Until the year 1,000, there were more Christians outside of the old Roman Empire than within it. It isn’t surprising that artifacts from this rich history will be found….good reminders of how Christianity spread.

A pair of recent discoveries underscore how quickly and far-reaching Christianity spread in the first century. They also counter the long-standing assumption that Christianity is a just Western thing.

Earlier this month, Egyptian archaeologists revealed the discovery of a 1,600-year-old mural that depicted Jesus healing the sick. Of course, the history of Christianity in Egypt goes way back. The Bible notes the time Jesus spent there with His family, and the Church’s presence there dates back to the time of the Apostles. Less well known is how early and how far Christianity spread into Arabia.

Last month, the United Arab Emirates announced the discovery of a 1,600-year-old stucco plaque featuring a Christian cross. It was found on the island of Sir Bani Yas near Abu Dhabi among the remains of a monastery which had been discovered in 1962. The plaque is a significant discovery for what is the first major archeological dig on the site. It points to an oft-forgotten bit of history: how the Nestorian Church of the East, centered in today’s Iran and Iraq, spread Christianity through the Arabian Peninsula from the fourth through sixth centuries. The monastery was abandoned after the rise of Islam in the eighth century and soon forgotten.

Like the monastery, large swaths of Christian history have also been widely forgotten. Christianity is mostly seen as a Western religion, and the spread of the Church remembered mostly within the Roman Empire. However, until the year 1,000, there were more Christians outside of the old Roman Empire than within it.

Christian missionaries entered the Persian Empire, Rome’s ancient enemy, in the second century and quickly established a church there. In the fourth century, after Constantine’s conversion, fear that Christians would ally with Rome brought severe persecution, but Christianity obtained legal recognition in the fifth century.

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