ABSTRACT
Our knowledge is very incomplete. Paul’s letters offer only an imperfect insight into the relationship with the communities he established, and our main source of information concerning the community of Jerusalem is open to suspicion because – imperceptibly – the author of the Acts of the Apostles included in his account the relationships prevailing in his own times. All the other written material is early post-apostolic and therefore cannot give us satisfactory answers. But we can venture a few comments which may help us to draw some cautious conclusions with a bearing on the present problem. Although we should really begin with the letters of Paul, which are earlier in date and more reliable, I have decided to consider first the evidence in Acts, because of the importance of the ‘primitive community of Jerusalem’ for the present question.
