Biblican Canon

We just learned about the Quartodecimanism.

Another part of early Christianity is the work on Biblical Canon.

When Jesus was around, the set of books in the Old Testament was already collected and written and copied by many people.
It wasn't called the "Old" testament yet, because when it was being written there was not a "New" testament.

People were starting to collect and copy the things that the Apostles wrote about Jesus, and the letters that Paul wrote and put them into a book.

The early leaders of the Christian church had to all try and agree on what the right books were to be in the New Testament.
They use the word "Canon" to say that the letters or books are approved.
The word Canon comes from the Greek word κανών which means rule or measuring stick.

So once everyone could agree on the right writings and letters, those would become "Biblical Canon".


(from: wikipedia - development of the christian biblical canon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rose of Lima

Quartodecimanism

We just learned about the Against Heresies - Iranaeus.

Another part of early Christian history is Quartodecimanism.

In the early church there were special dates like Easter, but people would argue over what the real date for when Easter was.

In the book of John, it says that Jesus was crucified on the day before Passover.

On an old calendar called the Nisan, the 15th of Nisan is Passover, so the people who followed that calendar always celebrated Easter on the 14th of Nisan.

Other people believed that Easter should always be celebrated on a Sunday, so they had Easter on the Sunday after Nisan.

Quarta Decima means 14th in Latin, so they people who celebrated Easter on the 14th were called Quartodecimans, which means something like "fourteeners".

Some of the church leaders tried to make it illegal to celebrate Easter on the 14th, but in the end people just went their separate ways and for a long time people had Easter on different days.

Even today some different groups of Christians celebrate Easter on a different day than others.


(from: wikipedia - quartodecimanism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Clare of Assisi

Against Heresies - Irenaeus

We just learned about the Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.

Another part of early Christian history is the book Against Heresies, by Irenaeus.

During the early time of Christianity when people disagreed about what they should believe, there was a group of people called the Gnostics.
They believed that Christ and Jesus were two separate beings.
Like Jesus was a physical body, and Christ was a spirit that lived in him.

The bishop of France named Irenaeus was very upset about this, and decided to write a book saying why they were wrong.

His book was written some time around 180 AD, and many church leaders used that letter to tell people that they believed Gnosticism was not true.


(from: wikipedia - on the detection and overthrow of the so-called gnosis)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hildegard of Bingen

Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles

We just learned about the Sabbath Day in Christianity.

Another part of early Christian history is the Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.

In the time that people were not sure what to believe or how to worship, there was a book people made with a lot of instructions, like some of the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, and some rules about baptism or fasting.

It was called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, and sometimes called Didache which is the Greek word for Teaching.
The writings were made some time around the late 100s in AD, and were lost for almost 2000 years.



(from: wikipedia - didache)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Scholastica

Sabbath Day in Christianity

We just learned about the Great Fire of Rome.

Another part of Christian history is the Sabbath Day.

In the old Jewish faith, people rested on the seventh day, called the shabbat, which is where we get the name Saturday.

After the Christians started to separate into their own religion, they started to move the day of worship to Sunday.
Part of the idea was that Sunday would be seen as the celebration of the resurrection and freedom from sin on the first day of every week.

Some Christians through the years have changed back to Saturday as the holy day, but others still worship on Sunday.

A fancy word for beliefs about which day is the sabbath is "Sabbatarianism".
First-day Sabbatarianism means that Sunday should be the day of worship.
Seventh-day Sabbatarianism means that Saturday should be the day of worship.
There is even Non-Sabbatarianism, which means that there should not be any special day for worship, you should pick whatever day you want to worship on.


(from: wikipedia - sabbath in christianity)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul

The Great Fire of Rome

We just learned about the Ante Nicene Period.

Another part of early Christianity is the Great Fire of Rome.

In 62 AD there was a big fire that burned for 6 days, and burned down many parts of the city of Rome.
No one is sure how the fire started, but after it was done the Roman Emperor Nemo blamed the fire on the Christian people living in Rome.

After that a lot of Christians were treated very badly, and sometimes even killed.


(from: wikipedia - category:great fire of rome)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Desert Mothers

Ante-Nicene Period

We just learned about the Christian Name.

Another part of early Christianity was the Ante-Nicene Period.

This was the time after the apostles, where there was a lot of mystery about what people believed.
A lot of people had different ideas about what Christianity should be like, and there were not a lot of very good church leaders for almost a hundred years.

For this time people started to call themselves Christians, but there was a lot of confusion about exactly what types of things people should believe.

People believed different things about Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit, and also weren't sure about the God from the New Testament and the Old Testament.

One of the most famous ones who did write about 2,000 different papers about Christianity was named Origen.

Because of all the confusion, after the Ante-Nicene times people worked to get together to try and talk about how to help everyone agree on what the right way was for Christians to act.


(from: wikipedia - origen)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Nuns

Christian Name

We just learned about the Split of Christianity and Judaism.

Another part of Christian hisorty is the Christian Name.

The word Christian wasn't a word until Jesus came around. Christian comes from Christ, which comes from the Greek word χριστός (christos) which was the Greek translation of the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ‎ (māšîaḥ) which means the messiah, the savior and liberator of the people.

After Jesus came around and had some followers, people started calling them Christians, but it wasn't always used as a nice word.
This mostly started in a town called Antioch, where they called the Apostles Christians.
There were many people who didn't like the followers of Jesus, so calling someone a Christian meant they were trying to call them names, or say that they weren't good people.
Later on some very important Christians like Ignatius of Antioch took on the name with honor, and it became a good word to use.

People also sometimes called Christians Nazarenes, because Jesus was from the town of Nazareth.
Other times people would talk about the Christian belief as "The Way" because of Jesus talking about "I am the way, the truth, and the life."


(from: wikipedia - christians)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mount Athos

Split of Christianity and Judaism

We just learned about the Apostolic Age.

Another part of early Christian history was the Split of Christianity and Judaism.

Remember that Jesus was one of the Hebrew people also known as Jewish people.
Some people even called him king of the Jews, and many of his followers were Jewish people.

After Jesus died, people didn't think of themselves and Christians.
They still believed in the things that happened long before, like the days of Abraham, Moses or King David.
Some of them followed the teachings of Jesus, and others did not, but they did not think of themselves as Christians yet, they were just Jewish people who disagreed about Jesus.
People even went to the same churches and sat next to each other for a very long time.

Around 70 AD there were some wars that happened in the area, and some of the people in charge of the churches changed, and Christianity started to split out as its own different religion separate from Judaism.


(from: wikipedia - split of christianity and judaism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Bruno of Cologne

Apostolic Age

We just started learning about Christianity After Jesus.

We know a little history from the Bible, with Paul and some other people writing around 21 letters and traveling all over.
Some people call this the Apostolic Age because it's the time when the Apostles were teaching people.

These letters (called epistles) were written to people and churches in towns that the apostles were traveling to, so that they could try and tell people about Jesus.

Paul alone traveled all around the countries on the Mediterranean sea, like Italy, Greece, Israel, Turkey and Syria.
Back in those days it was all part of the Roman empire, but it is now split up into different places.

In those days there was no internet, TV, radio or even newspaper so spreading news around was very difficult.
Many people had probably not even heard of Jesus when Paul came to visit, and he went to different towns where people had all sorts of beliefs in different things and he tried to tell people about Jesus.

The apostles traveled around until some time around 70 AD.


(from: wikipedia - apostolic age)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Benedict of Nursia

Christianity after Jesus

We've learned about the list of Seventy Disciples.

Let's learn a little bit about Christianity after Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross, but then what?

The apostles went around and told people about Jesus, and then for thousands of years people talked to each other about Jesus!
Let's keep learning about what happened after Jesus and the Bible.


(from: wikipedia - apostolic age)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mar Saba

Cæsar - bishop of Dyrrachium

We just learned about the Epaphroditus - Bishop of Andriace, one of the seventy disciples.

Most of the rest of the seventy we only know a little about.

Cæsar - bishop of Dyrrachium, also a friend of Epaphroditus.
Mark - Cousin to Barnabas, bishop of Apollonia.
Justus - Bishop of Eleutheropolis, one of the two to be chosen from for the next apostle.
Artemas - bishop of Lystra. His name is listed in the Bible's book of Titus as a friend of Paul's.
Clement - bishop of Sardinia.
Onesihorus - bishop of Corone. Paul wrote about Onesiphorus visiting him while he was in prison in Rome.
Tychicus - bishop of Chalcedon.
Carpus - bishop of Berytus in Thrace. Paul talks about Carpus in the book of 2 Timothy.
Evodus - bishop of Antioch.
Aristarchus - bishop of Apamea. He was with Paul a few times in the Bible, traveling around with him through Rome, Ephesus, Greece and Asia.
Mark, who is also John - bishop of Bibloupolis.
Zenas - bishop of Diospolis.
Philemon - bishop of Gaza.
Aristarchus -
Pudes -
Trophimus - who was martyred along with Paul.


(from: wikipedia - onesiphorus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mar Agwin

Epaphroditus - Bishop of Andriace

We just learned about Tychicus - Bishop of Colophonia, one of the seventy disciples.

Another of the seventy is Epaphroditus - Bishop of Andriace.

Epaphroditus was from Philippi, and came to help Paul when he was in jail in Rome.
He was such a hard worker that he worked until he was sick and almost died.

He got better, and later went on to be known as one of the leaders of the church in the town of Philippi.


(from: wikipedia - epaphroditus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Theodore the Studie

Tychicus - bishop of Colophonia

We just learned about Apollos - Bishop of Cæsarea, one of the seventy disciples.

The next two disciples listed were also with Cæsarea as being friends of Paul, and leaders of the churches.

Cephas - bishop of Iconium
Sosthenes - bishop of Colophonia

Another of the seventy was Tychicus - bishop of Colophonia.

He is mentioned a few different times in the Bible by Paul, where he was being sent to different churches to help teach the people there about Jesus.
Paul talks about Tychicus in the books of Acts, Ephesians, Colossians, Titus and Timothy, so he was a hard worker that Paul could send around to help people all over.



(from: wikipedia - tychicus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ladder of Divine Ascent

Apollos - Bishop of Cæsarea

We just learned about the Sosipater - Bishop of Iconium, one of the seventy disciples.

The next three of the seventy listed were bishops that also lived along with Sosipater in the same area and helped tell people about Jesus:

Tertius - Bishop of Iconium
Erastus - Bishop of Panellas
Quartus - Bishop of Berytus

Another of the seventy was Apollos - Bishop of Cæsarea.

Apollos worked with the Apostle Paul to help tell people about Jesus in Corinth.
Paul talks about Apollos a few times in the Bible as he goes and teaches him about Jesus and how to teach other people.

Apollos became the leader of the church in Corinth, and Paul talks about him in the book of the Bible called Corinthians, which was a letter to the church leaders in the town of Corinth.


(from: wikipedia - apollos)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lavra

Sosipater - Bishop of Iconium

We just learned about the Jason - Bishop of Tarsus, one of the seventy disciples.

Another of the seventy was Sosipater - Bishop of Iconium.

Sosipater worked with the apostle Paul to help tell people about Jesus.
He also traveled with Jason Bishop of Tarsus and together they worked to spread God's word.

Later he became a church leader in the town of Iconium, which is in Turkey.


(from: wikipedia - sosipater)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cenobitic Monks

Jason - bishop of Tarsus

We just learned about the Lucis - Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, one of the seventy disciples.

Another of the seventy was Jason - bishop of Tarsus.

Jason was talked about in the Bible as a person that helped out the Apostle Paul when he was in Thessalonica, because some people who did not like Jesus were angry with Paul for talking to people about Jesus.

Jason was born in Tarsus, and Paul gave him the job to try and help lead the church in Tarsus.

He traveled around to tell a lot of people about Jesus, and was thrown in jail in a place called Corfu.
The king there did not like people becoming Christian, so he fought with Jason and other disciples, but eventually the king became a Christian and then the disciples were free to live there and tell people about God.


(from: wikipedia - tarsus, mersin)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Eremetic Monks

Lucius - bishop of Laodicea in Syria

We just learned about the Olympus and Rhodion, one of the seventy disciples.

Another of the seventy was Lucius - bishop of Laodicea in Syria.

Paul talks about him in the Bible as being one of the early leaders of the Christian churches in Antioch, and people believe he was one of the early bishops in the town of Laodicea, which is now part of Turkey.


(from: wikipedia - laodicea on the lycus)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Basil of Cecarea

Olympus and Rhodion

We just learned about Philologus - Bishop of Sinope, one of the seventy disciples.
t Caius - Bishop of Ephesus, one of the seventy disciples.
Another two of the seventy were Olympus and Rhodion.

Rhodion was also known as Herodion of Patras, and he was a relative of Paul and became a leader of the church in the town of Patras.

He had a very rough life and was beaten up by people who didn't like to hear what he said, and eventually he was killed along with his friend Olympas.



(from: wikipedia - olympas)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pachomuis the Great

Philologus - Bishop of Sinope

We just learned about Caius - Bishop of Ephesus, one of the seventy disciples.

Another of the seventy was Philologus - Bishop of Sinope.

He was a leader of the church in a place called Sinope, which is now in Turkey.


(from: wikipedia - philologus of sinope)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Desert Fathers