* The origins of Christianity. Christianity is the monotheistic religion based on the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and those who followed him. It began in the first century AD as a Jewish sect but quickly spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Although Jesus had died, hos message had not. Despite early persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire, it became the state religion.
* The aspect of Jesus teachings that influenced Roman and other legal systems were the ideas about justice. What Christ demands of his followers is love for justice, a belief that law should be an instrument of justice. Christianity is a realization of the purposes of the moral law. The legal system by which human society is regulated should conform to the moral law and should help to create conditions wherein Christian faith, hope and love can prosper.
* The teachings of Jesus demonstrate the value of equality understood on the distribution of material goods or economic distribution. A more egalitarian social structure, characterized by greater equality , is one exhibiting a more even distribution of wealth as material goods between family units. Jesus showed that the chasing of unshared riches distract people from seeking the Kingdom of God, that it contradicted the care people should employ for the less fortunate producing a greedy society.
* The criticism made by Jesus to the Roman law was that law did not treat people equally. Rome imposed heavy taxation, there were sales taxes, temple taxes, occupational taxes, custom taxes, transit taxes, among others. Despite this, Jesus was clearly teaching obedience to the Roman Laws and also to God's laws when he said: "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things that are God's". He never broke any civil laws required by Rome.
* The effects of Paul's work were that he spread Christianity; he traveled tens of thousands of miles around the Mediterranean spreading the word of Jesus and it was him who came up with the doctrine that would turn Christianity from a small sect of Judaism into a worldwide faith that was open to all. Paul preached the gospel of the Christ crucified for the sins of humanity, beginning at Jerusalem and continuing all the way to Rome.
* Women help spread Christianity as missionaries who traveled the Empire. The women contributed to the growth and spread of early Christianity. In the letters of Saint Paul in the first century, we see females and males weavers in the cloth trade. The women in these business networks are actually the sponsors of the earliest Christian missionaries. They were the ones who were carrying the word on their boats, but also the ones offering hospitality to the apostles as they come through. Women were vital in the New Testament and that facilitated the spread of Christianity. Many people were saved through the evangelistic effort of women who knew what it meant to really worship God.
