THE SPREAD

OF EARLY

CHRISTIANITY

FROM ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION

 

The Spread of Christianity : The New Testament continues the story of Christianity beyond the Gospels. The accounts include the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which covers the early Christian Church, as well as the Epistles-letters-attributed to Paul, along with additional apostolic letters and the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. Most scholars believe that the author of the Gospel of Luke also wrote the Book of the Acts; both were apparently commissioned by the same sponsor, a man named Theophilus.

The oldest written source about Jesus is not The Book of Acts or the four Gospels, but the letters of Paul. They were addressed to early Chistian communities throughout Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), and dispatched by traders or friends using the sea-and-road network of the Roman Empire. The purpose of the epistles was to bolster faith.