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Originally Posted by Boxjobox
One has to think that if the early church was going around speaking of Jesus as God, that there would have been such an outcry that Luke in his gospel given to assure us of our faith, and his work of Acts, would have recorded this Jesus is God thing as being taught and defended, and a whole lot of Christians being killed because of it.
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Part of the problem of recreating the conversation between Christians (many who were Jews) and non-Jesus Jews who rejected the resurrected-Christ story is this: the Jewish nation was effaced, practically speaking, a few short decades after Christ's death. So we don't know what was said, and the silence may not be indicative of Christian's lack of preaching.
Second, the Jews were famous for not acknowledging anything they didn't agree with. Josephus, for example, is a famous and widely attested early Jewish witness. But to read the Rabbis, he never existed. Why? He was a traitor to the 'minim'. So he was wiped from the record.
Third, one may in fact see some reaction to the "Jesus as God" assertions in the early rabbinic reports. There is a well-done scholarly work called "Two Powers in Heaven" by Alan Segal which covers this. (and note that there are not "Three Powers in Heaven" as yet - the "Holy Spirit as God" is not yet an issue, apparently).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxjobox
But then, in Revelation, all of the sudden he introduces the 7 churches, which correspond to 7 cities. It seems there is a lot of problems in 5 of the churches related to various teachings. But, there is one church that stands out plainly as doing a praiseworthy work, that one in Philadelphia. To this church, Jesus praises for keeping his word. And look, he says he will cause some false ones to come and worship before the feet of the believers there in Philadelphia..
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An interesting point - if the non-Jesus Jews will come to worship at the feet of Jesus' believers, what does that say about Thomas falling down and worshipping at the feet of the resurrected Jesus?