We commence a series of articles that take a look at the life of the early ecclesias after the death of the Apostles. Our study cannot attempt to be exhaustive. In practice it will be deliberately selective in some respects, seeking to bring out lessons that have a relevance to life in the ecclesias of today.
There is tremendous romance about many aspects of this period of history. Romance mingled with tragedy. The romance stems from the way the pagan world was turned upside down by the peaceful onslaught of Christianity. There are many moving stories. The tragedy comes from the bitter and malicious reaction of the pagans as they came to realise that normal “measures” had no effect in dealing with this strange and incomprehensible religious movement.
One thing we must try to be careful to do is to discern between facts and presumptions. This is not always easy. The records are sketchy. One thing is clear — it is just not possible to paint a complete picture of those who upheld the purity of the Truth during this period. What we shall attempt to do is to trace the pressures that came upon the teaching of the Apostles and that sought to corrupt it and mould it into a fashion alien to the simplicity which is in Christ.
A necessary background to a consideration of this period is an appreciation of the political situation and the attitudes of the different Roman rulers towards the new religion.
NERO 54-68 A.D Tried to blame the Christians for the burning of Rome in A.D.64. Paul and Peter executed in his time.
5 CAESARS A.D. 68-81 in a period of war, which is partially internal. During this period Jerusalem was destroyed.
DOMITIAN A.D. 81-96 Carried out a complete moral and religious reformation, expelled astrologers, etc. from Rome. Put pressure on Jews, Christians and all “non-conformists”. John was banished to Patmos.
NERVA A.D. 96-98 Tolerant and mild.
TRAJAN A.D. 98-117 One of the best Emperors from a secular point of view. Not favourable to Christians, but disapproved deliberate persecution.
HADRIAN A.D. 117-138 Good administrator. Quelled final revolt of Jews 131-134 by Bar-Cochba. Not tolerant of Christians.
ATONINUS PIUS A.D. 138-161 Noblest of Emperors, golden age of Rome’s glory, but not tolerant towards Christians. Some bishops put to death.
MARCUS AURELIUS A.D. 161-180 Persecuted Christians, “directed that they should be tortured to death and no refinement of cruelty spared”! Several leading bishops martyred.
SEPTIMUS SEVERUS A.D. 193-211 Might of Rome declining. Christians still persecuted.
Reasons for Persecution
It was not Roman policy to impose its religious ideas on the peoples it conquered. One historian has written:[1]
The Roman Government was, in practice, tolerant of any cult provided that it did not encourage sedition or weaken morality. Indeed, one reason for Roman military success was believed to be the fact that, while other peoples worshipped only their own local deities, the Romans worshipped all deities without exclusiveness and had therefore been rewarded for their piety. The God of the Jews, who had no images and no sacrifices, except at Jerusalem, was harder for the Romans to assimilate.
Although the Jews were monotheists and in theory understood that belief to invalidate all forms of religion other than their own, until the revolt of 66-70 they were treated with marked toleration and under Augustus (at the time of Christ’s birth) were granted privileges which, after an awkward crisis with Caligula, who wanted to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, were renewed by Claudius (A.D. 37-53). There seemed no necessary reason why the Christians should not also achieve toleration. They came into conflict with the state in the first instance by accident, not on any fundamental point of principle.
In 64 a great fire destroyed much of Rome. Nero had made himself sufficiently unpopular to be suspected of arson, and turned to the Christians to find a scapegoat. The Neronian persecution was confined to Rome and was not due to any sense of deep ideological conflict between Church and State; it was simply that the Emperor had to blame somebody for the fire. Nevertheless, it was a precedent that magistrates had condemned Christians to death because they were Christians and on no other charge.
This is an interesting background. It seems amusing to read that the Romans regarded the Jews as atheists! The reason being that as far as they could see they did not worship a God.
The intriguing question is that the Christians were a big enough body in Rome, by A.D.64, for Nero to be able to make them take the blame for the disastrous fire — a scapegoat which presumably went some way to satisfying the anger of the populace. Why was this possible? Why were the Christians unpopular with the inhabitants of Rome? Tacitus, a Roman Historian writing early in the 2nd Century, made comments on the event which have fortunately been preserved. He wrote:[2]
So, to stifle the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations. The populace call them Christians. Christ, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and for a time the mischievous superstition was checked. But it broke out again, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
In the first place then, some were seized and confessed. Then on their evidence, a vast multitude was convicted, not so much of arson as of hatred of the human race. And they were not only put to death, but put to death with insult, in that they were dressed up in the skins of beasts to perish by the worrying of dogs, or else put on crosses to be set on fire, and when the daylight failed, to be burnt for use as lights by night.
Nero had thrown open his gardens for that spectacle and was giving a circus exhibition, mingling with the people in a jockey’s dress or driving a chariot. Hence, commiseration arose, although it was for men of the worst character and deserving of the severest punishing, although it was on the ground that they were not destroyed for the good of the State, but to satisfy the cruelty of an individual.
So we see a historian, early in the 2nd Century, describing Christians as being “hated for their abominations” and for their “hatred of the human race”. What made Christians unpopular was their unwillingness to conform. In the Pagan world, despite the multiplicity of idol-worship, there appears to have been little friction between worshippers of different idols, at least at the time of the Romans — we might therefore describe it as peaceful co-existence! We have already seen the Roman policy — there was no thought of the gods being jealous of their adherents favouring other gods. Perhaps this is why the God of Israel describes himself as being “a jealous God” — this was a principle foreign to other nations. The exclusiveness of Christianity stirred the opposition of other peoples. The more it influenced the decline in idol worship the more intense became this opposition. It was looked upon as a secret society and many malicious rumours came into being, alleging. all manner of “abominations”. One writer has stated:[3]
It is strange that the Christians first came into prominence as a supposed criminal society. The explanation is partly to be found in the secrecy with which their meetings were surrounded.
Rumours spread. They were known to be the followers of One who had suffered a criminal’s fate; they separated themselves from their fellow-men, and held meetings from which others were excluded; they were said to speak mysteriously of a great fire which would shortly destroy the world; they were scornful of the gods and refused to participate in the common religious observances; and moreover, they were a social nuisance, interfering with vested interests and causing divisions in family life. It is not really surprising that, in a suspicious age, suspicions arose, and as we know was the case in the second century, the most absurd stories were readily believed. It was said that the Christians ate human flesh at their common meal, and that when the lights had been put out they practised every abomination.
This was the climate of society in which Christianity progressed in the 2nd Century. Why did not all this ostracism stifle it? It is here that we come to the heart of the romance as we delve the reasons why people “Turned from idols to serve the living and True God”.
Sources
[1] HENRY CHADWICK: The Pelican history of the Church. Vol. 1. P.25.
[2] ANNALS OF TACITUS, XV 44
[3] P. GARDNER-SMITH: The Church in the Roman Empire, p.13
The Kingdom of God has been a cornerstone of the gospel from the earliest church