From Jesus to the Church: The First Christian Generation

by Craig A. Evans

Publisher:

Westminster John Knox

, 2014

Overview

Did Jesus intend to found a church separate from Judaism? Who were the very first followers of Jesus? And how did a clash between two families—the family of Jesus on one hand and the family of high priest Annas and their aristocratic allies on the other—eventually lead to the formation of Christianity? In this study, bestselling author Craig A. Evans looks at how a tumultuous chain of events from 30 to 70 AD led to the separation between early Christ-followers and other Jews. Evans examines key questions such as whether Jesus actually intended to found the Christian Church, what Jesus’ proclamation of the “Kingdom of God” meant for first generation Christians, the role of James (brother of Jesus) in the new movement, the tension between James and Paul, and the perspective of Christians on the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish rebellion. Evans draws these events together in an accessible volume that will help modern Christians understand the background of the New Testament they read, and interpret it with clear ideas of its historical backdrop.

Key Features

• Examines the early development of the church in the years following Jesus’ death
• Focuses on key personalities and leaders in the early Christian church
• Fills in historical gaps left by the New Testament about the arly church

Contents

• Introduction
• Did Jesus Intend to Found a Church?
• From Kingdom of God to Church of Christ
• James as Leader of the Jesus Community
• Phinehan Zeal and Works of the Law: What Paul and James are Really Saying
• Jerusalem Communities in Conflict
• The Church between Paul, James, and Ignatius
• Appendix: Root Causes of the Jewish-Christian Rift: From Jesus to Justin

Top Highlights

“The shift from kingdom of God to church of Christ corresponds to the shift from the Jesus who proclaims (the kingdom), to the Jesus who is proclaimed (by the church).” (Page 38)

“Jesus speaks of authority on earth because the Son of man has received his authority from God in heaven (as depicted in Dan. 7:9–14). Having received his authority from heaven, Jesus now exercises it in his ministry on earth.” (Page 49)

“The word usually translated ‘church’ in the Greek New Testament is ekklēsia. In the New Testament the word occurs some 114 times. But it also occurs some 100 times in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Most of the occurrences of ekklēsia in the Septuagint translate forms of qahal, whose basic meaning as a noun is ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation’ and as a verb is ‘to assemble.’ The Christian word ‘church’ comes from the Greek adjective, kyriakos, which means ‘of the Lord’ or ‘the Lord’s’ (cf. 1 Cor. 11:20, ‘the Lord’s supper’; Rev. 1:10, ‘on the Lord’s day’). Accordingly, ‘church’ is an anglicized and abbreviated form of hē ekklēsia hē kyriakē, ‘the Lord’s assembly.’” (Page 18)

“What we may have here in the Letter of James, written perhaps fifteen years or so after the death of Jesus, is a glimpse of the life of the Christian community in a very early stage, when there was little distinction between synagōgē and ekklēsia, a time when a leader of the Jesus movement could live in Jerusalem and compete for the hearts and minds of his fellow Jews, not in order to lead them out of Israel, but to lead them toward the fulfillment of what God had promised Israel.” (Page 37)

Praise for the Print Edition

[A]nyone interested in early Christianity, especially the period from Christ to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, should read From Jesus to the Church. This book is also a treat for anyone interested in Christianity’s Jewish background and as well as noncanonical Jewish texts. Evans has an astounding knowledge of deuterocanonical texts and Qumran scrolls that shed much light on the topics he discusses. This is a short book with a wealth of information that is both accessible for laypeople enjoyable for scholars. I highly recommend it.

—Jennifer Guo, jenniferguo.wordpress.com

Product Details

• Title: From Jesus to the Church: The First Christian Generation
• Author: Craig A. Evans
• Edition: First edition
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Church history › Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
• ISBNs: 9780664239053, 0664239056
• Resource ID: LLS:JESUSCHURCH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:51:46Z

About Craig A. Evans

Craig A. Evans (Ph.D.) is an esteemed, internationally recognized biblical scholar, author, and a regular guest on TV documentaries. He is John Bisagno Distinguished Professor of Christian Origins at Houston Theological Seminary. He was formally Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College. Before working at Acadia, Evans taught at Trinity Western University in British Columbia for twenty-one years, where he directed the graduate program in biblical studies and founded the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute. Evans has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, and Yale. He also regularly lectures and gives talks at popular conferences and retreats on the historical Jesus, archaeology, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bible.

He is the author or editor of more than fifty books and hundreds of articles and reviews. Evans is well-known for his work on the Gospels, the Historical Jesus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the archaeology of the New Testament. His passion for archaeology has him frequently participating in Middle East digs and leading Holy Land tours. He has appeared in television and radio interviews, such as the History Channel, BBC, and Dateline NBC. Evans served as a consultant on the National Geographic Society's Gospel of Judas project and for The Bible television miniseries, and is featured in documentaries like Fragments of Truth and the Archaeology and Jesus series. He's written hundreds of articles and reviews and published more than 70 books, including Jesus and His Contemporaries, Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies, Mark in the Word Biblical Commentary, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels, God Speaks, and Jesus and the Remains of His Days: Studies in Jesus and Archaeology. He coauthored Jesus, the Final Days with N. T. Wright.

Sample Pages from From Jesus to the Church: The First Christian Generation