The
biggest question asked through out history is exactly how long does
Christianity stretch back to? When did it segregate its self from the
Jewish faith and become its own faith? At the end of 2011, the
Biblical Archaeology Review, drafted a paper known as Crossing The
Holy Land, where it stated that new archaeological discoveries of
churches are vital with answering those questions. However, the
burning question is when did Christianity first begin to build these
ancient churches? Early Christian gathering places where not done in
churches as first suspected, but were actually performed in peoples
houses, which is what is making it so difficult to answer this
question. Even as the Christian faith gathered more followers,
distrust and persecution by their bloodthirsty Romans counterparts
forced this fledgling faith deep underground.
However,
this situation was soon to change, when in 313 A.D. the emperor
Constantine ruled that Christianity was to be made a recognised
religion of the Roman Empire. With this came the building of large
public structures, or churches, to serve the needs of Christians.
Relics of these forgotten churches are now showing up in Biblical
archaeology digs across the globe, aiding scholars to answer the
eternal question of how old is Christianity in such places as Turkey
and Egypt? And when did this faith start to spread beyond the Israeli
an borders throughout Rome?
In
2011 the Israel Antiquities Authority announced some archaeology
findings of biblical nature, such as a Byzantine Church at Horvat
Midras Jerusalem. The building, that was used as a church, was among
several new discoveries at the dig, and was found inside an earlier
Jewish area. The highlight is the mosaic carpeting. The geometric
designs and depictions of such things as fishes, peacocks, lions and
foxes are sublime in the level of craftsmanship and preservation.
So
there you have it readers, a quick run through of a faith that has
lasted hundreds of years, and no doubt many more to come.
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