11-10-2005, 10:07 PM
Quote:Regarding the public display of worship by a Roman soldier, I have a question. When did the persecutions actually begin?
Rich - it depends who you believe! Tacitus has Nero persecuting the Christians, but that seems to have been an isolated event, brief in duration. In the following two centuries there were episodes of persecution in various parts of the empire, but not as part of a grand scheme to destroy the religion - the main problem was that Christians were seen as members of a secret society, and therefore detrimental to the state.
The first true and determined persecution only happened under Decius in 250, and even then it was in the form of an edict for all citizens to sacrifice to the imperial Gods. It was an attempt to enforce loyalty in a difficult period, and those who refused - i.e the Christians - therefore labelled themselves disloyal citizens, and were duly punished.
Even by that point, however, Christianity was a powerful religion, especially in the east. By the time of the 'Great Persecution' of 303, some cities - Antioch for instance - were largely composed of Christians. The church in Nicomedia - Diocletian's capitol - was taller and grander than the imperial palace! As the first act of the persecution, Diocletian had it levelled by the Praetorian guard.
This page has a good (and thorough) summary of the later persecutions:
[url:2xm37d40]http://www.people.vanderbilt.edu/~james.p.burns/chroma/saints/Persecution.html[/url]
In earlier centuries, Christians would commonly meet in houses - 'church' at first referred to the congregation, not the building. These 'house churches' would have existed all over the empire - several are known in Rome itself in the first century, so the discovery of what seems to be one in Israel is not surprising. The Lacus Curtius site has Lanciani's description of the earliest known 'oratories', and a (perhaps rather wishful) theory on how later churches developed from 'Pompeian' style houses! Check the chapter on 'Christian Churches' here:
[url:2xm37d40]http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/Lanciani/LANPAC/home.html[/url]
The rest of the Lanciani text is worth looking at too - packed with intriguing stuff about Nero, amongst others.
Nathan Ross
