Imagine a time when Christians had no written Gospels but only a spoken tradition of the sayings and stories of Jesus. So it was for the earliest Christians.
Between Jesus' life and the year 313, the church went through many changes. At first, Christians' Scriptures were only the Jewish Law and the Prophets and some of the Jewish Writings, such as the Psalms. Though they used simple affirmations of faith, such as "Jesus is Lord," they did not have formal creeds or confessions. Worship was not highly structured and existed in a variety of forms.
The earliest center of Christianity was Jerusalem but, in 70 A.D. a Jewish revolt failed. The Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. These events were a major turning for both Judaism and Christianity.
This relief from the Arch of Titus in Rome, ca. 81 A.D., commemorates the end of the Jewish Wars. The spoils from the Temple at Jerusalem, the table of shewbread, the seven-branched candlestick, and the silver trumpets, are carried triumphantly into the city.
After 70, Christians became dispersed, moving out more and more beyond Israel. Christianity increasingly became Hellenized. Greek, not Aramaic, became the primary language of Christians. Instead of Jerusalem, three cities:
For an interactive map of showing these and other cities important to Early Christianity visit this external web site:
The Spread of Christianity
http://shell5.ba.best.com/~gdavis/ntcanon/mapsmall.htm
Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius (died c.110) was the second bishop of Antioch during a time of severe persecution. At that time, the office of "bishop" was simply the pastor of a local congregation; Ignatius did not have far-flung authority over a broader area. Condemned to fight wild beasts in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters on the way to his death, including a one to Polycarp, which is his shortest epistle. In the another epistle, Ignatius warned Polycarp and his congregation of the danger of a new theology, which was later named Docetism. |
Persecutions of the Christian minority group began in the middle of the first century as it became separate from Judaism. The book of Acts describes how Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, persecuted Christians and the martydom of Stephen.
"Martyr" comes from a Greek word meaning "witness." Famous early Christian martyrs include:
As the first generation of Christians died and persecutions continued, issues relating to Authority and the Bible emerged. Which books would be in the canon? What was orthodoxy and what was heresy? Meet Polycarp of Smyrna, an Christian martyr and advocate of orthodoxy.
1. Learn about the some of the ways early Christians interpreted the Bible Meet Philo of Alexandria, a famous Jewish interpreter of Scriptures who used the allegorical method and influenced Christian interpreters such as Clement and Origen of Alexandria.
2. Check out Church History Timeline: FROM JESUS TO CONSTANTINE: 30--313
3. Read the letters of Ignatius of Antioch,
http://wesley.nnc.edu/noncanon/fathers.htm#ignatius
4. Visit other web sites that have information about this time period.
Next Page: Authority and the Bible: 30--313
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The photograph of the Arch of Titus is from AICT's "Ancient Art and Architecture" at http://www.mcad.edu/AICT/html/ancient/ROM/ROM045.html. Click here for a larger photo; here for the largest version.
Disclaimer: Some links jump to outside sites for further information on the Bible, interpretations, the canon, translations, manuscripts, resources, and other perspectives. Links do not constitute an endorsement by the Women's Division of the information on other web sites. External web sites offer us diverse perspectives; afford us an opportunity to compare them to United Methodist positions; and, encourage us to critically analyze the issues raised by The Bible: the Book that Bridges the Millennia web pages.
