The Deadlocked Debate about the Role of the Jewish Christians at the Birth of Islam

: The thesis concerning the Jewish-Christian origins of Islam has been continuously defended and developed by a good number of authors, even if the proponents of this line of thought have never constituted a school nor followed a unitary or homogeneous discourse. At the other end of the spectrum, many scholars strongly reject the ‘Jewish-Christian connection’ insofar as it introduces a speculative and unnecessary category in the study on the origins of Islam. The matter has aroused irreconcilable stances, studies that remain alien to each other, or simply seem to ignore the status quaestionis. From the traditional perspective, the debate seems to have reached a deadlock, however, and to explain a possible legal, cultural, and religious ‘Judaeo-Christian’ continuum that could be shared by the early Islamic audience, it might be useful to look around the spectrum of mixed beliefs and practices between the Jewish and Christian orthodoxy that can be found at a time very close to the arrival of Islam.


Introduction
It is a commonly accepted fact that Islam was not a sudden innovation in the religious landscape of its time, but that it emerged gradually from a 'primordial soup' in which pre-existing monotheisms and Arab cultural forms coexisted (Wansbrough 1970(Wansbrough , 1977; . The acceptance of this premise leads logically to the question of how this process developed, generating in turn two major theories that speculate on the religious milieu in which Islam emerged. In a nutshell, the first one, which we might call 'the standard Orientalist position', would assume that the new doctrine was influenced 1 by the main religions of the Middle Eastern environment in the forms in which we know them: Judaism, Christianity Monophysite and Nestorian, Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, and Arab polytheism. Another line of research, more in line with the so-called revisionist movement, argues that the situation was much murkier on the ground. According to this revisionist position, in order to remap the situation in which Islam was born, it would be necessary to consider the evidence pointing to the fact that Arabian, and also Mesopotamian Judaism, was not always rabbinically normative (Robin 2015, pp. 15-295) 2 . In the same vein, Christianity that is reflected in the Qur'ān would be a kind of marginal and Nontrinitarianist movement that might be close to some "Jewish Christian" groups (De Blois 2010, pp. 622-23).
Nevertheless, this latter expression ("Jewish Christian" and its derivatives) is a contested category that is still awaiting an agreed definition (Mimouni 2013, pp. 266-74). It is used to name the disciples of the Jewish tradition who followed Jesus in the earliest church of Jerusalem. It also serves to group into a single category certain texts, figures, and human groups listed in some patristic and late-antique sources that shared the acceptance of a this reason, and although it is possible to recognize in the Qur'ān some theologoumena that are like those attributed to "Judaeo-Christian" doctrines or practices, they would be little more than phenomenological coincidences (Stroumsa 2014, pp. 76, 90;Valkenberg 2018, pp. 49-51; Costa 2020, p. 53).
At first glance, the argument seems to be fully convincing. However, its main problem lies in its uncritical acceptance of the version of the facts provided by the historians and heresiologists of the fourth and fifth centuries-especially that of Eusebius (d. 339), our main source of information on this topic (Yoshiko Reed 2018, pp. 35-36). According to Eusebius' (suspiciously) perfect account, the first Christians formed a community whose origin was Jewish, before they separated from the root at an early date because the "perfidious Jews" refused to accept the new message. This origin could explain the alleged Jewish nature of some Christian features, serving also to posit the existence of certain Christian groups whose orientation remained heretically Jewish in character and practice. Therefore, the true Church, that of the gentility, should be understood as an ἔθνος unrelated to that of the Jews (Yoshiko-Reed 2008; Ulrich 1999). 14 Consequently, Eusebius' model assumes that a small remnant of those who remained anchored in Judaism (our Jewish Christians) survived in a dim existence during the second and third centuries and vanished during the fourth century, without any further continuity. Error! Reference source not found. The argument becomes an ouroboros when checking the documentation on these communities rarely goes beyond this last date (Stroumsa 2014, p. 76; Zellentin 2013, pp. 25-26, note 33), a fact that cannot be overlooked and that contrasts sharply with the abundant information about them coming precisely from the alleged time of this disappearance. These premises have been undermined by another model that questions whether the distinction between Christians and Jews was widespread, if operative at all, before the fourth century in the territories of the Roman Empire (Yoshiko Reed and Becker 2003;Sizgorich 2009, p. 21). 16 Daniel Boyarin has put on the table this daring proposal, maintaining that everything traditionally identified as Christianity existed also in some Jewish movements.
According to Boyarin, it was the conversion of Constantine and the Christianization of the Roman Empire that caused the formation of communal boundaries between Jews and Christians. He also suggests that we should use the more plausible metaphor of a continuum of practices, beliefs, and identities that ran between two poles (Boyarin , 2003Boyarin and Burrus 2005). If this is true, Eusebius's discourse was a development at the service of the new imperial idea, a community of orthodox believers under an orthodox sovereign (Payne 2015, p. 22), a new narrative that brought with it the creation of clear boundaries and reached its peak precisely at the end of the fourth century, when the imperial Christian ο ἰ κουμένη was organized in the form of an opposition between two extremes (Jacobs 2001, pp. 28-29). Within the framework of the official discourse, and to reinforce the binaries, around the year 400 there emerged an interest in cataloging and describing the "Jewish Christians". The Jews used the same anathematizing hybrids to reaffirm their identity. 17 The proposal of a spectrum of Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices between two poles, in blurred areas where identities were gradually diluted, could better explain the strange forms of social contact and worship that can be found beyond the fourth century in some areas of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Ethiopia, and Arabia at a time very close to the arrival of Islam. This was even more true in places where the influence of the imperial narrative was more tenuous. For example, in Mesopotamia, the presence of "Jewish" texts dating back to the fifth to seventh centuries containing Christian invocations with very archaic features, and which cannot easily be explained as a syncretic product, provokes interesting questions about what kind of "Judaism" they would reflect (Bohak 2006, pp. 253-65; Del Río 2021, pp. 43-63; Kiel 2019; Schäfer 2012, pp. 103-49). Indeed, it is possible that there were Jews who held a particular version of Logos theology or had developed a curious binitarianism shared by the Jewish-Babylonian tradition in late antiquity.
κoυµένη was organized in the form of an opposition between two extremes (Jacobs 2001, pp. 28-29). Within the framework of the official discourse, and to reinforce the binaries, around the year 400 there emerged an interest in cataloging and describing the "Jewish Christians". The Jews used the same anathematizing hybrids to reaffirm their identity. 17 The proposal of a spectrum of Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices between two poles, in blurred areas where identities were gradually diluted, could better explain the strange forms of social contact and worship that can be found beyond the fourth century in some areas of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Ethiopia, and Arabia at a time very close to the arrival of Islam. This was even more true in places where the influence of the imperial narrative was more tenuous. For example, in Mesopotamia, the presence of "Jewish" texts dating back to the fifth to seventh centuries containing Christian invocations with very archaic features, and which cannot easily be explained as a syncretic product, provokes interesting questions about what kind of "Judaism" they would reflect (Bohak 2006, pp. 253-65; Del Río 2021, pp. 43-63; Kiel 2019; Schäfer 2012, pp. 103-49). Indeed, it is possible that there were Jews who held a particular version of Logos theology or had developed a curious binitarianism shared by the Jewish-Babylonian tradition in late antiquity.
On the other hand, in the last days of the eastern Umayyads, the synagogue was by no means dead among some Syrian Christians in the region of Antioch and inland Syro-Mesopotamia. They appeared to be full members of the Church while observing Jewish customs and even exegetical traditions in the same terms as it is described in older sources  (Minov 2019, pp. 77-78;Del Río 2021, pp. 83-99). This kind of Christian proliferated in the region of Antioch during the eighth century and were admitted into Jewish places of worship, participating in some of their rites and festivals, a matter which is in line with several canonical interdictions. This would mean that the situation, which had been described and denounced by John Chrysostom and Isaac of Antioch some centuries before, was endemic in the region and persisted beyond the changes brought about by the Islamic conquest. Of course, this tendency of professing Christians to adopt Jewish usages arose in many Mediterranean regions, as it is the case for Cappadocia, North Africa, Gaul, or Visigothic Spain. However, the Syro-Mesopotamian case seems to have been exceptional in terms of its length, influence, and pervasiveness; in view of this permanent tendency, some French scholars have even proposed the concept of a "Jewish-Christian geographic area" (Simon and Benoît 1968, pp. 272-74;Soler 2006, p. 122).
There are many examples scattered throughout a broader textual corpus that deserves to be revisited, and that not only includes the Qur'ān and the early Islamic sources but also the Syriac canonical legislation in its two branches, the strange but extensive body of 'marginal' literature, and the information provided by Christian and Jewish writers, Muslim historians, and geographers of the formative and classical periods. The potential information that will emerge from these sources may perhaps be revealing or irrelevant. Doubtless, it will serve to reconstruct the picture of a religious and social phenomenon that still needs to be further elucidated.

Conclusions
It is practically indisputable that, apart from a few questionable cases, there is not a shred of probative evidence regarding the existence of differentiated and hidden Jewish-Christian communities in Arabia nor in other parts of the Middle East at the time of Muh . ammad (and probably it will never exist). Therefore, I fully agree with the scholars who doubt or even deny the hidden existence of such groups at the birth of Islam. However, the textual corpus, and the information that emerges from it, provides traces of persons and even groups who certainly dwelt in those blurry boundaries situated between those extreme poles of orthodox Judaism and Christianity. In the absence of more precise details, probably the most relevant fact associated with them is that their different behaviors occasionally attracted attention from their more 'orthodox' co-religionists because they, using the expression of the Mu c tazilī scholar Al-Nāšī al-Akbar (d. 906), in some way, "differed from the community", . 18 With few exceptions, the general impression is that people who are described or reflected in these texts were located within the established Jewish or Christian communities as an integral part of them. For this reason, and above our subjectivity and the interests and expectations underlying our defended theories that lead us "to take absence of evidence as evidence of absence" it is worthwhile to wonder whether the preservation of categories such as "Judeo-Christianity" is useful, or whether it simply complicates the study of the origins of Islam. My answer is yes, insofar as it could serve to categorize all the mixed sensibilities, practices, and beliefs that, in some way, might be reflected in the foundational texts of this religion.

16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b Guy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭron and Jesus, highlighting the parallelism between the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and servant. 18. In his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16).

2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia  14.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b Guy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭron and Jesus, highlighting the parallelism between the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and servant. 18. In his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 our main source of information on this topic (Yoshiko Reed 2018, pp. 35-36). According to Eusebius' (suspiciously) perfect account, the first Christians formed a community whose origin was Jewish, before they separated from the root at an early date because the "perfidious Jews" refused to accept the new message. This origin could explain the alleged Jewish nature of some Christian features, serving also to posit the existence of certain Christian groups whose orientation remained heretically Jewish in character and practice. Therefore, the true Church, that of the gentility, should be understood as an ἔθνος unrelated to that of the Jews (Yoshiko-Reed 2008; Ulrich 1999). 14 Consequently, Eusebius' model assumes that a small remnant of those who remained anchored in Judaism (our Jewish Christians) survived in a dim existence during the second and third centuries and vanished during the fourth century, without any further continuity. Error! Reference source not found. The argument becomes an ouroboros when checking the documentation on these communities rarely goes beyond this last date (Stroumsa 2014, p. 76; Zellentin 2013, pp. 25-26, note 33), a fact that cannot be overlooked and that contrasts sharply with the abundant information about them coming precisely from the alleged time of this disappearance. These premises have been undermined by another model that questions whether the distinction between Christians and Jews was widespread, if operative at all, before the fourth century in the territories of the Roman Empire (Yoshiko Reed and Becker 2003; Sizgorich 2009, p. 21). 16 Daniel Boyarin has put on the table this daring proposal, maintaining that everything traditionally identified as Christianity existed also in some Jewish movements.
According to Boyarin, it was the conversion of Constantine and the Christianization of the Roman Empire that caused the formation of communal boundaries between Jews and Christians. He also suggests that we should use the more plausible metaphor of a continuum of practices, beliefs, and identities that ran between two poles (Boyarin , 2003Boyarin and Burrus 2005). If this is true, Eusebius's discourse was a development at the service of the new imperial idea, a community of orthodox believers under an orthodox sovereign (Payne 2015, p. 22), a new narrative that brought with it the creation of clear boundaries and reached its peak precisely at the end of the fourth century, when the imperial Christian ο ἰ κουμένη was organized in the form of an opposition between two extremes (Jacobs 2001, pp. 28-29). Within the framework of the official discourse, and to reinforce the binaries, around the year 400 there emerged an interest in cataloging and describing the "Jewish Christians". The Jews used the same anathematizing hybrids to reaffirm their identity. 17 The proposal of a spectrum of Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices between two poles, in blurred areas where identities were gradually diluted, could better explain the strange forms of social contact and worship that can be found beyond the fourth century in some areas of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Ethiopia, and Arabia at a time very close to the arrival of Islam. This was even more true in places where the influence of the imperial narrative was more tenuous. For example, in Mesopotamia, the presence of "Jewish" texts dating back to the fifth to seventh centuries containing Christian invocations with very archaic features, and which cannot easily be explained as a syncretic product, provokes interesting questions about what kind of "Judaism" they would reflect ( For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16).

2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Annette Yoshiko Reed (2018, pp. xxi, xxv) regularly uses the expression between quotation marks. She sets forth the reasons to retain the term. For his part, and despite his reservations, Holger Zellentin (2013, p. 25) accepts the term for lack of a better one.

5.
Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9. This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia (2012, pp. 231-67). Regardless, some of the more recent of Segovia's works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Islamic origins. Zellentin's proposals have been criticized by Stephen Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, pp. 172-73). In any case, it seems difficult for the critics to give an alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "The pertinent texts, such as the Didascalia and others, like the Pseudo-Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and importance to the wider Christian communities of late antiquity" (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10.
Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thought would have its hub in the United States, with some followers in the European academy. As has already been noted by Robert Hoyland (2012, p. 1056), the situation had been made worse after September 2001, pushing scholars into being involuntarily anti-Muslim propagandists (in the case of revisionists) or apologists for it (in the case of traditionalists). 13. Oὕτω δὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἐρημίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους παντελῆ τε φθορὰν τῶν πάλαι οἰκητόρων ἐλθούσης ἐξ ἀλλοφύλου τε γένους συνοικισθείσης […] Καὶ δὴ τῆς αὐτόθι ἐκκλησίας ἐξ ἐθνῶν συγκροτηθείσης… "Thus, when the city came to be bereft of the nation of the ancient inhabitants has completely perished, it was colonized by foreigners […] The church too, in it was composed of Gentiles..." Ecclesiastical History I, IV, vi.4, and also I, I. ix; III, v.3; IV, v.2, and vi.3. (Eusebius 1926). 14.
See, for example, the significative title of Ray A. Pritz's work (Pritz 1988). 15. Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.

17.
Guy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭron and Jesus, highlighting the parallelism between the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and servant. 18. In his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014).

4.
Annette Yoshiko Reed (2018, pp. xxi, xxv) regularly uses the expression between quotation marks. She sets forth the reasons to retain the term. For his part, and despite his reservations, Holger Zellentin (2013, p. 25) accepts the term for lack of a better one.

5.
Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia  14.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia  14.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6.
This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 14.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as   This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasa Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obviou for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia  See, for example, the significative title of Ray A. Pritz's work (Pritz 1988). 15.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16 hough it is possible to recognize in the Qur'ān some theologoumena ttributed to "Judaeo-Christian" doctrines or practices, they would be enomenological coincidences (Stroumsa 2014, pp. 76, 90; Valkenberg sta 2020, p. 53). the argument seems to be fully convincing. However, its main probtical acceptance of the version of the facts provided by the historians f the fourth and fifth centuries-especially that of Eusebius (d. 339), information on this topic (Yoshiko Reed 2018, pp. 35-36). According iciously) perfect account, the first Christians formed a community wish, before they separated from the root at an early date because the fused to accept the new message. This origin could explain the alleged me Christian features, serving also to posit the existence of certain hose orientation remained heretically Jewish in character and practice. Church, that of the gentility, should be understood as an ἔθνος unreews (Yoshiko-Reed 2008; Ulrich 1999). 14 Eusebius' model assumes that a small remnant of those who remained (our Jewish Christians) survived in a dim existence during the secries and vanished during the fourth century, without any further conent becomes an ouroboros when checking the documentation on these goes beyond this last date (Stroumsa 2014, p. 76; Zellentin 2013, pp. ct that cannot be overlooked and that contrasts sharply with the abunbout them coming precisely from the alleged time of this disappeares have been undermined by another model that questions whether een Christians and Jews was widespread, if operative at all, before the he territories of the Roman Empire (Yoshiko Reed and Becker 2003; 1). 16 Daniel Boyarin has put on the table this daring proposal, mainng traditionally identified as Christianity existed also in some Jewish oyarin, it was the conversion of Constantine and the Christianization ire that caused the formation of communal boundaries between Jews also suggests that we should use the more plausible metaphor of a ces, beliefs, and identities that ran between two poles . If this is true, Eusebius's discourse was a developof the new imperial idea, a community of orthodox believers under an (Payne 2015, p. 22), a new narrative that brought with it the creation and reached its peak precisely at the end of the fourth century, when ian οἰκουμένη was organized in the form of an opposition between s 2001, pp. 28-29). Within the framework of the official discourse, and ries, around the year 400 there emerged an interest in cataloging and ish Christians". The Jews used the same anathematizing hybrids to ity. 17 f a spectrum of Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices between d areas where identities were gradually diluted, could better explain f social contact and worship that can be found beyond the fourth cenf Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Ethiopia, and Arabia at a time rival of Islam. This was even more true in places where the influence ative was more tenuous. For example, in Mesopotamia, the presence ting back to the fifth to seventh centuries containing Christian invocaaic features, and which cannot easily be explained as a syncretic prod- For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hug 2. Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until to Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a cons produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), de a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). O all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ib Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish C for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9. This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia (2012, pp. 231-67). Reg works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Islamic origins. Zellent Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, pp. 172-73). In any cas alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "The pertinent texts, such Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and importance to the w (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10.
Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thought would have its hub in the U pean academy. 11.
As has already been noted by Robert Hoyland (2012, p. 1056), the situation had be scholars into being involuntarily anti-Muslim propagandists (in the case of revisi tionalists). 13. Oὕτω δὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἐρημίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους παντελῆ τε φθορὰν τῶ τε γένους συνοικισθείσης […] Καὶ δὴ τῆς αὐτόθι ἐκκλησίας ἐξ ἐθνῶν συγκρο bereft of the nation of the ancient inhabitants has completely perished, it was colo was composed of Gentiles..." Ecclesiastical History I, IV, vi.4, and also I, I. ix; III, v 14. See, for example, the significative title of Ray A. Pritz's work (Pritz 1988 Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two mod refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at ha 16. Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a bo (Boyarin 2004b, pp Guy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭr tween the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and serva 18. In his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16).

2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 14.

15.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16).

2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Annette Yoshiko Reed (2018, pp. xxi, xxv) regularly uses the expression between quotation marks. She sets forth the reasons to retain the term. For his part, and despite his reservations, Holger Zellentin (2013, p. 25) accepts the term for lack of a better one.

5.
Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia (2012, pp. 231-67). Regardless, some of the more recent of Segovia's works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Islamic origins. Zellentin's proposals have been criticized by Stephen Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, pp. 172-73). In any case, it seems difficult for the critics to give an alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "The pertinent texts, such as the Didascalia and others, like the Pseudo-Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and importance to the wider Christian communities of late antiquity" (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10.
Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thought would have its hub in the United States, with some followers in the European academy. 14.

15.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia (2012, pp. 231-67). Regardless, some of the more recent of Segovia's works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Islamic origins. Zellentin's proposals have been criticized by Stephen Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, pp. 172-73). In any case, it seems difficult for the critics to give an alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "The pertinent texts, such as the Didascalia and others, like the Pseudo-Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and importance to the wider Christian communities of late antiquity" (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73 14. See, for example, the significative title of Ray A. Pritz's work (Pritz 1988). 15.
Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. 16.
Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity (Boyarin 2004b Guy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭron and Jesus, highlighting the parallelism between the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and servant. 18. In his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 our main source of information on this topic (Yoshiko Reed 2018 to Eusebius' (suspiciously) perfect account, the first Christian whose origin was Jewish, before they separated from the root at a "perfidious Jews" refused to accept the new message. This origin c Jewish nature of some Christian features, serving also to posit Christian groups whose orientation remained heretically Jewish i Therefore, the true Church, that of the gentility, should be under lated to that of the Jews (Yoshiko-Reed 2008; Ulrich 1999). 14 Consequently, Eusebius' model assumes that a small remnan anchored in Judaism (our Jewish Christians) survived in a dim e ond and third centuries and vanished during the fourth century, w tinuity. Error! Reference source not found.
The argument becomes an ourobo documentation on these communities rarely goes beyond this last 76; Zellentin 2013, pp. 25-26, note 33), a fact that cannot be overlo sharply with the abundant information about them coming pre time of this disappearance. These premises have been undermine questions whether the distinction between Christians and Jews w ative at all, before the fourth century in the territories of the Roma and Becker 2003; Sizgorich 2009, p. 21). 16 Daniel Boyarin has put proposal, maintaining that everything traditionally identified as C in some Jewish movements.
According to Boyarin, it was the conversion of Constantine of the Roman Empire that caused the formation of communal bo and Christians. He also suggests that we should use the more p continuum of practices, beliefs, and identities that ran between tw 2003, 2019; Boyarin and Burrus 2005). If this is true, Eusebius's d ment at the service of the new imperial idea, a community of orth orthodox sovereign (Payne 2015, p. 22), a new narrative that brou of clear boundaries and reached its peak precisely at the end of th the imperial Christian ο ἰ κουμένη was organized in the form of two extremes (Jacobs 2001, pp. 28-29). Within the framework of th to reinforce the binaries, around the year 400 there emerged an in describing the "Jewish Christians". The Jews used the same ana reaffirm their identity. 17 The proposal of a spectrum of Jewish and Christian beliefs two poles, in blurred areas where identities were gradually dilut the strange forms of social contact and worship that can be found tury in some areas of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Ethio very close to the arrival of Islam. This was even more true in pla of the imperial narrative was more tenuous. For example, in Me of "Jewish" texts dating back to the fifth to seventh centuries cont tions with very archaic features, and which cannot easily be expla For some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded an 2.
Against the line followed by many works from the ninete Mazuz 2014 This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European" other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who co for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9. This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Is Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, p alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "Th Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10. Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thought would pean academy. 11.

12.
As has already been noted by Robert Hoyland (2012, p. 1056 scholars into being involuntarily anti-Muslim propagandist tionalists). 13. Oὕτω δὴ τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἐρημίαν τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους πα τε γένους συνοικισθείσης […] Καὶ δὴ τῆς αὐτόθι ἐκκλησ bereft of the nation of the ancient inhabitants has completely was composed of Gentiles..." Ecclesiastical History I, IV, vi.4 14. See, for example, the significative title of Ray A. Pritz's wor 15. Michel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explan refer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suita 16. Even Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentativ (Boyarin 2004b λθo or some authors, the notion of "influence" is outmoded and anachronistic (Hughes 2020, p. 16). gainst the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as    (Pritz 1988). ichel Butts and Gross (2020, pp. 9-11) offer a good explanation of these two models. Although the statements of these authors efer specifically to Syriac Christianity, the template is suitable for the topic at hand. ven Julian's reforms of 362 can be interpreted as a tentative move to impose a boundary between 'Hellenism' and Christianity Boyarin 2004b, pp. 25, 31-32; Sizgorich 2009, pp. 24-42). uy Stroumsa (1992, pp. 43-63) has pointed out the similarities between Meṭaṭron and Jesus, highlighting the parallelism beween the numeric amount of both names, and the shared figure of son and servant. n his work ‫ﺍﻟﻨﺼﺎﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ّ ‫,ﺍﻟﺮﺩ‬ edited and translated by David Thomas (2008, p. 42 For some authors, the notion of "influence" is ou 2. Against the line followed by many works from Mazuz 2014).

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, ba Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,201 for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ān 9. This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christiani Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffit alternative explanation for the more striking para Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of in (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10. Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thou pean academy. 11.
Against the line followed by many works from the nineteenth century until today (such as  or, more recently, Mazuz 2014 Annette Yoshiko Reed (2018, pp. xxi, xxv) regularly uses the expression between quotation marks. She sets forth the reasons to retain the term. For his part, and despite his reservations, Holger Zellentin (2013, p. 25) accepts the term for lack of a better one.

5.
Peter Von Sivers (2003, pp. 3-4) interprets Qur'ānic apocalypticism as a consequence of the political and social instability produced by the Roman-Persian wars of 603-629. Jean Daniélou (1964, p. 11), defended the argument that apocalypticism was a typical feature of Judaeo-Christian theology. 6. This kind of argumentation seems to be more "European". It has its epicenter in France and Germany, but with followers in other countries (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, and United States). Of course, such statement should be taken with all the cautions.

7.
Roncaglia developed Harnack's theories and, based on the legend of Waraqa ibn Nawfal, postulated an Elchasaite origin for Islam identifiying Ebionism with Elchasaism. 8. This is the case of the late Patricia Crone (2015,2016), who concluded that Jewish Christians were "the most obvious candidates" for the role of transmitters of a number of Qur'ānic themes. 9.
This kind of argument was also used by Carlos A. Segovia (2012, pp. 231-67). Regardless, some of the more recent of Segovia's works tend to identify a pro-Nestorian Christianity in the Islamic origins. Zellentin's proposals have been criticized by Stephen Shoemaker (2018, pp. 104-5) and Sydney Griffith (2015, pp. 172-73). In any case, it seems difficult for the critics to give an alternative explanation for the more striking parallels: "The pertinent texts, such as the Didascalia and others, like the Pseudo-Clementine corpus, simply continued to be of interest and importance to the wider Christian communities of late antiquity" (Griffith 2015, pp. 172-73). 10.
Again, and with all the cautions, this line of thought would have its hub in the United States, with some followers in the European academy. 11.
As has already been noted by Robert Hoyland (2012, p. 1056), the situation had been made worse after September 2001, pushing scholars into being involuntarily anti-Muslim propagandists (in the case of revisionists) or apologists for it (in the case of traditionalists). 13.