cholars examine Greek, Latin, and Syriac literary evidence on the presence of Jewish believers in Europe and the Middle East during the first five centuries of the Church. [Full Review]

On a mosaic of the church of St. Sabina in Rome, built under Pope Celestine (422–432), there are two female figures next to a great historical inscription. Below one figure we can read: eclesia [sic] e circumcisione; below the other figure: eclesia e gentibus. Above the former is Peter, while above the latter is Paul. From this composition and from many others in Rome we can learn that there was in the fifth century still a certain notion that the church was originally divided in two. There were two brands of Christianity: a church of Jewish origin and one of Gentiles. And if there is a notion that there was a church of Jewish origin, one certainly realized that Judaism was the bedrock of Christianity. What was this church of Jewish origin, and how did this church fit into the process of emerging Christianity? In scholarly literature of the last decennia, some important studies have appeared dealing with the emerging Christianity from different angles. Discussing the relations between Judaism and Christianity, James Dunn wrote The Parting of the Ways: Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity (London: SCM, 1991), in which he tries to describe in an overview the way in which Christianity emerged as a religion distinct from its mother religion. [Full Review]