Edwin M. Yamauchi
Pliny's Conversation With Trajan About The Christians
How the Romans viewed the Christians:
This correspondence between the Emperor Trajan and Pliny,
governor of Bithynia shows how Christianity had spread, and
how it was treated. in the second century AD.
PLINY'S LETTER TO TRAJAN: "It is my custom, lord emperor, to
refer to you all questions whereof I am in doubt. Who can
better guide me when I am at a stand, or enlighten me if I
am in ignorance? In investigations of Christians I have
never taken part, hence I do not know what is the crime
usually punished or investigated, or what allowances are
made. So I have had no little uncertainty whether there is
any distinction of age, or whether the very weakest
offenders are treated exactly like the stronger, whether
pardon is given to those who repent, or whether a man who
has once been a Christian gains nothing by having ceased to
be such; whether punishment attaches to the mere name apart
from secret crimes, or to the secret crimes connected with
the name. Meantime this is the course I have taken with
those who were accused before me as Christians. I asked them
whether they were Christians, and if they confessed, I asked
them a second and third time with threats of punishment. If
they kept to it, I ordered them for execution; for I held no
question that whatever It was that they admitted, in any
case obstinacy and unbending Perversity deserve to be
punished. There were others of the like insanity; but as
these were Roman citizens, I noted them down to be sent to
Rome. Before long, as is often the case, the mere fact that
the charge was taken notice of made it commoner and several
distinct cases arose. An unsigned paper was presented, which
gave the names of many. As for those who said that they
neither were nor ever had been Christians, I thought it
right to let them go, since they recited a prayer to the
gods at my dictation, made supplication with incense and
wine to your statue, which I had ordered to be brought into
court for the purpose together with images of the gods, and
moreover cursed Christ- things which (so it is said) those
who are really Christians cannot be made to do. Others who
were named by the informer said that they were Christians
and then denied it, explaining that they had been, but had
ceased to be such, some three years ago, some a good many
years, and a few even twenty. All these too worshipped your
statue and the images of the gods, and cursed Christ. They
maintained, however that the amount of their fault or error
had been this, that it was their habit on a fixed day to
assemble before daylight and recite by turns a form of words
to Christ as a god; and that they bound themselves with an
oath, not for any crime, but not to commit theft or robbery
or adultery, not to break their word, and not to deny a
deposit when demanded."
TRAJAN'S REPLY TO PLINY: "You have adopted the proper
course, my dear Secundus, in your examination of the cases
of those who were accused to you as Christians, for indeed
nothing can be laid down as a general ruling involving
something like a set form of procedure. They are not to be
sought out; but if they are accused and convicted, they must
be punished - yet on this condition, that whose denies
himself to be a Christian, and makes the fact plain by his
action, that is, by worshipping our gods, shall obtain
pardon on his repentance, however suspicious his past
conduct may be. Papers, however, which are presented
unsigned ought not to be admitted in any charge, for they
are a very Bad example and unworthy of our time."
Edwin M.
Yamauchi, "Harpers World of the New Testament" (New
York: Lion Publishing) P. 79
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