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Bart D. Ehrman attributes the rapid spread of Christianity to five factors: (1) the promise of salvation and eternal life for everyone was an attractive alternative to Roman religions; (2) stories of miracles and healings purportedly showed that the one Christian God was more powerful than the many Roman gods; (3) Christianity began as a ...
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant , across the Roman Empire , and beyond.
The early Christian apologist Tertullian recorded that footwashing was a regular part of early Christian worship. [154] Footwashing was done with a basin "of water for the saints' feet" and a "linen towel". [151] Being commanded in John 13, footwashing done in the imitation of Jesus was a rite encouraged by Origen. [154]
Saul of Tarsus, a pharisee who later became Paul the Apostle, persecuted the early Jewish Christians prior to his own conversion. [24] Paul was influential in the early spread of Christianity making at least three missionary journeys and writing letters of instruction and admonishment to the churches he founded. [24] [34] [35]
Christian community was not just one thing. Experience and expression were diverse. Yet early Christian communities did have commonalities in the kerygma (the message), the rites of baptism and the eucharist. [360] As far back as it can be traced, evidence indicates the rite of initiation into Christianity was always baptism. [361]
The celebration of the eucharist (also called communion) was the common unifier for early Christian communities, and remains one of the most important of Christian rituals. Early Christians believed the Christian message, the celebration of communion (the Eucharist) and the rite of baptism came directly from Jesus of Nazareth .
Christianity in the ante-Nicene period continued the practice of female Christian headcovering (from the age of puberty onward), with early Christian apologist Tertullian referencing 1 Corinthians 11:2–10 and stating "So, too, did the Corinthians themselves understand [Paul]. In fact, at this day the Corinthians do veil their virgins.
It developed into Early Christianity (see also List of events in early Christianity). The quest for the historical Jesus began with the work of Hermann Samuel Reimarus in the 18th century. [84] Two books, both called The Life of Jesus were written by David Strauss, published in German in 1835–36, and Ernest Renan, published in French in 1863.