An impressive international team of scholars examines the formative first five centuries of Christian history as experienced by individuals who were ethnically Jewish but who professed faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

An impressive international team of scholars examines the formative first five centuries of Christian history as experienced by individuals who were ethnically Jewish but professed faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.ContributorsPhilip S. AlexanderRichard BauckhamJames Carleton PagetAnders EkenbergTorleif ElgvinCraig A. EvansDonald A. HagnerGunnar af HällströmSten HidalPeter HirschbergReidar HvalvikWolfram KinzigLawrence LaheyOskar SkarsauneGraham StantonJames F. Strange"The fullest treatment of the evidence and issues concerning early Jewish believers in Jesus. . . . This volume features a galaxy of respected scholars known for their expertise and measured approach. . . . . Those who want serious, in-depth, and patient handling of all the evidence on 'Jewish believers' can find no better one-volume resource than this one."--Larry Hurtado, blog (larryhurtado.wordpress.com)"For a long time, the accepted view on the early Jewish Christian community has been that after the Jewish war against the Romans that ended in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish Christian community became a marginal phenomenon and soon disappeared in the Gentile Christian church. The contributions to the present book on Jewish believers in Jesus result in a fundamental revision of this picture. It shows that more or less close relations between Jewish believers in Jesus Christ and Judaism continued at least into the Constantinian period (4th century) in spite of the endeavors of leaders on both sides to get their view of a fundamental opposition between Judaism and Christianity generally accepted. I consider the accumulated evidence for the revision of this picture very persuasive. It amounts to a strong suggestion that for a long period the disagreements concerning the person of Jesus did not prevent a continuing awareness of the fact that Jewish believers in Jesus and even Christians from the Gentiles could feel they believe in the same God as the Jews did. This view of the relationship should also have an impact on contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue."--Wolfhart Pannenberg, University of Munich"The comprehensiveness and generally high quality of the individual chapters will ensure that for the foreseeable future this volume will be a work of reference for all those who are seriously interested in ancient Jewish Christianity."--Journal of Ecclesiastical History