The values and teachings of Jesus are the basis for the New Testament and modern Christianity. This teachings and values combined to attract animosity from the Jews of the Second Temple Era. For clarity, the Second Temple era describes the third era of Jewish Faith. The initial era is the Tent of Meeting era, which had no temple and Jews met together to worship in front of a tent (Gafni, 2019). The First Temple era begins with Solomon, who builds the First Temple using materials gathered by his father, David. The Second Temple era begins when Jews, under leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah, came back from captivity then and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem and the Temple (Gafni, 2019). It is within this third dispensation that Jesus preached in Palestine and collided with the Jews.
Jesus's primary message was that he was the son of God. According to the Gospels, Jesus was both man and God, as he was borne of a woman through a divine conception. As God, Jesus was a manifestation of God the Father with all of God's authority. At the same time, Jesus also taught that he was the Messiah, the son of David. Being the Messiah carried to primary connotations. First, as the Messiah, he would restore the relationship between God and the Jews. Secondly, as the son of David, Jesus would restore the glory of the Kingdom of Israel (Gafni, 2019). The third important teaching of Jesus was that God was love. Therefore, all His followers must love one another. Most importantly, those who believed in God should love their enemies and also love their neighbors as they loved themselves.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
All the three main teachings above generated controversy among the Jews of the Second Temple era. First, Jesus could neither be a son of God nor a God as the Jews did not believe in the concept of the Trinity (Gafni, 2019). Secondly, Jesus, the son of a poor carpenter, could not be the son of David and a messiah. Jesus was neither rich nor a great warrior; hence the Jews could not accept his claim to be the Messiah. Finally, Jesus preached love for enemies at a time when Jews needed a messiah to lead them in the fight against Roman tyranny (Gafni, 2019). The Jews could not accept the concept of loving their enemies at such a time.
Paul's Changes to Christianity
According to the biblical narrative, Jesus and his disciples mainly focused on a Jewish-based Christianity while Paul extended the gospel to the gentiles, creating a path for a global Christian religion (Richardson, 2019). Notably, Paul was a dedicated and highly educated Jew. Indeed, at the advent of Christianity, Paul was opposed to the new religion, just as most Jews were. As indicated in the Book of Acts, Paul engaged in a mission of persecuting Jews and was among the notable presences during the stoning of Apostle Stephen. The connection between Paul and the Jews gave him an important foundation that gave him an audience among the Jews regarding the gentiles (Richardson, 2019). As a Jewish scholar, he was able to base his arguments for gentiles becoming believers in Jewish tradition.
Among the most important ways that Paul changed Christianity was through the concept of salvation through faith and not through works. According to the Book of Acts, this concept placed Paul in direct conflict with original apostles, including Peter. These apostles have argued that the only way to follow Jesus was to become a Jew, as signified by physical circumcision, as began by Abraham, the father of all Jews. However, Paul argued that the circumcision of the heart through faith was more important than the circumcision of the body. Therefore, of the Gentiles believed in Jesus Christ, their faith would allow for the circumcision of the heart, which would qualify them as Christians. The differences between Paul and the Apostles regarding the faith mirrors a similar conflict between the Pope and Martin Luther many centuries later. The argument about salvation through faith opened a path for gentiles to join Christianity. Eventually, there would be more gentile Christians than Jewish Christians.
Finally, Paul changed Christianity by taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to gentiles all over the Middle East and Europe. In the early Christian era, apostles spread all over the same region that Paul preached in mainly due to persecution by Jews in Palestine. However, most of this Apostles only preached the Gospel of Jesus to the Jews that they found in these parts. However, Paul, a self-professed apostle to the Gentiles, focused on preaching to non-Jewish people all over the areas he visited (Richardson, 2019). Many of these non-Jews accepted the Gospel of Christ, leading to a rapid expansion of Christianity outside Palestine.
The East/West Schism
The East/West Schism refers to the division between the Latin Western Church and the mainly Greek Eastern Church in the 11th century. The first main reason for the West/East schism is political and relates to the Roman Empire. Christianity and the Roman Empire had a close affiliation in its formative days. Initially, the empire participated in the persecution of Christians, but later, the empire made Christianity its official religion, a move that closely affiliated the fate of the Church with that of the empire. In the late 5th century CE, the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires (Cox, 2018). This division also reflected in the Church. Although the Church remained technically united, the two segments of the Church began developing different ideals. These ideals contributed to the eventual division.
Among the differences was the issue of the Pope being the overall and undisputed leader of the Catholic Church. This position was not much of a problem when Rome, where the Pope operated from, was the dominant city in the civilized world at the time. However, as Constantinople gradually became more powerful than Rome, the Eastern segment of the Church started asserting itself, leading to friction with the Pope (Cox, 2018). Another difference regarded the use of Latin versus vernacular languages for worship and reading scripture. The Church in the West insisted that Latin was the only language for all worship purposes, and the bible could not be interpreted into any other language. However, in the Eastern kingdom, other languages such as Greek had risen in prominence among intellectuals. Interpreting the bible and undertaking worship in other languages was unacceptable to the leadership in Rome, thus fueling the rift.
A third ground for the division was the issue of celibacy, which has caused acrimony and division in the Catholic Church to the current times. The Western Church insisted on strict celibacy while the Eastern branch commenced ordaining married priests. Finally, the concept of the Trinity and its amendment of the Nicene Creed was also a point of contention between the two segments of the Church (Cox, 2018). Using his absolute authority over the Church, the Pope decreed that the only acceptable definition of God was the Trinity. The Eastern Church felt that the unilateral move by the Pope was wrong as there was no proper consultation over the same.
From the Anthology
The most important teaching to the modern world as inspired by the anthology reading is that differences in opinion do not necessarily mean that the other side is wrong. The sum-total of the anthology reading as far as Biblical history is concerned is that no one can claim absolute authority on matters of faith. For example, the four initial books of the New Testament, the Gospels are a collection of writings by different individuals, most of whom never met Jesus in person. Whereas these books carry the names of disciples such as Mathew, Mark, and John, they were most likely written long after the demise of these disciples. Therefore, the narrative about Jesus, the early Church, and the Apostles may not be as is indicated in the bible to the letter. There is also evidence that the process of compiling the New Testament involved consensus-building between the Church and the clergy. There were other books whose contents may not necessarily agree with the contents in the New Testament currently.
The modern world faces a form of fundamentalism, more so within the confines of the Christian faith, the largest group of denominations in the world. The largest denomination, the Catholic Church, has internal wrangles on a variety of issues, key among them being celibacy and the LGBTQ question (Wingfield, 2019). Similarly, the rift between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches remains almost over a thousand years since it began. Similarly, over half a millennium after the advent of Protestantism, this rift still exists. Within the respective religions, divisions on issues such as LGBTQ issues, women's leadership, money, and dogma also persist (Wingfield, 2019). Whereas disagreements are normal on issues as complex as faith, such disagreements should not breed acrimony. After all, no one can claim to be an absolute authority on matters of faith.
Unfortunately, this most important lesson for the modern world is also the most difficult for people to accept. Most modern believers have spent most of their lives sure that their respective areas of faith are right and others are wrong. For some, accepting that they might be wrong might sound like jeopardizing their internal souls (Wingfield, 2019). Others have adopted denominations that have run in their families for generations. For most believers, accepting that they may not be as right as they assume themselves to be might be incredulous.
References
Cox, A. M. (2018). The Great Schism: The Great Divide of the West, the East and Christianity. Int'l J. Soc. Sci. Stud. , 6 , 55. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v6i3.3024
Gafni, I. (2019). Jews and Judaism in the Rabbinic Era: Image and Reality-History and Historiography (Vol. 173). Mohr Siebeck.
Richardson, J. S. (2019). Genesis 10 & 11: A Theological and Geographical Framework for the Mission of Paul.
Wingfield, M. (2019). Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality: Lessons Learned from Hard Conversations about Sex, Gender, Identity, and the Bible . Fortress Press.
