Ancient Stone chapel church.

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Christianity originated in first-century Palestine, initially among the Jewish and Aramean populations in the context of the messianic movements of Old Testament Judaism, and already in its first decades of existence it was spread among the Greco-Romans of Syria and other provinces, and later among other ethnic groups. As early as the time of Nero, Christianity was known in many provinces of the Roman Empire.

According to the New Testament text of Acts (Acts 11:26), the noun Χριστιανοί, Christians, adherents (or followers) of Christ, first came into use to refer to supporters of the new faith in the Syrian-Hellenistic city of Antioch in the first century.

Christianity was first adopted as a state religion in Greater Armenia in 301. Under Emperor Constantine I starting from the Edict of 313 on religious freedom (see Edict of Milan) Christianity began to acquire the status of state religion also in the Roman Empire, finally becoming established in this status in Byzantium in the late 4th century.

Until the 5th century Christianity spread mainly in the geographical limits of the Roman Empire, also in its sphere of cultural influence (Armenia, Eastern Syria, Ethiopia), later (mainly in the second half of the 1st millennium) among the Germanic and Slavic peoples, later (by the 13th-14th centuries) among the Baltic and Finnish peoples. In the new and modern times, the spread of Christianity outside Europe was due to colonial expansion and the activity of missionaries, who made this religion the most widespread in North and South America, Australia, and also widespread in Africa.