Jewish Jesus - How Judaism and Christianity Shaped Each Other

How the rise of Christianity profoundly influenced the development of Judaism in late antiquity

In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. The rise and revolutionary challenge of Christianity also had a profound influence on rabbinic Judaism, which was itself just emerging and, like Christianity, trying to shape its own identity. In The Jewish Jesus, Peter Schäfer reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism. He even shows that some of the ideas that the rabbis appropriated from Christianity were actually reappropriated Jewish ideas. The result is a demonstration of the deep mutual influence between the sister religions, one that calls into question hard and fast distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy, and even Judaism and Christianity, during the first centuries CE.

About the author

Peter Schäfer

Summary

In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. This book reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism.

Additional text

"There have been a number of revelatory books in recent decades on the relations between early Christianity and Judaism, especially on how each influenced the other. This book by Peter Schafer . . . is among them."---Glenn W. Olsen, European Legacy

Product details

• Authors: Peter Schafer, Peter Schäfer
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.02.2014
• EAN: 9780691160955
• ISBN: 978-0-691-16095-5
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Miscellaneous; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; RELIGION / Judaism / General, RELIGION / Christianity / History, RELIGION / Judaism / History, RELIGION / Christianity / General, Christianity, History of Religion, Judaism