Forgotten Origins: The Lost Jewish History of Early Christianity: Part 1

The history of early Christianity is shrouded in mystery. Jesus and his early followers were Jewish, but most Jews and Christians know little of the origins of either. Since the third and fourth centuries CE, Judaism and Christianity have crystallized to the point of apparent distinction so much to obscure shared history and even theology. Consequently, people legitimately ask what connections could Judaism and Christianity have.
A variety of textual discoveries including the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, has brought about a renewed interest in the subject of early Christianity in its Jewish context. This exploration has created such an interest for the Jewishness of Jesus, that is it now assumed mainly among scholars. In addition, the earliest followers of Jesus were Jews just like him.
The earliest stages of the Christian movement in the first century reflected varieties within Jewish world of the Second Temple period. Later Christianity was dominated by non-Jews and was increasingly differentiated by ethnic, geographic, and political factors. Though the number of Jews who followed Jesus steadily declined over subsequent centuries, some Jews continued in their Jewish observances in its various forms and coupled them with their messianic belief in Jesus.
By the third and fourth centuries, however, there were growing pressures towards doctrinal uniformity within greater Christianity, and this eventually served to exclude various non-conformant groups including Jewish Christians or Christianized Jews from the pale of emerging Christian orthodoxy. A variety of Jewish Christian groups continued to exist, but the gradual rise of rabbinic leadership also served to exclude most Jewish Christians from the fold of greater Judaism.
Many historians have, however, confidently presumed that the parting of ways between formative Judaism and the nascent Christian movement occurred very early. Consequently, both entities are often portrayed as sharply distinct groups with clear boundaries as early as the late first or early second centuries and this had led to the predominant view that characterizes Jewish Christianity as an anomaly. This book explores this complex issue.
This first part includes the introduction and chapter 1. Subsequent parts will include 3-4 chapters each.