Class 4/27, Early Christianity

Notes:

• The worship of Roman gods was impersonal and often practiced without a great deal of emotion 
• Rome took control over the Jewish kingdom in AD 6 and made it a province 
• Jesus' message began to spread and people started to believe he was the Messiah who would restore the Jewish kingdom
• Roman and Jewish leaders felt threatened by Jesus and they eventually charged with blasphemy and sentenced him to death on the cross
• Jesus' resurrection convinced even more people that he was in fact the Messiah
• A new religion began to be created  based off of Jesus' teachings and spread throughout the Roman Empire even with the political and religious opposition
• Paul had an enormous influence on Christianity even though he wasn't a believer at first and never met Jesus 
• Paul had a vision of Jesus and spent the rest of his life spreading Jesus' teachings
• He wrote influential letters called Epistles 
• The Jews rebelled against the Romans many times and were unsuccessful, they were eventually   driven from their homeland, this was called the Diaspora
• Pax Romana began to crumble due to the number of rebellions from the Jews and the Christians 
• Why Christianity grew: embraced all people, gave hope to the powerless, appealed to those who were repelled by the extravagances of imperial Rome, offered a relationship with a loving God, promised eternal life after death