The Church in Antioch in the First Century CE

Book excerpt: The book explores the problems faced by the church in Antioch in the mid-first century CE once the decision was taken to welcome Gentiles into the church. Slee argues that a particular problem was the celebration of the Eucharist, since some Jewish Christians felt that the table-fellowship this involved inevitably brought the risk of contamination (because of Gentile contact with idolatry). She suggests this was the subject debated at the Jerusalem conference described in Acts 15 and Galatians 2, and it was the eventual decision of the Antioch church to hold separate Eucharists that led to Paul's break with the church (Gal 2:11-14). Thus even at the end of the first century CE the Antioch church was still divided on the issue.