| How Jesus Became Christian |  | Author: Barrie Wilson
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
ISBN: 0679314946
EAN: 9780679314943
ASIN: 0679314946
Publication Date: March 10, 2009 (In 201 Days)
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Product Description
In How Jesus Became Christian, Barrie Wilson asks “How did a young rabbi become the god of a religion he wouldn’t recognize, one which was established through the use of calculated anti-Semitism?”
Colourfully recreating the world of Jesus Christ, Wilson brings the answer to life by looking at the rivalry between the “Jesus movement,” informed by the teachings of Matthew and adhering to Torah worship, and the “Christ movement,” headed by Paul, which shunned Torah. Wilson suggests that Paul’s movement was not rooted in the teachings and sayings of the historical Jesus, but solely in Paul’s mystical vision of Christ, a man Paul actually never met. He then shows how Paul established the new religion through anti-Semitic propaganda, which ultimately crushed the Jesus Movement. Sure to be controversial, this is an exciting, well-written popular religious history that cuts to the heart of the differences between Christianity and Judaism, to the origins of one of the world’s great religions and, ultimately, to the question of who Jesus Christ really was–a Jew or a Christian.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 How Jesus Became Christian July 30, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is an exceptionally well written, educational masterpiece with documented and detailed exposure of factual religious realities identifying the true identity of Jesus with no compromise. I highly recommend it as a must have book to anyone.
Ari Marshall
Christians Reader Beware June 28, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
For Christian readers who have never questioned the history of what they believe, this book will rock their world. The hardest thing for a Christian to equate is that their faith in Jesus as God incarnate is based upon their faith and belief that Paul had these revelations in which God revealed to him the true meaning Jesus. If Paul isn't who he says he is then everything we believe is false. That is the point of this and several other books; like The Mythmaker by Maccoby. Paul has a right to create his own religion and if he chooses to use Hellenistics myths that's OK too. The issue is that he tied it to the Jewish faith to make it legitimate. Most Christians have no idea that what Paul brings forth in his letters as his revelations or teachings pre-dated him and were all ready in use by mystery religions. In others words, it was nothing new and because of that it did not come from God. This is what this book brings out. As complaints about Paul's validity go all the way back to the Disciples themselves, the absolute majority of Christians have no idea that this information is out there unless they're a Biblical Scholar.
Is this old news, yes, but to the majority of Christians this is brand new to them. Are they going to deny it's existence, yes. Most Christians can't equate that the teachings of one man, Paul, ignited centuries of persecution towards the Jews and that these same teachings are still taught in the church today. It is a well written and straight forward book. As being completely oblivious to the true Christian history and growing up Christian, this book serves as a summation of what I've found on Christianity after six months of my own personal search for a better understanding of what was actually taking place in the New Testament. It is a good book for non-scholars who do not want to spend six months doing their own research into who the real Jesus was and what he taught. It is also time to take the Jewish faith off the cross upon which it has been nailed. Books like this for the mainstream population should help to achieve that goal.
Validation June 20, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Validation would be an understatement, in regards to Wilson's new book, "How Jesus Became Christian". First opening the Tomb in 1981, then Tabor's book, now Wilson's; the world has a true view into the first century CE at last!
THANK YOU!
A better recovery of Jesus' Jewish message May 16, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
Like many of us, Barrie Wilson wants to know "How did the Jewish Jesus of history become the Gentile Christ of faith? How did early Christianity become a separate religion from Judaism? What really accounts for Christian anti-Semitism?" He seeks answers partly by comparing different accounts within the scriptures -- Paul's own accounts compared with Luke's version of the same events in Acts, or Jesus' teaching about the Jewish law compared to Paul's. The results are fascinating, and come close to demolishing any justification for a wall between Christianity and Jesus' own Jewish faith.
Where Jesus pushed the spirit of the Torah beyond external deeds to deal with the inner conflicts behind deeds, later Christians presented Christ as invalidating the Old Testament law. Where Jesus urged "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt. 5:19), Paul, with his independent revelation, argued that the entire law of Moses was needless. Since Abraham had faith before the law appeared, everything which happened since (until Jesus) was irrelevant. Now, Paul claimed, anyone who continued to observe the Jewish law was "under a curse", and "No one will be justified by the works of the law" (Gal. 2:16). At least, as Wilson points out, Paul did not try to cite Jesus himself as the source of this teaching.
The book holds much more, but let me quote one among several conclusions: "What we have today in Christianity is largely Paulinity, a religion about the Gentile Christ that covers over the message of the Jewish Jesus of history. Second, it involved a hostile differentiation, with scathing attacks by the Proto-Orthodox on anything Jewish. Third, the cover up resulted in the entrenchment of anti-Semitism, directed against Judaism and the Jewish people" (p. 255)
In looking over Wilson's research, there's just one factor I'd like to add in explaining the hostile division of Gentile Christianity from Jesus' Jewish faith. That is the factor of war. Where Jewish nationalists rose in revolt against Roman colonial rule (twice, in the 70s and 130s AD), Gentile converts sought to prove their loyalty to Rome by distancing themselves from the rebels. While Rome crucified the Jewish nation, many Gentile Christians tried to deny they ever knew the accused.
--author of "Different Visions of Love"
 A good summary of the history of Christianity but.... May 10, 2008
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book provides a good summary of current views concerning the"known" history of Christianity. It provides the historical context behind the phenomena of Christianity along with providing rich details of Jewish life and religion at the time of Jesus. I read it as a follow on to the Tabor book "The Jesus Dynasty". It provides plausible rationales for:
- The split between Ebionites and "followers of Paul" called Proto -Orthodoxy (he also suggests a new taxonomy)
- The evolution of Christian thought through the Council of Nicea
- Roots of anti-semitism
The analysis of the "Book of Acts" in papering over schism(between the Ebionites and "the followers of Paul") in the early church is compelling.
Overall I think this book is the best historical analysis of this period available but unfortunately Professor Wilson...
- expresses contempt for "Hellenistic" values and thought
- dismisses Paul's view of Spirituality as not genuine i.e. it doesn't come from the Torah
- is overly defensive of Jewish orthodoxy
Some are already using this book to "slam" Christianity - see earlier reviews here on Amazon
Even with the above reservations I highly recommend this book.
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