HANDOUT FOR JANUARY 22: EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM
Note: Click on hyperlinked names to learn more. I have linked some to online articles from the Catholic Encyclopedia; for the writings of these authors I have linked directly to online texts.
Significant Groups in First-Century Judaism:
Sadducees: traditional Temple priesthood, emphasizing sacrifice and ritual.
Pharisees: Diaspora synagogue leaders, emphasizing study of scripture (Torah). Founders of later Rabbinic Judaism.
Zealots: political extremists, advocating violent rebellion against Rome.
Essenes: ascetic extremists, who separated selves from society and awaited the end of the world. The "Dead Sea Scrolls" may reflect their views.
Followers of Jesus, also known as "Christians."
Significant dates:
37BC-4BC: Herod king of Judea.
4BC: probable birth of Jesus.
6AD: Judea now under direct Roman rule.
23-36 AD: Pontius Pilate governor of Judea.
Early 30s AD: ministry and death of Jesus.
30s AD: Apostles begin preaching. Conversion of Paul.
c.40-60 AD: Paul’s Letters.
64 AD: Peter and Paul in Rome; killed in Nero’s persecution.
66-70: Jews in Judea revolt against Rome. Jerusalem captured, Temple destroyed. Read excerpts from the Jewish historian Josephus on the Fall of Jerusalem, and on the last stand at Masada.
c.70: Gospel of Mark.
c.80-90: Gospels of Matthew and Luke; Acts of the Apostles.
88-97: Letters of Clement, bishop of Rome.
90s: Gospel of John; Book of Revelation.
113: Diaspora Jews rebel against Rome.
c.125-150: date of the oldest surviving fragment of Christian scripture yet found, a page from the Gospel of John. The oldest complete bible we have is the late fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus.
130s AD: Bar Kochba rebellion in Palestine. Jews expelled from the city, and Jerusalem is re-founded as a pagan city named Aelia Capitolina.
c.180: Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon. Writes treatise Against Heresies. At this time, organized church starts to assemble various texts into the "canonical" New Testament.
Significant terms for early Christianity:
Priest, from presbyter, "elder."
Bishop, from episkopos, "overseer."
Orthodoxy, from orthos "straight" + doxa "teaching."
Heresy, from hairesis, "point of view" or "opinion."
Gnostic, from gnosis, "knowledge" or "enlightenment." Catch-all term for a variety of early Christian "heretical" beliefs.
Manicheans, followers of Mani, 3rd century Mesopotamian prophet. Preached a world divided between Good and Evil forces.
Additional links:
Noncanonical Homepage: Apocryphal texts, both Old and New Testament; Nag Hammadi/Gnostic texts. All the stuff that didn't make it into the "official" Bible.
Gnostic Society Library: A bit New-Agey, but a good source for original Gnostic, Nag Hammadi, Apocrypha, Manichaean texts.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Translated texts online, with links to pictures.
Internet Ancient Sourcebook: Christian Origins. Great collection of links to both primary sources and scholarly articles dealing with issues relating to the Historical Jesus, authorship and composition of the Gospels, etc. Includes a link to the controversial "Jesus Seminar."