On the way to Christianity, the ancient world has passed a long and rich path of development, in which the lines of development of the East, Greece and Rome for some time passed in parallel, but then began a steady rapprochement, intensified as contacts between different civilizations and reached its apogee in the era of Hellenism (Greece + East) and in the era of the Roman Empire (Hellenism + Rome). Schematically, this path of the three civilizations can be represented as follows:

Thus, from the first contacts in the second Millennium BCE between the ancient civilizations and Mycenaean civilization Greeks through communication with the outside world during the great Greek colonization (VIII-VI centuries BC) through the Greco-Persian wars and contacts with the East in the course of subsequent events the beginning of the crisis of the Polis (V century – first half of IV century BC) Greece and the East have United in the system of Hellenistic States, and, starting from the II century BC, this Association began to overlap with the third force – Rome. I century BC it was the time of the most intensive synthesis of all aspects of the life of the ancient world into a single Hellenistic-Roman civilization, and the formation of the Roman Empire was the external political form of this process.

The main historical reason for the emergence of Christianity was the crisis of the Polis in the West and the communal way of life in the East. This led to a severe breakdown of social and individual consciousness, and in the new historical conditions of the synthesis of the three civilizations led to the emergence of a unique religious system, which was Christianity. It should be added that the Roman Empire itself contained all the necessary conditions for the transformation of Christianity into a world religion, since the Empire itself was of a world character.

Religious causes and background.

God created the world out of love and created man as the crown of creation, giving him free will. God was waiting for love in return, but man deviated from the path that was meant for him and fell into sin. With sin came death and corruption into the world.

God preached about his creation, but the people bore the seal of original sin and they continued to sin. Then God decided to conclude a contract (Covenant) with his chosen people and gave him the commandments, the observance of which was to save mankind from sin, as the God-chosen people were to be followed by other Nations. However, subsequent history has shown that man himself is not able to get rid of sin, and people continue to violate the commandments.

And then God decided to save mankind and sent to earth his beloved Son, who accepted the fullness of human nature and thus made us humans part of Him. But at the same time the Son, as the Second Person of the Trinity, retained the fullness of the divine nature. This was a necessary condition of Salvation, since such a powerful enemy as Death could only be defeated by the Death of Almighty God.

The death of Christ was a redemptive sacrifice for all mankind, but not only – the death of Christ was a victory over Death and the opening for people of the way to eternal life through Union with God.

Thus God made a new Covenant with humanity through the atoning sacrifice of his Son. By doing so, people gained eternal life after death and the hope of a full resurrection at the end of time.

Jesus Christ (life, mission, teaching) and the first Christian community (independently)

3. The main stages of the history of early Christianity.

The development of Christianity in the I-III centuries is a striking and unique in world history process of turning a small community into a powerful organization and the teachings of a wandering preacher into a world religion. And although the completion of this process falls on the IV century., when Christianity was in different historical conditions than before, I-III centuries. were like a genetic phase of Christianization, prepared the triumph of Christianity in the next century.

The history of the first three centuries of Christianity can be divided with a certain conventionality into three periods, each of which had its own peculiarities and its own significance for the subsequent destinies of this religion.

The Calvary period lasted from the time of the execution of Jesus Christ until the beginning of the second century, and is usually referred to in literature as the Apostolic age. During this period, it was vital that the followers of Jesus overcome the narrow limits of Judaism and self-determination of Christianity as an independent religion. The primary role in this was played by the Apostle Paul, who addressed the Christian sermon to the Gentiles-non-Jews and did much to spread the first Christianity outside Palestine.

After the death of Jesus Christ, some of his disciples withdrew to Galilee, then to the borders of Syria and from there to Damascus and Antioch. It was there that the very name “Christians” appeared. At the beginning of the second half of the first century. Christians also appear in the cities of Asia Minor and Egypt. In the West, the spread of Christians was slower, except in Rome, where there were many Jews.

Important for the development of Christianity in this period was the Jewish war (66-72 years.), during which the supporters of the struggle against Rome were physically destroyed, the Jerusalem temple was destroyed-the center of Orthodox Judaism, and in connection with the abolition of the remnants of the independence of the Jewish state, Judaism lost its political basis. However, for the spread of early Christianity in the Roman world, the dispersion of the Jews, among whom there were many Judeo-Christians, throughout the Roman Empire was of particular importance. The Jewish war turned out to be a kind of border that separated Christianity from Judeo-Christianity and created conditions for the wide spread of the new doctrine.

Another very important feature of this period was the recording of Christian teaching, which originally existed only in the oral tradition. The formation of the Holy Canon took place over a long period, and finally the composition of the New Testament was formed only in the IV century. However, almost all the original Christian literature, both canonical and a significant part of the apocryphal, took shape in the Apostolic age.