The history of Christianity as Git repositories

Götz von Berlichingen
2 min readNov 29, 2024

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The Initial Commit: Judaism

The repository for Judaism begins with the initial commit: the Covenant of Abraham.

Key commits include:

Mosaic Law (Torah.v1).

Prophetic Books (Nevi'im branch).

Writings (Ketuvim branch).

The main branch (Judaism-main) remains active, with continuous contributions from various communities (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative branches).

The First Fork: Christianity

Around 30 CE, a major fork occurs: the Christianity repository is created from Judaism-main.

The fork is driven by a new feature branch: belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Initial commits:

Teachings of Jesus (Gospels).

Acts of the Apostles (Acts.v1).

Pauline Letters (Epistles.v1).

Over time, Christianity develops its own main branch (Christianity-main), maintaining partial compatibility with its parent repository.

Early Branching in Christianity

1. Jewish Christianity:

A short-lived branch trying to merge Jesus' teachings back into Judaism-main.

Eventually, this branch becomes abandoned (archived).

2. Gentile Christianity:

Becomes the dominant branch.

Commits include expanding features to non-Jewish communities (Acts.v2, Epistles.v2).

3. Gnosticism:

A controversial branch with significant theological conflicts.

Eventually marked as deprecated and excluded from the main repository.

Major Split: East and West

In 1054, the Great Schism creates two permanent forks:

1. Roman Catholicism:

Maintains the Rome-main branch.

Adds features like papal authority and Latin liturgy.

2. Eastern Orthodoxy:

Forks into the Byzantium-main branch.

Focuses on Greek liturgy and iconography.

Both forks continue to develop independently but occasionally synchronize minor commits (ecumenical councils).

The Reformation: A Cascade of Forks

In 1517, Martin Luther opens a pull request to reform the Catholic-main branch. The request is rejected, leading to a series of Protestant forks:

1. Lutheranism:

Forked directly from Catholic-main.

Removes features like indulgences and introduces justification by faith.

2. Calvinism:

A further fork from Lutheranism, emphasizing predestination.

3. Anglicanism:

A geographically specific fork created by the Church of England.

These forks result in countless sub-branches (Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals), making Protestantism one of the most fragmented repositories.

The New World and Beyond

Christianity sees explosive forking in the Americas and beyond:

Mormonism (19th century): A fork with additional commits like the Book of Mormon.

Evangelicalism (20th century): A feature-rich branch focused on missionary work and revivalism.

Pentecostalism: Emphasizes new features like speaking in tongues (charismatic gifts.v1).

Merging and Interfaith Dialogue

In modern times, some efforts attempt to merge branches:

Ecumenical Movements:

Attempts to resolve conflicts between Catholic-main, Orthodox-main, and Protestant forks.

Some experimental pull requests for interfaith understanding (Judaism-Christianity merge discussions).

A Snapshot of the Current Repos

1. Judaism-main: Still active with traditional and modern branches.
2. Christianity-main:

Catholic-main.

Orthodox-main.

Protestant forks (Lutheran, Calvinist, Evangelical branches).

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Götz von Berlichingen
Götz von Berlichingen

Written by Götz von Berlichingen

Software developer, former civil engineer. Musician. Free thinker. Writer.

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