[Illustration: MODERN JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES]
MISSIONARY LABORS OF PAUL
Up to this time the new faith had been spread only among the Jews. The first Christians did not neglect to keep up all the customs of the Jewish religion. It was even doubted for a while whether any but Jews could properly be allowed within the Christian fold. A new convert, Saul of Tarsus, afterwards the Apostle Paul, did most to admit the Gentiles, or pagans, to the privileges of the new religion. Though born a Jew, Paul had been trained in the schools of Tarsus, a city of Asia Minor which was a great center of Greek learning. He possessed a knowledge of Greek philosophy, and particularly of Stoicism. This broad education helped to make him an acceptable missionary to Greek-speaking peoples. During more than thirty years of unceasing activity Paul established churches in Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. To many of these churches he wrote the letters (epistles), which have found a place in the New Testament. So large a part of the doctrines of Christianity has been derived from Paul's writings that we may well speak of him as the second founder of the Christian faith.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD The earliest known representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is shown pointing to the new star. The picture dates from about 200 A.D. and comes from the catacombs of St. Priscilla.]
CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE GENTILES
Christianity advanced with marvelous rapidity over the Roman world. At the close of the first century there were Christians everywhere in Asia Minor. The second century saw the establishment of flourishing churches in almost every province of the empire. A hundred years later there were missionaries along the Rhine, on the Danube frontier, and in distant Britain. "We are but of yesterday," says a Christian writer, with pardonable exaggeration, "yet we have filled all your places of resort— cities, islands, fortresses, towns, markets, the camp itself, the tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, and the forum, We have left to you only the temples of your gods." [18]
CONDITIONS FAVORING THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
Certain circumstances contributed to the success of this gigantic missionary enterprise. Alexander's conquests in the East and those of Rome in the West had done much to remove the barriers to intercourse between nations. The spread of Greek and Latin as the common languages of the Mediterranean world furnished a medium in which Christian speakers and writers could be easily understood. The scattering of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem [19] provided the Christians with an audience in many cities of the empire. The early missionaries, such as Paul himself, were often Roman citizens who enjoyed the protection of the Roman law and profited by the ease of travel which the imperial rule had made possible. At no other period in ancient history were conditions so favorable for the rapid spread of a new religion.
ORGANIZATION OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
While Christianity was conquering the world, the believers in its doctrines were grouping themselves into communities or churches. Every city had a congregation of Christian worshipers. [20] They met, not in synagogues as did the Jews, but in private houses, where they sang hymns, listened to readings from the Holy Scriptures, and partook of a sacrificial meal in memory of the last supper of Jesus with his disciples. Certain officers called presbyters, [21] or elders, were chosen to conduct the services and instruct the converts. The chief presbyter received the name of "overseer," or bishop. [22] Each church had also one or more deacons, who visited the sick and relieved the wants of the poor. Every Christian community thus formed a little brotherhood of earnest men and women, united by common beliefs and common hopes.