[4] Unlike Messianic Judaism, which often embraces the broader Jewish culture and usually features mainstream Protestant theology, followers of the Hebrew Roots Movement generally avoid adopting cultural practices associated with Jews and Judaism and instead focus on a literal interpretation of the Mosaic law and Hebrew Scripture.
[6] Most of the movement's followers reject the traditional Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter which many regard as either extra-biblical or of pagan origin.
[10][11][12] The Sacred Name Movement began in the 1930s as a strain of Seventh-day Adventism which advocated for a return to the Mosaic Law in addition to standard Adventist theology.
[13] Around the same time, Adventist preacher Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Worldwide Church of God, which promoted Gentile Christian observance of the Mosaic Law as well as various forms of British Israelism and apocalyptic eschatology.
[17][20] Batya Wootten's curiosity about the Gentile majority in many Messianic Jewish congregations resulted in her first book about the two houses of Israel in 1988.
[17] By the late 2000s, the movement had grown substantially alongside other forms of Messianic Judaism which are continuing to grow and become more mainstream.
Others within the movement take a humanistic approach, believing Jesus to be a divinely-appointed prophet and Messiah of a completely human nature.
Disputes over calendar issues and whether or not the barley crop in Israel is ripe enough have resulted in multiple fractures and schisms within the movement over the years.
[38] Passover usually marks the first month of the lunar year, in contrast to the standard Jewish calendar with starts with Rosh HaShanah.
[48] Modern Judaism and Jewish culture developed primarily in the diaspora after the destruction of the Second Temple and subsequent dispersal of Jews throughout the Roman empire.
Likewise, the Greek and Persian languages also existed as lingua francas, representing the two dominant world powers in the region just prior to the arrival of Christianity.
While Orthodox Jewish tradition holds that the Masoretic Text dates to the time of Moses, historical evidence suggests that this version of the Tanakh/Old Testament only dates to the early Middle Ages and is a Hebrew translation which derives from the Septuagint and an earlier, post-Christian Greek translation produced by Aquila of Sinope.
[51] Historically, the Septuagint represents the oldest complete compilation of Jewish literature presented as a single volume in the form of a "Hebrew Bible".
The Hebrew Roots movement contradicts the general Christian belief that when Jesus died, he fulfilled (and thereby rendered obsolete) the Mosaic Law.
[56] A leading critic of the Hebrew Roots Movement is Professor R. L. Solberg (Nashville, TN), who has published a book called Torahism: Are Christians Required to Keep the Law of Moses.