The variations of Christianity, for example the churches, that were already established in the 1st century, long before Constantine and the scriptural canonization, in which bewteen them, only had trivial differences. ALL Churches (the few that existed at that particular time period), believed in Christ as the saviour etc..
I’m not sure how much harmony there really was in the early church. You say they all “believed in Christ as the savior, etc.” Sure, but there’s a lot covered by that “etc.”
For one thing, Paul mentions several times in his genuine epistles that members of the churches he addresses should
not listen to other, false preachers preaching false doctrine. So Paul was under the impression that there were different messages and important differences that needed to be addressed.
Acts describes a meeting between Paul and James in Jerusalem, and their disagreements, presumably over whether non Jews could be members of the church.
Being that this was the first century, I would wonder whether there was really enough time for any such
contrary differences between the existing churches, whilst sharing the same
source of origin during Pauls time.
The disagreements between Paul and James is an interesting one - not disputing the above. Given that the Gospel is to be preached to all the world, Mark:16:15 for example, to which imo, I don't think gentiles were to be
excluded from following Christ, as being part of the church or even as a seperate church.
Perhaps the gentiles were not considered by James to be ready and thought this should start with all Jews first. What ever these particular reasons were for both individuals, I would assume they'd both be
aware of the
faith concept ... that is, spreading the message, the word, the gospel, 'preaching to all the world.'
That last question erupted in only the second century with Marcion, the first to codify the New Testament (he included the letters of Paul and a modified Luke). Marcionism rejects all of Jewish teaching in what we now call the Old Testament, including worship of Yahweh. For a good period of time Marcionism was the most popular version of Christianity.
yes indeed, Marcion is an interesting fellow. It seems he had quite a gnostic pov of the scriptures. Not surprising when shortly after, going into the 3rd century, as I was mentioning in another post, gnosticism became more prominent.
His way of things, didn't go unnoticed:
Where for also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the scriptures not acknowledging some books at all; and, curtailing the Gospel according to Luke and the epistles of Paul, they assert that these alone authentic, which they themselves have shortened." - Irenaeus
As for violence, while you may be correct that many early Christians were pacifists, nevertheless they could still display violence, by overturning pagan statues and defiling pagan temples, which was one of the chief complaints pagans had about Christians. My source for that information is Robin L Fox, Pagans and Christians.
Regarding violence, I'd say it depends on how one definely sees it, in perpspective to context i.e. causing
direct harm to individuals etc..
Great source, thanks for that, well worth getting the book, a subject area worth brushing up on (in my case). I had a little read up on Pagans and Christians, which also lead me to the quote above by Irenaeus. (Lion and Poli know this area better than I do)
The myth of a unified Christianity is exactly that – a myth. Schisms go back to the earliest days of the church.
The degree of unified as in saying, "all churches are indentically the same," is not what I'm saying to be clear.