Church History Part 1: The Early Church

The early church commonly refers to the time between the death of Jesus, 33 A.D.(around there) and the first Ecumenical council, the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. This was a very important time in the history of the church as it was instrumental in the development later on. The Early church convened in synagogues and temples and peoples own homes in private. Early Christianity began as a Jewish sect of the followers of Jesus during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. Other Jewish sects of that time were the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Pharisees, and a group recognised as Zealots. Christians' distinguishing mark from these other groups was their belief that Jesus was the figure known in Greek as the Χριστός, in Aramaic as the משיחא, words, from which are derived the English words "Christ" and "Messiah", that literally mean the "Anointed".

Among the earliest Christians, the apostles had an acknowledged leadership role, as shown, for instance, in the following episodes recounted in the Acts of the Apostles: it was in their teaching that the first Christians "continued steadfastly" (Acts 2:42); they sent envoys to inquire into novelties that arose (Acts 8:14); appeal was made to them, along with the elders, to settle a dispute about the obligations of Christians (Acts 15:2). Some of Jesus' relatives were also prominent early Christians, his mother being a notable follower, and two of his four named brothers from the New Testament: James the Just and Jude; and Simeon of Jerusalem were noted as leaders. Some identify James the Just with the apostle James the Less and Jude with the apostle Saint Jude and Simeon of Jerusalem with the apostle Simon the Zealot yet the New Testament also records conflict between Jesus and his family, such as Mark 3:21, see also Rejection of Jesus and Mark 3. Some see a negative view of Jesus' family as related to a confict between Paul of Tarsus and Jewish Christians.

From the beginning, Christians were subject to various persecutions. This involved even death for Christians such as Stephen (Acts 7:59) and James the brother of John (12:2). Saul, who later converted to Christianity and is best known as Paul of Tarsus, the "Apostle to the Gentiles" (Rom 11:13, Gal 2:8), was a vigorous agent (Acts 9:1-2, Acts 22:5) in the persecution by the Jerusalem authorities, having been present at the stoning of Stephen and approving it (Acts 7:57-8:3, Acts 22:19-20).

Christianity was still very Judaic in its ways. Christianity continued many of the patterns of Judaism, adapting to Christian use synagogue liturgical worship, prayer, use of Sacred Scripture, a priesthood, a religious calendar commemorating on certain days each year certain events and/or beliefs, use of music in worship, giving material support to the religious leadership, and practices such as fasting and almsgiving and baptism. Christians adopted as their Bible the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures known as the Septuagint and later also canonized the books of the New Testament. There are however many phrases which appear to be quotations and other statements of fact, in the early church fathers, which cannot be found in the Bible as we know it.

The first major problems in the church were attributed to a man named Arius. Arianism was a Christological view held by followers of Arius, a Christian priest who lived and taught in Alexandria, Egypt, in the early 4th century. Arius taught that God the Father and the Son were not always contemporary, seeing the pre-incarnate Jesus as a divine being but nonetheless created by (and consequently inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a "creature"; in this context, the word is being used in its original sense of "created being."
The conflict between Arianism and the Trinitarian beliefs that have since become dominant in Christianity was the first important doctrinal difficulty in the Church after the legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine I. At one point in the conflict, Arianism held sway in the family of the Emperor and the Imperial nobility; later, because the Arian Ulfilas was the apostle to the Goths, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths arrived in western Europe already Christianized, but as Arians.

This guy helped shape the way for the First ecumenical council, which will be the next part of this series to be discussed.

The Early Christian church has a lot of history, to much for me to write out to encompass it all so what i have laid out here is brief history of the early stages of Christianity and the church. For the next topic, the First Ecumenical council, I will go more in depth and include background and aftermath. Please feel free to discuss or correct anything i may have messed up. Cheers!

Recommended Readings/Research:

Research: Arianism -- Edict of Milan -- Hypostasis -- Pentarchy -- Monothelitism -- Filioque controversy