The Great Betrayal: Christians and Jews in the First Four Centuries

This book is an examination of the transformation of Christianity from a Jewish sect in the first century AD into the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. It attempts to show (1) that Jesus was born a Jew and died one; (2) that Judaism in the first century was not a rigid, legalistic faith; (3) that Jesus had no reason to repudiate it; (4) that he was killed by the Romans (with the help of the Jewish aristocracy); (5) that he appealed to the Jewish masses in the same way and for the same reasons that other messianic figures did in the first century; (6) that his disciples were also Jews who continued to worship in the Temple and make sacrifices there; (7) that the Jews cannot be said to have rejected Jesus, since they were his only supporters for many years after the Crucifixion; (8) that the Jews had little reason to persecute the early Christians since the latter remained observant Jews; (9) that the New Testament was written, in part, to minimize Jesus’ tie to Judaism; (10) that it is was also written partly to exonerate the Romans and to present Christianity as non-threatening to the Roman Empire; (11) that Christianity underwent a radical transformation under the influence of Hellenism after the first century AD; and (12) that Christians began to believe that their faith had superseded Judaism, which had now become irrelevant and expendable.