Early Christians shared roots in the followers of Jesus; divisions developed over centuries, including the East-West separation traditionally dated to 1054.
Shared rootsc. 30 to 1054grew out of Second Temple Judaism
Christianity began among Jewish followers of Jesus and spread through the Roman world and beyond. The New Testament writings developed in the first and early second centuries, with individual dates debated. Fourth-century councils formulated the Nicene faith, and prominent bishops and regional councils affirmed a 27-book New Testament, though reception varied. Divisions associated with the fifth-century councils preceded the later East-West schism. Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and other churches understand their continuity with these early communities in different ways.
The Church began in Jerusalem with the friends of Jesus, about the year 30. They said he had risen from the dead. Within a few hundred years there were Christians all across the Roman Empire, although divisions developed long before the East-West separation traditionally dated to 1054 21,22.
The followers of Jesus, all of them Jews, gathered in Jerusalem after his death and resurrection; the book of Acts dates the Church's birth to the feast of Pentecost, when the Spirit came upon them and Peter preached to the crowd 17. Paul, a Pharisee who had persecuted them, became the apostle to the Gentiles, and a meeting in Jerusalem around the year 49 decided that Gentile converts need not keep the whole law of Moses 18,9. Believers were first called Christians at Antioch.
Rome noticed. Pliny, governor in Bithynia about the year 112, wrote to the emperor Trajan asking what to do with people who met before dawn to sing to Christ as to a god and would not curse him 3. Persecution came in waves; Perpetua, a young mother, and her servant Felicity died in the arena at Carthage in 203, and Perpetua's prison diary survives 4. In 313 Constantine and Licinius granted freedom of worship in the Edict of Milan 2, and in 325 Constantine gathered the bishops at Nicaea, where they confessed the Son to be of one being with the Father in the creed Christians still say; the council of Constantinople completed it in 381 1,14. In 367 Athanasius of Alexandria listed the twenty-seven books of the New Testament exactly as they stand today 6,16.
The councils of Ephesus in 431 and Chalcedon in 451 defined how Christ is both God and man, and the churches of Persia and of Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia and Syria did not accept those definitions and went their own way 21,22. The rest, Greek East and Latin West, remained one communion of five patriarchates, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, for six more centuries, growing apart in language, custom and views of Rome's authority until the mutual excommunications of 1054 15,10. Catholics and Orthodox both call this the undivided Church, and both hold themselves to be its continuation 10,11.
The same Church that had been persecuted became, once Theodosius made Nicene Christianity the religion of the empire in 380, the power: the imperial laws collected in the Theodosian Code penalised pagans and heretics and, in growing measure, Jews 5. And the partings of 431, 451 and 1054 came with anathemas that the churches involved began to lift only in the last century 21,15.
The early Christians believed that Jesus, who was crucified, had been raised from the dead, that he is the Son of God, and that through him God forgives sins and gives new life. They put it into short statements that everyone could learn: the creeds.
The oldest summary is Paul's, written within twenty-five years of the events: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day 19. The Nicene Creed of 325 and 381 confesses one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the Son of one being with the Father; one holy catholic and apostolic Church; one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; and the life of the world to come 1. It is said today by Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed and Methodists alike, and in 2025 they marked its 1700th year together 12,13.
Bishops in succession from the apostles held the churches together; Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom about 110, wrote that where the bishop is, there the people should be 8. The bishop of Rome held a primacy whose meaning East and West came to understand differently 10,11. What the Church held was worked out in argument: against Arius, that the Son is fully God; at Chalcedon, that Christ is one person in two natures; in Augustine's long labour, that grace comes first 14,21,23.
Worship and practice
On Sunday the Christians met early, read from the apostles and the prophets, heard a sermon, prayed, and shared bread and wine in memory of Jesus. Then they took gifts to the poor.
Justin Martyr described it in Rome about 155: on the day called Sunday all who live in the cities or the country gather in one place; the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits; the president instructs and exhorts; all rise and pray; bread, and wine mixed with water, are brought and thanks is given; the people answer Amen; the deacons carry the gifts to those absent; and a collection is taken for orphans, widows, the sick, prisoners and strangers 7. Acts names the same four things a century earlier: the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers 17. Baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit made a person a Christian 20. By the fourth century this simple order had grown into the liturgies of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch that the Catholic and Orthodox churches still use 10.
Scripture and Bible translations
The first Christians' Bible was the Jewish Bible, mostly in Greek. Their own writings, the letters of Paul and the four Gospels, were read alongside it and, within a few hundred years, became the New Testament.
Paul's letters were written from the late 40s and the Gospels between about 70 and 100 9,16. Churches copied and exchanged them; by the end of the second century the four Gospels and Paul's letters were read everywhere, and debate about Hebrews, Revelation and some shorter letters continued. Athanasius listed twenty-seven books in 367, and the North African councils of Hippo and Carthage later affirmed that list; these were not decisions binding every church 6,16. The Old Testament was read in the Septuagint, and Jerome's Latin Vulgate, made around 400, became the Bible of the West for a thousand years 16. Read here: the Berean Standard Bible for the New Testament, Brenton's Septuagint for the Old Testament as the early Church read it, and the Douay-Rheims, translated from Jerome's Vulgate.
Selected passages
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The Church on its first day, in one sentence: teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. Every liturgy since has these four things in it.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The oldest Christian creed, quoted by Paul as something he had himself received, within a generation of the events it tells.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Seven ones. The letter's picture of a single Church, read at every service of Christian unity, including those for Nicaea's 1700th year.
and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
Where the name Christian was first used, in the mixed Jewish and Gentile church of Antioch, most likely by outsiders.
that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Jesus's prayer the night before he died, that his followers would be one. Every church on the tree below this one says it belongs to them.
People
Peterdied about 64 The fisherman who led the apostles, preached at Pentecost, and according to early tradition died in Rome under Nero; Catholics count him the first bishop of Rome.17
Pauldied about 64 to 67 The Pharisee who became the apostle to the Gentiles, planted churches across the eastern Mediterranean, and wrote the earliest books of the New Testament.9
Ignatius of Antiochdied about 110 Bishop of Antioch, who wrote seven letters to the churches on his way to be killed in Rome, the first to use the word catholic of the Church.8
Perpetuadied 203 A young mother of Carthage whose own account of her imprisonment, and of her death in the arena with her servant Felicity, is the earliest surviving writing by a Christian woman.4
Constantinereigned 306 to 337 The emperor who legalised Christianity in 313, called the Council of Nicaea in 325, and founded Constantinople.2
Athanasiusabout 296 to 373 Bishop of Alexandria, exiled five times for defending the Nicene faith, whose Easter letter of 367 is the first list of the New Testament's twenty-seven books.6
Augustine354 to 430 Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, whose Confessions and City of God shaped Western Christianity, Catholic and Protestant alike, more than any writer after Paul.23
Today
Many Christian traditions trace their faith and practices to the early Church, while understanding that continuity differently. In 2025, churches marked the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
Catholics and Orthodox each hold themselves to be the undivided Church continued, and each keeps the seven councils, the creed and the ancient liturgies 10,11. The Nicene Creed is confessed by many, but not all, traditions on this tree, and in 2025 the World Council of Churches, the Vatican and the world communions marked the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea as a common inheritance 12,13. The twenty-seven books Athanasius listed became the usual New Testament canon, although reception was not uniform across all Christian traditions 6,16.
Words to know
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
council
A gathering of bishops to settle what the Church teaches. The first, at Nicaea in 325, gave the Church its creed.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
bishop
The leader of the Christians of a city or region, who ordains priests and teaches the faith. Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and some Lutheran and Methodist churches keep bishops.
martyr
Someone killed for refusing to give up their faith. The word means witness. The early Church honoured its martyrs and kept the days of their deaths.
liturgy
The set form of a service: its prayers, readings and actions in their usual order. The Orthodox call their main service the Divine Liturgy.
schism
A formal parting between churches. The Great Schism of 1054 divided Catholic West from Orthodox East.
Easter
The Christian feast of the resurrection of Jesus, the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, the centre of the church year; the Orthodox usually keep it on a later Sunday because they reckon it by the Julian calendar.
The fiftieth day of Easter, when the churches remember the Holy Spirit coming on the apostles as Acts 2 tells it; the Greek name of the Jewish Shavuot, on which Acts sets the event.
At Pentecost in Jerusalem, about the year 30, when the book of Acts says the Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus and three thousand people were baptised 17. Within twenty years there were churches in Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome, and the name Christian was in use at Antioch 9.
Who decided which books are in the New Testament?
No single council imposed the list. The four Gospels and Paul's letters were read in every church by the end of the second century; the disputed books were settled gradually, and the first list of exactly the twenty-seven books we have is Athanasius's Easter letter of 367, confirmed by the councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397 6,16.
What was the Council of Nicaea?
The first gathering of bishops from the whole Church, called by the emperor Constantine in 325 to settle the teaching of Arius that the Son was a creature. Some three hundred bishops confessed the Son to be of one being with the Father, fixed the date of Easter, and gave the Church the creed that, completed in 381, nearly all Christians still say 1,14. Its 1700th anniversary was kept in 2025 12,13.
Was the early Church Catholic or Orthodox?
It was one Church, and both are its heirs. Catholics hold that the bishop of Rome's primacy is continuous from Peter; Orthodox hold that they kept the faith of the seven councils without addition. They parted in 1054 over language, custom and the reach of Rome's authority 10,11,15. This page ends its line there because that is where the two lines begin.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “The early, undivided Church: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/early/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-06; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
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