There's a running joke in my family regarding this. My great-grandmother and my mother got in an argument about Jesus being Jewish. The final word was when my great-grandmother shouted, "Jesus may have been Jewish, but the Blessed Virgin Mary was Catholic!!!"

So early "Christians" were just Jews for Jesus.

This is like pinpointing where rock became heavy metal-impossible.

Really fascinating. As a Pastor viewing this while leading my people through Luke/Acts, it gave me a new insight. Thank you!

I am an atheist but I am binge watching your videos....

I love your videos, but I always try not to scroll down to the comments. I can't imagine how difficult it is to discuss religious topics professionally with a scholarly outlook because it is such a personal thing for most people, and they tend to shut off and not actually listen to you when they think you may say something that won't like.

Love your brief but compact talks, so thought provoking.

I'd also add that a lot of the early Christian sects you talk about wouldn't be (easily) recognised by modern Christians as fellow Christians.

This channel is absolutely fantastic, great to hear from someone who clearly knows his shit, far too rare :)

After the destruction of the 2nd Temple, Pharisee Judaism became what is today Rabbinical Orthodox Judaism. As apart of how they defined Judaism, they rejected what they considered as heretical or "minim." Undoubtly, Jewish Christianity was considered as being among the "minim."

I think the important thing to remember about the early history of Christianity is that many of Jesus' followers largely came from among the more Hellenized Jews rather than the more orthodox and that this was the source of a lot of the controversy surrounding Jesus during his life. He was drawing on a population that was moving towards certain popular aspects of Greco-Roman religion and away from more traditional Jewish beliefs. This is what later made it very attractive to disaffected Greeks and Romans as the early Christians spread throughout the empire.

The ethnic component of Jewish identity is relevant as well

Dude, I've fallen in love with your channel. I've been learning a lot through these videos, it's really helping me writing my masters thesis. I want to commend you for your effort in making good quality content, on a website where facts, reasoning, don't seem to be the main point. I bet you get a ton of Hate for having a scholar prespective, and I imagine you get constantly bombarded with comments like "SO YOU THINK JESUS WAS FAKE?" or " HAHA! Told you religion was a lie!". Anyway, if you ever see this, just remember that I feel your struggle and I know it must be hard on you. But please, keep making these videos, there's also a lot of people like me who genuinely just want to learn more about history and religion! Congrats, keep it up!

I don’t believe in God, but I’m still fascinated by the history of human beliefs, and your channel is a goldmine for that. Concise and instructive!

great job handling such a complex topic!

From today I start to watch your works. Concised, filterex and vital. So I feel cool when watching yours.

"How odd of god/ to choose the Jews... but not so odd/ as those who choose/ A Jewish god/ Yet spurn the Jews." William Norman Emer (1885 - 1977)

I love your videos will you be doing some on how Europe became Christian? I’ve read some historical items on it and its interesting how long it took till it was fully complete and how it was not exactly a kind gentle assimilation

What a super informative channel. So glad I saw this. You education is stellar on this topic!

The Bar Kokhba Revolution of 135 ca played a big role in parting ways between the two groups. From that moment on, the Jewish element in the Church was progressively suppressed and an anti-Judaic sentiment prevailed among the Christians. The Hebrew calendar was banned, the Hebrew feasts forbidden, and the Christian customs were slowly being made autonomous from their Jewish sources. The synagogues all over the Empire became very conservative and closed to Christian preachers. This process culminated in 193 CE when pope Victor tried to detach the Christian from the Jewish Passover, although not successfully. However, these changes marked a decisive moment in which a new, non-Jewish identity of the Christian Church started to develop.

Thanks for the subtitle when you said "lugaks" because that's all I heard.

Absolutely love the videos!! I am a Non Practicing catholic.. but very strong belief in Jesus as My Lord and Savior.. I started seriously researching his history and in turn history of religion .. your videos are perfect and love how you give additional research material

Wow, why was i not taught this in Sunday school!!!

I Am Hindu, Its always Interesting for me to learn About other Religions 🙏

Just found your channel. Very interesting stuff, so very well put together. I'm an athiest, but I'm inclined to learn something new about anything. I like to think of this as more the culture and history of someone or some thing more than just a religious standpoint. Your videos are well informed, and are very entertaining. Thank you for the great content!

You have to remember that similar confusion was going on within the Jewish community as well after the destruction of Jerusalem. What did it mean to be 'Jewish' without the Temple and without a country to call their own.

Isn't this basically the same question as saying when did Heavy Metal seperate from hard rock? As with most social transitions there was a period where there was a blend of the two before splitting legitimately.

@ReligionForBreakfast if you ever consider writing a book, I think this would be an excellent topic! There is a lot of interest in "Early Christianity" and "The Historical Jesus" from readers with a wide variety of backgrounds. I've read a lot of them, but I've never seen this angle in a book aimed at non-experts. I've been reading Boyarin's book, and, honestly, I don't think I would be following his points if I hadn't been introduced to it by this video. I am always learning about interesting subjects, but it is a rare peak experience when something opens up a whole new perspective for me. This video is one of those experiences, thank you!

One man's heresy is another man's orthodoxy.

Its wild. As a Christian, we could all just be a jewish sect. Oi veh!

Good job, as usual, although there is the big question of non-Jews increasingly converting to Christianity, which, I daresay was the decisive factor: the ethnic dilution is already observable in Paul's letters and it couldn't but grow the two religious strains apart.

Agnostic but raised Catholic and I'm loving your content. My dad studied theology so I've always wanted to learn more of what he talks about

I love this concept of how religion is very delicate and when talking about Christianity and Jewedisum (belief over practice) is very compelling but the one thing that isn't clarifying identity is the origin of nationality and what defines or is unique to that nationality and culture. For example, we talk about Jews and the unique customs and rituals that make that group of people unique, but then you compose those rituals and customs onto those who don't identify themselves as Jewish, which is what Christianity has done to most of the known world.

I ended up not pursuing a degree in ancient history but my working theory at the time was that non-Christian Jews would have regarded Christians as different from Jews (which they would have defined more exclusively) much earlier than Romans would have distinguished them for a variety of reasons. To use an analogy, Catholics and Protestants at one point in the Reformation supposedly denied the others were really Christians (whether that's historically correct or not does not matter) yet if so non-Christians would simply have seen them both as Christians.

The history of things like this is always very gradual and layered, never cut and dry.

The official parting happened at the council of Nicaea in 325AD

You can see the beginnings of the separation within Paul's writings. There were those God Fearers that Paul addresses and grabs hold of that are intrigued by Sunday worship (2 Corinthians 9), having no forbidden foods (Romans 14), no castration - Galations (uhhmm... circumcision) etc. You can see some historical evidence in Suetonius as he records a disruption in Rome in 49AD because of a "Chrestus" (Acts 18?). The Jewish Synod of Jamnia expels "Christians" in 85AD. There's even some tiny evidence in the Pastoral Epistles of the beginnings of Gnostics. Most of these things take place in the first century. In summary there was probably never a one time email or communique that went out over the wire. It was one synagogue at a time that were getting fed up with these Gentile Jewish people. It was each house/business church set up by Gentiles that had no real connection with Jewish people. to be more visibly different groups. However, as mentioned in the above video, there was never a time where all of the groups acted cohesively in separating. Lastly, remember, there was the destruction of Jerusalem around 70AD (typing this without notes). This scattered many Jewish people and broke up communities. Aside from Nero's persecution (argued by some) most Roman or Roman province Gentile Christians began to thrive unimpeded. Many suggest that by the first decade of the so-called second century, those that were Gentile Christians easily outnumbered those that still identified themselves as Jewish as they had no Jerusalem or synagogues to attend.

This gets even more odd when The birth of Islam takes place. Even Islam itself has ideas from different and obscure Judeo-Christian texts in the Quran. The biographies of the Prophet came 100-200 years after his passing. Without these writings, the Quran is VERY vague. Some writers described Islam as a very Jewish Christianity. Others claim it evolved from Syriac Christianity. The ideas of Islam are very similar to Ebionites where they did not see Jesus as God. It is indeed hard to precise where the official separation happened.

I think it is important to note the Council at Yavneh where Jewish Leaders reject Jesus as the Messiah in 90 AD, the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the thought and teachings of early church fathers of the Rejection of the Jews because the temple was destroyed and Jews Banished from Jerusalem in 135? AD, and Constantine. I agree there was no one point but a gradual process. I also appriciate you pointing out how early Christians were closer to Judaism. Also in the Book of Acts it states that believers were first called Christians in Antioch, not in Israel.

Love watching your videos, especially the ones you do on Christianity

There are good Christian and Jewish people 💯

You don't mention the three Jewish wars which were major events in the life of the Roman Empire. The Great Jewish War which ended in 70 with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, then there was the Jewish rebellion centered around Cyrene in what's now Libya and elsewhere outside of Israel around 113 - 115 and was evidently very boody - the city of Cyrene never recovered from this uprising. Finally there was the Bar Kochba Revolt of 132 to 135 which required major Roman forces to defeat it. Jews were seen by many in the Roman Empire as enemies, many Christians (those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah or part of G-d of either Jewish or Gentile background) wanted to distance themselves from the pesky Jews. I was surprised you made no mention of Pella, still it was an interesting video.

I am also an atheist but your content is fascinating and I’m hooked. Thanks.

I think the parting away from Judaism happened in the book of acts.When circumcision was not binding on a non jew who became a believer in the teachings of jesus.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="398">6:38</a> I love it

I wonder if middle-eastern Christians today have Jewish ancestors. My family are Iraqi Christians.

The single most important thing to remember is that the Greek word for *Christ* is just a translation of the Hebrew word for *Messiah.* Thus "Jesus Christ" is the Greek way of saying the Hebrew for "Joshua-the-Messiah". Note that the real name of Jesus was always the Hebrew name *Joshua,* and the name Jesus we have today is just a mistranslation of the original name of Joshua. So the Greek "Christ" can refer to any Messiah at all, not just Joshua, and the Romans dealt brutally with several Jewish Messiah cults - or Christ cults - in the first and second centuries. The most important besides Joshua-the-Messiah was Simon bar Kochba-the-Messiah, which in the Greek language would be Simon-Christ, and his second-century followers would be "Christians" in the Greek language just as much as followers of the Joshua of the previous century were "Christians" too. From the point of view of the Greek speaking Romans there was no important distinction between any specific Jewish Messiah claimant, and they would be unlikely to have the inclination to care - they were all just Jews following one of their various Messiahs to a Roman soldier. During the Roman supression of Simon-the-Messiah in the second-century, the Romans became so anti-Jewish that it was virtually certain that they were killing followers of both Joshua-the-Messiah (aka Jesus-Christ followers) as well as followers of Simon-the-Messiah (Simon-Christ followers). After that second century bloodbath, the followers of Joshua were very motivated to distance themselves from the Jews who had followed other Messiah claimants by downplaying their Jewishness. This is likely the fundamental reason why modern Christians use Sunday as their main day of worship instead of Saturday - instead of the _actual_ Sabbath as required in their holy text. (The commandment to _keep the Sabbath holy_ has lost its original meaning to most modern Christians, often being reinterpreted as the next day, Sunday, instead.) By no longer following the Jewish practice of keeping the Sabbath holy according to their holy texts, they could forge a new identity for their particular Messiah worship - the worship of Joshua/Jesus - that had less and less to do with the original Jewish Messiah concept. Over the centuries following the Roman supression of Simon-Christ, the Jesus-Christ movement carved for itself a new Roman identity that wasn't explicitly at odds with the Roman Empire like the Jews were known to be. The end result of that new identity was the early Roman Catholic Church, which had an explicit hartred for Jews, plus it had also elevated their own Messiah Joshua to the status of a god. Elevating Joshua, better known as Jesus, to the status of a god actually followed the Roman practice of the elevation of real historical figures to the status of a god - for example Julius Caesar was elevated to a god by the Romans as well. Of course since Judaism was monotheistic the elevation of Jesus to a god caused a lot of strife within the new "Christian" religion, since it required its followers to believe that Jesus was his own father! But that's a whole other story ... 😂😂😂

After the destruction of the temple

I think they parted ways when god say “I am unchanging” and “put no gods before me.” Then Jesus came along and said, “god has changed, the only way to him is through me.”

I love this topic. But my view is that it almost doesn’t matter. The specifics of what people believe and practice is far more important than what label they fall under. Changing their label doesn’t change their beliefs. And the beliefs are what I care about most

I learned Christian history, and I see this cute guy, Oh god.

So when, certainly before Constantine

This is a real question and not a veiled criticism. Why do you choose to use CE/BCE instead of BC/AD? Assume because CE/BCE is more all inclusive but just thought I'd ask. Great channel!

would you agree that a theological split began sometime during or after the destruction of the second temple. Christians starting to distance themselves from Jews and aligning themselves with the Romans more. John's Gospel paints the Jews as the Killers of Christ and that Pilot was not a bad guy. I think that shows the shift in identity and seperation. thoughts ?

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="250">4:10</a> In modern parlance he is what we would call a "Messianic Jew" A sect of Judaism which isnt part of Judaism. Wild stuff I know.

That just sounds like Judaism with extra steps!

I would guess that the important partition occurred when Rome acknowledged Christianity and spread it throughout the empire. This led to European "Christendom" which diverges much more from the Hebrew faith than do other, older, Christian groups, i.e. Ethiopian Christians, Coptic Christians, etc. Just my guess, I'm not a professional religious scholar.

Andrew Mark Henry, you seem to present the 'parting' of Judaism and Christianity from a strictly Christian perspective. What about the Jewish view of Christians, especially in light of the Council of Jamnia in 74 CE (or 85 CE per another commenter) in which assembled rabbis declared that followers of Jesus could not legally be called Jews (especially for the purpose of obtaining the Roman legal exemption granted to followers of Jewish religion)? Thanks for any info that you can provide.

Messianic Jews remain and remained Jewish with their synagogue and their celebrations and everything else that you was do they just believe that Jesus is the messiah. That's the only change and it's a change in mind and heart the rest of their life is Jewish.

The Talmud officially denouncing Jesus was probably a turning point. Not sure when that was added though.

Yes hello very nice video but I have one question. The author of the Gospel of John already seems to partake in this partitioning, since he talks about "the Jews" instead of "the Pharisees". There is tension between Jesus and "the Jews", which implies that the author saw Jesus as something other than a Jew. Shouldn't this be mentioned, and could you clarify on it?

Well it seems according to the account of the gospels of the Bible, the first Christians were in fact the messianic Jews, those among the Hebrews who keep the old laws and accept Jesus as the Messiah. So the man of the hypothetical Antioch was mostly a messianic Jew. The question is more rooted toward the practice and belief of the Gentiles and the Hebrews.

I really appreciate the respectful and unbiased nature of this video, I’m not sure how you as the creator of the video feel about religion but your maturity and clarity made this a really enjoyable video that has a lot of valuable information to offer.

Peace and blessings to you for this. You are helping me so much with this paper.

I do appreciate your dedication to your channel, so please take my comments as they are intended. Opening of the bag with yet more doubts. In the title of this film you assume that the religion from which Christianity supposedly branched is the same religion that we call Judaism now. I am sure that you are fully aware that it is not. And as much as Christianity is removed for The Old Testament Mosaic believes, the current Rabbinic Judaism is not much closer to the religion of Isaac and Abraham and David. When you quote Ignatius you quote a person who sees roughly speaking two groups evolving in to independence form the old paradigm. So if you are asking about the splitting from Old Mosaic religion than Christianity parted with it either when it assumed that YHWH is all-loving or never. If you asking about splitting from Rabbinic Judaism, than the answer is - it never been part of it. As Rabbinic Judaism as a core tenet has belief expressed in Toldoth Yeshu - Jesus is not The Messiah. On the other hand you willy-nilly jump from an ethnic denomination to a religious one. In times of Socrates there where atheists although they observed all the religious rites and ceremonies of Greek-Athenian society. They were Greek but they weren't. You can not equate social and ethnic roots with religious belief. this is similar question to: When Mormons parted their way with Catholicism. but anyway. i like listening to you podcasts. thank you

Paul invented modern christianity.

I've been looking for this. Thanks❤

Very informative and thought provoking. And the poster of Tatooine did not escape me!

I find this explanation rather unconvincing. Take Paul for instance. He recognized himself as persecutor of those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, suggesting very strongly that mainstream Judaism (at least its Pharisaic sect) understood early christians to be something very distinct. It wouldn't be terribly out of place to imagine that a similar dynamic would play out if someone within judaism declared himself the messiah today. His acclaim would not be universal and pretty soon lines would be drawn around those who accept this individual as the messiah and those who do not. Indeed, the orthodox-judaizers (for lack of better distinction) debate is something that played itself within the early church for a long time, and if we read Ignatius (or perhaps even Chrysostom) along these lines we have a clearer picture of what was going on. The split between Judaism and Christianity may have happened very early (Paul in his roman letters already seems to recognize a difference) in history, but the internal dialogues between the different groups within early Christianity as to the role of judaic rites and practices within this new religion may indeed have taken much longer to become clear.

The parting really happened with Paul who changed the actual story of the Jesus political movement advanced by Peter and the Jesus followers to a story that would be received much better in the gentile communities who were adherents of various mystery religions around the Mediterranean. He basically changed the Messiah (political) story of events into a religious story and so Christianity was invented.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! 💛

so interesting, thanks for making these!

Ebionites rejected Paul epistles for considering them as Apostasy, while Marcion followers rejected the Hebrew Bible and base their faith almost in Paul epistles hahaha Lol.

You could say they were Jew-ish.

I love your posts. You fill in so many blanks in regard to religious history... Please address when Christians change their sabbath to Sunday from Saturday.

excellent exposition of logical, practical reality. The fundamental principle of the distinction of belief vs practice is new to me, and obvious once one thinks about it.

My suggestion is that Christianity is how Jews understood Buddhism. Jesus' parables & saying are very similar to Buddhist philosophy than Judaism (if you take out St. Paul's writings). It is pity that almost all Christian scholar don't have in-depth knowledge of Buddhist philosophy. If they do, they would easily decode what Jesus trying to say throughout his life. Lots of western scholars do not understand that Indian philosophical ideas were reaching middle-east along trade routes from 5th century BC.

Christians did not leave Judaism. And look to other horizons. It's not just Europe and the Americas. Christianity is a faith. Not an ethnicity or race.

Well done and explained. Thank you

The man is brilliant. No bs, no padding, just the info

Officially, when Christ died on the cross. Demonstrably, when the temple was destroyed. God broke down the wall between Jew and Gentile creating a new man, sanctified and justified through Christ.

Mathew <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="605">10:5</a>-6 then Paulianity was invented . JC usurped by Paul.

Thank you for your clear and concise explanation.

Great content!! God bless you

This analysis keeps failing to distinguish Jewish nationality from Jewish religion. Christ and the people who followed Him were nationally and culturally Jewish. Christ said "okay, the law of Moses is now fulfilled by my coming. I'm here to establish the higher law." (Phase 2, if you will.) "For example, no more sacrificing the unblemished lamb. That was symbolic of my coming and sacrifice. I'M the unblemished lamb now." Those who followed him were Jewish in a national and cultural sense, but religiously they were the first and purest Christians. From there it took off but got twisted around into all flavors of modern Christianity. Jews and Christians have always had more in common than not.

Christianity from Judaism

i enjoyed your discussion here. i was very pleased with your honesty here and your fairness. i have listened to a few Jewish and Gentile attempts at this topic and most of them are full of error in my view.

Ifs fun going back and watching these early episodes.

They separated the moment the Jewish people refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah.

When did the Jews depart from the scriptures? When did the believers in Messiah depart from the scriptures? Those are the real questions. The terms Judaism and Christianity are misleading because they are the created religions of men, so what does it matter when they departed ways. What matters is when did they depart from the truth, the righteousness of Yahweh!

Love your channel

There are few things in history that are so neat and simple. Especially when talking about beliefs and culture!

Shorter answer: When the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

Judaism and Christianity parted ways when the Jews apostatized from the truth and rejected the prophets this happened before Christ's ministry. Those who repented and followed Christ and his Apostles were in the true faith those who did not remained in apostasy.

Wow, thank You. Much needed video. Glory to YAH!!!

Since Mary Magdalene was the first one that Jesus chose to appear to after his resurrection, Mary was the first Christian ever. And this always blows my mind: from the time that she got her orders until the time that they saw Him, she was the ONLY Christian on earth.

Great video. Very insightful. I’ll keep watching! Just too PC the CE numbering years erroneously the rest súper just thought that it’s better to use 100% of a calendar instead of just the numbers. PC

Very interesting and informative

I would say when Paul retconned the faith with his letters to the Churches so that everyone could take part in their god, instead of just the Hebrews. Jesus even said he only came for Israel. Paul pretty much double talked his way around it and made special pleadings so the Church could grow.

Interesting and makes sense. My understanding would be then that the further the Christianity got, the more top-down views of Church'es Fathers became pronounced, thus making this partitioning more pronounced.