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The History of Jewish Christianity from the First to the Twentieth Century
Written by the late Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield. Re-edited and re-printed by Bruce R. Booker under permission of The Hugh & Helene Schonfield World Service Trust . This is a great book that has been out of print since 1936. It tracks the history of Jewish Christianity since the First Century and why it seems to have virtually disappeared until recent decades - reappearing as the Messianic Movement.
184 pages
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 2, 2025
Schofield provides a nice overview of Jewish Christianity/ Jewish Christians after the NT period.
The beginning is constricted through various apocryphal post-NT literature which is interesting. I have read other works where they make this construction.
The best overall part of the book was the detail history of Jewish Christians and their individual histories throughout the Middle Ages. As there was no coherent organized group of Jewish believing Christians outside the mainstream Catholic Church at the time, this history was extremely well researched.
His conclusion is inspiring, as he writes in 1932/33 with the rise of the Nazis but before the official outbreak of the war, that the Land of Israel will rise and that Jewish Christians will play a major part. Inspiring.
The beginning is constricted through various apocryphal post-NT literature which is interesting. I have read other works where they make this construction.
The best overall part of the book was the detail history of Jewish Christians and their individual histories throughout the Middle Ages. As there was no coherent organized group of Jewish believing Christians outside the mainstream Catholic Church at the time, this history was extremely well researched.
His conclusion is inspiring, as he writes in 1932/33 with the rise of the Nazis but before the official outbreak of the war, that the Land of Israel will rise and that Jewish Christians will play a major part. Inspiring.
February 25, 2026
This is a very interesting book indeed. But to be extremely clear, the 'Jewish Christianity' it describes is akin to what we would today call Messianic Judaism, which involves the full Jewish observance (without the Temple), so not really a Christianity at all. That does mean that 'christianity' is used in a very loose sense indeed, and the authority structure of the Church of Christ are not simply bypassed but dispensed with altogether as foreign ('Gentile'). Like so many 'christian' bodies that have been created throughout history and often called heretic, this phenomenon involves the rejection of the authority structure of the bishops, although the author is happy to notes when a 'Jewish Christian' is baptised and ascends through the ranks of the clergy and becomes even bishop, and possibly pope (one occasion is noted). The author therefore calls the Apostolic Church the 'Gentile Christian church,' and opposes her to the 'Jewish Christians' of his conception. Strangely, he coopts the earliest bishops of the Jerusalem church, S. James and S. Simeon (who were in full communion with the Apostolic churches of Rome, Antioch and Alexandria), for his purpose.
In the earliest days of the church, the phenomenon was called ebionitism, and the ebionaeans were carefully excluded from communion with the Catholic Church (the author's 'Gentile Christians'), and as the Catholic Church gained power from the fourth century onwards, the ebionaeans quickly vanished. This makes the big, nasty Catholic Church into a growing villain for this history, and the only mentions of 'Jewish Christians' in the medieval period are those who found their way into the Catholic Church, or those who as 'conversos' were actually Jews who went through the motions of baptism but continued to live their Jewish observance in private, causing immense offence to the Church authorities and so being hunted and persecuted. Even the protestant rebels could not tolerate this hypocrisy of the conversos and only the post-Enlightenment period of growing tolerance could satisfy the author's desire for a loose notion of Christianity, free from the requirements and authority structures of the now several church authorities.
The only unbending authority until the end of the history has been the Catholic Church, which has carefully preserved her concept of Apostolic authority that does not permit the type of permissiveness that the author wishes. She is therefore carefully sidestepped, and the only 'Gentile' church authority mentioned from the nineteenth century onwards is the liberal episcopate of the established Anglican Church of England and the episcopalian churches of North America, who had begun an emotional acceptance of 'Jewish Christianity' towards the end of that century. From the days of Theodore Hertzl therefore, and parallel with the new rise in national consciousness among the global Jewish community, the trend within the author's 'Jewish Christianity' has been a very simple messianic Judaism, heavily focused on Scripture, and on a missionary outreach to the Jewish community in general and with an optional dedication to zionism.
The best feature of this book is its careful journey through the historical periods that are so familiar, but from the particular perspective of Jews with a belief in Christ as Messiah.
In the earliest days of the church, the phenomenon was called ebionitism, and the ebionaeans were carefully excluded from communion with the Catholic Church (the author's 'Gentile Christians'), and as the Catholic Church gained power from the fourth century onwards, the ebionaeans quickly vanished. This makes the big, nasty Catholic Church into a growing villain for this history, and the only mentions of 'Jewish Christians' in the medieval period are those who found their way into the Catholic Church, or those who as 'conversos' were actually Jews who went through the motions of baptism but continued to live their Jewish observance in private, causing immense offence to the Church authorities and so being hunted and persecuted. Even the protestant rebels could not tolerate this hypocrisy of the conversos and only the post-Enlightenment period of growing tolerance could satisfy the author's desire for a loose notion of Christianity, free from the requirements and authority structures of the now several church authorities.
The only unbending authority until the end of the history has been the Catholic Church, which has carefully preserved her concept of Apostolic authority that does not permit the type of permissiveness that the author wishes. She is therefore carefully sidestepped, and the only 'Gentile' church authority mentioned from the nineteenth century onwards is the liberal episcopate of the established Anglican Church of England and the episcopalian churches of North America, who had begun an emotional acceptance of 'Jewish Christianity' towards the end of that century. From the days of Theodore Hertzl therefore, and parallel with the new rise in national consciousness among the global Jewish community, the trend within the author's 'Jewish Christianity' has been a very simple messianic Judaism, heavily focused on Scripture, and on a missionary outreach to the Jewish community in general and with an optional dedication to zionism.
The best feature of this book is its careful journey through the historical periods that are so familiar, but from the particular perspective of Jews with a belief in Christ as Messiah.
May 30, 2022
Some interesting historical nuggets, but no wonder Schonfield became an apostate! He was a heretic from the start, never a Bible Christian.
December 19, 2009
Although originally published about 80 years ago, this guy understands the key issues of the Messianic movement today. He also was able to tell some interesting historical stories that are not as commonly told today. Overall, this was a superb book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews