The Early Jerusalem Church

The event

In the weeks and months after Pentecost, the Jerusalem church devoted itself to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Luke describes a community marked by generosity and unity - believers sold property and possessions to meet one another's needs, met daily in the Temple courts, and shared meals together with glad and sincere hearts (Acts 2:44-46). Signs and wonders performed through the apostles, especially Peter and John, drew crowds and multiplied converts, and for a season the young church enjoyed remarkable favor even as its leaders began drawing scrutiny from the religious authorities.

That generosity had a face: Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus, sold a field and laid the proceeds at the apostles' feet, becoming a model of open-handed faith (Acts 4:36-37). But the same chapter that celebrates Barnabas also records a sobering counter-example - Ananias and Sapphira, a married couple who sold property, secretly kept back part of the proceeds, and lied to the Holy Spirit about it, claiming to have given the whole sum. Both died on the spot when confronted by Peter, and "great fear seized the whole church" (Acts 5:11). The episode marks how seriously God treats hypocrisy in a community meant to display His holiness to a watching world.

This early period, generally placed in the few years immediately following Pentecost, set the pattern for everything that followed: a church defined by the Spirit's power, the apostles' authoritative teaching, and a costly, visible love for one another - the very things the early church would need as persecution began to close in.

Dating

This span simply follows from the date of Pentecost: on an AD 30 crucifixion the formative Jerusalem-church period of Acts 2-6 runs from AD 30 to the persecution that scattered the church, while on an AD 33 chronology the same events fall c. AD 33-35. The narrative content is not in question; only the anchor year shifts.

Scripture references

• Acts 2:42-47
• Acts 4:32-37
• Acts 5:1-11

Further reading

• Christian History Magazine 147: Everyday Life in the Early Church — free full issue