Why did the Romans Persecute Christians?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2015
- It is common knowledge that the Romans killed Christians in the first few centuries of the new religion's history. But we don't often ask why. What was it about Christianity that made the Romans want to persecute it?
Patreon: www.patreon.com/religionforbreakfast
Twitter: @andrewmarkhenry
Blog: www.religionforbreakfast.com
Music: Kevin MacLeod
Further Reading:
Beard, Mary. Religions of Rome. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Moss, Candida. The Myth of Persecution. (HarperCollins, 2013).
I have friends that play the Bass guitar. They always complain that their playing cant be heard in the final sound mix. From now on I will point them to this video.
You know, i appreciate electronic music a little more because of this now... had I been in a band I would have been that bass player. Glad I avoided that cringe. I'm making up for it later.
@@trashcatlinol Bass is sick, I'm a guitarist but I want to hear it in the mix.
@@agentjackstone3543 I forgot where I read this but it went somewhere along the lines of "bass is the backbone of music"
Bass player here. I never complained my playing is inaudible in the final mix.
Instead, I always complained everyone else is too loud!
Great video but the volume on music track was a little too loud.
For ADD people the music was helpful. I shouldn't speak for all ADD people though.
I didn't find the music to be *too* overpowering until a baseline starts to crescendo at about the 6:29 mark.
I am ADHD..no...music is nice but too loud. Distracting
ADHD here. Music is too loud. It's not so much about deficiency of attention as much as merely not being able to clearly hear the vocals audibly.
Didnt ask
I like how your videos show how complicated a lot of these issues are. Things are rarely black and white.
Truth is never simple.
There is no record of wide spread persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire.
@@MrGreensweightHist I mean how could it even be possible when there was a small number there. They were persecuted though so ya the events happened but to a small amount of people obviously.
@@AKANDMARYJ There is no record of Christians being persecuted.
Christians made it up, just like they make it up today
@@MrGreensweightHist I tried to find out how many christians were persecuted in the Great of Dioclatian Persecution and stumbed upon Eusebius of Ceasarea, an accepted Christian historian. In his Martyrs of Palestine he could not bring up more then 90 martyrs over a period of ten years. Quite a difference from the alleged millions of martyrs I would think. And where Eusebius was favouring Constantine for his good deeds, he might have throw in a few extra victims of Constantive pagan ennemies. But he did not.
I didn’t even notice the music until I read the comments
Same
Me too
same
I didn't notice the comments until the music got too loud...
I don't see how you couldn't notice. I can hardly hear him.
Nice vid! This actually goes well with a quick civil dialogue I wrote between a Roman and Christian, where the Roman is genuinely confused as to why the Christian “hates us so much as to want the fall of the Empire” when many Christians are Romans and therefore their fates are tied to the Empire’s too. And the idea of them having a civil discussion without coming to blows ALSO goes well with the idea that many Christians and Romans actually managed to get along.
The key is in saying "Hates us so much to want the fall of the Empire" In which who else was thinking this ?
Messianic Judaism . Ergo Christian thinking is just the next step in their evolution .
It becomes more pacifist and less strict in membership. Of which could be inspired by God , but you don't have to stretch human behavior and reasoning to get there either.
Also the Romans were a next level in societal evolution too.
"This is like refusing to pledge allegiance to the state, you are potentially outing yourself as a traitor" - said like a true American
or any country where they would actually ask you to pledge allegiance to the state
He's not wrong
No.american is in God we trust under God indivisible.that couldn't happen in the Patriots america.
Incorrect, at least in the USA, what I mean is the USA pledge of allegiance states this "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands...", that clearly states your allegiance to the flag and the form of government... or the state since the r is capitalized.
No one, be it a person, people, or organization, can force you say something against your will, legally. Mind you I pledge my allegiance to the ideals of the flag.
The largest problem I have with the USPoA is the "under God..." part. At best you can say it supports the monotheistic religions, but in reality we all know its to support Christianity. Which goes against the US Constitution 1st amendment, which states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...". By the phrase "under God..." being in the USPoA by law, it is in violation of the first amendment. I would perfectly fine with it saying something like "under the Constitution".
Another reason why I don't like the under god bit is that by saying it in the pledge of allegiance you're pledging your allegiance to god and professing you believe in god.
Which one is better, the person that tells a lie and lives for it or the person that tells the truth and dies for it? That is up to you to decide.
Said like a true Christian
Going through your old videos like a new love interest goes through all of your old pictures on Facebook. How did I not find you before?? You rock!
2020 happened and everything old became new again.
Jesus, I hope people aren't going through my really old pictures.
Same😅
the music is lowkey really cool, the bass is super grungy
edit: only just realised everyone hated how loud the music is loooool
I liked it!
Same here. Visuals were a little confusing until I realized that he was actually doing a video essay and it wasn't just cool vocal clips mixed in.
I think you're missing a really critical point here. You don't mention at all the distrust that the Romans would've had towards a group who worshipped a guy who was executed for treason against the Empire and the Emperor. He was accused of declaring himself a king, which was just about the most serious crime possible in that type of society, and he appears to have been guilty of that crime. Pilate didn't buy the semantic argument about a kingdom of heaven, and likely neither would other Romans.
It wasn't just they were too new, and mysterious, and that they didn't partake in public rituals. It was that it was a cult whose leader had considered himself enemies of their government, and used their Emperors as the metaphor for Evil.
Any group that believed this would be similarly "persecuted", in any empire in history. No ancient monarch has ever tolerated such a thing.
A guy who allegedly existed Android those things. Some early christians didn’t believe such a person existed on earth, but was a celestial being instead.
So far, there is absolutely zero evidence the man actually existed.
@@kellydalstok8900 So tacitus and Pliny the elder are lying
@@kellydalstok8900 No early Christians believed he was a "celestial being" who didn't exist on Earth. The closest thing is docetism, which held that he did in fact walk among them but that he was actually a spirit whose physical body was an illusion, as was his performing of human bodily functions like eating and drinking.
@@magicdog9523
I'm quite fond of Docetism, though it does raise certain problems...
I wish you mentioned the names of the scholars you know to stand for the stuff you're saying. I don't doubt much of what you're talking about, to be honest, this channel is great for me, since I'm not doing any religion studies. I just wanted to have the chance to check and be aware of the academic debates.
He's full of it.
Well, you can find further readings in the description
False religions are desperate, even the big religions are desperate just like the ultra wealthy are desperate. They will lie (knowingly and unknowingly) when they find it convenient simply because it is convenient. "Our people were persecuted so we are better than you or deserve better than you" is very psychologically convenient. There is something about accumulating a lot of falseness that causes desperation to rise exponentially.
Literally all you need to do is do what you say you want to: read.... the description.
Never underestimate the power of eyebrows when communicating. ;) You're videos are great man! Thank you very much! Greetings from the late great holy Roman empire i.e. Germany.
its all those eyebrow workouts I do.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18
The music is drowning out your commentary. Sorry, but it got worse and made this video very difficult to listen to. The content however was very interesting.
didn't even notice until last few seconds that there was even music playing
I love this channel so much!! It's literally become my favorite!
-Really enjoy these videos so far!
I know, you fixed the music problem years ago. So hopefully you can laugh with me here.
I didn't notice the music was loud until about 7:00. It just felt like you were trying to yell over your own background music at that point. Then a meme (?) I keep seeing, where background music is drowning out quotes or singers for comedic effect came into mind and I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard. I know it wasn't intended, but it made it difficult to take seriously after that.
Getting distracted by the comments didn't help, either.
On the bright side, you managed to keep me engaged enough to ignore the music issue for most of the video. You have a real respect and passion for your work, and it is inspiring enough I have to come back to this video again as it was a great spark for story writing. This was an awesome video, and every bit as enjoyable as your newer ones. I wish you the best!
I love this video and topic. You should do a re-upload with balanced levels. 🤗
When I watch these older videos, I get the feeling that I am hanging out with a religious studies major at a live rock concert.
LOL
Fantastic video. I look forward to the reupload.
Fantastic video, thanks for sharing the knowledge!!!!
thx you my dude, i need this for school
4:19 that was particularly interesting, thank you for expanding my understanding on the subject of faith.
Today I visited the Temple of Jupiter in the Palace of Diocletian.
They would sacrifice monarchs and their entourage, well not “sacrifice” as human sacrifice was strictly prohibited, but strangled them all at the end of the triumph marches inside while the also killed bulls it’s interesting stuff
@Don Espoleto Romans didn't do human sacrifice. At least not during the days of the empire.
Modern Polytheists (usually) don't sacrifice animals anymore
@@hellenicboi14 execution of criminals was considered a form of human sacrifice in ore Christian religions in europe
@@hellenicboi14 yes, executions during triumphs was the rare exception to this
Thank you for sharing and I do try to watch these with breakfast :-)
Very helpful. Thanks!
Thanks for explaining the Roman concept of religio vs superstitio! It really clarifies for me the following exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ which I found the most compelling dialogue in the film:
Pontius Pilate : It's one thing to want to change the way people live... but you want to change how they think, how they feel.
Jesus : All I'm saying is that change will happen with love, not with killing.
Pontius Pilate : Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome. It's against the way the world is.
kind of ironic what jesus said about not killing. I guess he didn't really change the way people thought and felt
@@righthomosphere7962first, it’s movie dialogue, that’s not what Jesus said. In fact, he, rather famously, said nothing when brought before Pilate. Second, Christianity is not designed to prevent any and all bad from happening ever. It’s a religion that gives people the opportunity to have full communion with God, now. Individuals (and communities) still very much have the capacity to break from the will of God and do bad things. But the church is an organism with a divine part and a human part. The divine never fails, but the human part fails fairly regularly, unfortunately.
Your videos are great!
Thanks for the information. The music didn't bother me at all
Excellent info
Back when i was a Baptist in elementary school i remember how odd i found my first Jehovah's Witness when he chose not to pledge allegiance to the flag.
Its not odd they refuse to pledge to anything other than god
@@ishthefish9006 Ok.
Tho my point was how narrow minded I was back when I was a Baptist, not that it really is particularly more odd than anything else any theist does. I thought that was sufficiently clear. But, I guess not.
As a Brit, I find the pledge weird too...
They’re fruitcakes
I'm glad he chose not to salute. Too many mainstream followers of The Way Of Christ equate their patriotism on the same level as equal to their faith. As followers of the Way of Christ, we're not meant to worship a country nor a flag, only The Lord God. Many mainstream Christians get this wrong. if JWs are getting this right, awesome, kudos to them! They are not trinitarian Christians, but they are better off than the Americans who follow a false god called America, and confuse the two with Christ the Lord. You can respect love and honor your country but you Can't serve two masters. Many American Christians are nominal, only, or cultural Christians. They don't even know who Jesus really IS.
Your knowledge and insights, Mr. Henry, are profound and I enjoy hearing you speak about them. But please, PLEASE lose the annoying music. It is distracting.
Good presentation, especially in describing persecutions as "local" and "sporadic." That changed somewhat during the crisis of the third century. During Decius' persecution, I think he also claimed that the Christians practiced sorcery (which was a common accusation against them), which was a capital crime under Roman law. Diocletian's persecution was somewhat more thorough, but still not carried out in all the provinces. Its implementation depended on the zeal of his regional sub-emperors, of which one, Galerius, publicly ended his own implementation by issuing the Edict of Galerius in 311 CE which, in districts under his jurisdiction, granted toleration to all religions except Manicheanism. Then Constantine as sole emperor in 313 (314?) issued his own edict which essentially extended Galerius' edict of toleration to all Roman provinces.
@Aboorijal yhap, lets not forget about the catacombs of Rome that christians used to worship God in secret. Those catacombs were dark, often damp, riddled with vermin, claustrophobically small in places and stacked with the corpses of previous inhabitants, the Catacombs were not a place where people would want to stay. They were created by by Hebrews and early Christians between the 2nd and 5th centuries BC.
@@goncalojesus7583 If we had a cult today whose members met in secret, sacrificed babies, drank blood and ate human flesh we would persecute them too, whether or not they practiced sorcery on the side.
@@faithlesshound5621 Are you saying that Christians do those things? You must be trolling xD. The world is so insane today that I dont know if you are just joking or you are just stupid and ignorant that knows nothing about christianity or just a christianophobe. Flesh and blood? Are you talking about the Transubstantiation? Bread and wine that simbolize the blood and the body of Christ? Who tf sacrifices babies? Are you talking about the Ancient Carthaginians? They sacrificed children and they were not persecuted by the romans.
Wrong. Theres satanic cults today and nothing is done about them. Theres people today that sacrifice children too, they call it "abortion" and also nothing is done about them. Or maybe you persecute these people in your country?
Christians met in secret bc they were persecuted. Rome persecuted christians bc they refused to worship the emperor. And avoided pagan festivals.
Emperors like Nero also used Christians as a scape goat, after he set Rome on fire:
The historian Tacitus wrote about this:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chistians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired."
Lucian, an mid first century greek historian wrote also about the persecution of Christians: "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day-the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-dåevotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property."
@@goncalojesus7583 Christians in 20th century Europe accused Jews of doing those things, which they were themselves accused of centuries earlier. Who knows if there was any substance to the accusations? One anthropologist claimed, 40 to 50 years ago that there were never any cannibals, because when you enquire, it's always people in another village who used to do it. Sacrificing babies may be something like that.
As for drinking blood and eating human flesh, some Protestants may do those things symbolically, but my understanding of Roman Catholic doctrine is that the bread and wine are both really transformed into blood AND flesh, even though they may still look the same. So they are not for vegetarians.
@@faithlesshound5621 So, you are making stuff up about christians bc some europeans in the 20th century were anti semitic. And now you are doing the same thing that those sinners did and you are making stuff up about christians and being a christianophobe.
1st: Christianity is not anti semitic. Its a sin to persecute anyone, the bible says that. Its also a sin to lie.
2nd: Theres christians all over the world and you are blaming everyone just bc a few dudes in europe lied about jews. You are blaiming and making stuff up about african christians, asian christians, american christians bc of something that happened in Europe. Not only that, but you are blaming everysingle european christian and christians from the classical times. That is idiotic.
"One anthropologist claimed, 40 to 50 years ago that there were never any cannibals, because when you enquire, it's always people in another village who used to do it. Sacrificing babies may be something like that.": I dont know what you are saying here, your english is very bad in these part.
The Eucharist is a Christian rite that According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during a Passover meal, Jesus commanded his disciples to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the new covenant in my blood".[1][2][3] Through the eucharistic celebration Christians remember Christ's sacrifice of himself on the cross.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that in the Eucharistic offering bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ.
Because Jesus told us to: see
1 Cor 11:25
Luke 22:18-20
John 6:53
Now the first two of those are open to the interpretation that it's all symbolic(*), but the last is more difficult to explain away as a merely representational thing. If you read the John chapter 6, you see that it falls into two parts - the feeding of the 5000, and a whole discussion about Jesus as the Bread of Life, and an insistence on the part of Jesus on 'eating the flesh of the Son of Man' - which ends with those who say this is too hard a teaching leaving Jesus.
What we don't see is any suggestion that this was symbolic, or representational. Jesus allowed people to leave him in large numbers because they objected to the idea of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood. He didn't say to his disciples "It's OK, I'm talking in parables again"; he didn't explain this to them as a parable or an analogy. He just asked them whether they too would leave him, because this was a hard teaching - but not one he would water down or retreat from.
So we do as Jesus asked; and as something of a much more than purely symbolic nature. We take Jesus into our bodies, and so become ever more part of him, as he becomes more part of us.
That's why the Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life", as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it. The Eucharist is the reality of the Body of Christ
Its not cannibalism.
Thank you so much for this educated and eloquent video, but pretty please with sugar on top: join the crusade against annoying background music. This plague must come to an end.
Wow, enlightening! Thank you for sharing on this awesome subject.
Great video.
Very interesting and worthwhile video.
This video was incredibly useful for understanding briefly the impact of early christianity on the Roman empire.
And the importance of proper sound mixing.
Very well done and highly informative. Are you a religious scholar?
ripperduck he is
i love your channel bro ! ! !
Thank you for sharing.
not to forget that not a single christian was killed in the colosseum under emperor nero - simply because it didn't exist yet.
I will forever call this chanel "religio for breakfast" now
Thx for the vid m8
I love your channel. So much history is distorted...you help sort it out.
Excellent video. Needed this for my final. Thanks.
+The Atheist Socialist Vegan Glad it was helpful! I have a sequel about the Decian persecution if that will be helpful too.
This is an important subject. You should redo this without the music.
Well done. Just stumbled across your site. I enjoyed the video. I saw BU in your bio. Have you studied under Fredriksen there? Especially after this video...had to ask.
Dr. Fredriksen has been in Israel for years now...I think she is still an official faculty member at BU, but I've been studying under Dr. David Frankfurter.
Didn't realize she had been gone that long. Looks like Frankfurter offers some amazing courses there as well. Well done. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for this video! Easier to parse than my textbook, haha
Amazing, thank you for that. Do you have any recommendations for a book author or even article discussing religion as state regulations in ancient times?
The description mentions a book on the subject.
What is Going On [with] these Subtitles? It’s like [someone] without? a Good Grasp of the English Language wrote them. The Capitalization is all Over the Place, there are Random Words in [brackets] and Random question? marks sprinkled Throughout. Great video Though very? Interesting
I'd guess that the subtitles were created through TH-cam's automatic captioning option. Automatic captioning processes had a history of producing sometimes rather wonky results.
Yeah sometimes I have to pause to read the sentence again on why some words [are] in brackets
@@BainesMkII yeah but the other option is messed up too
bro I love your videos so much
"good old time Religio" knocked me all the way back to VBS and watching VHS tapes of The Donut Man
oh yeah!! I love the music, turn it up! XD
So... I just turned on the captions instead of complaining about the music
im glad there is no more music in your videos.
Loved it, but: in agreement with music critiques below. If you re-do this vid, tone down the music mix, and after about 6:33, your voice gets low. Otherwise, explanation was great. I'm sure you are familiar with the work of Candida Moss and her 2013 book, which I highly recommend.
So the Nero persecution only lasted a few years? So did the Holocaust
Polytheists rarely persecute with the same level of zeal as monotheists.
Christians killed each other for centuries.
I mean seeing as many ancient polytheistic religions specifically had gods of war which needed holy battles to be satisfied, I'm not so sure.
@@rhyddidroselouw3896 They still do.
Romans were polytheists.
@@lukeneely389 NB: The OP was in the present tense.
As a child I watched a fictional video series about Christians in Rome during Nero’s reign. They portrayed Nero literally being worshipped as a living god, & demanding Christians do so.
However, I’ve since read that Roman emperors weren’t elevated to deification until after their deaths, & not all emperors were deified.
A lot of Roman Catholic saint hagiographies are about a Christian girl/woman who vowed to remain a virgin, & when they refused to marry a powerful pagan he killed them in revenge for rejecting him sexually, not necessarily for religious beliefs. Ofc, though, that’s not all Saints’ stories of martyrdom!
except for caligula, who (allegedly) claimed to be a living god.
Please, can I get the direct link to the re-upload with the better sound? Thx in advance 🙏 I know this is old, Andrew, just hoping you are now able to speak slower in your videos :) Even with subtitles on, it's almost impossible for me due to my visual vestibular, to read as fast as you speak here. The fewer impacts in videos, the more you can reach audiences, I'm sure you know :)
I didn't salute the flag growing up in school, for that they stuck me in the far corner out of sight so that the others wouldn't see me not salute the flag. Didn't what them to know they had a choice in the matter
very interesting
It sounds like his neighbor is trying to sabotage the video by playing un-music while he's trying to record.
I thought an ad on another window had started playing loud music.
The music was really distracting, I found it difficult to hear what you were saying.
Great content. This could really take off. The music is too loud for the vocal. I really enjoy listening to podcast with good audio. You have a good thing going here with tremendous potential!
I was like… this must be a really old one, what’s with the background music he’s half drowned out by 😂
good vid as always. good music, too, just too loud as to be distracting
Maybe it's because I like to actually read early Church history, but I don't recall ever hearing anyone claim that the persecutions were anything other than sporadic and localized. That said, it might be that the general populace think otherwise.
I think he is talking about how it is communicated in church and between christians, similar to how the bible describes the oppression in egypt, even with archaeological evidence showing that many jewish people were paid workers for the construction of pyramids
@@dannyboy4682 your example ironically represents the communication of uninformed non-christians (and probably non-jews): the bible/torah doesn't even mention jews having build pyramids at all! they allegedly build cities (or buildings in cities) explicitly stating they were made out of _clay bricks_ - *not pyramids* (predominantly) made from _limestone._
and the archeaeoligical evidence regarding the 'paid' workers btw doesn't mention them being jews.
Hey would you turn down the bass volume please , otherwise great content ,
Agreed. Background music way too loud. It detracted from information being relayed.
Agreed. I would even say that there's no point in having the background music. The narrative is so fascinating.
I had a sneaking suspicion so i looked this up . Thanks
Congrats for your channel!
Please, the music is to loud...keep it piano until you talk to make easier to understand. You are very inteligent and informated, but you talk too fast and this loud sound track doesnt help...
Thanks for the advice! This is an older video. If you watch my more recent videos, you'll see that I no longer use any music.
I had no problem with the music and could hear you clearly.
I bet you were a brown-noser in grade school, too.
Thakn you. I liked the music and had no problem hearing him (and I am hard of hearing so often have that problem with soundtracks).
at 7:31 the music overpowers him so much that it's actually hilarious
It actually started when early Christian communities throughout the Roman empire began criticizing Roman-Greco beliefs and barbaric religious pagan ceremonial practices by refusing to participate in them. This did not sit well with some of these local authorities, so they retaliated. These early Christians were also initially persecuted by the Jewish communities throughout the Dispora in the Roman empire for the same reasons.
These older videos are hard to watch because the music is so loud.
Great insight. But you left one important reason, and it's the fact that Christianity in its core has Judean Messianic expectations. Even if Paul's letters and the canonical gospels where successful in buttering up Romans and making Jews accountable for Jesus death, one has to take into account that Jesus was crucified for sedition, hence the movement was politically charged fueled with anger towards Rome.
Well, the really early christianity yes. That's probably a contributing reason for Neros persecution. But by the second century already christianity had in most of its versions lost its anti-roman roots. And people in general and politicians in particular aren't for the most part very aware or care much about history from a full century earlier. Only a handful of christians would have known or cared about Jesus having been an actual rebel against Rome a century earlier, most roman officials would definitely not have neither known nor cared.
I think that a video about Constantine called "Saint or Tyrant?" would be very interesting...
+LeviathanSpeaks1469 Interesting idea...I do think Constantine's "conversion" is misunderstood by most people. I'll put that in the pipeline!
He was no more tyrant than all the other labeled tyrant monarchs over millennia. He wasn't a Saint either, although he may or may not be Sainted by the Orthodox or Roman Catholic Churches.
In those times.it was believed to not take your baptism till you were close to death, I think it had to do with fear of sinning wfter the baptism. Constantine may have converted in his last days. Even for followers of The Way, the jury's out on that one. We aren't sure. But, if he genuinely became saved, he is only classified as a saint, little s - which is the same term applied to ANY follower of The Way, i.e. A Christian. Big S as in Saint refers to being Sainted in one of the traditions of the Church. Even Tsar Nicholas II is Sainted by the Orthodox tradition. For me personally, I feel we can only see Constantine as a saint, bc we can only hope that his conversion was sincere in the end.
Does that help? Hope so :)
Awesome!
That bass in my face is persecuting me
Can you cover the quasi-Christian cults from the mid-1800s like Seventh-day Adventism and Mormonism? I just want to the history and similarities of those groups.
These 2 are the most toxic branches of Christianity imo.
@Alexis Massey I'm guessing you're an Adventist.
I'm seeing a parallel here to the resonans for persecution in Japan
although different the shogunate allso viewed the Christians as a destabilising force
This was obvious as the Europeans wanted Western influence and business in Japan. That is partly, how they got all the colonies.
I would have loved to heard this video, but I can't hear the words over the music
is the music "Youth of the Nation"?
More people should know that such persecution started with John the Baptist
Really good video but we don't really here you because of the music and you speak a bit fast.
But very good
Exaggerating the persecutions. Like saying that voting for a politician instead of another will cause the downfall of Christianity. Yeah, that's kind of their go-to tactic today.
Hey dude,,,Where do you get your info about persecutions of christians? by eusebius and lactancio right?
Your music background is very annoying because I am trying hard to hear what you are saying.
Romans never persecuted any of the other hundred different religion, but this kne didn’t want to pay taxes!
And as soon as Christians got into power and forced Constantine to make it the state religion, they persecuted all other religions
Read history the Romans themselves have documented the persecutions
It seems like the music kept getting louder and louder or he was speaking softer and softer.
Nice collection of Penguin Classics!
Two points:
The accounts of persecution of Christians by Nero has been called into question as there were no multitude of Christians in Rome or anywhere else at that time and this was the only document that claimed Nero persecuted Christians with some labeling the passage as an insertion made by Christian copyists.
Phily the Younger never referred to Jesus by name. He referred to worshippers of Christo. Some have speculated that the cult were worshippers of Serapis and not Jesus.
www.truthbeknown.com/pliny.htm
You're right that some scholars have recently questioned Nero's persecution. Brent Shaw published an article in 2015 and goes through the evidence. The Christian tradition to demonize Nero as some sort of anti-Christ was really early though...so I find it at least plausible that Nero did SOMETHING to the Christian community. Whether that was a one-time crack-down or the fantastical depictions of burning Christians as torches, we can't be 100% certain.
Pliny does seem to be referring to early forms of Christian worship though (congregants singing antiphonally). I haven't seen it argued that they were part of the Serapis cult.
@@ReligionForBreakfast If anything they were probably upset because of Paul's death per Nero.
I just discovered your channel and I really like it. Could I posit here something to consider:
The early Christian church was on the defensive from the Hasmonian dynasty (Harod and the Jewish temple from the very beginning) and therefore explains the 'underground' worship - see catacombs. The Temple in Jerusalem required it's own tax besides the Roman taxes and those were under a threat by this new Christian movement. So many Gnostic type movements under Christianity rose up to undermine the true doctrine. Therefore this upsetting the Roman order. There was no central Christian authority like the Jewish faith had in Jerusalem under Harod who was pro Roman and selected by the Jewish authority.
But the real threat came when the northern force barbarians began to threaten the empire. The Christians were to blame as they challenged the Roman gods. (Christians believed that Christ was the final sacrifice, no need for more blood sacrifices to the gods. The Romans and the Jews were able to understand each other because of this practice.)
The brilliance of the early Christian church fathers, Augustine, Jerome, and the invention of the codex from the scroll form of relaying text lead to a transformation of delivery of information. Then add to that, the early church fathers adopted the iconography and propaganda techniques of Rome under Constantine to save the religion. (Constantine, though thought of as first Christian emperor, died with pagan rights. I think really Emperor Justinian was the first true Christian Emperor.)
I know there is a lot there... but I feel that your post is a little simplistic with regards to the perception of Christians under Roma as 'new weird and secretive.' And that the Romans didn't really regard the Christians as a threat. Which I think is basically true except for the disturbing influence they would have had on the Jewish leadership which did intact feel very threatened. (for the temple taxes) Remember, there is a whole class (Levites) that live under the pure profit that the Temple brings in, and this would crash that dynasty and their whole religion.
The most notable of this is the Jewish rebellion in 68 ad which causes such devastating results for so many innocent people. Roma is a lot like Egypt under the pharaohs, ORDER is their religion. If Jews are fighting with Christians, this is bad for Roma.
You need a good video editor, who knows how to balance sound. I say this as I work at a TV station and deal with bad sound all the time from our production department.
Excellent content, but the background noise (pretending to be what.. music?) overwhelms an otherwise great video.
"Cult" + "Time" = "Religion" (supposedly a ongoing joke among philosophers)
Diocletian persecuted the Christians because he believed their prayers were cutting his connection to the Gods.
Hence, this is where the phrase “Yield or Suffer” came from.
He's not wrong, the Bible teaches that prayer is a powerful tool that can destroy demonic principalities and strongholds in Heavenly places. The Roman gods are essentially demonic principalities and Christian prayers can destroy and hinder their work. That's why some people get so agitated At The Mention Of jesus, it's not really them but the spirit influencing them that is agitated. They're trying to get the prayers and worship of God stopped because it hinders their work and hurts them.
I hate the fact that the persecutions have been so greatly exaggerated that scholars are forced to say "See, they only persecuted Christians randomly with only 1 legit attempted genocide. Nbd". That attitude would not fly for any other historical presedence of oppression lol
You really need to mix your voice way up relative to the music bed. The music is less background music, and much more distracting.