Bible & Christianity › The apostles & the New Testament › Rome destroys the Temple (AD 70)
Church and synagogue part ways
gradual, c. AD 70–135· Event· Church, doctrine & the world
Debated by scholarsHistorians and scholars disagree.
Over several generations after AD 70, the Jesus movement and Judaism became separate religions, a process scholars call 'the parting of the ways'.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
At first Jesus' followers were Jews who prayed in the Temple (Acts 2:46). As Gentiles joined without circumcision, tensions grew. After 70 the rabbis rebuilt Judaism around Torah and synagogue, while Christians saw Jesus as the new Temple. John's Gospel speaks of believers 'put out of the synagogue' (9:22). The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135), whose leader was hailed as messiah, widened the gap. By the 150s Justin Martyr wrote as a member of a separate faith.
Why it matters
It turned a Jewish movement into a largely Gentile religion and left a legacy of Christian hostility to Jews that later fed persecution; the Catholic Church formally repudiated it at Vatican II (1965).
Sources and history
Pieced together from the New Testament, the Mishnah and Talmud, Justin's Dialogue with Trypho (about 155) and Roman sources. As late as 386, John Chrysostom still preached against Christians attending synagogue.
Questions and debates
When the split happened is debated: some point to AD 70 or a Jewish prayer against 'heretics', others argue the lines stayed blurred into the 300s or later.
Connections (3)
▸Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were succeeded by the rabbis during Church and synagogue part waysMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
The Temple's fall wiped out the Sadducees, whose power rested on the priesthood, and the Essenes disappeared. The Pharisees' tradition of Torah study and everyday practice survived and grew into rabbinic Judaism, led first from Yavneh by sages like Yohanan ben Zakkai. Rabbis and church then defined themselves partly against each other.
When and where
Yavneh (Jamnia), near Judea's coast, from about AD 70; later in Galilee, where the Mishnah, the first code of rabbinic law, was compiled about AD 200.
How do we know?
Rabbinic writings trace their teachers back to Pharisees such as Hillel and Gamaliel; Josephus describes the earlier groups. Many scholars think the Gospels' clashes with Pharisees reflect this later rivalry.
Questions and debates
The old idea of a 'Council of Jamnia' that expelled Christians and fixed the Hebrew Bible is now largely rejected. How directly rabbis descend from Pharisees is also debated.
▸Council of Jerusalem: Gentiles welcomed helped set the stage for Church and synagogue part waysMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
By freeing Gentile converts from circumcision and most of the Law, the council let the church grow into a mostly non-Jewish community. Within a few generations Gentiles far outnumbered Jewish believers, and that distinct identity made a separate religion likely once the Temple fell.
When and where
Jerusalem, about AD 49; the effects unfolded in the Gentile churches of Asia Minor, Greece and Rome over the following century.
How do we know?
A historian's inference: no text says the council caused the split, but the shift to a Gentile majority is clear by the 100s.
Questions and debates
Some Jewish Christians, such as the Ebionites and Nazarenes, kept the Law for centuries, so how directly the council led to separation is debated.
▸Rome destroys the Temple (AD 70) hastened Church and synagogue part waysMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
With the Temple gone, Judaism reorganized under the rabbis around Torah, prayer and synagogue. Christians, who already saw Jesus as the final sacrifice, read the destruction as the sign of a new era. Each group rebuilt its identity separately, and the overlap shrank.
When and where
Judea and the Jewish communities abroad, from AD 70; then the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135), after which Jews were banned from Jerusalem.
How do we know?
Historians widely accept AD 70 as a turning point, though written evidence for the decades just after it is thin.
Questions and debates
Some scholars argue AD 70 mattered less than the Bar Kokhba revolt or the Christian empire of the 300s, when the lines finally hardened.