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Reexamining the Roots of Christianity
by David Hulme
Millions of people have had the blessing of education in the 20th century, and knowledge has enhanced our ability to perceive, analyze and understand the world we live in. Although education is valuable, is everything we learn worthy of acceptance at face value? Do our teachers always tell us the truth? Or do they sometimes pass on preconceived ideas learned from their teachers? Following a biblical principle, should we not seek to "prove all things and hold fast that which is good"?;
Against this backdrop we should examine a bias in the world of theology. Some fervently believe that the Jewishness of the New Testament is something to be explained away or even ignored at all costs. Is this reasonable? Some scholars admit that the established churches have fallen into gross error over important aspects of the Founder of Christianity and His early followers. Is it possible that churches founded in the name of Christ have been fundamentally wrong about His teaching and practice? Was the early Church far more Jewish than has been taught?
Well, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. The subject of early Christianity’s Jewishness has been avoided by most scholars because of a long-standing prejudice in the theological world. But a change of sorts is under way, and it is causing a reevaluation of some underlying approaches to traditional Christianity. If understood in their totality, the implications are profound.
Recognizing that the context of Jesus’ life was within the Israelite religion of the Hebrew Scriptures, Roman Catholic theologian John Pawlikowski notes that some biblical scholars "share the conviction that Jesus must be returned to his essentially Jewish context if the Church is to understand his message properly."
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