Studying Paul according to the "within Judaism Perspective" also involves examining the works of Jewish thinkers (such as rabbis, scholars and philosophers) who engaged with the Apostle to the Gentiles. For almost two millennia, his name was virtually unmentionable among Jews as he was considered the first Christian theologian to abandon the mitzvot and denounce Jewish legalism and particularism. Even on the Jewish side, in short, Tertullian's idea that Paul was the "destroyer of Judaism" was accepted. However, starting in the 20th century, things began to change. Without Judaism as a whole developing a real interest in Paul, some scholars started to engage with Pauline literature. Some, such as Claude Montefiore and Samuel Sandmel, showed that the Judaism contested by Paul was a distorted version of the faith of the fathers, while others emphasized that Paul never renounced his Jewish identity. This led to Paul's rehabilitation within the Jewish world. This ranges from acknowledging his contribution to bringing the Hebrew Bible to pagans (Joseph Klausner), to emphasizing that he remained a practicing Jew even after his "conversion" (Pinchas Lapide), to Sholem Asch's sympathetic fictional reconstruction of his life in the novel The Apostle.