Religio Philologi, The Gentile Church, A

Building The Gentile Church

The early Church faced many grave crises and challenges, many of which can be summed up in one question: What kind of Church was it to be?    This question was first posed as a set of alternatives:  Was it  to be a Judeo-Christian Church limited to Jews, including Gentile converts to Judaism, or a Christian Church liberated from most of the peculiarities of Jewish law and custom?  But a second part of this question was whether this Church was to be a sect alienated from everyday life, like the Essenes, or an institution that existed in the world, and if the latter, what was to be its relationship to the Empire, the Roman legal and political order and Greek culture?  The Master himself had provided hints that could be interpreted in various ways.  On the one hand, He had declared that He had not come to change one jot or tittle of the law; but, almost in the same breath He had claimed to be the fulfillment of the law, which implies that his followers, in their religious life, would adhere to principles that were a good deal less--and a great deal more--than Pharisaic legalism.  He had also scandalized the scrupulous by picking grain and healing the sick on the Sabbath.

There are several important incidents in the Gospels that clearly indicate that His mission was directed at more people than just “the lost sheep of Israel.”  Returning to Galilee by way of Samaria, Jesus shows His power to a Samaritan woman and reveals He has not come to save only the Jews but also the Samaritans, a semi-Jewish people who worshipped God not in the temple but on their sacred hill.   Reminded of the differences between the two peoples, Jesus tells the woman, “the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” [John 4:21]

Christ, early in His ministry, knew that His mission was not just to the people of Israel but to the whole world. His mission to all mankind is further revealed in His conversation with the Syrophoenician woman [Mark 7:24-30], who asks Him to heal her demon-possessed child.  She is at first rebuffed as a “dog” (that is, a gentile), and not one of the lost sheep of Israel He has come to save, but her appeal is the occasion on which His mission to the entire world is disclosed.  St. Luke [17:11-19 ] also tells the parallel  story of the ten lepers healed by Jesus, only one of whom—a Samaritan alien—returned to give thanks. 

After Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested, He is condemned by the Jewish religious leadership, who cannot execute Him but must appeal to the Roman authority, the procurator Pontius Pilate.  Asked if He is King of the Jews, Jesus asks the Roman: “Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee?”

 Pilate is afraid that Jesus is fomenting a revolution against the Roman Empire, but, when Jesus informs the procurator that His kingdom is not of this world, Pilate tells the Jews he finds no fault in the man and would release him.  The Jews, on the point of an uprising, demand his death.  This judicial murder is a defining moment in the history the Empire’s policy toward the Church.

The Apostolic Church

Following the Master’s instructions, about 120 of Jesus’ followers gathered in Jerusalem, apparently under the leadership of Peter.  The first order of business was the selection of a replacement for Judas. The method adopted shows us something of the way the Church will operate: The apostles themselves choose the most worthy candidates and then leave the final choice to chance, that is, to God.  

In other words, power over the Church has been entrusted to the apostles, who must use their own wisdom but also rely on divine guidance.

The apostles showed their power in many ways: by communicating to foreigners at Pentecost, by healing the sick, and by punishing those who violated the rules of their fellowship.  Faithfully following the commandments, they instituted a communal life in which they voluntarily shared their possessions and ate a common meal in commemoration of the Last Supper.  When Ananias and Sapphira sold a part of their possessions and retained the money, they were rebuked by Peter.  No one had demanded them to share their wealth, but they had thought to cheat the Holy Ghost.  When confronted with their sin, each died, as of apoplexy.  Once again, the Church is revealed: She can condemn but not impose death.  

The incident is important in other ways.  Many early Christians thought everyone should practice communism and celibacy and observe strict dietary laws.  If these restrictions had endured, the Church would have become an obscure sect of Jews, waiting for the End of the world like the Adventists.  But as the Church grew in wisdom, these ideals were considered marks of the monastic clergy and not rules for ordinary Christians.  This was only one of many problems that were solved as the Church matured, and Christians could make no worse mistake than to imagine that the early Church was superior to the developed Church.   

In fact Our Lord well knew that his followers had a need for what is now called “continuing education."   He was aware that the disciples would forget some of what He told them and be confused about many things, especially as fresh issues demanded attention.  

He did not, as some people imagine, tell them that a book would be put together that would tell them everything.  On the contrary, He told them, in His last instructions, that His suffering and death were necessary, because only then could He send them the Holy Ghost, the Comforter (“the Paraklete”), the Spirit of Truth, Who “will guide you into all truth…and he will shew you things to come.” [John 16:13].  

This same Holy Ghost “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” [John 14:26].  As time went on, Jesus’ disciples helped to establish a sacred institution that would serve as the vehicle for the operation of the Holy Ghost, and that institution is the Church.

One of the first Christian offices to be instituted was that of deacon (diakonos), a servant charged with responsibility for serving the bread and wine at the common meal.  One of the first seven deacons to be chosen was Stephen, who was stoned to death by a group of Jews called together by Caiaphas, the high priest.  This was, of course, a violation of Roman law, which reserved the death penalty to its own authorities. Caiaphas was shortly thereafter removed from office by the legate to Syria sent by Tiberius in 36-7.

Stephen’s killers stripped off their garments and laid them at the feet of a rabbinical student, Saul of Tarsus, who was zealous against the Christians.  This Saul was a follower of the Pharisees, who stressed strict obedience to the Old Testament law.   On the way to Damascus to continue the persecution, Saul was challenged by Christ and blinded.  This was the revelation that converted Saul the persecutor into Paul the apostle to the gentiles.  By the time of their martyrdoms in Rome, Paul and Peter would have preached the gospel throughout the eastern Mediterranean, while other apostles went as far as India and Spain.