Jews and Christians at ‘the End of Time’ To understand our own era, go back 2,000 years.
“I always worked on ancient Christianity, and always at these two nodal points: When it’s being born out of Judaism in the time of the late Second Temple, and when it becomes an arm of the imperial government of Rome,” Paula Fredriksen tells Matti Friedman. (Illustration by The Free Press; image via Getty)
There are episodes in history that never quite end. One occurred around the Mediterranean in the middle of the first century CE, when the first followers of Jesus emerged from Judea with a powerful story about their charismatic teacher, his execution by Roman authorities in Jerusalem, and his resurrection. Members of this small group of Jews believed they held the key to understanding God’s plan and that they must spread the news fast because time itself was about to end. Their ideas and furious arguments, conducted in person and in letters that crisscrossed the Roman world, continue to shape our own. It’s impossible to understand our era—not just religious life but the content of TikTok and YouTube, the speeches at a memorial for Charlie Kirk, a campus protest against Israel—without understanding this small number of people struggling through a few decades of turmoil 2,000 years ago...
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