Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries

Focusing on the role of the Jewish believers in the first five centuries C.E., this important study re-examines some of the most foundational questions for our understanding of the formation of the early church. Who were the Jewish believers, and how did they understand themselves in relation to the Gentile believers and the Jewish community? Was the border area they occupied between Jew and Gentile a hospitable and welcoming one or was it one in which two incompatible identities clashed? The essays in this volume question the traditional paradigm that saw an early "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity and suggests instead that some Jewish believers in Jesus stayed closely integrated with the Jewish community even while their theology differed.