Listen to this articleThe history of Jewish Christianity is a very tragic one. During the first few years of its existence, it enjoyed an enormous growth in numbers, both in Jerusalem and in the rest of Judaea and Samaria. The early Jewish Christians of the Jerusalem Church were respected both by their countrymen and by the Gentiles of the churches founded by Paul in Asia Minor, Cyprus and Greece.
The respect shown the Jewish Christians by the Jews may have been rather grudging, but was all the same forthcoming, since the Jewish Christians of Palestine were essentially orthodox in their observance of the requirements of the Jewish Law. The feelings of high esteem which the Gentile Christians felt at first for the Jerusalem Church were probably due to the fact that, in this city could be found the original centre of the religion which developed from Jesus of Nazareth, and the spot where most of the striking events immediately following his death occurred.
Master’s Thesis, McGill University, 1970
