← Lineage

Beginner map

Start with the relay, not the textbook

This site shows how Christianity was handed down from Jesus to the early Church Fathers. People are dots. Relationships are lines. Every line has an evidence label.

What you are looking at

206
People
317
Links
720
Years

It is not a list of famous names. It is a transmission graph.

The story in one line

A few anchor figures. The full site has the rest.

  1. SourceJesusc. -4 – c. 30Jesus and the apostles
  2. ApostleJohnc. 6 – c. 100Witness and teacher
  3. BridgePolycarpc. 69 – c. 155John to Irenaeus
  4. TraditionIrenaeusc. 130 – c. 202Public chain argument
  5. NicaeaAthanasiusc. 296 – 373Defends Christ's divinity
  6. WestAugustine354 – 430Grace, memory, desire
  7. End pointJohn of Damascusc. 675 – c. 749Late patristic synthesis

Pick what you need

I want the big pictureSee the whole relayStart with the timeline. Click a name and watch the chain light up.I want proofJesus to IrenaeusThe clearest short chain: Jesus, John, Polycarp, Irenaeus.I have a questionGuided answersNicaea, succession, bishops, heresies, first Fathers to read.I want the strict versionBishop successionOnly bishops, grouped by see, ordered by date.

How to trust a line

The evidence label is the most important feature. It tells you how hard the site is asking you to believe each relationship.

Read the methodology →
Documented

Ancient source directly attests the link.

Tradition

Later ancient or medieval source preserves it.

Disputed

The claim exists, but scholarship contests it.

The eras at a glance

AD 30-100

Apostolic age

Jesus, the Twelve, Paul. The New Testament is written.

100-150

Apostolic Fathers

Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp. The generation just after the apostles.

150-325

Before Nicaea

Apologists, martyrs, bishops, heresy fights, and persecution.

325-451

Council age

Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon. Trinity and Christology.

451-600

After Chalcedon

Augustine's legacy, monastic learning, Christology aftermath.

600-750

Early medieval

Bede, Maximus, John of Damascus. The patristic age closes.

Six words you need

Father
An early Christian teacher, bishop, or writer whose work shaped doctrine.
See
The city a bishop serves. Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage.
Transmission
Any link that passes teaching along: taught, cited, wrote, met, ordained.
Succession
The stricter bishop-to-bishop chain, especially in Catholic and Orthodox usage.
Heresy
A teaching the church eventually rejected during a controversy.
Council
A formal meeting of bishops that defines, clarifies, or condemns doctrine.

First 10 minutes

  1. 1Click Polycarp and look for the Chain to Jesus block.
  2. 2Switch the chain to documented only.
  3. 3Open the Nicaea question page.
  4. 4Browse one era instead of all 206 people.

If you want to read one thing

Full reading path →

Earliest voices

Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache.

Best first book

Athanasius, On the Incarnation.

Most personal

Augustine, Confessions.

Longer explanation, if you want itopen

Who are the Fathers?

The Church Fathers are early Christian theologians, bishops, monks, apologists, and writers from roughly the first seven centuries. The site also includes disputed and heterodox figures because the story of orthodoxy only makes sense if you can see the arguments.

What is the site doing?

It turns names into relationships: who taught whom, who cited whom, who succeeded whom, who argued with whom. The goal is not just a list of saints or scholars, but a visible chain of transmission.

See the lineageBrowse all 206Guided questionsRecommended books