And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

And also upon the servants and
upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and
in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:
for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance,
as the LORD hath said,
and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

                                                               JOEL 2: 28-32 (King James Version)

It was the conversion of Constantine the Great (who became the Caesar of the West and subsequently the Augustus) that changed the direction of the nascent religion. His going into a battle with a Christian symbol painted on his soldiers’ shields was truly a watershed moment in Christianity’s history. Subsequently he granted the Christians legal rights by promulgating the ‘Edict of Milan’. With a view to bring clarity on the various doctrines which the Church was following, he also conveyed the first ever ‘ecumenical’ council. His setting up of a new capital ‘Constantinople’, a truly Christian Capital, was the height of his evangelism. But later rulers like ‘Julian the Apostate’ were inimical to this new faith, though his pagan beliefs could not do much damage as he shortly died after assuming office.

Then came the Golden age of Christian thoughts. Famous ‘Apostolic Fathers’ such as Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna are still revered. Though there were a number of leading theologians during that period, it was St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) whose intellectual ingenuity has a continuing profound influence on Christianity. Gradually Augustinian Christianity became Western Christianity. Among his many ideas, ‘predestination’ i.e. God from eternity elects some to save is now well accepted. Gradually the theologians started analysing the relation of Christ’s divinity to his humanity which is known as Christology. St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662) can be considered as the greatest ‘Christologian’ whose famous ‘Trinitarian theology’ has greatly added to Christian theology. It was the beginning of the Christian scholasticism.

In the mean time, the might of the Western Roman Empire was gradually wearing down. With increasing raids by ‘barbarian tribes’, the Empire was continually shrinking and the later emperors were mere titular heads controlled by all powerful barbarian lords. But gradually these Germanic Tribes were also evangelized.

There continued to be many significant disagreements regarding the basic elements of Christian faith.  Divinity of Jesus or the relation of the Father to the Son was a dominating one. To resolve this serious dispute, Constantine on assuming control of the Eastern Christian World convened the first ‘Ecumenical Council’ at Nicaea. The ‘Nicene Creed’ described the Son as ‘consubstantial’ with the Father. But there were ‘homoeans’ (who considered the Son of being of similar substance with the Father) as well as ‘anomoeans’ (who considered the Son as very different from the Father). Finally it was the ‘Cappadocian Fathers’ (St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Gregory of Nazianzus) who in the second Ecumenical Council (381) held that the eternal God had entered into the human history in the form of Christ.

But differences continued to haunt this new faith. In fifth century A.D., in Constantinople, disagreements over the ‘Mother of God’ raised to such proportions that a council was convened in Ephesus (431) to resolve the issue. The raging battle over the doctrinal aspects were continuing in Alexandria too. ‘Monophysitism’ (in the Incarnation, Christ’s humanity was assumed into his divinity) divided Alexandria and Constantinople. To resolve this dispute, the fourth Ecumenical Council (the Great Council of Chalcedon) was convened in 451 A.D. Rejecting ‘Monophysitism’, it reaffirmed ‘dyophysite’ position. But such outright rejection also led to the division of the order. The Ethiopian Church, the Syrian Jacobite Church, the Coptic Church and other Monophysite communions separated from Rome. The ecclesiastical differences were the precursor to the East-West Schism.

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus,
of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Until the day in which he was taken up,
after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments
unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

To whom also he shewed himself alive
after his passion by many infallible proofs,
being seen of them forty days,
and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

And, being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
ACTS 1: 1-4

The Synoptic Gospels proclaim the rising of the Christ and his transformation into a ‘spiritual body.’ The birth of the church came after Christ’s ascension at the beginning of the feast of Shavuot or ‘Pentecost’. When the apostles gathered on the day of Pentecost, the house was filled with wind and fire and they started speaking foreign languages. On coming out, the Jews were amazed to see these Galileans speaking the native languages. On proclamation of Christ’s resurrection to the dumbfounded Jews, a substantial number of such Jews converted to Christianity.

The Apostolic Church was exclusively Jewish as in the beginning it did not allow Gentiles to be baptised. Only later Apostle Peter declared that the gospel could be received by the Gentiles too without the additional requirement that they be bound by the Law of Moses. Gospels state that Apostle Peter had a vision in which Christ commanded him to take food of all kind, whether Kosher or not. Peter baptised a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and this was the beginning of Gentiles being baptised into the new faith.

But it was Saul (later known as Paul) who actually popularised the still infant Messianic sect to the large population of Gentiles and pagans. A ‘Hellenized’ Pharisee from Tarsus in Asia Minor, he was at one point inimical towards this very sect. But his transformation from a persecutor to the greatest missionary of Christianity is a game-changing event in the history of Christianity. According to Christian texts he was blinded by a blazing light and his vision was restored by a Christian named Ananias which led to his becoming a missionary of Christ. A tireless preacher, he changed the course of history forever. Bringing into the fold vast numbers of Gentiles led not only to the continuation of this infant sect but also, though gradually, it was successfully seen as a separate sect from the Jews.  His equal treatment of Jews and Greeks was an exemplary step. The common participation of the Jews and Gentiles in Abraham’s faith made them inheritors of God’s covenant with Abraham. Their obedience to the Mosaic Code was not compulsory. This theology of Paul led to the tremendous growth of Christianity and the church became a force which transformed the world.

The early Christians used to meet on Sundays, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. They used to sing Psalms, glossolalia, prophecy etc. But this new ‘mystery religion’ had numerous pagan critics. The Roman authorities gradually started looking at them with disdain and suspicion. The protection (legal immunity) which Jews had was no more available to the followers of this new religion which led to the Roman authorities taking brutal steps to control this new found menace.

The followers of Christianity had to compulsorily honour the Gods of the Roman Empire and offer prayers to the Gods for the Empire’s welfare. On refusal death penalty was the sole punishment. This led to the start of the endless pagan persecutions, the first one being the infamous ‘Nero’s purge’. Gradually theses persecutions were aimed at extermination of Christians finally culminating in making ‘professing Christianity’ a capital offence. Christians were hunted down and those who did not denounce their faith were put to death. It continued till the third Century A.D. Emperor Decius even issued an edict requiring every citizen to make a sacrifice at a pagan altar, refusal of which again led to capital punishment. Such anti Christian laws and policies of the Empire continued but surprisingly could not limit the growing popularity of Christianity.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all that mourn;

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

ISAIAH 61: 1-2, 10 (King James Version)

By the time Jesus was born, Jerusalem had long since passed its economic and cultural zenith. It was under Roman dominion and was the place of regular disturbance. Extreme economic inequality had led to terrible discontent among the general public. Majority of Jews and Gentiles led an extremely wretched life. Not much is known about the early life of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke do indicate about Christ’s miraculous conception and birth. Christ’s birth in a stable and his adoration in the manger by shepherds are well known. His dialogue with the scholars of the Temple at the tender age of twelve and his baptism in the Jordan by John have entered into folklore. As per the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Jesus went to the wilderness for praying and fasting for forty days. He successfully resisted the devious attempts by the Satan. After that he gathered disciples, the inner twelve known as the Apostles. Ministry began when Jesus returned to Galilee from the Judaean Desert, with Jesus preaching around Galilee. It included the Sermon on the Mount, calming of the storm, walking on water and other miracles including the Transfiguration.

After entering Jerusalem, Jesus started telling the people that the promised deliverer had come. Those who followed him believed that the authority upon which he acted was no less than God’s own. He was the God’s ‘anointed’, the ‘Messiah’ or ‘Christ’. The message conveyed was unmistakable that the long awaited ‘Messiah’ i.e. the ‘King of Jews’ had arrived to free Israel from the agonising bondage. Very soon he was considered as a serious political threat to the establishment. Though the ultimate power belonged to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, yet the local responsibility fell on the High Priest of the Temple. The culmination was entering of Jesus and his followers in the Temple’s public courtyard and overturning the tables of the money changers. He also released the cattle ready to be sold for sacrifice and drove out the vendors selling various items and declared “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” As the Temple police and the Roman guards started searching for the people involved in this incident, Jesus and his disciples exited the Temple and walked out of the city.

After a few days, during the Passover seder, Christ predicted his arrest and death and shared bread and wine with his disciples identifying those as his body and blood. With his disciples (except Judas Iscariot) Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives where his agony began and he started praying to God to spare him the suffering. The Temple Guards soon followed and Judas marked him by giving him a kiss. Christ was taken away by the guards while his disciples fled. On the same night he was examined by the Sanhedrin, the governing council of priests and elders led by Caiaphas, the High Priest. A bunch of witnesses was already there but their testimonies were greatly at variance with one another. The witnesses testified that Jesus had made threats against the Temple of Jerusalem to which Jesus refused to answer. Finally Caiaphas asked him whether he proclaimed himself as the ‘Messiah’ to which Jesus replied in the affirmative (various Gospels give differing versions). He was immediately charged with blasphemy which entailed capital punishment.

At the dawn Jesus was taken to Pilate, produced before him and was accused of seditiously styling himself as the ‘King of the Jews’. The Governor tried to push the matter to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod. But Herod did not entertain the matter and referred it back to the Governor. Gospels state that Pilate was totally unconvinced of the alleged crime committed by Jesus and offered to set him free in recognition of Passover. But the agitated mob was asking for his blood only and asked the Governor to release another criminal. Pilate had no other option but to hand over Jesus to the soldiers for his crucifixion. The soldiers crowned him with thorns, whipped and beat him and Jesus had to bear his own cross. He was sent to Golgotha alongside two other lestai (bandits). Jesus was also given a plaque detailing the crime (sedition) for which he was being crucified.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth did not end with his death, it was only the beginning of the birth of a new religion which entirely changed the history of mankind.