The Hellenistic Era was the religious situation in the Greco-Roman world of the 1st century AD. The spread of the Christian church in its earliest centuries is one of the most amazing phenomena in all of human history. It was unthinkable that a small, despised movement from the Judeo-Palestine society became the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire, an empire steeped in fiercely defended traditional pagan religions. The church of Christ was considered a religio prava, an illegal and depraved religion. The earliest Christians did not have church buildings, and they typically met in homes. In fact, the first actual church building to be found is at Dura Europos on the Euphrates, dating about 231.
Besides, Apostle Paul, there are only other handful of "big names" as missionaries in the first few hundred years of Christian history. Instead, the faith spread through a multitude of humble, ordinary believers whose names have been long forgotten. The faith spread as neighbors saw the lives of the Christian believers at a close-up, and on a daily basis. Nonetheless, wave after wave of persecution was unleashed to squash early church. It was highlighted how those opposed to Christianity were sometimes won over as they saw the
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There were various predominant “mystery religion” such as astrology, philosophy (stoicism and cynicism), and magic sects during the Hellenistic Age. The secrets of these sects which may have arisen from Eastern fertility cults and transformed in the Greco-Roman world were known only to the initiates, who were often elites or nobles of the society. However, such mystery cults often provided meaningful relationships with fellow initiates. Therefore, many of the Romans and Greeks had turned to Judaism, at least as “god fearers,” and then later to