Events relating to religion

Saul of Tarsus, later known as St Paul, has a Greek-speaking Jewish father who is a Roman citizen

Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, gathering disciples, preaching and healing

Jesus, at the Last Supper, associates the bread and wine with his own body and blood, establishing the sacrament of the Eucharist

Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate who reluctantly sentences him to death for blasphemy

Jesus Christ is crucified, according to the accounts of his followers, outside the city wall of Jerusalem

Peter becomes the leader of the small community of Christians in Jerusalem

On the road to Damascus, where he intends to persecute the Christians, Saul sees a blinding light

The Roman emperor Claudius reaches Colchester, where a temple is erected to him as a god

St Paul, taking ship to Cyprus, begins the first of his great missionary journeys

St Paul, on his travels within the Roman empire, begins converting non-Jews (or Gentiles) to the new Christian faith

The Thessalonians receive the first of Paul's epistles - the earliest text in the New Testament, written in Greek

A western adaptation of the Persian cult of Mithras, evolving probably in Anatolia, is spread through the empire by the Roman army

The leaders of the Christian church gather in Jerusalem to decide an urgent question - must Gentile converts undergo circumcision?

St Peter, believed to have come to Rome as leader of the Christian community, is subsequently considered the first pope

St Paul arrives in Rome a prisoner, but then spends two years freely preaching Christianity

Early Christian tradition states that both Peter and Paul meet death in Rome as martyrs, possibly as a result of the fire of AD 64

The Essenes hide their sacred scrolls in caves near the Dead Sea, to save them from the Romans

The complete destruction of the Jewish Temple follows the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans

The first yeshiva, established by Johanan ben Zakkai at Yavne, begins a strong tradition of Jewish scholarship in the Diaspora

The Acts of the Apostles are written, probably by Luke – the evangelist and companion of Paul on his final journey to Rome

The earliest of the Christian gospels, that of St Mark, is written down - possibly in Asia Minor or Syria

A cult develops in Rome of the Egyptian goddess Isis, credited with restoring to life her hushand, Osiris, after he has been hacked to pieces

Mecca develops into a place of pilgrimage, with a famous collection of idols in the Ka'ba

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