The Talmud makes no clear reference to Jesus or Christianity.<ref>[http://www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/jesus.html Historical Analysis: The Talmud neither disparaged nor even mentions Jesus]</ref> Various attempts to equate ''minim'' with early Christians are tenuous at best because there seems to be no relationship between the teachings of the ''minim'' and Christian teachings. Christianity is first discussed in detail in terms of Jewish law by the ''rishonim'' (Rabbis of the early medieval period (1250–1550))
===Forbidden===
:R. Elazar ben Azaryah said, "If there is no Torah there is no culture [derekh eretz]" - The word "Torah" here cannot be meant literally, since there are many ignorant people who have not learned it, and many pious among the gentiles who do not keep the Torah and yet are ethical and people of culture. Rather, the correct interpretation seems to me to be that every people has its own religion [dat Eloki] which comprises three foundational principles, [a] belief in a revealed Torah, [b] belief in [Divine] reward and punishment, and [c] belief in an afterlife (they disagree merely on the interpretation of these principles). These three principles are what are called here "Torah".<ref>Tiferet Yisrael to Avot 3:17.</ref>
===Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes (1852-1937)===
Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes said that:
:There is a midrash that, when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden or earthy paradise, an angel smashed the gates, and the fragments flying all over the earth are the precious stones. We can carry the midrash further. The precious stones were picked up by the various religions and philosophers of the world. Each claimed and claims that its own fragment alone reflects the light of heaven, forgetting the setting and incrustations which time has added. Patience my brother. In G-d's own time we shall, all of us, fit our fragments together and reconstruct the gates of paradise. There will be an era of reconciliation of all living faiths and systems, the era of all being in at-one-ment, or atonement, with G-d. Through the gates shall all people pass to the foot of God's throne.<ref>Orthodox or Historical Judaism" (Chicago 1894), 217-8</ref>
