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Were There Any Christians in the First Two Centuries?

Were There Any Christians in the First Two Centuries?

Monday, January 24, 2022
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig

In this discussion, the third in a four-part series about the book After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements Hal Taussig addresses the question, “Were There Any Christians in the First Two Centuries?”  For the most part, both biblical scholars and most churches have not paid attention to the almost complete lack of the word “Christian” and the complete lack of the word “Christianity” in the Bible.  Our Bible and Beyond study—like the study in After Jesus Before Christianity—examines the three small mentions of “Christian” in the eventual New Testament and proposes a re-thinking of what that word means in the first two centuries.

Texts for the session include: Acts of the Apostles 11:25,26; Acts of the Apostles 26:27-29; First Peter 4:14-16; Letters of Pliny and Trajan 10:96 (Volume II: Books 8-10) Loeb Classical Library. All four of these texts are also available in the new book After Jesus Before Christianity (pp. 16—24) authored by The Westar Institute’s “Christianity Seminar” and edited by Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, and Hal Taussig.