Origin of the word Catholic.

 Origin of the word Catholic.

No Catholics or Catholic church existed or Catholic tradition in the days of Jesus, his apostles and ALL early followers, as they were all Jews and Jesus instructed them to go to no one except the lost sheep of the house of Israel, in other words, the early Jewish disciples were personally instructed by Jesus himself to go only to their fellow Jews.

There is no scripture where the word "Catholic" was used by Jesus, his apostles or early Jewish followers!

Not until sometime during Paul's ministry did he turn his attention to the pagan Gentiles, as the Jews on the whole (as a nation) rejected the gospel message about the Christ. Acts 18:6

Paul now turned his attention to these pagans, none of whom were Jews or "Catholic", all were pagans and worshipped the old gods.

Luke compiled the book of Acts in about 61 ce, so even after 28 years after the death of Jesus, there were still no Catholics or a Catholic church in existence and by the the time of the Temple's destruction in 70 ce the Christian congregations consisted mainly of converted Gentile pagans, still no "Catholics..."!

The origin of the word Catholic and its use outside the NT?

The word Catholic:

The word "Catholic" is derived from ancient the Greek adjective "καθολικός " (katholikos) and can mean "universal" from the expression "καθόλου" (katholou) and can also mean "on the whole, according to the whole, the word is derived from "katholikos" is a composite expression made up of two words "kata" meaning "about" and "holos" meaning "whole".

The word "katholikos" already existed in ancient Greek (otherwise it would not have been derived from it), but seems not to be used extensively.

It's first use outside the NT is seen in Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Smyrnaeans (c. 110 AD), by this time the last apostle, John, had been dead for at least ten years the congregations and the congregations had become sectarian with different groups vying for prominence, one of the biggest being the "Christian Gnostics", who nearly over-run the "church" (so-called).

During the lifetime of the apostles, apostasy was already manifesting itself with some teaching different doctrines, but as the apostles were still alive, they acted as a collective restraint and nipped such in the bud and got rid of these false teachers "Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus" are mentioned in scripture, then in John's old age we read about the sect of "Nicholaus", not all sect are recorded in scripture.

When Ignatius used the word “Catholic”, he tried to give the impression (false) that the congregations (churches) were unified and one “church”, but this is false, as there was no such thing in his day or after that, that a single “kata-holos” (about – whole) “Katholikos – Catholic” church existed; that a one whole unified Christian church existed is merely Catholic propaganda, written by proto-Orthodox writers back in the day, but did not reflect the historical accuracy of the age!

By the end of the 4th century ce, some 50 Christian groups existed, all offering salvation, but because, by that time the now, Catholic Church had become all powerful with political state backing!

Some early Christian sects, who competed with the Catholics:

Nazarenes, Adoptionists, Gnostics, Ebionites, Monarchianites, Alogi, Docetism, Marcionism, Valentinianism, Sethians and Ophites, Montanism and much more!