Chapter 7- The Early Church (to A.D. 300)
What connects you to a community?
 
Why was Jerusalem an important city in the time of Jesus?
What words do you associate with the word martyr?
Pentecost story in Acts of the Apostles:

• Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles
  • Tongues of fire
• Peter told the people to repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus
• About 3,000 people baptized

Holy Spirit- guided the first Christian community to believe in Jesus and help them live out Jesus’ teachings
Challenges for early Christians:

• Tension with Jewish neighbors
• Nero- Roman emperor who began the first persecutions of Christians around A.D. 64
• Early persecutions- thousands of Christians put to death for refusing to deny their faith
• Stephen- disciple who was put to death in Jerusalem because he was falsely accused of speaking blasphemy against Moses and God

St. Paul- the most famous early Christian missionary
 
When have you had to stand up for your faith?
Gentiles- non-Jewish people
Presbyters- a new generation of leaders in the early Church (today would be called priests)
Torah- the sacred law of faith given by God to Moses
Council of Jerusalem- around A.D. 49, the first great council of the Catholic Church

• Decided to require many aspects of the Law of Moses (Ten Commandments), but not others (circumcision) for Christians
  • Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch after the council with a letter describing the council’s decision to Gentiles

Scripture- book of faith written by human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit
Epistles- oldest books of the New Testament, 14 letters that were written by or attributed to St. Paul
Four Gospels:

• Synoptic Gospels- closely related, many similarities
  • Mark- first Gospel written, about A.D. 60-70
  • Matthew and Luke- based their accounts on Mark as well as on other early Christian sources, written A.D. 70-90
• John- probably written around A.D. 90, similar to the first three Gospels, but also includes material not found in them

Acts of the Apostles- New Testament book about the very earliest days of the Church
Revelation- last book of the Bible, calls believers in Christ to look forward with hope to eternal glory
Tradition- written and spoken beliefs and practices that have been passed down to us from the time of Christ and the Apostles, a living witness of faith
How does the Church welcome people today?
Why are Scripture and Tradition important to us today?