Spread Of Christianity

Christianity first originated in Rome. It was started by the Jewish prophet, Jesus, and with the help of Paul, a later follower of the new faith, Christianity began to spread throughout the world. Christianity was influenced by the Jewish faith and has many similar practices.
Christianity, a religion based off of Judaism, believed in Jesus, the son of God, who came to purify the sins of the world and is the Messiah who will help redeem all life on earth and bring them to Heaven. When the Virgin Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, she was told she would have a son that was holy with God, and that His birth would help free humanity of its sins. The religion borrows from many “Jewish beliefs and how the Roman rule, at the time, was oppressing
Originally Christianity was considered to be a Jewish sect (jewishvirtuallibrary). Therefore, many of the people who converted to Christianity had originally been Jewish. Jesus, a prophet who Christians believe to be the Messiah, was a Jew who “observed the Jewish faith and was well acquainted with the Jewish Law.” (AllAboutReligion). This had a very large impact on the beliefs of Christianity. Christianity developed out of the Jewish monotheistic tradition, and from that Christianity gets its belief in the same single, all powerful God. The Old Testament, the first part of Christianity’s holy text, the Bible, is the same as Judaism’s sacred text the Torah, with a few add ons. (pbs). Christians also got the practice of church rituals, the reading of the Scripture and preaching, from the Jewish synagogue. A few of the early Christian prayers are Jewish originals or adaptations, “Our Father who art in Heaven” from the Our Father comes from a Jewish prayer. The central part of Christianity, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, comes from when Jesus and his apostles celebrated the Passover, a Jewish tradition. Christianity and Judaism are closely related, and stem from the same beliefs, but are fundamentally different in important aspects. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah, but the Jews do not believe that he was the Messiah. Christianity, in part, was formed as a way to fix the
He was originally Saul of Tarsus (which is in present day Turkey). He was an apostle and is sometimes called Saint Paul. He was one of the earliest people to develop and spread Christianity. He grew up as a Jew receiving Jewish education and was a Pharisee (a strict adherent to Jewish law) at first and he held Roman citizenship and had great hellenistic education which made him “raised in two worlds: in a proud Jewish family that maintained its Jewish heritage and the Hellenistic world of the Greek city”(“Saint Paul”).Before he started to spread Christianity, he used to persecute Christians until one day, while traveling to Damascus in 35 CE, he converted to the new faith. This was also when he changed his name from Saul to Paul. He traveled throughout the Hellenistic lands and founded churches teaching Christianity. However his problem was the Christian relationship with Judaism, and since Christianity was similar to Judaism and emerged from them, then Christianity must adhere to Jewish law and the only followers must be converts among Jews. However some Hellenist Jews saw Christianity as a new and universal religion. Paul decided to support this Hellenist thinking and many of the gentiles (non-jews) converted. He believed that Jesus’s followers were to spread the gospel of salvation and be evangelists (messengers). Salvation was a gift of God’s grace and faith in Jesus Christ was needed