Early Christianity has sometimes been depicted as a movement that challenged the importance of the family. Being as specific as you can, what textual evidence is there to substantiate this claim?

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The Answer is Jesus taught that families should be secondary to the faith (Matt 10:34-37). The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (for this class, specifically the Acts of Paul and Thecla) challenged societal norms of marriage and family. Thecla left her fiancé and mother to follow Paul and his ascetic message. The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas also presents a Christian response to societal expectations of family. After Perpetua converted, she was arrested and faced martyrdom. Her father pleaded with her to save herself, but she did not obey him. Christians believed that the church provided a new and more important family (in fact, they used familial language, such as "brother" and "sister," for their fellow members).

Early Christianity Has Sometimes Been Depicted as a Movement That