History of Christianity

The history of Christianity concerns the history of the Christian religion and the Church, from Jesus and his Twelve Apostles to contemporary times. Christianity is the monotheistic religion which considers itself based on the revelation of Jesus Christ (cf. Galatians 1:12 see below). "The Church" is understood theologically as the institution founded by Jesus for the salvation of mankind.

Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a Jewish sect but quickly spread throughout the Greco-Roman world.

The word revelation never occurs again in the book that has come to bear that name. Every other time the book refers to itself, it is as a prophecy (v. 3; compare 22:7, 10, 18) or a "book of prophecy" (22:19). Revelation should therefore be understood in much the same sense as in 1 Corinthians 14:6, 26, where Paul lists "a revelation" among the things prophets in early Christian congregations received from God in the Spirit--along with knowledge, prophecy, teaching (v. 6), a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, an interpretation (v. 26).

Paul uses the phrase "revelation of Jesus Christ" in Galatians 1:12 (NRSV) to refer to the divine message he had received, and by virtue of which he became apostle to the Gentiles. Both in Galatians and here in Revelation the phrase "revelation of Jesus Christ" tells us primarily where the revelation comes from, not what it is about. It is a revelation given by Jesus Christ from heaven, now that God has raised him from the dead. Much of it, of course, will also be about Jesus, but above all the title is saying that the book is from Jesus. ©InterVarsity Press 

¹² For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:12 ESV)

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The Gospels

Books in the new testament referred to as the Gospels:

In Christianity, a gospel (from Old English, "good news") is generally one of four canonical books of the New Testament that describe the miraculous birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. These books are the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, written between 65 and 100 AD.

Many modern scholars argue that the sequence in which the Gospel accounts have traditionally been printed in the Bible is not the order of their composition, and that the first canonical gospel to have been written is Mark (c 65-70), which in turn was used as a source for the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke may have also used the hypothetical Q Document. These first three gospels are called the synoptic gospels because they share a similar view. The last gospel, the gospel of John, presents a very different picture of Jesus and his ministry from the synoptics.

The vast majority of biblical scholars believe the canonical gospels were originally written in Greek, although some believe the gospel of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic or Hebrew and later translated to Greek. However, Eusebius wrote that Matthew composed the Gospel According to the Hebrews and his Church Catalog suggests that it was the only Jewish Gospel. Yet, some have accused Eusebius of falsification.

Originally, the "gospel" meant the proclamation of God's saving activity in Jesus of Nazareth, or the agape (love) message proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth. This is the original New Testament usage (for example Mark 1:14-15 or 1 Corinthians 15:1-9; see also Strong's G2098). The word is still used in this sense. Ancient, non-canonical works that purport to quote Jesus (e.g., Gospel of Thomas) are also called gospels, and the term refers, in general, to works of a genre of Early Christian literature (cf. Peter Stuhlmacher, ed., Das Evangelium und die Evangelien, Tübingen 1983, also in English: The Gospel and the Gospels).

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