# The summarized history of the Christian church 2: New Judaism

After Jesus left, the remaining Christians (who were technically nothing but a Jewish cult/sect at this point) still went to synagogue to worship the Father, like Jesus had, and were still devout to their synagogue. However, since the rabbis obviously weren't okay with them worshiping *Jesus* there, the **Messianic Jews** followed up by meeting on Sundays to worship Jesus.

On Sundays, they didn't really have a purpose-built place for worship, and it was either rented or in someone's home. It consisted of two parts:

1. "Service of the Word" or "the assembly", open to *everyone*.
   - Had a gospel presentation/sermon that went to everyone, but also gave at least some comfort to existing believers.
2. "Service of Thanksgiving", open *only* to baptized believers (where unbaptized believers and nonbelievers were dismissed)
   - The time together may have started as *actually* "breaking bread" (i.e., having dinner together), with a wine/bread ritual mixed into it.

The Service of Thanksgiving was a very private, Christians-only event:

- Communion/Eucharist was performed at that time, and it may have even been a proper meal (rather the symbolic cup and small pieces of bread represented now).
- Later, baptisms became part of that experience as well.

Those Christians were known among society as a *very* tightly-knit community. This was absolutely unheard-of in the highly [stratified](jobs-specialization.md) slave/foreigner/Roman hierarchy. They greeted each other with a "holy kiss", which was a common, sincere, and non-sexual act of family affection. [The Book of Acts](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/ACT.4.WEB) shows how they shared everything together to fulfill everyone's needs.

Interestingly, their privacy actually created confusion for the Romans:

- As a community, they were very close, and greeted each other with a holy kiss.
- On the 3rd, 9th, and 30/40th day after a believer passed, Christians would gather at the departed's tomb, read Scripture, pray together, give money to the poor, and eat a meal together.
- Altogether, some Romans had misunderstood (to the point of justifying [persecution](hardship-persecution-church.md)) that the Christians were cannibals (Eucharist+graves), ate boys baked into bread (baptism+Eucharist), and performed lewd acts with each other (holy kiss+Thanksgiving Service).

It's worth noting they didn't *have* a clergy-laity distinction, which came later. They saw Christianity as a "new priesthood" to the world as an expansion of the Levitical priesthood to the nation of Israel, with Jesus as the High Priest ([Hebrews 4:14-16](https://biblehub.com/hebrews/4.htm)). They were responsible to curate and demonstrate [morality](morality.md) for the rest of the world.

The logical outflow of the "new priesthood" thought was that [Jesus returning](theology-end.md), and [His eventual reign](https://theologos.site/millennium/), was a coming reality more than merely something to hope for. Death wasn't as much "permanent departure" as much as "will return soon", and they didn't believe in a Rapture.

Once the new believers started noticing that Jesus was *not* coming back right away, some disciples recorded what they had experienced, mostly in their native language of Greek, but some in Aramaic. These passed around through the persecuted Church, and eventually became the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This included plenty of other letters, with some of them becoming canonized later as well.

There were notable figures who carried on the work established largely through the original disciples.

- Clement of Rome was a direct disciple of Paul and Peter.
- Ignatius of Antioch was a direct disciple of Peter and John.
- Polycarp was a direct disciple of John, and was also acquainted with Ignatius.
- Irenaeus was discipled by Polycarp.
- Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus.
- Justin Martyr was acquainted with Irenaeus.
- Tatian was a disciple of Justin Martyr.
- Clement of Alexandria was a disciple of Tatian.

Alongside the Hebrew canon, there was a Greek version of the Bible called the Septuagint (which also made the Old Testament Greek), first completed in 132 AD. Its entire purpose was to create a Bible in the plain language of the time.

By the year 200 AD, the Christians had added quite a few things, though their religion was still certainly at least partly [illegal](people-rules.md):

- In between the assembly and the Service of Thanksgiving, they added "The Peace", which was an important intermission that let people greet each other and for believers to reconcile conflicts with other believers.
- The Service of Thanksgiving developed a sequence of rituals:
  1. Greeting: a formalized salutation, usually taken from Scripture.
  2. Response: congregation recites a memorized Bible verse that acknowledged God's awesome wonders and works.
  3. Offering: often a special mid-worship time to collect funds to support the pastors, teachers/evangelists, widows, orphans, and the poor of God's people.
     - Local church Christians had priority, but collections also went to other churches in different cities.
     - Any additional funds were occasionally used to serve the local community's needy.
  4. Eucharist Prayer: the president (the elder who presided over the worship) would offer thanks to God for Jesus Christ, and ask God to bless the bread and wine to spiritually feed God's people in their faith.
  5. Communion: offering prayers to God, then offering the elements, then ceremonially breaking the bread and the congregation receiving it.
  6. Dismissing Benediction: after everyone had taken the bread and wine, an elder (typically the president) would pronounce a biblical blessing on God's people.
- The Service of Thanksgiving also often included renouncing Satan and all his works, making a statement of faith, water baptisms of converts, and receiving anointing with oil.
- The ritual of gathering at believers' tombs shortly after they died became annual feasts to celebrate specific martyrs.

The original, casual, personal Christian experience had absorbed some teachings of Judaism, then quickly evolved into a more formalized structure. Many of the rituals were direct remixes of the synagogue tradition. Moreover, the centuries added many, *many* more to Catholic traditions.

Over time, the church buildings themselves started representing a similar vein of symbolism to the Jewish Temple:

1. The building became the "holy place" (instead of the Bible's clarification that [our *bodies* are temples of the Most High](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/1co.6.19)).
2. There's a sanctuary for the clergy (like the Holy Place).
3. A nave is for the laity and nonbelievers (like the Court of Women).
4. There's a narthex for anyone (like the Court of the Gentiles).