It appears that persecution played a large roll in the loss of Christianity's Jewish fundamental roots. It is interesting to note the rash of anti-semitic rhetoric that starts with Justin Martyr. Much of this rhetoric comes from the Church. Something happened in the last half of the first century that would fundamentally change the Church forever. The website Jewish-Christian Relations makes these observations:
The early church was Jewish in leadership and membership. It still used synagogues and had Pharisaic traditions and it never lost its traces of Rabbinic Halakha [religious law]. It was natural that Christians would be anxious about their self-definition and about who would define their status. Graeco-Roman observers who saw them going to the Temple defined them as Jews which meant they enjoyed the benefits of religio licitus [legal religion]. Joesephus defined them as a sect of Judaism (like the Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots, et al) For different reasons the Rabbis at Yavneh also did not give them distinctive status. To the Rabbis Jewish Christians were heretics.
1. Paul makes a statement on circumcision which is misunderstood by both contemporary Christians and Jews as a dismissal of its significance. "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything". (1 Cor. 11:19). However, Paul's teaching is congruent with an attitude to the Law that can be found in Judaism of the first century - that if Gentiles strive to keep the Law which cannot be embedded in their identity they may not be inclined to give their minds to G-d, and it is better that their minds and spirits are given to G-d than that they observe what to them might be a formality.
2. In Galatians Paul teaches that the Temple can be set aside and the people itself can become the spiritual temple. (1 Cor.6:19) This teaching is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls whose writers had turned their backs on the Jerusalem Temple. It is also found in mainstream Judaism after the destruction of the Temple. From Torah the Rabbis teach that the people is a holy people dedicated to God.
The Church has been out of sorts for almost 1900 years now. The research I have conducted has lead me to the conclusion that the Hellenization of Palestine never loosened its death-grip on the Gentile church. It is disturbing to come to this conclusion but once the truth is staring you in the face it becomes necessary to accept it at some point and deal with the implications left in its wake.
The undeniable truth is that the earliest church was Jewish in essence and practice. Further afield, Rabbi Saul and Barnabas took this message to the Greeks as instructed by Yeshua both on earth through His Talmidim and again, after His Resurrection, to Saul personally. The question is to what degree were Jewish practices and liturgy lost in translation? And should they have been lost?
Later on we find heroes like Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr and others setting up a very hierarchical ecclesiastical system which was very Greek (and Roman) in nature. The only living apostle at the time was John. This calls to mind another question. How well did John actually know these men? How much of their backgrounds (philosophical mostly) come into play in their contribution to church doctrine?
We simply cannot make any definitive statements about this transition to a more Greek system of theology because we have no concrete evidence that points to a specific event. We only have the glaring differences that remain between a Jewish church and a Gentile one. We also have passages of Scripture which seem, on the surface, to support both sides of the argument, often made by the same Biblical leaders.
Shabbat was still practiced by most Jewish Christians. and even some GreeksThe Moses Seat still existed in SynagoguesTorah was still studied in-depth and by all accounts was still followedStrong debate ensued about how much Judaism would be imposed upon GreeksPaul calls himself a practicing JewYeshua kept Shabbat and the FeastsThe Shema was still recited and reveredThe sacrificial system only ceased upon destruction of the TempleYeshua consistently uses rabbinical devices to teach His TalmidimYeshua tells us that the Gentiles are grafted-in; not the Jews because they are already part of God's FamilyRabbi Saul tells us that Salvation comes first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles; not that the Gentiles would absorb the Jews and eradicate Torah.The Greeks had a fundamentally different view of religion. There's was polytheistic. In which direction would have to go in order to convert? They would move to monotheism - an exclusively Jewish concept. Baptism is based on the mikvah of JudaismHeaven is a Jewish concept called the World to Come
