ii. The Christians in Jerusalem. — Apart from the Book of Acts there is little information regarding the Christians during the years that tliey tarried in Jerusalem. A not unlikely tradi- tion gives twelve years as the period that the Twelve remained at the first centre of the Church. After that arose persecution and consequent dis- persion. This may be dated in the short reign of Agrippa I. (A.D. 41-44). Subsequent to this the Cliurch in Jerusalem, which from the first had been Jewish-Christian, became pronouncedly Juda- istic, perhaps an essential to its own preservation. Up to the time of the revolt (A.D. 66), while there were indeed conflicts with the Jewish authorities, more or less coincident with interregna in the pro- curatorship, there was no open breach. The sect was tolerated, as others were, by the Jewish leaders, so long as there was outward conformity to the ritual of the Temple. The progres.sive movement in Christianity was external to Jerusalem and even to Palestine ; the Church in the metropolis of the faith became increasingly conservative, and in the end ceased to have any standing Avithin the Church Catholic. But this did not take place until the post-Apostolic Age. Attention must be fixed chiefly on the first few decades following the Death of Christ, years in which originated much that became permanent within the Church as well as features that were destined to pass away.
(a) The discijjles and the Lord. — Throughout the Book of Acts emphasis is laid upon the fact that Christ had risen from the dead. So far as can be discovered, the first Christians had no concern for the scene of the Crucifixion nor yet for the empty tomb. It was not until the 4th cent. A.D. that these spots, so venerated in after ages, came to be marked by a Christian edifice. The. thoughts of the early Christians were upon the living and not the dead. They cherished the hope of the speedy return of Christ to earth in all the glory of His Second Coming, and reckoned that they lived in the time of the end, when the fullness of Messiah's Kingdom was about to be ushered in. This being the case, they made no provision for posterity in the way of erecting memorials to the Christ who had sojourned among them in the flesh, and, as the extracts from Patristic writers (see small type above) reveal, after ' sacred sites ' began to be marked, they were those associated with the post- resurrection life of the Lord.
(b) Relation of the Christians to other dwellers in the city. — The desire to make converts to the faith must have brought the Christians into contact with their fellow-citizens and with those of the Dispersion who chanced to be present in the city. Their assembling in the Temple, for instance, was not simply to fulfil the Law (Ac 3^), nor yet for the sake of meeting with each other (S^-), but to work upon the mass of the people through the words and wonders of the apostles. Only by public ac- tivity could the numbers have grown Avith the rapidity and to the extent they did. Of necessity this propaganda was attended by a measure of opposition from those Avho were the traditional enemies of the Lord. But, so long as Roman rule was exercised, persecution could not make head- way. While thus mixing to some extent Avith other elements in the city, the Christians also lived a life apart for purposes of instruction and fellow-
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ship, and for the performance of the simple ritual of the faith (Ac 2''- 12'^ etc.). There is no evidence that they possessed any special building like a synagogue. A jirivate house, such <as that of Mary, the mother of John Mark, would have served tiieir i)urpose, and according to tradition (see above) this was the recognized centre. Even at the time of the so-called Council (Ac 15^) no indication is given that the assembly was convened in an oHicial building.
(c) Organization. — Those who had companied with Jesus in the days of His public ministry were from the outset regarded as leaders in the Cliurch, and were in possession of special gifts and powers. To the Twelve, who were Hebrews, tliere were shortly added the Seven, perhaps as an accommoda- tion to the Hellenists (Ac 6^). This step probably marks the hrst cleavage in the ranks of the Chris- tians, as they began to be called, and paved the way for the wider breach which in a few years severed those at the ancient centre of Jewish faith and practice from the numerically stronger division of Gentile believers in other places. Harnack re- gards it as possible that the Seven were ' Hellen- istic rivals of the Twelve' [The Constitution and Law of the Ghurch, 30), the chief being St. Stephen, whose adherents were persecuted after his death, the apostles themselves being let alone (TA^ Mission and Expansion of Christianity'-, i. 50 f. ; cf. Ac 8^).
The appointment of the Seven reveals the fact that in one respect the initial practice of the Chris- tians had been tentative and could not be sustained. The community of goods, which theoretically was an ideal system, ultimately proved unworkable, and was not imitated in other Christian communi- ties. The poverty of the mother Church, wliich continued after Gentile churches had been planted at many points, has been regarded as the outcome of this experiment, but it is likely that the causes of this poverty in Jerusalem lay deeper than that. G. A. Smith [Jerusalem, ii. 563) has shown that Jerusalem is naturally a poor city, and he attri- butes her chronic poverty to the inadequacy of her own resources and the many non-productive members her population contained. These condi- tions were not altered in apostolic times. In view of the circumstance that at a comparatively late stage the further commission was given to St. Paul and Barnabas to remember the poor (Gal 2'"), i.e. at Jerusalem, this may conceivably be grounded not upon special need but upon the analogy of the tribute paid Ijy those of the Diaspora to head- quarters. 'The church at Jerusalem, together with the primitive apostles, considered themselves the central body of Christendom, and also the representatives of the true Israel' (Harnack, Mission and Expansion^, i. 330 f.).