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Christianity then—and now
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
We often think about the history of the Bible and Christianity as an orderly process, where ideas were written down or reasonably discussed and preserved in a pristine state. But anyone delving into the history of Christianity soon gets a totally different view.
The book of Acts, and comments in Paul’s letters to churches, hint at people who held views of Jesus and his ministry that sometimes differed strongly. Certainly Peter, Jesus’ disciple, and Paul the Apostle followed largely different paths, with Peter ministering primarily to the Jews and Paul focusing on the Gentiles.
These people were opening up a totally new world of spirituality in the face of persecution from Rome as well as Jewish authorities, in some cases. Along the way, splinter groups developed that were, for the most part, classified as heresies, including the Ebionites, the Marcionites, and the Gnostics.
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