Martin Goodman

Explains how the first generation of Christians distanced themselves from their Jewish origins and then became hostile to Jews as their influence spread within the empire, in a critical study that examines the origins of anti-Semitism.

"Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia... In this...book, Martin Goodman takes readers from Judaism's origins in the polytheistic world of the second and first millennia BCE to the temple cult at the time of Jesus. He tells the stories of the rabbis, mystics, and messiahs of...