An article in the latest Journal of Roman Studies upsets decades of consensus on Christian persecution in the first three centuries.
We tend to read backwards, seeing contemporary issues as having their origins in the distant past. We often see Christian exceptionalism, then, in the Roman empire, including in our understanding of how Christians were treated. Persecution is the most common lens. And certainly we see this in the New Testament, not least in Jesus’ words to the apostles and in 1 Peter.
The standard account created by modern Roman historians rests on a letter from Pliny to Trajan (10.96). The letter has been used as the sole legal basis for suspicion toward and prosecution of persons for being Christians. One problem is that this account ignores the evidence provided by Christian authors of the range of charges brought against their number (cannibalism, arson, theft, murder, and so on), not only the nomen Christianum.
James Corke-Webster assembles a picture that accounts for most of the evidence. He interprets identification as a Christian as a marker that then could, and often did, lead to suspicions and charges for other crimes. He sees this as fitting a newer interpretation of the use of law in the early empire, as a weapon against opponents, creating a litigious culture. He suggests this was not only the case with criminal charges but, with less evidence, civil charges, too.
One implication is doing away with the standard three-period persecution arc: pre-Nero, pre-Decius, and post-Decius. Instead, “Christians experienced Roman law just like their non-Christian contemporaries—as the means by which diverse local antagonisms acquire institutional force.”
There was, still, the religious identity. It may only have concerned magistrates or neighbors as a “marker.” But it appears in any case to have been a distinctive identifier, the likes of which didn’t trouble practitioners of most other religions.
The new reading does perhaps shed light on the earliest ethical exhortations to Christian communities. A Christian, 1 Peter says, should live such a good life (τὴν ἀναστροφὴν καλήν) among their neighbors that they cannot be accused of any crimes or misdemeanors but cause others to praise God by their good works (τῶν καλῶν ἔργων, 2:12).
In the Acts of Justin, the prefect’s question suggests this: Τίνα βίον βιοϊς, What sort of life do you live? (Acta Just. Rec. A 2.1)
