A History of the First Christians [Paperback]

This work provides a survey of the history of the earliest Christian church in the period up to the fall of Jerusalem. It concentrates on: the figure of Paul; judicious and critical use of information in the Book of Acts; Judaizing versions of Christianity; and the Johannine tradition. The approach steers a middle way between an over-simplified account which fails to warn students where scholarly opinion is divided, and an in-depth academic study which attempts to document and discuss every hypothesis. Wedderburn focuses on aspects of central importance: the changing shape of church life and developing Christianity in relation to the Roman Empire and to Judaism. This book seeks to draw together and make more readily accessible many new insights gained from an enormous range of recent scholarly studies in German and English, and places them in the context of a more general account.

Foreword 1. Introduction When to Stop? A Fragmentary StorySources - The Pauline Letters - The Book of Acts 2. The First Beginnings Appearances of the Risen Jesus Regrouping in Jerusalem? Pentecost A Jewish Group? 3. Stephen and His Group 'Hebrews' and 'Hellenists' The Problem and It's Solution Stephen The Outbreak of Persecution 4. The Spread of Christianity Samaria Antioch Peter and Cornelius Peter 5. Paul-The Hidden Years The Pre-Christian Paul The Conversion of PaulreturnBefore the Conference in Jerusalem 6. Agreement and Strife Pauline Chronology - Acts and galatians - An Absoloute Chronology 7. Paul the Missionary The Course of Paul's Missionary work The Nature of the Pauline Communities The Problems of the Pauline Communities The Collection 8. Judaizing Christianity James Writings of a Judaizing Christianity The Jerusalem Church 9. Pauline Christianity afetr Paul A Pauline School or Pauline Schools? 'Early Catholicism'? 10 Johanine Christianity 11. The Church in the Roman Empire Postscript Abbreviations Select Bibliography 1Primary Sources 2 Reference Work 3 Geberal Works onlÃF