What is the initial encounter of judaism and Christianity?

Answer 1

Christianity is, in fact, an offshoot of Judaism. From a liberal Jewish perspective, Jesus appears to have been squarely in the Jewish prophetic tradition -- condemning those who practiced the rituals of Judaism while more or less ignoring its ethical principles. At the time of Jesus' life, many Jews were in hopes that the Messiah would appear to release them from Roman oppression.

After Jesus' death, his disciples encouraged the belief that Jesus had, in fact, been the promised Messiah, and that the Davidic empire would be restored. When the majority of Jews rejected this belief, the Jewish Christians began to evangelize non-Jews, and the two faiths split.