How Jesus Became Christian

How Jesus Became Christian (New York: St. Martin’s Press; Toronto, Random House; London, Orion Publishing) is a 2008 book by the Canadian historian and philosopher of religion, Barrie Wilson, which suggests a "cover-up hypothesis" to explain why the religion that evolved from Jesus was so different from what Jesus himself taught and practised.

The historical analysis traces how a human Jewish teacher and Messiah-claimant became the dying-rising God-human savior of humanity. In the book, Wilson advances “the Jesus Cover-Up” hypothesis, contending that the theology of Paul covered over the teachings of Jesus and those of his first followers, the Jesus Movement led by Jesus’ brother James. Wilson shows in detail how Paul’s theology differs from them in terms of origin, teaching and practices.

Having shown that Paul’s religion differs from that of Jesus and his first followers, Wilson argues that the covering up takes place within the Book of Acts. In that late first-century writing, Paul’s non-Torah-observant movement becomes grafted on to a Torah-observant one, the so-called Council of Jerusalem plays an important step in this development. Wilson also notes that the Book of Acts represents an influential work of historical revisionism, noting that it is the one work of the Bible that we can compare to something else to judge accuracy. In this case, we can compare what Paul says about himself with what the unknown author of the Book of Acts says about him. The former represents the Paul of history, the latter the mythologized Paul. The discrepancies between the two are significant as the author of Acts tries to downplay the enmity that existed between Paul and James.

How Jesus Became Christian was shortlisted for the prestigious Cundill Prize in History. In 2009 the book received the Tanenbaum Award in History at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards. Scholarly opinions and those in the popular press were mostly positive. In an endorsement cited on the back cover of book. James Tabor, chair of the department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina wrote:

Wilson's How Jesus Became Christian represents a much-needed sea-change in our understanding of how one moves from the historical Jesus to the religion called Christianity. It is beyond doubt one of the most significant works on early Christianity to appear in decades.

The book is required material of at least one faculty syllabus.