Abstract

When Early Christianity began to integrate Gentiles lacking the Jewish identity markers, i.e., circumcision and dietary laws, it was the decisive step towards the parting of the ways between Jews an Christians which finally resulted in the formation of an independent Church. The Early Christians nevertheless insisted that they belonged to the people of God and were heirs to the Biblical promises. They therefore had to prove that their ground-breaking move towards an integration of the Gentiles was in accordance with God’s will. According to Acts, they could do so because the Spirit as God’s immediate representatives on earth itself has himself induced this step, while at the same time ensuring through its ongoing presence the guidance which until then had been provided by the Torah