ABSTRACT
In the first century A.D., a new religion arose partly within Judaism and partly around its periphery. This religion adopted and used the Hebrew Bible, which it called “The Old Testament.” According to Christian accounts, the Jewish establishment had rejected Jesus and persuaded the Roman authorities to put him to death. The term Judeo-Christian tradition supposes a common essence shared between Jews and Christians. Ayn Rand was quite correct in attributing the same basic ethical values to both Judaism and Christianity, and in endorsing the common term “the Judeo-Christian tradition.” The Jesus sect was hardly taken seriously by the Roman authorities since it preached a supernatural revolution. Paul began his career as a fanatical type of Orthodox Jew who saw a particular danger in the Hellenistic wing of the Jesus sect, in other words, in Christianity. The early church grew out of the communities founded by Paul, and by indeed other missionaries who went out from the Hellenistic synagogues.
