The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries #230991

J osephus, the Jewish writer at the close of the first century, completely ignores the Christian movement; for his so-called' testimony to Jesus is a Christian interpolation. He may have deliberately ignored it. Nevertheless, we may infer from his silence that Christianity was numerically insignificant among the religious movements of the age. Even at a much later period it was unnoticed by historians. Herodian, for example, who wrote (about 240 a.d.) a comprehensive history of the period between the death of Marcus Aurelius and the accession Of Gordian III., never mentioned it.