of trade, industry, and Rome’s administration in the province of
Asia, and for these various reasons it was home to a large and
diverse population. Such diversity was reflected in the city’s reli-
gious profile: there were native Asian cults (including that of
Artemis of the Ephesians), Graeco-Roman gods, and religious
groups from other parts of the Roman empire, such as Jews and
worshippers of the Egyptian goddess Isis (Koester 1995). For
these various reasons, it was an ideal centre from which to dissem-
inate Christian teachings to as wide an audience as possible.
It is also clear from the New Testament that Paul’s journeys
do not give a complete picture of Christian missionary activity
for this early period. Paul’s arrival in Ephesus had been pre-
empted by reports of a rival mission by the Alexandrian Jew
Apollos (Acts18.24–8). When Paul was sent to Rome for trial he
found Christians already in Puteoli on the bay of Naples as well
as in the imperial capital (Acts28.14–15; cf. Romans16.3–16).
Clearly there were Christians other than Paul who were seeking
to spread the gospel. This is hinted at in information about Paul’s
associates the Jew Aquila and his wife Priscilla. Aquila himself
was from Pontus in Asia Minor, but had travelled to Rome,
whence he and Priscilla had come to Corinth, where they met
Paul (Acts18.1–2). At Ephesus they confronted Apollos (Acts
18.19, 26) and later assisted Paul there (1 Corinthians16.19)
before returning to Rome (Romans16.3).
Such glimpses of itinerant bearers of the gospel are sugges-
tive of the ways in which Christianity might have spread around
the Roman world. The presence of Christians in some numbers
at Rome already before Paul’s arrival there is hardly surprising:
the city was filled with foreigners and their cults (Noy 2000).
Likewise Puteoli was a major trading centre linking Rome and
the wider Mediterranean world. It too had a considerable popu-
lation of migrants who brought their religious practices with them.
It has been suggested that some early Christians might have been
traders who spread the gospel (Frend 1964), but it is difficult to
identify specific traders among known early Christians. We are
told, for example, that the second-century Christian teacher (laterCONTEXTS FOR THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY
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