Entering Early Christianity via Pompeii

A virtual guide to the world of the New Testament

Have you ever wondered about the different types of people that belonged to early Christian groups? Have you ever wondered about how they lived? Or about how New Testament texts related to their lives? Come with us to Pompeii, where abundant evidence of common first-century living conditions will inspire you to think through these issues in a new way.

A street in Pompeii, Italy, with Vesuvius on the horizon.

Click 'Finding your way around' below to download the information you need to start exploring. 'Character cards' will introduce you to Holconius, Sabina, Iris and a cast of other Christians as they open a letter from the apostle Paul. The other boxes will take you on a tour of different houses and buildings at Pompeii, complete with discussion points and activities. The resources are suitable for adult learners working on their own or as part of a study group.

Finding your way around

An introduction to the resources.

Character cards

See Pompeii through different eyes.

A church in the elite house

Scenario 1.

A church in the workshop

Scenario 2.

A church in the cabinet-maker’s house

Scenario 3.

Modelling a craftworker house-church

Spotlight on the research.

A church in the bar

Scenario 4.

Worshipping the god of Israel

Scenario 5

Attributions

Acknowledgements
& bibliography.

Feedback

These materials are all available for free download. The one thing we ask is that users consider providing feedback to help us understand how the resources are being used and what benefits they might bring. Please consider completing our short online questionnaire after using the resource. It’s even more valuable to us if you can complete both our before and after questionnaires. If materials have been used as part of a study group, we'd welcome feedback from group leaders.

Come again

If you’d like to return in the future and tell us about any effects the learning has had, we’d love to hear about it here.

Technical

Users of MacOS 10.15 Catalina may not be able to access all of the hyperlinks when opening the above PDF documents in Preview. In this case, we recommend downloading the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Contact

If you have any queries or questions about these learning resources, please contact staff at enteringearlychristianity@manchester.ac.uk.