The Church of Jerusalem versus The Church of Rome

After the death of Jesus, Christianity spread to the Roman Empire and from there to the rest of Europe and from there to the rest of the world. However, for a while the Church of Jerusalem developed separately from the Church of Rome. The development of the Church of Jerusalem is linked to the Romano-Jewish context of the region around Jerusalem from which Christianity arose. The relevant 1st century events are difficult to confirm, but it is clear that a religious movement appeared around John the Baptist along the river Jordan, and that Paul the Apostle can be credited for spreading the word far beyond the region. I will begin this timeline with John and Jesus and then trace the development of the two churches separately.

The Stone Soup Effect

Traditional stories are difficult to trace back in time unless they have been written down. Many stories predate writing so it would be great to have a method of analysing oral tradition to figure out the original version of the story or who authored it or why. I will not present a full methodology, but I will elaborate on a general aspect of traditional story-telling which we can call the Stone Soup Effect.

To illustrate this effect, I will refer to the traditional story called Stone Soup as an allegory for the story-telling effect. This is a simplified version of the story.

This Song is Old

Hmm.

This song is old

and very strange;

things were different

that long ago;

people sang then

so others knew

what it was like

before their time.

 

They would all sing

till they grew old

and their children

would learn their song.