How Did Early Messianic Faith Separate from Judaism?
Jesus (Yeshua) was Jewish. The disciples were Jewish. And all of the earliest believers in Jesus were Jewish. So what happened? Why does the faith of those who profess a belief in Jesus no longer look Jewish?
This article isn’t going to be exhaustive, but will hopefully provide a primer in the development of the Christian church as a separate entity from Judaism. We will see how the early Jesus-following sect of Judaism gradually separated from its Jewish roots due to a combination of theological, social, and political factors over the first few centuries CE. Our hope in writing this is that it would help those who have a Christian faith to understand that their faith was actually originally a form of Judaism.
The Earliest Messianic/Christian Community (pre-70 CE)
We know that Jesus and His disciples were all Jewish. At Pentecost, there were thousands of Jewish people who received the Holy Spirit and began following Jesus. For many years, the only people receiving the Good News were Jewish because that is who the disciples were around. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He told His followers, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) His first priority was Jews, then Samaritans (who had some amount of Jewish heritage), and then Gentiles. His disciples followed that order.
When the Apostle Paul entered the scene, he also went first to the Jewish people in every town he entered (we see him always going to the synagogue first when it’s available), but he felt a special calling to the Gentiles that we didn’t see in any of the apostles who were operating before him. Many Gentiles began coming to faith in Yeshua and attending local synagogues to learn how to live in a way that honored the true God. Eventually, the apostles met at the Jerusalem Council to decide how to integrate these Gentile believers. They decided on four immediate obligations – “Therefore, I judge not to trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God—but to write to them to abstain from the contamination of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has had in every city those who proclaim him, since he is read in all the synagogues every Shabbat.” (Acts 15:19-21) They needed to be sure that the Gentiles were avoiding the things that would make fellowship impossible, but didn’t want to make things too difficult for them. Taking note of that last sentence, there was an understanding that the new Gentile believers were attending synagogue to learn how to apply the Torah to their lives as they grew in their faith.
**Historian E.P. Sanders (1993) confirms that the early movement was deeply embedded in Jewish traditions (Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE – 66 CE). It was not a separate religion but a Jewish sect that believed Jesus was the Messiah.**
The Destruction of the Temple & Flight to Pella (70 CE)
One of the most defining moments for first century Judaism as well as the newly-developing Messianic community was the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Without the center of their worship, the Jewish faith had to find a new way to honor God’s commandments and maintain their religious and ethnic identity. This is when they began restructuring their worship around the oral traditions (some of which were things that Yeshua gave the Pharisees a hard time about) and the local synagogues.
In the years leading up to Jerusalem’s destruction, a large percentage of the Jewish Jesus-followers fled to a city across the Jordan River called Pella. They did so after receiving what they believed to be a divine warning. Safer in Pella, they now became increasingly disconnected from greater Judaism.
Growing Tensions with Rabbinic Judaism & the Rise of Gentiles (~80-200 CE)
Jewish authorities of the time continued to reject Yeshua as the Messiah, which added to the long-term tension between the groups. In addition, the inclusion of Gentiles to the Messianic community caused distrust and a lack of understanding between the Judaisms. As Rabbinic Judaism developed to be the only lasting form of Judaism (the Zealots, Essenes, Sadducees, and others all dissolved), Jewish Jesus-followers were often marginalized and seen as outsiders.
By the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, many of the key leaders of the Yeshua movement were Gentiles. This is when the split really began taking hold. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110 CE) taught that Christians should not observe Jewish practices, marking a departure from the original Torah-observant and Jewish-centric movement. “It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism” (Letter to the Magnesians, 9). Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD) declared that Christians were the “true Israel” (Dialogue with Trypho, 11). And Marcion (mid-2nd century) went further, rejecting the Hebrew Bible entirely, seeing the God of Israel as different from the God of Jesus. Although Marcion’s views were declared heretical, his anti-Jewish theology influenced the separation of the movement from Judaism.
In the years 132-135 CE, a Jewish leader named Simon bar Kokhba tried to overthrow Rome and restore Jewish independence. The head rabbi of the time, Rabbi Akiva, declared Bar Kokhba to be the Messiah, but Jesus-followers could not support this claim. As a result, Jewish believers in Jesus were seen as traitors by their fellow Jews (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.6.3). And then after Rome crushed the rebellion, Emperor Hadrian banned Jewish practices, making it even harder for Jesus-followers to remain part of Jewish life.
The Council of Nicaea (325 CE) & Institutionalized Christianity
In the 4th century, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan (313 CE), and then later, in an attempt to bring strength and unity to his government, sought to standardize its doctrines. He eventually forbid Christians from practicing Jewish customs.
Then at the first Council of Nicaea (325 CE) and later councils, Christianity became increasingly Gentile-dominated and anti-Jewish in tone. The most blatant example of this was their refusal to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection in conjunction with Passover (even though that’s when it took place). This was promoted by Constantine: “It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin… We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way… Let us then have nothing in common with that most hostile people the Jews.” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18.2–3)
As a result of these councils, groups like the Nazarenes and Ebionites, who kept Torah and Jewish customs, were increasingly persecuted or pushed out. And believers were eventually banned from observing the seventh-day Sabbath or Jewish festivals, with severe punishments for those who did. The Nazarenes and Ebionites continued for a few centuries but were labeled as heretics by both Rabbinic Judaism and the growing institutional Church. By the 5th century, Jewish believers in Jesus had almost completely disappeared as a distinct group. The Church solidified its separation from Judaism, enforcing doctrinal differences and discouraging Jewish practices among believers.
Conclusion
The early Jesus movement began as a sect within Judaism but, due to a combination of Gentile inclusion, theological shifts, Roman persecution, Rabbinic opposition, and political events, it transformed into a separate, predominantly Gentile religion by the 4th century. While some Torah-observant groups persisted for a time, the majority of Jewish Jesus-followers either assimilated into Rabbinic Judaism or the emerging Gentile Christian Church. What does this mean for us today? Well, for some of us, it means we are desiring to return back to what Jesus-faith was originally. We are looking for a faith that is fully rooted in Jesus, and yet also rooted in the ancient practices of the only religion designed by God. This is the heart of what Messianic Judaism is trying to accomplish.
Resources for further study:
New Testament References: Acts 2:46, Acts 3:1, Acts 15, John 9:22.
Jewish Historical Sources: Birkat HaMinim (Talmud, Berakhot 28b).
Church Fathers: Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Magnesians), Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho), Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History).
Historians: E.P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63 BCE – 66 CE (1993). James D.G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways (2006). J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (1978). Shaye J.D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (2006). James Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue (1934).
