Reddit reviews James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Since Paul broke off from the Jewish church, you could say that the branches of Christianity which derived from Judaism outside the influence of the Paul (or later the Romans) are the oldest. Unfortunately, they no longer exist in that form.

As detailed in The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins, the Asian church was larger than the European. However, persecutions in the 14th century decimated the church. The remaining parts (Coptic, Assyrian, etc) joined the Eastern Orthodox community. As a result, little of their original theology survived.

The Ethiopeans and Eritreans practiced a version of Jewish messianism that may be the oldest practicing remnant of that belief system. Don't know of a good individual source, but the Jenkins book has some material on the Horn of Africa.

Another way to approach the question would be to look at the views of Jesus' successor, his brother James. The scholar who's done the most work on this area is Robert Eisenman (James the Brother of Jesus
). Some of his opinions are controversial, but the wealth of material he brings to bear, especially Jewish sources and the political framework, is unlike anything else in the field.


Or you could take the approach that the non-Pauline books of the New Testament represent the earliest form of Christianity. Those would be The Gospel of John, James, Jude, and Revelation, and possibly some of the Petrine and Johannine epistles.

If you're ever interested in a really fun Neitzsche-like romp through the period, might I recommend Robert Eisenman's work...

Even so, everybody massively overestimates how much evidence survives from the period and place, and how much of it is objectively reliable. As I said before, Josephus is a crank, Tacitus is revolted by the subject, and the Gnostic Gospels (yes, they come up too from time to time) are five translation jobs away from even being coherent, let alone reliable. The Christian gospels are extremely biased, but start to look reliable in comparison to most pseudo-Historians' attempted sources...

Good point. This book is great.

https://www.amazon.com/James-Brother-Jesus-Unlocking-Christianity/dp/014025773X

>You said Theophilus never even used the word.

<citation needed>

> And before you go to champion about the Jesus Seminar you might want to look at various criticisms of it.

I have. While the Jesus Seminar is pretty extreme they are nowhere close to extreme as the minority of scholars that actually support the veracity of Christian dogma.

>You're some flunky with an agenda who lacks the training, breadth of study, and intelligence to have these conversations.

At least I'm not a pompous jerk. Seriously, you're a mod here? No wonder you're subreddit has such a bad reputation. You guys are making our job a lot easier, let me tell you.

I'm actually over Christianity, not reading Chrstian history anymore. This and this were the last two books I read, but I've got two book shelves full and have read many more besides.

I'm not a scholar but I'm no slouch; I simply don't respect what you're saying enough to give it more than what I have. He who has an interest in such things will study it for themselves and can make up their own minds. It's in our best interest that Christians know the human history of their supposedly divine religion.

I gave Christianity a fair shake, I studied it substantially more than the average bear and I'm simply not convinced. In fact what I've found un-convinced me. It's a web of belief supported by nothing but faith. Besides, if the God of modern Christians actually existed I wouldn't worship him, I'd spit in his face for the monster he is.

Now I'm reading books like this and this and this.

Actually, I am reading Christian books still, like this and this. It's evangelicalism I'm studying now...

My relationship to Christianity is now one of an adversary. If I see you on the front lines of the culture wars I'll wave and blow you a kiss.

From this book:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Brother-Jesus-Unlocking-Christianity/dp/014025773X

I enjoyed Eisenman's take on this in James the Brother of Jesus.