Jewish Schisms - Christianity

Christianity

Main article: Split of early Christianity and Judaism See also: New Covenant, Paul of Tarsus and Judaism, and Christianity and Judaism

The first Christians (whom historians refer to as Jewish Christians) were the original Jewish followers of Jesus, a Galilean healer, preacher, and, according to Christianity, prophet. After his crucifixion for sedition by the Romans, his followers broke over whether they should continue to observe Jewish law, such as at the Council of Jerusalem. Those who argued that the law was abrogated (either partially or fully, either by Jesus or Paul or by the Roman destruction of the Temple) broke to form Christianity.

The eventual redefinition of Moses' Law by Jesus' disciples and their belief in his deity, along with the development of the New Testament, ensured that Christianity and Judaism would become different and often conflicting religions. The New Testament depicts the Saducees and Pharisees as Jesus' opponents (see Woes of the Pharisees), whereas the Jewish perspective has the Pharisees as the justified predecessors of the rabbis who upheld the Torah including the Oral law, which Christians refer to as the Mosaic Law or Pentateuch or "Old Covenant" in contrast to the "New Covenant".

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