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Originally Posted by stuck_in_chuk
Actually, a number of "21 century academics" have put forward the argument that the early church was split between the Jewish "Jesus Movement" led by James and the Gentile "Christ Movement" led by Paul. The meeting in Jerusalem that is written about in Acts is curiously not mentioned in any of Paul's writings. Many bible scholars - both Christian and non-Christian - are of the opinion that Acts (written by the same author as the book of Luke) is questionable historically. Discrepancies between Acts and the letters of Paul are impossible to overlook. It has been suggested that the purpose of the book of Acts - and the reason for its inclusion into the canon - was to bridge the gap between the Jesus Movement and the Christ Movement.
Books on this subject include How Jesus became Christian by Barrie Wilson and Jesus, Interrupted by Bart Ehrman.
And, it should be pointed out that a lot (possibly most) of the research into the historical accuracy has been done in the past century - partly due to discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hamadi manuscripts.
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No scholar worth a salt would take the testimony of the Nag Hamadi manuscripts over the testimony of the church Fathers and the accepted canon. They're of late origin and come out of Egypt which was the center of gnosticism. As far as the Dead Sea scrolls go; I don't know what Barrie and Bart wrote but, they are a collection Jewish texts by a Jewish break away sect. They don't address Christian history at all.
Maybe Barrie and Bart would do better to read a little less pseudepigrapha and a bit more of the accepted canon. Paul did mention the meeting in Jerusalem. It's found in the second chapter of Galatians. Paul also mentions Luke as a companion in 2Tim 4:11. Paul never mentions a rift with the Jerusalem church.
What Paul doesn't do in his writings is address Gnostic heresy. That was addressed mainly by James,John and Jude when they wrote later in the first century. The latter half of the first century is when Gnostic heresy first became a problem in the earliy church. We know this from the writings of the church fathers and the subjects of the epistles. Paul's writings were prefered by Gnostics because firstly and foremostly they weren't written to refute them.