Why did the Roman Empire persecute Christians so much? Ep. 70

The Roman Empire heavily persecuted the new religious movement budding from Jerusalem known as Christianity. But, why? And who? And how? In this episode, Dave answers those questions and more.

If you prefer Latter-day Saint publications and early Christian history set more in terms of the Great Apostasy, you may enjoy the book, “Apostasy from the Divine Church,” by James L. Barker, or “The Inevitable Apostasy And The Promised Restoration,” by Tad R. Callister (2006).

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[tedlawrence]

The easy answer is: Christians did not worship the Roman gods. The Romans considered them to be irreligious.

[musikan]

I tnink you should go easy with the editing. Too many movie cuts makes it distracting.

[brittanyziolkoski]

This is great. Doing my teaching online has been tough, this supplements my course so well! Thank you

[ThisIsJethro]

This was really good. Hope you make more like it.

[gri_elestirmen]

Thank you so much for the interesting and basic explanation.

[Elanor]

thank you so much for this vivid and detail video!! it helped learn more and put things together that i had questions on. Thank you!

[thewhimsicalorthodoxoriental]

Fantastic summary. Could I use this also in my video. I love your timeline. Of course, complete attribution will be made. I love watching your show -- high energy, great attention getters and maintainers! Love it! Elaine Snider -- The Whimsical Byzantine. Anything on Empress Helen (mother of Constantine?0

[alessiorenzoni]

😔The major persecutions against Christians of which there are clear accounts were those under Marcus Aurelius, a second with Decius and Valerian and a third, called the "great persecution", with Diocletian. They ended with the edict of Nicomedia of 311 issued by the emperor Galerius, confirmed by the edict of Milan of 313 promulgated by Constantine I.

The Christians could have avoided martyrdom by sacrificing to the Roman gods without renouncing their faith, while the pagans were not allowed this, they had to cancel their faith and convert. The pagans would not have bothered one more God, there were several of foreign divinities in Rome, in the barracks and in the circuses there were chapels where everyone prayed to his God, with a tolerance that made Rome a beacon of civilization. The greatest martyrdom was that reserved for the pagans and concerned the entire Roman empire, both in the West and in the East.

In Christian hagiographic sources we remember, between the second half of the first century. and the beginning of the IV, 10 main persecutions against Christians, which occurred under the emperors: Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximin Thrace, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian and Diocletian.
The first persecution, that of Nero, also witnessed by Tacitus, broke out in 64 when Christians were accused of having started the Great Fire of Rome which destroyed a large part of the city of Rome. According to tradition, the apostles Peter and Paul were killed in this persecution.

In the following two and a half centuries, Christianity always remained an illegal religion and Christians guilty of impiety when they refused sacrifices to the Roman gods. But the ten "great persecutions" listed above were alternated with periods of tranquility and tolerance. Estimates of Christian martyrs are unclear. Hagiographic sources generally do not provide reliable data, and in the 1st and 2nd centuries there was no imperial decree ordering an organized persecution of Christians for their faith. The killings and condemnations were limited episodes, linked to concrete sins that were attributed to them, and were also accompanied by favorable attitudes in some of the emperors.

The serious crisis of the third century of the empire was instead the cause of an attitude of greater hostility in general, also due to the greater weight assumed by the Christian communities, especially in the eastern regions of the empire. The persecutions ceased with the Milan edict of 313, in which Constantine I recognized freedom of worship for Christians, while allowing the profession of paganism.

Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, did not forbid Christian worship, because he supported freedom of worship. Only he forbade Christians to teach Greek and Roman literature, which Christians opposed and condemned, often in a violent way, so much so that another element of the Christian conflict with the

In 380 the emperor Theodosius I issued the edict of Thessalonica with which he proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, drastically prohibiting any other type of cult under penalty of death and confiscation of all family assets, thus starting the persecution of the pagans.

[TriumvirSajaki]

In Diocletian's defense, most of his actions against Christians were the result of his co-emperor, Galerius, stirring things up and dragging Diocletian into it. He likely would have been fine with leaving the Christians alone otherwise. The Christian writer Eusebius stated as much.

[tedwiedemann]

super funny and a good video keep making them! you are good at it

[leonardodavid]

Too oversimplified.

1. Actually pagan gods did promise a better afterlife, as did they promise a good present life. Different interpretations existed. Just as some Christians branches such as Calvinism believe everything good that happens in your present life is the will of god and a sign that he has intention of sending you to heaven.

2. Persecutions were kinda on and off. Same for the Jews. The real tough persecutions that exists in the public imaginary, with the catacombs and all, is the one begun by Diocletian. As stated, he believed the decline of the empire was due to a decadence of Roman virtues. So he tried to revert as many things as possible back to how they used to be, including religion. Nero’s persecution was much more legal based, he was trying to appease the people, so picked a distrusted minority and punished their members. However no full scale persecutions had begun. Nero also did not get to rule for much, and was dethroned (and killed himself) when his behaviour got on the nerves of half of Roman generals. So that there persecutions kinda stopped to then re-start and re-end once in a while.

3. Romans were not upset with the lack of worshipping pagan gods. Not until Diocletian at least (he actually did a beef because of it). All religions were allowed to freely worship in Rome, including Jews. Roman’s disliked other aspects of the Christian religion. As mentioned, the secretive meetings beheind closed doors (which btw, because of Roman influence gradually disappeared, and it’s disappearance was probably a major factor in it’s growth in popularity. Now anybody can walk into a Christian church, even during mass, weather Christian or not). Since Romans had a lot of public spaces, even private houses were not totally restricted to outsiders, and people went in an out of politicians houses (as their living rooms -and gardens became public spaces), the fact that Christians and Jews barred off anybody from what was going on kinda put off the Romans. Furthermore, although there was freedom of worship, Romans did not allow religious conversion attempts. Christianity was the only religion, more so than Juadism, that actually went around telling everybody that they had to convert, and that everybody else is going to hell. Christianity also has a tendency to refuse everything non-Christian (see the enourmous destruction of pagan texts after Christianity rose to power).

4. For some reason Jesus is also part of the video. Romans had nothing to do with Jesus, and the Roman emperor at the time, Tiberius, probably did not even know him. Judea was a semi-indipendent region (it became a proper Roman Province after the Jewish rebellion of the 69), best characterized as a client state, where the ruler was officially supported by Roman forces, and where a Roman garrison resides, serving both to protect and act in name of the Roman preferred leader (hence not allowing any anti-Roman, a.k.a pro-Parthian king to take power) and at the sine time, being ready to intervene in case a rebellion against Romans occurred (This has always been very common in border regions between rival empires, since they were necessary buffers, and Romans and Parthian competed between eachother to get their preferred ruler into power. Modern state still do this, think fo Korea or Vietnam). So that was the extend of Roman involvement. In Rome, virtually nobody was aware of what was going on

[jasonsellers]

Amazing video, guys! I know this is asking a lot, but could you do a series of videos like this covering *all* the history of Christianity up until the Restoration? That would be so *awesome!* 🤩

[JoseHernandez-xymj]

You have to worship the real God in order to show such loyalty. Other newer religions cant say this

[Seth-dvhe]

When I first saw Ryan at 0:00 I was like what? He's on Saints Unscripted? Then I realized you just played a clip of him lol

[qjtvaddict]

They saw what Christians would become and tried to avoid it.

[pd]

Do how books were chosen or left out of bible enoch power struggle power ect

[lawrencer.taveras]

Which painting is that of Jesus and the Roman gods

[joshuakruntorad]

Listen, I adamantly disagree with most everything on this channel. But this is incredibly accurate. You guys really did your research with this one.

[KasandraCoan]

Rome feared Christianity would end their empire. In the end Christianity did end their empire. Amen. KC Comanche tx

[Mothernature-ig]

Can anyone tell me.. WhY woUld God allOw roMan capTure aNd deStroy Jerusalem? Can anyone? AnyoNe? I don't thiNk 🤔 sO....