Cutting through entrenched beliefs in the unified origins of Christianity, this book radically reconstructs its origins. Using historical and literary methodologies and examining canonical and non-canonical texts, it shows that Roman Christianity was only one among several Jesus movements that included Palestinian and Gnostic groups in Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt and Palestine. Further, the book sheds new light on the life of Jesus, the Mother of Jesus, Judas, Peter and his Twelve and Paul and his Gnostic Churches, James and his Brothers, and Mary Magdalene, the Beloved Disciple. The book puts the current interest in historical Jesus research into a proper historical context, highlighting Gnosticism's lasting influence on early Christianity and making the provocative claim that nearly all Christian Churches are in some way descended from Roman Christianity. Breaking with the accepted wisdom of Christianity's origins, the revised history it puts forward challenges the assumptions of Church and secular historians, Modern Gnostics, Jungians, Scriptural critics and general readers alike, with profound repercussions for scholarship, belief and practice.