Comments on: Archaeology and the First Christians https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/archaeology-and-first-christians/ Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:49:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: Thomas G Bradford https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/archaeology-and-first-christians/#comment-2000552789 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:49:08 +0000 https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/?p=93401#comment-2000552789 I must take issue with the constant reference to “early Christians”. The Yeshua movement was dominated by Jews for the first couple of centuries after His death. Even the so-called NT teaching that Antioch is the first place to call Believers Christians is misleading. Whether Hebrew or Aramaic was the Synagogue language in Antioch, the word word have been something like Mashiachim or similar. Even Christos was a translation of Mashiach (Messiah).

Christians were gentiles. That term for them was formalized by Constantine’s Bishops. Until then, to use more modern English lingo, they would have been called Messianics. Jews would never have considered converting a pagan temple to a house of worship for the Hebrew God.

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