Pre-Constantinian Church discovered in Israel

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

Yes, I am familiar with the Biblical centurio. Even if we consider the Bible as a historical source, I'd probably consider him the exception that proves the rule.

Perhaps he was. And we certainly can consider the texts that make up what we call 'the Bible' as potential sources of history, so long as (as with all ancient sources) we look at their contexts, intended audiences and objectives and handle them with care. They need to be analysed with more care than, say, Tacitus, but it doesn't make sense to reject them completely.

Judaism in Jesus' time was actually going through a phase where it encouraged non-Jewish converts and we have several references to these Gentile 'God Fearers' (which is the origin of my name: 'Timothy'). The centurion at Capernaum, who had funded the building of a local synagogue, is mentioned in the gospels. So the centurion Cornelius would have fallen into this category as well, since 'Christianity' at this point was still simply a sect of Judaism.

It was only later, once the persecutions started, that some Church Fathers (but not all) had trouble reconciling Christianity with military service and the military had similar trouble with the same issue.

Tertullian, writing around 175 AD, mentions in passing that there were many Christians in the Roman Army, though he himself didn't approve of Christians fighting. He tells the story of the 'Miracle of the Rain' and how the prayers of Christian soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata saved the army during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (Apologeticum, 5.6). Dio Cassius tells the same story, though he doesn't attribute the miracle to Christian prayers. That aside, Tertullian certainly believed that there was a sizeable number of Christians in the Legio XII Fulminata.

Tertullian also tells the story of a Christian soldier in the army of Severus (De Corona, I), who was executed because he refused to wear a laurel wreath in a parade.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) instructed that a Christian soldier should 'abide in that calling wherein he was called'.

In the year 217 AD the tomb of an imperial official, Marcus Aurelius Prosenes, received a supplementary inscription from his freedman, the Christian Ampelius, who described himself as 'returning from the campaigns.' Another inscription, about the middle of the third century, found at Hodjalar in Phrygia, gives us the epitaph on the family tomb of two Christian soldiers.

From the reign of Gallienus onwards the stories of Christian soldiers announcing their faith and being executed as a result become so common that it's pretty obvious that Christianity was spreading rapidly through the army. There are references to military authorities turning a blind eye to Christians making the sign of the cross at sacrifices and one reference to Christians being in the household guard of Diocletian himself.

So there's good evidence of Christians (and proto-Christain 'God Fearers') in the Roman army from the earliest period of Christianity. Their numbers clearly increased steadily up to the time of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and the Edict of Milan.