ABSTRACT
Patristic writers insisted that Jewish Christianity emerged as a late hybrid of Judaism and Christianity, and they labeled as heretics groups such as Nazarenes, Ebionites, Elkesaites, Cerinthians, Symmacheans, and Judaizers. John Toland (1718) argued that Jewish Christians such as Nazarenes and Ebionites were the earliest form of Christianity, and Toland contrasted these with a Pauline Gentile Christianity. Jewish Christianity has key points of origin. Among these are the Jewishness of Jesus, the earliest communities of Jesus' followers, and the earliest writings from these communities. The earliest Christian communities arose in a variety of locales and contexts between the death of Jesus and the framing of Nicene orthodoxy. Early Christian writings borrowed Jewish frameworks such as apocalypticism and drew upon Jewish ideas such as Wisdom. The Gospel of Matthew envisions a mission to the nations and becomes the favorite gospel of Gentile Christianity.
