THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE BIBLE.

VERN BENDER

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Early worship

Early Christians worshipped alongside Jewish people, and their services were similar to Jewish services. They sang hymns, read scripture, and celebrated the Jewish Passover, Siddur, and Seder. Sunday became the primary day of worship within 20 years of Jesus’ death.

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Christianity began with fewer than 1,000 people, but by the year 100 it had grown to around 100 small churches with an average of 70 members each. Between 150 and 250, Christianity grew from fewer than 50,000 adherents to over a million.

Ante-Nicene Period:

Persecution: Christians suffered through 10 major persecutions during these centuries. The last two persecutions, under Emperor Diocletian and Galerius, resulted in the martyrdom of around 20,000 Christians.

The History of the Church: The only surviving historical record of the Church during the first 300 years is The History of the Church by Bishop Eusebius (c. A.D. 260-339). Eusebius’ work traced the history of the church from the time of Christ to the Great Persecution at the beginning of the fourth century.

The spread of Christianity: According to Christian tradition, the 12 apostles dispersed out of Jerusalem throughout parts of the Roman Empire to preach and teach the gospel. Christianity was appealing to many members of the lower classes in the Roman empire.

Did Christianity Conquer an Empire in 300 Years?
Ante-Nicene Period:

What resulted, according to Christian tradition, is that the 12 apostles dispersed out of Jerusalem throughout the surrounding countries.

Early growth Beginning with less than 1000 people, Christianity had grown to around one hundred small household churches.

The Amazing Growth of the Early Church—Simply Mobilizing

This is stark evidence that the early Church had indeed captured Christ’s vision of redemption, which Luke had so powerfully described.

4-6 BCE	Birth of Jesus of Nazareth
26-30 CE	Ministry of John the Baptist
30 CE	Crucifixion of Jesus
30-35 CE	Earliest followers of Jesus establish their community in Jerusalem
35-37 CE	Saul, otherwise known as Paul, converts to belief in Jesus as Messiah and becomes apostle to the Gentiles
35-55 CE	Paul goes on missionary journeys to Corinth, Thessaloniki, Galatia, and many other Roman cities, where he establishes Christian communities and writes letters to them
48-50 CE	Council of Jerusalem, where leaders of Jesus movement discuss the inclusion of and requirements for Gentiles
58-60 CE	Paul imprisoned in Rome
60-65 CE	Death of Paul
60-68 CE	Death of Peter
64 CE	Great Fire in Rome; Nero blames and executes Christians
66-70 CE	First Jewish Revolt against Rome
69-79 CE	Reign of Emperor Vespasian
70 CE	Fall of Jerusalem under military supervision of Vespasian’s son Titus
70 CE	Gospel of Mark written
80-85 CE	Gospel of Matthew written
85-95	Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts written
81-96 CE	Reign of the emperor Domitian, Vespasian’s younger son. Domitian is the object of the anti-Roman hatred in the Book of Revelation.
90-110 CE	Gospel of John written
100-165 CE	Life of Justin Martyr, Christian apologist. Justin’s writings represent Christianity as a philosophy and the only valid heir to the Hebrew scriptures.
112-113 CE	Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Pontus-Bithynia, writes to the emperor Trajan for advice about punishing Christians. Trajan says punishing people on unverified charges is not permitted.
132-135 CE	Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (also known as the Bar Kochba Revolt).
150-215 CE	Life of Clement of Alexandria, Christian teacher and theologian/philosopher. Clement’s theology mixed Christian theology with Greek philosophical ideas.
150-122 CE	Life of Tertullian, North African Christian apologist and heresy hunter.
185-254 CE	Life of Origen of Alexandria, early Christian scholar and teacher. His writings, heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, would have a profound effect on Christian theology.
249-251 CE	First major persecution of Christians under Emperor Decius.
257-260 CE	Persecution resumes under emperor Valerian
260-340 CE	Life of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, historian of early church.
303 CE	Persecution begins under Diocletian
312 CE	Battle of Milvian Bridge. Constantine adopts a symbol of Christ, the chi-rho, and defeats his Maxentius to become sole ruler of western empire.
313 CE	Edict of Milan issued. It’s an agreement between Constantine, ruler of the West and Licinius, ruler of the East, giving full restitution of confiscated Christian property and allowing Christian worship in every part of the Roman empire.
324 CE	Constantine defeats Licinius, becoming sole ruler of the Roman empire.
325 CE	Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea in an effort to settle theological differences among different church factions.
337 CE	Death of Constantine

This timeline of Christian history provides us with some broad talking points. I’ll use them to go into a bit more detail about some of the most important events which led to the spread of Christianity and its rise to prominence.
To do this, I’ll divide these 300 years into two eras: the Apostolic Age (30-100 AD) and the Ante-Nicene period (100-325d). If it seems like the time period allotted for the Apostolic Age is relatively short, remember that this period was particularly dynamic.

Christianity in the ante-Nicene period.
Christianity in the ante-Nicene period was the time in Christian history up to the First Council of Nicaea. the period following the Apostolic Age of the first century, c. 100 AD, to Nicaea in 325 AD. The second and third centuries saw a sharp divorce of Christianity from its early roots. Christianity in the ante-Nicene period was the time in Christian history up to the First Council of Nicaea. This article covers the period following the Apostolic Age of the first century, c. 100 AD, to Nicaea in 325 AD.

The second and third centuries saw a sharp divorce of Christianity from its early roots. There was an explicit rejection of then-modern Judaism and Jewish culture by the end of the second century, with a growing body of adversus Judaeos literature. Fourth- and fifth-century Christianity experienced pressure from the government of the Roman Empire and developed strong episcopal and unifying structure. Many variations in this era defy neat categorizations, as various forms of Christianity interacted in a complex fashion.^[1] One variation was proto-orthodoxy which became the international Great Church and in this period was defended by the Apostolic Fathers. This was the tradition of Pauline Christianity, which placed importance on the death of Jesus as saving