The Original Version of Christianity: A Comparative Historical Study

The Original Version of Christianity: A Comparative Historical Study

The term Jewish Christianity refers to the original Christianity—the Christianity of Jesus himself—which represents a continuation of the same religion with which God sent all His messengers: Islam. This term is used here to distinguish the authentic, unaltered teachings of Jesus from the later distortions known as Pauline or Hellenistic Christianity. The latter, shaped by Greco-Roman culture and the influence of Paul of Tarsus, departed significantly from the beliefs and practices of Jesus and his earliest followers. Beginning in the first century CE, shortly after Jesus was raised, Christianity split into two divergent currents. The first was Jewish Christianity , rooted in the teachings of Jesus as understood by his disciples and firmly grounded in Jewish tradition and law. The second was Pauline Christianity , which emerged in the Greco-Roman world and introduced new theological doctrines concerning salvation, divinity, and law—doctrines that were alien to the message Jesus conveyed. This study focuses specifically on Jewish Christianity —its origins, development, and beliefs during the first Christian centuries up to the Council of Nicaea. My goal is to present the reader and student with a comprehensive account of Christian origins and doctrine—a complete narrative that includes both the dominant version and the one history tried to forget.