The Cloud

The period between the death of Jesus and the earliest writings of the New Testament -- about 15-20 years -- is shrouded from us by the cloud of history. The only text that directly addresses this period is the Acts of the Apostles, but the work is considered historically unreliable by most scholars (outside evangelical circles) and it is narrowly focused, and does not address many of the questions we ask. What, for instance, was the purpose of James' remaining in Jerusalem? Why did the Twelve turn to James for leadership? Had he traveled with his brother too? Did Peter travel to Rome? Since Paul's churches outside Palestine were clearly not the first non-Jewish Christians, who started the movement among the Gentiles?

We are left to infer our answers -- sorting through clues. The major clues, of course, are the many documents written by Christians, including the Ebionites and the Gnostics. We must assume that they too saw something in the message of Jesus that was consistent with their own messages. It would be absurd to think they simply made their understanding of Jesus up as an act of the imagination. What was that underlying shared core?