JoyJuice

Of the early church fathers, with emphasis of those who chose the NT cannon, how many of those were actually Jews?

dongiovanni1976x

Good question, I don't know of a single one.

Ignatius, Polycarp, Marcion, Valentinus, Justin, Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Didymus...not a one

TheBigKahoona

Of the early church fathers, with emphasis of those who chose the NT cannon, how many of those were actually Jews?


Dongiovanni's answer was correct but its not that surprising a fact. Not only were there not very many jews in the world at the time, educated or not, but the conversion rates among the Gentiles in other parts of Europe were Much higher than in Israel.

Chris Weimer

And its no wonder either! There's a reason a "prophet" isn't accepted in his own land, they all saw what really happened!

Notsri

Melito bishop of Sardis (d. ca. 190) was Jewish, as was Hegesippus (d. ca. 180). Neither of them played a role in formulating the NT canon, though.

JoyJuice

Thanks all,

Okay then, can it be safely said when it comes to the development of Christian doctrines, those early church fathers were in fact pagan converts or people who were very familiar with Greek traditions.

TheBigKahoona

Well, that statement fails to mention Paul who, say what you want, was definitely Jewish. His sanity is another topic altogether. But he definitely affected the early church. But this opens a whole other can of worms such as whether he wrote what people say he wrote.

rlogan

Oh, I think the question was phrased in such a way that Paul would be excluded. There are indeed problems with Paul - our Tentmaker, Pharisee, pseudo-persecutor, Roman Citizen man-about-Judea.

Chili

Paul was an allegory himself. His persecuting Christians which was the high horse he tumbled down from, much like Jonah was 'running away' from God.

It doesn't make sense for Jews to be part of the inner circle of the new Catholic religion that emerged 'from' Judaism while having to fight 'against' the Christian heresies.