A compelling account of Christianity's Jewish beginnings, from one of
the world's leading scholars of ancient religion
How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working
to prepare their world for the impending realization of God's promises
to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the
gentile church? Committed to Jesus's prophecy--"The Kingdom of God is at
hand!"--they were, in their own eyes, history's last generation. But in
history's eyes, they became the first Christians.
In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen
answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest
Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group's hopeful
celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies
that fragmented the movement's midcentury missions, to the city's fiery
end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant
apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of
this temple-centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions
that animated and sustained it.