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World history
Course: World history > Unit 2
Lesson 10: Early ChristianityThe spread of Christianity
After Jesus, the two most significant figures in Christianity are the apostles Peter and Paul/Saul. Paul, in particular, takes a leading role in spreading the teachings of Jesus to Gentiles (non Jews) in the Roman Empire.
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- How old is the Jewish religion, how many times have they been persecuted and relocated and why has this continued to happen to Jews by different cultures and throughout different points in history?(16 votes)
- Richard, the Jews trace their ancestry back to Abraham but technically, because they worship the God recorded in Genesis, you could say the Jewish faith goes back to creation, between 6000 to 10,000 years ago. As a nation, the persecution goes back to their beginning, or shortly thereafter, in Egypt (starting in the book of Exodus). You can read about many conflicts throughout Scripture. You can also find information in many history books but I would suggest reading those by Biblical historians, like Justo Gonzalez. These will address Alexander the Great's conquest, the Roman conquest, the Crusades, etc. Then there is Hitler's effort to annihilate the Jews completely and the current situation with many Muslim nations today, like Iran, that seek to completely destroy them. Mario is correct that many self proclaiming Christians blame the Jews for Jesus' death but in actuality, God sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins. Pilate, the Jews and the Romans could not have killed Him unless He submitted (John,17; 10:15-37). This does not mean that those who crucified Him were guiltless but they were instruments used to do what God had prescribed. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 18:33). Man cannot be good enough to earn heaven. As Isaiah stated, " all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags..." (Isaiah 64:6). Jesus had to pay our debt so that we could be forgiven. 9:22(31 votes)
- Wouldn't Paul have been prosecuting since he wasn't killing anyone personally?(5 votes)
- To martyr someone is to kill them for their faith/beliefs, to persecute someone is to, as davidfcoppock said, make life difficult for them. This could include killing, but also arresting, abusing, slandering, etc. So, yes Paul did persecute the early church before becoming a Christian himself.(19 votes)
- If Saul did not believe in Jesus, then who did he believe in?
Did people back then have their religion based upon their parents and ancestors religion, or did were they forced into a religion that their king or queen believed in?(6 votes)- Prior to his conversion, Saul believed in Yahweh the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and held fast to the teachings of the Torah (the first 5 books of the old testament). Saul believed that Yahweh would send a Messiah to save the Jews from the Romans, but he did not believe Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Since he believe Jesus Christ was a false Messiah, he believed he was justified in persecuting his followers. After Saul's conversion, he believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that the old testament prophecies regarding a Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Saul came to understand that the Messiah had come to save the people from their sins and not from the Romans.(11 votes)
- At what point did Christianity start to identify itself as Roman Catholicism?(4 votes)
- As you can see, the Roman Catholic Church claims the apostolic church as it's origin, as do all denominations. Major events that helped define the Roman Church as we know it today include the fall of Western Rome in 476, the conversion of Clovis and the declaration of the Frankish Empire to Roman Nicean Christianity in 508, and the appointment of a Universal Pope of Popes by Emperor Justinian over the remnants of the Western Empire in 538 - 538 is often thought to be the first merging of Christian Church with the State, the Christian church was given civil powers - something that the Roman Church still has today that separates it from the rest of the denominations. The Schism in 1054 was a large event that split large geographical territories, and we had already seen smaller schisms occurring before the fall of Rome in 431 and 451, as well as the largest schism of the Protestant Reformation starting in the 1500s.(2 votes)
- What are the names of the other Apostles?(5 votes)
- Matthew 10:2-4 (NKJV): Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphas, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
I added the italics to make the actual names stand out.
Hope this helps!(8 votes)
- Is Saul the same as Paul, the King that had multiple tribulations with David (from David and Goliath)? Is Paul a completely separate person from Saul?(3 votes)
- King Saul is found in 1 Samuel as a contemporary of David and Samuel. Centuries later, Saul - also known as Paul - (Acts 13:9), is a contemporary of Jesus, Peter, and James. Saul/Paul went from being a persecutor of Christians to being a great Christian missionary.(10 votes)
- between 500 and 1300 how did the ideas and practices of christian communities throughout the afro-eurasian world differ from one another?(6 votes)
- The African churches (Coptic and Ethiopic) were, and remain, pre-Ephesian in their Christologies, differing from the Greek and Italian churches of Europe.(2 votes)
- What did Christianity promise people that led to its increase in followers?(2 votes)
- Christianity was an appealing religion because:
a) It promised salvation and love from an omnipotent and omniscient God.
b) Christianity, while it could be strict, had much less requirements than other religions... it didn't require you to eat Kosher, to sacrifice things. Just to pray and worship and refrain from committing sins.
c) The myths and legends that advertised Christianity... stories about miracles and healing made the Christian God appear more powerful than other deities believed in at the time.
d) Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire, making it explode in following. Before, the Christians were persecuted. After, they ruled the land.(4 votes)
- Is Acts of the Apostles mostly about the work of Paul?(1 vote)
- Yes. Although he is not mentioned until chapter 7, the majority of the book of Acts is about the journeys of Paul / Saul.(4 votes)
- Is Jesus god or is he the son of God because I keep hearing that he is God and the son of god? im not Christian so it confuses me(2 votes)
- He is the son of God because God created him(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] The central figure in Christianity is, clearly, Jesus, but it's important to note that he does not establish the
religion all by himself. In fact, at the time if his crucifixion, and, according to Christian beliefs, resurrection and ascension, the number of followers he has
numbers in the low hundreds. The actual work of spreading and creating the church falls on his disciples, and, particular, the ones that
are referred to as apostles. When we looked at the Gospels, which are the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ, the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we talk about the 12 disciples, those primary followers of Jesus. They're often referred to
as the 12 Apostles, as well, because according to Christian beliefs, between the resurrection
and the ascension of Jesus, he tells the apostles,
look, go spread the word. Apostle comes from Greek for
the one who spreads the word. These were the first
Christian missionaries. Now, first amongst these apostles
is often considered Peter. This is Peter, right over here. He is mentioned in the Gospels. He is beside Jesus at the
time of the Transfiguration. Amongst Roman Catholics, he
is viewed as the first Pope, and he is really the head of the church of the Christian followers, and they're not even called
Christians at this point, in Jerusalem, right over here. But we're gonna talk about another significant apostle, as well, in this video, and that is Paul. As we'll see, Paul is not mentioned in the first four books of the Bible, he wasn't a contemporary of Jesus, or, at least, he didn't
know Jesus during his life. He did live at the same time, and you can see it on this timeline where Jesus is born slightly
before the Common Era, I start at year one, because
there isn't a year zero, and you can see that Peter is born, historians believe, around 1 AD, and Paul would have been
born shortly after that. What's interesting about Paul is, Paul starts his life as a
very conservative Pharisee. He starts his life
persecuting Christian people, and then he has a fairly dramatic switch. You'll often hear Paul, or you might also hear the
name Saul, or Paul of Tarsus, these are all referring
to the same person. Tarsus is right over here, in
modern day Southern Turkey. Paul, as I mentioned, he grows up in a conservative Jewish family, but he also has Roman citizenship. That's why he has this Roman name, Paul, and he has his Hebrew name, Saul. He's educated in Jerusalem. He doesn't enter into
the story until we get to the fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles
talks a lot about Peter, how he spreads the church,
how he is persecuted, how he performs various miracles, but it also is where we
get introduced to Paul. When we first see him, as I mentioned, he is persecuting Christians. As this Church of Jerusalem
starts to get established, Peter puts a fellow by the name of Stephen in charge of distributing alms to widows that are coming to them. Stephen, and this is a narrative that you'll hear often
in the New Testament, he starts to get on the nerves of the religious establishment, the Jewish religious establishment, who think that he's a blasphemer, that his beliefs are threatening them, and so there's this
famous trial, once again, with the Sanhedrin, and
the trial of Stephen. Here I have an account
for him, of that trial, or near the end of that
trial, from the book of Acts, and during that trial Stephen goes into this long account of what
the teachings of Jesus are, and how they're justified by what is mentioned in the Old Testament. He actually does a fairly
long account of it. He also is fairly rebellious. He says, look, you, the establishment, what prophet have you
not persecuted before? This really angers them, and so we read from the book of Acts, they all rushed at him,
dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses lay their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, and we see him right over here,
depicted in this painting. Saul approved of their killing him. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. All except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen
and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and
women and put them in prison. He is a pretty fervent
persecutor of Christians. It goes even further. Then, we read, we go on to
read in the book of Acts, Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against
the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there
who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, so this is going to be interesting thing. He's so fervent, he
goes to the high priest, and says, I wanna persecute these Christians wherever they are. I wanna go to Damascus, and see if I can persecute them there. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from
heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" This is an image of that,
this narrative in the Bible. "Who are you, Lord?", Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city," the city being Damascus, "and you will be told what you must do." Paul is blinded by this event. He's blind for three days. He goes to Damascus, and he is healed by a follower of Christ. At that moment, he completely does a 180. He goes from being one of the chief persecutors of the Christians, to being one of the chief believers, and he starts to aggressively
spread the faith. So that brings us, so
let's go to this map, because what's significant about Paul is Peter was, you can really view him as the first head of the
church, especially after Jesus, but he primarily viewed it as something to spread amongst the Jewish people. There are events, for example, in Acts where he does realize, hey, maybe I should be, the word of Jesus should go
beyond the Jewish people. It should go to the non-Jews, who are referred to as Gentiles. But Paul, and you can see on the map here, he has this revelation,
I guess you could say, as he's approaching Damascus. He goes back to Jerusalem, and he tries to convince
the other followers, and you can imagine
they're quite skeptical of this person who is shortly
before persecuting them. But he eventually convinces them, and he goes on multiple
missionary journeys, spreading the faith. His center of operations is at Antioch, and he's a significant figure who helps build the church at Antioch. What's interesting about
the Church of Antioch, it ends up being a very
significant church, is that at Antioch, the
Christians, or the Christian faith, is not just spread to the Jewish people, they're spread to the
non-Jews, to the Gentiles. It's actually at the Church of Antioch that the followers of Jesus Christ, according to Biblical accounts, were first referred to as Christians. What you see on this map, here, are the various missionary
journeys that Paul, who is a Roman citizen, was able, or Saul, depending on
which name you want to use, was able to do through, especially
the Eastern Roman Empire. In that mid 40s here, let me, in the mid 40s, right over here, he does a missionary journey. Once again, Antioch is his base, he goes to Cyprus, and southern, mid, what we would call Turkey today. In the early 50s, he goes
on this fairly long journey through modern day Turkey, through Macedonia, through Greece. As he's doing this, he's spreading
the word of Jesus Christ. He's starting to help establish churches in these significant places, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, all of these various places. You see his third journey, here, very similar in path in
yellow to the second journey. He does that in the late 50s CE. Once again, he's constantly
establishing these churches. The important thing to realize about Paul, it's a controversy. To what degree should
the teachings of Jesus be spread to the Gentiles,
to the non-Jewish people? There are these famous debates, and Paul's view is, no, we
should not force the Gentiles to do everything that the Jews have to do, the circumcision, the Jewish dietary laws. You could imagine, this doubly
angers the church leaders. Not only is he spreading
the word of Jesus, that has annoyed them to no end, but he also wants to
spread it to the Gentiles, but he doesn't think that the Gentiles need to perform all of the things that the Jewish leaders
believe are dictated by the laws of Moses, by the Jewish faith. And circumcision is
actually a major debate. Circumcision, the dietary
habits, et cetera, et cetera. Eventually, he goes back to Jerusalem to face this leadership, and now this is in the early 60s, and they, once again,
they put him on trial. As a Jewish citizen, he says, hey, I have a right to see the Emperor. He is taken to Rome, and along the way they get caught in a storm, but eventually he makes his way to Rome, where he is held prisoner. It is believed that both Peter
and Paul were killed by Nero. We talk in previous videos, the fire in 64 CE in Rome that destroys a large chunk of the city. Some people think Nero
actually set the fire to clear some land so that
he could build his palace. He famously blames the fire on Christians. There's a large purge of
Christians that occur after that. A lot of accounts say that
Peter was crucified by Nero. He requests, according to these accounts, to be crucified upside down, because he doesn't deserve to get the same crucifixion as Jesus, and Paul, some accounts
say, that he was beheaded. Once again, they're dying in these Christian purges that Nero is performing. You can see it right over here,
if those accounts are true. Now it's really interesting, I already talked about Paul being this missionary to the Gentiles. He is the one, especially
at the Church of Antioch, where Christianity starts to
really separate from Judaism, starts to become a
faith in it's own right. That was even further accelerated in a few years after their death, or it might have been roughly
coincident with their death, depending on when their deaths were. From 66 to 70, you have
the Jewish rebellion, sometimes called the
First Roman-Jewish War, and it ends with the
Roman Empire destroying the temple at Jerusalem, the
center of the Jewish faith. The second temple of Jerusalem, the one that was rebuilt,
partially, by Cyrus the Great. So this causes the Jewish
people to have to leave, and they no longer have
this center of their people. You have the Jewish diaspora that gets spread throughout the Roman Empire, and other empires, like
the Parthians in Persia. They really, there's a famous
battle in 73 of Masada, this mountain fortress, where the Romans, essentially, well, it's a mass suicide, but it's this bloody extermination of the Jewish people in and around Jerusalem, so they are spread. That's, obviously, a significant series of events for the Jewish people, but it's also significant
for Christianity, because Jerusalem was a
center of the Christian faith. Now the Christian followers
are going to be spread around, and many of these other places
that Paul spread the Gospel, becomes centers of Christianity. Now to emphasize the importance
of Paul to Christianity, this is a listing of
the books of the Bible. Jesus, his life and teachings, is primarily coming from
the Gospels, right here. Most of what I told you in this video, this is excerpts from the fifth
book of the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles. Then, most modern orderings of the Bible, the next several, or many books, are called epistles, or letters. They're primarily the epistles of Paul, letters that he wrote to his
followers in different places. You can see most of these names, these are cities that you see
where Paul was a missionary. Corinthians, Corinth is right here, these are letters that Paul is
sending to the church there. Galatians, you see Galatia right over here in
central modern day Turkey. Ephesians in Ephesus, Philippians in Philippi, right over here, Colossians in Colossae, Thessalonians in
Thessalonica, right over here. This is a major chunk of the Bible that is either written by Paul, or some people think
it was written by Paul, or is ascribed to Paul. What I have here in this deeper orange, these are the books that historians think were actually written by Paul. This lighter orange,
there are some debate, and the yellow ones are the ones where people think it probably
wasn't written by Paul. As you can imagine, this is a significant chunk of the New Testament that was actually written
or ascribed to Paul. He was really the significant missionary that created the Christian
faith beyond the Jewish people.