3. Roman Attitudes Towards Christians and Christian Responses

January 25, 2009 Speaker: Mark Anderson Series: [2009] Church History

Topic: History

History: Roman attitudes towards Christians and Christian responses, martyrdom
(Pliny, Ignatius, Justin Martyr) (Chadwick, Chapters 3 and 4)

 

Mark Anderson
1/25/2009


Church History I: Roman Attitudes toward Christians and Christian Responses


What comes to mind when you think of the persecution of early Christians?

Why were Christians accused of the following?

  1. Cannibalism
  2. Incest
  3. Atheism
  4. Hatred of their ancestors
  5. Contumacy (stubborn rebelliousness)

See the handout of Pliny/Trajan correspondence for the first Roman legal record of the persecution of Christians.

What does the word martyr mean?

  1. The Greek context
  2. The Christian context
  3. The Muslim context

Three reactions to impending martyrdom:

  1. Aggression: Ignatius of Antioch
  2. Timidity: Eusebius of Caesarea
  3. Reluctant acceptance: Polycarp of Smyrna

Speaking to Romans on their own terms: Justin Martyr

  1. Christianity as the “true philosophy” – Justin, trained as a philosopher before he converted to Christianity, wrote two Apologies addressed to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and the Senate in which he argued that Plato read Moses and built his philosophy on insights from the Torah.
  2. Christ the Logos as the “generative word” – the Word has sown the seeds of truth in all men and he then became incarnate in Christ to teach men the whole truth and deliver them from the power of demons.
  3. Against Jews, Justin argued in detail that Christ’s fulfillment of OT prophecies demonstrated the OT’s transitory nature and acceptance of gentiles.
  4. Justin remained within the fold of orthodox Christianity; we will see what happened when Platonic thought began to subvert Christian teaching in the Gnostic movement next week.

Suggested further reading: Frend, W.H.C. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A study of a conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus (New York: New York University Press, 1967)

Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans 5:3

Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs,
crushing of my body, cruel tortures of the devil—only let me get to Jesus Christ!

The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, as Told in the Letter of the Church of Smyrna to the Church of Philomelium 1:2

For [Polycarp] waited to be betrayed, just as the Lord did, to the end that we also might be imitators of him, “not looking only to that which concerns ourselves, but also to that which concerns our neighbors” (Phil. 2:4).