The Way: The Forgotten Name of Jesus’s Early Movement

Part 1 of a 5-part series exploring Christianity’s lost path

Before they were called Christians, they were known simply as followers of “the Way.”

When Saul of Tarsus set out to persecute the early followers of Jesus, he sought authorization to arrest any who “belonged to the Way.” This mysterious phrase appears repeatedly in early accounts of Jesus’s movement, suggesting it carried deep significance for these first followers. But what exactly was “the Way”? Was it merely a path of ethical behavior, or did it point to something more profound — perhaps a method of spiritual transformation, a set of secret teachings, or a direct experience of divine reality?

The answer, it turns out, is far more fascinating than most people realize. Hidden within this simple phrase lies a complex history of public teachings and private mysteries that challenges everything we think we know about Jesus as a teacher.

The Shocking Admission

In Mark’s Gospel, generally considered our earliest account of Jesus’s ministry, we find a startling revelation. When his disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the crowds in parables, he responds with an admission that seems to overturn our common image of him as a populist teacher who wanted everyone to understand his message:

“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables, so that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand.’”

Let that sink in for a moment. Jesus explicitly states that he uses parables to prevent “outsiders” from understanding his deeper teachings. This isn’t a later interpretation or a theological innovation — it’s Jesus himself explaining that he deliberately teaches at different levels, reserving certain knowledge for those prepared to receive it.

The Ancient Art of Graduated Teaching

To understand why Jesus would adopt this approach, we need to explore the cultural context of religious teaching in his time. Far from being unusual, this practice of graduated instruction was well-established in both Jewish and Greek traditions.

In college, I read The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. It was the first time I thought of Jesus as a rabbi. In Judaism, the tradition of pardes (literally “orchard” or “paradise”) distinguished four levels of scriptural interpretation:

• Peshat: The simple, literal meaning
• Remez: The allegorical meaning
• Derash: The homiletical meaning
• Sod: The mystical, secret meaning

Only the most advanced students were taught the deeper levels. The Talmud explicitly warns that the most mystical teachings — particularly those concerning the divine throne chariot (merkavah) — should only be taught to men over forty who were already wise in Torah and “understand with their own knowledge.” This restriction reflects the patriarchal nature of ancient Jewish society, where advanced religious instruction was typically reserved for mature men of appropriate social standing.

Just a day’s walk from Jesus’s hometown, the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal another fascinating parallel. A Jewish sect called the Essenes maintained a strict three-year initiation process where spiritual secrets were gradually revealed to initiates. Intriguingly, they too called themselves “The Way” (in their case, “The Way in the Wilderness”). Their compound at Qumran combined practical ethical teachings with esoteric traditions about angels, end times, and divine mysteries — much like what we find in early Christian sources.

This pattern of graduated teaching reached its highest development in the mystery schools of the Greek and Roman world. The most famous, the Eleusinian Mysteries near Athens, operated continuously for nearly two millennia. These weren’t just schools but transformative institutions where initiates underwent carefully structured experiences designed to bring about profound personal transformation.

Participants began with “lesser mysteries” that taught basic principles and purification practices. Only after proving their readiness — sometimes waiting years — could they experience the “greater mysteries,” which often included direct mystical encounters with the divine. The fact that these schools maintained their secrets for thousands of years, despite counting many of antiquity’s most prominent figures among their initiates, suggests they offered something profoundly valuable that could only be understood through direct experience.

The Two Levels of Jesus’s Teaching

Once we understand this context, Jesus’s teaching method comes into sharper focus. Like the mystery schools and Jewish wisdom traditions, he appears to have taught at two distinct levels:

The Public Teaching

On hillsides and in marketplaces, Jesus taught through parables drawn from everyday life — farmers sowing seeds, women baking bread, shepherds seeking lost sheep. He offered clear ethical guidance like “love your enemies” and “do not judge, lest you be judged.” These teachings were accessible to anyone who would listen.

The Private Instruction

But when alone with his disciples, Jesus revealed deeper meanings. “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God,” he tells them, before explaining the hidden significance of his public parables. He teaches them private prayers and practices, like the shared cup and bread that would become the Eucharist. He reveals mystical truths that often confused his public audience but pointed initiates toward profound spiritual realities.

Consider how this dual approach appears in one of his most famous teachings, the Lord’s Prayer. Taught openly to crowds, it seems to be a straightforward prayer for God’s future reign: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” But to his close followers, Jesus revealed a deeper truth: “The kingdom of God is within you” — suggesting the prayer was actually about an immediate, internal reality.

“He Who Has Ears to Hear…”

This two-level system is further reflected in Jesus’s frequent refrain after parables: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The phrase eerily echoes the practice of the Pythagorean schools, which divided students into “hearers” (akousmatikoi) who learned only basic precepts, and “mathematicians” (mathematikoi) who received fuller philosophical teachings.

This wasn’t just about physical hearing but about a deeper capacity for spiritual understanding. When Jesus quoted Isaiah — “You will indeed hear but never understand” — he was acknowledging that certain teachings could only be grasped by those who had developed the inner faculties to comprehend them.

The Lost Method

This understanding of Jesus as a wisdom teacher who carefully graduated his instruction — combining public ethical teaching with private mystical instruction — was largely lost as Christianity developed into a standardized religion. But its traces remain in the earliest sources, challenging us to reconsider not just what Jesus taught, but how he taught it.

This method of teaching at different levels would prove crucial to understanding the conflicts that emerged after Jesus’s death. Who truly had “the ears to hear” his message? His brother James, who had learned directly from him? Paul, who claimed mystical revelation? The communities that preserved his secret sayings? Or the sophisticated philosophers who would later interpret his message?

That story — the battle over who could authentically interpret “the Way” — would change the course of Western civilization. But to understand it, we first had to rediscover this crucial truth: that Jesus himself taught one way to the crowds, and another to those prepared for deeper mysteries.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll explore the dramatic conflict between Jesus’s brother James and the former persecutor Paul — a battle for the soul of “the Way” that would shape Christianity for millennia to come.

This is Part 1 of a 5-part series exploring the forgotten history of early Christianity. Follow me to be notified when the next installment is published.