When Did Christianity and Judaism Separate?

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Today we are going to talk about one of the greatest divides, if not the greatest divide that’s ever happened in the church. Now when I say that, many people think, oh, we’re talking about the Protestant Reformation, Catholic and the Protestants, or maybe about all of the divisions that have happened within the Protestant church leading to many denominations. But I believe the greatest divide that’s ever happened in the church happened in the first couple centuries, and that was the divide between what we call Christianity and Judaism. If you talk about those two today, people say Christianity and Judaism are entirely different religions. Really? Why do you say that? Well, because Christians believe in Jesus and Jews don’t. Well, Jews don’t believe in Jesus. That’s interesting. What about the early disciples? They were all Jewish. What about the early church? It was predominantly Jewish. So can we really say that Jews don’t believe in Jesus? I know today we separate those two as different religions, but that wasn’t always the case. So today we’re going to talk about the divide of Christianity and Judaism because the greatest divide in the church happened in the early centuries.

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We’re here today standing in an ancient synagogue in a place called Susya, and this is potentially a Messianic synagogue, maybe even the first Messianic synagogue. Now, we don’t know this for sure. It’s definitely a Jewish village. It’s definitely a Jewish synagogue. There’s a bima, there’s the menorah, but there’s also some interesting things about this synagogue that are different than every other Jewish synagogue. For example, the door being a rolling stone, the same kind of stone that is famous for being rolled away at the tomb of Jesus. There are two inscriptions in a mosaic on the floor, two inscriptions that say the name Yeshua. One of them says, Yeshua, our advocate. Now, Yeshua is a common name. Maybe this wasn’t a Messianic synagogue, it was a regular synagogue. Maybe this was changed later in the Byzantine era, but there’s definitely some peculiar things about this synagogue, and I think it’s a great place to talk about the divide of Christianity and Judaism.

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Now, the thing we have to first realize when we talk about this divide is go back to the Hebrew scriptures. Genesis one through 11, God talks about his relationship with mankind. A lot of chaotic things happen, a lot of redemption happens, but you have the entering of sin into the world. You have the flood, you have the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, and then all of a sudden, Genesis 12, it seems like God changes his course. He chooses one man named Abra and he says, I’m going to make an eternal covenant with you and your seed and your descendants after you. He reaffirms this covenant with Isaac and Jacob and he says, I will be your God and you will be my people. God is the creator of the universe. But it’s interesting. He only refers to himself as the God of Israel or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob predominantly.

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So he’s the God of this people, of this family. He promises these people a certain land, the land of Israel that we’re standing here today. Now he hints that one day all of the families of the earth will be brought into redemption. Genesis 12, he says, in you, all families of the earth will be blessed. But it’s hard for many Christians today to try and understand the exclusivity of God being the God of Israel. Now, most Christians think this changes when Jesus comes on the scene because John three 16, for God so love the world and again, the end in mind. God always desired the world to come into his family, all the nations and Gentiles. But we have to be careful to say it all changed with Jesus because Jesus came with a very specific mission. We read when the angel Gabriel speaks to Joseph, the human father of Jesus, he talks about giving the baby a name and he says, you should name the boy Yeshua, for he will be the Savior, which is what Yeshua means, savior of his people.

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He will save his people who are His people, Israel, the Jewish people. We see again in Matthew 15 where the Syrophoenician woman is begging Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus responds with a shocking verse. He says, I came only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is crazy because it doesn’t fit into the John three 16 narrative that we often see the scriptures through that he came to save the world, but his mission was to Israel, to the Jewish people. It’s so interesting in the Book of John, there’s a reoccurring theme you’ll read in chapters one through 12, this reoccurring theme that my time has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come referring to the hour in which Jesus will give himself up to be crucified. Now, John is hinting at this throughout his gospel.

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The time has not yet come. Let’s read them together, John two verse four. And Jesus said to her woman, this is to his mom, Miriam Mary, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come John seven, verse six. So Jesus said to them, my time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. John seven verse 30. So they were seeking to seize him and no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not yet come. John eight 20, these words, he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Wouldn’t it be essential to know the moment where in the book of John we get the phrase, the hour has come? I mean it should leap off the page. John’s been teasing us this whole time, and yet I’ve asked hundreds of Christians over the years, when is the time where Jesus decides the hour has come from me to be crucified?

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And I’ve gotten lots of answers at the Last Supper at the Garden of Gethsemane, and if he would’ve said it in those places, maybe we would remember it. But no one is yet to be able to tell me when Jesus makes this statement. And the reason we don’t remember it is because it doesn’t seem like a very incredible moment. In fact, the circumstances of him saying this kind of go right over our head because we don’t see any great significance, but let’s read it together. John 12 verse 20. Now, there were some Greeks which are non-Jews or Gentiles among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These Greeks would’ve been very similar to many God fearers of their day that were attracted to the God of Israel, but weren’t fully converted. They weren’t circumcised, they weren’t obeying Torah and they wanted to meet Jesus and this word, it could be translated like vehemently wanting to meet, continuing to press in.

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I want to meet Jesus. And these men came to Philip, who was from Beseda of Galilee and began to ask him, saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew, Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Why is this the moment where Jesus says, I have to go be crucified? Because the Gentiles wanted to follow him, and he knew the plan of redemption. He knew that one day the families would come in, but he had to first finish his mission, which was to Israel, which was to the Jewish people. This is incredible because God’s heart was always for Jew and Gentile to come together. Now, many people don’t understand that the early church was a part of the Jewish community. The early ecclasia were the followers of Jesus, but this was a sect of Judaism.

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Judaism had many what we would call denominations. You had the Essenes and the zealots, you had the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and then you had this new sect of Judaism that began thriving, and it was the followers of the way or the nazarenes. Now, these denominations disagreed on many things, and the primary thing that would’ve separated the Nazarenes or the followers of the way was their belief in Yeshua as the Messiah or the Son of God and their inclusion of the Gentiles. Gentiles were coming into this family and many people fail to realize that this was a confusing part of the early church, so much so that it kind of came to a point in the council of Jerusalem, which is Acts 15. In Acts 15, you have all of the big wigs of the early New Testament. You have Paul and Barnabas, you have Silas, you got Peter, you have James or Jacob, the brother of Jesus, and you have all these people gathering to talk about this thing.

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What are we going to do about these Gentiles? Do they need to convert to Judaism the way they’ve always had to in order to be in the family of God? And their answer was No right to the Gentiles. They don’t have to be circumcised. They don’t have to obey Torah. They can stay gentile. This was an insane proposition, a crazy idea, but this was what the Holy Spirit was deciding in Acts 15. And so the early Ecclesia, the early church began thriving as this Jew and gentile community together, but it was still existing as a Jewish community, a sect of Judaism. So where did this split really begin to happen? Because we know the early disciples never stopped being Jewish. We know Peter never stopped being Jewish. Paul never stopped being Jewish even after what we call his conversion, which really wasn’t a conversion because he was a Jewish man that believed in Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel.

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It’s pretty Jewish. He continues to reference himself as a Jewish man. He says, I am a Jew from Tarsus. He says, I’m a Hebrew of Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin and Israelite. He’s constantly saying, I am Jewish. He even makes a sacrifice to the temple well into the chapters at the end of the book of Acts. So he’s continuing to live as a Jew. So when did the split of Judaism and Christianity begin to happen? Well, we know that as we study history, there wasn’t one decisive decision that split Christianity and Judaism, for instance, when the temple was destroyed, which was the beacon of Jewish life, all things surrounding temple worship and the sacrificial system and Ad 70, the temple is destroyed, and so two forms of Judaism are able to survive the destruction of the temple. Biblical theologian, Paolo Sacchi says it like this, Christianity and modern Judaism are not a parent child relation.

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The latter was not born from the former. The two were more like fraternal twins born out of the same womb. Many people believe that there was one time that you can pinpoint in history where there was a decision to split Christianity and Judaism, but as we study the early church, we’re going to find that it wasn’t so clean cut, which is why we refer to it as the parting of the ways something that happened over the centuries. Over time, the destruction of the temple in a 70 was maybe the first rift in the parting of the ways why, because so much of Jewish life was focused on the temple and the sacrificial system. And so the only two sects of Judaism that continued post temple were what we would now call rabbinic Judaism and Christianity theologian Robert Jensen says, the religious life of Israel in the time just before the Roman destruction was a sort of capacious denominational system united by temple, worship, Torah, and allegiance to the land of Israel.

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When the land and temple were gone, two denominations survived. That could if need be, have been due without land and temple. And it is vital to remember that both were indeed denominations within what is often called late second temple Judaism. So you had these two forms of Judaism that came out and survived the destruction of the temple one, which was the rabbinic form of Judaism that came kind of based on the Pharisees, which changed their main religious system from the sacrifice in the temple to observance of God’s word and command. You had the followers of the way who changed their religious system that was focused around the temple worship to Jesus’s words. So they both changed the focus of the religion to the words the Jewish people with the words of Moses and with the followers of the way, which against primarily Jewish people on the words of their Messiah, Yeshua.

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And they continued in those two paths, but many of the early church would still consider themselves Jewish. Now, there were Gentiles began adding to their numbers, but they were still primarily Jewish. But now we get to 135 AD where the Jewish revolt of Bar Kokhba happens and the Romans are fed up with the Jewish community and after destruction of the temple in Ad 70, in AD 1 35, the Bar Kokhba Revolt happens, and Rome pushes out all of the Jews from Israel scattering them among the nations. This is the second major rift in what we now call Christianity and Judaism. Why did this split happen? Well, there are several reasons for this, one of which is in the early days of the first century, the followers of the way felt very comfortable being a sect of Judaism because Judaism was an accepted religion in the state of Rome, so they felt very comfortable being a part of that accepted religion.

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As you get closer to 80, 70 and 81, 35, now all of a sudden the Roman eyes are not looking favorably upon the Jewish religion, and that created a distance, a distancing that of course, many of the Gentiles that were a part of the followers of the way who weren’t very drawn to the land of Israel or Allegion to the land of Israel, they maybe wanted to distance themselves even more saying, no, no, we’re not part of the Jewish community. We’re kind of our own community of Jews and Gentiles. And of course, after Jewish people are pushed out of the land. This makes it even easier to distance what the followers of the way are doing and what the Jewish community that followed the Pharisees are doing. After the first century, we have some writings from early church fathers and early rabbinic scholars in which we called the rejection of the other.

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There was a Jewish rejection of Christianity and a Christian rejection of Judaism. Let’s first look at the Jewish rejection of Christianity. Now, when you look at the first three centuries of rabbinic writings, you see very little writing on the Christian religion or the followers of the way. Many theologians have described this as a very interesting silence, maybe a very sensitive silence. It seems odd that the two kind of sister religions that came out of Judaism would not talk about each other. Why was the Jewish community so silent about this? Followers of the way? Now, when you look at the first couple centuries, you find very little writing midras, writing Jewish writing about the early days of Christianity. Now, this seems very odd as we’ve talked about these two twin religions coming out of Judaism in the second temple time. How come these Jewish authors didn’t write about this growing Christian religion, which was gaining steam in the first through third century?

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Many people have described this silence as a loud silence, unintentional silence, not to bring legitimacy to this growing religion, but there still are some hints in the Talmud, in the Mishnah about this Christian religion. For example, in the Babylonian Talmud, Hullin 95b tells a story about a rabbi named Azar who’s charged with being a minim. He hears a word from yeshu or a word of yeshu that seemed pleasing to him. He’s later put on trial, and he’s looked at as someone who was tempted by this word of yeshu, and he later repents for it, saying, I wish I’d never would’ve heard it or accepted it. Now, there’s stories like this, which the yeshu is a term still used today in Israel to talk about Yeshua, and it paints the picture of a word of yeshu being a deceptive thing that could deceive a great rabbi and is looked at very negatively.

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Now, there’s other stories like this in the Talmud, but they’re very few and far between. Now, the Christian rejection of Judaism is not a whisper. It is intentionally loud, but the interesting thing about the loudness of the Christian rejection of Judaism is it actually speaks to a truth that’s often overlooked. Many people say, by the time we get to the first, second or third century, all of the Gentiles and Jews were just Christian. There were no Jews living that followed Jesus that lived as Jews. It was a completely different religion. But that’s actually not the case because you have authors like Irenaeus, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, these are early Patristic fathers writing in the second third century about these Jewish followers of Jesus who are continuing to obey Torah. These was what we would call Messianic Jews. But their loudness about this topic proves that there were still Jews in the first, second, third century who were living as Jews, and they did not like this at all.

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Here’s some of the things that they wrote. Ignatius writes in the letter to the Magnesians 8:1, do not be deceived by strange doctrines or old fables, which are worthless for if we still live according to Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace. He says in the same letter in chapter 10, put aside then the evil leaven, which has grown old and sour and turned to the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and practice Judaism. This is so interesting because so many people say there weren’t any Jewish followers of Jesus in the early centuries after disciples went away. There were just Christians, but here we have proof that there were Jewish followers of Jesus trying to live a Jewish life. We know this because they’re so upset about it. They’re saying you cannot follow Jesus and also practice Judaism.

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That’s proof that it’s happening or else why would he write a letter about it? He’s not writing a letter so angry about something that’s not even taking place. Let’s look at some more iron in his book against heresies says, those who still follow the old law do not fully understand the liberty granted by Christ. Justin Martyr who wrote between 155 and 160 CE in his dialogue with Trypho says, there are some who say they believe in Christ, yet they still choose to keep the law. I do not approve of this, but if they do not force other Christians to do likewise, we may accept them here. He’s saying something so crucial. He’s saying that there are believers in Jesus, followers in Jesus who continue to obey Torah to live Jewish lives, and he says, I do not like that. However, if they’re not forcing others to do it, they can still be a part of our community.

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This is proof that there were Messianic Jews in these communities, and I agree in the sense that I don’t think that Messianic Jews should force Gentiles to obey Torah because of Acts 15, but again, it’s proof that there were Messianic Jews who continued to live a faithful, observant life. But then Justin Martyr goes on to say something pretty anti-Jewish. He says, indeed, the custom of circumcising, the flesh handed down from Abraham was given to you as a distinguishing mark to set you off from other nations, from US Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours. He’s saying the only reason the Jews were given circumcision was so that God could delineate who were the Jews and who were the Christians so that the Jews could be punished because rightfully so, this is crazy anti-Jewish sentiment that’s already coming up in the first and second century, which is why they were so adamant to keep Jews from living Jewish lives.

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They wanted everyone to convert into what they called Christianity and follow Jesus basically as Gentiles. And people say this to us all the time. We have many Christian friends who say, why are you talking about Jew and Gentile? Galatians three says, there’s no longer Jew and Gentile. Well, Galatians three also says there’s no longer male or female, but we’re not doing away with gender distinctions. So why are we doing away with another God-given distinction? Jew and Gentile? Galatians three is not talking about breaking down a distinction. He’s talking about breaking down a divide. And we have many Jewish friends that don’t believe in Jesus and they say the same thing. Why are you talking about Jew and Gentile? Like if a Jew puts their faith in Jesus, they are Christian. Let’s define Christian for a second. Christian means follower of Jesus. There are male and female followers of Jesus.

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There are Jew and Gentile followers of Jesus. So what are we talking about? If you follow Jesus, you can be male or female. You can be Jew or Gentile. That’s God’s plan. That’s God’s heart. Well, if all of these parting of the ways from AD 70 AD 1 35, the Jewish rejection of Christianity in the first couple centuries and the Christian rejection of Judaism in the first couple centuries, all of this comes to a point where there’s a final nail in the coffin. I would say the final nail in the coffin that separated Judaism and Christianity was in 3 25 AD at the Council of Nicaea. At this point, Constantine is the emperor of Rome, and he has a supposed conversion to Christianity. Now, many historians have argued whether his conversion was real or whether it was for political gain. We don’t have time to get into all of that.

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However, we do know that Constantine brought a group of bishops together around 300 to form the Council of Nicaea. In this council, there’s a few things we know. We know they formed the Nicean Creed used by thousands of churches today. We know that they wanted to uncouple Easter from Passover and solidify the day that the Christians would celebrate Passover. Now, there’s a few things that we can make an educated guess on regarding the Council of Nicaea. One of the things that we can make an educated guess about is that there were no Jews present at the Council of Nicaea. Why can we make this educated guest? Well, for starters, we know that there were probably no Jews present because there were Jewish bishops at the time of Constantine, Jewish followers in Jesus who maintained a Jewish lifestyle. We know that they probably weren’t there because the nice creed, which is an amazing creed talking about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit all being one and being fully God.

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But you’ll notice there’s nothing inherently Jewish about the Crete. It’s funny, if you read the entire Bible, you’re going to see God is the God of Israel. Even in the New Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jesus is linked as the son of Abraham, the son of David in the opening statement of Matthew. But the Nicaean Creed mentions nothing about the God of Israel, nothing about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, nothing about Jesus being the Messiah of Israel. It’s kind of done to distance Judaism from this new form of Christianity. The other reason we can speculate that no Jews were present is because of what Constantine wrote after the council. He wrote this letter to all of the churches that couldn’t be at the Council as he is celebrating the decisions that were made, mainly uncoupling Easter from Passover. This is what Constantine writes.

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It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals Easter to follow the custom or calculation of the Jews who had soiled their hands with the most fearful crimes and whose minds were blinded. We ought not therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way. Our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course. And consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire dearest brethren to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews. For it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right? They who after the death of the Savior, have no longer been led by reason, but by wild violence as their delusion may urge them. They do not possess the truth in this Easter question for in their blindness and repentance to all improvements.

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They frequently celebrate two passovers in the same year. But even if this were not, so, it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communication with such wicked people. Everyone I hope will agree upon this point. As on the one hand, it is our duty not to anything in common with the murderers of our Lord. These are Constantine’s words, his words saying We have to separate from the detestable Jewish people. And from this point on in history, the church has lived in this division for almost 1700 years, where today it’s commonplace Judaism and Christianity couldn’t be more different. Sure, we share the Hebrew scriptures, but then there is a stark divide. And if a Jewish person puts their faith in Jesus Yeshua, we say they become Christian. They’re no longer Jewish. This is not biblical. We don’t find this anywhere. In the New Testament, we see the continuation of Jew and Gentile and God wanting to bring those two together to make one new man is what Ephesians two says.

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The two shall become one. Wherever we heard that before, in Genesis one, it says, Adam and Eve were brought together, and it says that he will take man and woman and create one flesh. These are the same points, the same truth being made. We’re supposed to walk in unity together, understanding our distinctions. So what do we do from here as the church? We need to pray. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for Israel, pray for the Jewish people. Pray that they would understand their God-given identity as Jews, and we would understand our God-given identity as Gentiles. I talked to so many Christians. They don’t think they’re Gentiles. They don’t know their Gentiles. We need to embrace our Gentile, our identity. If I don’t make space for a Gentile identity, then I won’t make space for a Jewish one. We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for Israel, and we need to come together in unity as the Ecclesia, as the church, the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17.

(28:33):
So I pray that you would come to this understanding of Jew and Gentile, God’s heart for Israel. So will you pray with me? God, we thank you that you created male and female. You created Jew and Gentile, and you desire the church to be one. And there has been a monstrous division between the two distinctions you created. So Lord, I pray for the unity to come together in your church. How can we pray for denominational unity when we can’t first create unity in the greatest rift that happened in the church? So we love you and we praise you in Jesus’ name. And everybody said, amen.