The Early Church Church of Martyrs 4 B.C.E – 476 C.E.

As the Jesus Movement spread around the Mediterranean basin, more Gentiles than Jews proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord.” When Gentiles assumed the leadership of local churches, Christianity began to abandon its Jewish roots.

The first martyrdom after that of Jesus was the death of Stephen, an apostle of the early church. His death occurs at the hands of a group of Jews angered at his condemnation of them.

It was in the 60s that Christians began to come into conflict with Roman authorities. At that time, the emperor Nero blamed the Christians for burning the city of Rome. Later Christian tradition states that Peter and Paul died during the persecution by Nero.

These conflicts with the Romans continued when sacrifices to emperor’s “divine spirit” were a duty to all citizens. Christians viewed this as sacrificing to a pagan idol and resisted! – an intolerable situation. Back then Jews were exempt of some of the certain duties – but as Christianity pushed away from their Jewish heritage, they became “unpatriotic” and were punished.

Persecution of Christians included facing fire, wild animals, or gladiators in huge arenas. This was a form of public entertainment as well as political propaganda!

The death of Christians in arenas came to a halt in 313 C.E. Because the Roman emperor Constantine had a dream of a military victory under the banner of the cross. Why?

Constantine made three major contributions to Christianity: 1. He made Christianity legal in the empire. 2. He convened the Council of Nicea to resolve the many internal disputes that divided Christians around the Mediterranean. 3. He established a capital city in the eastern empire, Constantinople that would eventually rival the religious authority and power of Rome.