For most of the first three centuries of the Christian Church, worship was conducted primarily in private residences, and there is evidence that Christians met in house churches from the very beginning of the Church. While scholars know that the earliest Christians considered themselves Jewish, they do not definitively know to what degree they were involved in Jewish worship practices and, if they did, for how long. Jewish authorities never accepted Christians and actively sought to purge them from Judaism.[[1] However, Christians were seen as a sect of Judaism by Roman authorities and it was tacitly tolerated as such. However, within the first century of Christianity, this radically changed, especially as the Church moved from primarily Jewish to majority Gentile. Rome began to see Christianity as a dangerous cult due to its opposition to idol worship and many aspects of Roman culture. The Church began to suffer extreme persecution and was driven underground.

Archaeologists have found evidence of several house churches. Most of these have been found under subsequent churches built over them. In the Galilee, for example, under the remains of an early Byzantine church in Capernaum excavators found evidence of a house church that many believe was Peter's house. Other examples have been found in Rome. 

In ancient Roman London, a house-church has been discovered. Called the Lullingstone Roman villa, part of the house was modified for use as a meeting place for early Christians. In a hall separated from the rest of the domicile Christian decorations were found, as well as a separate entrance, apparently for worshippers to enter without disturbing the other activities going on in the house. The modifications seem to have taken place sometime during the latter half of the fourth century.

As mentioned above, several possible house-churches have also been discovered in Rome. In particular, the Church of Saints Giovanni and Paul is of particular importance. The church was built into a housing complex known as an insulae (see First Century House Construction) on the Caelian hill in Rome, along the street called the Clivus Scauri. Within the insulae complex was an apartment-workshop that was apparently modified sometime in the middle of the third century. The ceiling of the middle floor was removed so that the central hall became two stories tall. The windows of the apartment were rearranged and enlarged to provide light and ventilation for the hall. This hall was used for a period of time, then integrated into a larger church basilica around A. D. 410.

On the other side of the known world from the Lullingstone site, another house-church was discovered in Dura-Europos on the Euphrates river in modern Syria. The Dura-Europos house church is especially interesting because it is thought to be the earliest and best-persevered example of a house that was modified and used as a meeting place for early Christians. It can date no later than 256, and it is very likely it is older than that. Due to the history of the city, no church was built over the house. 

Dura-Europos was founded in 303 B.C. by the Seleucids to control an important intersection along the Euphrates River. It was taken by the Parthians in the second century B.C. and then by the Romans in A.D. 165. The Romans made extensive modifications to the defensive fortifications of the city in the face of pressure from Sassanian forces, including enlarging the city walls. Despite these measures, Dura-Eruopos was besieged and taken by the Sassanians in A.D. 256. It was almost immediately abandoned, over the centuries was covered with mud and sand and was lost until the twentieth century. It was excavated by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters and Yale University from 1928 to 1937. They discovered that the Romans had filled in houses and the street running adjacent the walls of the city in order to thwart the vaunted mining abilities of the Sassanians. Because of this, the excavators discovered remarkably well-preserved houses, a synagogue, and a Mithraeum (worship hall of Mithras). In one of the houses they discovered what was identified as a house church. They found extensive murals depicting Jewish and Christian stories and a baptistery. The house was apparently modified for worship activities, featuring what was identified as a meeting hall and an adjacent baptistery. 

The meeting hall of the house-church was large enough to accommodate up to 75 persons. At its east end was a podium or possibly Bema (seat for the leader of a synagogue).

The baptistry room was a small room off a central courtyard. The baptistry itself was built into the west wall of the room and had a basin and a canopy supported by two columns. It was elevated off the floor and accessed by ascending a step. The ceiling of the canopy and the ceiling of the room were painted to represent a dark sky with stars. On the canopy wall was a mural depicting the Good Shepherd with Adam and Eve below. On the south wall the woman at the well and David and Goliath were depicted in a mural on the plaster. On the north wall the healing of the paralytic and Peter and Jesus walking on water were painted. Below them several women approaching a tomb are shown. Grapes and wheat were also depicted over the baptismal 

Interestingly, these murals and the overall design of the Dura-Europos house-church were strikingly similar, if not of the same quality, to the synagogue in the city, which was nearby.

At Emmaus-Necopolis [2], new excavations under the ruins of a fourth-century Byzantine basilica have led some to believe there was a house church there prior to the construction of the basilica in the early fourth century. 

Corresponding to the official tolerance, and later franchisement, of Christianity, house churches began to be replaced by purpose-built churches around the beginning fourth century. However, many of these churches (such as the Church of Saints Giovanni and Paul in Rome) were converted into churches. Many others were buried under subsequent church buildings, as is the case with Peter’s house in Capernaum and the possible house church at Emmaus-Nicopolis.

[1] For a discussion of early Jewish Christianity, please consult Walter Kaiser, Jr., Jewish-Christianity: Why Believing Jews and Gentiles Parted Ways in the Early Church; Ray A. Pritz, "The Remnant of Israel and the Messiah," in Israel: the Land and the People, Gen.Ed., H. Wayne House; also see Ray A.Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the End of the New Testament Period Until Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century.

[2] The name of Emmaus in the Roman Empire until the earthly second century A.D.

See also First Century House Construction; Galilee; Peter’s house; Rome

Bibliography. Baez-Camargo, Gonzalo, Archaeological Commentary on the Bible (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1984), 248; Sarte, Maurice, The Middle East Under Rome, trans. Catherine Porter and Elizabeth Rawlings (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 194; Shanks, Hershel. “Emmaus: Where Christ Appeared,” Biblical Archaeology Review 34 (Mar/Apr 2008): 40-42, 44-51, 80, accessed 4/20/2010, http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=34&Issue=2&ArticleID=8; Snyder, Graydon F., Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2003), 131-34, 146.