James Parkes does a wonderful job of bringing to the table both sides of a highly distorted story and instead of pointing blame gives us a brilliantly articulated unbiased account of the facts. Although his blatant loyalties sometimes made me leery of continuing on, I was pleasantly surprised to find that his conclusions ultimately mean that he has found evidence which proves that the foundational doctrines and religious dogmas which are the framework of Xy were established by and contingent upon the rejection of Judaism. This being so, the notion that a devout Jew was the founder of said religion becomes completely unthinkable and the extension that Judaism itself is the parent belief system to it even more outlandish.

James gives us concrete proof that as a result of the choices made by the majority of non-יהודי and Hellenist converts to this new sect in conjunction with willful ignorance of the pristine non-selective tradition of תורה, a consensus had been reached to reject all associations with the יהודים and completely separate themselves from adherence to and practice of תורה. This left a void of foundation which was gradually filled with Paganism. Mr. Parkes makes it very clear that from the inauguration of the Pauline religion the יהודים likewise made a clear distinction between the Xians and the נצרים. Only indirect evidence can lead us to draw these conclusions but it is more than a likely assumption given that it is unlawful for יהודים to have fellowship with anyone who is not a יהודי unless they meet the provisional requirements of a גר תושב.

This book made me realize that what I previously thought would be a clear cut answer to my questions is full of gray areas and without consideration of all the variables involved one cannot possibly hope to unravel the understanding of what truly happened following the death of יהושעריבי concerning the separation between Jew and Xian.