DeConick A.D

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PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
him personally and intimately. This personal connection with Jesus meant
a great deal to potential converts, bolstering the validity and legitimacy of
the movement in their eyes.
The Wayfarers believed that there were two roads one could walk: the
narrow way of righteousness, which led to life, or the broad way of sinfulness,
which led to death. Jesus’ teachings outlined for them the way
to life that God had intended for his people when he gave them the law
of Moses. To them, Jesus was the long-awaited Moses-like prophet, the
Messiah who had come to restore God’s law to its original intent and to
prepare them for the Last Judgment, which they believed was looming on
the horizon (Acts 3:19–26, 7:51–53; compare with Mark 6:4, 15, 8:28; Luke
4:24, 7:16, 9:8, 13:33, 24:19; John 1:19–27, 4:19, 25, 6:14; Hebrews 3:5).
Their point of view is best preserved in the New Testament letter of
James (ca. 60 CE) and in an early Christian handbook called the Didache
or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (ca. 90 CE). But it is also remembered
in some of the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
(ca. 80 CE), where Jesus proclaims that he has not come to abolish the
Jewish law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17–18).
The Wayfarers saw Jesus as one of God’s holy men, a righteous Jewish
prophet and martyr who had been unfairly executed by unbelievers (Acts
2:24, 32, 3:15, 4:2, 10, 33, and elsewhere), a prophet in a long line of Jewish
prophets who had been rejected by the unrighteous (Acts 2:23, 3:17–
18, 7:51–53; Mark 6:4–5; Matthew 13:57–58; Luke 4:23–24; John 4:44).
His cruel death, however, was not for naught. It was part of God’s plan
of salvation. Jesus’ death served as expiation for the sins of Israel.
This was not an unusual claim, because the Jews at that time believed
that the deaths of those martyred for the Jewish cause could atone for Israel’s
sins (compare Acts 5:31 with 2 Maccabees 6:12–16, 7:38; 4 Maccabees
6:27–29, 17:20–22). Jesus’ reward, as was also the case with Jewish martyrs
generally, was his personal resurrection from the dead and exaltation
to stand near God’s throne as one of God’s holy host. He was believed to
have become a powerful angelic intercessor, whose sacred name had the
power to heal, protect, and forgive.
The Jerusalem movement served as mission headquarters for teams of
missionaries who hit the road and preached their message in synagogues
and marketplaces. Their message was simple: “Repent! The kingdom of
God is near!” (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15). By this they meant, “Time is