Extracts from Weekly Blog Recap. All references of “I” below are to Bart Ehrman.
- Early Christian Views of Judaism, In a Nutshell, March 26, 2026 It is not easy to understand the relationship between Jews and Christians in antiquity; Christianity starts out as a Jewish sect; there is conflict between most Jews and those few who claim Jesus is the messiah; soon more gentiles convert than Jews and many of them are not connected with Judaism or appreciate Judaism; there end up being additional conflicts; and different Christians have different views of Jews and Judaism, at times leading to hateful acts. Etc.
I thought it might be useful to provide a broader overview of the situation as a continuation of my “nutshell” discussions of early Christianity, here focused not on a book (New Testament or Apostolic Fathers) but on religious perspectives and social realities on the (ancient) ground. As the fates would have it, I spent some time this afternoon working on the revisions for the 3rd edition of my textbook: The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford University Press) where I have an Excursus devoted to the topic: “Jews and Christians in the Ancient World.” Here it is, slightly revised. [Use link above] - The Rise of Christian Anti-Judaism, in a Nutshell In addition to the question I dealt with in the previous post of how Christians understood their new religion in relationship to Judaism in antiquity, there is another matter of importance for understanding ancient Jewish-Christian relations: what did Christians, broadly speaking, think about their relationship to actual Jews who did not believe?
- Early Persecutions of Christians, in a Nutshell Why were early Christians persecuted? How extensively? Were they early on seen as a threat to the state? In my previous two posts I discussed the relationship of Jews and Christians — and how Christians became anti-Jewish — in the early church. It occurred to me it would be good to talk about two other groups Christians had problems with early on, one from outside their ranks with persecutors (unofficial and official) and one with in their own ranks with “false believers” (heretics).
- When Emperors Became More Involved in Christian Persecutions When did Christianity first become “illegal” in the Roman world? In my previous post I described the Christian persecutions in its early decades, including those under Nero in Rome in 64 CE and Papias in Bythinia in 112 CE. It would be useful to continue the tale, to see just what the known persecutions were about. This is worthwhile information for anyone interested at all in how Christianity started out and was received in the Roman world.
- The First Attempts to Wipe Out Christianity Persecutions of Christians did not become “empire-wide” or generally threatening until the middle of the third century, over 200 years after Jesus’ death. It is a mistake to think all Christians had to go in hiding in the early years/decades/centuries of the church because they were seen by the Roman state as an impending threat. Here I continue with this short series describing the imperial persecutions of Christians…
- Early Christian Reactions to “Heresies” in a Nutshell In recent posts I gave brief overviews of issues from the earliest centuries of Christianity that would take (and have taken) entire books to cover in adequate length — Christian relations with Jews and their relationship to hostile outsiders (persecutions). In this post I deal with the third key antagonistic social situation that arose early on in the faith, the relationship of “orthodox” Christians with “heretics.”
