Alexander PWPRJ 1992

In this essay by Phillip Alexander, he begins by approaching the question of "when did Christianity and Judaism part company and go their separate ways?" Alexander immediately answers that of course this question is not quite so simple and its answer must be approached with caution. He takes the time to clarify this issue itself by examing the present situation where Judaism and Christianity are "manifestly separate religions" (1). Alexander claims that two modern events have brought this issue to the forefront; the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Both these events in different ways make Christianity need to re-examine its position of triumphalism over Judaism.

Alexander begins his attack of this parting by trying to establish a definition of "normative Judaism" and then how and when Christianity came to diverge from this. He makes the point of rabbinic Judaism's rise to power and coming to be equated with this normal Judaism, but that this hadn't occurred on a large scale before the 3rd century and then only probably in Palestine. Alexander goes on to explain all this and how the rabbis' defining of a Jew and their insistence upon it came to make the rift to begin to grow wider between Judaism and Christianity.