Early Christians were 'wholly Jewish', James Dunn writes | Blogging Theology

Who is Blogging Theology?

Welcome to Blogging Theology. Our mission is to produce bitesized discussions of academic and scholarly books on Islam, Christianity and Judaism to encourage respectful interfaith dialogue and discussion to have some fun.

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What is Early Christian?

Early Christianity, the period of Christianity preceding the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. This typically divides historically into the Apostolic Age and the Ante-Nicene Period (from the Apostolic Age until Nicea). The first Christians, as described in the first chapters of the Book of Acts, were all Jews either by birth or conversion and historians refer to them as Jewish Christians. The early Gospel message spread orally, probably originally in Aramaic, and later in Greek. The New Testament's Acts of the Apostles and Epistle to the Galatians record that the first Christian community centered on Jerusalem and that its leaders included Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John the Apostle.

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Who is James Dunn?

James DG "Jimmy" Dunn (born 1939) is a British New Testament scholar. He was for many years the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the Department of Theology at the University of Durham, now Emeritus Lightfoot Professor. Dunn has an MA and BD from the University of Glasgow and a PhD and DD from the University of Cambridge. For 2002, Dunn was the President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, an international body for New Testament study. He is a minister of the Church of Scotland and a Methodist local preacher.

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What is Jewish?

Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, with the Torah as its foundational text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible), and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. <br><br> Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Within Judaism there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. <br><br> The Jews are an ethnoreligious group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2012, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14 million, or roughly 0.2% of
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Who are TES?

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