Abraham Geiger on the Origins of Christianity

This study examines Geiger's central historical scholarship in order to establish the method of argumentation he developed concerning the influence of Judaism on the origins of Islam and Christianity. Geiger's interest in issues of Christian origins and the Jewish background to it functioned in three central ways. First, he used his scholarship as a tool to overcome the anti-Judaism he identified in Christian scholarship. Second, he argued that scholarly study of Judaism was not only important, but essential to a thorough understanding of the New Testament and early Christian history. Third, he developed a Jewish version of the rise and development of Christianity, with particular attention to the figures of Jesus and Paul, whom he set within the context of rabbinic Judaism.