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In a loving way, I would like to correct you. I don't know why you are relating the original ancient Church to Greece only.
The ancient Eastern Orthodox Church was and is made up of Alexandria, where St. Mark was the first bishop, Jerusalem where St. James was the first bishop, Constantinople , Antioch (Acts, where they were fist called Christians) where St. Peter was the first bishop for 12 years, later going to Rome. Rome was apart of the original, until leaving in 1054AD. Roman Catholicism as a theology is invented roughly around the 800's. This is a little more subjective because as soon as the gospel was translated from Greek to Latin, we see issues in Spain with theology and the west going in a different direction. However they stayed together for 1,000 years and it was really Charlemagne / the Franks who conquered the Roman Church, despite Leo III's, best effort in trying to protect the Orthodox Church in Rome. Thus Rome falls to the political structure we see today.
When Roman bishops are on horse back, leading the Crusades killing Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims alike, it's obvious they are no longer apart of the original. I'm glad pope John II finally apologized for the Crusades.
To kindly correct you about your last statement. The land of the EOC was everywhere, not only Greece. From Africa to Ireland. Everyone was Christians, apart of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, but of course Rome left. Then later Orthodox priest in the West, were forced to be loyal to his new idea of a Roman pope or die.. In the ancient texts you will see Catholic and Orthodox used. Catholic does not mean Roman Catholicism , but "Universal", describing all the Churches at that time in ancient history. This means today that Roman Catholics are not actually Catholic, because their later changes in theology are Roman only. Nobody else but Romans believe like Romans, known as Roman Catholic. Not Protestants, nor the original Easter Orthodox Church. I'm not saying that in a insulting way, just being honest with history. Catholic in ancient texts refers to the Church describing it as whole, which was Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome, until Rome left. All Patriarchs had equal say in the councils, there was not concept of a pope overlord.
The word Orthodoxy simply means Ortho->True Doxy->Teaching. "True teaching". This word is used in ancient text to describe the True Church and apostolic teaching compared to those who were trying to invent their own ideas,etc.
It's not possible to type 2,000 years of history in a comment. The Holy Bible is not writings that tell much history of the Church. For this you must look to ancient writings such as the Ante-Nicene collection and Post-Nicene collection.
Maybe sect wasn't the right word but I know that the Christian religion has branched out from it's beginnings into a multitude of churches. I've always thought that the Catholic Church was the oldest of them all because I know that the Protestant religion split apart centuries ago and has itself been divided into many separate churches and I remember that Christianity became established in Rome which of course is the base for the Catholic Church. So is it true that the Catholics are the oldest part of the Christian religion and where did the word Catholic come from and what does it mean?
The Syrian Orthodox Church is older actually, and the oldest surviving Christian lineage on earth. The Coptic Orthodox are probably older than Rome as well.
The earliest of all Christians would have been in Galilee and Jerusalem, though there doesn't seem to be an unbroken continuous Christian religion in either place going all the way back to the ministry of Christ.
Ebionites are an older than the subgroup of Christianity that later became the Catholic Church -- the one that was "officially endorsed" by the Roman Empire and split apart repeatedly starting in 431 AD. The trouble is that these sects did not survive. The Roman Empire wiped them out as heretics and those surviving for several more centuries outside the Roman Empire were apparently wiped out by Islam.
Indeed, you can look at the list of what the Catholic Church would come to call "heresies" and see a sizable list of Christian sects which were just as old and just as apostolic as the Catholics, but whom the Catholics eventually wiped out. From what I've seen, the Ebionite tradition is probably the oldest that we know of.
"Catholic" refers to the Roman Church and "catholic" means universal.
It gets a lot more complicated than that actually. One important detail that a lot of people are oblivious to: The Byzantine Empire did not call itself the Byzantine Empire. They still called themselves "The Roman Empire" long after the city of Rome itself was lost to the Gothic conquests. They even retook Rome a few times, but eventually gave up.
A member of the Eastern Catholic Faith (aka Eastern Orthodox) would have continued to identify themselves part of the "Roman Catholic (or Universal) Church" long after the Great Schism -- not because they followed The Bishop of Rome but because they followed the "universal" religion of the Roman Empire. From their point of view, where the Empire survived, so too did the true Christian religion.
The vocabulary got muddled obviously. The Eastern religions eventually accepted the convention of calling the breakaway rogue religion led by the Bishop of Rome (from their point of view) "The Roman Catholic Church."
Maybe sect wasn't the right word but I know that the Christian religion has branched out from it's beginnings into a multitude of churches. I've always thought that the Catholic Church was the oldest of them all because I know that the Protestant religion split apart centuries ago and has itself been divided into many separate churches and I remember that Christianity became established in Rome which of course is the base for the Catholic Church. So is it true that the Catholics are the oldest part of the Christian religion and where did the word Catholic come from and what does it mean?
The oldest sect from the Hebrew are simply called in the first century as: Christians - Acts 11:26 B; 26:28 B; 1st Peter 4:16
It does Not say Rome at Acts 11:26 but says: Antioch.
Didn't first-century Christianity start or was inaugurated at Pentecost - Acts chapter 2 - which was Not located at Rome.
So, then wouldn't the oldest sect be the ' first-century Christians ' as in following the first-century teachings of Christ as recorded in Scripture ?_______ Added on religious teachings would then be just individual church traditions or customs outside of Scripture but just taught as being Scripture such as what happened when Constantine ruled.
I do believe that we all must come together, organize and plan to stop all of the extremist led bloodshed. Our governments unfortunately are not listening to the people. The problem we have world wide is caused by a lack of action and cooperation of the people. We can not fear to come together and fight for each other's right to worship freely. No government should have a say in our rights to worship. I have dear friends of many religious. I'm a preachers kid. I believe the people need to speak up about what is right. Religious leaders that preach hate should be removed from leadership. Extremists should be approached and controlled by a multidenominational force. Enough is enough. The people do not want the wars and attacks. The people want peace. Let us rise up, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddists, Catholics, etc, etc ,etc. Together. If our government's won't do it, let save lives and stop the bloodshed together. We can make peace with our brothers. I challenge anyone that reads this to search for people of different religions and talk with them. You will find they are beautiful people too. Love one another. Protect one another. Live in peace. One day we may all laugh at how we worship. We may find that we all were worshiping the same God all in our own unique way. In the mean time let's stop the extremists on all sides of all religions.
Maybe sect wasn't the right word but I know that the Christian religion has branched out from it's beginnings into a multitude of churches. I've always thought that the Catholic Church was the oldest of them all because I know that the Protestant religion split apart centuries ago and has itself been divided into many separate churches and I remember that Christianity became established in Rome which of course is the base for the Catholic Church. So is it true that the Catholics are the oldest part of the Christian religion and where did the word Catholic come from and what does it mean?
The oldest Christian church, or group of followers of the teachings of Jesus, was the church of the circumcision in Jerusalem whose leader was James the brother of Jesus, born of the same womb.
And of James the son of Alpheaus, who was the first to sit on the Episcopal throne of the church of the circumcision in Jerusalem, we learn from Josephus, Eusebius, and Hegesippus, that he was murdered in 62 AD, at the instigation of one of the same Sadducee sect that had his brother Jesus murdered, and that James the righteous was succeeded by Simeon --- of Cleophas/Alpheaus, who was the second husband of Mary.
Simeon a half-brother to Jesus, was succeeded by 13 other Bishops of the circumcision, among who, several others, like Simeon and James, appear to have been blood relatives of Jesus. In 132 AD, with the second Jewish revolt, the line was extinguished. Epiphanius of Salamis, in his Panarion, mentions Judah Kyriakos, the great grandson of Jude, as the last Jewish Bishop of Jerusalem that lived beyond Bar Kokhba’s revolt.
It was not until the fourth century, that the Roman Church of Emperor Constantine was established, from insult hurling religious groups who called themselves Christians, but who had abandoned the Jesus as taught by the apostles.
The oldest Christian church, or group of followers of the teachings of Jesus, was the church of the circumcision in Jerusalem whose leader was James the brother of Jesus, born of the same womb.
And of James the son of Alpheaus, who was the first to sit on the Episcopal throne of the church of the circumcision in Jerusalem, we learn from Josephus, Eusebius, and Hegesippus, that he was murdered in 62 AD, at the instigation of one of the same Sadducee sect that had his brother Jesus murdered, and that James the righteous was succeeded by Simeon --- of Cleophas/Alpheaus, who was the second husband of Mary.
Simeon a half-brother to Jesus, was succeeded by 13 other Bishops of the circumcision, among who, several others, like Simeon and James, appear to have been blood relatives of Jesus. In 132 AD, with the second Jewish revolt, the line was extinguished. Epiphanius of Salamis, in his Panarion, mentions Judah Kyriakos, the great grandson of Jude, as the last Jewish Bishop of Jerusalem that lived beyond Bar Kokhba’s revolt.
It was not until the fourth century, that the Roman Church of Emperor Constantine was established, from insult hurling religious groups who called themselves Christians, but who had abandoned the Jesus as taught by the apostles.
The oldest was the original, "The Way", a legal sect of Judaism for about 100 years, and represented the grafted in gentiles to the Jews. Blessings...
If you are calling the church of the circumcision, whose head was James the brother of Jesus, 'THE WAY" then you are correct, if not, then you are incorrect.
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