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Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Section 1. Judea: The Birthplace of

Christianity

The birthplace of Christianity [Christianity: the religion based on the life

and teachings of Jesus] was a remote territory at the eastern end of the

Mediterranean Sea. According to the New Testament, Jesus [Jesus: the

founder of Christianity upon whose life and teachings the religion is

based], the founder of Christianity, was born in this region. The Romans called

it Judea. It had once been part of the ancient kingdom of Israel ruled by kings

David and Solomon.

Judea, where the New Testament says Jesus was born, was located in the

present-day Middle East.

The Jews of the region were devoted to their homeland and to their belief in a

single God. This belief, together with their religious customs, set them apart from

their neighbors in the ancient world.

Once an independent kingdom, Judea came under Roman rule in 63 B.C.E. The

Romans tried to govern the country by putting in charge Jewish rulers who

agreed with Roman rule. But several times, groups of Jews rebelled against

Roman control.

In 37 B.C.E., Rome appointed a man named Herod to be the king of Judea.

Although Herod was not Jewish by birth, he practiced the Jewish religion and

rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem. However, many Jews distrusted him. They saw

him as a puppet of the Romans.

When Herod died in 4 B.C.E., his kingdom was divided among his three sons.

Once again, unrest broke out. Finally, Rome sent soldiers to Judea to take

control. They replaced Herod’s sons with a military governor.

The military governor kept order and made sure Judeans paid taxes to Rome. But

he usually left local affairs to the Jews themselves. For example, a council of

Jewish leaders ruled the holy city of Jerusalem. The council was headed by a

high, or chief, priest.

Judea was outwardly peaceful. But many Jews hated the Romans. In their sacred

writings, they saw prophecies that one day God would send a savior to restore the

glorious kingdom of David. This savior was called the Messiah [Messiah: a

savior who many Jews believe had been promised to them by God], or

“anointed one.” Anointed means “blessed with oil.” More generally, it means

specially chosen by God.

Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Section 2. The Birth of Jesus

No one knows exactly when Jesus was born. Our modern calendar dates the start

of the Common Era from the supposed year of Jesus’s birth. But after careful

study, historians now believe that Jesus was probably born in about 6 B.C.E.,

during the reign of King Herod.

Historical records tell us a great deal about the days of the Roman Empire. The lives of

the emperors, for example, were recorded in detail. But there were few historians to

write about Jesus. Instead, most of the information about him comes from the writings

of his followers.

These writings make up the New Testament of the

Christian Bible. Among them are four Gospels

[Gospel: an account of the life and teachings

of Jesus; four of them are included in the

New Testament of the Christian Bible]. The

Gospels are accounts of Jesus’s life that were written

in Greek by four of his followers, some years after

Jesus’s death. The followers’ names have come down

to us as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was born in a

stable, where his parents had taken shelter because

there was no room inside the inn. There, humble

shepherds and three kings came to see him.

The Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus’s birth. According to Luke, Jesus’s mother,

Mary, lived in a town called Nazareth in the Roman territory of Galilee. There, the

Gospels claim, an angel appeared to her. The angel told Mary she would have a child and

that she should name him Jesus.

Luke’s gospel says that around this time the Roman emperor Augustus ordered a census,

or head count, of all the people in the Empire. Each man was supposed to go to the town

of his birth to be counted. Mary’s husband, a carpenter named Joseph, set out from

Nazareth to his hometown of Bethlehem (BETH-lih-hem), in the territory of Judea. Mary

went with him. In Bethlehem, she gave birth to Jesus.

According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’s family returned to Nazareth after his birth. The

New Testament gospels say little about Jesus’s childhood. It is likely that he grew up in

Nazareth and learned carpentry. According to Luke, at age 12, Jesus astonished the

rabbis, or teachers, in the great Temple of Jerusalem with his wisdom and his knowledge

of Jewish law. When Jesus was about 30, a preacher known as John the Baptist

identified Jesus as the Messiah—the savior the Jews had been waiting for. After 40 days

of praying in the wilderness, Jesus began to preach in Galilee.

Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Section 3. The Life and Death of

Jesus

According to the Gospels, Jesus

began preaching in Galilee, an

area in present-day Israel. At

first, he preached in

synagogues, or Jewish places of

worship. Larger and larger

crowds gathered to hear him. So

Jesus began teaching in open

areas—in the street, on hillsides,

and by the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus called a small number to

be his followers, or disciples

[disciples: a person who

helps spread the religious

teachings of another]. The

disciples were mostly simple

people, such as laborers and

fishermen. Throughout his life,

Jesus spent time with ordinary

people, the poor, and the sick,

rather than those who were

wealthy and important.

Jesus based his teachings on traditional Jewish beliefs. But the Gospels say he put

special emphasis [emphasis: extra attention or importance placed on

something] on love and mercy. Of all the Jewish laws, he said, two were the most

important. The first was, “You shall love your God with all your heart and all your soul.”

The second was, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

According to the Gospels, Jesus told his followers that the kingdom of God was coming

soon. But to Jesus, God’s kingdom was not an earthly kingdom of power and riches.

Instead, the kingdom of God meant a time when people would live according to God’s

will. Then, Jesus said, everyone would know God’s love for all people, even those who

suffer or who are looked down upon by others.

One of Jesus’s favorite ways of teaching was through parables [parables: a simple

story that explains a moral or religious lesson], simple stories with moral or

religious messages. Jewish law says that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

When asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Once

a traveler was beaten and robbed on the road. Two people passed by and ignored him.

Then a Samaritan stopped and helped the injured traveler. In Jesus’s time, the Judeans

and Samaritans did not get along. Because of the Samaritan’s good deed, however, Jesus

considered him a neighbor, worthy of love.

Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Teachings like this shocked and angered some of Jesus’s listeners. To some Jews, this

way of thinking was wrong and dangerous. Others worried that Jesus’s growing following

would cause trouble with the Romans. Jesus did not preach revolt against the Romans.

Still, it was easy for some people to see him as a troublemaker.

The Crucifixion and Resurrection According to the Gospels, after a year or two of

traveling and preaching, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover. The

festival celebrated God’s rescue of the Jews from Egypt more than a thousand years

before Jesus’s time. Every year, thousands of Jews came to Jerusalem to celebrate

Passover. Roman soldiers kept a sharp eye out for anyone who might start a

demonstration against Rome.

According to the Gospels, Jesus said that

his enemies would come together to

destroy him and that he would be killed.

The Gospels then tell that one of Jesus’s

disciples, Judas, had decided to betray

him. After a final meal with his disciples,

Jesus went to pray in a garden. Judas

then reported where Jesus could be

found. As Jesus was led away under

guard, the other disciples ran away.

Christians call Jesus’s final meal with

his disciples “the Last Supper.”

Jesus had gained a large following in

Jerusalem. The city’s Roman rulers

feared that his supporters might stir up

trouble. They worried that Jesus might

lead a revolt. To end this threat, they decided that he must die. According to the

Christian Bible, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, ordered that Jesus be

executed. In Roman times, a common form of execution was to be crucified, or tied or

nailed to a cross until dead.

According to the New Testament, the Romans took Jesus to a hill outside the city walls.

There, they nailed him to a cross and left him to die between two other condemned men

who were also crucified. A few faithful followers took his body and buried it in a tomb

carved out of rock.

The Gospels say that three days later Jesus rose from the dead and then appeared to his

disciples. Christians call this event the Resurrection [Resurrection: in Christian

belief, Jesus’s rise from the dead]. Belief in the Resurrection convinced Jesus’s

disciples that he was the Son of God. According to the Gospels, Jesus left them again

some time later to join his Father, God, in heaven. His disciples then began spreading the

news of his life and teachings.

Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Section 4. The Missionary Work of

Paul

The early converts to Christianity were Jews, just as Jesus and his disciples had

been. One such convert [convert: someone who has changed their

religious beliefs so they accept a diff erent or new religion] was Paul. He

is one of the most important people in Christianity. He devoted his life to

spreading the teachings of Jesus. After his death, the Roman Catholic Church

named him a saint.

Paul came from Tarsus, a town in present-day Turkey. At first, he opposed

Christianity and helped to persecute Christians. According to the New Testament,

one day Paul was traveling to Damascus in present-day Syria. He saw a blinding

light and heard the voice of Jesus. The vision changed Paul’s life. He adopted the

Christian faith and became a missionary [missionary: someone who tries

to convert others to believe in a particular religion or set of beliefs].

As an educated man with Roman citizenship who spoke Greek, Paul made it his

special mission to convert non-Jews, called Gentiles, to the new religion. He

spent 17 years visiting cities throughout the Greek-speaking world. Wherever he

went, he made new converts and started new churches.

In his preaching and letters,

Paul stressed [stressed: to

place importance on

something] the need to

believe in Jesus as the Son of

God. He taught that all

people, Jews and Gentiles

alike, were God’s children.

Jesus, he said, was the Christ,

God’s chosen one. He was a

Messiah for everyone, not

just his fellow Jews.

Paul’s journeys took him through much of the empire. He preached throughout

Asia Minor, in Greece, and in Rome. Sometimes his visits caused riots when

angry Jews protested what they considered blasphemous, or unholy, teaching.

For a time Paul was jailed in Rome, where he continued to write letters to other

Christians. Tradition says that he was beheaded by the Romans in about 65 C.E.

By that time, the Romans were beginning to persecute Christian believers

Origins and the Spread of Christianity- Readings

Section 5.

Christianity

Spreads

By the 60s C.E., Christians were beginning to

attract the notice of the Romans. Christian

preachers traveled along the roads of the

empire, winning converts to their new

religion. Both Paul and Peter, a close friend

of Jesus, preached in Rome. At first, Rome

was not unfriendly to Christians. What was

another god, among so many?

But Christians refused to worship the other

Roman gods. Worse, they would not accept

that the emperor was a god. Their way of life seemed to be an insult to Roman customs.

Instead of wealth and luxury, they preferred simplicity. Recalling Jesus’s message of

peace and love, many refused to serve in the army.

As the number of Christians grew, many Romans saw them as a threat to Roman order

and patriotism. Eventually, the Christian religion was declared illegal.

Some emperors were determined to make an example of these disloyal citizens. For

refusing to honor the Roman gods, Christians were sentenced to die in cruel and painful

ways. Some were crucified. Some were burned to death. Others were brought into

arenas, where they were devoured by wild animals in front of cheering crowds.

But the persecutions failed to destroy the new religion. Instead, Christians won new

admirers by facing death bravely. Christianity offered many people in the empire a sense

of purpose and hope. It taught that even the poor and slaves could look forward to a

better life after death if they followed the teachings of Jesus.

Gradually, people of all classes began to adopt the new faith. By 300 C.E., possibly as

many as 30 million Christians lived in the Roman lands of Europe, North Africa, and

western Asia.

At the beginning of the chapter, you read about the emperor Constantine

[Constantine: Roman emperor from about 280 to 337 C.E.; the first Roman

emperor to become a Christian] and how a victory in battle made him favor the

Christian religion. In 313 C.E., Constantine announced the Edict of Milan. An edict is an

order. In this edict, Constantine gave Christians the freedom to practice their religion

openly. Future emperors also accepted the new faith. Emperor Theodosius I banned all

pagan sacrifices. By 380, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire.