Ch 500 Lecture 2
Historical Developments
100-312
Dr. Ann T. Orlando
Lecture 2
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Outline for Lecture
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Roman Imperial History 1-300 AD
Judaism in this period
How Christianity spread; early centers of Christianity
Christian Responses to Persecutions
Background to Readings
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Pagan authors: Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Trajan
Christian authors: Paul, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr
Lecture 2
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First Century Roman Emperors
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Julio-Claudian Emperors (31 BC to 68 AD)
 Starts with Augustus, ends with Nero’s suicide
 Consolidation of Empire won by Augustus
 Succession hereditary; intra-family rivalries, often deadly
 After Augustus, increasingly demonic emperors; Nero worst of all
Flavian Emperors (Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian)
 Destruction of Jerusalem Temple, 70
 Vespasian built the Coliseum
 Domitian was particularly ruthless against enemies, real and
imagined
NB Nero and Domitian were the only emperors that the Senate of
Rome did NOT declare gods
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Second Century
Roman Emperors
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The Five ‘Good’ Emperors: The Antonines (98-180)
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Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius
Good because the Empire prospered with excellent
government
Until Marcus Aurelius, each Emperor adopted a suitable
successor rather than relying on a son
But not so good for Christians; continued practice of
sporadic persecution
Also not so good for Judaism; Trajan and Hadrian both
pursued wars against Jews
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Map of Roman Empire
fsmitha.com/h1/map18rm.htm
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Third Century:
Period of Unstable Rule
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Commodus (Marcus Aurelius’ son): Cruel, greedy, stupid
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Set the pattern for grasping generals to murder and succeed
predecessors
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Financial Problems
Increased problems with tribes along the Danube and Persian Empire
Of note for Christians: Decius (249-251) encouraged Empire-wide
persecutions
Poor leadership continued until Diocletian (284-305)
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Fought ‘gladiators’ in the arena
Tried to have Rome renamed after himself;
Cheated the army
Murdered in 192
Very strong ruler
Worst persecution of Christians occurred during his reign
Another period of instability after Diocletian retires and before
Constantine the Great (312)
Lecture 2
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Roman Blood Sports
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Roman Society was fond of blood sports.
Typical day in Coliseum:
 Morning: animal fights (including devouring
prisoners)
 Lunch: prisoner executions
 Afternoon: gladiators, including mock naval
battles
Most important events were gladiatorial
combats
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Judaism(s) During Jesus’ Lifetime
End of Second Temple Period
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Before and during Jesus’ life there were many types of Judaism
in Palestine (Josephus describes this):
 Pharisees: upholders of the Law (Torah)
 Sadducees: from aristocracy and high priests, did not believe in
resurrection of dead; closely associated with Temple
 Essenes: disgusted with impurities in Temple; left for desert ;
Dead Sea Scrolls usually associated with them
 Zealots: ‘terrorists’ against Roman occupation
Diaspora Jews not living in Palestine but scattered around
Mediterranean;
 Greek Jews (Hellenists in Acts of Apostles); Septuagint (LXX)
Greek translation of Bible c. 200 BC in Alexandria
 Jews in Rome; ordered to leave Rome by Claudius in 44 CE
 Jews in Mesopotamia who did not return after the exile in 6th C
BC, but flourished under Persian rule
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Concentration of Jewish Settlements in
First Century
darkwing.uoregon.edu/~atlas/europe/static/map11.html
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Development of Rabbinic Judaism
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During the First War with Rome 66-73 AD, the Sadducees, Essenes
and Zealots were destroyed
In 117 AD the Emperor Trajan destroyed the Hellenistic Jewish
community in Alexandria; after this the Greek (or Hellenistic) Jews
seemingly either converted to Christianity or rabbinic Judaism
Second Palestinian War, Emperor Hadrian, Bar Kochba rebellion,
132-135; after this war, Romans did not allow Jews into Jerusalem
The Pharisees were the group out of which rabbinic Judaism grew
in the 2cd and 3rd C AD.
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Reestablished contact with the Mesopotamian Jews and their theology;
Rejected use of Greek philosophy and parts of the OT written in Greek,
not Hebrew
Hellenistic (Greek) Jewish theology was taken over, preserved and
used by early Christian theologians, especially in Alexandria
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Philo of Alexandria, contemporary of Jesus and Paul; extensive use of
allegory and Platonic philosophical concepts in his OT commentaries
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Christianity
End of First Century
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Christianity spread through missionary activities to urban centers, especially
with large Diaspora Jewish populations
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Importance of the Septuagint - - Greek Old Testament
Remember, when Paul writes Romans, he is writing to a predominantly
Jewish (Diaspora) Christian community that he did not found; he writes to
introduce himself and his theology to Christians already in Roman
Christianity appeared to most outsiders (and some who considered
themselves Christian) like another form of Judaism
Nero used Christians as scapegoats for fire in 64 AD
 Jewish Christian community was small
 Execution of Peter and Paul probably took place during this time
Rome quickly became the ‘capital’ city of Christianity
 Place where Peter and Paul died
 Capital of Empire
 “No one” left in Jerusalem
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Christianity
Second Century
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Further distancing from Judaism
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Important centers of large Christian communities and learning:
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch
Christianity offers itself to everyone, including women and slaves
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Example: when to celebrate Easter: on Sunday or Passover?
Converts increasingly have no previous contact with Judaism
Notable for care of poor, widows, sick (ministry of deacons)
Notable because Christians are unconcerned with conventional
societal patterns (Church more important than family)
Notable for willingness to die rather than sacrifice
But there is not one type of Christianity
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One of earliest ‘heresies’ is docetism; Jesus only appeared to be
human
Another contested issues is that God the Father of Jesus is not the
Creator of OT
What literature written in 1st and 2cd C about Jesus is canonical
Who has authority to teach
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Christianity
Third Century
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Extensive persecutions; Christians seen as a threat to
Empire, especially during reign of Decius and
Diocletian
 But this was also a period of great instability in Empire
 Jews not considered a threat in the same way
because of Roman respect for antiquity of Judaism
 Under Decius (249 – 251) everyone required to
sacrifice and receive a certificate that they had done
so, a libelli
But in spite of persecutions, Christianity continues to
grow and attract converts from many different levels of
society
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Early Spread of Christianity
www.studylight.org/se/maps/browse.cgi?st=170#132
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Christian Responses to Persecution
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1. Intellectual: Apologies written to justify Christianity
to Roman authorities
2. Facing torture and death without apostasy; often
even looking forward to martyrdom eagerly as a
proof of solidarity with Jesus
3. But, if you believed that Jesus only appeared to
be human (docetists), then there seemed little
reason to be a martyr yourself
4. Some did not have the courage when accused,
and so apostatized and/or paid others for their libelli
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1. Response to Persecution:
Apologies
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Type of literature that often had the form of a legal
defense
It was intended for a highly educated pagan (i.e.,
philosophical) audience; often drew heavily on
philosophical concepts to explain Christianity
Tried to establish antiquity and respectability of
Christianity
It tried to show that Christianity was not to be
feared, but encouraged good citizenship
St. Justin Martyr wrote two Apologies; Tertullian
wrote an Apology
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2. Response to Persecution:
Martyrdom and Christianity
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Martyr comes from Greek word for witness
Did not actually have to die to be a martyr,
but to suffer for faith (slavery, prison, mines)
Note: Romans tried to avoid creating
Christian martyrs; accused were given
several opportunities to offer sacrifice
In 3rd Century, Roman authorities started
issuing a receipt, or libellus to those who
sacrificed; authorities also attacking
Christianity as such, destroying Scripture
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Martyrs
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Real desire to prove the totality of Christian faith
(e.g., Origen On Martyrdom)
Those who died were (still are) considered heroes of
the faith
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Pilgrimage to place of burial
Remembering their sacrifice in “Acts”; Peter (Quo vadis);
Perpetua and Felicity; Justin Martyr
Those who suffered but did not die (also known as
confessors) were popularly considered able to
forgive sin of apostasy
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Problem for 3rd C bishops
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3. Response to Persecution:
Docetists (Gnostics)
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Heavily influenced by Platonism
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Believed that Jesus was God, and therefore could
not suffer
Physical was not important; one should try to rise
above the physical to the spiritual
Martyrdom had little value
Knowledge (gnosis) of faith was a secret revealed
by God to individual, not taught and open to all
Docetists were bitterly fought by ‘orthodox’
Christians, especially bishops
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4. Christian Response to Persecution:
Apostates (or Lapsed)
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Very often, after persecution subsided,
apostate wanted to return to Church
Some sought forgiveness from martyrs
Some Churches refused to allow them to
return; Church only for pure: Donatists
Some wanted them to be rebaptized
Church needed a uniform policy
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Early Papal Controversies
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Issues of lapsed came to a head in Third
Century
Two important papal controversies occur over
this issue:
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Early Third Century Pope St. Callistus (d. 223) vs.
St. Hippolytus (d. 223)
Mid-Third Century Pope St. Stephen and St.
Cyprian (d. 258)
Pope in these controversies is almost always
more lenient than opposition
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Callistus and Hippolytus
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Callistus was a slave, but also a deacon, caring for
Christian cemeteries in Rome (catacombs); he was
sent to the mines; freedom bought by Roman
Church
Hippolytus was well educated presbyter; ran a
Christian school in Rome; opposed Callistus
becoming Pope
Hippolytus became schismatic when Pope Callistus
allowed lapsed and sinners to return to Church with
appropriate penance
Eventually Hippolytus reconciled with Callsitus; both
martyred
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Cyprian and Stephen
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Key figure was St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, and his relation
with Rome
Cyprian was Bishop of Carthage; disciple of Tertullian
In regards to lapsed, Cyprian wrote supporting primacy of Pope;
Rome as principal church
Rome’s more lenient view of lapsed was correct against the
Donatist (Novatian in particular)
However, Cyprian believed that schismatic needed to be
rebaptized. This is opposed by Pope Stephen. Stephen’s
position eventually accepted; Cyprian reconciled with Stephen’s
successor, Pope Sixtus II
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Introduction to Readings for This
Week
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Vidmar (25-45)
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Remember that ‘Jewish’ persecution of Christians
(Stephen, James) was Jew against Jew (25)
Marcion not a Gnostic (32)
Romans 13:1-7; basis for Christian citizenship in
Empire; but also written before Roman persecutions
Tacitus (55-117)
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Roman historian
No friend of Christianity, but even less so of Nero
Wrote of events leading to Trajan’s reign in Annuls
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Readings (cont.)
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Trajan and Pliny
 Trajan, Emperor 98-117
 Pliny the Younger (61-112);
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Uncle was Pliny the Elder, Roman statesman and naturalist; killed in
79 AD because he investigated eruption of Vesuvius too closely;
numerous of his letters have been preserved
Ignatius of Antioch d. 112
 Seven letters to churches in Asia Minor and Rome; among most
important early Christian writings
 Note importance of suffering (opposed to docetists)
 Note importance of Bishop
 Eucharistic references
 Remember when he talks about being eaten by beasts, this is not
metaphorical, but factual
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Reading (cont)
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Justin Martyr,
 Justin had a Christian school in Rome; Justin martyred during the
reign of the philosopher-Emperor, Marcus Aurelius ; he is now
patron saint of philosophers
 Read from First Apology this week and next
 Why beginning and end, but not middle this week? Answer is in
structure of work which is described in introduction (225-237)
 Remember an apology is addressed to intellectual pagans (not
Christians, like Ignatius)
 Consider how Justin compares Christianity and pagan philosophy
 How does Justin counter the charge that Christians are atheists?
 How does Justin’s reference to Hadrian’s letter at the end
compare with Trajan’s Letter?
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