Religious Beliefs Romans - PolytheisticJews - monotheistic

Political Conflict While there was little religious conflict in the beginning… The Jews were unhappy with Roman rule in Judea & rebelled; Romans started to tax Jews heavily & band certain religious practices Romans also destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD Art decorating a Roman arch showing Roman soldiers stealing relics from Jewish temples

Early Christianity After Roman takeover many Jews believed that God would send the Messiah, or “God’s anointed one,” to restore their land to it greatness Jesus of Nazareth was born around early 1 st century; he grew up practicing Judaism Most of his life story is told in the New Testament of The Bible, the Christian holy book By age 30 he was traveling to teach about religion; his teachings challenged political and religious authority

For this reason he was arrested and sentenced to death via crucifixion, criminals were executed by being nailed to a cross After the third day he is said to have risen from the dead, known as the Resurrection; for his followers this confirmed that he was the Messiah Many began to call him Jesus Christ; “Christos” in Greek means Messiah, which is where the term Christian/Christianity comes from

Christianity in the Roman Empire Within a century there were thousands of Christians spreading the new religion in the Roman Empire Persecution of Christians was common throughout the empire Some Roman officials would arrest or even kill Christians because they refused to worship Roman gods Some Roman emperors banned Christianity because they believed the religious following would cause unrest

Constantine Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and remove the ban on the religion. This meant Christians no longer had to meet in secret and could openly spread religion Later, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the only legal religion of the empire Legalized No longer recognized Named only legal religion Persecution Roman RuleEarly Christianity banned Tolerance Roman Mythology Polytheistic Judaism Monotheistic