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    Church: the Early Years
    Church: the Early Years
    Church: the Early Years
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Church: the Early Years

    By Dennis Hawkes

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    About this ebook

    Church: the early years describes the churches that were to be found during the first century AD that is about seventy years after the death of Jesus Christ. The term for church, “ekklesia” in Greek, occurs over 100 times in the New Testament. Some churches are well described, others simply referred to in passing and yet others can be reasonably inferred from what is known about the area or the people. In these early years of Christianity the word church meant something very different to what many people understand it to mean today. It meant the people not the building they met in. These new believers had no specially constructed building as they used the temple court in Jerusalem, synagogues until they were expelled, hired halls, or private houses. Some things would have been familiar to us although in unfamiliar surroundings, the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and the communion or breaking of bread and baptisms. Preaching from the Jewish Scriptures, the Christians Old Testament and increasingly from the books and letters circulating from writers such as the apostles that today are known as the New Testament. The vestments used in services of the church would have been missing and the meetings would probably not have been well advertised for fear of persecution either by hostile Jews, other religious groups or the Roman authorities. It was partly the persecution of these first Christians that led to the rapid spread of the good news about Jesus Christ coming to earth dying and rising again as a sacrifice for sin to all who repent and turn to God in faith. The other big influence in the spread of the faith were the missionary endeavours of fearless believers who travelled widely on the Roman roads and sea routes that were available at this time. Perhaps the most well know of these preachers was the apostle Paul.
    This short eBook traces the churches through the Roman provinces that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea and lists them in alphabetical order with the towns and cities also in order within each province. A short bibliography is given at the end of the book for the reader to start a more in-depth study. It is hoped that the book will help people understand more about the bible and the Christian faith.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDennis Hawkes
    Release dateMar 12, 2015
    ISBN9781310334665
    Church: the Early Years
    Author

    Dennis Hawkes

    Emeritus Professors Dennis and Freda Hawkes live in Wales, UK and have lectured and jointly led a research team at a university until retirement. They are members of an evangelical church where Dennis was a church leader until retiring and have taught the bible for many years, mostly to students and young professionals. Their experience has led them to offer these resources to help other people to start to read and understand the bible.

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      Book preview

      Church - Dennis Hawkes

      Church – the Early Years

      Published by Dennis Hawkes at Smashwords

      Copyright 2015 Dennis Hawkes

      ISBN 9781310334665

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be sold or copied but can be freely downloaded in a variety of formats from Smashwords. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      ~~~

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Achaea or Achaia

      Asia

      Cilicia

      Cyprus

      Crete and Cyrenaica

      Galatia

      Galilee

      Italy

      Iudaea

      Lycia et Pamphylia

      Macedonia

      Syria

      Conclusion

      Bibliography

      Preface

      In nearly 2000 years since the death of Jesus Christ the number of Christians in the world has risen to an estimated 32% of the world’s population. There are now many different doctrines, denominations and practices but what was the Christian church like in its first seventy years? In this eBook I look at some of what we know or can infer from the New Testament and other 1st Century writings. The book is laid out in alphabetical order of Roman provinces and in alphabetical order of places that had churches within each province. By the end of the century other churches had been established in other areas including Egypt but these are not listed here.

      By ‘church’ I do not mean the building that the word church often signifies today but I mean the Greek word ‘ekklesia’, a word for an assembly of people that is used 115 times in the New Testament. This eBook is best read as a companion to the Bible and I trust the information in it will help the reader understand more about New Testament times the origins of the Christian faith. There are references to the bible books, see the contents page of any bible. Most quotations are from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. Where possible sources have been crosschecked and also a short bibliography is given.

      I am indebted to those friends who have read through the drafts especially to my wife Freda.

      Dennis Hawkes

      Cardiff, Wales

      Spring 2015

      Introduction

      The Roman Empire

      The world first impacted by Christianity was the world governed by Rome and its Emperors. The following table shows those in power during the first seventy years or so of the Christian church in the area that we today call the Middle East and Eastern Europe, mainly around the Mediterranean Sea (then known in the 1st Century as the Great Sea). The last major war in the area had ended in 63 BC and since that time the region had been largely at peace, apart from local insurrections.

      Table 1. Roman Emperors during the time of the early church

      During the 1st century AD the Emperor and the Senate ruled the Empire from Rome. Roman society was divided into different classes known as orders. These were in order of wealth and status, senatorial, equestrian, respectable populace, free poor and the destitute. Slaves were not Roman citizens but were also part of this society sometimes abused and sometimes treated well. It was possible to become a Roman Citizen upon being granted freedom and there were a few ex-slaves who eventually held high office. One such was Marcus Antonius Felix (Acts 23:24), the procurator of Iudea, a former imperial slave from the household of the daughter of Mark Anthony.

      The Roman emperor Augustus (27 BC – AD 14) reduced the senate in size from 900 to 600 members with only around 300 of these being active. Members of this senatorial order came from wealthy families having property worth at least 250,000 denarii.

      The Roman Empire was divided into Provinces ruled from provincial capital cities. Romans of senatorial rank governed the senatorial provinces that were close to Italy and had minimum forces. This type of governor was called a proconsul.

      Imperial provinces were towards the edges of the Empire, tended to have a greater military presence and were governed by legates or procurators. Legates were of senatorial rank. Procurators were from the equestrian rank and generally ruled smaller areas that required special treatment such as those that had just been acquired by Rome. The equestrian order of society were originally men who rode a horse into battle and were rich enough to own a horse as well as weapons and supplies. Sons of a senator were automatically enrolled as equestrians. Others could apply to be part of this order and if approved by the Emperor would have to demonstrate that they had property worth 100,000 denarii and that their family had been freeborn for the past two generations.

      Religion

      The Greek empire founded by Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC) had been overtaken by the Romans leaving behind the Greek language and religions. Greek religions were devoted to the gods of Greek mythology. There were very many of these but the most important were those thought to live on mount Olympus. Some cities worshipped specific gods such as Zeus the chief god and his son

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