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| | History of the Origins of Christianity. Book II. The Apostles. | Christian Classics Ethereal Library |
 | | That the author of the Acts, to whom we are indebted for the picture of this primitive Christianity at Jerusalem, has laid on his colours a little too thickly, and, in particular, exaggerated the community of goods which obtained in the sect, is certainly possible. |
 | | The author of the Acts is the same as the author of the third gospel, who, in his life of Jesus, had the habit of adapting his facts to suit his theories, and with whom a tendency to the doctrine of ebonism, that is to say, of absolute poverty, is very perceptible. |
 | | The whole symbol of the primitive church might be embraced in one line: “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” This belief rested upon a peremptory argument—the fact of the resurrection, of which the disciples claimed to be witnesses. |
| www.ccel.org /ccel/renan/apostles.viii.html?scrBook=Jas&scrCh=5&scrV=13 (4431 words) |
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