This work overturns previously accepted theories about the rise of the first-century Church by arguing that it maintained a religious culture of diversity because of its roots in Judaism.Scholars continue to be divided in their response to the evidence on the Church's early history. Until F.C. Baur, the nineteenth-century theologian, it was believed that the Church developed as a strife-free, united organization. It soon became obvious that these two models failed to account for several anomalies that could not be explained without providing a revised model.This work argues that there are sufficient grounds to present a third model, which does not deny that disagreements occurred, but suggests the Church's diversity did not amount to full-scale dichotomy. The study demonstrates how the early Church inherited its religious culture of diversity (heterodoxy) from its Jewish roots, because it was a fundamental component of Second Temple Judaism.
Until the second century these sub-divisions were not considered heretical groups, but an alliance of congregations whose common belief centered upon Jesus' Messianic claims and the imminence of the Kingdom, the latter being of common concern for Jews and Christians alike.