This book has investigated the key self-designations used by the earliest ‘Christians’. Here I will discuss the implications of this study for our understanding of New Testament communities.

The way key self-designations were used

Apart from Χριστιανός, the key self-designations that I have studied are all ‘insider-designations’ which would have been used to designate other members of the group when speaking within that group. They enable us to see the significance of various facets of early Christian identity. That ἀδελφοί is the most common and most widely distributed term of address and self-designation indicates the importance and closeness of the early Christian communities and the significance of the familial ethos for these communities. This can be seen to be related theologically to the work of Christ who is ‘the first-born among many brothers and sisters’ (Rom 8:29), but is also related to the fact that the communities met in each other's houses and used other familial metaphors.