How Jesus Became Christian

In How Jesus Became Christian, Barrie Wilson asks "How did a young rabbi become the god of a religion he wouldn't recognize, one which was established through the use of calculated anti-Semitism?"

Colourfully recreating the world of Jesus Christ, Wilson brings the answer to life by looking at the rivalry between the "Jesus movement," informed by the teachings of Matthew and adhering to Torah worship, and the "Christ movement," headed by Paul, which shunned Torah. Wilson suggests that Paul's movement was not rooted in the teachings and sayings of the historical Jesus, but solely in Paul's mystical vision of Christ, a man Paul actually never met. He then shows how Paul established the new religion through anti-Semitic propaganda, which ultimately crushed the Jesus Movement. Sure to be controversial, this is an exciting, well-written popular religious history that cuts to the heart of the differences between Christianity and Judaism, to the origins of one of the world's great religions and, ultimately, to the question of who Jesus Christ really was — a Jew or a Christian. Acknowledgments

Prologue: A Personal Note

1. The Cover-Up

2. Cultures In Conflict

3. Being Jewish In A Cosmopolitan World

4. The Secrets Of History

5. The Challenge Of Jesus

6. The Promises Of Jesus

7. Jesus's Earliest Followers: The Jesus Movement

8. What Happened To Jesus?

9. The Trouble With Paul

10. The Big Switch: Christ For Jesus

11. The Jesus Movement Fades Away

12. Paul The Radical

13. Demonizing Jewish Leadership And The Jewish People

14. Confiscating Judaism's Heritage

15. Attacking The Jewish Concept Of God

16. Anti-Semitism

17. The Cover-Up Revealed

Epilogue: The Way Forward

Timelines

Terminology

Notes

Bibliography

Index