Jesus Before Christ: Restoring a Jewish Context to Being Christian Today

By Michael Jost

Jesus was born a Jew, raised as a Jew and died as a Jew, and Jewish as well as non-Jewish followers of Jesus—the Christians—constituted a Jewish sect for more than fifty years after the death of Jesus. The transformation of these original Christians from a Jewish sect into a Hellenistic mystery religion—a process that began before the end of the first century and ended more or less in the fifth century—would have a profound impact on the meaning of Christianity for most Christians thereafter. The first part of the book tells the story of that transformation—a deconstruction of some classical myths about the development of the Bible, the origins of Christianity, the earliest congregations and the evolution of Christian doctrines. The second part of the book moves from the religion about Jesus to the religion of Jesus—a journey of rediscovering what it can mean to be a Christian today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989888509