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Christian Room
Indeed, within a decade "a great multitude" of Christians at Rome had suffered martyrdom under Nero's pogrom, and there is no suggestion in the sources that the victims represented all or even a majority of Christians in Rome. Both in Palestine and beyond the first generation Christian mission won a much greater following than is usually supposed.1 Acts gives us the picture of early believers regularly gathering in homes and upper rooms.2 Two possibilities present themselves: that the early community rented a room that was partly domestic residence or that a Christian benefactor and homeowner set aside a room, or an entire level of rooms, for the early community.
There is evidence from Second Temple Pharisees (see drawing at right) confirming that second floor halls and dining rooms were used as a place of study and meetings of the "brotherhood." The problem of the early Christian community in securing a sufficient number of houses for their assemblies may find its solution in contemporary Judaism. Most synagogues were rooms in houses. The majority of early believers residing in Jerusalem were Jews, and their number included individuals who had financial means. It is plausible that some of these Jewish Christians had formerly opened their houses or parts of them to the synagogue community. It would have been natural for these patrons, having now become followers of Jesus, to use the same facilities as a gathering place for the Christian community.3
1"Pauline Theology - Ministry and Society" by E. Earl Ellis. 2Acts 2:46; 5:42; cf. Acts 1:13,15-16; 20:7-8 3"Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Development" editors Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids.
"The initial Christian mission had a telling effect."
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