Christianity and Judaism Christianity traces its origins back to a traveling Jewish teacher who was put to death in Jerusalem during the administration of Pontius Pilate. In Hebrew his name was Yeshua, but he is also known by the Greek form of his name, Jesus. Today, Jesus is part of a Christian belief and history, but Jesus saw himself as a Jew and spent life life living among other Jews in Galilee and Judea deriving his teachings and behavior based on earlier Jewish tradition. Although Jesus is the one of the first century’s most famous Jew, Jesus is largely a mystery from a historical point of view (Efron et al. pg. 107). However, there are a few facts that we can rely on with relative certainty such as that Jesus was born between 4BCE and 6CE reportedly hailing from Bethlehem but known as Jesus of Nazareth, a town in Galilee, because that is where his parents were from. …show more content…
Before the first century there was a rise in Judean society of various “philosophies” or sects, which included the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes/Dead sea scrolls sect. Christianity arose as an alternative, competitive understanding of Jewish culture. Christianity arose as a movement, initiated by a Jew and drawing its early followers from the Jewish community (Efron et al. pg. 107). Christianity was easily accepted by these Jews, because in some ways early Christianity had a close resemblance to the Pharisees, in that they were both popular movements organized around teachers and had beliefs such as their shared expectation of a resurrection of the dead. However, in other ways early Christianity also resembled the