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When Jerusalem, and the Temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the heart of Judaism was inadvertently destroyed as well. Many sections of society, the Sadducees for example, were totally eradicated, and all their writings lost in the fires. Afterwards, only two groups of Pharisees survived to reorganise themselves, and adapt to very different circumstances,
Both groups had leaders of integrity and wisdom, and neither was attached to the Temple hierarchy. In fact, both groups were able to survive the loss of the Temple because of the way they were each developing before 70. The Rabbinical Jews had begun to teach that the table in every Jewish home was an altar to God, so the purity laws now had to be applied in the home, while the Jesus-Jews also gathered round the meal-table, each one a 'temple for the Holy Spirit', and corporately, the 'Body of Christ'. Both could survive without the Temple Building, but the loss of the central Holy City was more serious. It had been the central hub for all Jews wherever they lived. Suddenly they had all lost their 'headquarters', their point of reference, and leaders of intellect to whom they could appeal for approval and support, or to arbitrate in disputes.
The Rabbinic Jews retired to Yavneh, (Jamnia), and for the next 20 years or so, examined the writings of the Law, and debated its many applications, and they eventually produced the Mishnah which is still closely studied today.
The Jesus Jews, without the leadership of James, the brother of the Lord, who had been killed just before the final war, moved to Pella,. By this time, however, there were so many Christian communities in the Diaspora, and enough gentile members too, that they began communicating with each other, with travelling messengers, apostles, and with letters to each other.
It was the leaders of the more important Christian groups, (churches), who gradually began to be the new 'authorities' and points of reference. They sent out their own missionaries into their local areas, missionaries who returned to their own 'Centre' to report on their progress and check they were teaching their new beliefs correctly. These centres organised their own finances, so were independent of each other. Eventually four major Christian centres evolved, at
During all the early years of Christianity, the young communities had come into being, as Paul's had in Corinth, because they had met some-one who told them the 'Good News' about the resurrection of Jesus, and about His Spirit which had been given to them to continue his work. It was a charismatic, 'Spirit-filled' movement, full of energy and excitement. The new members, once they had been baptised, shared supper with each other regularly, and 'felt' the presence of the Risen Christ among them, as they broke Bread together and remembered the Last Supper before Jesus had been betrayed, and subsequently killed.
Each missionary apostle had told about the Jesus they had known, or been taught about. There was much variety and flexibility among the new communities, (we know only about Paul's group of churches among the many around the Greco-Roman world), as they each worked out the meaning of Jesus's life and teaching. They also worked out codes of appropriate behaviour for themselves, the more Jewish groups following the standards of the Jewish Law more avidly than the groups with a higher proportion of gentile members. After 70, the new local 'authorities' began to check their own standards, and compare themselves with others, sometimes with visiting emissaries, and sometimes by writing letters. Sadly only a few of their letters have survived, but they give a fascinating glimpse into how the young churches survived after losing their original headquarters in Jerusalem.
Before we con fully appreciate the changes which began to develop after losing Jerusalem, it is necessary to realise the intellectual impact caused by the change of language they now used, - Greek - instead of the original Aramaic as spoken by the original Jesus-Jews in Jerusalem. Jewish Christians in the Diaspora only spoke and thought in Greek; They read their Scriptures in the Greek, Septuagint' translation, and knew little or nothing of Galilee where Jesus had taught. Very soon, all Aramaic was lost. Yeshua became 'Jesus', Miriam became 'Mary', Yacov became 'Jacob', Shimon became 'Simon', and so on. Soon also, 'gentile' ideas were being used to explain the meaning of Jesus, and his teaching, - while his actions were transformed into miraculous stories to make their points, among people who expected them to be that way.
Even more significantly, they were thinking of God in Greek. No more were gentile Christians thinking of a Semitic God, named YHWH, but of THE ONE AND ONLY GOD, in Greek, - THEOS. This was far more compatible with Hellenistic thinking,
The new Christian communities were beginning to write after 70, at the same time as the Rabbinical Jews. The differences between them, however, were deepening, until the Rabbinical Jews, striving to 'purify' their own lives according to the Law, became more and more hostile to the Christians. Eventually there was a total split, and anyone found in a synagogue professing that Jesus had been God's Messiah, as proved by his Resurrection, was ejected forcefully and forbidden to return. By 88 CE, when the Jewish Prayer Book was produced, God's curse was pronounced, in their gatherings, on all Christians.
Cast out from Judaism, the Christian communities not only lost their recognised place under the 'Jewish umbrella' in the Roman Empire, but they began to re-act to their very new danger in the Roman world, by blaming the Jews, instead of the Romans, for the crucifixion of Jesus. (but remember, crucifixion was a 'Roman' death, and only the Roman authority could order it!). This polemic increased in time, and in the subsequent development of their own NT writings.
The first Christian written version of the 'Good News', or 'Gospel', seems to have been written in Rome, soon after 70. By then, that community had already experienced Nero's 'persecution for fun', and knew that Peter and Paul had also been killed. They knew about the Jewish war, and the end of Jerusalem. Someone, (was his name Mark?), decided to write what had previously been taught by word of mouth. Mark was not a Palestinian Jew himself, and probably had never been there. He wrote for his community, in Greek, what they knew about Jesus, (or - was it what Mark wanted them to think about Jesus?). He wrote about the sufferings of Jesus, and his death, sufferings which were now the pattern, or the 'Way' for themselves. He wrote about the Christ of the Community in Rome. Without the Headquarters in Jerusalem to validate it, however, its first readers did want it to look authentic, If Mark were the real name of the author, it was common enough to be readily linked with the 'John Mark' of the house in Jerusalem where the first believers had gathered together. And if the author's name were not 'Mark', then pseudopigraphic authorship was still common and acceptable.
The first Gospel set a standard which when shared with other communities became the pattern for others that followed. Each described the Jesus of 'their' community, and the concerns of their own members, which can be discerned by careful study of their introductions and their endings.
Mark declared the Jesus he knew, in his first sentence, 'the good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God', - both titles used by Paul, (but not with the literal, physical meaning that is ascribed to them now.), and spelled out, for both his Jewish and gentile readers. And the next 15 verses set the scene, - using the technique of 'Story-telling' to excellent effect, straightway drawing the reader 'into' the Story. The scene is set against the baptism of John, when, for Mark, the identity of Jesus was given divine approval, with hints of royal overtones, the 'Servant' motif, and the beloved relationship between Abraham and his son, Isaac. For Mark, Jesus was a royal figure, who stood before Pilate as a King, in ch.15.
The temptations in brief carry heavy overtones of the desert, 40 days, and the wild beasts, but they establish the KEY to the whole Story, that Jesus is victorious over Satan, (3.22-30), later described in narrative form as exorcisms, healings, battles with unclean, and evil spirits, and even over death itself. The introduction ends with a brief summary of all Jesus's teaching, before the call of the first disciples.
Mark's ending at 16.8, has puzzled people all through the centuries. Even now people still claim that there was originally more, but it has been lost, or, that Mark was interrupted and unable to finish it, but it is likely that it was intended as it is. He was writing for people who already believed in the reality of the Risen Christ, and who experienced his presence with them when they gathered to break bread, so there was no 'end', only a continuation, that was now their responsibility. With the words, 'Go to Galilee and there you will meet him', Mark was conjoining his readers with the original disciples who first began to know Jesus 'in Galilee'. All disciples, present and future, must start at the beginning, and when they make mistakes, or fail, then they are no worse than the originals, even Peter! It was a gospel of great encouragement to people who already knew that they might be required to suffer, and to die, as Jesus did. The story of the Transfiguration, (9.2-8), assured them of future triumph, with their Risen Lord.
This was a new, and certainly 'inspired', form of literature in the writings of the world. It is also an enigmatic challenge to everyone who reads it in 'one go', and who thereby receives its full and immediate impact.
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