Jesus, Paul & the Hellenists

 

Excerpts from Early Christian Theology and the Origin of the New Testament Canon by Jens Schröter (Translated by Wayne Coppins):

Location 4409:

 

Jewish Christians or Godfearers are often the first converts, whereas in his letters Paul mostly has in view communities made up primarily of Gentile Christians. Finally, on several occasions the presentation points beyond the time of Paul into the situation of the church that stands before the eyes of Luke himself. [104] 

If we evaluate these findings, then it can be said that the presentation of Luke moves within the framework of what was expected from an ancient historian. He possesses knowledge about the areas concerning which he reports; sometimes chronological inaccuracies slip in; [105] and entirely in the sense of Lucian he has shaped his presentation and in this way drawn a picture of the development of Christianity in the first decades. Christianity appears as a movement that goes back to the activity of Jesus, was spread by the apostles and the “Hellenists,”and is based in its concrete form on the mission of Paul, as a movement that stands in continuity with the history of Israel to which the Jews—at least at present—no longer belong.

Location 4402:

 

... what begins with Jesus—the proclamation of the rule of God, which is no longer bound exclusively to Israel but to which the Gentiles now also have access—finds its continuation through the apostles, the Hellenists, and Paul. It leads to a new form of the people of God that is no longer obligated to the law but to the apostolic decree; it leads as well to a separation of the church from Judaism, which refuses this opening up of the people of God.