Interview with Simcha Jacobovci on the So-Called “Judaeo-Christians”
by James Tabor
Millions of Christians don’t really think of Jesus as a Jew and most do not know that his earliest followers continued to live according to their Jewish faith. These Judaeo-Christians, as they are sometimes called, upheld many facets of the Jewish faith, including observing the Sabbath, the Jewish festivals, the dietary laws. They believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they denied he was a God or born without a father. They were various called Nazarenes or Ebionites, but most often heretics by the later, largely Gentile church, see my post “Tracking the Original Followers of Jesus” here.
In this video Simcha Jacobovici, filmmaker of The Lost Tomb of Jesus, talks about the first followers of Jesus: how this early Christian sect was persecuted and when they moved underground.
I will be giving a lecture on this topic at the upcoming Biblical Archaeology Society “Bible Fest,” in Chicago, November 16-18. Simcha is also planning to be there and he and I are both giving presentations at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting, which meets in Chicago on that same weekend. I hope to see or meet many of you there. See here for details.
