Sheshbazzar
There is no desire by Tanaka educated and observant Jews to 'convert' gentiles to 'Judaism', and to make 'Jews' out of them.
For to do such would only be counter-productive, in bringing gentiles now free from curses of the Law of Moses, to under the curses of that Law, to their condemnation and damnation for transgression thereof. No gain there.
Thank you Sheshbazzar, for another well written response, always worthwhile reading.
I had sought to engage you on your notion, according to your quotes from Jeremiah 31:31, that observant Jews were waiting for a messiah and new covenant, and therefore, there was nothing particularly startling about “Paul's” epistle 1 Corinthians announcing the “new” covenant.
The OP challenges the prevailing notion, that Christianity is a Jewish derivative. I don't deny that much of the trappings of Christianity come from ancient Judaism. I simply deny that the fundamental aspect of Christianity is Jewish. The cake is Paganism. The frosting is Judaism. Like all good cakes, there is quite a bit of frosting in the middle!!!!
(yes, I am a bit overweight)
What about a laboratory exercise, to help us along, in figuring out whether or not Christianity arose from Jewish congregations, who were unhappy with the prospects of their ancient heritage, and sought to find something new and better: belief in the son of YHWH, as human's saviour. Of course they did not call him YHWH, did they? Nope, they may as well have called him Zeus, for they certainly attributed to the father of this saviour, the behaviour of Zeus, descending to terra firma to impregnate a young teen age Jewish girl.
So, this laboratory exercise, is found in Ethiopia, where, it turns out, genetic studies have demonstrated a marker or two, unique to one or more Jewish subgroups, in a population, isolated for two millenia from Jerusalem, with an ancient tradition of following the Tanaka, knowing nothing of the Talmud, and include, amongst their ancient princesses, Moses' wife.
The literature, even more confusing than some of the threads on this forum, includes debates among all manner of scholars, arguing not about pins and fairies, but about influences of Christianity on Judaism, and vice versa. What I have found, personally, most interesting in reading these articles by geneticists, archaeologists, and linguists, is the apparent agreement that
evidence of the arrival of Christianity in the horn of Africa is found not before the middle of the fourth century CE.
Why not third century, or second century CE? Did they stop trading during those two centuries? That short crossing point to Yemen has been a trading route for 150,000 years. Jewish missionaries must have traveled there, how else to explain this group of isolated Jews, writing Ge'ez, and ignorant of all Jewish tradition, since the fall of Jerusalem.
Wikipedia wrote
Many of the Beta Israel immigrants, especially those who came from remote villages in Ethiopia, had never used electricity, elevators or televisions. In addition, the adaptation to the Israeli food was difficult.
Ibrahim M. Omer wrote
Sudan connection: Are Ethiopian Jews descendants of the ancient Israelites?
http://geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/ ... sraelites/
the name Ethiopia, in ancient and medieval sources, denoted the Nile valley civilization of Kush, also known today as ancient Nubia, in what is today Northern Sudan.
the religious substance of the Beta Israel has been adapted from the Jewish character already found in Ethiopia’s Christianity. [Jews of Ethiopia are derived from Christianity!!!!]
Linguistic evidence found in translations of Biblical material into Ge’ez, has already shown that a Jewish society had entered Aksum sometime between the first and fourth centuries (Kaplan, 1995, p. 13-20). As a result of this, the influence of Judaism in the Ethiopian Orthodox church has been overwhelming and has no counterpart in the contemporary Christian world. Traditions including circumcision on the eighth day of birth (Ullendorff, 1956), the historical upholding of the Saturday Sabbath (Ullendorff, 1968, p. 109-13), the architectural division system of the Ethiopian church that mimics Solomon’s Temple (Ullendorff, 1968, p. 87-97), as well as a diversity of other features, testify to a powerful former Jewish culture.
The fact that studies found the Beta Israel to be genetically so diverged from other Jewish communities (e.g. Lucotte & Smets, 1999) may suggest that the group was initiated by Jewish settlers who converted a majority of local people to Judaism more than two thousand years ago (Begley, 2012). Accordingly, Entine (2013) concludes, “That would mean that Ethiopian Jewry predates Ashkenazi Jewry” (interview, July 7); however, this does not necessarily suggest that the Beta Israel descent can be specifically traced to the Fertile Crescent.
So, there
were missionaries, converting gentiles, but, WHY?
Wikipedia wrote
According to the beliefs of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the original consonantal form of the Ge'ez fidel was divinely revealed to Henos "as an instrument for codifying the laws", and the present system of vocalisation is attributed to a team of Aksumite scholars led by Frumentius (Abba Selama), the same missionary said to have converted the king Ezana to Christianity in the 4th century AD.
Now, where have we seen that notion: spread of Christianity during the fourth Century CE?
I claim, the new religion sputtered until Constantine, then it exploded. With regard to the OP, I deny that the first Christians were Tanaka educated and observant Jews. They were the poorest outcasts, illiterate, and without hope. Genuine Jews would never willingly consent to follow an apostate, like “Paul”. The Ebionians described by Origen and Tertullian, may have been Jews originally, or, may simply have done like you, Shesh, and studied Hebrew, and understood the ancient texts. So far as I know, we possess no documents written by them.