CHAPTER I.

APOSTOLIC PERIOD.

The Apostolic Period began on the day of Pentecost when the disciples

who were gathered together were a hundred and twenty in number (Acts i.

15), but were only a section of the 500 brethren who had seen the Lord

after His resurrection (I. Cor. xv. 6). On the same day, as the result

of St. Peter's first missionary sermon, "there were added unto them

about three thousand souls" (Acts ii. 41). A short time afterwards "the

number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great

company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (Acts vi. 7). This

progress continued to such a degree that St. James, after hearing the

interesting missionary report of St. Paul, "about the things which God

had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry," said to him, "Thou

seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe"

(Acts xxi. 20). How glad we should have been if we had some account of,

at least, the more prominent converts of that period, and knew something

of the sufferings that they had to endure for the sake of Christ.

Nevertheless, the Acts of the Apostles, though containing much in

relation to the progress of the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles, gives

but little information with regard to Jewish individual conversions, and

mentions only two Jewish Christian martyrs--namely, St. Stephen and

James the Elder--and is even silent about the exclusion of Jewish

converts from the Temple, which we gather only from the Epistle to the

Hebrews. This fact is to us an evidence that St. Luke, the first

ecclesiastical historian, had no design to shew to the world the

inherent power of the Gospel exemplified by the conversion of many of

the very people who had rejected Christ, and it proves the genuineness

and authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles and the date commonly

assigned, for had it been written later, as some critics maintain, the

author would surely have taken the trouble to give his readers some

detailed information concerning at least one per cent. of that vast

multitude of Jewish converts mentioned by St. James. Such is the method

of the ecclesiastical historian in modern as well as in ancient times,

as the following two examples will shew: Pastor de le Roi, Jewish

missionary historian, has for years not only collected statistics of

Jewish converts in various churches, and summed up the whole number as

being 224,000 in the nineteenth century, but he has also furnished us

with a great deal of information concerning the history of many of these

converts. For, as the Rev. W. T. Gidney rightly says, "Jewish converts

must be weighed as well as counted." The second example is Hegesippus,

who, according to Eusebius, was a Palestinian Hebrew Christian, and

lived in Rome about 150 A.D. He is the father of Church history, and

wrote a book under the title "Hyponeymata Pente," with the special

design to answer the question of the Pharisees, "Have any of the rulers

believed in Him?" and to shew that the Gospel made rapid progress among

the Jews in the first century in spite of great opposition. Of this

opposition the Jewish Liturgy to this day bears witness in the so-called

"Blessing against the heretics," which Samuel the Little composed in the

Synagogue of Yabne, in the presence of Gamaliel the Elder. Justin Martyr

in his Dialogue, Origen in Homily 18, Jerome on Isaiah, complained of

it, and it has, alas, been a source of trouble to the Jews at various

times throughout the Christian ages. Hegesippus supplies information

about a number of Jewish sects, who regarded each other as heretics. It

is a pity that the greater part of his book has been lost, and we have

only a few fragments in "Euseb. History iv.," and an extract in "Photius

Bibliotheca" (page 232). That probably contained detailed information

about the more prominent converts in the Apostolic age. Still, the most

valuable relic for us is his list of Hebrew Christian bishops in regular

succession in the mother Church at Jerusalem. These are as follows:

James, the Lord's brother (Gal. i. 19), of whom Hegesippus states that

he was martyred while praying in the Temple. Symeon about 62 A.D.,

Justus I. 64, Zacchæus 112, Tobias 114, Benjamin 116, Justin 118,

Matthias 120, Philip 122, Seneca 125, Justus II. 126, Levi 128, Ephres

130, Joseph 132, Jude 133. The shortness of their episcopates probably

indicates that it was a time of great tribulation. To this list may

perhaps be added Ananias, who baptized Saul of Tarsus at Damascus, and,

according to tradition, was subsequently bishop there and suffered

martyrdom (See "Schaff. Bible Dictionary"); Crispus, Chief of the Jewish

Synagogue (Acts xviii. 8), who, according to tradition ("Constituit

Apost." vii. 46), was afterwards Bishop of Ægina; Clement, of Rome, who,

according to Bishop Lightfoot, was an Hellenistic Jewish convert or son

of a convert. The bishop came to this conclusion, after weighing much

the internal evidence of his Epistle to the Corinthians.[1]

[1] Rev. Dr. Giles writes: "In the 'Homiles and Recognitiones,' falsely

ascribed to Clement, his father is said to have been one Faustinus,

descended from the family of the Roman Cæsars, and this absurd fable is

copied in the 'Liber Pontificates,' or book of the Roman Pontiffs, and

in the work of Eusebius, Bishop of Lyons." ("Hebrew Records," vol. ii.

294).

Two of the converts of the first century are mentioned in the Talmud and

receive there an excellent testimonial. The first is Nicodemus,

identical, according to the writer in the "Jewish Encyclopædia," with

Nicodemus ben Gorian. He is said to have been a great saint. The other

is Jacob of Kefar Sakanya (Simai). He once met R. Eliezer in the upper

market-place of Sepphoris and asked his opinion on a curious ritualistic

question bearing upon Deut. xxiii. 8. As R. Eliezer declined to give an

opinion, Jacob acquainted him with the interpretation of Jesus derived

from Micah i. 7. R. Eliezer was pleased with the interpretation, and was

consequently suspected of Christian leanings by the governor (Abodah

Zarah, 17. a). On another occasion, Jacob went to heal R. Eleasar ben

Dama of a poisonous bite by a serpent in the name of Jesus, but his

uncle, R. Ishmael, would not allow it. Jacob said to him, Rabbi Ishmael,

my brother, let me heal him, and I will prove to you from the Torah,

that it is allowed, but R. I. was obstinate. In the meantime the patient

died, and his uncle apostrophized the corpse in these words: "Happy art

thou Ben Dama that thy body is pure and thy soul departed in purity, as

thou hast not transgressed the words of thy fellow rabbis" (Abodah

Zarah, 27. b).