Early Christianity entered the scene at a very unique point in human history. The developments leading up to the first century AD set the stage for the rapid spread of Christianity across the ancient world.
Greek as a Common Language
After the close of Malachi and the beginning of the New Testament, Alexander the Great’s military campaigns from 334-323 BC spread Greek influence across the Near East. This resulted in the widespread adoption of Koine Greek as the dominant common language across the eastern Mediterranean. During this intertestamental time, many government documents, philosophical pieces, and even Jewish writings, such as the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books of the Bible were written in Koine Greek. It isn’t incidental that the New Testament was written in Greek rather than Hebrew; this was the common international language of the day.
The Interconnectedness of the Roman Empire
In 63 BC, during a Jewish civil war, the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem and brought Judea into the Roman Empire. As devastating as this was for the Jews at the time, the Roman Empire brought some developments that would be critical for the quick spread of Christianity. Like most empires, the Romans wanted to reap financial benefits from newly conquered lands so they connected Judea to their network of over 250,000 miles of roads as well as sea trade routes so they could easily move troops, extract resources, and allow trade.
The Jewish Diaspora
Because of the Jewish Diaspora, which started with the fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was already a network of Jewish synagogues spread throughout most cities of the Roman Empire and even beyond it in places like Persia. Early Christianity initially spread fastest through this ready-made network of Jewish synagogues.
Political Stability
In addition to the network of roads, the empire also brought the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) to the region. This was, of course, enacted by brutal suppression of any dissent, but the result was a political stability that greatly reduced large-scale warfare and allowed for safer travel throughout the Roman world, which now included the birthplace of the Christian movement.
Urbanization
The Roman Empire that Judea was now a part of was also highly urbanized. With cities like Rome, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, and Alexandria serving as large population centers, it created an environment for early Christianity to spread from one major city to another and then slowly expand into rural areas from there.
The Rapid Spread of Early Christianity
These unique cultural, political, and historic developments set the stage for the rapid spread of the teachings of Jesus in the decades and centuries after his death, but another phenomenon arose in combination with all of these that helped force the spread – persecution. In his attempts to destroy the teachings of the followers of Christ, Saul of Tarsus (later the apostle Paul) led a strong and violent opposition to the earliest Christians in Jerusalem, but what was the result? “[T]hey were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria…” (Acts 8:2) and “those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” (Acts 8:4) Did you catch that? In an attempt to suppress Christian teaching in Jerusalem, Saul unintentionally caused it to be spread through the regions of Judea and Samaria. This became a feedback loop. As the persecution spread, the church spread to neighboring regions. As the church spread, the persecutions spread to neighboring regions. Ironically, Paul the Apostle would visit many churches founded during these periods of persecution on his later missionary journeys including Antioch (Syria), Rome, Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon.
We see this pattern continue later on in the New Testament and throughout the early centuries of the church. As persecution spread to new cities, the church spread to neighboring cities and this quick growth, driven by persecution, was enabled by the large urban centers in the Roman Empire connected by the roads and maritime routes, and united by a common language.
In Our Day
In our own day, we have a new set of historically unique cultural, political, and technological developments that are driving the spread of the church and the teachings of Christ. With the public launch and the global rise of the internet in the 1990s, the world was connected to information like never before. With the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the other smartphone releases that followed, the internet was democratized to most of the world. And with the launch of Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, and the flood of other social media platforms that have come since then, individuals in the world are more connected to each other than ever before and can access information (or disinformation) from anywhere in the world without having to go through the traditional media gatekeepers.
There is a lot that can be and has been said about the negative effects of mass social media adoption and overuse of our devices, and because of this, some have decided to opt-out of social media. One friend of mine remarked that, when it comes to social media, he was a conscientious objector. Now it is true that there is a lot of hate, misinformation, useless bickering, and content that is influencing people in other negative ways on social media, I don’t think that opting out is a good option for most Christians – after all, if we want to share the good news with the people, we have to go where the people are. Right now, that is social media.
The Monastic Life and Social Media
Following the rapid spread of Christianity in the early church and the rise of Constantine and the legalization and endorsement of Christianity in the 4th century AD, there was a period where many Christians were re-thinking what it meant to follow Christ under the new circumstances. Many became horrified by the corruption within the Church that they saw arise as great Roman politicians and nobles tried to bend Christian teaching for political or financial gain. Others came to think that following Christ without persecution just seemed too comfortable and worldly. Many started to think that the right way to follow Jesus was to remove oneself from Roman society and live an ascetic life of contemplation and prayer devoted wholly to God. This led to the early monastic movement in the 4th and 5th centuries that produced many celebrated saints such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius, Macarius, and many others.
These desert fathers, as they are called, were not priests or politicians. They were simply Christians who were not afraid to ask what it looks like to follow Christ at their point in history and were willing to experiment a little. After all, if society was too corrupt, why not separate from it entirely? If the church was growing too decadent and wealthy, why not abandon it for a simple life of poverty and contemplation? This was the strong desire of many at the time, but it is my contention that this would have been the wrong move for most people.
Separated by many centuries as well as cultural, educational, and linguistic barriers, I am not meaning to set myself up as a judge over these early monks. But I would like to point out that what they did seems to be incompatible with Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). If Christ has commanded us to go and make disciples, then we must go to places where disciples can be made. In their day people congregated in the cities; in ours they congregate on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. If social media is where people are spending much of their free time, then surely God is calling his followers today to go to social media with the Gospel.
People say it’s toxic, full of misinformation and hate, and the algorithms suppress traditional Christian belief and teaching. That may be true in some cases, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is where people congregate in the modern world. Maybe we, as Christians, are called to fight against the online hate by showing the world a more loving and charitable way of communicating on social media. Keep in mind that in the 4th and 5th centuries while the monastics were the source of many legends and inspiration, the gospel went forth by the preaching of people like Augustine and Jerome who chose to engage with people in cities rather than isolate themselves in the desert. If we are always looking for safe places to live out our Christian life, then we will miss so many opportunities to share the gospel with the world.
The interconnectedness of the Roman world set the stage for the rapid growth of Christianity in the early church; the digital connections of the modern world set the stage for the spread of the gospel in ways that were impossible in the past. A YouTuber in Canada can share the gospel with an unreached person in Japan, Kuwait, or Indonesia in an instant. The opportunity that is in front of us is absolutely unprecedented in human history! Perhaps there are some who should reject the modern digital world and seek a more contemplative and ascetic lifestyle, but I pray and hope that as a church at large we take advantage of this absolutely unique point in human history that we find ourselves in today.
