Bible readers, Paul even has stronger words for those who were pushing circumcision on his new converts, saying, “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” (Galatians 5:12).  However, the word “castrate” is not what Paul actually said, it should be translated verse 12, “I wish those who were stirring you up would cut it all off” referring to their whole private part.  Whether Paul was talking about Peter and James or their followers is not certain.  Either way, Peter and James are more than likely in the back of Paul's mind with this whole fiasco.

More than likely, what we have before us is the beginning of the end of early Jewish Christianity.  In other words, Jewish Christianity slowly faded away while Gentile Christianity became the dominant force in this new Jesus movement.  In the end, Jewish Christianity disappeared into the sands of history, while Paul’s brand of Christianity, in part, is still with us to this day.

In our next article, we will talk about what early Christians believed about God or the Gods.

JESUS THE BOY

 

JESUS THE BOY

Brett A. Todd

There’s not a whole lot of ancient writings about the boyhood of Jesus, and much of what was written, well, it’s some pretty crazy stuff.  For example, in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, written mid-to-late-2nd century AD, there are several stories of the boyhood of Jesus.  In one story, the boy Jesus makes another boy wither up for breaking up the little fish ponds he made and only later, with some parental prodding, heals the boy, partially, as a warning to others, not to mess with Jesus.  Then there is the story of a boy jumping on Jesus’ shoulder which makes Jesus angry.  What did the angry boy Jesus do in return?  According to the story, Jesus killed the other boy.  It appears in these stories that Jesus had an anger issue.  How about this story, some other kids tattle on Jesus and for this, the boy Jesus makes them blind.  Of course, Jesus’ dad, Joseph, does reprimand Jesus, “Why do you do these things that hurt other people, so that they in return hate us and prosecute (legally) us?”  Obviously, the boy Jesus was quite the little tyrant.  

There are some kinder stories that we don’t want to miss and you might be familiar with.  Jesus and some boys are making animals out of clay, and so not to be outdone by the other boys, Jesus makes his clay animals come to life and walk about, even the birds he made out of clay flew away.  There are other stories where he heals the sick.  Yes, the boy Jesus can even perform a miracle or two.  

Though these stories are not in the Bible, it is essential to remember that they were still Gospel stories that some early Christians believed were true and treated as gospel.  As mentioned in the past, there were many other stories and Gospels that early Christians used as their sacred text that never found their way into the Bible.

So what does the Bible say about Jesus’ boyhood?  We only have one story in the Gospel of Luke 2:41-51 where Jesus is in the Temple talking with the religious teachers.  Supposedly, Jesus' parents left for their home in Nazareth and didn’t know they had left Jesus behind until the third day of traveling.  When they discovered he was not with them, they quickly turned around and headed back to Jerusalem to find their son.

Where did they find the boy Jesus?  He was in the great Temple of Jerusalem “sitting among the teachers”.  The phrase “sitting among the teachers” suggests that Jesus had also reached the plateau of great intellectual scholarship, just like the other teachers he was sitting with.  The boy Jesus was not just a spectator, he was a scholar of the Law.  But what would one expect, as he told his parents, “I must be in my Father’s house” referring to Jerusalem’s Jewish Temple where God dwelt.  If God is his Father, well then, of course, Jesus would be a gifted boy of great intellect, and of course, the boy Jesus would know and understand the Law of God better than anyone else.

In our next article, we will look at the relationship the Apostle Paul had with Peter and Jesus’ brother James, which was not always a good one.