DeConick A.D

113
PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
short. God is coming. Reorient your lives to the teaching of Jesus the
Messiah so that you will be prepared for his Judgment and for admittance
to paradise when the world ends.” With a sense of urgency, they
baptized initiates in river water, which they believed cleansed the initiate
of all past sin.
To distinguish themselves from the followers of John the Baptist, who
were competing with them for converts, the Jerusalem missionaries began
to declare that their baptism was better than John’s, because it not
only forgave sin but also actually conveyed to initiates the Holy Spirit, a
sort of guardian angel that took up residence in their souls. Their baptism
imitated Jesus’ own, when the Spirit descended into him and he
became a child of God. The missionaries promised initiates that the Holy
Spirit would assist them as they tried to live sin-free lives in obedience to
YHWH by putting into practice the Messiah’s interpretation of the Torah.
The devotees of Jesus who remained in Jerusalem went to the Temple
every day, praying for the salvation of Israel and tending to the needs
of the people who lived in their commune. In this mode of charity and
poverty, they awaited the return of Jesus the Messiah from heaven, when
they believed that they would be transported to an eschatological paradise
as resurrected angelic beings like him.
Gentiles Convert
The Wayfarers had some success convincing fellow Jews of Jesus’ messiahship,
although they gained the most ground among the non-Jewish, Gentile
God fearers who frequented the synagogues. These were Greeks and
Romans who admired the monotheistic and ethical teachings of the Jews
and so hung out in the synagogues and tried their best to live like Jews,
without being circumcised. They were obligated to observe the Noachide
laws, the seven laws that the Jews believed were given to Noah before
circumcision was demanded of Abraham and his descendants. These laws
are based on their reading of Genesis 9:9, among other scriptures. They
were prohibited from worshipping idols, committing murder or theft,
engaging in sexual immorality, blaspheming, and eating bloody meat.
The God fearers were attracted to the Wayfarers because the community
used baptism, not circumcision, as its initiation ceremony. The
God fearers were considered full converts to the Jesus movement without