The Early Church

Cover of "The Early Church (The Penguin H...
Cover via Amazon

I’ve just starting reading Henry Chadwick‘s volume ‘The Penguin History of the Church, vol.1: The Early Church‘. The opening paragraph was so good I have quoted it in full below.

‘The first Christians were Jews. They differed from their fellow-countrymen by their faith that in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah of the nation’s expectation had now come. They took it for granted that his coming, being a fulfilment, must be continuous with the past revelation of God to his people and not mean a break either with the old covenant made with Abraham, symbolized by circumcision, or with the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. If something new had happened, it was the action of one and the same God, Creator of the world, Lord of History, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs. His new word to his people must be consistent with that spoken in the past by the prophets.’

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