Early Christianity began as a Jewish sect of the followers of Jesus during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. Other Jewish sects of that time were the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Pharisees, and a group recognised as Zealots. Christians' distinguishing mark from these other groups was their belief that Jesus was the figure known in Greek as the Χριστός, in Aramaic as the משיחא, words, from which are derived the English words "Christ" and "Messiah", that literally mean the "Anointed". It was this belief that later led to them being called "Christians," a distinguishing name first given to them as early as the early 40s of the first century (before Paul's first missionary journey) by people in Antioch The appearance of this name followed what the Acts of the Apostles describes as another "first" for Antioch: the preaching of Jesus there to "Greek-speakers" (Ἑλληνιστάς) or "Greeks" (Ἕλληνας), as opposed to "Jews" (Ἰουδαίοις), even though Seven Greek Deacons had earlier been appointed in Jerusalem. As there are doubts expressed by some, such as Burton Mack that the Acts of the Apostles was only written early in the second century, this may reflect the position taken by the Gentilic followers of Jesus, rather than the Jewish Christians such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Previously, the household of the Roman Centurion Cornelius are the only Gentiles (as distinct from Jews and Samaritans and the "Ethiopian eunuch" of 8:27) mentioned as accepted among the believers in Jesus and his resurrection, and there was no general preaching of Christ to Gentiles. Acceptance of these into the Christian community did not mean that the Jews in the community ceased to view themselves as Jews: the alleged Council of Jamnia that is supposed to have formally expelled "Nazarenes" from the synagogues of Rabbinic Judaism came some thirty years later. See Jewish Christians...wikipedia
