Overview

A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God’s promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes, history’s last generation. But in history’s eyes, they became the first Christians.   In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of this temple–centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions that animated and sustained it.

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9780300248401

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Reviews

[Fredriksen's] grasp of the material, canonical and extra-canonical, is enviable and she writes with an elegance and clarity which makes this a gripping read. -John Harrod, Methodist Recorder Paula Fredriksen is one of a number of Jewish scholars who have shed new light on the origins of Christianity -Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper A scintillating, original, and brilliantly concise synthesis. -Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography A characteristically lucid, focused and beautifully-written argument. Fredriksen sits the early Christian movement firmly within Judaism, revealing it as radically eschatological, variegated, evolving-and far less critical of ancestral customs and norms than is traditionally imagined. -Joan E. Taylor, author of What Did Jesus Look Like? Engaging, provocative, and admirably lucid, this account of the Jewish origins of earliest Christianity will force readers at all levels to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their views. -Bart D. Ehrman, author of Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Eloquent, informed, and provocative, this book offers a necessary corrective to a number of prevailing views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers. Paula Fredriksen advances the studies of both Judaism and Christianity. -Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi Paula Fredriksen tells with brio the gripping story of the early Jewish followers of Jesus and their expectations of the end. She traces with empathy and scholarly precision their changing perspectives as events unfolded in ways unanticipated. -Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism

[Fredriksen's] grasp of the material, canonical and extra-canonical, is enviable and she writes with an elegance and clarity which makes this a gripping read. -John Harrod, Methodist Recorder Paula Fredriksen is one of a number of Jewish scholars who have shed new light on the origins of Christianity -Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper A scintillating, original, and brilliantly concise synthesis. -Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography A characteristically lucid, focused and beautifully-written argument. Fredriksen sits the early Christian movement firmly within Judaism, revealing it as radically eschatological, variegated, evolving-and far less critical of ancestral customs and norms than is traditionally imagined. -Joan E. Taylor, author of What Did Jesus Look Like? Engaging, provocative, and admirably lucid, this account of the Jewish origins of earliest Christianity will force readers at all levels to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their views. -Bart D. Ehrman, author of Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Eloquent, informed, and provocative, this book offers a necessary corrective to a number of prevailing views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers. Paula Fredriksen advances the studies of both Judaism and Christianity. -Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi Paula Fredriksen tells with brio the gripping story of the early Jewish followers of Jesus and their expectations of the end. She traces with empathy and scholarly precision their changing perspectives as events unfolded in ways unanticipated. -Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism

[Fredriksen's] grasp of the material, canonical and extra-canonical, is enviable and she writes with an elegance and clarity which makes this a gripping read. -John Harrod, Methodist Recorder Paula Fredriksen is one of a number of Jewish scholars who have shed new light on the origins of Christianity -Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper Paula Fredriksen has given us a wonderful introduction to the first generation of the Jewish movement that later came to be known as Christianity -Mark D. Nanos, The Journal of Theological Studies A scintillating, original, and brilliantly concise synthesis. -Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography A characteristically lucid, focused and beautifully-written argument. Fredriksen sits the early Christian movement firmly within Judaism, revealing it as radically eschatological, variegated, evolving-and far less critical of ancestral customs and norms than is traditionally imagined. -Joan E. Taylor, author of What Did Jesus Look Like? Engaging, provocative, and admirably lucid, this account of the Jewish origins of earliest Christianity will force readers at all levels to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their views. -Bart D. Ehrman, author of Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Eloquent, informed, and provocative, this book offers a necessary corrective to a number of prevailing views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers. Paula Fredriksen advances the studies of both Judaism and Christianity. -Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi Paula Fredriksen tells with brio the gripping story of the early Jewish followers of Jesus and their expectations of the end. She traces with empathy and scholarly precision their changing perspectives as events unfolded in ways unanticipated. -Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism

[Paula Fredriksen's] grasp of the material, canonical and extra-canonical, is enviable and she writes with an elegance and clarity which makes this a gripping read. -John Harrod, Methodist Recorder Paula Fredriksen is one of a number of Jewish scholars who have shed new light on the origins of Christianity -Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper A scintillating, original, and brilliantly concise synthesis. -Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography A characteristically lucid, focused and beautifully-written argument. Fredriksen sits the early Christian movement firmly within Judaism, revealing it as radically eschatological, variegated, evolving - and far less critical of ancestral customs and norms than is traditionally imagined. -Joan E. Taylor, author of What Did Jesus Look Like? Engaging, provocative, and admirably lucid, this account of the Jewish origins of earliest Christianity will force readers at all levels to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their views. -Bart D. Ehrman, author of Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Eloquent, informed, and provocative, this book offers a necessary corrective to a number of prevailing views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers. Paula Fredriksen advances the studies of both Judaism and Christianity. -Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi Paula Fredriksen tells with brio the gripping story of the early Jewish followers of Jesus and their expectations of the end. She traces with empathy and scholarly precision their changing perspectives as events unfolded in ways unanticipated. -Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism

[Fredriksen's] grasp of the material, canonical and extra-canonical, is enviable and she writes with an elegance and clarity which makes this a gripping read. -John Harrod, Methodist Recorder Paula Fredriksen is one of a number of Jewish scholars who have shed new light on the origins of Christianity -Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper A scintillating, original, and brilliantly concise synthesis. -Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography A characteristically lucid, focused and beautifully-written argument. Fredriksen sits the early Christian movement firmly within Judaism, revealing it as radically eschatological, variegated, evolving-and far less critical of ancestral customs and norms than is traditionally imagined. -Joan E. Taylor, author of What Did Jesus Look Like? Engaging, provocative, and admirably lucid, this account of the Jewish origins of earliest Christianity will force readers at all levels to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their views. -Bart D. Ehrman, author of Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Eloquent, informed, and provocative, this book offers a necessary corrective to a number of prevailing views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel writers. Paula Fredriksen advances the studies of both Judaism and Christianity. -Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi Paula Fredriksen tells with brio the gripping story of the early Jewish followers of Jesus and their expectations of the end. She traces with empathy and scholarly precision their changing perspectives as events unfolded in ways unanticipated. -Martin Goodman, author of A History of Judaism

Author Information

Paula Fredriksen, Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University, is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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