| Chapter 1: | The Spread of Christianity |
|
|
‘food and drink and various ablutions’ (Heb 9:10). In addition, he holds that had Christianity spread first to regions of eastern Asia, it would have developed specific ceremonial and ritual practices based on Jewish law in order to have been accepted as a religion in that part of the world.29 Thus, he sees western liberalism as a contributing element in the non-Jewish world's acceptance of the Pauline ideological framework.30
New Testament texts indicate that the first Christians were made up of two groups, one which accepted proselytes on the condition that they kept the Noahide laws (Acts 15:19), and the other which objected to the admission of proselytes who did not accept Jewish halakhah. This group also accused Peter of socialising with the uncircumcised (Gal 2:12; Acts 11:3).
The Name ‘Christian’
Antioch, according to the Acts of the Apostles, was the city in which the followers of a new messianic movement were first called Christians.31 The first Christians belonged to the local synagogues, but began to differentiate themselves at an early date from other Jewish communities by nomenclature, rather than by structure.32 For a time the community was known intramurally as the Way (hê hodos).33
At first, Christians were not distinguished from Jews by the Romans.34 Thus, Suetonius (ca 69 CE to the first half of the second century CE), in describing the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by decree of Claudius in 49 CE, does not at this point distinguish between Jews and Christians.35 However, when narrating the steps taken by Nero against the Christians in 64 CE, he no longer confused Christians with Jews.36 Stern, discussing the exaction of the Fiscus Iudaicus, adds that by Nero's time, the Roman government was aware of the difference between Christians and Jews.37
The earliest textual evidence showing that Christians were differentiated from Jews is supplied by Tacitus, who speaks of the time of Nero: