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Paul the innovator

	The sacred way at Ephesus (Turkey), where Paul triumphed over the pagans Ancient Art & Architecture Collection Enlarge Image

Although Judaism survived and even flourished, it never looked like subverting the surrounding pagan culture entirely. Clearly there was something new in early Christianity that tipped the balance. A religion that had previously been best known for its survival very quickly became a world beater.

Such a change did not have to be very large or obvious to make a great impact eventually. It had to be just sufficient to help Christianity reach a statistical 'tipping point'. An annual conversion rate of just 3.5% of the population of the Roman empire – then numbering about 60 million – would do it. If this rate was achieved and maintained from about AD 30, it would make Christianity the religion of choice of about two thirds of the Roman population by AD 250-300 – which is what happened.

The best way to grasp this important transformation is to think of it as something of a product innovation. We know exactly who began it and when: the future apostle Paul, who as a Jew known as Saul from the town of Tarsus in south-west Turkey is said to have been converted by a vision on the road to Damascus, while on his way to arrest some Christians.

Paul modified and developed his 'product' – Christianity – over two decades in the mid-1st century. There are two ways that he did this.

Retaining Judaism
Paul retained many of the features that made Judaism a success:
• loyalty to the faith and to other believers
• religious exclusivity
• a benevolent God
• marriage only among other believers
• a portable scriptural tradition
• hope for a future resurrection and salvation
• endurance of present bad circumstances, even to the point of martyrdom.

Key modifications
However, Paul also made radical changes that substantially transformed this form of Judaism into a brand-new religion:

• He was committed to the expansion and growth of the new faith through the conversion of outsiders - that is, pagans or Gentiles. Early Christianity, unlike Judaism, was open to all comers and actively sought them.

• He defined the resulting community as a family. It was originally God's and provided direct access to God's divine son Christ. Everyone within the family was a 'brother' or 'sister' – that is, an adopted son or daughter of God. In terms of status, this was almost as good as the deification of emperors found in the imperial cult. It would have transformed the shame and disgust that would have been the standard experiences of the lower classes within paganism. As a result, Christianity particularly appealed to the poorest strata of society.

• The new 'family' ate together and often pooled its financial resources. Concrete help was available to those whose lives were often desperately poor.

• Exorcisms and miracles were a part of the new philosophy. And they were free. Compare this to the private medicine that was performed at the shrines of Asclepius, which was very expensive. People felt that they could receive care, support and even deliverance through the new religion, and so threw away their spell books as they converted.

• Early Christianity was even more portable than Judaism. It came to rely not on rather cumbersome and expensive scrolls (themselves so much more portable than temples) but on small cheap paperbacks called codexes, which later formed the basis for the New Testament. But even before this, relatively short 'letters' were enough to spread the word.

• There were only two specific rituals: the immersion known as baptism, which could take place in any river, sea, lake or bath house; and a communal meal of wine and bread, which could occur anywhere. Thus, worship services could be held in people's houses or even in the open – they didn't require specially constructed buildings.

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