Question about the early christians

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angell1

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does anyone know of any early church fathers that were jewish instead of gentile?
 
What was St. Paul? Chopped Liver?

In fact, all the apostles were Jews.
 
angell1 said:
ok sarcasm aside, i guess i should have been more specific. besides the apostles
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😃 Okay.

I wasn’t really trying to be sarcastic, but may have come off that way. Sorry.

I’m not sure who all in the ECF were originally Jewish, but ya gotta remember that we started out as a Jewish sect and sort of parted company with them by mutual consent in the New Testament. (see Acts)
 
i posted a thread on this earlier but it was deleted for some reason.

was just wondering if there are any early church fathers that had jewish roots besides the apostles
 
Church_Militant said:
😃 Okay.

I wasn’t really trying to be sarcastic, but may have come off that way. Sorry.

I’m not sure who all in the ECF were originally Jewish, but ya gotta remember that we started out as a Jewish sect and sort of parted company with them by mutual consent in the New Testament. (see Acts)
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no problem. i may also be acting oversensitive. i get some pretty rude posts on some of my other questions sometimes. and yeah, i guess that makes sense. i guess the distinctions weren’t really important anymore
 
By “Jewish roots,” I presume you mean members of the Jewish race. Judaism is both a race and a religion. A person born to a Jewish parent is a member of the Jewish race. Such a person is considered a “Jew,” even if he does not practice the Mosaic law (the Catholic Church similarly has a “once a Catholic, always a Catholic” mentality).

You ask about the “early Christians.” Besides the Apostles, the earliest Christians were those who were present at Pentecost (these were the very first non-Apostolic Christians). These were almost all Jews, having traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover. Peter accuses the crowd of having handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities. The Book of Acts records many who repented of this act, but not of anybody who said, “Hey, I’m a gentile - I wasn’t involved.”

Among the Early Church FATHERS, it is hard to say. We lack biographical information on most of them. The question is complicated by the fact that the majority of Jews in Our Lord’s time were Hellenistic Jews - they spoke Greek (not Hebrew) and were largely integrated (both socially and geographically) into Greek and Roman society, making it difficult to deduce whether they were of Jewish or gentile ancestry, unless we have some specific information in this regard.
 
DavidFilmer said:
By “Jewish roots,” I presume you mean members of the Jewish race. Judaism is both a race and a religion. A person born to a Jewish parent is a member of the Jewish race. Such a person is considered a “Jew,” even if he does not practice the Mosaic law (the Catholic Church similarly has a “once a Catholic, always a Catholic” mentality).

You ask about the “early Christians.” Besides the Apostles, the earliest Christians were those who were present at Pentecost (these were the very first non-Apostolic Christians). These were almost all Jews, having traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover. Peter accuses the crowd of having handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities. The Book of Acts records many who repented of this act, but not of anybody who said, “Hey, I’m a gentile - I wasn’t involved.”

Among the Early Church FATHERS, it is hard to say. We lack biographical information on most of them. The question is complicated by the fact that the majority of Jews in Our Lord’s time were Hellenistic Jews - they spoke Greek (not Hebrew) and were largely integrated (both socially and geographically) into Greek and Roman society, making it difficult to deduce whether they were of Jewish or gentile ancestry, unless we have some specific information in this regard.
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Well I believe it is quite more than a “mentality” 😉 It is steeped in the first covenant made by God with Abraham. This covenant was the circumcision by which you were grafted onto the Family of God. Remember God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male in his household, including his servants who had no blood relations with him and where not even of his tribe. And we see this throughout the OT when people’s were accepted into “Israel”. In the New Testament we are TOLD that Baptism is the NEW circumcision which by the way you cannot undue. Same as Baptism. This is why the Church is also so adamant that ONLY 1 Baptism is allowed in our lives. You cannot circumcise people over and over. 😃
In a real sense the Catholic Church IS the new Israel. With all the tribes including many Jews (there are so many of them joining the faith thanks be to God).

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JerryZ said:
In a real sense the Catholic Church IS the new Israel.
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Absolutely. If ALL Jews had accepted their own Savior (presumably after the Crucifixion), then the Jewish Church would have simply become the Catholic Church. In a very real sense, the Jewish Church DID become the Catholic Church, but a lot of Jews were not on-board.
 
angell1 said:
does anyone know of any early church fathers that were jewish instead of gentile?
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This is a really good question. Although none are coming to mind at the top of my head, one Church Father who engaged in dialog with the Jews was St. Justin Martyr. His book “Dialog with Trypho” is a classic treatment of how Catholics and Jews view the Old Testament differently, and how Catholics can show that the Christian religion is the fulfillment of Judaism. Since it contains Jewish responses, it is useful for that as well.

**Edit: I just found out that the first sixteen bishops of Jerusalem were Israelite.
 
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