Posted: Jul 19, 2013 10:40 am
neilgodfrey wrote:spin wrote:
Sadly the use of "churches" is a tendentious translation. There were no churches (in what became the christian sense) when Paul wrote. There were just assemblies or congregations. That these particular congregations were in christ, indicates that they were messianists. There is no evidence provided by Paul that these people believed in Jesus.
What's a "messianist"?
A believer in a messiah. In Jewish thought the messiah was usually still coming, as in the view of John the Baptist and his proselytes.
neilgodfrey wrote:(I think most of us know that "church" in the NT refers to an assembly.)
It seems rather hard when confronted with "the churches of Judea that are in Christ" not to be swayed by later interpretations and ignore what the phrase actually says, which has no necessary direct connection to christianity at all.