The Jewish Gospels : the story of the Jewish Christ

Daniel Boyarin is an remarkable scholar of the Bible and Talmud and this short and relatively easy book argues that Christianity not only began as a Jewish sect, it continued in that role until the early 4th century. He provides the background of Second Temple Judaism necessary to understand the New Testament in its historical and theological context. I took a detour to read this while partway through Paul's Three Paths to Salvation (www.eerdmans.com/Mobile/Products/3921/pauls-three-paths-to-salvation.aspx) and the timing was helpful because I was already aware of some of what Boyarin writes about.