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Christianity Spreads Among First-Century JewsThe Watchtower—2005 | October 15
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Christianity Spreads Among First-Century Jews
AN IMPORTANT meeting took place in Jerusalem about 49 C.E. “The ones who seemed to be pillars” of the first-century Christian congregation—John, Peter, and Jesus’ half brother James—were there. The other two named as attending the meeting were the apostle Paul and his companion Barnabas. On the agenda was how to divide the vast territory for the preaching work. Paul explained: “[They] gave me and Barnabas the right hand of sharing together, that we should go to the nations, but they to those who are circumcised.”—Galatians 2:1, 9.a
How should we understand this agreement? Was the territory in which the good news should be preached divided into Jews and proselytes on the one hand and Gentiles on the other? Or was the agreement rather a geographical division of the territory? To find a possible answer, we need some historical information about the Diaspora, Jews living outside of Palestine.
The Jewish World in the First Century
How many Jews were in the Diaspora in the first century? Many scholars seem to agree with the publication Atlas of the Jewish World: “Absolute figures are hard to arrive at, but it has been plausibly estimated that shortly before 70 there were two and a half million Jews in Judaea and well over four million in the Roman diaspora. . . . It is likely that the Jews represented something like a tenth of the whole population of the empire, and in the places where they were most concentrated, in the cities of the eastern provinces, they may have been a quarter or more of the inhabitants.”
The main centers were in Syria, Asia Minor, Babylon, and Egypt, in the East, with smaller communities in Europe. Some well-known early Jewish Christians had a Diaspora background, such as Barnabas from Cyprus, Prisca and Aquila from Pontus and then Rome, Apollos from Alexandria, and Paul from Tarsus.—Acts 4:36; 18:2, 24; 22:3.
The Diaspora communities had many links with their homeland. One was the annual tax sent to the temple in Jerusalem, a way to participate in temple life and worship. Regarding this, scholar John Barclay observes: “There is good evidence that the collection of this money, supplemented by extra donations from the wealthy, was scrupulously undertaken by Diaspora communities.”
Another link was the tens of thousands of pilgrims who went to Jerusalem every year for the festivals. The account at Acts 2:9-11 about Pentecost 33 C.E. illustrates this. The Jewish pilgrims present came from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, and Arabia.
The temple administration in Jerusalem communicated with Jews in the Diaspora in writing. It is known that Gamaliel, the law teacher mentioned at Acts 5:34, sent letters to Babylon and other parts of the world. When the apostle Paul arrived as a prisoner in Rome about 59 C.E., “the principal men of the Jews” told him that “neither have we received letters concerning you from Judea, nor has anyone of the brothers that has arrived reported or spoken anything wicked about you.” This indicates that letters and reports were frequently sent from the homeland to Rome.—Acts 28:17, 21.
The Bible of the Diaspora Jews was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Septuagint. A reference work notes: “It is plausible to conclude that the LXX [Septuagint] was read and received throughout the diaspora as the diaspora Jewish Bible or ‘holy writ.’” The same translation was extensively used by the early Christians in their teaching.
The members of the Christian governing body in Jerusalem were familiar with these circumstances. The good news had already reached Diaspora Jews in Syria and beyond, including Damascus and Antioch. (Acts 9:19, 20; 11:19; 15:23, 41; Galatians 1:21) At the meeting in 49 C.E., the ones present were evidently planning for future work. Let us consider the Biblical references to the expansion among the Jews and proselytes.
Paul’s Travels and Jews in the Diaspora
The apostle Paul’s original assignment was “to bear [Jesus Christ’s] name to the nations as well as to kings and the sons of Israel.”b (Acts 9:15) After the Jerusalem meeting, Paul continued to reach out to the Diaspora Jews wherever he traveled. (See the box on page 14.) This indicates that the territorial agreement likely became a geographical one. Paul and Barnabas expanded their missionary work to the west, and the others served the Jewish homeland and the large Jewish communities in the Eastern world.
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Christianity Spreads Among First-Century JewsThe Watchtower—2005 | October 15
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Babylon, with extensions into Parthia, Media, and Elam, was another major center. One historian says that “every territory in the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, from Armenia to the Persian gulf, as well as northeastward to the Caspian Sea, and eastward to Media, contained Jewish populations.” The Encyclopaedia Judaica estimates their number at 800,000 or more. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus tells us that tens of thousands of Babylonian Jews traveled to Jerusalem for the annual festivals.
Were some of the Babylonian pilgrims baptized at Pentecost 33 C.E.? We do not know, but among those who heard the apostle Peter on that day were ones from Mesopotamia. (Acts 2:9) We do know that the apostle Peter was in Babylon about 62-64 C.E. While there, he wrote his first letter and possibly the second one as well. (1 Peter 5:13) Babylon with its large population of Jews was obviously considered part of the territory assigned to Peter, John, and James at the meeting referred to in the letter to the Galatians.
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Christianity Spreads Among First-Century JewsThe Watchtower—2005 | October 15
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a This meeting was probably held at the time of or in connection with the discussion of the first-century governing body on the matter of circumcision.—Acts 15:6-29.
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