Christianity

Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism based on the life and teachings of Jesus—a 1st century Jew from Roman Palestine (formerly Israel-Judah) who, according to Christian scriptural teachings, was born to a Jewish woman impregnated by God’s Holy Spirit, began preaching a new and updated form of Judaism in his early thirties, attracted a regional following of twelve main disciples and a variety of other people, and *was executed not long into his mission by high ranking Jewish religious leaders (working with local Roman government authorities) who opposed his radical religious teaching. After his death and burial, he was resurrected*, spent forty days on earth, appeared before and interacted with many people, and then ascended to heaven.

And* shortly after Jesus’s death, Christianity—the religion based Jesus’s teachings—began to take form.

Early on, this religion—itself essentially a *radical sect of Judaism—seems to have been divided into two major sub-sects: one that placed a greater emphasis on Jewish Law and pre-Jesus Judaic teachings, and another that tended to deemphasize those aspects of the religion.[57]

Early on* during that post-Jesus era, a Jew-turned-Christian missionary known as Paul/Saul of Tarsus (c3-c67) headed a Christian movement that fell under the later category. This “Pauline” movement gained popularity and influence during the decades following Paul’s death, and eventually won out all other sects and became regarded as mainstream Christianity.[58]

And although early Christianity (and even modern Christianity to a certain extent) had some internal disagreement over Jesus’s divine status, most Christians came to agree that Jesus is not only the promised Jewish “Messiah” / “Anointed One” and the Son of God, but also God himself, ( or more specifically, God in human form;) and that God exists in a three-form “Holy Trinity” consisting of God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son (Jesus).

The Bible

During Christianity’s early history, various sources produced a variety of writings that aimed to record and expound upon the life and teachings of Jesus, and many of these writings soon came to be regarded by the various Christian sects as official religious scripture. Almost all Christian sects also retained the Judaic scriptures—that is, the Tanakh—in their accepted scriptural canon; (although, as mentioned earlier, some of these sects felt that much of Tanakh’s content had to some extent become *irrelevant to mankind / discarded/ no longer __ / following the introduction of Jesus’s Gospel.)

Being that there were quite a few sects that had somewhat diverging* beliefs, some internal disagreement naturally arose within the religion as to which of the various Christian (post-Jesus) writings should become regarded as scriptural, and which should instead be deemed non-scriptural and/or heretical.

Over time, as the religion evolved and Pauline Christianity prevailed over other sects and ultimately became the Roman Empire’s official state religion, an official widely accepted scriptural canon took form and became finalized by the mid to late 4th century.

This series of writings, now collectively referred to as the Bible, contains both the Judaic Tanakh writings—which Christians refer to as the Old Testament[59]—as well as a New Testament of twenty-seven books/scriptures based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

The first four New Testament books—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are known as the Four (canonical) Gospels, and contain accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings[60] traditionally attributed to the Apostle (disciple of Jesus) in their respective titles [61] [62]

The other twenty three New Testament books consist of various Christian-themed letters[63] that, according to mainstream Christian tradition, were authored by the aforementioned Paul of Tarsus and other early Christian religious figures such as James the Just (brother of Jesus; ?-c62 AD), Peter (disciple of Jesus; ?-c64 AD), John, and Jude[64] [65] [66]


[56] I Kings 15:5

[57] In other words, the former sub-sect followed the Jewish Law rigorously while also accepting the Gospel of Jesus, while the latter took up Jesus?s teaching and more or less discarded/ compromised many Judaic Laws, seeing the Gospel as in many ways more of a replacement of Judaic teachings than an addition to them

(It should also be noted that these sub-sects themselves also had their own subdivisions, ranging from the Ebionites, a Judaic Law adhering group that regarded Jesus as a devout Jew who became God?s adopted mortal son and prophet, all the way to the Marcionites, a decidedly un-Jewish form of Christianity that went so far as to regard any Judaic teachings as heretical and contrary to Jesus?s genuine Gospel.)

[58] (?so mainstream, in fact, that ?Christianity? as we know it today is essentially ?Pauline Christianity,? and all major modern sects of Christianity are essentially sub-sects or offshoots of this Pauline version of the religion)

[59] For most practical purposes, the contents of the Tanakh and Old Testament are indeed the same?the main difference between them being that Christians divide some of the books up differently (the Book of Twelve into twelve separate books, Ezra-Nehemiah into two separate books, and Samuel and Kings each in to two separate books), and slightly change their order (probably to make the content appear to lead up to Jesus?s emergence).

Most non-Protestant Christians also add additional Judaic material to the Old Testament?material that Protestants and non-Christians usually refer to as the Apocrypha, and that in its entirety consists of the books of Tobias, Esras III & IV, Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Maccabees, Prayer of Manasseh, and some additional material to the books of Esther, Daniel, and Psalms.

Jews and Christians also use different Tanakh translations?and while both Jewish and Christian translations are for the most part based on the same base/original/source manuscript/text, many Christian translations also consult with some other earlier source texts that contain some minor variations.

Keep in mind, however, that as far as the text?s theological meaning is concerned, the significance of the translations? differences is negligible.

[60] Essentially, these Four Gospels come from four somewhat similar and somewhat different sources, and all aim to inform the intended reader about the life and teachings of Jesus.

This being so, they have much identical or nearly identical content, as well as some content unique to each Gospels, and some minor variations among the four. (Matthew, Mark, and Luke in particular are very similar, and called the Synoptic Gospels).

Mark is the shortest and probably the earliest of the Four Gospels, and seems to be aimed mainly at the general reader.

Matthew is similar to Mark, but adds many more of Jesus?s sermons, sayings, and conversations, and was likely written about one to two decades later. It also seems to be aimed more at Jews, due to its numerous attempts to show that Jesus fulfilled the prophetic criteria of the Jewish Messiah.

Luke is very similar to Matthew and was probably written around the same time, but seems to be more aimed at non-Jews, since it points out that Jesus is the universal savior of mankind. (Acts, another New Testament book, seems to be a supplement to Luke that was written by the same author)

John contains a great deal of unique content not found in the Synoptic Gospels, and was probably written several years after Matthew and Luke.

[61] For instance, Matthew was written by Matthew and/or by his followers who wrote down what they heard from Matthew

[62] most scholarly non-Christian sources are currently of the opinion that each Gospel was written anonymously and given its current name around the late second century.

[63] All or almost all of these letters were not necessarily intended by their authors to become regarded as actual religious scripture.

[64] in the case of several of these books, there is some scholarly debate regarding their actual authors)

[65] According to most Christian and non-Christian sources, the New Testament books were written from c35-c160, with the letters of Paul coming at the beginning of that range, and the Four Gospels most likely postdating them a bit.

This is further supported by the fact that throughout Paul?s letters, he refers to virtually none of the facts about Jesus?s life that are contained in the Gospels. Additionally, there are no direct records of the Gospels ever being mentioned by early Christians, including Paul, as well as Pope Clement I and Justin Martyr. In fact, most scholars agree that the first mention of a Gospel is made by Irenaeus (late 100s AD).

The earliest manuscripts of the Four Gospels that are still in existence today are mostly from the 200s AD, with some fragments dating from the 100s AD. (Most of these earliest surviving manuscripts are nearly identical to the original version they were copied from, but there are also some early texts in existence that have minor variations from those that are currently accepted as official.)

[66] Please keep in mind that in this chapter, I will focus almost entirely on the Four Gospel?s accounts of Jesus?s life and sayings?which are generally regarded as our most authoritative and reliable records of what Jesus said and did?rather than on other New Testament writings of Paul and others?which for the most part are comprised of Gospel interpretations of and commentaries made by their respective authors.