Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement  (English, Electronic book text, Bibliowicz Abel Mordechai)

Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement casts new light on Jewish-Gentile relations and the evolution of belief in the early Jesus movement. Abel Mordechai Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament reflects the early stages of a Gentile challenge to the authority and to the legitimacy of the descendants of Jesus' disciples and first followers as the exclusive guardians and interpreters of his legacy. With the passage of time and loss of context, the tensions and trauma produced by this crisis came to be understood by later believers as reflective of a Jewish-Christian conflict. Bibliowicz suggests that the New Testament texts do not reflect a struggle between 'Christians' and 'Jews' nor a conflict between 'Judaism' and 'Christianity' but rather a heated dispute about Judaism and about Torah observance among Jesus' early followers.