A Jewish Catacomb in Rome

Brandon Wason, http://www.novumtestamentum.com/2005/07/jewish-catacomb-predates-christian.php, was first to report on the AP article. Jim Davila, http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_paleojudaica_archive.html#112193249559710721, also picked up the story. Not only do findings indicate that the early Christians adopted the practices of Jewish residents of Rome, but also “that Judaism may have influenced Christianity for longer than previously thought.”

As Jim Davila noted the AP article mentioned by Wason was based on the publication of the findings in Nature journal. Leonard V. Rutgers, professor of late antiquity at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and the lead author on the study stated “Scholars have frequently argued that Christianity came into its own fairly early on in the first century, and from then on there was no Jewish influence. The period of separation probably took a lot longer and was much more gradual than we thought."

These findings support the conclusions reached by Rodney Stark in his book, the Rise of Christianity. It also supports the conclusions of numerous mission studies about how new religions attract their members.