Lampe on Church History: The Apostolic Church, Part 4

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Enemies and Persecutions

XXXVI.  The first enemies of nascent Christianity were the Jews; their twofold persecution is narrated in Acts.  The first, excited by the Sanhedrin, devoured Stephen.[1]  The second, a few years later, had Herod Agrippa as its author, in 44 AD, the fourth year of Claudius.  In it James the son of Zebedee was smitten with the sword:[2]  but a short time afterwards Herod experienced divine vengeance by a frightful death.[3]  We know of a third from Josephus, excited by Ananus the High Priest, who delivered James the brother of Jesus, and certain others, to be stoned, with the accusation of the violation of the Law brought against them.[4]  This persecution happened in 62 AD.

XXXVII.  Neither would this frenzy of the Jews have subsided, unless they, entangled in the just judgments of God, had approached by degrees to their own destruction.  Under Herod Agrippa, and his son, Agrippa the second, brother of Berenice, before whom Paul pled his cause,[5] they appear to have enjoyed affairs not so very unpleasant; and they, dispersed throughout all the provinces of the Roman Empire and the entire East, were living in their own manner.  A tempest also threatened under Gaius Caligula,[6] who wanted to introduce his statue into the Jerusalem temple; by the intercession of Agrippa the second it passed over for the most part.  Neither were there wanting Men famous for learning, Gamaliel;[7] two Josephuses, one of Gorion,[8] the other Flavius, the son of Mattathias; and Philo the Jew.[9]  It was also turning to the honor of Judaism, that the King of Adiabene, Izates, professed the Jewish faith with the Royal family,[10] with circumcision received.

XXXVIII.  But, with the sins of that obstinate nation rising to an immensity, with slaughters inflicted by Roman troops externally, with the furies of the Zealots internally, the strength of the Republic began by degrees to decline.  In 67 AD, Flavius Vespasian finally invaded with a numerous army, under the auspices of Nero, into Judea; and he subjected Galilee and Samaria to himself.  Now, when the death of Nero and the election of Vespasian to Emperor[11] had happened, and at the same time the tumults of the Jews were not abating at all, Titus Vespasian, by the authority of his Father, after a siege extended from the Feast of Unleavened Bread[12] to the tenth of August, stormed and destroyed the city, and ended the war, which, if you count up the numbers indicated by Josephus, consumed one million, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and ninety Jews.  Divine providence was unwilling to involve in such a calamity the Christians, who before the final siege fled from the city.  The spoils and ornaments of the Temple Titus led away in the Triumphal Procession, the ectypes of which are yet conspicuous on his triumphal arch.

XXXIX.  Upon the remnants of the Jews, wherever they might dwell, a new and shameful tribute was imposed, namely, that they would pay the sacred didrachma,[13] hitherto brought into the Jerusalem temple,[14] to Jupiter Capitolinus.[15]  This was shamelessly exacted by Domitian,[16] yet was removed again by Nerva.[17]

XL.  The Church met with far more grievous enemies in the Roman Gentiles.  How should I relate the frauds of the Priests, feigning the anger of the gods, and forging various miracles through κακοζηλίαν/emulation; how the sophistries and mockeries of the Philosophers, whom Luke mentions among the Stoics and Epicureans?[18]  While they were forging all these things in vain, the grumbling of the nations was gradually degenerating into fury.  Nothing else was able to be expected from them, since their condition was most profligate, not only through multiform idolatry, but also through inhuman crimes, which increased through so many civil wars, and multiplied unto immensity by the license of the Emperors after Augustus.  And in that Rome was destined, that, immediately after the rise of Christianity, it might be the perpetual metropolis of the Kingdom of Satan opposed to the Kingdom of Christ.

XLI.  The first Emperors were somewhat favorable to the Christians.  For, the Christians, believed from the beginning by the Romans to be a sect of the Jews, enjoyed the very same privileges.  But, with the Jews being eager to exclude them, they, having been exposed, were rendered more hateful than the Jews.  At the same time, they appear involved in the same disadvantages with the Jews under Claudius, banishing the Jews from the city, at the instigation of Christ.[19]

XLII.  How many persecutions the Christians endured from the Gentiles and especially from the Roman Emperors, we do not undertake.  There is also a twofold disputation concerning the multitude of martyrs.  The first persecution was of Nero, who under the pretext of the burning of the city, with which he was charging the Christians, rages against them monstrously in 64 AD.  Peter and Paul are believed to have suffered in this persecution, to whom, killed at Rome, the Evangelist Mark in Alexandria is added by some.[20]  Indeed, this particular persecution was perhaps not, as far as we know, extended beyond Rome, but was so vehement, that many think Nero to be the Antichrist described by Paul.

XLIII.  Domitian raised a new and second tempest of persecution in 95 AD, more general than the former, yet not so intense, as it is everywhere supposed, since it did not last more than a year, punished fewer with death, and merely sent more into exile.  Among the former are referred even Consular Men, Flavius Clemens, the cousin of Domitian himself;[21] and Glabrio:[22]  among the latter, Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Flavius Clemens,[23] and the Apostle John, banished to Patmos.[24]  But what things are added concerning the poison given to him to drink, or his immersion in boiling oil,[25] smell of fable.  At least a greater degree of likelihood is enjoyed by the narration concerning the two kinsmen of Christ led away to Domitian; when he saw their poverty, he set them free.[26]

XLIV.  If what things are narrated concerning the martyrdoms of the other Apostles were certain, the number of persecutions would rise much greater.  For, thus Andrew was affixed to a cross by Ægeas, Prefect of Edessa;[27] Matthew suffered in Ethiopia; Philip in Phrygia; Bartholomew in Armenia;[28] Thomas in India; Judas in Persia.[29]

[1] Acts 6:8-8:2.

[2] Acts 12:1, 2.

[3] Acts 12:20-23.

[4] Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 9.

[5] Acts 26.

[6] Caligula was Roman Emperor from 37 to 41 AD.

[7] Gamaliel I, son of Simeon ben Hillel, succeeded his father in the presidency of the Sanhedrin.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Gamaliel is remembered as warning the Sanhedrin against punishing the Apostles with death, Acts 5:34, and as the teacher of Paul, Acts 22:3.

[8] Sefer Yosippon is a history from the creation of the world to the destruction of Jerusalem, composed in the ninth or tenth century.  The anonymous author claims to be copying Josephus, the famous Jewish-Roman historian, whom he calls Josephus ben Gorion.

[9] Philo was a first century Jewish scholar of Alexandria, Egypt.  He is noted for his synthesis of Greek philosophy and Jewish theology.  With respect to exegesis, Philo indulges freely in allegorization.

[10] The Kingdom of Adiabene (c. 164 BC–c. 379 AD) was located in northern Mesopotamia.  According to Jewish tradition, in the first century AD, Queen Helena of Adiabene converted to Judaism, together with her son, Izates II (ruling from 30 to 54 AD).

[11] Vespasian reigned from 69 to 79.

[12] Observed in April.

[13] The δίδραχμον was the equivalent of a half-shekel (see Exodus 30:12-16), about seven grams in weight.

[14] Matthew 17:24:  “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received the didrachma (τὰ δίδραχμα) came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay the didrachma (τὰ δίδραχμα)?”

[15] A Temple was built to Jupiter on Rome’s Capitoline Hill.

[16] Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96 AD.

[17] Nerva was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98 AD.

[18] Acts 17:18.

[19] The Jews were expelled from Rome c. 49 AD.  See Acts 18:2; Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Cæsars, “Claudius”, section 25.

[20] According to Coptic tradition, Mark was dragged through the streets until he died from his wounds (c. 68 AD).

[21] Titus Flavius Clemens, cousin of Domitian, served as Consul with Domitian through the Spring of 95 AD.  Dio Cassius asserts that Clemens was executed for “atheism”, a charge frequently leveled against Christians (Roman History, book LXVII, chapter 14).

[22] Manius Acilius Glabrio served as Consul in 91 AD under Trajan.  Suetonius records that he was executed in 95 AD as a “contriver of new things” (“Domitian”, section 10).

[23] Due to some confusion in the historical accounts, it is uncertain whether Flavia Domitilla was the wife or the niece of the consul Titus Flavius Clemens.  It is possible that there were two Domitillas, an aunt and a niece.  In any case, it is recorded that Flavia Domitilla was exiled to the island of Pontia, off the western coast of Italy.

[24] Revelation 1:9.

[25] Tertullian’s Prescription against Heretics, chapter 36; Jerome on Matthew 20:22, 23.

[26] Eusebius’ Church History, book 3, chapters 19, 20.

[27] Acts of Andrew (c. 150-200).

[28] Pseudo-Hippolytus’ On the Twelve Apostles (c. 300).

[29] Pseudo-Hippolytus’ On the Twelve Apostles (c. 300).