The Jesus movement began in the first century with a small group of Galilean Jews who believed that a Jew named Jesus was the messiah. Over time, the Jesus movement separated from its Jewish matrix. How, when, and why this separation occurred remains a hot topic in the study of early Jewish-Christian relations. This talk will discuss the “Great Man” theory of Christian origins, which traces the roots of this separation—and the decisive break with Judaism—back to Jesus and/or Paul, and consider why it remains popular today despite all the evidence to the contrary.