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... and if you're wrong?

Rival

se Dex me saut.
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't think so... if I understand the numbers in Acts. I shouldn't have said "the nation" - but rather a substantial group of believers were from the Jewish nation.
I don't trust the Book Of Acts, but yes, the original believers were Jewish. It was a very small group compared to how many non-Jews joined. Eventually Christianity became a non-Jewish religion pretty much as early as the 1st c. C.E.
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
Well...they were relatively a small group...considering the countless Jewish communities throughout the Roman Empire.
Attested in Rome, Sicily...Anatolia.
Most of them did not convert.
OK.. I'm not sure I would call it "small". the Gospel was spread throughout the known world and Paul usually started in the synagogue as did the rest of the Apostles.

But let's look at numbers (just a portion - there are more):

Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Acts 4: 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
5:14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
6:\7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
9:42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
11:21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
14:1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.
17: 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
18: 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

many, large,increased, etc are not words of "small".


But I wouldn't say "most" either as you mentioned
 

Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
I don't trust the Book Of Acts, but yes, the original believers were Jewish. It was a very small group compared to how many non-Jews joined. Eventually Christianity became a non-Jewish religion pretty much as early as the 1st c. C.E.

OK. But I do and there is no reason not to trust Acts in as much as the historicity, cities, travel time, etc all match for that time.

But eventually there were more non-Jews than Jews. There is still a contingency of Jewish believers to this day.
 
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