Since the days of Christ and the apostles, church-vs-synagogue relations have been anything but good. What started as a movement within Judaism became a separate movement all its own. The hostility was compounded by the synagogue's reaction to what it regarded as a heretical sect. The church responded with an over-reaction all its own. The rancor increased over centuries, and as the church became mainstream in formerly pagan society, the Old Testament "People of the Book" were increasingly marginalized and persecuted. In the midst of all this, and DESPITE it all, many Jewish people came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised Messiah of Scripture. This Thursday we look at it all more closely in the first of a 5-part series.
