Acknowledging the Jewishness of Jesus
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Barrie Wilson presents a thoroughly readable account of how, after the death on the cross, two entirely separate movements evolved; these were the Jewish followers, led by James and the hugely successful, mainly Gentile religion created by Paul. He contends that Paul succeeded because he eliminated the need for Torah observance, and thereby extended his movement's appeal as far as Rome itself. More controversially, he argues that Paul and his successors stripped Jesus of his Jewish identity, and that a strong anti-Semitic undercurrent in "proto-orthodox" Christianity developed as a result. This book is well-written, well-researched, and compelling. I commend it to anybody willing to subject their own beliefs to open-minded scrutiny. You may not find it a comfortable experience, but it will be thought-provoking.
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A better recovery of Jesus' Jewish message
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Like many of us, Barrie Wilson wants to know "How did the Jewish Jesus of history become the Gentile Christ of faith? How did early Christianity become a separate religion from Judaism? What really accounts for Christian anti-Semitism?" He seeks answers partly by comparing different accounts within the scriptures -- Paul's own accounts compared with Luke's version of the same events in Acts, or Jesus' teaching about the Jewish law compared to Paul's. The results are fascinating, and come close to demolishing any justification for a wall between Christianity and Jesus' own Jewish faith.
Where Jesus pushed the spirit of the Torah beyond external deeds to deal with the inner conflicts behind deeds, later Christians presented Christ as invalidating the Old Testament law. Where Jesus urged "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 5:19), Paul, with his independent revelation argued that the entire law of Moses was needless. Since Abraham had faith before the law appeared, everything which happened since (until Jesus) was irrelevant. Now, Paul claimed, anyone who continued to observe the Jewish law was "under a curse", and "No one will be justified by the works of the law" (Gal. 2:16). At least, as Wilson points out, Paul did not try to cite Jesus himself as the source of this teaching.
The book holds much more, but let me quote one among several conclusions: "What we have today in Christianity is largely Paulinity, a religion about the Gentile Christ that covers over the message of the Jewish Jesus of history. Second, it involved a hostile differentiation, with scathing attacks by the Proto-Orthodox on anything Jewish. Third, the cover up resulted in the entrenchment of anti-Semitism, directed against Judaism and the Jewish people" (p. 255)
In looking over Wilson's research, there's just one factor I'd like to add in explaining the hostile division of Gentile Christianity from Jesus' Jewish faith. That is the factor of war. Where Jewish nationalists rose in revolt against Roman colonial rule (twice, in the 70s and 130s AD), Gentile converts sought to prove their loyalty to Rome by distancing themselves from the rebels. While Rome crucified the Jewish nation, many Gentile Christians tried to deny they ever knew the accused.
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Deserves an open mind
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'How Jesus Became Christian', is a well-constructed and thorough addition the `Who was Jesus?' debate.
Painting a picture of the cultural forces in play, Barrie Wilson offers the reader insight into Jesus' fundamental Jewishness, void of all the deity that was eventually to be ascribed to him.
He then goes on to suggest that Paul of Tarsus hijacked the idea of a risen Messiah to create a new religion of the Christ that would prove appealing to his non-Jewish audience.
Central to his argument is the idea that the book of Acts is a fabrication constructed to tie Jesus and Paul's Christ together. All of which is plausible depending on where your mindset is before you start reading.
Of course books like this do not consider the 'where was G-d in all this?' angle and it is possible for the reader to be left feeling that Christianity was simply a mistake of history, Paul being the better-equipped contestant in a multi-way battle.
Overall an important addition to the discussion and one that deserves an open mind as well as little bit of healthy retaliation.
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