A response to a book called the emergence of the church By A Patzia - Essay Example

As part of that background he describes Judaism as it was in first-century Palestine as well as describing what life was like in the rest the Roman empire in general with a well presented exposition of what the Bible says about the growth of Christianity. The early church gained new recruits and spread over a greater geographical despite official persecution after Rome was burnt down, and Nero blamed the Christians for doing so. The books sources are pretty strictly biblical: the Didache is dated at or beyond 100 (p.99), and discussed only at the fringe, and the clearly first-century ROTAS square.

In terms of evidence about the development and the eventual emergence of the early church as a distinct religion that was able to spread throughout the Roman Empire not mentioning the ROTAS square is arguably a serious omission. The ROTAS stone was actually found buried in the remains of Pompeii, being buried under the vast amount of waste products produced by the disastrous volcanic eruption of AD 79, and does not figure in this book. The ROTAS stone gives details of the early Christian presence in Pompeii, though of course nobody actually survived the volcanic eruption.

Even if not mentioned anywhere else in his book, Patzia does not go into detail about the stone when discussing whether or not there were first-century churches in the Italian peninsula outside of Rome. Although it is not surprising that Patzia would want to concentrate upon the early church’s beginnings in Rome given its later importance for the Christian religion.1 If description and discussion of what the Bible says about the early Church is what youre looking for, this is as good a book to choose as any other.

If you want too find out about the emergence and also the development of the early church from non-biblical sources then buy, or burrow another book on the early church.2 The ambience is distinctly Fuller, and here and there this brings up