The origins of the concept of the Church, and its development in the earliest Christian community, are subjects which have taxed the resources of many scholars; the literature on the subject is consequently very extensive. In the realm of New Testament studies few concepts have aroused such controversy as that of the Church. The literature of the last hundred years reveals a many-sided development–a development which is still in progress, giving cause for constant revision of accepted views and leading to much fruitful pioneer work. This development is, however, to some extent dependent upon currents within New Testament scholarship as a whole; the concept of the Church is not one which can be dealt with in isolation, since it stands in intimate relationship to such vital questions as the person and the self-consciousness of Jesus, the desire and capacity of the early Church for the creation of new theological ideas, and the influence of Hellenistic civilization on the Christian thought-world.

A number of the basic characteristics and presuppositions of the early Christian concept of the Church are nowadays generally accepted. For example, the principle that the origins of the concept of the Church are to be sought in the Messianic expectations of the group around Jesus and in the early Church's understanding of the person of Jesus. Nor can it well be denied that the Messianic consciousness of Jesus was such as to tend in the direction of the creation of a Church. Further, there is the fact of the solidarity of the early Church with the people of God, Israel, and the history of that nation.