Close to 100 people listened to fascinating lecture about the split between Judaism and Christianity, delivered by UConn Professor Stuart S. Miller at The Emanuel Synagogue on Oct. 25. Miller argued that differences over whether Jesus was the messiah do not explain the original reason for the split between Judaism and Christianity, since both Jesus and the earliest “Jesus movement” were very much part of the Jewish community and forms of “Jewish Christianity,” and continued to exist long after the death of Jesus ca. 30 C.E. and the destruction of the Temple 40 years later. Jewish expressions of Christianity eventually dwindled, he explained, as a “Gentile Christianity” that rejected the ritual observances of the Torah took hold among pagans particularly in the Diaspora and, in the fourth century C.E., became the religion of the empire, effectively defining “Christianity” as non-Jewish forever after.

CAP: At The Emanuel Synagogue: Dr. Jeff Kaimowitz, former rare books librarian at Trinity College (left) with Prof. Stu Miller.