In time, "Christianity" became almost entirely
Greek as the Jewish followers of "the Way"
eventually ceased to exist.
In his
book Early Christian Fathers Cyril Richardson writes:
Outside
the New Testament writings, the earliest Christian document we possess is
an anonymous letter of the church of Rome to the church of Corinth. It was
written about AD 96.
The most striking facts about early Christian literature are its
rich variety and its almost exclusively Gentile authorship. [pp 15]
Since
the Gentiles were familiar with Greek
philosophy and not with the Torah, interpreted Paul’s letters from a very
different perspective.
The
writings of Paul and others of his contemporaries also began to be
considered to be as authoritative as the word of God (the Torah), after
their death. The idea, originally proposed by Marcion, to create a “new”
testament, also began to grow, and for the next couple of centuries became
a political struggle as to what books were authentic, and whose version of
a “new” testament would be used to shape the doctrinal direction of the
Gentile believers who were already far from the Jewish perspective.
As time
went on the Hebraic perspective diminished as pagan influences grew. The
main body of believers was now moving firmly out of Judaism and into
paganism. By the time of Emperor Constantine, observing customs that were
considered to be “Jewish” had become illegal. All subjects of the empire
were mandated to accept this profession:
“I
renounce all customs, rites, legalism, unleavened breads, and feast of
Lambs of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspirations, purifications,
sanctifications, and propriations, hymns and chants, observances and