How were early Christians treated?

Answer 1

Another answer from our communit:

• The Christian message as taught by Jesus and the Apostles was both inclusive and exclusive. It was and is available to all but it excluded all other philosophical or religious ways. The Roman religion with its many deities was an institution of the state. As Christians refused to participate in any pagan rites and rituals they came into conflict with the state and were seen as disloyal.
• The withdrawal of Christians from polytheism caused them to be called "Atheists". The early Christian worship did not require temples, statues, priests or sacrifices. Its simplicity fueled this charge.
• Many who gained financially through the Roman polytheism stood to lose through the progress of Christianity. Priests, diviners, image makers, and diviners all gained a living from so many gods and sought to spread slanderous rumors. Christians were blamed for all manner of calamities, wars, storms and diseases which were said to be a demonstration of the anger of the gods.
• The ways of God are naturally offensive to non-Christians. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." (1 Corinthians 2:14). The majority of the Romans, particularly the rulers, were certainly not Christians at this time.

Source: Miller's Church History, Andrew Miller, Bible Truth, Illinois, 1980. p 152 -154

The cruel treatment inflicted on the Christians was not inflicted upon the Christians alone. It was typical of the methodology employed in those days by a supposedly civilized soceity against all who it deemed worthy of such treatment. It is interesting to note that the cruellest of deaths, crucifixion, was forbidden to be performed upon Roman citizens - Christians evidently regarded as being disloyal to the state certainly were at times despatched in this cruel manner.

Answer 2

The Early Christans were treated very badly. They often got stoned (meaning that they got stones thrown at them, leaving them severly wounded or even dead) or beaten. They could also be thrown into jail and would often be mocked.

Answer 3

Caesar (the person) was dead before the Roman Empire or the Christians existed.

One of the earliest (111-113 AD) sources for information on Rome's position on Christians comes from two letters between Pliny the Younger and the emperor Trajan (Letters X.96-97). Pliny describes the actions of early Christians and asks what Rome's stance on Christians.

The real problem the emperor would have with Christians was that they denied any god but their own. The emperor (and his predecessors) were deified. Denial of the Roman religion meant denial of the empire.

Trajan's advice is basically that Christians should not be persecuted or sought out, but if they are found they should be punished if they do not renounce Christ.

You can read a full translation here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pliny1.html

Answer 4

The Christians were prosecuted if the government found out about them. If they were caught they were thrown into a lions den or get killed at the spot. Some times they would have shows of Christians getting killed.

Answer 5

One of the great traditions of Christianity is that its early followers were at constant risk of persecution by the Roman authorities. This may result in great respect and admiration for the early 'martyrs', but there were few genuine instances and the overall tradition does not equate well with the facts.

Professor Keith Hopkins (A world full of gods: the Strange Triumph of Christianity) says that although in its early years Christianity was both illegal and at loggerheads with the state, it was largely ignored until the three purges of 250, 257 and 303- 311.

Earl Doherty says that the alleged persecution of Christians following the great fire in Nero's Rome was never mentioned by Christian commentators for the next several centuries.

In fact, in a comparison between the Roman Empire and Christianity, it has been said that although the Roman Empire lasted more than a thousand years it persecuted Christians for fewer than twelve of them, but over a similar period Christianity has persecuted non-Christians at all times.

Answer 6

We begin with Acts of the Apostles and the very first Christian martyr, Stephen, who was stoned to death by the Jews for blasphemy. A problem with this story is that it does not ring true. Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says that we can never verify the martyrdom or even existence of Stephen. Regardless of the veracity of this story, it does underline that by the end of the first century, Christianity did regard itself as persecuted.

Two important stories of early martyrdom were the executions of Peter and Paul in Rome, under the orders of Emperor Nero in 64 CE. The problem with these stories is that the executions probably never happened. The stories only surfaced in the second century. Clement of Rome, writing around 95 CE (1 Clement) seems to have believed Paul went to Spain, probably in the early sixties of the first century, and spent the remainder of his life there. Clement also wrote in general terms about the life and death of Peter but appears to have been unaware that Peter had even visited Rome and was certainly unaware that he had been executed in any way at all, although he surely would have if this were the case. Similar legends about the terrible deaths of the other apostles are unsupported by evidence and are often contradictory.

Christian tradition has it that Emperor Nero persecuted the Christians savagely, committing all sorts of atrocities agaisnt them. This tradition is to a certain extent supported by the second century historian Tacitus who, as a republican sympathiser, hated emperors but Nero most of all. Certainly, Nero blaimed the Christians of Rome for the Great Fire, probably unfairly, but the historical truth is probably one of no great persecution. All the evidence up to the second century implies that there was no imperial precedent for active persecution of the Christians. The third-century Church Father, Origen, writing (Contra Celsum, 3.8) of the total of Christian martyrs up to his own time, in Rome and elsewhere, states that there were not many - and that it was easy to count them.

The great tradition of Christianity that very large numbers of Christians suffered terrible fates under the pagan emperors must have come from somewhere. We know that the Christian emperors and bishops from the fourth century onwards did engage in terrible persecutions of the pagans in an attempt to eliminate that religion, and Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) links the Christian tradition of pagan persecution to this. In his words, the ecclesiastical writers of the fourth or fifth centuries ascribed to the magistrates of Rome the same degree of implacable and unrelenting zeal which filled their own breasts against the heretics or the idolaters of their own times.

Answer 7

They Killed them until Paul got a message from god saying, "why are you killing me..." you got the picture! i saw it in a documentary (forgot what it was called)