Sidebar: Jewish Christian Relations in the 1st Century

Every once in a while I plan to post brief notes on "sidebar" issues -- important issues that come in PH's lecture notes (PH stands for Phil Harrold, developer and prof of the CH 625 course with whom I'm team-teaching online this term) or in my own thoughts and readings. I post these for context and for further studies.

One of the issues that PH raises in Lesson 1 lecture is the issue of Jewish Christian relations in 1st century. This is a topic of deep interest to me and always has been. So for starters, just want to note the book he cites at length, so I can add it to my further reading/reference list:

The Emergence of the Church
Arthur G. Patzia, IVP, 2001

The charts PH provides are good visuals to help reinforce the stages of emergence/ differentiation going on between church and its Jewish roots in the first century. He labels the four phases thus:

Phase 1 (Pentecost) -- church totally circumscribed by Judaism
Phase 2 (Peter's ministry, through Acts 12, AD 40s) Christianity moving to the periphery of Judaism
Phase 3 (Paul's ministry, ADs 40s-50s-60s to destruction of the Temple AD 70) Separation began, church poised precariously on the border (but still within)
Phase 4 (AD 70 to Second Jewish Revolt, AD 132-135) complete separation

This is a really helpful teaching device and worth pondering (PH's notes in lesson 1 lecture notes from 15-17 also really helpful)