After Jesus Before Christianity

Probably by the mid-fourth century only a minority of these groups shared meals anymore; by this time, most of them thought of themselves as “Christian.”

The only known practice of Jesus communities for the first ninety years was the festive meal. It was perhaps one of the most profound dimensions of those early movements.

the true paterfamilias is God.

The household codes still follow the threefold pattern of Aristotle: master and enslaved, husband and wife, and father and child:

The empire’s good news is that the elite rule over the rest of the world with an iron fist by divine fiat.

The ancient meaning of pistis is properly translated in contemporary English as “confidence” or “trust,” as in having trust in a particular person or people.

most communities of the Anointed of the first and second century publicly acknowledged the paradox that Rome’s defeat of Jesus the Anointed was actually Rome’s defeat.

An inscription from the reign of Caesar Augustus from Asia Minor celebrates the birthday of the emperor as the good news: Since Providence, who has ordered all things and has great interest in our life, has perfectly ordered life by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as savior for us and for

Following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, almost one hundred thousand Judeans were sent to Rome to be enslaved.2 Many of these enslaved people built the Colosseum, the amphitheater still central to tourism in central Rome today.