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The early Christians shared important characteristics with the Jewish groups mentioned by Josephus with the exception of the Sadducees and Zealots. The closest relations were between the Nazarenes[1] and the Pharisees. The Nazarenes believed in the afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, and the angels just like the Pharisees and most of their ethics and lived practices were similar.[2] While they differed over several important issues concerning daily piety,[3] they seemed to worship together at the Temple in Jerusalem and at synagogues around the empire until 70CE.[4] The destruction of the Temple was the catalyst that resulted in Judaism redefining itself with the Law and without the Temple. During this redefinition period the Pharisees became the dominant group, replacing the Sadducees and refocusing the religion on observance and interpretation of the Torah.

They were not without conflicts, however. These conflicts culminated with the general expulsion of Christians from the synagogues in the years (perhaps 10 or 20) following the destruction of the Temple. There are three main sources for our understanding of Pharisee-Nazarene encounters. First, we have Jesus’ confrontation with them in the Synoptic Gospels; secondly, we have the record of the Acts of the Apostles which details the conflicts between the Christians and the Pharisees; and finally there is the Johannes corpus preoccupation with the Christian expulsion from the Synagogues. From this collection of literature, we see that not only were the two groups at odds over the items listed in note three above, but also framed the internal conflicts within the Nazarenes. For instance, conflicts over observance of the Law table fellowship by and with Gentiles were among the chief internal disagreements in the early years of Christianity.[5]

The Nazarenes looked like other Jewish groups as well. As marginalized groups, the Nazarenes and Jewish sects recognized that the present world was radically amiss and constructed ways by which it could be fixed. The similarities between the two traditions are so strong that the genre of literature itself is called by a Jewish-Christian moniker. However, we cannot talk about much more than a similarity of apocalyptic ideology between these two groups because we lack good data on the practices of apocalyptic Jewish groups as only their literature survives often.[6] There is little to no record of the producers of these writings having direct contact with early Christians.

However, we talk about the messianic expectation that the marginalized Jewish populace held tightly to during the first and early second centuries. The Jewish people, in their expectation of the Son of Man as the answer to Roman Imperialism looked to several messiahs, most notably of which were Jesus of Nazareth and Simon ben Kosiba, who was anointed as the messiah by Rabbi Akiba.[7] Jesus spoke endlessly about the Kingdom of God but tried to usher it in without violence, while Simon ben Kosiba tried to do so with force.[8]

Ben Kosiba’s rebellion was so successful, he even was able to mint coins within his short-lived free kingdom of Israel.

The last group that the Christians may have had contact with that is mentioned by Josephus is the Essenes. These were ascetic Jews who had realizable apocalyptic tendencies.[9] It is possible that John the Baptist and James the brother of Jesus belonged to this group, though highly unlikely.[10] While it is tempting to equate John the Baptist with the Teacher of Righteousness of the DSS and the Qumran community with the Essenes, it is highly likely that concrete connections between the three ascetics are often forged out of convince rather than fact.[11] We are better off talking about the Qumran community, the Essenes and perhaps the community behind John the Baptist as manifestations of Jewish asceticism rather than forcing their equation with one another. As closed-off communities awaiting the end of the world, early Christians did not have significant contact with the Jewish Ascetic communities save for a few isolated conversions.

The Ruins of Qumran and a Model of what it used to look like.  The Qumran community was an ascetic Jewish community that many think are or model the Essenes and Josephus mentions.

Christianity grew out of 2nd Temple Judaism. For many outsiders, many Jews, and perhaps to the initial followers of Jesus themselves, Christianity was initially viewed as yet another take on God’s conclusion to his covenant with Abraham. In many ways, early Christians looked very much like a branch of Judaism with the exception of their emphasis on the conversion of pagans. As a matter of fact, they looked so much like Jews compared to everyone else that the Romans themselves often could not distinguish between the two.[12] Despite this, the groups had significant disagreements and did clash often, leading to the Christian’s expulsion from the synagogues sometime after 70CE and the infusion of an anti-Jewish sentiment within the Christian tradition.

Bibliography

Crossan, John Dominic. The Birth of Christianity : Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus. 1st ed. HarperOne, 1999.

Farmer, William Reuben. Anti-Judaism and the Gospels. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999.

Irvin, Dale T., and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World Christian Movement: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Orbis Books, 2001.

Lampe, Peter, and Marshall D. Johnson. From Paul to Valentinus. Fortress Press, 2003.

Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. 2nd ed. Yale University Press, 2003.

Stegemann, Hartmut. The library of Qumran. BRILL, 1998.

Wright, Nicholas Thomas. Christian Origins and the Question of God: The New Testament and the people of God. Fortress Press, 1992.

[1] Christians, Chrestians, Nazarenes, Followers of the Way were among the names given or taken by early Christians.

[2] Dale T. Irvin and Scott W. Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Orbis Books, 2001), 13.

[3] Irvin and Sunquist list tithing, purity, observance of the Sabbath, and table fellowship as specific examples of the daily piety differences between the Nazarenes and the Pharisees. Ibid. I would add that there was a departure from views on the Torah there as well given Jesus’ attacks on the oral Torah, Paul’s deemphasis of the Law as a standard, and the decision of the Jerusalem council to

[4] See Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul, 2nd ed. (Yale University Press, 2003), 80-81 and William Reuben Farmer, Anti-Judaism and the Gospels (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999), 129.

[5] Irvin and Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement, 23, 24, 26.

[6] The Dead Sea Scroll community had some apocalyptic literature in their library. See Ibid., 15

[7] Nicholas Thomas Wright, Christian Origins and the Question of God: The New Testament and the people of God (Fortress Press, 1992), 50.

[8] Irvin and Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement, 15.

[9] Realizable apocalypticism refers to a group that does not think that they can usher in God’s changes (contrasted with actualizable apocalypticism) but that have to distance themselves from the world and await God’s action. See John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity : Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, 1st ed. (HarperOne, 1999), 269 for a discussion on the various types of apocalypticism.

[10] Irvin and Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement, 14.

[11] Hartmut Stegemann, The library of Qumran (BRILL, 1998), 225.

[12] As exemplified by the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in 50CE by Claudius. Rather than expel just the new movement the Romans expelled the lot of them. While Irvin and Sunquist deny that followers of Chrestus refers to followers of Christ, there are others that think that it the expulsion referred to by Suetonius was explicitly related to disturbances between Christians attempting to meet at the synagogue in Rome. This is supported not only by such a pattern of disturbances recorded in the Canon, but also by the fact that Chrestus was not a Jewish name and could easily be explained away by Chrestus being a common Roman name and was a common designation of Christians by Romans; both Tacitus and Tertullian. See Peter Lampe and Marshall D. Johnson, From Paul to Valentinus (Fortress Press, 2003), 12-13 for a more detailed explanation.