Christianity
Christianity is a religion, monotheistic and Abrahamic, after the preaching of apostles celebrating the life and teachings of a prophet of the Middle East named Jesus of Nazareth, nicknamed “the anointed” (that is to say the dedicated, χριστός in Greek: Christ).
More than two millennia later, the number of Christians on Earth, that is to say people following these teachings in different ways, is between 2.3 billion and 2.8 billion divided among nearly 33 000 different faiths. The first of these confessions have emerged within Judaism after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth by the Roman authorities in the province of Judea in the first century.
The Book of Acts indicates that the name “Christian”, meaning “belonging to Christ” or “partisan of Christ”, was assigned to the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth in Antioch in the mid-first century. The oldest known reference to the term Christianity is in the letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Magnesians to the late first century.
Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and, except for some minorities, he is the son of God, both divine and human nature. The three main Christian denominations, that is to say the Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants 7 councils, studying the patristic interpretation of scriptural texts.
The Hebrew Bible is one of the founding documents of Christianity, which appoints the Old Testament or First Testament. The New Testament, centered on the person of Jesus Christ, is the second founding text.
Christianity is the most widespread religion in the world and profoundly affected different civilizations throughout history as it was initially considered a Jewish sect among many. It is present on all continents.
