‘background’ or ‘context’. That gives the impression that there
was somehow a static, coherent, and even unitary Judaism out of
which Jesus (and later Christianity) emerged. It is more helpful
to think of the New Testament portrait of Jesus being produced
in the context of a varied matrix of Jewish speculations on the
role of God in the world and the extent to which divine interven-
tion might (or might not) be mediated through a Messiah. Within
Judaism itself, these ideas were expressed in diverse ways as Jews
sought to make sense of their precarious position in the world,
where God’s chosen people were frequently subjected to political
domination by heathen foreigners like the Romans. Another man-
ifestation of the tensions within contemporary Judaism was its
fragmentation into various groups. Within Palestine, there were
sects such as the Pharisees and Sadducees mentioned in the New
Testament, or the Essenes, whose thinking is probably reflected
in the texts found at Qumran. In addition, there were divisions
within Judaism over other matters. Also in Palestine, but more
particularly in the Diaspora (the Jewish communities found in
cities scattered throughout the Roman empire), differences of
opinion arose about the extent to which there should be any
accommodation with the social and cultural habits of the gentiles
(pagan Greeks and Romans) (Barclay 1996). In recognition of this
diversity, some (but not all) scholars speak in terms of plural
‘Judaisms’. It is perhaps within this plurality of Jewish responses
to the world and its problems that we can best attempt to under-
stand the career of Jesus of Nazareth, and the emergence of the
movement that gradually became Christianity.
The evolution of Judaism and ChristianityThe problems of the relationship between Judaism and Chris-
tianity do not abate with either the death (and, for his followers,
resurrection) of Jesus or the end of the period described in the
New Testament. In recent scholarly debate, much effort has been
invested in seeking to define the nature and chronology of what
is usually called the ‘parting of the ways’, the process that gave
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