PERSECUTION IN THE EARLY CHURCH; THE MARTYRDOM
Elizabeth A. Jackson
History of Christianity 1 CHHI 520
October 6, 2015
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..3
2. CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE LINK…………….………………………………………3-6
3. ASPECTS OF THE GREAT PERSECUTION………………………………………….6
a. Edicts of Persecution………………………………………………………………..6-8
4. REASONS FOR PERSECUTION…………………………………………………….8-9
5. THE THREE PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH…………………………………..9-10
6. THE POPULAR HATRED OF THE CHRISTIANS……………………………….10-12
6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..12
7. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..13
3
Introduction
This paper will show beginning with the crucifixion of the King of the Jews which marks
the first of any collisions between Roman and those who confessed allegiance to Jesus of
Nazareth. “Will you die for me”? This is a question has been asked of millions of people in the
Eastern and Western Churches in the fifth and sixth Centuries and even in today’s modern day
Church’s. This is a difficult question and a question that many Christian today are not forced to
answered however there was a tie when belief in Jesus Christ of Nazareth brought harsh torture
and brutal execution. We will examine the diverse literature which involves this tumultuous
period in history of the early Church. These writing will provide insight into the minds of who
would later give their lives for the Lord our Savior. Upon completion of this paper, we will be
able to understand vital part of Church history, understanding how Christianity survived the
attack of Imperial Rome.
The Christian experience: the Link
The atoning and vicarious nature of Jesus' sacrifice provides the main link between
Jewish and Christian outlooks toward persecution and martyrdom. In Mark 10:45, a possible
reminiscence from Isaiah 53:10–12, Jesus proclaims that he "came not to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many." It is, however, in the Johannine literature that the
1
term martyr ("witness") moves quickest from its ordinary secular meaning to the Christian sense
of "blood-witness." Numerous passages (e.g., John. 3:11, 5:30–33, 18:37, and 1 John. 5:10)
1 Religion. H. C. Frend . Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 10. 2 ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
nd
4
present Jesus in terms of witness to the truth or to his Father, while others associate witness to
Jesus with the Paraclete (John. 15:26, cf. also 14:26) standing in opposition to the world,
convincing the world of sin and judgment. Witness to the Crucifixion was revealed in "blood and
water," and had in addition the missionary purpose "that you also may believe" (John. 19:34–
35).2 The association of the Holy Spirit with suffering and persecution because of witness to
Christ was emphasized in the synoptic Gospels (Mark 13:11 and parallel Matthew 10:19). By the
end of the first century CE, these ideas had become fused into a single idea of martyrdom.
3
Martyrs conquered (Satan) "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for
they loved not their lives even unto death" (Rev. 12:11).
Theirs was a personal witness to the truth of Christ's claim to be Messiah and a token of
the closest possible identification with their Lord. In the early years of the second century,
Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Christians in Rome said that he would be truly a disciple of
Christ when he had been found "pure bread of Christ". "It is better," he urged, "to die in Christ
Jesus than to be king over the ends of the earth". Between prophecy, eschatology, and
4
martyrdom. Their recorded outlook, however, indicates the strong undercurrent in the same
direction among orthodox communities during this period. At the end of the century, this can be
illustrated from the church in North Africa. Around 197, Tertullian proclaimed in Apologeticum
50.16 that martyrdom, as the baptism of blood, wiped away all post baptismal sin. A decade
5
later (c. 207), as a Montanist, he asserted in De fuga in persecutione, chapter 9, that it was the
only form of death worthy of a Christian, for in that event Christ, who had suffered for the
Christians, might be glorified. The idea of martyrdom developed against the background of
6
2 Encyclopedia of Religion 7058
3 Ibid
4 Ibid 7058
5 Ibid
6 Ibid
5
occasional severe, if local, persecutions. Jesus had warned his followers to expect persecution
(Matthew10:17).7 Like that of the prophets of Israel, his blood would be poured out. Until the
Gospels attained their final form with the passion narrative, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:1–
12 was the perfect type of Christ. The earliest enemies of the Christians were the Jews, who
regarded them as belonging to a dangerous, subversive movement in their midst. The martyrdom
of Stephen in about 35 was followed by the persecution under Herod Agrippa around 42.
Although Agrippa died in 44, over the next fifteen years Jews did everything possible to impede
the preaching of Christianity by Paul and his friends among the synagogues of the Diaspora.
They portrayed Paul as "a mover of sedition among the Jews throughout the world" (Acts 24:5),
and first in Corinth and then in Jerusalem attempted to have him executed by the Roman
authorities.8
Aspect of the Great Persecution
The Great persecution of the years 303 to 312/3 required through reconsideration. There
are certain features of the persecution and without attempting to present a complete picture, will
suggest some modification in the received view.
Edicts of Persecution
The First Edict (hereafter referred to as ‘E 1’) was apparently issued (datum) on the 23rd
February 303, on which day the church opposite the imperial palace at Nicomedia was
dismantled. Next day the edict was posted up (propositum). The likely contents may be
summarized as follows: I. (a) All Christian churches (and, it appears, any house in which the
Scriptures might be discovered) 1 were to be destroyed. (b) All copies of the Scriptures and
9 10
7 Ibid
8 Ibid75
9 Ibid 75
10 Ibid
6
other liturgical books were to be surrendered and burnt, and all church plate and other such
property was to be confiscated.11 (c) All meetings for Christian worship were prohibited.
12
II. Persistent Christians were apparently deprived of the capacity to bring actions in the
courts;13 those who possessed juridical privileges were to lose them; (probably those members
14
of the imperial civil service who were not technically soldiers and would mostly have been
imperial freedmen) were to be reduced to slavery." The Second and Third Edicts (EE 2 and 3)
15 16
can be disposed of briefly now: their effects have already been admirably summarized by Baynes
in his masterly chapter on the persecution in the Cambridge Ancient History. E 2, ordering the
17
arrest of the Christian clergy," was probably issued during the spring or early summer of 303, as
a consequence (if we may believe Eusebius) of political disturb ances in Melitene and Syria, in
which the Christians were apparently believed to be implicated.
There is no valid evidence that this edict was ever promulgated in the West. In regions
where Christians were plentiful, its enforcement seems to have put an intolerable strain on a
rudimentary prison system, intended to provide not for convicted criminals undergoing sentence
but merely for accused persons awaiting trial. Ordinary criminals, according to Eusebius, were
positively crowded out. The government, therefore, took advantage of the of vicennalia
Diocletian, which were celebrated either in September or in November, 303, to issue an
18
amnesty to the incarcerated Christian clergy, granting them pardon on condition they sacrificed.19
This was E 3. The local authorities evidently lost no time in ridding themselves of their
11 Ibid
12 Ibid
13 Ibid 76
14 Ibid
15 Ibid
16 Aspects of the "Great" Persecution pg 76
17 Ibid 76
18 Ibid
19 Ibid 76
7
unwelcome guests. Some of the clergy gave in, and others were tortured into compliance; but if
we may generalize from a striking passage in Eusebius's Martyrs of Palestine," it appears that
20
practically all those who remained firm were compelled to go through the motions of sacrificing,
protesting the while, and then released, or merely dismissed with the information that they were
deemed to have sacrificed.
The Fourth Edict (E 4) ordered all inhabitants of the empire to sacrifice to the gods,"5 on
pain of death. E 4 cannot be dated exactly, but it was probably issued in January or February,
304, for it had apparently not reached the proconsul of Africa by February 12th, but was being
enforced in the Balkans by March.
21
Reasons for Persecution
The persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire has attracted the attention of
scholars of many different kinds. The enormous volume of literature on the subject is partly due
to the fact that it can be approached from many different directions: it offers a challenge to
historians of the Roman Empire (especially of its public administration), to Roman lawyers, to
ecclesiastical historians, to Christian theologians, and to students of Roman religion and Greek
religion. In fact all these approaches are relevant, and they must all be used together. The
22
question I have taken as a title needs to be broken down in two quite different ways. One is to
distinguish between the general population of the Graeco-Roman world and what I am going to
call for convenience ‘the government’: What I mean of course the emperor, the senate, the
central officials and the provincial governors, the key figures for our purpose being the emperor
and even more the provincial governors. In this case we ask first, ‘For what reasons did ordinary
pagans demand persecution?’, and secondly, ‘Why did the government persecute?’ The second
20 Ibid 77
21 Ibid 78
22 Ibid
8
way of dividing up our general question is to distinguish the reasons which brought about
persecution from the purely legal basis of persecution— the juridical principles and institutions
invoked by those who had already made up their minds to take action.
Now let us not look at the persecutions entirely from the top, so to speak— from the point
of view of the persecutors. Scholars who have dealt with these subject, Roman historians in
particular, have with few exceptions paid too little attention to what I might call the underside of
the process: persecution as seen by the Christians— in a word, martyrdom, a concept which
played a vitally important part in the life of the early Church. It is convenient to divide the
23
persecutions into three distinct phases. The first ends just before the great first at Rome in 64; the
second begins with the persecution which followed the fire and continues until 250; and the
24
third opens with the persecution under Decius in 250– 1 and lasts until 313— or, if we take
account of the anti-Christian activities of Licinius in his later years, until the defeat of Licinius
by Constantine in 324. We know of no persecution by the Roman government until 64, and there
was no general persecution until that of Decius. Between 64 and 250 there were only isolated,
local persecutions; and even if the total number of victims was quite considerable (as I think it
probably was), most individual outbreaks must usually have been quite brief. Even the general
persecution of Decius lasted little more than a year, and the second general persecution, that of
Valerian in 257-9, less than three years. The third and last general persecution, by Diocletian and
his colleagues from 303 onwards (the so-called “Great Persecution”) continued for only about
two years in the West, although it went on a good deal longer in the East.
25
The Churches First Three Persecutions
23 Aspects of the "Great" Persecution pg 78
24 Ibid 78
25 Ibid
9
The Persecution of the early Messianic Jews began with the stoning of Stephen in about
34 CE. Stephen had gotten into trouble by denying the need of the Temple. He showed in his
testimony before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7 that God was mobile not stationary. He visited
Abraham in Mesopotamia, Joseph in Egypt, Moses in Median, took care of Israel in the
wilderness and only condescended to David to reside in a stationary Temple because of David’s
heart request. In any event, Stephen’s testimony was not appreciated, and he was stoned. The
26
Grecian Messianic believers who settled in Jerusalem from the Diaspora were immediately
sought and hunted down. They represented the liberal wing of the new Messianic faith. It was
only this part of the Messianic believers that was persecuted at this time. The Apostles, though
watched, didn’t have to run from Jerusalem for their lives. It was the Grecian or Hellenist
believers coming from the liberal wing headed by the seven who evangelists were ordained by
the Apostles to oversee Jews of the Diaspora who had come to believe that were expelled from
Jerusalem. Once they fled, they kept moving and preached in the synagogues wherever they had
gone, but to Jews only.
27
The second wave of persecution didn’t come until after King Agrippa was appointed
King of Judea. In about 43 CE he attempted to hurt a certain part of the Messianic believers,
namely, the moderates, when he killed James the Apostle and brother of John. Seeing that this
pleased the Jewish authorities, he attempted to kill Peter as well, but Peter escaped his hand.
Nevertheless, at this point the Apostles were expelled from Jerusalem, in that they had to flee for
their lives, leaving only the conservative Messianic believers in Jerusalem, headed up by James,
the brother of Jesus. The conservative group was largely composed of believing Pharisees who
were also some of the low level priests who had joined the community of believers after Stephen
26 Ibid 79
27 Ibid
10
and the Grecian Messianics formed their own group in about 33-34 CE (Acts 6). James, one of
the Twelve, was killed with the sword, indicating he was beheaded, which is an execution for a
traitor. It is important to see this point, so one can understand that he was not executed as a
criminal. James, as we know, was one of the “sons of thunder,” implying he was a very
outspoken believer. This is probably what got him into trouble with the Jewish authorities.
The third wave of persecution probably began in the early to mid 50s CE. It was
conducted against the conservative Messianic believers, the last remaining Messianic group in
Jerusalem. This group included the believing Pharisees, many of whom were the low level
priests who held off joining with the Apostles, until the Grecian believers formed their own
group in Acts 6. The conservatives probably thought the liberal Hellenist believers were
ceremonially unclean. However, the moderate group headed by the Apostles probably kept the
Oral Law (at least until the Cornelius incident of Acts 10), and so were not considered a
ceremonial problem for this group.28
The Popular Hatred of the Christians
There can be no doubt that the dislike generally entertained towards the Christians was an
element in determining the attitude of the Emperors and their delegates towards them. The
governors, and even the Emperors to a less degree, acted in some cases simply to conciliate the
populace, and keep it in good humour. The action of Nero was, as we have seen, turned against
the Christians through his wish to supplant one passion by another in the popular mind. Having
private reasons for seeking to divert the populace, he tortured for their amusement a class of
persons whom they hated.
29
28 Ibid 79
29 The church in the Roman Empire before A. D. 170. . Ramsay, William Mitchell, Sir, 1851-1939.
11
We have found reason to think that at first Christianity was received in Asia Minor and
perhaps in the West generally, without any detestation, and even with considerable favor. The
grow the of the opposite feeling was due to various social causes, among which probably the
strongest were (1) loss incurred by tradesmen whose business was interfered with by the habits
which Christianity inculcated; (2) annoyance caused in pagan families by the conversion of
individual members. In the latter case it is clear that the anger felt by the pagan members of any
family would, as a rule, be proportionate to the degree of affection that had existed before the
family was disunited. Most likely, the stronger the love that had held together the family, the
stronger the hatred that would be felt against those who had introduced discord into it. Spurred
on by such causes, private individuals tried to revenge themselves on those whom they
considered to have injured them, whether by riotous and illegal by action before the magistrates
of provincial cities, who were not empowered to inflict severe penalties, or by moving the
Roman law. Various methods of prosecution before ordinary tribunals might be, and frequently
30
were, employed by individuals who felt themselves aggrieved. Some of these have been already
referred to. Riotous conduct, disturbance of the public peace, sedition, and sacrilege, were
charges that readily suggested themselves, and might be tried with good hopes of success; but a
31
purely religious charge was derided by the Roman officials. We have seen that charges of
breaking up the peace of family life formed the subject of anxious consideration and advice both
to St. Paul and to St. Peter; and we cannot doubt that such charges had often been carried into
32 33
court.
The father or husband or master dealt in private with the individual members of his
30 Ibid 347
31 Ibid 250
32 Ibid 246
33 Ibid 281
12
family; but he must go before the courts in order to punish the person who had tampered with
their beliefs and habits. In such actions probably the accusation of unjustifiable interference with
the sphere of duties and rights belonging to another, f though not recognized as a criminal
category, would be useful to excite odium and bad feeling, a practice in which extreme license
was conceded to pleaders in Roman courts. The persecution of Nero made the situation of the
Christians distinctly worse, without altering its general character. The Emperor's action in
allowing certain charges, moral, rather than criminal, to be urged against Christians, constituted a
precedent, and exercised a strong influence on all provincial governors in judging such cases; but
still the same method remained in practice, and the governors in Asia Minor still stood as judges
between the Christian and his accuser; "for praise to them that do well" (1 Peter 2 15). Christians
suffered by being convicted as criminals, and not as Christians; defence lay in a life above
suspicion (1 Peter 4. 25).34
Conclusion
Still the question remains regardless of how many were persecuted for the cause. “Will
you die for me” "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and
reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because
great is your reward in heaven." (Luke 6:22-23). I have attempted to demonstrate some
meaningful persecution of great and martyrdom starting with the King of the Jews.
34 Ibid 348
13
Bibliography
H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford, 1980).
W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Baker, 1981)
The church in the Roman Empire before A. D. 170. . Ramsay, William Mitchell, Sir, 1851-1939.
Encyclopedia of Religion. H. C. Friend. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 10. 2nd ed. Detroit:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
