Early Jesus movement.

SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY

Christianity began in 1st century AD Jerusalem. It ultimately became the state religion of Armenia in either 301 or 314, the state religion of Ethiopia in 325, the state religion of Georgia in 337, and then the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380.

Letter to Rome from Paul – written 25-35 years after death of JC – strong Xn community there – Pual “your faith is spoke of throughout the whole world”.

30-40 yrs after – Xns in Puteoli, bay of Naples who greeted Paul on trip to Rome. May have been some in Pompeii in AD 79 when it blew.

Mark is said to have pioneered in Alexandria in Egypt.

Mostly among the big cities.

Appolos from Alexandria traveling and preaching too. Others?

By 200ad Xns found in all provinces of the empire and some outside the empire – Mesopotamia, India?? Euphratiees?

Niceine creed 325 – he assertion made by the Eastern sources that over two thousand clergy were present, is credible, but immaterial. – many many absent too.

I. Places in which Christian communities or Christians can be traced as early as the first century (previous to Trajan).\1/

• Antioch in Syria (Acts xi., etc.).
• Tyre (Acts xxi.).
• Sidon (Acts xxvii.).
• Ptolemais (Acts xxi.).
• Pella \8/  (Ens., H. E., III. v.; for other Palestinian localities where even at an early period Jewish Christians resided, see under III. i., Palestine).
• Jerusalem.
• Damascus (Acts ix.).
• Samaria (Acts viii; also Samaritan villages, ver. 25).
• Lydda (Acts ix.).
• Joppa (Acts ix.).
• Saron, i.e., localities in this plain
• (Acts ix.), Caesarea-Palest. (Acts x.).
• Colosse (Paul’s op.).
• Laodicea. (Paul’s ep.).
• Hierapolis in Phrygia (Paul’s ep^.)^.
• Smyrna (Apoc. John).
• Pergamum (Apoc. John).
• Sardis (Apoc. John).
• Philadelphia in Lydia (Apoc. John).
• Magnesia on  the Maeander (Ignat.).
• Tralles in Caria (Ignat.).
• Thyatira in Lydia (Apoc. John).
• Troas (Acts xvi, xx.; 2 Cor. ii. 12).
• Philippi in Macedonia (Acts xvi; Paul’s epp.).
• Thessalonica (Acts xvii; Paul’s epp. ).
• Berea in Macedonia (Acts xvii.; Paul’s ep.).
• Crete (ep. to Titus).
• [Illyria (Rom. xv. 19). \9/
• Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 10). \10/
• Rome (Acts xxvii. f; Paul's epp; Apoc..John.). \11/
• Puteoli (Acts xxviii.). \12/
• Arabia. \2/
• Tarsus (Acts ix., xi., xv.).
• Syria (several churches, Acts xv)
• Cilicia (Acts xv)
• Salamis in Cyprus (Acts xiii.).
• Paphos in Cyprus (Acts xiii.).
• Perga in Pannphylia (Acts xiii., xiv.).
• Antioch in Pisidia (Acts xiv.).
• Iconiuwn (Acts xiii.-xiv.).
• Lystra (Acts xiv.).
• Derbe (Acts xiv.).
• Unnamed localities in Galatia (Gal.; I Pet. i. 1).
• Unnamed localities in Cappa­docia  (I Pet. i. 1).
• A number of churches in Bithy­nia and Pontus (1 Pet. i. I; Pliny's cp. to Trajan). \3/
• Ephesus (Acts, Apoc., Paul's epp.) \4/
• [Nicopolis in Epirus (Titus iii. 12).] \5/
• Athens (Acts xvii; Paul’s ep.).
• Corinth (Acts xviii; Paul’s epp.).
• Cenchreae, near Corinth (Paul’s ep.)
• Spain \6/
• Alexandria (no direct evidence, but the fact is certainly to be inferred from later allusions). \7/

\1/ Cp. on Map I.-Note how not only Acts but also Paul at an earlier period groups together the Christians of individual provinces, showing that several churches or Christian groups must have already existed in each of the following provinces : Judaea, Samaria, Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Asia, \Macedonia, and Achaia.

\2/ Here Paul labored after his conversion (Gal. i. r7), we do not know for how long; the “three years” of Gal. i. 18 include his residence at Damascus as well as his stay in Arabia. Holsten’s view is that Paul in Arabia was simply reflecting on the relation of the gospel to the Old Testament, but the inevitable inference to be drawn from Gal, i. 16 is that Paul had already preached to pagans in Arabia. Still, this is not quite certain. Luke, at any rate, does not hold that the Gentile mission had now begun (Acts ix. 19-29, xi. 20 f.). It is likely that Paul was referring primarily to Arabia when he spoke (Rom. xv. I9) of his preaching <g>IEpouoraXi1g cal ,chc w-for KuKXa, </g> in spite of all that the excellent Antiochcne expositors urge, can hardly mean ” in a circle as far as Illyria.” Jerusalem he neither could nor would ignore as his starting-point; but as he really never labored there in the role of a missionary, he adds <g> Ev KiKXw, </g> which may quite well denote Arabia, whose boundaries (viewed from a geographical elevation) adjoined Jerusalem and which included Jews among its population.

\3/ Ramsay (Church in the Roman Empire, 1893, pp. 211, 235) shows the likeli­hood of Amisus having contained Christians at this period.

\4/ Acts xix. 10; Paul labored here for two years, g> d0-T6 ,raVTas’roes KaTOuKouvTas T7fv ‘Ao’iav &#7936;KOU”aac T&#8056;v Xs’yov TOO Kupfov, ‘Iov5afous TE Kal “EXXgvas. ” </g> It May therefore be regarded as practically certain that the great cities which lay on the important roads connecting those seven leading cities [i.e., of the Apocalypse] with one another had all ‘heard the word,’ and that most of them were the seats of churches whirl these seven letters were written ” (Ramsay on ” The Seven Churches of Asia,” Expositor, vol. ix. p. 22).

\5/ This is not quite certain; <g> oxoi&avov EXOECv rpds ye El’s Nped,rOXiv’ &#7952;K(&#8150; -yapKEKpi!a srapaXElga(ra1. </g> An early note appended to the epistle to Titus runs <g> Eyp’Qq &#7936;76 Noco,rdxEws ‘u s MaKESovfas. </g>

\6/ It is disputed whether Paul carried out his design (Rom. xv. 24, 28) of doing missionary work in Spain. To judge from Clem. Rom. v. and the Muratorian fragment, I think it probable that he did. See also Acta Petri (Vercell. ), vi. We should have to include Gaul here, if <g> raAAtav </g> (Sinait., C. minuscc. and Latt. ) were the true reading in 2 Tim. iv. 10, or if <g> PaAarfa </g> were European Gaul (so Euseb., Epiph., Theod., and Theodoret). But the reading is uncertain. Cp, Lightfoot’s edition of Galatians (5th ed.), P. 31.

\7/ Some well-known scholars, like Pearson and Vitringa, would take “Babylon” (in 1 Pet. v.) as the Egyptian town of that name. But, in spite of the tradition that Mark labored in Egypt (he is mentioned with Babylon in I Peter), this hypothesis is quite baseless.

\8/ Grand-nephews of Jesus (grandchildren of his brother Judas), whom Domitian wanted to punish (according to the tale of Hegesippus), lived in Palestine as peasants. Relatives of Jesus presided over several of the Palestinian churches (for Mesopotamia, see below).

\9/ We do not know when Paul reached Illyria; probably it was during a visit to Macedonia, or during his long residence at Corinth. It is not even certain that he visited Illyria at all, for the passage admits of being read in such a way as to mean that he reached the borders of Illyria by his presence in Macedonia. Besides, <g> ‘IXXupucdv, </g> as Renan points out (St Paul, PP. 492 f., Germ. Ed (I., p. 417), is a very general geographical term.

\10/ Titus went to Dalmatia on his own initiative, against Paul’s wishes. It is not said whether his errand was connected with the gospel; the previous allusion to Demas, in fact, practically excludes this.

\11/ Babylon (i Pet. v. 13) is probably Rome.

\12/ The trace of Christianity said to have been found at Pompeii on a mutilated and illegible inscription (HRICTIAN?) is to be left out of account. “The read­ing is quite uncertain. Even if the word ‘ Christian ‘ actually did occur, it would simply prove that Christians were known to people at Pompeii, not that there were Christians in the city.” This is the opinion of Mau, who also notices (Pompeii in Leben und Kunst, 1900, p. 15) the inscription, first deciphered by himself in 1885, which is scratched upon a wall in a small house (ix. 1, 26) “Sodoma Gomora” (cp. Bull. dell Instit, 1885, p. 97). “Only a Jew or a Christian could have written this; it sounds like a prophecy of the end.” Is this the stern judgment of a Jew or a Christian on the city? Or did some Jew or Christian write it when the shower of ashes had begun to rain ruin on the city (cp. Herrlich’s statement of his interpretation in Berliner philol. Wochensclzrift, 1903, pp. 1151 f.)? Or are we to think of Matt. x. 15 in this connection (so Nestle, Zeits. f neatest. Wiss., 1904, pp. 167 f.)? The existence of Christians at Pompeii cannot therefore be maintained. But, on the other hand, it is deferring too much to Tertullian to infer from Apol. xl. that there were no Christians in Campania and Etruria previous to 73 A.D. Tertullian does affirm this, but simply because it suits his convenience; he can hardly have had any information on the subject, for Africa possessed no knowledge of Christians in these provinces in Tertullian’s day. -A terra-cotta lamp has recently been dug up at Pompeii with the “Christ” monogram. Sogliano’s account of it has been reproduced in many journals. But Labanca (Il Giornale d’ Italia, 14th Oct. 1905) and others have justly expressed their skepticism on the discovery. In my judgment, it simply corroborates the old suspicion that this monogram was of pagan origin. -It is impossible to prove that there were Christians at this period in the towns mentioned in Acts (Ashdod in Philistia, Seleucia, Attalia in Pamphylia, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Assus, Malta, Mitylene, Miletus, etc.) which have been omitted from the above list. Domitilla was banished to the island of Pontia (or Pandataria ?).-I ignore, as uncertain, all the place-names which occur only in apocryphal Acts, together with all provinces and countries described there and nowhere else as districts in which missions are said to have existed as early as the apostolic age.

During Trajan’s reign, then, Christianity had spread as far as the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea, perhaps even as far as Spain itself. Its headquarters lay in Antioch, on the western and north-western shores of Asia Minor, and at Rome, where, as in Bithynia, it had already attracted the attention of the authorities. “Cognitiones de Christianis,” judicial proceedings against Chris­tians, were afoot in the metropolis; Nero, Domitian, and Trajan had taken action with reference to the new movement. Apropos of Rome in Nero’s reign, Tacitus speaks of a “inultitudo ingens,” while Pliny employs still stronger terms in reference to Bithynia, and Ignatius (ad Ephes. iii.) describes the Christian bishops as <g> Karcc -ru -repara optaecvref, </g> “settled on the outskirts of the earth.” Decades ago the new religion had also penetrated the imperial court, and even the Flavian house itself.

Pliny to Trajan 96ad – The matter seemed to me to deserve attention, especially as so many are imperilled. For many of all ages and ranks, and even of both sexes, are in risk of their lives, or will be. The infection of the superstition has spread not only through cities but into villages and country districts, and yet it seems possible to check it and put it right. At any rate, it is quite certain that temples which were almost forsaken are beginning tobe frequented; sacred rites, long fallen into disuse are being revived; and there is a market for fodder used by the sacrificial victims, whereas up till now buyers bad been very scarce.

Tertullian – “For all our vast numbers, constituting almost a majority in every city, we lead a quiet and modest life”).           You would have been left with more foes than citizens; for nowadays it is owing to the multitude of Christians that your foes are fewer, since nearly all the citizens of nearly all your cities are Christians”).

Eusebius – (“The holy apostles and disciples of our Savior were scattered abroad over all the world, Parthia, as tradition has it, being assigned to Thomas, Scythia to Andrew, Asia to John”); then follow remarks upon the missionary spheres of Peter and Paul, based on the New Testament;
cp. also 3.5.2, where the original apostles start from Jerusalem for all the nations to the ends of the earth (3.8.11), or to all the world (3.24.3).       (“The affairs of our Savior’s teaching and church flourished daily [[20]]and made steady advances”).
4.7.1: [in Hadrian's reign]. (“The churches shining throughout the world were now like most brilliant constellations, and faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was flourishing among all the human race”; c          (“The parishes of all Asia . . . . the churches all over the rest of the world”).                       before Valerian turned persecutor, he had been more friendly to the church than an y previous emperor, “and his whole house had been filled with pious persons, being a very church of God”).

COMMENTARY – Once the mission to the Gentiles had become a fact, thanks to Paul and some others (in spite of the primitive aim as expressed in Matt. 10.5 f.), “the whole world” must have been forthwith regarded as a sphere for Christian missions. Once the circle had been extended beyond Israel, no limit could be set to its sweep. To complete the circle with all speed was a duty which was urgently pressed upon Christians by their firm [[23]] hope in the near advent of Christ and the approaching end of all things. For if the first appearance of Christ concerned all mankind as well as Israel, then all nations must hear of this appearance; while, if the end was imminent, the work of the Christian mission must be completed very soon.

The passages from Paul (1 Thess. 1.8; Rom. 1.8, 15.19 f ;\5/ Col. 1.6, 23) are deliberate rhetorical exaggerations; so in § 4 (Acts 17.6).

evidence of Hermas is all the more weighty, as he may invariably be assumed to voice opinion s which were widely spread and commonly received. On earth, as he puts it, there are twelve great peoples, aiid the gospel has already been preached to them all by the apostles .\6/

The actual expansion of the gospel during the flrst century must be deduced from the writings of the New Testament and the earliest extra-canonical literature. With regard to the intensity of its spread, we possess no evidence beyond that of [[25]] the passages cited under § 5 (Acts 21.20) and § 10 (Pliny). These passages, however, are of extreme importance. The former testifies that among the Palestinian Jews, at the time of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem (i.e., during the sixth decade)\7/, Christians were already to be found in tens of thousands. The latter passage yields even richer spoil. It sketches the compass and consequences of the Christian propaganda in Bithynia and Pontus during the reign of Trajan ; it depicts an activity which astounds us and which might dispose us to question Pliny’s statements

“Already,” exclaims Tertullian (§ 20), “there are Christians in almost every township”; or again, in language which is somewhat milder but none the less highly colored with exaggeration, “The larger number in every township are Christian.” [[27]] By 197 CE Christianity must have increased extraordinarily in Carthage and throughout the proconsular province, otherwise Tertullian could never have written as he did, nor could he have employed the large numbers of Christians without more ado as a menace to the pagans. Furthermore, we may believe him when he declares that no locality, no quarter of his native city, was destitute of Christians, and that they were to be found in all ranks of society up to the very highest.

if Christianity went on increasing throughout the following century by the same rate of progression in Carthage and the proconsular province, the whole district must have been, predominantly Christian by the time of Constantine, so that one can understand how that emperor (§ 28) could regard it as substantially a Christian country.

he accepts the legends about Thomas having gone to the Parthians, Andrew to the Scythians, etc.

From the large and steady increase of Christians (iv) he infers — not once but over and again — that their religion will in days to come supplant all others and rule unrivalled.
At the same [[29]] time (v) he draws attention to the increasing diffusion of Christianity among the rich, among people of good position, and among matrons, observing that the number of Christians is steadily increasing, although the number of (missionary) teachers is on the decline.\13/

APPENDIX ON CHURCH-BUILDING

THE history of the church’s inward growth is reflected in the rise and development of special buildings for the churches. No evidence for any such is to be found prior to Commodus. Possibly some were in existence, but we know nothing of them, and it is unlikely that there were any at all.’ People met iD private houses,’ wbile a teacher, like Paul at Ephesus (Acts XiX. 9),\4/ might hire a school for his lectures. The ” domus ‘ of the private house or, where this was not available, the ” atrium,” may bave been devoted to this purpose. The forrner was usually too small to accommodate more than a couple of dozen people. Hence, when the congregation numbered a hundred or more members, arrangements bad usually to be made somehow for rooni enough to accommodate fifty or more.