Abstract

The Christian message spread from Jerusalem, a small but religiously important town in the Roman Empire. It was the center of Judaism, and in the early years of Christianity it also became the center for the new believers in Christ. From Jerusalem the message of Jesus as the Messiah was taken to many places of the empire, especially to the Greco-Roman cities of Asia Minor. In the New Testament book of Acts, cities like Damascus, Antioch, Sardis, Pergamum, Salamis, Corinth, Smyrna, Athens, and Rome are mentioned as places where there were Christian communities, and by the end of the first century even more are added.1