It's easy to read the New Testament and come away thinking that Jesus and his disciples were in opposition to "the Jews." But the first followers of Jesus were all fellow Jews and the early Jesus movement was very much a Jewish movement. Would the first generation of "Christians" have thought of themselves as anything other than Jewish? Our guest Paula Fredriksen says absolutely not. 

According to Paula, there was plenty of room in the 1st Century for competing Jewish sects—including the Jesus movement—all arguing over the right way to be Jewish.  (The fact that they were arguing, jokes Paula, is proof enough of their Jewishness.)

Check out Paula's excellent book, When Christians Were Jews: the First Generation. 

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.