“And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This statement, spoken by Jesus at the beginning of the book of Acts is indicative of what was to follow. Indeed the Acts of the Apostles, believed to be penned by Luke the Evangelist, documented the beginning of the Christian religion and its dispersion out from Jerusalem (). But when it came to bringing the message out of Jerusalem and to the Gentiles, someone was needed to bridge the gap between the Jewish and Roman worlds. The apostle Paul of Tarsus did just that. Over the course of three missionary journeys, Paul was able to pick up where Peter and other apostles left off in Jerusalem by spreading the word of the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire; and this was greatly abetted by his birthright both as a Jew and a Roman citizen.
Before Paul traversed the Roman Empire on his three missionary journeys, the apostles mostly centred their preaching in Jerusalem. They spoke their message almost exclusively to the Jews and it was not until Peter received a vision from God in Acts 10 that they began to have considerable interactions with the Gentiles. In fact it can be said that in its earliest days, Christianity was merely another Jewish sect (). Early Christians kept together and worshipped at the same temple as their Jewish neighbours (Acts 2:44-46). In the beginning, they were well-received by the common Jewish people and there were many who converted. This was largely due to the miracles performed by the apostles and in the book of Acts it was written that “all the people had high regard for them” (Acts 5: 13). It was this popularity that shielded early Christians from Jewish...
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...usalem. If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion.” In all places that he stopped to preach – usually in Jewish synagogues – he was able to convince both Jews and Gentiles to become believers and this was the case during his time in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13). But his dealings with his Jewish brethren were not always so cordial. This too can be demonstrated by Paul’s experience in Antioch when, in Acts 13:50, some Jews “stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran the out of town.” These encounters were repeated throughout the book of Acts and Paul was stoned and imprisoned by Jews on many occasions for preaching the Gospel. In this way it appears that Paul had more success in his encounters with the Gentiles.
After his conversion to Christianity, Paul traveled throughout the Roman Empire and preached the Gospel, similar to Jesus’ own ministry across Galilee. Paul’s teachings were more focused on the community and the relationships of its members with each other and with non-Christians, whereas Jesus’ teachings were geared towards the individual and his/her personal relationship to God. Despite this discrepancy in their doctrines, Paul’s teachings remain consistent with those of Jesus. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul’s teachings, such as unity in the community and love for others, echo the teachings of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Mark and Matthew. Paul essentially reiterates the teachings of Jesus, and applies them to the lives of the people he preaches to, so that they may understand Jesus’ teachings and embrace Christianity.
Firstly, Ruden gives Paul partial credit for the growing popularity of Christianity because of the equality and compassion that he preached to others. He offered every person a sense of belonging no matter what background they came from, she claims (Ruden 37). Paul was offering a sense of belonging to a community as well as a life full of eternal riches and glory for people to inherit after death. The rising Christian population was inevitable as Paul and others in the Christian faith were offering this inheritable heaven to those who had no claims to any of these things. Paul even offered a better life for the slaves of the communit...
Paul the Apostle is the central figure in many New Testament writings. Many historians have attributed fourteen New Testament letters to Paul’s writing; seven of these letters are uncontested meaning historians are sure that Paul wrote them, the remaining seven are contested. Paul was not always a Christian; in fact, he persecuted Christians before Christ came and temporarily blinded him. Upon seeing Christ, Paul devoted his life to Christianity and set out to spread the teachings of Christ. Scholars often credit Paul’s leadership to the ability of the Church to become Hellenistic in one generation. Paul also answered specific worries and questions that his converters may have had in many of his writings; one of these writings is 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul set out to deal with the many believers in Corinth who are divided into the followings of Paul or Apollos rather than Christianity as a whole. The converts of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were divided during times of worship because of jealousy invoked by the spiritual gifts received from the “Spirit”; the worships and the church became a place to boast who is closest to God, instead of a place of worship, interpretation, and love. In 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, Paul set guidelines in times of worship to heal the divide among his converts present in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
Paul’s response was concerning ecclesiastical and doctrinal controversies. These Jewish-Christians were teaching false doctrine to the Gentile members. They taught that to be saved one must be circumcised and observe the ritual requirements of the law. Paul believed a Gentile did not need to go through the ritual requirements of the law, Gentiles were welcomed into the church through baptism professing faith in Jesus the Christ. In Acts 15:24-29 the Apostles and elders of the church did call the Gentiles to live within the moral teachings of the law, most specifically to avoid idolatry and sexual sin and counseled them on kosher restrictions when eating with others who were Jewish so as not to offend and complicate ministry amongst the Jewish communities. The account in Acts actually attest to the controversies of Gentile reception in the church and what their obligation to the law would be. This is the problem Paul is trying to rectify in
Paul the Apostle, was a famous preacher of first century Christianity and was God’s tool used to spread the light of the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul is credited fir having written many books in the New Testament of the Bible. He was born an Israelite to a clan of the tribe of Benjamin, speaking the Aramaic and Hebrew tongues from infancy. He was an enthusiastic student and a stringent devotee of the Torah. He was the man that later had a peculiar meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ while on the road to Damascus. His life and duty were considerably altered and in turn eventually changed the course of the development of Western Civilization and culture.
While many Jews continued to follow their original faith, there were several that converted to this new way of living. Origination of Christianity starts with a Jew names Jesus, here it is seen again where present times were very difficult and Jesus was able to provide salvation to the people of his community. In the Jewish scriptures a messiah was predicted to happen and Jesus was believed to be the Messiah. In contrast many people did not believe that he was the Messiah and Jesus eventually was crucified by Pagans. Despite the horrific event that took place, Jesus was resurrected and passed a long his messages from God. Jesus brought light into the lives of the poor and helped the ill, he wanted a change to happen as there were many wars and chaos present at the time. After Jesus’ death, Paul, one of his apostles, left to travel around the neighboring countries and spread the name of Jesus and his teachings. Paul was a very important individual and main contributor to the success of
It is difficult to discuss how Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, without looking at the relationship between Jews and Christians. Christianity is rooted in Judaism. Judaism is defined as the monotheistic religion of the Jews” (Duiker and Spielvogel 142). It is a
In the Bible’s New Testaments the book of Acts is of Narrative genre and is also called the Acts of the Apostles. It is written by Luke who happens to be the author of Gospel of Luke. This book tells a story of first Christians. After the death of Jesus (as mention in “Matthew”) as he went to heaven the Christians waited in Jerusalem. After Holy Spirits were sent by God, the first Christians were given the power by them. And they end up telling the people about Jesus. It was the Christians who explained t...
For starters, Jesus chose Paul specifically to spread his word and filled him with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:1-19). Shaw claims that
The Book of Acts begins with Jesus Holy Spirit appearing to the chosen apostles over a period of forty days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. Jesus commanded the apostles not to leave Jerusalem and wait on the gift promised by His father. The gift to the apostles was to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then told his apostles you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Peter serves as the leader of the apostles. The first thing ordered was to elect Matthias as the twelfth apostle, replacing the traitor Judas.
The earliest recorded text teaching Christianity has its roots buried deep within Judaism. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, created a new ideology of worship. The Messiah is the savior for all people and of all sins. Paul carried the message of the Messiah to the Gentiles. His missionary journeys and establishment of churches enabled the spreading of the message throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity grew in acceptance; those that believed in the Messiah separated and began to worship on their own. This marked the beginning of the split of Judaism and Christianity.
The Apostle Paul is known as the greatest missionary of the early church. Paul, who once vowed to wipe out belief in Jesus Christ, was later converted to do the work of Christ. He would author almost half of the 27 books in the New Testament. He endured sickness, rejection, and repeated attacks on his life to bring the message of God's grace and forgiveness to Gentiles. Paul was the apostle largely responsible for the solid inception and growth of Christianity. He spoke before Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Paul is known as the apostle to the Gentiles. He defended God's Word before kings and emperors of this world. By the end of his life, much of the Mediterranean world had been reached with the gospel.
The early Christians were primarily Jewish individuals who had converted to Christianity. Jesus himself was born and raised in the Jewish community. What separated Christianity from Judaism, and what furthermore distinguished Christianity from Islam is the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, “a superhuman figure that the Jewish tradition had long prophesied would come to rescue the Jews from centuries of oppression” (Nardo, 1999, p. 16). Such a belief was dangerous to the Pharisees and Roman rule. So in the year 30 A.D Jesus Christ of Nazareth was crucified with the conviction of king of the Jews. Jesus Christ did not die however, he instead rose and ascended back to heaven. Though Jesus had predicted the spread of the gospel, evangelism did not truly begin till after his death. According to Nardo, despite the preaching of Philip, Peter, John, and others, the gospel did not progress in Palestine. This was because the gospel was at first preached completely within the Jewish community. Christianity began to spread outside Palestine when the apostle Paul began to minister to the gentiles. This growth was still relatively slow. Within and Outside the Roman Empire, Christians were persecuted and martyred for, “more than three hundred years after its (Christianity’s) birth” (Boer, 1976, p. 42). This period is known as The Great
Paul's first missionary journey was to the island of Cyprus. Salamis was there first destination on the island. During his stay in Salamis Paul and Barnabas preached in the Jewish synagogues, while John also ministered with them. The next stop Paul and Barnabas made was Paphos at the almost opposite end of Cyprus. While in Paphos they found a Governor called Sergius Paulus who wanted to hear their teachings. However, the Governor had sorcerer, Elymas, in his company, who did not want him to hear the word of God. Paul being filled with the Holy Ghost admonished Elymas and said, "O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season" (Acts 13:10-11). Elymas being struck blind astonished the Governor and he believed the word of the Lord that apostles had spoken to him. After leaving Paphos John returned to Jerusalem.
However, it is to my understanding that this is a lesson regarding the leadership of the House of worship of Jesus Christ, mutually ancient and modern. In Acts, nevertheless, the command was to preach to scattered Israel in addition to reveal the gospel all over the Roman Empire and as far as they could. This commandment was not deprived of its troubles. Long, treacherous travels, oppressions, concerns of Church guidelines, assimilation of foreigners,