LO2- Christianity in the Era of the Roman Peace

• In its first two hundred years, Christianity acquired many lasting features of its beliefs and practices.
• The development involved the Christians and Jews too.

• It was during the period of Jewish conflict and dispute leading up the the destruction of the Temple in A.D 70 that Jesus lived and taught.
• Named the books after his followers.
• Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
• Gospel writers focused the most on his birth and the brief years when he was a wandering preacher in Judea, and his death and aftermath.
• Two roles: A teacher explaining God's purposes, and as Messiah sent by God.
• The Gospels, written at a time when the Jewish majority and the believers of Jesus were turning against each other, portrayed him as an outright opponent of other Jewish groups. 

• However from much of the readings we know, Jesus had a lot in common with them. 
• He obeyed the law and visited the Temple, and called for acceptance of Roman law, while standing apart from the Temple priest. 
• Jesus taught, longed for Gods forgiveness, which alone could admit them to the kingdom. 
• Jesus's biggest difference with the Pharisees, as the gospels described it, was that, like the radical Jewish groups, he proclaimed that "the kingdom of God has come near."
• In the thirty years after Jesus' death, his apostles worked hard to proclaim "the good news" (PAUL)