Christianity came to the world not as a single religion but as a mingling of beliefs. Religions and pagan cults from ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome influenced the development of this religion. It wasn't easy for Christianity followers to become a strong religious group as it is today; they went through very harsh times, including being persecuted to death by the Romans. It was not until the year 313 that Constantine, a Roman Emperor, issued the Edict of Milan, a decree that legalized the religion in the Roman Empire. A patriarchal civilization of Mesopotamia called Hebrews or Jews is the founder of the Jewish religion, which at the same time gave rise to Christianity. Influences of Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman people are very crucial for the history of Christianity as a religion, an art and an architecture style.
             The history of the Mesopotamian people began in the fertile lands among the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This civilization's culture had a great impact on the Hebrew religion. Myths and traditions were filtered and refashioned to fit the needs of the Jewish religion (Monroe 135). It is believed that many stories and myths that formed part of this civilization's culture gave shape and influenced some stories and beliefs from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. For example the Mesopotamian story of the flood or "Epic of Gilgamesh" written in the year1700 BC seems to reassemble the Hebrew Story of the flood from the bible book of Genesis written later. The two stories have the same sense, the world is totally destroyed by God or the gods and only one man is saved, "So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind...Tear down your house and build a boat...But on you he will rain in abundance" (Epic of Gilgamesh); "And the Lord said. 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land'...Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood... 'For after seven more days,...