Professional paper
Beginning and early expansion of the Church: from the year 30 to 36
Željko Tolić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split, Split, Croatia
Abstract
Speaking of the beginnings of the Church, from the earliest years, the author divides his exposition into three main chapters. In the first, titled Pentecost and Peter's Sermons, he describes the return of the apostles to Jerusalem following Jesus' Ascension, selection of St. Matthias in the Apostolic Assembly, pouring out of the Holy Spirit and Peter’s sermons. The second chapter, entitled The First Spread of the Church and the First Persecution, speaks of the expansion of Christian faith in the Jewish Diaspora, in Jerusalem and Saronic Plain, of the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius, the contribution of other Apostles to the spread of the new faith, and the barriers and first persecutions of the Jews. The third chapter speaks of Christian Hellenists, the choice of the Seven (Deacons), of St. Stephen and his speech before the Sanhedrin, whereby the Holy Spirit served to direct the Church towards greater independence from Judaism, its rituals and laws. As the first Christian martyr St. Stephen was being stoned, Saul of Tarsus was looking after the clothes of the witnesses, that is, of those who stoned him. The period of relative peace enjoyed by the Church therefore lasted for six years. Persecutions that broke out after Stephen’s death would continue, more or less violently, until the death of King Agrippa I. († 44). But the escape and violent scattering of the Hellenists from Jerusalem will contribute to spreading the Good News and, ultimately, to transforming Saul, the angry enemy and persecutor of the Christians, into St. Paul, a brilliant and tireless herald of the same News.
Keywords
Church; apostles; Gospel; Judeo-Christians; Hellenists; persecution; spread of faith;
Hrčak ID:
212682
URI
Publication date:
14.12.2018.
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