Book Of Acts Essay

The Book of Acts and the and the Epistle to the Galatians document the existence of the first Christian community based in Jerusalem. It is believed that only several hundreds of Jews followed Jesus and his teaching, within 10 years of Jesus, the apostles spread Christianity from Jerusalem to Galilee, Damascus or Rome. The earliest Christianity is seen as a sect within Judaism, continuing some of the Jewish tradition and developing its own identity, this development is described in the Book of Acts that is now a part of the New Testament. Two pictures of the ministry in Palestine are possible. One appears more straightforward and has a tradition in the Catholic Church, but is probably more contrived, pointing at the leadership of the twelve

While Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the great feasts of the Jewish year and had taught there, he had never made it his centre. The execution of Jesus was a shocking ending to the promising ministry and his followers, the early beginnings of Christianity deal with the question of leadership after Christ's death. The tradition tell us that Peter was the leader of the first Christians. For Roman Catholics Peter's status after the death of Jesus had the same role as the Pope today. Throughout the New Testament, Peter is known as one of Jesus' closest friends, apostle and one of the "pillars" of the Church (Galatians, 2:9).However it was only after about ten years of the Jerusalem church's life , that is after Herod Agrippa's death in AD 44, that a firm and final pattern of leadership took shape and authority became rather more institutionalized. It is believed that James the Just of Jerusalem was the first leader of the Christianity. When did James emerge to the leadership of the ministry? We have no clear answer due to the lack of sources, however certainly by the time Paul went to Jerusalem for his second visit (AD 46 at the earliest) he was already the most prominent of the three 'pillar