Someone elsewhere asked me how to educate oneself away from Christian supersessionism, and wondered about a more radical Jewish-Christian split that happened around Constantine. (It was before Constantine).

Here's what I said, if it's useful to anyone else.

1/x Thread.

Oh, the radical split happened way before Constantine. Judaism began changing and adapting itself to distinguish from early Christian communities probably not long after the Second Temple was destroyed, and as I'm sure you know,

the Pauline discussion about whether or not Christians were required to observe mitzvot was also part of this significant break. What I think a lot of Christians don't understand is how radically and drastically Judaism has transformed since the Second Temple, and the fact that

most of this transformation happened in non-Christian spaces (the Talmud and post-Talmudic commentators: what's now Iraq. Maimonides: Egypt. The Kabbalists: Land of Israel in the 15th c. Etc. (More on that here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1089589999920660484)

Judaism now is as indistinguishable to Jesus' life as an Evangelical megachurch is. The notion that Christianity kept evolving and refining (Constantine! Luther! American Christianity!) but that Judaism is frozen in carbonite like Han Solo is an often unconscious but nonetheless

harmful idea that many Christians hold. Definitely continuing to learn about Judaism and Jewish history can help inform and contextualize so much. I'd start with Shaye Cohen's From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, and then maybe Steinsaltz' The Essential Talmud, and then perhaps

some of the broader overviews here (or you can dip in anywhere your interests lie, maybe). https://mobile.twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1081996633188061184

And needless to say, more understanding of the actual historical context of Jesus' life is really important and helpful, as well as understanding Jewish law a bit better (this thread and the ones at the bottom): https://mobile.twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1093962230369058816

Part of the work of respecting other faiths and cultures is understanding the ways in which they have and do hold agency, have and do evolve and change, and have and do things that are completely independant of relationship to your own cultural or religious perspective.

Dominant culture wants everything everybody else does to be all about them. It is not always. Learning more about Judaism and Jewish history is absolutely the right first step to beginning to really internalize this.

(I know I say this ALL THE TIME but it always seems like there's someone else who needs to hear it, sooo.)