In closing his letter to the believers at Rome, Paul addresses himself to “all the churches of the Gentiles,” and mentions “the church that is in THEIR HOUSE (meaning Priscilla and Aquila)” (See Romans 16:3-5 and I Corinthians 16:19). And, in closing his letter to the Colossians, Paul writes, “Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house” (See Colossians 4:15).
If one is ignorant of the history of the early church and reads only the Book of Acts, they will come across such statements as “how many thousands of Jews there are which believe” (See Acts 21:20) and how “the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied IN JERUSALEM greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith” (See Acts 6:7). The reader might then be led to believe that the number of members in the church increased exponentially and that the various assemblies of the church of the First Century contained hundreds, even thousands of members. Not so! As the word of God spread across the Roman Empire converts to the Christian faith found themselves under severe persecution and also found that their meeting places were limited to private homes or outdoor gatherings when their numbers were such that they could not be accommodated in a single house.
And, if the novice in the Word of God is unaware of the dates when various letters of the New Testament were written, one might think that the early church had a New Testament of sorts to guide and instruct them in the ways of God. It is generally agreed that the first letter of the New Testament to be written was the Book of James and that it was written about 50 A.D. The first gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were not penned until the sixties! It is believed Paul’s first epistle was the Epistle of I Thessalonians and that it was written about 52 or 53 A.D. Yet the church of God, the “New Testament” church began and was inaugerated on the Day of Pentecost in the early thirties (some say 31 A.D., some say 33 A.D.)
So what scriptures did the apostles and elders of the early church use to guide and instruct them in the doctrines of God, since they had no New Testament? Well the only scriptures existing at that time – the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament, of course! Although the Septuagint was a Greek translation, it was a translation of the Hebrew scriptures – not the New Testament. When the Jews in Rome came together to hear Paul speak (he was then under house arrest in that city), “there came many to him into his lodging to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, BOTH OUT OF THE LAW OF MOSES, AND OUT OF THE PROPHETS (THE OLD TESTAMENT), from morning until evening.” (See Acts 28:23). He might well have used the Septuagint to do so. This would have been about the year 63 A.D.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley