On the threshold of the peoples

Certainly one of the aspects that stands out most in the pages of the New Testament is the unity of the church. Jesus’ final prayer, moments before partaking of the painful cup of atoning sacrifice. Such unity, longed for by Jesus, was expressed in a metaphorical way by the apostle Paul, making use of bodily and structural images (1 Cor 3:9). The book Acts of the Apostles pursues the same goal, that is, to present a harmonious and unstoppable panorama of Christianity, the product of Jesus’ commissioning, pneumatological intervention and the work of his apostles. This last aspect is presented as a harmonious and legitimized body through the work of Peter, John and James in the great church in Jerusalem, and with Barnabas, Paul and Apollos in the great Gentile church. Nevertheless, such unity does not omit the different, but not contradictory, applications of the content of the ＂good news＂ to the peoples where the first Christians arrived. This plurality is the thematic essence of the present research, in order to respond appropriately in the contextualizing work of the divine message.