14. The Rise and Spread of Christianity:                                back to Rome page

  A. Introduction:

           The Christian religion started up in the ancient Roman Empire and it has grown to be one of the most important religions in the world today.  At present, the majority of Canadian people, even if they are not members of a Christian church, at least agree with many of the main beliefs of Christianity.  It follows, then, that no person in our society is truly "educated" unless they  are at least familiar with the basics of this religion (as  indeed everyone should know something about the other religions that  are a part of the cultures of our minority groups or of significant  groups around the world). It will be a good thing if our study of the  Christian religion leaves you with some questions as well as some answers.

  B. Jesus:

  i) Was he a real historical figure?

  -  History regards that Jesus did indeed live, teach, and die by crucifixion

  -  He could be fictional if all we had were records written by his followers, who could have made him up, but he is mentioned  a number of times in Roman records, and they would  have had no reason to make up stories about him.

  - Therefore, to the person who asks: "Was there ever a real Jesus?",  the historian's answer is "Yes".

   ii) His Life:

  -  He was born (probably in the area of from 2 - 4 BC: this seeming contradiction is caused by a calendar error : the Christian calendar that we use was not made up until late in the Roman Empire period and its designers made mistakes and counted back incorrectly) in BETHLEHEM  in the Roman  province of JUDEA.

  -  BY ANCESTRY AND BY CULTURE, JESUS WAS JEWISH!

  -  he lived most of his life in NAZARETH (Roman records refer to him as "the Nazarene")

  -  for most of his adult life he made a living as a carpenter (Roman records call him "the carpenter of Nazareth")

  -  at about the age of 30, he began to teach a new religion to the people of his area (he was thus a rebel against the old Hebrew religion and was very unpopular amongst Hebrew leaders because he was saying they were wrong)

  -  around 30 AD, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius and while Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea, when  Jesus was about 33 years of age, he was crucified (the normal Roman method of execution) as a common criminal.

  -  during his brief (about 3 years) teaching career, he won over a large following, especially among the poor.

  -  he seems to have had 12 special followers or DISCIPLES, who acted as his lieutenants.

  -  many Christians make some well known claims for other things about Jesus: virgin birth, miracles, that he was resurrected from the dead, that he is the Son of God and other such things.  History as a study, can only record as fact that which is amply documented from a number of reliable sources.  Because the things mentioned above are talked about only in Christian writings, we cannot include them as definite historical fact.  This is not to deny them, but we do not affirm them. 

These things are matters for your faith and not this History class.        

  iii) His Teachings:

 -  we learn about Jesus' teachings mostly from the New Testament of the Bible, in particular from its first four books: Matthew, Mark Luke and John - which are called THE FOUR GOSPELS.

  -  although his new religion was based on the old Hebrew faith in which he grew up, and the god he refers to is the Hebrew god Yahweh, Jesus seems to have made important changes. 

  -  Main stress was on morality - how people should treat each other.

  -  the Christian religion stresses brotherly love, help and kindness, all practices that would improve life here on Earth.

   C. After Jesus' Death:

  -  when they learned of his death, his followers seemed at first depressed and discouraged, ready to quit (they seem to  have thought of him as a god, never to die, and thus they felt they had been  deceived)

  -  they soon became convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead and this filled them with new enthusiasm

  -  they began to work feverishly as missionaries because they believed that Jesus wanted them to spread the new religion to everyone.

  -  early Christianity had much success among the Hebrews of Judea.