Did most of the Jews of the first century AD become Christian?

Answer 1

Yes. The very first Christians were a small number of people who were originally Jews. However, Christianity did not become popular in the Jewish community. It grew quickly due to the decision to proselytize to the Greeks.

Answer 2

A:During the period of the pagan empire, Judaism was treated with respect for its perceived antiquity and its monotheistic beliefs. Jews were even exempted from military duty on the grounds that they would have been required to eat pork during military service.

A number of Jewish uprisings resulted in harsh retribution by the Roman authorities, but this did not generally temper the tolerance of the empire towards the Jewish faith. Restrictions were put in place after the Second Roman-Jewish War, but Emperor Antoninus Pius soon restored their privileges on the condition that the Jews did not convert pagans.

Things changed for the worse under the Christian emperors of the fourth century, beginning with Constantine. Constantine issued legislation that both imposed penalties on anyone who converted to Judaism and forbade Jews to disturb those who had been converted from Judaism to Christianity. He also issued an edict, similar to earlier legislation, demanding that a Jew forfeit any slave whom he had purchased and circumcised. Some Jews who tried to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem were brutally punished.

Later in the fourth century, the pagan Julian the Apostate undertook the rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, but he died in battle and was the last Roman emperor ever to be sympathetic to the Jews. Christianity had achieved total domination in the Roman Empire by the end of the century, and the Jewish people had no allies against Christian imperial intolerance.

Answer 3

By no means. Not in that century or any other.

According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of Jesus. The Torah-sages were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:
Hecateus declares again, "what regard we [Jews] have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."
No one (even any of them who did hear of Jesus) - would have given any consideration to what was and is considered unacceptable for us.

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The few who came in contact with Jesus soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

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We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.
Here is a related topic:
The Jewish requirements of the messiah have not yet been fulfilled. They are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.