Essay on Third Century Christian Persecution

The persecutions of the martyrs strengthened Christianity because the martyrs if they were willing to be killed for their faith then it must be very significant to them. The martyr’s suffering mirrored Jesus’ suffering and reinforced faith among Christians. “They looking upon her in her conflict, beheld with their eyes, through their sister, Him who had suffered for them in order to persuade those who trust in Him

In the source “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas,” the narrative of a few early Christians who died for their beliefs is told. The two martyred women, named Perpetua and Felicitas, along with a few other followers of the religion were imprisoned because they identified themselves as Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to the Roman Emperor. The Christians were sentenced to death by beast for this. The source illustrate the problems Christians had in navigating the cultural realities of life in the Roman empire. This can be observed along with the struggles involved in class, family, and gender.

In the early Church, martyrdom was considered a "baptism in blood," similar in itself to the baptism in water. The baptism of martyrdom was at the origin of the conversion of many. To be a true disciple is to die as a martyr. The rationale of costly discipleship is witnessing to non-Christians. This shows that martyrdom can communicate much more deeply than any other discourse. It is difficult to evaluate the intensity and scale of persecution against Christians of the first three centuries; nevertheless what we have are some documents that shed light on the frequency of these afflictions. During the first century, there were occasional persecutions under Nero’s reign, especially the fire of Rome in 64 CE, which Christians were accused of having

Christianity during the early century was very difficult for many Christians. As many Christians were persecuted for not worshipping pagan gods.

But neither human resourcefulness nor the emperor’s largesse nor appeasement of the gods could stop belief in the nasty rumor that an order had been given for the fire. To dispel the gossip Nero therefore found culprits on whom he inflicted the most exotic punishments. These were people hated for their shameful offences whom the common people called Christians. The man who gave them their name, Christus, had been executed

In the first half of the third century, Christian persecution was fragmented and while Christianity was illegal, there is not evidence that it was widely persecuted.

On Doc A, It explains one of the many reasons the Romans persecuted the Christians. “As Christianity spread through the Roman world, some local officials feared that Christians were conspiring against them.” This quote not only shows why the Romans did what they did but it also kind of explains a little bit of background from the Romans side. It also says how there were some rulers that came to see Christianity as a threat to them and of course, they began to persecute the people who practiced it.

• Writes about Christ suffering extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilatus. Refers to an immense multitude of Christ followers willing to die for their beliefs. Pg. 82

According to Gaddis (2005) some of the Christians were tortured as well as being burnt alive, while others were publicly executed. Furthermore, it would seem that the more the Romans persecuted them, the more their hatred grew for them, as they believed them to be disobedient and a danger to the Empire. As such they did everything in their power to rid themselves of the Christians. The only consequence for the Christians at this time was, they either obeyed the law by sacrificing to the Pagan Gods or face persecution. However, Gaddis (2005) suggests that some of the Christians looked at the Roman persecution as not so much a Roman persecution, but one from their own God, who was testing their faith so that they could repent for their

Christian life during the third century was a constant mix of small local persecution and continually being held as the scapegoats for any problem that occurred within the society.

In contrast to the persecution experienced by early Christian followers, Christianity today does not experience the level of outward persecution. Christianity is practiced in an atmosphere nearly void of violence. It was not until the reign of Constantine when Christians were authorized to practice their chosen faith. The “Ediet of Milan”(313 A.D.), gave official recognition to the Christian faith, thus ending persecution within the Roman Empire. Before Constantine’s rule, there were many rulers eager to drive out the Christians. The Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.) established the first official policy relating to Christians and how they should be dealt with. Diocletion and the Apologists were the last of the persecutors in this era before Constantine. This marked the end of open persecution

During the first decades preceding Christ's death, Christians were tolerated but not really liked by the general population of the Roman empire due to their refusal to acknowledge the emperor as a living god. This act of defiance was considered heresy by the state .The real mass persecution of the Christian people came during the reign of the emperor Nero who needed a scapegoat on whom to blame the great fire during his reign.

According to the sources the Christians were hated by the people of Rome. According to a source, that was written by Tacitus in 64 AD, they were “ a class hated for their abominations, who are commonly called criminals......... an immense multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of hatred of the human race.” (Tacitus, Annales 1a). They were convicted of crimes due to the fact that the Romans hated them. The

Valerian was a Roman emperor from the time of 253-260 A.D. At first he left the church be for the most part. In the beginning of Valerian’s reign, he tried to restore peace and security to the people living in the empire including Christians. It wasn’t until 257 A.D. that the persecution really started to begin in the reign of Valerian. Christians were already been persecuted before Valerian’s reign but the persecution had slow down due to the fact that Gallus had little opportunity to succeed at it. From the Bubonic plague to Persians breaking into Syria were a few of the situations that left Gallus with limited opportunities to focus in persecuting the Church. That didn’t mean in his reign there was no persecution. In his reign, there was

Martyrs tells us that the earliest persecution came under the rule of Nero in the year 67