- Jesus’s 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. Within 20 years of Jesus’ death, Sunday became the primary day of worship.
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 spread of Christianity: According to Christian tradition, the 12 apostles dispersed out of Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire to preach and teach the gospel. Christianity appealed to numerous members of the lower classes in the Roman Empire.
- Did Christianity Conquer an Empire in 300 years?
- Ante-Nicene Period:
- 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 captured Christ’s vision of redemption, which Luke had so powerfully described.
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4-6 BCE |
Birth of Jesus of Nazareth |
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26-30 CE |
The Ministry of John the Baptist |
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30 CE |
Crucifixion of Jesus |
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30-35 CE |
The earliest followers of Jesus establish their community in Jerusalem |
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35-37 CE |
Saul, otherwise known as Paul, converts to belief in Jesus as Messiah and becomes apostle to the Gentiles |
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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 |
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48-50 CE |
Council of Jerusalem, where leaders of Jesus’ movement discuss the inclusion of and requirements for Gentiles |
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58-60 CE |
Paul was imprisoned in Rome |
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60-65 CE |
Death of Paul |
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60-68 CE |
Death of Peter |
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64 CE |
Great Fire in Rome; Nero blames and executes Christians. |
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66-70 CE |
First Jewish Revolt against Rome |
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69-79 CE |
Reign of Emperor Vespasian |
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70 CE |
Fall of Jerusalem under military supervision of Vespasian’s son Titus |
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70 CE |
Gospel of Mark, written |
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80-85 CE |
Gospel of Matthew, written |
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85-95 |
Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts written |
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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. |
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90-110 CE |
Gospel of John, written |
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100-165 CE |
The life of Justin Martyr, Christian apologist. Justin’s writings represent Christianity as a philosophy and the only valid heir to the Hebrew scriptures. |
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112-113 CE |
Pliny the Younger, the Roman governor of Pontus-Bithynia, wrote to the emperor Trajan for advice about punishing Christians. Trajan said punishing people on unverified charges was not permitted. |
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132-135 CE |
Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (the Bar Kochba Revolt). |
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150-215 CE |
Life of Clement of Alexandria, Christian teacher and theologian/philosopher. Clement’s theology mixed Christian theology with Greek philosophical ideas. |
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150-122 CE |
Life of Tertullian, a North African Christian apologist and heresy hunter. |
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185-254 CE |
Life of Origen of Alexandria, an early Christian scholar and teacher. His writings, heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, would profoundly affect Christian theology. |
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303 CE |
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312 CE |
Battle of Milvian Bridge. Constantine adopts a symbol of Christ, the chi-rho, and defeats his Maxentius to become the sole ruler of the Western empire. |
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313 CE |
The Edict of Milan was issued. It was an agreement between Constantine, ruler of the West, and Licinius, ruler of the East. It fully restitutioned confiscated Christian property and allowed Christian worship in every part of the Roman Empire. |
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324 CE |
Constantine defeats Licinius, becoming the sole ruler of the Roman empire. |
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325 CE |
Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea to settle theological differences among different church factions. |
- This timeline of Christian history provides some broad talking points. I’ll use them to discuss in more detail some of the most important events that led to the spread of Christianity and its rise to prominence.
- To do this, I’ll divide these 300 years into the Apostolic Age (30-100 AD) and the Ante-Nicene period (100-325d). If the time 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
- 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 ad versus goods literature. Fourth- and fifth-century Christianity experienced pressure from the government of the Roman Empire and developed strong Episcopal and unifying structures. Various variations in this era defy neat categorizations, as multiple forms of Christianity interacted complexly.[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.
