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Peter, Stephen, James and John: Studies in Early Non-Pauline Christianity

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This book is comprised of four independent studies based on four lecture series presented by the author. Each is concerned with a different strand of early non-Pauline Christianity. These traditions are associated with the apostle Peter, Stephen and the Hellenists, the Johannine community, and James, the relative of Jesus. This book first appeared in nineteen eighty late in the distinguished career of Frederick Fyvie Bruce. As with all of this author's scholarship, a keen grasp of the history of the early Church and the Roman world of the time are displayed. Equally apparent is his familiarity with the ancient languages involved and his insightful exegesis of the scriptures considered. While this book is a relatively easy read accessible to any literate adult, a reasonable knowledge of early Church history is a prerequisite to the fullest appreciation of its contents. Also, the prose flow of this book is so smooth that concerted effort and concentration on the reader's part are necessary to avoid missing much of interest. Both in the finer points and global analysis there is much here that is original, and quite a bit of it might well be considered adventurous even today. As with many books stemming from lectures, a bibliography is lacking although footnotes are quite copious throughout. A composite index of subjects and modern authors is provided which is helpful.

The author suggests three very early Jewish Christian communities at Jerusalem centered around Peter, Stephen, and James. Bruce's portrait of Peter owes much to the work of James D. G. Dunn which is graciously acknowledged. Peter, the early leader of the apostles, is seen as increasingly estranged from the Jerusalem center for a variety of reasons. With his conversion of Cornelius, an uncircumcised gentile, Peter's acceptance by law observant Jewish Christians is questioned. Thereafter, his imprisonment, escape, and absence from Jerusalem cements the ascendancy of Jacobian influence. It also inaugurates Peter's vaguely attested to evangelism elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The dubious conflation of James and Peter so common in other scholarship on early Church history is subjected to a well supported negation by Bruce's reconstruction of history. Contributing further to Jamesian primacy was the earlier execution of Stephen and the exit of the Hellenistic Jewish Christians from Jerusalem. The author insightfully points out that Stephen's attack on the Temple is unique in the New Testament for its virulence and content. Elsewhere, in the Lukan corpus, the Temple is treated quite differently. On reflection, Bruce contends that this attests to the historicity of the speech. This point is amply reinforced by the later work of Daniel R. Schwartz in his study of Herod Agrippa. And, with the exit of the Hellenists to Antioch and possibly as well to Alexandria, so began the first great expansion of Christianity beyond Roman Palestine.

The consideration of the Johannine community is perhaps the most conservative of these studies. Yet much evidence is weighed back and forth. Bruce locates the community at Ephesus. References to heretical thought in the Gospel of John are reflective of a Roman Asia location. Also, the early Church traditions of the John at Ephesus are strong and extend through Papias, Polycarp, and beyond. While aware of the adventurous work of J. Louis Martyn and Robert E. Brown in "The Community of the Beloved Disciple," Bruce leaves the question of the number of significant persons within the community open and sees a strong possibility of the apostle John at Ephesus and/or Patmos. The Pauline foundation in Roman Asia is seen to be eclipsed, and the ongoing Church there becomes a reflection of Johannine thought. Conversely, the material on James provides a well developed portrait. Usefully, Bruce proposes a progressive narrowing of the Jerusalem community down to a core of zealous law abiding believers prior to the execution of James. James the law abiding Jew who brokered and signed off on the Apostolic Decree did not change. The Church around him changed. By the time of Paul's last visit, much of the Jerusalem Christian community was hostile to him and his gentile mission. However, James and the elders did welcome Paul reservedly. We can not be certain how they handled the gifts Paul and his gentile converts brought. But, James did not betray Paul in his arrest at the temple. The evidence Bruce adduces militates against this strongly.

There is a great deal of depth in these studies that I have only been able to describe most selectively. The student of early Church history will find this work as vital today as when it was first published. Much of later scholarship would have been well served by taking the measure of Bruce's superb scholarship in this slight but significant work. For example, discussion of James as being of the lower Jewish priestly order is succinctly disposed of. He was not of the tribe of Levi. And while not a unique insight, the Christianity of Peter is convincingly portrayed as being far closer to that of Paul than that of James. There are a few minor problems. The discussion of the origin of the Hellenistic epistle to the Hebrews is problematic, but so is every other scholarly consideration of this matter in my opinion. The Johannine study is tentative in the extreme but does provide a wealth of somewhat undigested information. When Bruce was operating as a historian as he is in this book, he was a scholar of the first rank. To dismiss him only as a pious evangelical Christian apologist is a mistake. As to the conclusions and insights provided herein, a great deal of it has not been engaged in any serious fashion by later scholarship. This too is a mistake. Ultimately, this book is a most enjoyable read that given careful consideration is still quite challenging and very rewarding.