Annette Y. Reed and Adam H. Becker, “Introduction: Traditional Models and New Directions,” in Adam H. Becker and Annette Y. Reed, eds., The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 1-33 (original) (raw)

For those who seek the origins of our modern conceptions of Judaism and Christianity as ultimately related yet essentially distinct religions, the idea of the "Parting of the Ways" proves powerfully attractive, offering a reassuringly ecumenical etiology of the religious differences between present-day Christians and Jews. 1 In this model Judaism and Christianity are likened to two paths that branched off from a single road, never to cross or converge again. 2 Even as their common origin is affirmed, the allegedly fundamental distinction between the two is explained as a result of a mutual decision, long ago, to part their fates and go their separate ways.