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Just as significant an exploration is that of the idioms the NT writers utilized about the church.
"Assembly of the firstborn" (Heb. 12:23; vid. Ex. 4.22)
"Bride of Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2, Rev. 22:17; vid. Is. 54)
"Vine" (John 15)
Nearly every one of these idioms have has a direct precedents precedent in the Hebrew Bible; those that do not certainly have parallel imagery to an Old Testament institution or theological convention. The early Christians drew upon the OT as a foundational literature and it is no wonder that the same idioms found their place in the new group. This was not much different, insofar as the use of the OT was foundational, from that role in the synagogue.
Apostolic Fathers as [[Clement of Rome]] used several metaphors for the Church as demonstrated in a section of 2 Clement 14. He described it as "the first Church" (''ek tes ekklesias tes protes''), the "spiritual one, created before the sun and the moon." Further, he calls it the "church of life" that is also the "body of Christ," a body which is the female as Christ is the male. It is not for now, the present, but has existed since the beginning (''anothen'').
Nonetheless, the [[Divine Liturgy|liturgy]] of the faithful finds it necessary for the attendance of the bishop, the symbol of church unity. Of course, the Pauline emphasis on either the "one loaf" or on the "one cup" indicates a Christian unity in the people themselves. Also, it would be a mistake to think that the importance of the bishop excludes the members; indeed, all are a royal priesthood. Still, the celebratory nature of the eucharist does not diminish its importance as a "sacrament"; i.e., the ''mysterion''.
The function of the local church is that while there may well have been parallel activity to the synagogue, ultimately the eucharistic ritual divided the church from synagogue activity. Certainly there was a way for the synagogue to appropriate a temple-like status in light of the Solomon speech about prayer (1 Kings 8)and its practice (Daniel 6), and after the destruction of the second Temple the synagogue increased in importance. But the local church operated not only as a community gathering but also as a place where it was believed the union of heaven and earth took place through the body of Christ in the unity of the eucharist.
===III. Ethics===
Of course, none of these questions were a problem for the Jewish people of the Hellenistic era. They did have their own problems with a large, dispersed population outside Judea and the occasional misunderstandings and rhetorical attacks. And among the Jewish people themselves there were many solutions given both political and religious. Still, despite their diversity when more severe situations came upon them they were, admirably, able to handle them. As the Maccabean uprising demonstrated, for instance, they were hardly without recourse to militia-like activity when the need arose. And as Philo's ''Embassy to Gaius'' attests, they were not without diplomatic means to try to make good their need to maintain their religious heritage.
But whether these responses came in literary, political, or military form there is one thing about the Jewish people shines shining through in all these conflicts, and that is the adaptability within their limits to best their adversaries. Whereas some writers, past and present, may see a stubbornness in the Jewish people of this time, can we not see a higher quality of loyalty and devotion? The One can say that the religious ethic was primarily an ethic of not just a community but of a people.
Finally, it would be a caricature of either religion to state that Christianity is of the individual and Judaism is of a people, as if either there were no Church or there were no individual Jewish persons. True, out of Christianity came an assortment of individual thinkers on serious subjects, but Judaism had as many lively intellectuals. And while there were bad results of a misguided idealism in the rebellion of Bar-Kokva, there were enough Christian verbal assaults against both Jews and pagans given on behalf of the Church. Also, one may note that as the synagogue became a center for a people without a Temple, so the Church became the hope for Christians who had undergone persecution by both Jews and pagans right up to, and beyond, the [[Edict of Milan]] in AD 314.
* Elias Bickerman, ''The Maccabees'', 1947.
* Baruch Bokser, ''The Origins of the Seder'', 2002.
* Daniel Boyarin. ''"Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism.'' '" ''Journal of Early Christian Studies''', Volume 6, Number 4, Winter 1998, pp.577-627.
* William G. Braude, ''Jewish Proselytizing in the First Five Centuries'', 1940.
* John Bright, ''A History of Israel'', 1981.