Understanding the origins and beginnings of Christianity historically and placing them within the context of historical development is one of the greatest tasks facing historians. However, with anxious reluctance, all historians have so far avoided this challenge: they take Christianity as a given, tracing its further development, the influences of general cultural currents, and the conflicts it encounters with world powers; yet they seem to regard its beginnings as outside their scope. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of highly significant material here that awaits historical treatment; on the other hand, the usual representations lack substance when they begin, for instance, with the Neronian persecution or the development of church doctrine, excluding what precedes as inaccessible to historical investigation.

Historian Eduard Meyer describes the origins and beginnings of Christianity in his three-volume series. In the present second volume, Meyer elaborates in detail on the development of Judaism and Jesus of Nazareth. The Verlag der Wissenschaften publishes historical literature by both well-known and lesser-known scholarly authors, making works that have long been out of print accessible to interested readers once again. This book is an unaltered reprint of the long out-of-print original edition from 1921.