the pirates that were on the seas. there was a common currency throughout the empire. travel was both possible and feasible, and so it wasn t unusual for somebody like paul to be able to travel around to different places. and paul never stopped. he just never stopped, and either by foot across the great land mass of asia minor, or by sea, particularly across the aegean, to and fro, from east to west. but we cannot discount the force of paul s own personality. religiously speaking, paul was a genius. paul not only set up christian communities, he also directed them from afar. writing letters or epistles to keep them on jesus message. paul s epistles to these various christian communities are the
that was the message that had appealed across the roman empire. a message that first spread throughout the huge jewish community outside israel. over a million jews in egypt and alexandria, jews in damascus, jews in antioch, jews in athens, certainly jews in rome. and for the early christians, these early followers of jesus, some of these jews would have provided missionaries a home, missionaries a base by which they could reach other jews as well as gentiles. the romans had provided roads throughout the entire empire. they had gotten rid of many of the pirates that were on the seas. there was a common currency throughout the empire. travel was both possible and feasible, and so it wasn t unusual for somebody like paul to be able to travel around to different places.
do this in memory of me. and throughout all the christian communities, whether they were jewish christians or gentile christians, that partaking of the bread and the wine in his memory became the central focus of his worship. but that eucharist would have looked much different than the ritual we see today, as paul reveals in corinthians. but the lord s supper, as he describes it, is not a funny different sort of practice with tiny wee little wafers or bits of bread and a thimbleful and a sip of wine or something. it is something which is integrated into a normal meal. he talks about some people going away hungry and other people having too much, so it s integrated in a normal social sort of context.
the center of world culture. convincing philosophers and slaves alike that god had sent his son, jesus, to die and rise again to save everyone. in his letter to the romans, written in 57 a.d., paul says that, by god s will, i may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. nearly three decades after the death of jesus, paul would make his way to rome. but only after he was jailed in jerusalem, where he found himself threatened with death. i can picture him just trying to convert the entire praetorian guard. the early christians, particularly the evangelists, the apostles were politically problematic. they were proclaiming a son of god, a god from god, a savior. but those happened to be titles that the roman empire abrogated
followers, becomes the greatest defender of the jesus faith, known to the world by the greek version of his name, paul. some people have called paul the second founder of christianity, because christianity is more than following the teachings of jesus. christianity is not just the religion that jesus had, it s the religion about jesus. it s the religion founded on jesus death and resurrection. in his letter to the galatians, paul reveals exactly what jesus told him to do. that i should announce him triumphant among the gentiles. it was a radical mission. he starts preaching there, to gentiles, to pagans and saying, this is a faith that can touch you, and that must have been it must have the jews in the