Although Apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ became the end of the law for the justification of all believers(Rom 10:4), the ancient church took up the laws of the OT in introducing the institutions. Whence did the double-faced attitude of the ancient church toward the OT laws result? The first question is how much the OT laws influenced the life and canons of the ancient church, in other words, how much the OT laws were taken up in the canons and customs of the ancient church. The second question is why the ancient church took up the OT laws. 1. The ancient church was not simply negative toward the OT laws in spite of the Paulinism. The Pauline assertion that men couldn't be justificated by the good deeds but by the faith, was already reduced and distorted by his disciples as Luke and Hegesippus. As a result the Paulinism compromised with the Jewish legalism. 2. Even if Jesus was critical about the legalism, his posterity could not neglect the OT laws paradoxically. While the ancient church interpreted some OT laws allegorically, it interpreted some laws verbally. The ancient church was not able to interpret all the OT laws from the point of view of prophesy and fulfillment. This was already foreseen, sofar as the christianity took up the OT as its canon. 3. The Judaizing tendency was found in the Sabbath observance, the offering of tithes and firstfruits, the dietary rules, the female ordination and the problem of easter date. The sources which we surveyed, indicated how the greatly Judaism influenced the ancient church life. I conclude that the double-faced attitude of the ancient church toward the laws had something to do partly with the flourishing of Gnosticism and Montanism and partly with the need of the age. The Paulinism which underrated the OT laws, was not useful for the great church to attack the Gnostics. Therefore the great church either rejected the Paulinism or distorted it by mixing it with legalism. The ancient Christianity which had not its own theology and tradition depended necessarily on the Jewish canon and tradition. Therefore the Christianity became the religion of canon. The Christianity needed the clergy order like Jewish priests. Maybe the early monarchic episcopacy developed under the influence of the Jewish male priesthood. And in this trend women were excluded step by step from the church ministry.

• 황정욱(한신대학교) | Jeong Uck Hwang