Early Christianity
Second Temple backgrounds, apostolic communities, and the early church.
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Repentance, the Tower, and the Cost of Discipleship in the Shepherd of Hermas Among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, few were as influential—or as unsettling—as the Shepherd of Hermas. Composed in Rome sometime between the early and mid-second century (often dated ca. AD 130–150), the Shepherd circulated widely, was read publicly in…
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A First-Century Picture of Christian Life The New Testament itself—especially Acts, the Pauline letters, and the General Epistles—alongside the earliest extra-biblical witnesses, gives us a remarkably consistent picture of apostolic church life. The apostles did not preach a disembodied belief system. They planted living communities marked by allegiance to Christ, costly discipleship, shared life, and…
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When the Table Reveals What We Still Don’t Believe Peter did not lack revelation. By the time he arrived in Antioch, he had: • walked with Jesus, • eaten with sinners, • watched Levi’s table redefine belonging, • seen the Spirit fall on Gentiles, • defended their inclusion before the Jerusalem leaders. On paper, Peter…
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We like to speak of the “Church Fathers” with a kind of scholarly distance—turning them into marble busts and Latin footnotes. But the earliest of them weren’t system-builders or philosophers. They were bridge-bearers: the generation that still smelled of the upper room, still prayed with the raw expectancy of Pentecost, still saw the Church as…
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What the Early Church Was Actually Celebrating — and Why It Matters For most modern Christians, Epiphany barely registers. If it is noticed at all, it is usually treated as a brief coda to Christmas—associated with the Magi, a star, or the quiet dismantling of decorations. It feels optional, symbolic, and disconnected from discipleship. That…
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The Witness of Those Who Walked the Land We Only Dig Up. Antiquities of the Jews 1.11.4 (§203): “…but Lot’s wife, continually turning back to view the city, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains to this day.” That’s Josephus telling his Roman audience, “Yep, I’ve personally seen the thing.”…
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Most Christians imagine the early church as this pure Hebrew bubble — apostles quoting scrolls, rabbis debating Torah, fishermen preaching the kingdom in synagogues. And sure, that’s part of the story. But the moment the Gospel stepped outside Jerusalem, it walked right into a world soaked in Greek philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epictetus, Cleanthes —…
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Early Christian life wasn’t Sunday-morning spiritual TED Talks and mid-week potlucks — it was a full-body, full-risk, covenant-shaped way of living. Let’s paint the picture the way a first-century believer would’ve actually lived it. 1. Daily Life: Faith, Work, Sweat, and Shared Bread Think: a small, tightly knit spiritual family — not a religious side-hustle.…
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Modern readers often approach the New Testament as if it contains multiple theological “schools.” Paul is cast as the theologian of grace, Peter the theologian of suffering, John the theologian of love. But the earliest churches didn’t hear the faith in separate voices like that. They received one gospel carried through many hands. And when…
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People assume if you’re serious about theology, Augustine is somewhere near the top of your bookshelf. He’s not on mine. Not because he was evil, though I do believe he always had one foot in Gnostic beliefs and one foot in the Church. Not because he didn’t love Christ, I believe some part of him…
Restoring Apostolic Faith 