Through primary source documents such as Ignatius’ letter to the Romans as well as the Didache, one is able to grasp and understand some of the characteristics of early Christianity - some of which even carrying into today. To begin, Jesus is born when Caesar Augustus is emperor, and dies when Tibirius is the emperor. That being said, despite Christianity beginning in Jerusalem, the geographic center of the Christian Church moves to Rome as the gospel spreads farther than just the Jewish community. Speaking of the Jewish community, there are many Jewish roots associated with early Christianity. Christianity was originally under the umbrella of Judaism. They could almost in a sense be called a cult or a sect under Judaism. They acted in this manner so they wouldn’t be flagged by Roman authorities. The Roman Authorities believed that Christians were throwing away tradition and angering the Gods and therefore they should be thrown out. That's why in many ways it's hard to truly understand Christianity away from a Jewish context because the church stayed within the realm of Judaism for so long. In fact, there are a lot of conflicts present in the new testament, over topics such as dietary laws and circumcision - without the Jewish context behind it, it makes it very hard to understand the conflict fully. In addition, the Jewish roots are found through Jesus himself, who was both a Palestinian Jew and was a fulfillment of Hebrew Scriptures. The church was also organized in a similar manner to a Jewish Synagogue - in terms of prayer and scripture - furthering emphasizing the tie between Christianity and Judaism.
However, as Christianity started to break away from Judaism, questions started to arise that allowed Christianity to differentiate themselves from the religion of Judaism. Paul of Tarsus (also known as Saul) played a significant role in this. For he helped create theology for Gentile Christianity. He decided that a circumcision is not required as well as there isn’t a need to keep dietary laws. Furthermore, he answered the question regarding whether Christians have to be a Jew prior to converting to Christianity - the answer being no as the covenant sign for Christianity is not circumcision but rather baptism. One can see here through separating from Judaism, Christianity starts to differentiate themselves and organize themselves differently. One can even see this through donatism heresy, where donatists held the belief that the immorality of a priest had a direct relationship to God’s ability to communicate his grace with his people. In this way, if the priest was sinful, God wasn’t able to perform as well. Yet, through the scripture it was identified that God is greater than the immorality of a priest, as since we are human we sin and thus cannot be completely immoral. God is greater than immorality and is so powerful that immorality doesn’t affect him. We can see that characteristic of Christianity carried into today. Another heresy that helped to define what Christians believe was called Arianism heresy. This heresy believed that Jesus, being a created being, was less than or inferior to God. However, this theory was condemned at the council of Nicaea in 325 and it was made known that the Church believes that Jesus was fully God as well as fully human. These heresy helped the church define the nature of God and the nature of the last judgment. Some of these elements can be portrayed through the Nicene and Apostles Creed - which many churches still read today. One more powerful aspect of early Christianity was found through the three institutions: the 3 fold ministry, the creation of the new testament canon, along with the creed (mentioned above). The 3 fold ministry functioned to provide stability in the church through disputes. The canon allowed for the definition of the right books that were truthful and helpful to Christianity. Interestingly enough, the Didache was not accepted into this Canon despite on it’s guidance of how Churches should worship and hold ceremonies. Lastly, the Creed defines some of the fundamental Christian beliefs. Although Christianity has evolved a lot since even here, one can see its ties all the way to Judaism and the formation of some fundamental Christian beliefs - which is vital for understanding the Christian religion in itself.
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