The discovery and publication of an unprovenanced Hebrew document, purportedly from the 1st century BCE and written on stone, has generated some interesting comments about the origins of Christianity and its relationship to Judaism. I'll write more on this in future but in the interim, I'd like to draw attention to one writer in particular.
James Carroll, writing in the Boston Globe, concludes his article on the 'Gabriel Revelation' with the following comment:
That Christianity defined itself as the polar opposite of Judaism was an accident of history, with lethal consequences. The two religions are and will remain distinct, but it is urgently important that Christians, especially, correct the mistake that saw Jesus in radical opposition to his own people. He remained a devoted Jew to the end, and his first followers understood him, after his death, in fully Jewish terms. If Christians had continued to do so, the tradition of anti-Judaism, which spawned anti-Semitism, would not have developed.
James has summed up the situation appropriately, although we should always appreciate that anti-Semitism predates the time of Jesus Christ.
In the first four centuries of the Christian era, the face of Christianity slowly changed as the church sought to create for itself an identity separate from its Jewish roots. The implications of this metamorphosis are profound.
