"A Light Shines East: The World of a Christian Persia" Topic

"Even after the death(and some say resurrection) of that certain man from Nazareth, the young religion of Christianity continued to gain new members in spite of official persecution. The young church ran into increasing issues with its new converts; chief among them being whether or not they should be required to follow the laws of the Torah. In the year 50 AD, the Council of Jerusalem was called among the Apostles do decide this issue, among others.

Although it was not the main issue of the council, it was decided that the city of Ctesiphon, then capital of the Arsacid or Parthian Empire. The exact details of this particular discussion are lacking in primary sources and rely primarily on apocrypha, but, regardless, it was decided that Ctesiphon would serve as the basis for future conversion efforts. Ctesiphon was likely chosen because it was along the caravan routes.

It was Saint Peter who would establish himself in Ctesiphon. His conversion efforts were initially focused on the local Jewish population, but later came to include the Persian and Mesopotamian populations. He was eventually martyred at the hands of practitioners of Parthian polytheism[1], angered by his proselytization among their community. Coincidentally, Saint Paul was in Ctesiphon at the time as a missionary, having previously proselytized throughout the Roman Empire, as well as allegedly in Arabia and possibly Ethiopia. He would then become the second Patriarch of Ctesiphon…"

From here

link

Armand

Was there a religion of Christianity _before- "the death (and some say resurrection) of that certain man from Nazareth."

It turns out that Peter and Paul were martyred twice. Once in Rome and then again Ctesiphon. The tradition for their martyrdom in Roman is a bit stronger than the claim for Ctesiphon. But obviously Christianity moved East as well as West and that history is quite fascinating if less well documented. I have always been interested in Philip Jenkins book "The Lost History of Christianity" but never have gotten around to reading it.

That's … ummm …. not what the nuns taught me.

I'm looking more closely at the link.
"Alternate history"? What exactly does that mean? Many of the Comments are asking where the author "is going with this".
They're wondering if this "Christianity" will be as widespread as Islam. What?

It's fairly obvious that this site is dedicated to making things up, and this is nothing but clickbait speculation. 🤷

That's … ummm …. not what the nuns taught me.

You don't think the nuns weren't biased in favor of the 'Roman' crucifixion?

The nuns did wear a heavy crucifix. But they didn't hit me with that. They used a nice hardwood ruler.

If you search for the author and book cited the only results are from alternative history website so I'm thinking BS

Glup!…

Armand

OHH…. I thought it was about the horse?
Russ Dunaway

(smile)

Armand

The site is clearly discussing fiction (for that is what 'alternative history' is) but the expansion of Christianity into Persia and beyond in the early Apostolic era is a fact. Extensive Christian communities were established in Mesopotamia and in Southern India and the Nestorian Christian Church made contact with Tang Dynasty China.

link

Thanks

Armand