Jewish Christianity

Jewish Christians were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Roman Judea during the late Second Temple period, under the Herodian tetrarchy (1st century AD). These Jews believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and they continued their adherence to Jewish law. Jewish Christianity is the historical foundation of Early Christianity, which later developed into Nicene Christianity (which comprises the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant traditions) and other Christian denominations.

Christianity started with Jewish eschatological expectations, and it developed into the worship of Jesus as the result of his earthly ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem, his crucifixion, and the post-resurrection experiences of his followers. Jewish Christians drifted apart from Second Temple Judaism, and their form of Judaism eventually became a minority strand within mainstream Judaism, as it had almost disappeared by the 5th century AD. Jewish–Christian gospels are lost except for fragments, so there is a considerable amount of uncertainty about the scriptures which were used by this group of Christians.

While previous scholarship viewed the First Jewish–Roman War and the destruction of the Second Temple (70 AD) as the main events, more recent scholarship tends to argue that the Bar Kochba revolt (132–136 AD) was the main factor in the separation of Christianity from Judaism. The split was a long-term process, in which the boundaries were not clear-cut.

Early Jewish Christians (i.e., the Jewish followers of Jesus) referred to themselves as followers of "The Way" (ἡ ὁδός: hė hodós), probably coming from John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

According to Acts 11:26, the term Christian (Koine Greek: Χριστιανός) was first used in reference to the disciples of Jesus in the city of Antioch, meaning "followers of Christ", by the non-Jewish inhabitants of Antioch. The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity (Koine Greek: Χριστιανισμός) is attested by the ante-Nicene Father and theologian Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD).

The term Jewish Christian is used in the academic fields of Biblical studies and historiography of early Christianity in order to distinguish the early Christians of Jewish origins from those of Gentile origins, both in discussion of the New Testament church and the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

Christianity arose as a separate movement within the syncretist Hellenistic world of the first century AD, dominated by Roman law and Greek culture. Hellenistic culture had a profound influence on the customs and practices of Jews, both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora. The inroads into Judaism gave rise to Hellenistic Judaism in the Jewish diaspora, which sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism.

Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BC and became a notable religio licita after the Roman conquest of Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Judea, and Egypt, until its decline in the 3rd century parallel to the rise of Gnosticism and Early Christianity.