ABSTRACT
J Esus was born among Jews on Jewish soil, and his message was for Jews alone. In its origin, therefore, and in so far as it is dependent on its traditional founder, Christianity must be considered a Jewish phenomenon. When Jesus ended his ministry, it was not yet a religion, but at least it was the embodiment of a great hope. Jews first carried it into Greek soil, where an extraordinary success awaited it, and there, too, it found its first home in the hearts of Jews, or of those who were already influenced and prepared for its reception by Jewish propaganda. Finally it was only under the protection of the privileges which the Jewish nation had acquired in the Empire that the first Christian communities were able to spring up and take root without exciting the suspicion of the Roman authorities.
