Volta
Religion1st – early 4th century

Rise and Spread of Christianity

Also called: Early Christianity

In Roman-ruled Palestine Jesus preached God’s love and salvation. Spread across the empire by Paul and others, Christianity was long persecuted for refusing to worship the emperor.

The Good Shepherd, a 3rd-century fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome; persecuted Christians gathered in these underground cemeteries
The Good Shepherd, a 3rd-century fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome; persecuted Christians gathered in these underground cemeteries

unknown artist, Rome, 3rd century A.D. · Public domain · Source

Judaism worshipped the one God, Yahweh, and awaited a Messiah who would save the nation. In Roman-ruled Palestine in the early 1st century Jesus taught love of God and neighbour and proclaimed that anyone could be saved through faith. The Temple authorities and the Roman administration saw him as a threat to order, and around AD 30 he was crucified in Jerusalem on the sentence of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. His disciples believed he had risen from the dead and honoured him as Christ, the saviour.

Through the preaching of Paul, who took the gospel to non-Jews, Christianity spread along Roman roads around the Mediterranean, growing fast among slaves, women and the poor. The teachings of Jesus and his followers’ writings, composed in Greek, were gathered into the New Testament.

Christians were persecuted for refusing to worship the emperor and sacrifice to Rome’s gods. In 64 Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome, and Peter and Paul are said to have been martyred around this time. Believers gathered to worship in the catacombs, the underground cemeteries. Even Diocletian’s Great Persecution from 303 failed to break the church.

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The map in AD 30

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States at the time
Roman Empire
Places
Jerusalem, Rome

People

  • Jesus4 BC – AD 30

    leader · The central figure of Christianity, who preached God’s love and salvation in Roman-ruled Palestine and was crucified in Jerusalem around AD 30

  • Paul the Apostle

    leader · Apostle who carried the Christian gospel to non-Jews across the Mediterranean; his letters form part of the New Testament

Before and after

Earlier
27 BC Founding of the Roman Empire
Later
AD 96 Pax Romana and the Five Good Emperors

Themes that include this event

  • Greece and Rome2000 BC – AD 476

    From the Aegean civilisation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire — the classical civilisation built by the democracy of the polis and the Roman republic and empire