Early history of Christianity | myHistro

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Early history of Christianity

63BC

Palestine before Jesus

Since their return from exile in Babylonia in 538 BCE, the Jews in Palestine had created a theocratic community, based on the Torah, God's Law, originally revealed to Moses and contained in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament),...

63BC

4BC

Development of Jewish religious thought

The destruction of Jerusalem did not destroy the most important single aspect of Jewish culture - its religion. Through centuries the Jews had been taught by a succession of prophets and priests to hold to their covenant with Yahweh and to safeguard...

4BC

33

The life and teachings of Jesus

Whatever its parallels with Judaism, Christianity bears the unmistakable imprint of the personality of its founder, Jesus of Nazareth. According to the Biblical account, he was born in Bethlehem during the reign of Herod; therefore he may have been...

33

35

Early disciples of Jesus

After the death of Jesus Jerusalem became the headquarters of the apostels and other Christians. Many people still established an intimate connection between this descent and the restoration of the kingdom of Israel...

35

65

The work of Paul

The followers of Jesus, like their master, had no thought of breaking away from Judaism. They sought only to revivify their faith spiritually and ethically. Because they adhered to the requirements of the Jewish law, with its strict dietary...

65

80

Persecution of Christians

The Christian religion spread farther among Jewish communities in the Middle East, both within the Roman Empire and beyond. As they realized that the Messiah was not immediately returning to earth to set up the Kingdom of God, the disciples of Jesus...

80

120

Spread of Christianity

Gradually over the next 250 years, Christianity won a growing number of converts. With its particularly great appeal to some of the poor, Christianity was well positioned to reflect social grievances in an empire increasingly marked by inequality...

120

160

Structure of the early church

The years immediately following the death of Jesus passed with little organization in the Christian movement. Viewing the present world as something that would end quickly with the imminent Second Coming of their Lord and the Last Judgment of the...

160

200

Success of Christianity

In its rise to preeminence, Christianity competed with the various philosophies and religions of the day. The philosophies were becoming more religious and other-worldly, however, which made it easy for their adherents to accept a Christianity whose...

200

292

Persecution of Christians under Diocletian

During the first two centuries, persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was only sporadic and local, like that at Rome under Nero. But during the late third and early fourth centuries, when the Empire was in danger of collapse, three organized...

292

313

Constantine accepts Christianity

In 311 the Eastern Emperor Galerius recognized that persecution had failed and issued an edict of toleration making Christianity a legal religion in the East. Two years later, in 313 the Western Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan granted Christians...

313

325

The council of Nicaea

While the administrative structure of the church was being erected, Christian beliefs were being defined and systematized. The process of fixing Christian doctrine, or dogma, began with Paul, who stressed the divinity of Jesus and explained his death...

325

380

Official acceptance of Christianity in Rome

The great events of Constantine’s reign, which caused it to be regarded as the inauguration of a new era, were his conversion to Christianity and the acts whereby he secured its toleration and then its supremacy in the empire...

380

410

The Church Fathers

The liturgy of the early churches was plain and simple, consisting of prayer, Scripture reading, hymns, and preaching. Early Christians worshiped God and sought salvation largely through individual efforts...

410

431

Council of Ephesus

Throughout 5th century, dissensions stemming from religious controversy seriously threatened the unity of Christendom as well as the unity of the Roman Empire (or empires, since after his death in 395, Theodosius divided the state between his two sons...

431

451

Council of Chalcedon

The theologians of Alexandria generally held that the divine and human natures were united indistinguishably, whereas those of Antioch taught that two natures coexisted separately in Christ. After the Council of Ephesus had condemned Nestorianism,...

451

461

Primacy of the bishop of Rome

A development of outstanding importance was the rise of the bishop of Rome to a position of preeminence in the hierarchy of the church. At first only one of several patriarchs, the Roman bishop gradually became recognized as the leader of the church in...

461

496

Clovis converts to Christianity

According to the sixth century Gallo-Roman bishop and historian Gregory of Tours, whose History of the Franks is the most detailed account of any of the early Germanic peoples, Clovis, the king of the Franks, was converted to Christianity in 496 as a...

496

529

Monasticism

In addition to the secular clergy, who moved through the world (saeculum) administering the church's services and communicating its teachings to the laity, another type of clergy also arose - the regular clergy, so called because they lived by a rule...

529

Thinking..

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