Introduction to the History of Christianity: Third Edition

of Solomon.

I

BEGINNINGS: AD 1–325

SUMMARY

Christianity rapidly spread beyond its original geographical region of Roman-occupied Palestine into the entire Mediterranean area. Something of this process of expansion is described in the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. It is clear that a Christian presence was already established in Rome itself within fifteen years of the resurrection of Christ. The imperial trade routes made possible the rapid traffic of ideas, as much as merchandise.

Three centers of the Christian church rapidly emerged in the eastern Mediterranean region. The church became a significant presence in its own original heartlands, with Jerusalem emerging as a leading center of thought and activity. Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) was already an important area of Christian expansion, as can be seen from the destinations of some of the apostle Paul’s letters, and the references to the ‘seven churches of Asia’ in the book of Revelation. The process of expansion in this region continued, with the great imperial city of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) becoming a particularly influential center of mission and political consolidation.

Yet further growth took place to the south, with the important Egyptian city of Alexandria emerging as a stronghold of Christian faith. With this expansion, new debates opened up. While the New Testament deals with the issue of the relationship of Christianity and Judaism, the expansion of Christianity into Greek-speaking regions led to the exploration of the way in which Christianity related to Greek philosophy. Many Christian writers sought to demonstrate, for example, that Christianity brought to fulfilment the great themes of the philosophy of Plato.

Yet this early Christian expansion was far from unproblematic. The ‘imperial cult’, which regarded worship of the Roman emperor as a test of loyalty to the empire, was prominent in the eastern Mediterranean region. Many Christians found themselves penalized as a result of their insistence on worshipping only Christ. The expansion of Christianity regularly triggered persecutions. These were often local – for example, the Decian persecution of 249–51, which was particularly vicious in North Africa.

1

Jesus: His Life, Ministry, Death, and Its Consequences

‘Christianity’ without ‘Christ’ is a meaningless word; and without Jesus Christ, there would be no Christianity about which we could write a history. ‘Christ’ is a Greek word, translating the Hebrew participle, ‘Messiah’, both of which simply mean ‘someone who has been anointed’. The very first Christians applied this title to Jesus of Nazareth so quickly that, by the time of the letters of the apostle Paul a generation later, it functioned almost like a surname, Jesus Christ; thus it is hardly surprising that the early disciples were soon given the nickname, ‘Christians’, for those who belong to Christ (see Acts 11:27). It is a curious quirk of history that, while Jesus himself seems never to have had a proper education, was not formally trained or ordained, never held any rank or high office or earned much money, probably never walked further than a hundred miles from his home, during a brief period of wandering and preaching, and finally suffered a humiliating execution at a relatively young age, yet arguably his brief life, ministry, death, and its consequences have had a greater effect on human history than anyone else.

DID JESUS OF NAZARETH EXIST?

No serious historian really doubts that Jesus actually lived and died in the first-century Roman Empire, as evidenced by the major ancient historians. Tacitus (Annals 15.44.3) tells us that the early Christians, who were wrongly blamed by Nero for the fire in Rome in AD 64, took their name from Christ who was executed under Pontius Pilate in Judaea, while Suetonius says that debates about Christ led to such unrest that the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in AD 49 (Claudius, 25.4). Pliny writes to the Emperor Trajan around AD 111 for advice about what to do with people in his province in Asia Minor who worship ‘Christ as a god’ (Letters, 10.96). In addition, later Rabbinic traditions say that ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ was executed ‘because he practised sorcery and led Israel astray’ (bSanhedrin 43.a). Such historical evidence from Romans and Jewish opponents alike is very significant and provides the core for research in what is often called the ‘Quest for the Historical Jesus’: the first phase of which started with German scholars such as Albert Schweitzer around the turn of the nineteenth and early twentieth century; the ‘new Quest’ began with Ernst Käsemann in 1953; while recent work by scholars such as E. P. Sanders and N. T. Wright is usually seen as the ‘Third Quest’, in which biblical and other sources are scrutinized to see what can be determined about the historical life and death of Jesus.

The Roman Empire in AD 14.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN SOURCES?

Beyond these historical mentions of Jesus in Roman and Jewish writers, the main sources about Jesus are the four Gospels ‘according to’ (rather than ‘by’) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John found in the Bible. There are other texts also called ‘gospels’ not found in the canon of the Christian scriptures; these ‘non-canonical’ works are mostly less narrative or historical in form, being sayings, discourses, revelations of Jesus, and are probably written a couple of generations later than the canonical Gospels. These four have a similar structure, describing the life and ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist, with an extended concentration on his final week in Jerusalem, his arrest, trial, and execution – and what happened afterwards. This means that their form and literary genre is very similar to ancient biographies of famous people, which concentrated on their public lives, exemplified in their deeds and words, culminating in their death. It is important to recognize that even ancient history writing is not like what we call history today, and nor are the Gospels like video-diaries, simply recording what was done or said. Like other ancient ‘lives’, they seek to interpret eyewitness and other material to explain the importance of their subject – Jesus – after years of prayer and meditation through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – to bring out the truth about Jesus’ deeds and words, life and ministry, death, and resurrection. Most New Testament scholars think that Mark was written first, and his account is followed by Matthew and Luke, who also have access to collections of Jesus’ teachings; these three Gospels are often called the ‘Synoptics’, because they can be ‘looked at’ together, while John is probably composed independently of them, although he too includes some very early traditions.

Judaism in the Time of Christ.

WHERE DID JESUS COME FROM?

Ancient biographies usually begin with the person’s public debut, with perhaps a brief story about their birth or childhood, and sometimes a note about the family history, genealogy, or ancestral city. Mark begins with the adult Jesus arriving to be baptized by John (Mark 1:2–11). Matthew takes it back to the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, told from Joseph’s viewpoint, with wise men coming to pay homage, and a genealogy that goes back to David and Abraham (Matthew 1–2). Luke begins with the birth of the fore-runner, John the Baptist, the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and Jesus’ birth in an inn, narrated from perspective of Mary and the women, with humble poor shepherds coming to the manger; there is a brief story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple, and his baptism concludes with a more universal genealogy going right back to Adam (Luke 1–3). On the other hand, rather than human stories, John is clear that Jesus’ origin is truly cosmic: ‘in the beginning was the Word’, who not only was ‘with God’, but who is also God, yet who took on human flesh and dwelt among us to reveal what God is like (John 1:1–18).

The limestone cliffs, above the Qumran archaelogical site, in which many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Around three-quarters of the scrolls from the immediate area were found in 1952 in Cave 4Q, in the middle of the photograph.

WHERE DID IT ALL TAKE PLACE?

Like other ancient biographies, all four Gospels begin their main narrative with the subject’s public debut, as Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist; he then undertakes an itinerant ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing. This was not at all uncommon in first-century Israel-Palestine, where such wandering prophets would gather groups of followers. So Jesus calls his first disciples, who were fishermen and workers in Galilee. Most of his ministry takes place in the towns and ports around this large inland lake. Mark devotes the first half of his Gospel to this period, which could all happen in the space of only a few months; after discussing his identity with his disciples, Jesus decides to go down to Jerusalem (Mark 8.27–38), where he is then arrested and dies. Following Mark, Matthew organizes his Gospel similarly, although he structures it around five major discourses of Jesus’ sayings and teachings. Luke prefers to arrange it geographically, as the Galilean ministry leads into a long journey section from Galilee to Jerusalem (9:51–19:26), before Jesus’ final week and Passion. Once again, John is different, as he describes various visits of Jesus up and down to Jerusalem over two to three years before his final Passover there. Again, like ancient lives, the bulk of the Gospels’ narrative is taken up with their accounts of the subject’s deeds and words, his teaching and his mighty acts, culminating in his final days and death.

Sunset view across the Sea of Galilee – also known as Lake Tiberias, Gennesaret, and Kinneret – the setting of much of Jesus’ ministry: see, for example, Matthew 4:18–22, 15:29; Mark 1:14–20, 7:31; Luke 5:1–11; John 6:1.

WHAT DID JESUS DO?

Jesus’ primary activity was to proclaim the ‘kingdom of God’ breaking into our world, which was accompanied by various healings and miracles. Once again, such preaching would be expected of such wandering prophet teachers and healers. Most of Jesus’ miracles are healings, performed to help those crippled by sickness or disease, at their own request or that of their loved ones (for example, Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the flow of blood, Mark 5:21–43); like some Old Testament prophets, Jesus sometimes even raised people from the dead (see for example Luke 7:11–17; John 11:1–44). Jesus’ other miracles demonstrated his control over nature, such as the feeding of the 5,000 or the storm on the lake (Mark 6:30–52). Some people say we cannot be expected to believe this in our rational world; actually, such stories are very common in all forms of ancient literature, including their history books, as well as in other cultures. It really depends on our prior assumptions: if we rule such things out as impossible in advance, then they have no place in an historical account today. On the other hand, if we accept and believe in Jesus as the Son of God who was raised from the dead, then it should not be surprising that he could do extraordinary things. For the evangelists, the much more important question is what the purpose of these miracles was: often they remind us of, or even fulfil, Old Testament stories, and they point to who Jesus is, and what he is doing. Thus John calls miracles ‘signs’, as he links them to discourses and teachings which explain the significance of Jesus; see, for example, how his account of the feeding of the 5,000 leads into the debate about Jesus as the ‘bread of life’ (John 6:1–59).

WHAT DID JESUS SAY?

After his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, Jesus comes back into Galilee preaching that ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’ (Mark 1:15). The English word ‘kingdom’ sounds very masculine, concrete, and powerful, while both the Hebrew, malkuth, and Greek, basileia, are feminine abstract nouns, meaning ‘rule’ or ‘sovereignty’. Jesus never defines the ‘kingdom’, preferring to tell short stories, or parables, about what it is ‘like’ – and they are very strange, full of seeds growing secretly, good and bad fish caught in the same net, wheat and weeds growing together until the harvest, managers rendering accounts to their superiors, lost coins, lost sheep, and lost children (see the collections of parables in Mark 4, Matthew 13, and Luke 15). It is all about what happens in the topsy-turvy world when we let God actually be God, rather than doing it our way. Interestingly, although Mark regularly calls Jesus ‘rabbi’, or describes him teaching (see Mark 1:21–22; 4:1–2; 4:38; 5:35, etc.), he records surprisingly little actual teaching. On the other hand, both Matthew and Luke include a lot of Jesus’ teaching, which they probably derive from a shared source of his sayings, though scholars are divided about whether it was oral or written down. Matthew collects this teaching material together into five great sermons or ‘discourses’ (chapters 7–9, 10, 13, 18, 22–23), while Luke prefers to give it a narrative setting, often on the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (9:51–19:26).

Jesus is regularly described, especially by those who do not consider themselves to be Christians, as one of the great moral teachers of the human race. However, his direct ethical teaching, often in pithy phrases with teasing word-play, is extraordinarily demanding, while appearing to be impractical or impossible to put into practice in the ‘real world’. Money and possessions are to be given away (Mark 10:23–27; Matthew 6:19–33; Luke 12:22–34); marriage is enhanced, with no divorce permitted and celibacy commended (Mark 10:2–12; Matthew 19:12); non-violence is advocated to the point of ‘turning the other cheek’, praying for enemies, and putting away the sword (Matthew 5:38–44; 26:52; Luke 6:27–30). The Christian church has struggled to follow or obey this teaching in both personal and public affairs over two thousand years; not everyone can become a monk or nun with their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience!

HOW DID HE DIE?

Like other ancient biographies, all four Gospels devote the largest amount of space – about a quarter to a third of their narrative – to the events of Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem, leading to his death. The three Synoptic Gospels begin their accounts with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his protest about the commercialization in the Temple (although John places this at the very start of his ministry, John 2:13–22). Over the next few days, Jesus continues his ministry as a teacher and healer in and around the Temple courts, which produces challenges to the religious authorities, who respond in turn and question Jesus about his authority (Mark 11:27–33). On the Thursday evening, he gathers his disciples together for a ‘last supper’, in what seems to be a Passover meal in the Synoptics, in which he institutes the holy communion for his followers, although John describes Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, rather than the eucharist (John 13:1–11). After this meal, he goes to a garden, called Gethsemane by Mark and Matthew, to pray; although it is on the way back to safety in Bethany, the delay to struggle in prayer to accept the will of God means he is still there when Judas arrives with soldiers to arrest him. Jesus is then subjected to hearings before the Sanhedrin, the assembly of the Jewish religious leaders, and before Pilate as the Roman authority. After being flogged, he is crucified: the most humiliating and painful execution in the ancient world.

Yet, the extraordinary thing is how each Gospel depicts the crucifixion as the climax of its story: Mark has shown how Jesus was misunderstood throughout his ministry, so now he feels abandoned even by God, while Matthew describes God’s answer in the earthquake which ensues (Mark 15:34–39; Matthew 27:46–54). In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has been particularly concerned for women, and for bringing ordinary people into the kingdom in prayerful trust in his father, and now he dies as he lived, caring for women, his executioners, and the penitent thief (Luke 23:27–30, 34, 39–43, 46). Meanwhile, John brings to a climax his account of Jesus being divinely in control since ‘in the beginning’, showing how he is concerned for his mother even on the cross, where he fulfils scripture and finally accomplishes everything (John 19:25–26, 28, 30).

Israel/Palestine in the Time of Jesus.

Beside the family tomb of Herod the Great, Jerusalem, is a huge disc-like stone that would have sealed the entrance. The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, in which Jesus was buried, had a similar stone blocking entry; see Matthew 28:57–60.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

The Romans had long discovered that executing the ringleader was usually the best way to stop such enthusiastic religious renewal movements, and there are plenty of examples of their use of this tactic around the first century. The Christian movement is the only one which is different – in that the leader’s humiliating death on a cross was not the end – and this demands an historical explanation. According to Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts, the same disciples who betrayed and denied Jesus at his arrest and simply fled away, started to turn Jerusalem upside down a couple of days later with the extraordinary claim that God had raised him from the dead. The earliest witness is Paul’s account of Jesus’ appearances, which he had ‘handed on’ to the Corinthians in the early days; the list in 1 Corinthians 15 reads like a very early tradition that goes back before Paul himself to shortly after Jesus’ death. The Gospels, which were written down some years after Paul, all contain descriptions of the empty tomb, with some accounts of Jesus’ appearances to Mary, Peter, and others.

Modern historical enquiry can be uncomfortable about claims of people rising from the dead, and yet history has to provide some explanation of the change in the disciples, and why the Jesus movement did not die out like the others. If the authorities had the body of Jesus in safekeeping, it would have been easy to produce it to stop the early church in its tracks. However one assesses the historical arguments for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it remains a fact that this is the constant thread throughout the rest of the New Testament, and in the experience of Christians for the next two thousand years, without which there would be no history of Christianity – and no need for this book!

RICHARD A. BURRIDGE

2

The Church Begins: From Jerusalem to Rome

Jesus was executed by the Roman authorities in the city of Jerusalem around AD 30 on a trumped-up charge of sedition. Not a promising start for a new religion! But within three days the rumour was spreading around the city that he was alive, that he had been raised from the dead. Some of his closest followers claimed that they had actually seen him, and seven weeks later his resurrection was being boldly proclaimed in public in the city where he had been executed. The effects were startling; thousands of Jews and Jewish converts, who had returned from other parts of the Roman Empire to live in or visit Jerusalem, came to believe that Jesus was alive, and that his death on a cross was, in fact, part of God’s plan to save humanity. During the following weeks and months many others joined them.

This marked the birth of the Christian church, as recorded in the book of Acts.

THE BIRTH OF THE CHURCH

During the days immediately following the resurrection, Jesus’ followers claimed to have met him. After these encounters with the risen Jesus, no one could convince them that they were following mere pious hopes. They were not deluded: they had really seen their master and he was alive for ever!

They said Jesus explained to them things they had never understood before; for example, that it had been necessary for him to suffer and die before entering into his rightful glory. Now – in the light of his resurrection and the explanations he gave – the cross of Jesus took on an eternal dimension of significance for them, despite the wickedness of the people responsible for his death.

But belief in Jesus’ resurrection did more than simply rebuild the faith of his disciples and cast new light on the meaning of his death. The apostles also said that he commissioned them to take into all parts of the world the good news of what God had done by sending him to rescue the human race. But they would not be alone in this task: Jesus promised them God’s Holy Spirit to empower them (Matthew 28, Luke 24, and Acts 1).

Some writers have suggested that a better name for the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ would be ‘Acts of the Holy Spirit’. The book tells of the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, and how the earliest Christians witnessed to their Lord in various parts of the Roman Empire.

The account in Acts gives just part of the picture. It tells of only a few important churches and individuals – particularly Peter (the key figure in chapters 1–12) and Paul (who comes to the fore in chapters 13–28). But Acts gives a clear insight into the patterns of growth of early Christianity and – together with the New Testament letters – provides most of what is known about the spread of the gospel in the first century.

Above all, Acts stresses that the Holy Spirit’s power enabled the disciples to witness effectively in their world. A tiny band of discouraged and disillusioned men and women was suddenly transformed into a bold company of enthusiastic evangelists. Their work began in Jerusalem, but quickly spread to other centers. Thirty years later, the new faith had reached most parts of the eastern section of the Roman Empire, and probably even beyond, as well as westwards to Rome itself.

Overview of the 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem, based on research by the Jewish archaeologist Michael Avi-Yonah, now housed at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Top left, dominating the city, is Herod’s Temple, with the four defensive towers of the Roman Antonia Fortress adjoining.

THE JERUSALEM CHRISTIANS

In spite of Jesus’ commission to preach the good news in all the world, most of his followers in Jerusalem at first restricted themselves to evangelizing fellow Jews. This was not quite so limited as might appear, since thousands of Jews regularly flocked to Jerusalem for their most important religious festivals, and many actually settled permanently in Jerusalem – though doubtless maintaining links with their home countries. Paul’s travelling companion, Barnabas, provides one example (see Acts 11). It was probably largely through the witness of these unknown Jewish converts from the earliest days that the Christian faith spread throughout the Empire and beyond in the first few decades, though Acts reveals little about this.

But among the Jerusalem Christians there were a few who were more forward-looking. They grasped the full meaning of Jesus’ final command to his disciples and tried to reach beyond the orthodox Jews. One disciple, named Stephen, saw more clearly than others that the faith was for all people, and that a break with Judaism was inevitable. He belonged to a group of Jews called ‘Hellenists’, who spoke Greek and adopted a freer life-style than the more conservative Jews. Stephen came into conflict with some of the Jewish leaders as a result of his bold preaching. This led to his quick trial and summary execution, and a general outburst of persecution against the Jerusalem Christians, and particularly the Hellenists (Acts 6, 7).

Statue of Peter, holding the traditional keys of heaven and hell, outside the Cathedral of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy.

PERSECUTION AND EXPANSION

Many Christians were forced to flee from Jerusalem because of this persecution, but they spread the good news about Jesus wherever they went – throughout the province of Judea and into Samaria. Philip, another Hellenist, led the way by evangelizing extensively among the despised Samaritans, who were half-caste and unorthodox Jews (Acts 8). This resulted in mass conversions.

Other Christians travelled to the coast of Palestine, to the island of Cyprus, and to Antioch in Syria, the third city of the Empire, preaching the message of Jesus with great success. It was in the metropolis of Antioch that the revolutionary step of evangelizing non-Jews was first taken by some of these nameless refugees from Jerusalem. This move was only reluctantly accepted by the Christians back in Jerusalem. It was in Antioch, too, that the followers of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11:19–30).

During these early years, Peter evangelized among his fellow-Jews, but only within his own country. On one occasion he was rather reluctantly forced to preach the good news directly to Gentiles (Acts 10); but it took him at least ten years to decide that the gospel was for all people. It was left to a one-time opponent of Christianity to become the champion of Gentile evangelism and to pave the way for the integration of Jews and Gentiles into a common community.

The Church in Asia Minor, c. AD 50.

PAUL: THE MODEL MISSIONARY

Saul of Tarsus is better known to us as Paul. Saul was his Jewish name; Paul his Roman name – or cognomen. He is mentioned in Acts as leading the persecution of Christians which followed the death of Stephen (Acts 7:54–8:3). For a time he violently opposed the Christian movement; but suddenly the chief persecutor became a leading witness to the risen Christ, as a result of his personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. After a period in Arabia (Nabatea), Paul returned home to Tarsus (near the south-east coast of modern Turkey), where he may have spent the next ten years or so, spreading the gospel (Acts 9:1–30).

When the Jerusalem believers sent a man called Barnabas to visit the Christians in Antioch, he fetched Paul from Tarsus to assist him. This marked the beginning of the well-documented part of Paul’s life, which was to be so important for the expansion of Christianity. Paul quickly emerged as leader of the dynamic group of Christians in Antioch who now became the leaders in a concerted campaign to evangelize the Gentiles. Jerusalem was to remain important in the worldwide Christian community until the Roman army destroyed the city in AD 70 – and Paul reported back to the believers there after each of his missionary journeys abroad. But it was the church at Antioch which actually set the pattern for the future.

Paul was ideally equipped to be the greatest of all missionaries. He belonged to three worlds: Jewish, Greek, and Roman. His parents were strictly orthodox Jews who used the Hebrew language and observed Jewish customs at home. They were sufficiently concerned about a correct religious upbringing to send Paul to Jerusalem at an early age – possibly to live with an older, married sister (Acts 23:16-22). In Jerusalem Paul learned the traditions of his people and was ultimately taught by Gamaliel the Elder, one of the most famous rabbis of the day (Acts 22:2–5).

But Paul also inherited Greek culture, which had permeated the eastern Mediterranean following the conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 bc). Paul later showed his mastery of Greek in his pastoral letters, which can be counted among the classics of Greek literature. In addition, Paul was a Roman citizen, which gave him special freedom of movement, protection in his travels, and access to the higher strata of society. Ultimately it meant that he probably died by the sword, a Roman prerogative, rather than on a cross.

The Conversion of Paul.

Nineteenth-century statue of the apostle Paul by Adamo Tadolini, outside St Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The great missionary is shown brandishing a sword, possibly the ‘sword of the spirit’ (Ephesians 6:21).

PAUL’S ACHIEVEMENT

Paul’s missionary achievements were immense. The years ad 35–45 remain obscure, but during the next ten or twelve years his activity was astounding. Between AD 47/48 (when he set sail with Barnabas on his first missionary journey) and AD 57 (when he returned to Jerusalem for the last time) he established flourishing churches in major cities in the Roman provinces of Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia (Acts 13–23). When he wrote to the church in Rome, towards the end of this period, he spoke of his work in the eastern provinces as being essentially finished, and indicated that he was now thinking about visiting Spain (Romans 15:23-24).

How was it that Paul played such a decisive role in the early Christian mission? First, it was he who championed the mission to the Gentiles and won its acceptance by the rest of the church. Second, it was Paul who developed the theological defense of the Gentile mission that is clearly set out in Romans 1–11. He worked very hard to keep Jewish and Gentile Christians united. With this purpose in view, he kept in constant touch with the mother church in Jerusalem, collected a considerable sum of money among Gentile converts for the needs of the Christians in Judea, and regularly underlined the importance of Christian unity in his letters.

Finally Paul’s principle of being ‘all things to all people’ helped him move with relative ease between the synagogues, his base of operations, and Greco-Roman society, where ultimately the gospel received its greatest response. Paul’s personal example as a self-supporting travelling missionary, and his concentration on important cities rather than rural areas, provided a pattern for others to follow.

The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, Athens, built by King Attalos II of Pergamon between 159 and 138 BC. The Stoic school of philosophers derive their name from the word ‘stoa’, where they met. The apostle Paul may have debated in the nearby Stoa Basilicos.

THE CHURCH EXTENDS

Paul was not the only pioneer missionary among the early generation of Christians. In spite of the earlier hesitancy of Peter and the other apostles, they too probably travelled far and wide in the cause of Christ. Almost certainly Peter preached the gospel in Rome and the apostle John evangelized long and successfully in the province of Asia.

According to more disputed traditions, Mark helped found the church in the city of Alexandria, and Thaddeus (possibly also known as Lebbaeus or Jude, Acts 1:13) the church in Edessa (about 180 miles north-west of Syrian Antioch). Thomas is traditionally believed to have taken Christianity to India. Hundreds of unknown believers simply talked about their new-found faith as they travelled to and fro throughout the Empire and beyond in the course of business or other responsibilities.

By the middle of the second century, little more than a hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, flourishing churches existed in nearly all the provinces between Syria and Rome. Though their origins are shrouded in obscurity, there were probably also churches in the great cities of Alexandria and Carthage, as well as beyond the eastern fringes of the Empire and in Gaul (modern France).

A century later, a significant Christian minority existed in almost every province of the Empire and also in several countries to the east. After another fifty years, around ad 300, Christians formed a majority in parts of the provinces of Africa and Asia Minor. In addition, Osrhoene, with its capital of Edessa, adopted Christianity nationally, as did Armenia later. Finally, the Emperor himself began to support Christianity in AD 312.

The Extent of Christianity by AD 100.

WHY CHRISTIANITY EXPANDED

Several factors encouraged the rapid spread of Christianity in this short period. One was the existence of a unifying language and culture – at least in the cities – from Italy to India. In the East, Alexander the Great and his successors established Greek as the common language – often referred to as koine, the Greek word for ‘common’. Paul and the other early Christians were able to use this language to spread their message.

Jews were scattered throughout the Empire and beyond, and provided Christian missionaries with an entry into the pagan world. Since the first Christians were Jews, they used the synagogues – both inside and outside Judea – as centers for evangelism. Although most of their fellow-Jews remained unconverted, many God-fearing Gentiles, who were attracted to Judaism but had not gone through the ritual of total integration into the Jewish community, became Christian converts. In fact, in spite of the growing divergence between the church and the synagogue, the Christian communities worshipped and operated essentially as Jewish synagogues for more than a generation.

With a few notable exceptions, three hundred years of peace and general prosperity prevailed throughout the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus. This period has become known as the pax Romana (Roman peace), and allowed great freedom of travel throughout the Mediterranean world. For example, Paul could travel along superbly engineered roads, and until the final years of his life also expect the protection of the Roman government.

The pagan world was experiencing a certain insecurity. Local political independence had disappeared, old loyalties and traditions were losing their hold, and sensitive people felt that their age was morally and religiously bankrupt. Many sought security in the intimate fellowship provided by the newly-popular Eastern religious cults, while others found escape in the excitement of the ever more brutal public games and entertainments. Such an atmosphere of dissatisfaction and unease prepared people to listen to the Christian gospel.

Early Christianity in no way depended solely upon professional leaders for its practice and growth. Each Christian was both ‘priest’ and ‘missionary’. The churches have been described as the most inclusive and the strongest of all the various associations in the Roman world. The distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and freeman, male and female were in theory, and usually also in practice, abolished in the Christian community. All were active in sharing the message of Christ with others.

W. WARD GASQUE

BEGINNINGS: AD 1–325

3

Establishing Christianity: Challenges to the New Faith

The early followers of Jesus were marked out by their clear convictions about doctrine and ethics. They recognized only one message of salvation, only one God, and only one Saviour. Once a person became a follower of ‘the Way’, a new life-style was demanded of him or her. This exclusiveness of early Christian belief and behaviour attracted many people. But it was also a cause of offence; enemies accused Christians of aloofness and of hating the present world.

Strong forces were acting against the spread of Christianity. Paganism still maintained a strong grip on people, the world was as morally corrupt as it has ever been, and the young church soon attracted the unyielding opposition of the ruling authorities. Jesus, Paul, and Peter had all been executed by the state, and other leaders were similarly dealt with.

CAESAR VERSUS CHRIST

As long as the church was regarded as simply a Jewish sect, it was tolerated by the Roman authorities. For its first thirty years Christianity – like Judaism – enjoyed protection by Roman law. Partly for this reason, Paul emphasized the benefits of good government. But once Judaism and Christianity began to diverge, Christians lost the special privileges given to Jews.

Jews were specially exempted from taking part in the Roman cult of emperor-worship. Christians too sought this exemption, since they recognized only one God and served one Lord, Jesus Christ. But when the church became largely composed of Gentiles, it was no longer possible to shelter under the wing of Judaism. Christians refused to offer a pinch of incense on an altar to the divine Emperor – an act which most intelligent people considered to be merely symbolic – and this was interpreted as unpatriotic. As a result, the official Roman attitude towards Christianity became less and less favourable.

PERSECUTION

Adherents of the new religion were subjected to a series of persecutions. These began with brief, and apparently localized, persecution in Rome under Nero in July 64. According to Tacitus, a Roman historian writing 50  years later, Nero tried to shift the blame on to the Christians after a rumour arose that he had started a fire which destroyed much of the city of Rome. The scale and length of these persecutions seem to have become exaggerated. But Revelation, the final book of the Bible, gives evidence of the persecution of Christians in the province of Asia under the Emperor Domitian (ad 81–96).

Letters have survived between the Emperor Trajan (AD 98–117) and Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia (AD 111–113), which make it clear that by their time profession of Christianity could be a capital offence. The policy which Pliny followed, and which was commended by the Emperor, did not involve seeking out Christians for special punishment. But if a person was discovered to be a Christian, he or she was given an opportunity to renounce the faith. Refusal to do so meant execution. This was probably normal policy at this period.

Seven letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, written when on his way to Rome to be executed for being a Christian, survive from the beginning of the second century. In his letters he mentions others who ‘preceded me from Syria to Rome for the glory of God’. One of his letters is addressed to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (Izmir in modern Turkey), who in turn became a martyr at the age of around eighty-six, about AD 156–160. Around the middle of the second century, Bishop Telesphorus of Rome was executed. During the reign of the Stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180), who thoroughly disliked Christians, believers were executed in Rome itself, and in the provinces of Gaul and Africa.

The legal grounds for the persecution of Christians are often obscure. Popular rumour suggested that Christians were cannibals (based perhaps on a misunderstanding of the Lord’s Supper), atheists (like the Jews, Christians had no images in their shrines), and incestuous (their ‘love’ for one another was well known). These accusations were easily answered by Christian writers, but little notice seems to have been taken of their arguments. Apparently, simply to bear the name ‘Christian’ was a crime, probably because rejection of the gods of the Romans was felt to threaten the peace and prosperity that the gods were believed to bring. Refusal to worship the Emperor could also be taken as a sign of treason.

Despite periods of persecution, the church continued to grow. Tertullian famously wrote: ‘The blood of the martyrs is seed.’ The later full-scale, systematic persecutions under the Emperors Decius (249–251) and Diocletian (284–305), the fiercest of all the early opponents of the Christian faith, helped to purge the church of some of its lukewarm members.

Very little is known about the details of church expansion during the second and third centuries. We have just glimpses of a lively church, steadily expanding in size and in its influence on society. The faith of a persecuted minority was quietly and gradually becoming a major force in the Empire.