Jewish Christians

Early Jewish Christianity

Jewish Christians were the original members of the Jewish movement that later became Christianity. In the earliest stage the community was made up of all those Jews who believed that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. As Christianity grew and developed, Jewish Christians became only one strand of the early Christian community, characterised by combining the confession of Jesus as Christ with continued observance of the Torah and adherence to Jewish traditions such as Sabbath observance, Jewish calendar, Jewish laws and customs, circumcision, kosher diet and synagogue attendance, and by a direct kinship ties to the earliest followers of Jesus. Whereas a polemical account relating specifically to Jesus within the Babylonian Talmud (compiled centuries later), claims that Jesus was stoned and then was hung, for he [Jesus] practiced sorcery [Kishuf], incited people to idol worship Maisit, and led the Jewish people astray [Maddia].