Church history · 33–100
The Apostolic Age
The birth of the Church at Pentecost and the preaching of the apostles in the 1st century.
Pentecost and the Jerusalem community
According to the Acts of the Apostles, the Church begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 2). The first community lived in common prayer, the breaking of bread and the apostles' teaching. The Apostolic Council in Jerusalem (c. AD 49) decided that Gentiles could be received without the obligation to keep the Jewish law (Acts 15).
The mission of the apostles
The Apostle Paul made missionary journeys through Asia Minor and Greece as far as Rome; his epistles are the oldest texts of the New Testament. Traditions about the preaching of other apostles (Thomas in India, Andrew around the Black Sea, Mark in Alexandria) are preserved by church tradition; their documentary support varies.
Outcome
By the end of the 1st century Christian communities existed in the major cities of the Roman Empire. The threefold ministry of bishop, presbyters and deacons had taken shape (letters of St Ignatius of Antioch, c. 107).