gospel for the Gentiles; some elements in the Jerusalem church insisted on the necessity of circumcision; Peter and James, each from their own perspectives, tried to mediate (Acts 15). The departure from Jerusalem of other elements left the more religiously and culturally conservative Jews as the predominant element in the Jerusalem church. The Hellenizers found a center in Antioch of Syria. The church began in Antioch when believers from Jerusalem were scattered because
Pages 36–37