The Violent Apostolic Age Spawned the World’s Biggest Religion
The period between 30–100 AD is when the Church Fathers laid the foundation to what would later emerge as the world’s biggest religion. Most of what happened during the first decades is shrouded in mystery, but we do know that during this stormy period in history, Christianity spread rapidly across the world.
The first century Palestine was a chaotic and deeply religious place. The country had been thrown into a long period of political turmoil, violence and religious disorder ever since the death of King Herod the Great. Rome controlled the territories by local kings or governors.During this period of religious unrest, drifting self-proclaimed prophets, healers and local sect leaders were common phenomenon. Some examples are Honi the Circle-Drawer, Hanina ben Dosa, Johanan ben Zakkai, the hermit Bannus, John the Baptist, Theudas and the Jewish revolt leader the Egyptian.The start of the Apostolic Age is generally defined as the crucifixion of Jesus from Nazareth. The historicity of Jesus can be debated, but from a religious point of view the real foundations of Christianity were laid in the decades after the supposed crucifixion of Jesus and not during his lifetime. The Apostles, Church Fathers and writers of the gospels were creative and ambitious and did not necessarily need a real Messiah to convey the message.However, it is a fact that something triggered a new and fast-growing movement and created a lot of activity in first century Palestine (the gatherings in Jerusalem, the missionary journeys, the imprisonments and execution of the disciples, all the gospels, epistles and letters written with all the flaws and corrections and interpretations, the disputes among the apostles, all the founded communities and churches and so on).
40 church communities were founded already during the first centuryWhat made Christianity stand out from the other religious movements? There was plenty of contemporary Jewish movements to choose from and many of them were hunted down by the Romans. But Christianity did somehow manage to survive and grow in numbers while others disappeared. Why?It is important to have in mind that the early Christian movement of the first century has evolved and divided into branches for almost 2000 years. This means that rituals, traditions, cultural diversities, names and the interpretation of metaphorical terms have changed over time and together with the diversion of the church. Christianity around 100 AD bears very little resemblance to what we have today.We don’t know how much of the early Christianity that was lost during the Great Fire of Rome at 64 AD or the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at 70 AD or during the whole first Jewish-Roman war 66–73 AD. How many other sect leaders were killed and how many scriptures were destroyed? How many potential new religions disappeared with their sect leaders? Was the true origin of Christianity lost or actually created during this war?By scrutinizing the information that remains (gospels, epistles, contemporary historical documents and figures, archaeological findings etc) and by mixing it with a good portion of logical reasoning and a splash of imagination we can try to recreate what might have happened.In the first years following the supposed crucifixion, Christianity is merely a seed of a new religion, lacking a developed liturgy, a method of worship, and a name. This seed soon transforms into the Church of Jerusalem, which is still recognized as the “Mother Church”.Around 36 AD, the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus converts to what is later to be known as “Christianity” and becomes Paul the Apostle. The Church in Jerusalem grows in numbers and several Apostles leave Jerusalem to spread the message across the region.
Photo by on Initially, the Jews are receptive to the Christian message, but later they turn against the followers of Jesus. Rejected by the Jews, the message is taken to the Gentiles under the guidance of Paul. Paul meets with Peter in Jerusalem to discuss the issue. This is the first indication of a rupture between the becoming religions of Christianity and Judaism.Early scriptures suggest that Paul the Apostle could have based Christianity on a Judaized version of Mystery cults, which were common in the very religious first century Palestine. Paul might have been teaching the theological concept with heavenly visions and revelations of the risen Christ. Pharisees in general believed in the resurrection of the dead.
Like other heavenly beings, an allegorical story was then formed around this Jesus Christ. The question whether this person ever existed is still shrouded in mystery, but many circumstances suggests that there may have been a real person that inspired the early movement. Read Applying Dawkins Probability Test on the Historical Jesus for a deeper elaboration on this subject.
The story was possibly traded within a local church, where Jesus was ascribed a life on Earth with family, friends and enemies, deeds and a dogma. Future generations of worshipers came to perceive this story as a story of something that had really happened. The early cults might have had different levels of initiation, where the lowest levels weren’t trusted with the deepest secrets of the inner circles, allowing the myth to spread.In the late 40s AD, Paul the Apostle conducted the first missionary journeys. He travels in the Mediterranean Sea. Within a few years a number of new churches were founded such as the Church of Alexandria, Church of Corinth and the churches at Philippe, Colossae and Thessaloniki.The Council of Jerusalem was held around 50 AD. This was a meeting between the Apostles and different groups of Jews and non-Jews during the first Christian council may mark the first formal schism between Christianity and Judaism.A few years later, Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to a number of Early Christian communities in Galatia. The Epistle to the Galatians has exerted enormous influence on the history of Christianity and the development of Christian theology.While most Roman emperors are executed or replaced during this period, the competing local religious movements are also having a hard time staying alive. The same goes for many of the apostles who are hunted down, imprisoned or executed before or during the Jewish-Roman war 66–73 AD. But the growing number of communities indicate that the evangelization was not neutralized, rather slowed-down.At the end of the century, Jews and Christians were heavily persecuted throughout the Roman Empire. But over 40 church communities had already been formed and Christianity had spread to Rome, Armenia, Greece and Syria, serving as foundations for the expansive spread of Christianity, eventually throughout the world.We don’t fully understand why Christianity survived while many other contemporary local religious movements vanished. But it is a fact that this happened and perhaps it is because other movement were incorporated into the same religion. We know that Christianity later evolved and divided into thousands of denominations and interpretations, but to what extent was it divided and scattered already from the beginning?It is often assumed that the early progress and success of Christianity has to do with the apostles, who were strongly influenced by ancient Jewish mythology. This mythology is based on a cocktail of Hellenistic philosophies, scriptures and biographies, aretologies, apocalypses and ancient myths and Gods. The Church Fathers had all the ingredients when they crafted Christianity. The object itself, Jesus from Nazareth, seems to have had very little to do with this.
