When Christians Were Jews: The Nazarene Roots of the Faith and Why Every Christian Who Stands with Israel Must Reject Antisemitism Today
I can’t stop thinking about this. Jesus was Jewish. His first followers were Jewish. Christianity didn’t just appear out of nowhere. It grew right out of Judaism, in Israel, with Jewish people.
And yet, I see this history get twisted. All the time. Online, in the media, in casual conversation. Sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes it’s not. Either way, it ends up feeding antisemitism. And it frustrates me. Christians and Jews share so much. And yet people use this history to divide us. That’s just wrong.
Here’s the truth. Christianity came from Judaism. It really did. That’s a fact. But it’s more than a fact. It’s a call. A call to reject antisemitism wherever it appears. If someone says they stand with Israel, they can’t ignore that. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says all the time: “Christianity is based on Judaism. There would be no Christianity without Judaism”.
Think about Jesus for a second. He taught from the Hebrew Scriptures. He celebrated Jewish holidays. He prayed in synagogues. He lived as a Jew. The apostles, Peter, Paul, James, they were Jewish too. The first churches? They were really just Jewish communities following Jesus. Christianity didn’t exist in a vacuum. It came from Judaism. Jews of antiquity did not reject followers of Christ, they called them “The Nazarenes”, and considered them a sect of Judaism.
It’s kind of like some Hasidic groups today. Some believe their Grand Rebbe was the Messiah. Back in Jesus’ time, it was the same. Believing in a messiah didn’t make someone stop being Jewish. Their identity stayed Jewish, even if their beliefs were new or different.
Not only were they of one religion, they shared a bond, a bond in persecution. Romans targeted all Jews, including those who followed Jesus. The Romans continued their persecution over the course of the next 3 centuries, attempting to erase Jewish identity by renaming Judea, destroying the Temple, and persecuting both Jews & those who by then identified themselves as Christians.
This went on until Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity after a vision of a Christian symbol during a victorious battle. His cause was just, and he used Christianity to try and stabilize a fractured and turbulent Roman Empire; but Rome persisted in erasing Jewish identity, and in order for Christianity to flourish by making Romans comfortable with it, they had to widen the gap between Judaism & Christianity.
For centuries after Constantine, there was a huge divide between Christians and Jews, with much Christian antisemitism, violence and pogroms against Jews. But that changed over the past few decades. The turning point was the Nostra Aetate in 1965 with Pope Paul VI who called to reject the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Jesus’ death and then strengthened by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s who called Jews “our elder brothers” and strongly condemned antisemitism as a sin against God. Together with the growing Protestant and Evangelical populations connected to the Bible, more and more Christians were against antisemitism.
So how did this get twisted into what we see taking place today with the growing blaming of the Jews? You see it everywhere. Memes. Social media. News stories that distort history; rooted in both medieval, old world antisemitism, and politically driven modern-day hate. It’s shocking. A faith built on Jewish foundations being used to attack Jews. That’s the opposite of what should happen.
This matters now. Christians who care about Israel and the Jewish people can’t just look away. We all have a responsibility to call out lies, even when it’s uncomfortable. Rejecting antisemitism doesn’t weaken faith. It strengthens it.
Learning about the Jewish roots of Christianity isn’t just history. It’s truth. It’s about the people God chose to reveal His plan to. And truth matters. To question or try to erase Jewish existence, is to question and try to erase your own existence. One cannot exist without the other, and we are all children of God.
I’ve met so many Christians who genuinely care about Israel. They want to engage positively. But even well-meaning people can repeat harmful things online or in conversation without realizing it. That’s why this matters. It’s not about blaming anyone. It’s about learning, listening, acting.
We can build bridges, not walls. Celebrate what we share. And speak up when someone tries to divide or demean. Especially online, where lies spread so fast it’s scary.
My hope is simple. I hope Christians who care about Israel see the Jewish roots of their faith as a bridge, not a wedge. That they reject antisemitism wherever it appears. Online. In conversation. In the media. That Jews and Christians can stand together, celebrating the shared story of God’s people, past and present.
Written By Michelle Terris
Special thanks to Ben Reiver for contributing to this piece.