This book centres on the three centuries from 1 B C to 3 AD., during which time Jesus lived and died, and his followers
Influence of the Greco-Roman beliefs over the Jewish people was strong and four factions arose 1)Sadducees - had temple control
and advocated accommodation with the Romans 2) Pharissses- taught Torah (law) and focussed on education 3) Essenes - preferred
separation to avoid contamination and 4) Zealots - who offered active rebellion After the death of Jesus, his brother James originated
the Ebionites or Jesus
Movement which followed Jesus's teachings, were Torah-observant, and expected Jesus as a human to return as
the Messiah. Paul, who never knew Jesus, and lived in the Diaspora, led the Christ Movement which distanced itself from James, and
restrictions of the Torah, dietary limitations and circumcision. This attracted many Gentile adherents. The rebellious Zealots were brutally
put down by the Romans. In order to make his ideas more attractive, Paul incorporated much of Greco-Roman myth into his beliefs,
introducing divine ancestry ( Holy Trinity, Virgin Birth, death and resurrection) and had to demonise the Jewish Movement. The disciples,
Matthew and Luke in particular, depicted Pontius's washing of the hands of Jesius's blood and the acceptance of this by the Sadducees as
evidence of the blame for the crucifixion on the whole Jewish nation. Anti-Semitism springs from here, and was encouraged and practised
by the growing
Christian Movement. The acceptance of Christianity by Constantine could not conceive blame of the Romans in Jesus's
death, and in the search of a scapegoat found the Jewish race eminently convenient and apt.