Early Christianity

A Captivating Guide to Early Christian History, Starting with the Ministry of Jesus through the Apostolic Age to the First Council of Nicaea

By: Captivating History

Narrated by: Jay Herbert

What was the starting point of Christianity? Was it in a little town in Bethlehem, just as the lyrics of our favorite Christmas songs contend?

In truth, in the earliest days of Christianity, when Peter and Paul first set out to preach the gospel, the belief systems of early Christians were viewed as merely a new sect of Judaism. The appellation of “Christian” was a term developed by outside antagonists, which the so-called Christians wore with pride. It took time for Christianity to be fully cleaved away from its mother religion of Judaism.

A council was held in Jerusalem around 50 CE for the early church leaders to decide what would become the fundamentals of the new faith, such as what old rules and regulations from the Old Testament should remain for new believers. From Christianity’s earliest formation as a separate identity, it began to spread across the known world. The early Christians met in underground churches, and at times, even in graveyards to avoid persecution.

Yet, their very secrecy often spurned the wildest of rumors. It got to the point where communion was even mistaken as an act of cannibalism! This led to the rise of Christian apologists, who were tasked with explaining the most fundamental elements to the lay public.

This audiobook explores all of these aspects of early Christianity and more. In this audiobook, you will learn about the following:

• The ministry of Jesus.
• Who first spread the gospel.
• Early Christian outreach to the Greco-Roman world.
• Christian Gnosticism, Manicheism, and other Christian sects.
• The struggle of Christian apologists.
• The early martyrs of the Christian faith.
• The impact of the Council of Nicaea.
• How the church survived the fall of the Roman Empire.

©2022 Captivating History (P)2022 Captivating History

Worst reader ever

The story is interesting if not very cohesive. I would have enjoyed this book so much more if the reader wasn't so bad. He sounds like a bad impersonation of Ned Flanders. The sing-song tonal inflections make it hard to concentrate on the story but if you can get past that, you have to deal with the mispronunciations of so many common words specific to the Bible and the period that at one point I was sure this was an AI reader using phonetic pronunciations. Even though the reader is given a name in the credits, I'm still not certain. Absolutely ruined any enjoyment of the book.