The Christian churches of the first century drew their membership from both Jews and Gentiles. The first Christians were Jews, and their first missionary activities were directed toward winning members from this group. However, not long thereafter, their activities were extended to include Gentiles, and many of those who had been non-Jews were welcomed into the newly formed Christian communities. The common element shared by both those who had been Jews and those who were Gentiles was loyalty to the person known as Jesus of Nazareth. Both groups recognized Jesus as a man of God and looked forward to a time when the message that he proclaimed would be spread throughout the world, bringing salvation to all those who would receive it.
Although both groups were loyal to Jesus, they did not, as a rule, interpret his life and ministry in the same way, nor could it reasonably be expected that they would. Each group interpreted his teachings in terms of the religious concepts with which they had long been familiar. For those who had been reared in the Jewish faith, he was the Messiah, the anointed one, the chosen of God, about whom the Old Testament prophets had written. He was the one under whose guidance and leadership the kingdom of God would be established, thus bringing about the full realization of the divine purpose in history. But while the Messiahship of Jesus meant a great deal to those whose training had been in Judaism, it meant very little to the non-Jews, or Gentiles, who were accustomed to thinking of religion in terms of the ideas and concepts associated with the mystery religions. To them, Jesus was comparable to the heroic redeemer of the mystery cults, which were numerous in the Greco-Roman world of New Testament times. Members of these cults were concerned primarily with the idea of salvation from physical death, to be followed by participation in the life of another world free of all the trials and hardships so characteristic of earthly life. The chief function of the heroic redeemer was to bring about this salvation. He would be a heavenly being who would descend to earth; after a life of service and self sacrifice, he would rise from the dead. By achieving a mystical union with him, his followers would gain the power to triumph over death. For many of the Christians who had been Gentiles, it seemed perfectly natural to think of Jesus as one who fulfilled the role of the heroic redeemer; on this basis, they accepted him. The different conceptions of Jesus that are found in the various writings of the New Testament can be understood only in relation to the different backgrounds from which they were developed.
