VIII AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER 297 



Justin's time, a century later. It is plain that 

 the Nazarenes presided over by James, " the 

 brother of the Lord," and comprising within their 

 body all the twelve apostles belonged to Justin's 

 second category of " Jews who observe the Law, 

 believe Jesus to be the Christ, but who insist on 

 the observance of the Law by Gentile converts," 

 up till the time at which the controversy reported 

 by Paul arose. They then, according to Paul, 

 simply allowed him to form his congregations of 

 non-legal Gentile converts at Antioch and else- 

 where ; and it would seem that it was to these 

 converts, who would come under Justin's fifth 

 category, that the title of " Christian " was first 

 applied. If any of these Christians had acted 

 upon the more than half-permission given by 

 Paul, and had eaten meats offered to idols, 

 they would have belonged to Justin's seventh 

 category. 



Hence, it appears that, if Justin's opinion, 

 which was probably that of the Church generally 

 in the middle of the second century, was correct, 

 James and Peter and John and their followers 

 could not be saved ; neither could Paul, if he 

 carried into practice his views as to the indiffer- 

 ence of eating meats offered to idols. Or, to put 

 the matter another way, the centre of gravity of 

 orthodoxy, which is at the extreme right of the 

 series in the nineteenth century, was at the ex- 

 treme left, just before the middle of the first 



