Why the Roman Empire Was Perfect for Spreading Christianity

Have you ever stopped to think about the way God perfectly places every person in the right time period? There are no accidents with Him. And it was no accident that Jesus was born exactly when He was, at the height of the Roman Empire’s oppression. In this 14-minute video, Thinking West unpacks all the reasons why that pressure was crucial to the spread of Christianity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript that follows was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!

00:00:13:13 – 00:00:38:11
The Roman Empire. Was fine tuned to spread Christianity. Some might even say Christianity needed Rome to survive at all. It was Rome’s absolute dominance of the ancient world that allowed Christianity to flourish. When Christ was born in Bethlehem, there was already a figure who was known as a great peacemaker and the Son of God living at the time, Augustus Caesar.

00:00:38:15 – 00:01:03:07
The man who ended the Roman Civil War and jumpstarted. The. Pax Romana. Or Roman Peace, was the Emperor, sometimes called Divi Filius or Son of God. Due to his adoption. By the now. Deified Julius Caesar Augustus, his fate couldn’t be more juxtaposed to that of the humble Christ figure, who would. One day claim similar. Titles. The dichotomy is striking.

00:01:03:09 – 00:01:26:00
First, we see. A tension from the very beginning between Christianity and the Roman Empire, one that. Foreshadowed the persecution. That Rome became infamous for. In the Christian mythos. Paradoxically, though, Rome had a part to play in Christianity’s survival and spread. To understand. Why the Roman Empire. Was so. Fundamental. In helping Christianity spread, we first need to.

00:01:26:00 – 00:01:53:17
Understand the geopolitical. Reality of the first and. Second century Mediterranean. Rome’s control of this region created a lasting peace previously thought unimaginable. The Pax. Romana is the period of Roman. History, spanning roughly 200 years from. The ascension of Augustus in 27 BC. After years of civil war to the death of Marcus Aurelius, last of the Five Good Emperors. In 180. A.D..

00:01:53:19 – 00:02:24:06
Rome reached its greatest extent during this period, and its population. Reached an estimated 70 million people. Nearly a third of the world’s population. Consider the golden. Age of Roman. Imperialism. It solidified Rome’s hegemonic power, ensuring relative peace and order in Europe. The Middle East and North Africa. Trade boomed. As Rome’s. Intricate road networks provided safe and easy travel. For merchants, and Roman culture. Reached. Its climax.

00:02:24:08 – 00:02:52:11
Life was good under the Pax Romana. Architectural masterpieces like the. Colosseum or Vespasian. Temple of Peace were constructed. Rome’s borders were secured by. Defensive achievements like Hadrian’s Wall. And poets like Horace. And Virgil penned their. Masterpieces. Gibbon wrote in his. Work. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. That it was this historic period where the condition. Of the human race was most happy. And prosperous.

00:02:52:13 – 00:03:29:06
He claimed it was a series of great emperors that solidified Rome’s prosperity. The vast extent of. The Roman Empire. Was governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors, whose character. And authority commanded involuntary. Respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan. Hadrian, and Antoninus. Who delighted in the image of liberty and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws.

00:03:29:08 – 00:04:00:18
This triumph of the Roman. State coincided, surprisingly, with an incredible growth in Christianity. Within a mere ten. Years of Jesus’s death. Conversions were taking place in Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Alexandria and Rome. Over 40 churches were established by the year. 100. By 300 Christians. Accounting for approximately 10% of the entire Roman population. And within about 50 years they’d be the majority religion in the empire.

00:04:00:20 – 00:04:34:17
So how did. Roman imperial dominance. Contribute to the spread of Christianity? The Romans were. Pagans and. They helped kill Christ in the first place, right? Well, first, when one power stabilizes an entire region, travel becomes easier, including for missionaries. With the entirety. Of the Mediterranean region under a single. Jurisdiction, a feat not replicated before or since, travel that would have previously been impossible became accessible to Roman citizens without fear of violence or banditry.

00:04:34:19 – 00:05:06:11
As mentioned earlier, this greatly benefited merchant trade, but it also helped ideas spread further and faster than ever before. Roman roads carried not just resources and soldiers, but philosophies and religions, including the gospel. One need only look at Saint Paul’s. Odyssey across. Various Mediterranean cities to understand how Rome’s grip on the region benefited. Early Christian missionary work. The fact that he. Never needed to cross national boundaries. Simplified his. Travels and ensured. Relative safety.

00:05:06:13 – 00:05:32:05
His sea voyages especially highlight the unique. Situation of Rome at the time, as the entire Mediterranean. Often called a Roman lake, was completely encircled by the empire. Rome’s mighty fleets kept the water safe from pirates and foreign powers. Even on lands. Paul’s journeys to. Judea, Syria, Anatolia and Greece kept. Him within the bounds of the empire before Roman domination.

00:05:32:07 – 00:06:03:09
These regions were controlled by various hostile powers that would. Have made traveling. Between them tough. Glancing at a map of the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Roughly 200 years before Rome fully controlled the region, the pathway of Saint Paul’s journey would have crossed the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and. Integrated. Powers, who were often hostile to each other. For example. The Syrian wars between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms in the third and second centuries BC. As well as conflicts in Greece.

00:06:03:09 – 00:06:29:13
Between the integrated and the Achaean and Aetolian leagues during the same time, would have made. Peaceful travel extremely difficult, but the peace and security provided. By Roman hegemony meant people. And ideas could spread with ease. This no doubt helped Christianity spread in an era where people were preoccupied with their immediate security. Paul’s journey also highlights a second factor that allowed Christianity to flourish.

00:06:29:15 – 00:07:01:18
The incredible infrastructure of Rome at the time. In particular. Rome’s road system was the most advanced in the ancient world and made traveling efficient. As one fourth century surveyor. Described, the extent of the highway system, there is hardly a district to which we might expect a. Roman. Official to be sent on service, either civil or military. Where we do not find. Roads, they reach the wall in. Britain, run along the. Ribe, the Danube and the Euphrates, and cover. Us with a network.

00:07:01:18 – 00:07:29:04
The interior provinces of the Empire. It’s estimated there were over 50,000 miles of paved roads throughout the empire at its peak. These arteries provided efficient means of travel for. Rome’s armies. Officials, resources. And missionaries like Saint Paul. Another factor that helped Christianity spread within. The Roman Empire was the Roman family. Structure. An extremely. Hierarchical system.

00:07:29:06 – 00:08:01:24
The Roman family revolved around the decisions. Of the paterfamilias. The potter familias, Latin for father of the family, was head of the family. The oldest male relative occupied the position and had legal authority to exercise complete control over anyone in his household. Including his wife and children. Adopted relatives, clients and slaves. Though mainly a legal title. Pertaining to the economic and juridical. Aspects of an estate, it also had massive cultural implications.

00:08:02:04 – 00:08:31:08
In the case of Christian conversion, an entire family would. Often follow the faith of the potter familias if he converted first. New Testament scholar. Bart Erman writes in his work. Inside the Conversion Tactics. Of the Early Christian Church. In the Roman world, converting one person often meant converting the whole. Household. If the head of the household was converted. He decided the religion of his wife, children and slaves.

00:08:31:10 – 00:09:17:04
This reality is attested. To in the Bible in the Book of. Acts. The centurion. Cornelius sent his servants. The apostle Peter, to hear his. Testimony after receiving a vision which. Instructs him, Send to Joppa for Simon, who is called Peter. He will bring you a message. Through which you into all your household will be saved. After bringing Peter into his. Home, Cornelius converts along with his entire family, showing how. Conversion was not always a merely personal. Decision, but also a familial one. The account is often used to highlight the early. Church’s ministry to. Non-Jews, as Cornelius is the first gentile to be converted. However, it also showcases the logistics. Involved in conversion. It was often family by family rather than.

00:09:17:04 – 00:09:53:10
Person by person. Another major factor that allowed Christianity to spread throughout the Roman Empire was the general Roman attitude toward competing religions. Unlike today, Romans did not view faith as exclusive and took a laissez faire approach to new religions. Since pagans worshiped many gods, there was no particular obligation to be exclusive to any of them. For example, if someone had a devotion to say Apollo, that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a devotion to a different god like Zeus as well.

00:09:53:12 – 00:10:24:19
And during the Pax Romana, the Mediterranean world was a cornucopia of exotic foreign cults that existed alongside the traditional pantheon of Roman gods. As the empire grew, it simply welcomed new gods and goddesses into the fold. The cult of ISIS became popular once Egypt became under Roman control. In Mithra ism, an eastern religion that worshiped the god Mithras spread during the same period as Christianity in the first to fourth centuries A.D..

00:10:24:21 – 00:10:54:05
This religious syncretism allowed Christianity to go somewhat undetected initially, as Romans didn’t necessarily see it as a threat to their beliefs, but rather the Christian God was just one of many that a citizen could choose from, but antithetical to paganism. Christianity did impose exclusivity on its followers. Any Roman that joined it had to give up their old gods, which meant that in the long run, Christianity grew as paganism declined.

00:10:54:07 – 00:11:30:17
Every Christian converted was a loss for paganism. But what about persecution? Seems like the Romans weren’t actually always tolerant of new religions. And wasn’t the threat of imprisonment and execution a major deterrent for the early church? While many scholars agree that early on, Roman persecution of Christians was sporadic and localized, Nero in 64 AD spearheaded the first large scale persecution after Rome burned, but even then it was probably only targeted at the Christians in the city and not the entire empire.

00:11:30:19 – 00:11:56:18
It wasn’t until roughly 250 A.D. that Christians were widely persecuted under the reign of Jesus. So Christianity had over two and a half centuries to incubate and strengthen in numbers before intense state sponsored persecutions. And by that time, Christians already accounted for a sizable portion of the populace. The next four decades after Decius are sometimes referred to as the little piece of the church.

00:11:56:20 – 00:12:33:00
As Christianity flourished relatively uninterrupted until Diocletian launched the final and great persecution of the church in 303. But even this did not last long. Constantine’s Edict of Milan, which officially legalized the religion, came only a decade later. Christianity at this point was already growing so rapidly it had become an unstoppable force. We can see that Rome’s dominance of the Mediterranean intricate road systems, family structure and initial ambivalence toward new religions helped Christianity grow.

00:12:33:02 – 00:13:00:10
It might be a stretch, but it’s possible Christianity would have never survived it all in a different time and place. Medieval Christians actually acknowledged this fact. They believed pagan Rome paved the way for Christianity in some respects. For example, Julius Caesar’s inclusion in the Nine Worthies, who were seen as exemplars of chivalry, hints at the acknowledgment of Rome’s role in the development of Christianity.

00:13:00:12 – 00:13:28:06
He did, after all, jumpstart the events that led to the Empire’s founding in the first place. The medieval conception of history was that of a grand Christian tale, a belief that all of history was God’s unraveling plan for humanity’s salvation. When one looks at the unique circumstances around the Roman Empire and how it seemed almost fine tuned to facilitate the spread of Christianity, it’s hard to argue with them.

00:13:28:08 – 00:13:40:17
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