Why Were Early Christians Persecuted?

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

Why were early Christians persecuted? This is a question that has been visited by volumes of literature over the centuries. In this article, we will answer this question. 

In the New Testament, we have a record of Jesus’ ministry and the disciples that followed Him. Among their teachings was that those who follow Him would encounter persecution. What is persecution?

The root Greek word often translated as persecution is dioko. It means to pursue, harass, or mistreat. In general, we would say that persecution is mistreatment or harassment expressed towards someone because of their faith. It involves pressure to perform or abstain from certain behaviors.

For the early disciples, persecution could include rejection or exclusion from family/social groups, pressure to forsake Jesus’ teachings, confiscation of property, bodily harm, and/or death. Many of the early disciples endured these forms of persecution, yet they stayed loyal to the faith.

Jesus and the early disciples instructed present and future generations that they would experience pressure and/or threats because of their faith. Consider the following verses:

Matthew 10:22-23, 32-33

“22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. 23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next…32 Every one therefore who shall confess me [m] before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

Mark 10:29-30

“29 Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”

Acts 14:21-22

“21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, 22 confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God…”

Philippians 1:28-29

“28 and in nothing affrighted by the adversaries: which is for them an evident token of perdition, but of your salvation, and that from God; 29 because to you it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf…”

Jesus was persecuted. He was excluded, threatened, and eventually falsely accused and put to death for His teachings. He told His followers that they would experience similar treatment.

The Book of Acts preserves the first examples of persecution in the early Church. Because Jesus is Jewish, the earliest followers of the movement tended to be Jewish. Sometimes thousands of Jewish people at a time accepted Jesus as their Messiah (see Acts 2:37-42 for an example).

This caused conflict with the Jewish authorities of that time. The disciples threatened to deprive these leaders of power, wealth, and control. Stephen was among the first people to die for the faith (see Acts chapters 6 and 7). Other early disciples, such as Peter, John, and Paul were rejected, beaten, and jailed for their profession of faith.

History also records some of these persecutions. Josephus recorded the martyrdom of Jesus’ half-brother, James. It follows what we would expect to read based upon Jesus’ trial and the book of Acts:

“…But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned…” (Antiquities, 20.9.1)

James and others were falsely accused of breaking the law in a manner like Jesus. The high priest at that time, Ananus, had them stoned. Some of the people were outraged at this behavior; Ananus was deposed from the priesthood and replaced (ironically by a man named Jesus, son of Damneus).

What about Gentiles?

As the book of Acts progresses, we learn that the gospel message spread into predominately Gentile cities and regions. This brought the beliefs of early Christians into conflict with the Greco-Roman culture around them. Why did this conflict exist?

In most ways, the two groups had opposing religious views. We will review these differences, which I think will clarify why there was a clash of religious mindsets.

The Judeo-Christian mindset was and still is monotheistic. There is one God who alone is to be worshiped. This mindset is exclusive in that no other gods can be added. Moreover, Jewish people and early Christians did not try to represent the one True God with images, idols, or statues. Furthermore, there was only one Temple on earth, the one in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70 AD).

The Greco-Roman mindset was very different. They were polytheists who worshiped many gods. These gods had temples spread throughout the Mediterranean world and were depicted by statues, images, and idols. Their mindset tended to be inclusive. That is to say – they were open to including other gods in their worship. Some polytheists honored some gods higher than another.

The sale of idols, images, and statutes were a source of income and a way to honor their gods. These gods were viewed as important to maintaining order in the world. If there was a catastrophe, they looked to these gods for help. To teach against this ancient trade would impact the economy, cultural/religious traditions, and possibly upset their gods! This resulted in conflict between the two mindsets. Acts 19:23-41 is an example of the persecution that came from the gospel message spreading to the Gentiles.

The Term Atheist

The mindset of Jewish people and early Christians was an enigma to the Greco-Roman mind. Polytheists did not understand why monotheists were unable to add other gods to their one God. For this reason, monotheists were sometimes labeled atheists because they denied or were without the traditional gods.

The Greek word a added to a word means ‘without.’ The Greek word theos means God or ‘a god.’ In modern Western culture, we use this term to refer to those who do not believe in God at all. However, the Romans applied it differently. It meant those that did not have any part with the accepted Greco-Romans gods, even if they believed in a god or gods outside of them.

The accusation of atheism was levied against Jewish people and Christians. The ancient historian Cassius Dio mentioned that numerous people were arrested during the reign of Domitian for atheism. Jews and those who practiced Jewish ways were included in this number. It is important to realize that Jewish people suffered persecution for some of the same reasons as Christians.

“…And the same year Domitian slew, along with many others, Flavius Clemens the consul, although he was a cousin and had to wife Flavia Domitilla, who was also a relative of the emperor’s. The charge brought against them both was that of atheism, a charge on which many others who drifted into Jewish ways were condemned. Some of these were put to death, and the rest were at least deprived of their property…” (Cassius Dio, Roman History, 67.14.1-3, emphasis mine).

The accusation of atheism is found in the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The crowd shouted for the atheists to be taken away. The Roman authorities tried to force Polycarp to confess that Caesar was his Lord and then to shout “Away with the Athiests.” This was an attempt to force him into solidarity with the crowd (to read more about this subject, CLICK HERE).

Because early Christians and Jewish people were exclusive in their worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it created conflict between them and the culture around them. There are other reasons that early Christians were persecuted, but this gives us the foundation for many specific historical examples.

In general, I have identified at least three categories of reasons that Christians were persecuted by Gentile authorities. I have listed them below, with examples of each.

3 Categories of Persecution

1) False Accusations – Christians could be falsely accused of committing a crime. For an example, consider that Nero falsely accused Christians of burning down part of Rome. This led to persecution.

2) The confession of being a Christian – During the reign of Trajan (98-117), a legal precedent was set where Christians could be punished if they did not denounce Christ and offer incense to the image of the emperor. Pliny’s letter to Trajan is an example of this kind of persecution.

3) Refusing to perform acts of sacrifice – There were times in the Roman Empire when sacrifices to the gods were commanded on a local, regional, or empire-wide scale. This initiated persecution because Christians would not comply. This was the case during the Decian persecution (249-251 AD).

Some Christians viewed the last two of these as connected to the Mark of the Beast in Revelation (click here to learn more about the Mark of the Beast).

In my conversation with Sabbatarians over the years, many seem to think that early Christians were persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. In early Christianity (27 AD – 400 AD), there are no records of Christians persecuted solely for or because of keeping the Sabbath. Most Christians kept the Sabbath during this time (CLICK here to read more), the Sabbath was protected by Roman law (CLICK here to read more), and many unconverted Romans knew about the Sabbath (CLICK HERE to read more).

Over the course of this year, we will have articles with specific examples of Christian persecution from early Christian History.

God bless!

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President – www.biblesabbath.org