Looking at Early Christianity While visiting my mother, who has a fabulous library, I picked up a book by James H. Charlesworth called "The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament." Looking at the roots of Christianity, it is helpful to understand Judaism at the time of Jesus to understand His message and the movements that started up afterwards. I realized, reading the prologue, that I have always thought of the Judaic Church (for lack of a better phrase) as today's Roman Catholic Church: a monolithic control of God power structure. This may be the wrong impression. Charlesworth points out that Judaism promoted diversity, and there wasn't unifying creed, as in Christianity. I will have to look into this.  ¶ 7:20 PM