Scholars typically call the earliest followers of Jesus the “Jesus Movement” to distinguish them from later “Christians” precisely because they did not consider themselves to be part of a new religion. The initial disciples of Jesus were predominantly if not entirely Jewish and kept the Mosaic Law, the observance of which they considered necessary for Gentiles to join the movement. The break of the early Jesus movement from Judaism begins with Paul, a convert to the movement after Jesus’ death. Paul believed that Jesus had absolved Gentiles from keeping the Mosaic law, and while Jewish followers of Jesus could continue to follow it, it was not necessary for membership in the movement. Since the Mosaic law is a central aspect of Jewish life and religion, Paul’s stance on it led to a rift between him and earlier followers of Jesus. While the Book of Acts is considered unreliable by historians, it does preserve evidence of ideological conflict between Paul and the Twelve Apostles, including a scene in Antioch where Paul rebukes Peter for teaching Gentiles that they must observe the Jewish law in order to follow Jesus. Paul is where Christianity can truly be said to begin, as his ideas would lead ultimately to its divergence from Rabbinic Judaism and into an entirely separate sect, as its membership became composed primarily of Gentiles who were not culturally Jewish. Still, this divergence was gradual and not clean cut. In the Book of Revelation’s third chapter, written after Paul’s letters, the author refers to the followers of the Jews as “the people of Israel,” speaks of their persecution by “those who claim to be Jews,” and refers to them as belonging to the “synagogue of Satan.” The author thus insinuates that the Jesus followers are in fact the true Jews, and that those who have rejected him can no longer claim to be. So it is clear that even after Paul some Jesus followers still held strongly to their Jewish origins. While some Jewish Christian sects continued to exist such as the Ebionites, by the dawn of the second century CE the Jesus movement had moved overwhelmingly away from Judaism and the Mosaic law and into a separate religious group, a movement that can be attributed to the influence of Paul.