Around the beginning of our era, the hope of the coming of the Messiah lived among the various Jewish communities in the Roman province of Judea. The messiah is a figure referred to in the Jewish Tanakh as a future king who will unite the Jews of Palestine and whose coming will herald the end times. During this time, Jesus of Nazareth traveled around as a charismatic faith healer.
Jesus preached charity and forgiveness. He is also said to have said that his close relationship with God enabled him to forgive sins. Where most Jews lived with the conviction that God's kingdom on earth will soon dawn, Jesus would have said it had already begun.
All in all, Jesus had different ideas within Judaism, but he was certainly not the only preacher who preached such ideas.
Jesus provoked the Roman and Jewish rulers by going to Jerusalem with a large crowd of followers. He was brought in like a king in Jerusalem.
The Romans saw Jesus more and more as a rioter, who posed a danger to the established order. This was when the Romans proceeded to arrest Jesus and inflict one of the most horrific Roman punishments:death by crucifixion.
At this point, historical facts and Christian myth-making begin to intertwine. The only historical sources we have about the life and death of Jesus are the Gospels. The Gospel of Mark is generally regarded by historians as the oldest and therefore the most reliable, although it was presumably written in response to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, more than 40 years after Jesus' death.
All the Gospels describe how the followers of Jesus found his tomb empty three days after his death. The Gospel of Mark then stops abruptly, while the Gospel of John - which was written around 100 AD. ch. was written – discusses in detail the resurrection of Jesus and the miracles he is said to have performed.
Paul the Apostle
For many Jews, the death of Jesus was confirmation that he not the long-awaited messiah. After all, as a secular leader, he would make a great and proud nation of the Jews.
In the early years after the crucifixion, memories of the life and teachings of Jesus (whom they came to refer to as the messiah (Hebrew:משיח, Greek:Χριστός, Latin:christ)) lived on in a small group of 'nazarenes' (followers of Jesus of Nazareth) within Judaism. The followers of this agitator were mistrusted and even persecuted by orthodox Jews.
One of the Jews who distrusted the early Christians and initially encouraged their persecution was Paul. Paul was an educated man who, in addition to the vernacular Aramaic (the language that Jesus also spoke), also mastered Greek and Hebrew. According to Christian tradition, Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus when he saw a bright light above the road with a vision of Jesus persuading him to become a Christian.
Although he never had contact with Jesus, Paul's importance to the history of early Christianity is hard to underestimate. According to Paul, it was not so much the memory of the life of Jesus that mattered. According to him, the core of faith was in his death and resurrection. The death of Jesus represented an opportunity for redemption for all mankind, not just for Jews. According to Paul, faith in Jesus as messiah was sufficient to obtain salvation. Paul turned Christianity from a small sect within the Jewish community into a universal doctrine of salvation.
Spread and persecution
Because Paul's version of Christianity had no complicated initiation rituals and was open to everyone, the new faith slowly but surely spread throughout the Roman Empire. At the beginning of the second century, there were already Christian communities in North Africa, Gaul (France) and Ethiopia. At that time, Christianity was still mainly an urban phenomenon, but it attracted more and more adherents from all walks of life.
However, the Roman authorities viewed Christianity with suspicion. Christians refused to offer sacrifices to the emperor and they constantly ridiculed the old Roman state religion. In the beginning, Christians were still silently tolerated. Occasionally the Romans would ask Christians to make a sacrifice to the emperor. Those who refused were tortured and executed. Later, Christians were more systematically persecuted. Many Christians died as martyrs for the new faith.
The willingness of many martyrs during the second and third centuries to die for their faith made a powerful impression on potential converts. This is one of the reasons why Christianity continued to grow despite persecution. Another reason was that only through faith in one god and the role of Jesus as savior, Christians could count on a good life after death. In addition, charity and help to the weak were central, things for which there was never room for in the tough Roman society.
A Christian Emperor
Around AD 300 there were Christian communities in every province of the Roman Empire, mainly concentrated around urban centers. These communities were tightly and hierarchically organized. They were led by priests and bishops. At the same time, internal dysfunction and almost incessant attacks by barbarian tribes on the outer borders threatened to collapse the empire.
Emperor Galerius realized that persecution of Christians would not lead to greater unity in the empire. In 311 he issued the Edict of Tolerance, an official statement by which the Roman state declared that it would leave the Christians alone, provided they did not disturb public order.
In 312 Constantine the Great took the city of Rome and became ruler of the western part of the empire. Constantine had already acted as patron of the Christians for some time, but now that he was emperor he could openly manifest himself as a Christian.
Constantine's choice to become a Christian was politically sensible. The strict organization of the church could be used for the benefit of the weakened empire. The emperor himself became the first chosen one of god on earth.
When Constantine became sole ruler of the entire empire in 324, he used his power to support the church in every possible way. He donated large tracts of land and the most beautiful buildings to the church, in particular to the bishop of Rome. From then on, clergymen were given a special position full of privileges.
Theology from Arius to Augustine
At that time, however, Christianity had experienced the necessary internal disputes and developments. In Egypt and Syria in particular, the ascetic movement gained more and more followers. More and more hermits (literally:'people in the wilderness') and hermits saw a direct path to redemption in solitary seclusion and self-torture. The clergy of the Catholic (Greek:καθολικός, general or universal) church did not know what to do with these people.
There were also regular differences of opinion within the church. In the fourth century this was mainly about the relationship between God and Jesus. Jesus was called the son of God, which according to the Egyptian priest Arius (256-336) implied that he was of "lesser" stature than the father. How could one maintain that there was only one god?
In 325 Constantine convened a council (council of clergy) in the city of Nicaea to resolve these issues. Here it was established, among other things, that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit together form the Holy Trinity, in which all three are equal. The bishop of Rome was also recognized as the spiritual leader of the church.
In 380, Emperor Theodosius the Great proclaimed Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Politically, this puts an end to the history of early Christianity. In the theological field, the work of Augustine of Hippo marks the end of Christian antiquity. He completed his major work "The City of God" in 426. The Roman Empire had collapsed and the city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths.
Augustine stated that in the light of eternity this event was not as shocking as it was perceived. “For the city of God is inhabited forever by believers whom God has chosen for it.” The Christian Middle Ages begin with Augustine's work. The Catholic Church, led from Rome, would hold on to its position as the "only and true church" for nearly a thousand years.