Explain Christmas to a Jewish woman

[buyjupiter]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 5:20pm

Firstly, Mary was called Miriam, until the Bible was translated into Latin. Then she was called Maria, the Latinized version of Miriam.
Secondly, Jesus was a rabbi (or teacher) of sorts. Many dismissed him because there were so many so called "messiahs" around the time of Jesus.
Thirdly, Christianity splits away from Judaism in around 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. This is also the time in which the Gospels were written. (According to archaelogical evidence).

I'm very interested in this sort of thing and have taken a History of Judaism class, and a world religions class, so I'm basing most of my information from that and the history books I've read.