Multiplying by Mission: Session 6 at Mission Lake

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

40% Growth Then, 5% Growth Now — What We Must Learn Anew

When Nero died by suicide in AD 68, the Roman Empire plunged into chaos.
In a single year four emperors—Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian—rose and fell.
While Rome fought for power, Judea was already on fire.
The revolt that began under Gessius Florus would end with Jerusalem leveled, the Temple burned, and a turning point for both Jews and Christians.

1. Florus and the Spark of Revolt (AD 66)

Florus, the Roman governor of Judea, stole seventeen talents of silver from the Temple treasury—about 1,200 pounds of consecrated silver, worth roughly ten million U.S. dollars today.
This was not ordinary corruption; it was sacrilege.

“When Florus took seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and the multitude ran together in the Temple crying out against him, some of the youths went about the city carrying baskets and asking alms for poor Florus.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.14.5 §306–308 (c. AD 75–79)

His answer was bloodshed.

“Florus sent soldiers into Jerusalem and ordered a massacre. They slew about three thousand six hundred persons, women and children as well as men; and among them were citizens of Roman knighthood. Some were scourged and then crucified.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.14.9 (c. AD 75–79)

The outrage united the city. Rebels stormed the Antonia Fortress, the great Roman garrison on the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. To capture it was to challenge Rome itself.

“They compelled the garrison to surrender and then slaughtered them. Thus war was now openly begun.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.17.9 (c. AD 75–79)

Rome’s patience ended. Nero sent Vespasian, the empire’s most seasoned general, and his son Titus to crush the rebellion.

2. Vespasian in Galilee — Fire and Terror (AD 67)

Galilee became Rome’s first target. At Jotapata, a hill fortress commanded by Josephus himself, the walls fell after forty-seven days.

“Forty thousand were slain, and the city was utterly demolished; those who had hidden in caves were dragged out and slain.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 3.7.36 (c. AD 75–79)

Then came Gamla, a ridge-top city east of the Sea of Galilee. Its name means camel in Aramaic, and its fall was as steep as its slopes.

“Men and women alike threw themselves and their children down the precipices; and the whole city was covered with corpses.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 4.1.9 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus summed it simply: “Galilee was filled with fire and blood.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 4.1.9 (c. AD 75–79)

The Roman campaign left the region in ruins, silencing nearly every center of resistance.

It was here that Josephus himself was captured. As commander of Jewish forces in Galilee, he had held out at Jotapata until the city fell. In his own account, he claims that while in captivity he prophesied that Vespasian would soon be emperor:

“You, O Vespasian, shall be Caesar and emperor, you and your son. Bind me now still closer, and keep me for yourself; for you, O Caesar, are lord, not only of me, but of the land and sea, and of all mankind.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 3.8.9 §401–403 (c. AD 75–79)

When that prophecy appeared to come true the following year, Vespasian spared his life, granted him Roman citizenship, and attached him to his household. From then on Josephus lived in Rome under imperial patronage, taking the family name Flavius from his patrons.

This is how Yosef ben Matityahu, a Jewish priest and rebel general, became Flavius Josephus, historian of the Jewish War. His writings—sometimes defensive, sometimes deferential toward Rome—remain the only detailed eyewitness record of Jerusalem’s destruction.

3. The Siege of Jerusalem (AD 70)

When Nero’s death recalled Vespasian to Rome, Titus took full command.
Inside Jerusalem, zealot factions fought one another while Roman legions built a five-mile siege wall to starve the city into surrender.
This wall—called a circumvallation—completely encircled Jerusalem. Built in only three days by tens of thousands of soldiers, it cut off every road and stopped all supplies. Famine would finish what the legions began.

“The famine grew severe and destroyed whole houses and families. The alleys were filled with dead bodies of the aged; children and youths swarmed about the market-places like shadows, and fell wherever famine overtook them. No one buried them; pity was strangers to men; for famine had confounded all natural feeling.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.12.3–4 (c. AD 75–79)

Then Josephus records one of antiquity’s darkest scenes:

“There was a certain woman named Mary, daughter of Eleazar, of the village Bathezor. Driven by famine and rage, she slew her infant son, roasted him, and ate one half, concealing the rest. When the soldiers smelled the roasted meat and rushed in, she said, ‘This is my own son; the deed is mine; eat, for I have eaten. Do not pretend to be more tender-hearted than a woman or more compassionate than a mother.’”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.201–213 (c. AD 75–79)

Titus later claimed he had ordered the Temple spared:

“I myself called a council of war and urged that the Temple be saved; but the flame was beyond control, and the sanctuary was burned against my will.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.4.7 §254 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus blames undisciplined troops; Tacitus sees deliberate policy:

“It was resolved to destroy the Temple that the religion of the Jews might be more completely abolished.”
— Tacitus, Histories 5.12 (c. AD 100–110)

*The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem* – Francesco Hayez, 1867, oil on canvas

Different motives, same outcome: the Temple fell.
For Christians, it confirmed the prophecy of Christ: “Not one stone shall be left upon another.” (Mark 13:2)

4. Crosses Without Number

“As for those who had fled from the city and were caught, they were first scourged and then tortured and finally crucified before the walls. In their fury and hatred the soldiers nailed up the prisoners in different postures, by way of jest, and the multitude was so great that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.11.1 (c. AD 75–79)

Josephus later expands this account:

“Those who were taken outside the city he first scourged, and then tormented with all manner of tortures before crucifying them opposite the wall. Titus indeed felt pity for them, but their number was so great that there was no room for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies. About five hundred were crucified each day, and the soldiers, in their rage and hatred, amused themselves by crucifying some one way and some another, until, owing to the multitude, there was no space left for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.1.1 (c. AD 75–79)

The same empire that boasted of order and civilization turned execution into entertainment.
The hills around Jerusalem stood thick with crosses—not yet symbols of redemption, but monuments of Rome’s rule through fear.

5. Aftermath — Slavery, Spectacle, and Tax

Through Rome’s streets the captives marched, carrying the Menorah and sacred vessels. Coins were struck proclaiming IUDAEA CAPTA—“Judea Captured.” Various versions of these coins were struck and used for 25 years under Vespasian and his two sons Titus and Domitian.

IMP CAES VESPASIAN AUG PM TR P COS III = Commander Caesar Vespasian Augustus, Chief Priest, Holder of Tribunician Power, Consul for the Third Time; IUDEA CAPTA S C = Judea Captured by decree of the Senate

“He decreed that all Jews throughout the world should pay each year two drachmas to the Capitol in Rome, as they had previously paid to the Temple in Jerusalem.”
— Dio Cassius, Roman History 66.7 (c. AD 200–220)

The fiscus Judaicus turned a holy offering into tribute for pagan gods.
Jewish Christians, still classed as Jews, were forced to pay the same tax of defeat.

Meanwhile, many early believers saw a deeper reason for Jerusalem’s ruin: the death of James the Just, the brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem.

“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so Ananus, who had become high priest, assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”
— Josephus, Antiquities 20.9.1 §200–203 (c. AD 93)

Hegesippus, a second-century Jewish Christian, adds detail:

“They placed James on the pinnacle of the Temple and cried, ‘Tell us, O righteous one, what is the door of Jesus?’ And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do you ask me concerning the Son of Man? He sitteth at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven.’ Then they began to stone him, and a fuller took the club with which he beat clothes and struck the righteous one on the head, and so he suffered martyrdom.”
— Hegesippus in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.10–12 (c. AD 170, quoted c. AD 310–325)

Hegesippus concludes that the siege of Jerusalem followed soon after James’s death, calling it divine judgment:

“Immediately after this Vespasian began to besiege them; and they remembered the saying of Isaiah the prophet, ‘Let us take away the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’ Such was their lot, and they suffered these things for the sake of James the Just.”
— Hegesippus in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.18 (c. AD 170, quoted c. AD 310–325)

Eusebius agrees, closing his account:

“These things happened to the Jews to avenge James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus that is called Christ. For, as Josephus says, these things befell them in accordance with God’s vengeance for the death of James the Just, which they had committed, although he was a most righteous man.”
— Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23.19–20 (c. AD 310–325)

From this moment on, many Christians saw the destruction of Jerusalem not only as Rome’s triumph, but as God’s judgment for rejecting Christ and murdering His righteous servant.

6. The Arch of Titus — The Empire’s Theology in Stone (AD 81)

When Titus died, the Senate declared him divine. The arch still standing on the Via Sacra reads:

“The Senate and People of Rome [dedicated this] to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian.”

Inside its vault, carvings show Roman soldiers bearing the Temple treasures.

“They brought the Menorah and the table of the bread of the Presence, and the last of the spoils was the Law of the Jews; after these, a great number of captives followed.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 7.5.5 (c. AD 75–79)

At the top of the arch inside is the depiction of Titus’ ascension to heaven as a god on the wings of an eagle.

For Rome, the arch proclaimed the victory of its gods.
For Christians, it stood as a silent confirmation of prophecy: the Temple of stone was gone, but the Temple of Christ remained.

7. The Flight to Pella — Revelation and Refuge

Amid the ruins of Jerusalem’s revolt, one community escaped—the believers who remembered Christ’s warning to flee.

“The people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those who believed in Christ had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the holy men had altogether deserted the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea, the judgment of God at last overtook them for their abominations.”
— Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3 (c. AD 310–325)

Eusebius attributes their escape to a divine revelation, while Epiphanius explains it as obedience to Christ’s prophecy:

“When all the disciples were settled in Pella because of Christ’s prophecy about the siege, they remained there until the destruction of Jerusalem.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.7–8 (c. AD 375)

Different explanations—same event. The believers crossed the Jordan to Pella, a Decapolis city about sixty miles northeast of Jerusalem, where they waited out the war.
Their flight fulfilled Jesus’ own words (Luke 21:20–21).
What looked like retreat was obedience.

8. The Nazarenes — Law-Observant, Christ-Confessing

The first branch to emerge from that exile was the Nazarenes—Jewish believers who kept the Mosaic Law yet confessed Jesus as the divine Son of God.
They were the losing party in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).

At that council, certain men from Judea began teaching that Gentile converts must keep the Law of Moses to be saved:

“Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’”
— Acts 15:1

Later Luke identifies who pressed the issue:

“But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’”
— Acts 15:5

Peter and James ruled that Gentiles need not bear that yoke:

“We should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.”
— Acts 15:19–20

Those Jewish believers who could not release Torah observance continued as a community of Torah-keeping Christians—the Nazarenes.

Two decades later they were still strong. When Paul returned to Jerusalem near the end of his ministry, James the Just, the same leader later martyred near the Temple, recognized their influence:

“You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law… Therefore do what we tell you: we have four men who have taken a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses, so that all may know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the Law.”
— Acts 21:20, 23–24

James’s advice shows that the Nazarenes were not fringe but central within the Jerusalem church.

Centuries later, Jerome described them:

“The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again is the same as the one in whom we believe.”
— Jerome, Letter 75 to Augustine (AD 398–403)

“The Nazarenes accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law.”
— Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 8:14 (AD 398–403)

Even Epiphanius, who condemned most sects, writes:

The Nazarenes are Jews who keep the customs of the Law but also believe in Christ. They say that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. They believe that God created all things, that Jesus is His Son, and that the resurrection of the dead has already begun in Him… As for their understanding of Christ, I am not certain—whether they have been misled by false teachers who call Him merely human, or whether, as I think, they confess that He was born of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.5–6 (c. AD 375)

Epiphanius lists their beliefs as orthodox and then admits, “I cannot say whether they have been deceived or whether they confess the truth.”
Had they denied Christ’s divinity, he would have said so.
His hesitation confirms that the Nazarenes were orthodox in belief, Jewish in culture—the first generation of Messianic Jews bridging synagogue and church.

9. The Ebionites — The First Denial of Christ’s Divinity

A second group took a different path. Epiphanius places their origin after the flight to Pella:

“The Ebionites are later than the Nazoraeans… their sect began after the flight from Jerusalem.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.7–8 (c. AD 375)

They taught that Jesus was a mere man chosen by God, denied the virgin birth, and altered Scripture to fit their beliefs.

“Those who are called Ebionites use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law.”
— Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.26.2 (c. AD 180)

“The Ebionites believe that He was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary according to the common course of nature, and that He became righteous through the progress of His moral character.”
— Origen, Commentary on Matthew 16.12 (c. AD 248)

“They falsify the genealogical tables in Matthew’s Gospel, saying that He was begotten of a man and a woman, because they maintain that Jesus is really a man and was justified by His progress in virtue, and that He was called Christ because the Spirit of God descended upon Him at His baptism. They say that this same Spirit, which had come upon Him, was taken away and left Him before the Passion and went back to God; and that then, after His death and resurrection, this same Spirit returned to Him again. Thus they deny that He is God, though they do not deny that He was a man.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 30.14.3–5 (c. AD 375)

They also spread a slander about Paul:

“They say that Paul was a Greek who came to Jerusalem and lived there for a time. He desired to marry a daughter of the priests but was refused. Out of anger and disappointment he turned against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Law. Because of this, they claim, he wrote against these things and founded a new heresy.”
— Epiphanius, Panarion 30.16.6–9 (c. AD 375)

For the Ebionites, Jerusalem’s destruction was not punishment for rejecting Christ but for accepting the apostolic Gospel.
They blamed Paul and the church that followed him for turning Israel away from the Law.
Thus they reversed the very lesson of history that Josephus, Hegesippus, and Eusebius had drawn from the death of James the Just.
Where the Nazarenes preserved unity in diversity, the Ebionites cut themselves off from the apostolic faith.

10. Three Waves of Testimony and the Apostolic Standard

When we date the earliest Christian writings, we find three waves of testimony—sources acknowledged even by skeptical historians as genuine first-century evidence.
They give us the historical core around which all later writings revolve.

Three Waves of Early Christian Testimony

Wave of Witness	Approximate Date	Content & Description	Authority and Significance
Creeds	AD 30s	1 Corinthians 15:3–5 — “Christ died, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures.” Philippians 2:6–11 — The Christ-hymn proclaiming His pre-existence, incarnation, humility, and exaltation.	The earliest confessions of faith; already proclaim Jesus as divine and demand worship.
Paul’s Epistles	AD 48–61	The seven undisputed letters of Paul — Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.	The interpretation of Christ’s work by Paul himself, written within the lifetime of the apostles; Paul quotes and affirms the early creeds as authoritative revelation.
Synoptic Gospels	AD 50s–60s	Matthew, Mark, and Luke — written within the first generation after Jesus, preserving eyewitness memory of His life, teaching, death, and resurrection.	The formal written record of what the earliest witnesses proclaimed; confirms and expands the message already present in the creeds and letters.

This Philippians hymn is not later theology; it is the earliest Christian confession we possess.
It begins with divinity, not humanity.
It declares that the one “existing in the form of God” became man, died on a cross, and was exalted so that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It is a proclamation of His divinity and a demand for worship from the very start of the Christian movement.

Modern critics such as Bart Ehrman claim that belief in Jesus’ divinity was a late development, yet their own dating of the evidence proves the opposite.
The earliest sources—the creeds Paul quotes—already worship Him as divine, and Paul treats those creeds as authoritative revelation.
From the beginning, the church bowed to a divine Christ, not a human teacher slowly exalted by legend.

Measured by that apostolic standard, the Nazarenes remained faithful to the original confession, honoring Paul’s letters and the earliest creeds.
The Ebionites, however, altered the Gospels, repudiated Paul, and rejected the Philippians 2 creed, denying Christ’s divinity and placing themselves outside the apostolic faith.

11. Dating the Gospels

Critical scholars commonly date Mark around AD 70, arguing that Jesus’ prophecy of the Temple’s destruction must have been written after it happened.
But this logic assumes that prophecy is impossible—a philosophical bias, not a historical fact.
If prophecy is real, the foundation for late dating collapses.

Even on their own terms, critics face contradictions.
They argue that Matthew copied Mark and therefore must be later, yet the Ebionites were already using and editing Matthew shortly after Jerusalem’s fall.
If Matthew was being altered in the 70s, it had to exist before then—and if Matthew depended on Mark, Mark must be earlier still.
The evidence forces the Synoptic Gospels back into the 60s or even 50s—within the lifetime of eyewitnesses.

Paul’s letters tighten the timeline further.
In 1 Corinthians, written about AD 54–55, Paul quotes Gospel material three times:

1 Corinthians 7:10 echoes Mark 10:11–12 on divorce — “not I, but the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 9:14 recalls Luke 10:7 — “the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.”
1 Corinthians 11:23–25 recounts the words of institution at the Lord’s Supper, matching Luke 22:19–20 and Matthew 26:26–28.

These parallels show that the Gospel traditions were already written—or at least formally fixed—by the early 50s.
Paul quotes them as Scripture, not rumor, expecting his readers to recognize their authority.
This means the Gospels, or their written sources, predate 1 Corinthians itself—placing them within twenty years of the crucifixion.

Thus the timeline of Christian testimony runs not forward into myth but backward into eyewitness memory:

Creeds (AD 30s): the original confession of Christ’s death, resurrection, and divine status.
Paul’s Epistles (AD 48–61): the interpretation of those events by Paul himself, written within the lifetime of the apostles.
Synoptic Gospels (AD 50s–60s): the written preservation of what the eyewitnesses had proclaimed from the beginning.

When the evidence is allowed to speak for itself, it shows that the worship of Jesus as divine and the written record of His life both originate within living memory of His death and resurrection.
Even those who date the Gospel of John later, around the 90s, acknowledge that the Synoptics—and the faith they record—were already established decades earlier.
Christianity’s foundation is not legend developed over centuries—it is history written by witnesses and verified by worship.

The True Temple Rises: Christianity After AD 70

August 21, 2025August 21, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

When Nero died by suicide in AD 68, the Roman Empire plunged into chaos. In one year, four emperors—Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian—rose and fell. While Rome burned and battled for power, Judea was in full revolt.

And in the smoldering ruins of that rebellion, Vespasian and his son Titus would become emperors. Their campaign didn’t just crush a revolt—it destroyed Jerusalem, leveled the Temple, and forever reshaped both Jewish and Christian identity.

The Revolt Begins: Taxes, Desecration, and Massacres

In AD 66, the Roman governor of Judea, Gessius Florus, pushed the people beyond their limits. He looted the Temple treasury—seizing 17 talents, equivalent to about $10 million today.

This wasn’t mere corruption — it was an act of sacrilege and robbery of funds consecrated to God.

The people mocked Florus by passing baskets around as though collecting alms for him. His response was slaughter. Josephus (c. AD 75–79) records:

“Florus sent soldiers into Jerusalem and ordered a massacre. They killed 3,600 men, women, and children—even Roman citizens of equestrian rank. Some were scourged, and then crucified.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.14.9 (Loeb)

This atrocity ignited full-scale revolt.

Roman Garrisons Overrun

Jewish Zealots stormed the Antonia Fortress, overran the Roman garrison, and then ambushed Roman forces at Masada. Josephus writes:

“They compelled the Roman garrison to surrender and slaughtered them. The war was now started in earnest.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 2.17.9 (Loeb)

Rome had no choice but to respond.

Vespasian in Galilee: Fire and Terror

Nero sent Vespasian, a seasoned general, to crush the uprising. Accompanied by his son Titus, he swept through Galilee.

At Jotapata, Josephus himself was the Jewish commander. He was captured there and became an eyewitness to everything that followed. His account of these events is not second-hand history; it comes from someone who stood in the middle of the war and later wrote under Roman patronage.

Josephus describes the fall of Jotapata:

“Forty thousand were slain, and the city was utterly demolished. Those hiding in caves were dragged out and killed.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 3.7.36 (Loeb)

In Gamla, the scene was horrific:

“People hurled themselves, wives, and children over the cliffs. The entire city was covered with corpses.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 4.1.9 (Loeb)

He sums it up:

“Galilee was filled with fire and blood.”

Christians in Galilee were not spared this. They lived in the same villages and towns, and the Roman army made no distinction. Alongside their Jewish neighbors, they too were killed, crucified, or driven into slavery. The suffering Josephus describes was shared by all, including those who confessed Christ.

Titus and the Siege of Jerusalem

After Nero’s death, Vespasian left for Rome, leaving the siege of Jerusalem in the hands of Titus.

Jerusalem was already fractured from within. Zealots and moderates fought each other while Roman forces built a five-mile siege wall to starve the city.

Josephus, still an eyewitness from the Roman camp, records the horrors inside:

“The famine was so severe that parents stole food from their own children. Dead bodies lay everywhere. No one had strength to bury them.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.12.3–4 (Loeb)

And then, one of the darkest accounts in ancient history:

“A woman named Mary… took her infant son, slew him, roasted him, and ate half, hiding the rest. When soldiers smelled the roasted flesh and stormed in, she said, ‘This is my son… I have eaten my own child.’”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.201–213 (Loeb)

Titus pressed on. Though he claimed to want to spare the Temple:

“I gave orders to preserve the Temple, but my commands were ignored in the madness of battle.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.4.7 (6.254 Loeb)

The Temple burned. The city fell. Josephus claimed over 1.1 million people died in the siege.

For Christians, the destruction of the Temple wasn’t only tragedy — it was fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (Mark 13:2). The collapse of the Temple-centered world validated their conviction that Christ himself was the new and greater Temple.

Crucifixions Without Number

Josephus gives us two chilling glimpses of Roman cruelty:

“As for those who had fled from within the city, many were caught; and when they were caught, they were scourged and tortured, then crucified opposite the walls. The Roman soldiers, out of anger and hatred, nailed up those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to entertain themselves by the variety. And so great was their number that there was not room enough for the crosses, and not crosses enough for the bodies.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 5.11.1 (Loeb)

And again:

“They caught those that had fled out of the city… and when they were caught, they were first scourged, then tormented with all sorts of tortures, and finally crucified before the wall of the city. Titus indeed commiserated their fate; yet he understood that their number was so great that room was lacking for the crosses, and crosses lacking for the bodies. About five hundred were crucified daily.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 6.1.1 (Loeb)

This was the empire’s logic of terror — the same system of crucifixion that had killed Jesus, now repeated on a scale of hundreds per day. Early Christians could never look at the Roman cross as anything but a symbol of cruelty and their Lord’s triumph over it.

Aftermath: Slavery, Spectacle, and the Jewish Tax

Thousands of survivors were:

Paraded through Rome in Titus’s triumph, forced to carry sacred items like the Menorah.
Sold into slavery across the empire.

Rome minted coins that read:

“Judea Capta” — Judea Captured.

And then came the fiscus Judaicus—the Jewish tax.

“He also decreed that all Jews throughout the world should pay each year two drachmas to the Capitol in Rome, as they had previously paid them to the Temple in Jerusalem.”
— Dio Cassius (c. AD 200–220), Roman History 66.7 (Loeb)

For Jewish Christians, this was especially complex. In Judea, they were still outwardly seen as part of the Jewish community and likely taxed along with them. But in Rome, Nero had already distinguished Christians as a separate group. The destruction of the Temple and the imposition of this tax pushed the divide further: Christians were being forced to decide — were they simply another branch of Judaism, or something distinct?

And the atmosphere in Rome was not one of tolerance. Suetonius (c. AD 120) records:

“He banished from the city the philosophers and the astrologers.”
— Suetonius, Vespasian 15 (Loeb)

This wasn’t aimed at Christians directly, but it reveals the suspicion with which Rome viewed any new teachers or rival authorities. The gospel’s claim that Jesus is Lord would have sounded as threatening to imperial ears as the mutterings of philosophers or astrologers.

The Arch of Titus

The victory was immortalized in stone. After Titus’s death, the Roman Senate and People built the Arch of Titus (c. AD 81), which still stands in Rome today.

The dedicatory inscription reads:

“The Senate and People of Rome [dedicated this] to the deified Titus Vespasian Augustus, son of the deified Vespasian.”

Inside the arch, the reliefs show Roman soldiers carrying the sacred objects of the Jerusalem Temple — the Menorah, the Table of Showbread, and even the Torah scrolls. Josephus describes the same scene in his account of Titus’s triumph:

“They brought the menorah and the table of the bread of the Presence, and the last of the spoils was the Law of the Jews. After these, a great number of captives followed.”
— Josephus, Jewish War 7.5.5 (Loeb, c. AD 75–79)

For Rome, this was not just a military victory. It was theological. In Roman eyes, Titus had defeated the Jewish god himself. That is why the arch presents Titus as a god honored for his conquest: our god overcame your god.

For Jews and Christians alike, the arch became a bitter monument. For Christians especially, it underscored the truth that the Temple was gone, but Christ had already promised: “Not one stone shall be left upon another.”

The Christians Who Fled – and the First Heretical Group

The church in Jerusalem did not perish in the siege.

“The people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation… to dwell in a town of Perea called Pella.”
— Eusebius (c. AD 310–325), Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3 (Loeb)

This flight preserved the core of the church, but not all Christians escaped. Those who stayed in Jerusalem, or who were caught in the countryside during Rome’s advance, would have shared the same fate as their Jewish neighbors — famine, crucifixion, or slavery. The Roman army made no distinction. To them, it was one rebellious people.

But at Pella, Christians regrouped. And in the same city, other Jewish survivors settled. Out of this mixture emerged the Ebionites, the first major heretical group.

They rejected Paul as an apostle.
They insisted on strict adherence to the Law.
They denied the full divinity of Jesus.
They used only a corrupted form of Matthew’s Gospel, altered to fit their theology.

Epiphanius (c. AD 375–400) writes:

“They accept the Gospel according to Matthew, but only that which is called ‘according to the Hebrews.’ They call it the Gospel of Matthew, however it is not complete and entire but falsified and mutilated.”
— Panarion 30.13.2

Irenaeus (c. AD 180) confirms:

“Those who are called Ebionites… use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the law.”
— Against Heresies 1.26.2

The fact that the Ebionites were already mutilating Matthew’s Gospel in the 70s AD shows that Matthew must have been written before the destruction of the Temple.

This stands in contrast to the critical scholarly view, which typically places Mark around AD 70 and Matthew and Luke in the 80s or later. Their reasoning? Jesus’ prophecy of the Temple’s destruction. They assume prophecy is impossible, and therefore the Gospels must have been written after the event.

But if Matthew was already available to be twisted by the Ebionites in the 70s, then Mark — the source they say Matthew used — must be earlier still. The Gospels, far from being late inventions, stand close to the events they describe.

For more on the Ebionites and their altered gospel, see my earlier blog post: [The Ebionites]

Rome’s Pride, God’s Judgment

Tacitus (c. AD 100–110) gives us the Roman perspective:

“Their temple was famous beyond all other works of men… it was resolved to raze it to the ground, that the religion of the Jews might be more completely abolished.”
— Tacitus, Histories 5.12 (Loeb)

But Jesus had said long before:

“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
— Mark 13:2

To Rome, it was conquest.
To Christians, it was fulfillment.

Conclusion: What This Meant for Christians

The fall of Jerusalem was not only a Jewish tragedy but a Christian turning point.

It validated Jesus’ prophecy of the Temple’s destruction.
It preserved the church through the flight to Pella — though many Christians were slaughtered along with the Jews.
It deepened the separation between Christianity and Judaism.
It produced the first major heresy (Ebionites), which ironically confirms the early existence of Matthew’s Gospel.

Tacitus summed up Rome’s perspective:

“It was resolved to raze it to the ground, that the religion of the Jews might be more completely abolished.”
— Tacitus, Histories 5.12 (Loeb, c. AD 100–110)

What Rome thought was the abolition of a religion, Christians understood as the vindication of Christ’s words:

“Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2)

Vespasian and Titus were hailed as saviors of Rome and later deified as gods. But their triumph was also God’s judgment — and the stage on which Christianity stepped into a new identity as the true temple of the living God.

When Philosophy Clashed with the Cross: Gentile Rejections of the Christ Hymn

June 9, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

In Philippians 2:6–11, one of the earliest Christian hymns declares a staggering paradox: that Jesus Christ, “being in very nature God,” humbled himself to become human and die on a cross—only to be exalted and receive divine worship. This exalted Christ Hymn wasn’t a late invention. It shaped the faith of the first Christians and the apostles themselves.

But not everyone accepted that message.

Historical evidence shows that in the first century, only four divergent movements challenged the apostolic view of Christ. Just one of them—the Nazarenes—existed before 70 AD, and they still affirmed Jesus’ divinity. The other three arose later, as responses from Jewish and Greco-Roman worlds that struggled to accept the core paradox of the Christ Hymn: that the eternal God became human and suffered.

A Quick Recap: The Jewish Divergents

The Nazarenes and Ebionites were early Jewish-Christian groups primarily based in Judea and later Pella. While the Nazarenes affirmed Christ’s divinity, the Ebionites denied it completely, rejected Paul, and altered Matthew’s Gospel to support their theology.

But outside Judea, new challenges arose—fueled by Greek philosophy, mystical speculation, and a deep discomfort with a suffering God.

Cerinthus (c. 80 AD): A Divinity Too High to Suffer

Cerinthus lived in Asia Minor and was shaped by Egyptian education, Jewish thought, and Platonic dualism. These influences led him to deny that a divine being could fully enter the material world, let alone suffer on a cross. His solution? Separate the divine “Christ” from the human Jesus.

Irenaeus – Against Heresies 1.26.1 (c. 180 AD):
“He represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin… while Christ descended upon him at his baptism, and then departed again before the Passion.”

Epiphanius – Panarion 28.2.1–2 (c. 375 AD):
“Cerinthus… opposed the apostles… especially Paul… and said that it was not right to accept the epistles of Paul.”

Cerinthus also rejected the idea that the supreme God created the world:

Irenaeus – Against Heresies 1.26.1:
“He asserted that the world was not made by the primary God, but by a certain Power far separated from Him…”

This idea reflected Platonic thought:

Philo of Alexandria – On the Creation (c. 20 BC–50 AD):
“It is not lawful to suppose that the supreme God comes into contact with any corruptible thing.”

Plutarch – On Isis and Osiris (c. 100 AD):
“Matter… being evil, could not have been made by a good God… The world must have been fashioned by an inferior deity.”

Cerinthus even promoted false writings under apostolic names:

Eusebius – Ecclesiastical History 3.28.2 (c. 310 AD, quoting Caius of Rome):
“Cerinthus… made use of revelations which he pretended were written by a great apostle…”

Epiphanius – Panarion 28.4.1:
“Cerinthus used only the Gospel according to the Hebrews… He rejected the Apostle Paul completely.”

Most memorably, John the Apostle wanted nothing to do with him:

Irenaeus – Against Heresies 3.3.4:
“John… perceiving Cerinthus within [a bathhouse], rushed out… exclaiming, ‘Let us flee, lest even the bath-house fall down!’”

Cerinthus didn’t simply interpret Jesus differently—he broke entirely from the apostolic tradition, rejected Paul, replaced the Gospels, and rewrote the story. His system preserved a lofty divinity but could not accept that God became flesh—as the Christ Hymn declares.

Docetism (Rooted in the 80s, Expanding in the 2nd Century): Too Divine to Be Human

Where Cerinthus separated Christ from Jesus, Docetism denied Jesus’ humanity altogether. The name comes from dokein (“to seem”)—Jesus only appeared to suffer, appear in the flesh, or die.

John’s letters refute this directly:

1 John 4:2–3:
“Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God…”

2 John 7:
“Many deceivers… do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

Docetists didn’t just reinterpret Jesus—they created new documents to promote their view. Here are three major examples:

🔹 Gospel of Peter (late 1st–early 2nd century)

“[Jesus] kept silent as feeling no pain… The Lord cried aloud, ‘My Power, my Power, you have forsaken me!’ And having said it, He was taken up.”

In this account, Jesus’ suffering is denied and his death portrayed as a moment of spiritual release. The body remains, but the divine presence departs—typical of Docetic theology.

Serapion of Antioch – Ecclesiastical History 6.12.6 (c. 190 AD):
“The writings which falsely bear their names we reject, knowing that such were not handed down to us.”

🔹 Acts of John (late 2nd century)

“Sometimes when I walked with him, I would try to touch his body, but it was immaterial… he left no footprints on the ground.”

This portrayal of Jesus as ghostlike reinforces Docetism’s core claim: Jesus’ physicality was a divine illusion.

🔹 Gospel of Judas (late 2nd century)

Though it bears the name of one of Jesus’ disciples, the Gospel of Judas radically reimagines the story of Jesus from a Gnostic and Docetic perspective. In this account, Jesus laughs at the ignorance of his disciples, praises Judas for helping him escape his fleshly prison, and teaches a cosmic creation myth where the true God is utterly separate from the material world.

Gospel of Judas 33.10–11:
“Often he did not appear to his disciples as himself, but he was found among them as a child.”

Here, Jesus is portrayed as a shapeshifter, one whose form is unstable and deceptive. This aligns with Docetic views that Jesus’ physical appearance was an illusion—not essential to his being.

Jesus then teaches that the world was created not by the high God, but by rebellious lower angels:

Gospel of Judas 47.1–9:
“Come, that I may teach you about the [secrets] no person has ever seen. For there exists a great and boundless realm… A luminous cloud appeared there. He said, ‘Let an angel come into being as my attendant.’”

Gospel of Judas 51.1–8:
“Let twelve angels come into being to rule over chaos… An angel appeared whose face flashed with fire… His name was Nebro, which means ‘rebel’; others call him Yaldabaoth. Another angel, Saklas, also came from the cloud.”

Then comes a twisted echo of Genesis:

Gospel of Judas 52.10–11:
“Saklas said to his angels, ‘Let us create a human being after the likeness and the image.’”

Here, the creation of humanity is attributed to fallen or ignorant beings—echoing Cerinthus’s own view that the world was created by a lesser, ignorant power.

Finally, Jesus tells Judas:

Gospel of Judas 56.18–20:
“You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

The crucifixion isn’t seen as atonement but escape from a fleshly shell. This is Docetism to its core.

Ignatius – Smyrnaeans 2.1 (c. 110 AD):
“He truly suffered… not as certain unbelievers say, that he suffered in appearance only.”

Ignatius – Trallians 10.1:
“Be deaf… to anyone who speaks apart from Jesus Christ… who was truly born… truly crucified…”

Conclusion: Rewriting the Story

The Nazarenes, Ebionites, Cerinthians, and Docetists are the only four divergent groups we have clear evidence for in the first century. Only the Nazarenes remained loyal to the divine Jesus of the Christ Hymn.

The other three:

Couldn’t accept the full mystery of Christ as fully divine and fully human.
Rejected the apostolic witness—especially Paul—and altered or replaced canonical texts.
Wrote their own “gospels” and “acts” to support their alternative visions of Jesus.

They didn’t represent equal versions of early Christianity. They were reactions to it—distortions of the message that had already been “handed down” and “received.”

“Who, being in the form of God… emptied Himself… became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him…”
(Philippians 2:6–9)

That is the Jesus the apostles preached. That is the Jesus the earliest believers worshiped.

Divergence from Christ’s Divinity: What the First-Century Evidence Actually Shows

June 6, 2025 / Jason Conrad / Leave a comment

Welcome to Living the Bible, where we examine the Bible and church history to guide our everyday living. I’m Jason Conrad.

In our previous post, we explored the Christ Hymn of Philippians 2:6–11—a poetic confession that predates Paul’s letters and proclaims Jesus’ divine pre-existence, incarnation, death, and exaltation. This hymn is powerful because it reflects what Christians were already saying and singing about Jesus before the Gospels were written.

But if this high Christology was the original belief, how soon did it face opposition? Were there really many versions of Jesus circulating in the first century, as some modern scholars suggest?

This post will take you directly to the earliest sources, not later summaries or theories. What we find is that, far from a chaotic diversity of Christianities, we see one core proclamation of a divine Christ—and only four identifiable groups that diverged from it during the first century. And even among these, only one group clearly denied Christ’s divinity.

The Nazarenes – 40s AD

Law-Observant Believers Who Affirmed Christ’s Divinity

The Nazarenes are the earliest group to diverge from the apostolic church—not in their view of Jesus, but in their insistence on continued Torah observance. They appear to be the group on the losing side of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:

“But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.’” (Acts 15:5)

Though the Council determined that Gentiles were not bound to keep the Law, these Jewish believers did not abandon their heritage. The name “Nazarene,” which originally applied to all Christians (Acts 24:5), gradually came to refer specifically to Jewish Christians who continued observing the Mosaic Law.

James, the brother of Jesus and leader of the Jerusalem church, likely maintained peace and inclusion with these believers. His advice to Paul in Acts 21 seems designed to show the law-observant Jewish Christians that Paul respected their customs:

“You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law… Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow.” (Acts 21:20, 23)

Even though the Nazarenes clung to the Law, they never rejected the divinity of Christ.

Jerome’s Testimony (c. 398–403 AD)

Letter 75 to Augustine:

“The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again is the same as the one in whom we believe.”

Commentary on Isaiah 8:14:

“The Nazarenes… accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law.”

Jerome—writing after the ecumenical councils of Nicaea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD) had carefully defined the Church’s doctrine of Christ’s divinity—still affirms that the Nazarenes believed in “the same” Jesus. This is profoundly important: after all the theological scrutiny of the early church, Jerome still saw their Christology as sound.

Epiphanius’ Ambivalence – Panarion 29.7.5–6 (c. 375 AD)

“They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following ways. They disagree with Jews because of their belief in Christ; but they are not in accord with Christians because they are still fettered by the Law—circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest.
As to Christ, I cannot say whether they too are misled by the wickedness of Cerinthus and Merinthus, and regard him as a mere man—or whether, as the truth is, they affirm that he was born of Mary by the Holy Spirit.”

This quote is remarkable. Epiphanius was infamous for aggressively labeling deviations as heresy. The fact that he admits he doesn’t know if the Nazarenes denied Christ’s divinity tells us a lot—if he had any evidence they denied it, he would have used it.

The Ebionites – After 70 AD

A Breakaway Group That Denied Christ’s Divinity

The Ebionites represent the earliest clearly documented group to reject the divinity of Jesus. Unlike the Nazarenes, they stripped away central elements of Christology—the virgin birth, the pre-existence of Christ, and the apostleship of Paul.

Their origins appear after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when Christians fled to Pella.

Eusebius – Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3 (c. 323 AD)

“But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Peraea called Pella.”

Epiphanius – Panarion 29.7.7–8 (c. 375 AD)

“The Ebionites are later than the Nazoraeans, and they came after them. At first their sect began after the flight from Jerusalem, when all the disciples went to live in Pella because of Christ’s prophecy.”

So we can date the rise of the Ebionites to after 70 AD, not before. This was not just a chronological shift—it was a theological fracture. Where the Nazarenes remained within the church and affirmed Christ’s divinity, the Ebionites pulled away entirely, creating a group that:

Denied Jesus’ divinity
Rejected the virgin birth
Falsified Scripture
Rejected Paul as a false apostle

Irenaeus – Against Heresies 1.26.2 (c. 180 AD)

“They use the Gospel according to Matthew only, and repudiate the Apostle Paul, maintaining that he was an apostate from the Law.”

Origen – Commentary on Matthew 16.12 (c. 248 AD)

“The Ebionites believe that He was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary according to the common course of nature, and that He became righteous through the progress of His moral character.”

Eusebius – Ecclesiastical History 3.27 (c. 323 AD)

“They considered Him a plain and common man… born of Mary and Joseph… justified only because of his progress in virtue.”

Epiphanius – Panarion 30.14.3 (c. 375 AD)

“They falsify the genealogical tables in Matthew’s Gospel… This is because they maintain that Jesus is really a man.”

This is key: they removed the virgin birth from Matthew, altering the Gospel to support their theology.

Epiphanius – Panarion 30.16.6–9

“They declare that [Paul] was a Greek… When he failed to get [a priest’s daughter], he flew into a rage and wrote against circumcision and against the sabbath and the Law.”

In contrast to all other groups, the Ebionites knew they were severing themselves from the apostolic church. They rejected Paul’s letters outright and manipulated Scripture to reflect their theology.

Their theology was not just a different emphasis—it was a deliberate break from the Christian movement centered around Jesus as divine.

Conclusion

This evidence confronts a popular scholarly claim: that early Christianity was a landscape of conflicting “Christianities.” What we actually see—based on the earliest surviving sources—is far more limited:

One unified apostolic church affirming Christ’s divine identity
One group (Nazarenes) that remained inside the church while emphasizing the Mosaic Law
One group (Ebionites) that, after 70 AD, openly rejected Christ’s divinity, Paul’s authority, and Gospel material

The others—Cerinthians and Docetists—will be covered in the next post, but neither appears before 70 AD. That means there is only one group we know of before 70 AD that diverged from the apostolic tradition—and they still upheld Christ’s divine nature.

Only after the fall of Jerusalem do we see the first deliberate rejection of Jesus’ divinity. And even then, it was just one group, not many.

In short: the myth of “many Christianities” in the first century is not supported by the evidence. The overwhelming testimony of early sources shows a consistent, early affirmation of Jesus as divine—proclaimed, preserved, and only slowly challenged as the church spread.