How Jesus Became Christian.

Stephen Greenhalgh is Prospect Research Analyst, Advancement Services,
University of Alberta.

How Jesus Became Christian is the first work by Barrie Wilson, a professor of religious studies at York University, intended for a lay audience.

In the first chapter, “The Cover-Up,” Wilson states that his intention is to demonstrate how Jesus went from being a Jewish rabbi to the messiah of an entirely new religion, Christianity. Wilson argues that Jesus’ ministry was intentionally shifted from a Jesus Movement, one focused on Jesus the person and observing the Torah, to a Christ Movement, one focused on the divine Christ and salvation for all. The shift from the Jesus to the Christ occurred due to the efforts of the Apostle Paul and later Christian theologians, who sought to distance and even detach Jesus from his Jewish heritage so as to give Jesus’ message wider appeal.

Wilson’s depth of knowledge regarding the early years of Christianity, as well as life in first-century Judea, is apparent; however, the direction in which his book unfolds may take some readers by surprise. While Wilson states that his intention is to explore the evolution of Jesus from rabbi to messiah, the path which his narration eventually takes is to chronicle the rise of Christian anti-Semitism between the first and fourth centuries. The focus on Christian anti-Semitism is only subtly suggested in the beginning chapter, but becomes more evident the further one reads.

In addition, while Wilson is careful to note that the four New Testament gospels were written at least two generations following Jesus’ death and are thus not reliable historical texts, he is just as quick to cite them in the support of his argument as he is to dismiss them. Lastly, while Wilson does succeed in recreating the world in which the Jewish Jesus would have lived, he fails to establish a clear picture of the historical Jesus; doing so would have allowed Wilson to more effectively relate Jesus’ transformation from Jewish rabbi into Christian messiah.