Until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the ensuing council at Yavneh there was no Jewish orthodoxy: Judaism embraced a number of groups and sects. Christians constituted one of these, alongside Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, ‘Zealots’ (resistance fighters), and other less well known. Christians, including Gentile converts, regarded themselves as Jews — and until well into the second century other Jews also regarded them as Jews.