ABSTRACT
The Christian communities were born amid conflict, yet no more stimulating environment could be found for the birth of a new moral and religious community. This chapter begins with the traditions that show the leaders of the community engaging with some of the issues in question. It provides the early decades of the Christian movement, James and the church in Jerusalem exerted tremendous influence and enjoyed considerable prestige. The Jewish Christian mission or mission to the Diaspora which Cephas, Peter and John led was primarily aimed at the expatriate Jews, but it soon faced the problem of Gentile interest in messianic salvation. Paul's writings were paraenetic and pastoral, addressing the needs of the churches of the Gentile mission and reinforcing their distinctive ethos. It is more accurate to speak of his moral teaching and the moral ethos of his churches than to imply a systematic model of Christian ethics.
