Reddit reviews The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-and How It Died

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 want a great book on the topic try this one. The thesis is essentially that for a very long time Africa, the Middle East, and Asia were the major centers of Christianity and Europe was essentially a backwater. Then, for various reasons Christianity in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East essentially went extinct. The few remaining communities there are now almost truly extinct and it is sad. Two thousand years of tradition gone.

I'm kind of wrong since a lot of the Protestant denominations are close to Arian Christianity of the first half of the first millenium.

The Virgin Mary is the continuation of Ishtar and the Mother Goddess of ancient religions. A lot of the ancient art of Jesus and his disciples has their hands in gang like shapes. Some of the interpretations I've read say the angles are the same as numbers in the measurement of the lunar month. A lot of the numbers in the Bible, and especially the Book of Matthew have links to astronomy. 12, 7, 40. The shape of the Vatican is pretty close to the shape of ancient temples. Catholocism and Orthodoxy have priests like the ancient temple priests who bless people, etc. The saints and the angels are the polytheistic gods of old. the saints are similar to ancestor worship too.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Wars-Patriarchs-Emperors-Christians/dp/0061768936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521243786&sr=8-1&keywords=the+jesus+wars&dpID=615Zd-SWSGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch


This is a really good book. For almost a thousand years the largest form of Christianity was practiced outside of the Roman Empire and stretched from Mesopotamia to the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-History-Christianity-Thousand-Year-Asia/dp/0061472816/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0061472816&pd_rd_r=GN7RVBY2PNZ62R1JBZJB&pd_rd_w=fZ4BV&pd_rd_wg=41EHF&psc=1&refRID=GN7RVBY2PNZ62R1JBZJB

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Journey-Years-Stone-Science/dp/1532705859/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521244014&sr=8-2&keywords=400000+years+stone+age&dpID=51cjv0wXuGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch


You can find other books too. Judaism/Christianity is just a continuation of ancient Hinduism and Zoroastronism with a mix of local culture. Most of the gods from greece to ancient india are almost always portrayed in the same shapes which are constellations of the zodiac.

It all goes back to measuring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession

and the recording of astronomy in poetry form

http://mathisencorollary.blogspot.com/

If Nestorian Christianity/ Christianity in Asia interest you, the two best books I have found about it are Phillip Jenkins' The Lost History of Christianity , which is aimed toward a more popular audience, and Samuel Moffet's History of Christianity in Asia before 1500 , which is a more academic text.

Yep, I totally get that. It's partially why I said that the history of the Roman and Orthodox church is complicated - they hold to different versions of history (and you know what they say about victors and history books).

If you're interested in reading more on it, back in grad school I enjoyed reading The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died by Philip Jenkins. Jenkins definitely has his own agenda with some of the topics, but the material on the history of Christianity outside of Europe was fascinating, and doesn't get talked about much these days.