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The Visual Atlas
Places, art and manuscripts across time. First era: the apostolic and early church, from Pentecost to the early fourth century.
- Jerusalem Acts begins here. Before this era ends the temple has burned, the city has a Roman name, and its church is led by gentiles.
- Antioch on the Orontes The city where the disciples were first called Christians and where Paul's journeys started. Its second bishop, Ignatius, was sent from here to die in Rome.
- Damascus The road where Saul was stopped and the city he escaped in a basket. Josephus and Eusebius each add one more scene, and neither is about a church.
- Caesarea Maritima Herod's harbour city. Cornelius heard Peter here, Paul sat two years in custody here, and Origen later taught here and left a library behind.
- Ephesus Paul taught here for two years and the city rioted for Artemis. The fathers put John here into Trajan's reign, and they disagree about which John lies in which tomb.
- Smyrna Not in Acts. Revelation writes to its church, Ignatius wrote letters from it, and its bishop Polycarp died in its stadium.
- Pergamum Revelation calls it the place where Satan's seat is. Eusebius records three martyrs there, and a Pergamene Christian dies in the arena at Lyon.
- Hierapolis A town Paul mentions once in Colossians. In the fathers it is Papias's see and the grave of a Philip, and they are not sure which Philip.
- Philippi A Roman colony and Paul's first stop in Macedonia. Lydia, the jailer and the stocks are Acts; Polycarp's letter to the same church is the fathers.
- Thessalonica Paul reasoned in its synagogue on three sabbath days and left by night. After Acts the record goes almost silent, apart from an imperial letter and a legend.
- Corinth Paul stayed a year and six months here. Later the church of Rome wrote to settle a quarrel in the church, and Corinth's bishop Dionysius kept the letter in use.
- Athens Paul spoke on the Areopagus and a few believed, Dionysius among them. A later bishop of Corinth made Dionysius the first bishop of Athens.
- Rome Acts ends here with Paul under guard in his own rented house. Everything after, including how Peter and Paul died, comes from the fathers.
- Alexandria Acts names Alexandrians, an Alexandrian preacher and Alexandrian grain ships, but no church. The fathers give it Mark, a famous school, and Origen.
- Carthage No source read here brings an apostle to Carthage. Its church steps into the record fully formed, with Tertullian under Severus and Cyprian as bishop and martyr in the third century.
- Lyon The churches of Lyon and Vienne wrote to Asia and Phrygia about the persecution that killed their bishop Pothinus and the slave Blandina. Irenaeus, who had heard Polycarp, became bishop after.
