Book excerpt: When and under what circumstances did the Gospel texts begin to serve anti-Jewish ends? Can it be said, accurately and fairly, that the evangelists were anti-Jewish? Are there tendencies in the Gospels that were originally contrived by the evangelists to injure the Jewish people or their religion, or to work against the interests of the Jewish people and/or their religion? In addressing these questions, an outstanding group of New Testament scholars effectively promotes a new relationship between Christianity and Judaism through historical study of the Bible. The rediscovery of Jesus as a Jew, against a Jewish background, as much by Jewish scholars as by Christian, shows how important it is for Christian self-understanding to reach a proper appreciation of Judaism.