The Romans affect on the Early Christians

The early Christians where certainly effected by the Roman Empire greatly. In some ways the Roman Empire made it easier to travel from place to place to evangelize to the different towns. However the Christians were also persecuted by the Romans in the beginning but stuck through and I believe this made them stronger. In the end however, the Roman Empire did not just affect Christianity but it was also vise-versa. Rome before the spread of Christianity had a major pagan view but because of this spread they accepted this religion and with it many of their morals. source (Rives)


The Roman Empire was an extremely big and well designed empire which was quite helpful to the early Christians in their travels to witness to the people. This was a special help to the apostle Paul, who used the Roman roads to get from place to place for his travels. In this they were able to reach the big cities that needed it most. Paul mainly kept in the area known best as Greece and the city of Rome, we see this in the Bible and his letters to the different cities he had visited. source


The hard beginning did not stop the early Christians from persevering on which in the end paid off. But in the middle it must have been really hard they were threatened to be killed and some were, they also were not in the best place with money. But these men looked to God and said that they will not crumble in times of distress. The Roman government looked very poorly at the time to Christianity and along with the Jews were blamed for anything that went wrong and many were persecuted for it. This I believe only made the Christians have more faith and more fire to witness to everyone. Intern the this made to Romans more interested in what was so special about that religion. source (Rives)


Not only did the Roman Empire affect the witnessing of the early Christians but Christianity affected the religion in the Roman Empire. Before the birth of Christianity Rome was mainly a pagan empire but Christianity became more popular in the Romans eyes and they changed greatly because of this religion. Not only did they accept it but many also changed their morals to fit the bill. Instead of gladiator fights and tiger wrestling you would every now and then see the apostle Paul and many others speak the message of Christianity, many Romans also turned from their very sinful ways. source (Glover)


So we see that the Roman Empire helped in both good and bad ways. We also see that not only did the Roman Empire affect the early years of Christianity but that Christianity also affected the Roman Empire. Both sides of this connection left their mark on history and have been made a huge part of the present. source (Glover)




Book Sources:


Glover, T. R. The Religion of the Roman Empire. Kessinger Publishing. New York; December 30, 2005.


Rives, J.B. Religion in the Roman Empire. Blackwell Pub. Oxford; June 19, 2006.



Image 1:

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/maps/romanempire.jpg