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Persecution of “The Way” and Heresies

Persecution of “The Way” and Heresies. The First Roman Persecutions and The “Five Good Emperors” pp. 46-54. Rome – what do you know?. Temple of Vesta. Temple of Saturn. Pantheon. Coliseum. Coliseum. Roman Persecutions . What are persecutions?

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Persecution of “The Way” and Heresies

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  1. Persecution of “The Way” and Heresies The First Roman Persecutions and The “Five Good Emperors” pp. 46-54

  2. Rome – what do you know?

  3. Temple of Vesta

  4. Temple of Saturn

  5. Pantheon

  6. Coliseum

  7. Coliseum

  8. Roman Persecutions • What are persecutions? • Who was responsible for these persecutions? • Why would the Romans persecute Christians?

  9. Nero (AD 37-68) • Description: “light blond hair, squat neck, protuberant stomach, spindling legs, and a pustular and malodorous body.” – Suetonius • Wanted for: possible involvement in Rome’s most infamous arson, followed by fiddling; seizing property; murder; rape; domestic assault; polygamy; sodomy

  10. Assaults Against Christians • To move suspicion off himself for the fire of Rome, Nero arrested large numbers of Christians • His punishments were particularly savage and brutal • In one instance, he covered people in pitch and resin and lit them on fire to light his way through a garden. • In another instance, he had them sewn into animal skins and fed to mastiffs

  11. If you don’t know what a mastiff is… • This is NOT photoshopped or 

  12. Domitian – “Lord and God” • Personality: very worried about conspiracies, especially suspicious of assassination plots • Domitian and Christians: worried that Christianity would spread to aristocracy • Persecutions under Nero and Domitian: • established the precedent that Christians could be singled out for punishment solely on the basis of their belief • still very irregular, not state-wide policy • Christians worried more about mobs of Romans and individual governors than about emperors

  13. The “Five Good Emperors” • Good = stable political leadership Good ≠ moral Christian leadership • Why do Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius (three of the Good Emperors) weigh in on the Christianity “problem” in the first place? • What do each of these men have to say about how Christians should be dealt with? Similarities? Differences?

  14. Trajan’s Rescript (AD 112) • Response to Pliny the Younger’s questions • Should anonymous accusations be investigated? • Should the age of the Christian be taken into account when the punishment is meted out? • Should Christians who have renounced their religion and since accepted the pagan rites be allowed to live? • Is it a crime punishable by death simply to profess Christianity?

  15. Hadrian’s Rescript (AD 123/124) • Response to SerenusGranianus (Proconsul of the Province of Asia) • How should we handle the violent crowds who want to kill Christians? • Should people be prosecuted just for being Christian? • Hadrian’s response shows us just how important adherence to LAW was to Romans

  16. Marcus Aurelius (Gladiator or Dumbledore???)

  17. Marcus Aurelius (EMPEROR) • Stoic and philosopher, his “Meditations” is a journal of his thoughts and observations • “Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art.” – from Book Four • What approach did Marcus Aurelius take to Christians and the question of persecutions? • Most persecutions did not originate with him, but rather mobs and governors of provinces outside of Rome

  18. Ignatius Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. - Letter to the Romans; Ch4

  19. Ignatius See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid. - Letter to the Smyrnaeans; Ch 8

  20. Wrap it up – what does all this mean for Christians in the Roman Empire?

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