Lecture 7: The Unpopular Cult—Persecution
o Even when a cult enjoyed imperial recognition or official
favor, it could be the target of local resentment and harassment.
Ancient people were no less prone than we are to fear and
resent that which is strange.• Two examples preceding Christianity show such premises at work
and help explain the subsequent experience of Christ-believers
when they became sufficiently numerous to be noticed by outsiders.
o Although Judaism was granted imperial recognition as a national
religion—and reciprocated by offering sacrifices and prayers for
the emperor—there are instances of its being persecuted.o For example, the Maccabean books show that resistance to
syncretism under Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Palestine led to
executions, most famously that of the aged Eleazar and of the
seven Maccabean brothers with their mother. Philo tells us
of anti-Semitism in Alexandria that expressed itself in local
riots against the Jews, requiring an appeal to the emperor
for assistance.o Even among non-Jews, philosophers who challenged traditional
beliefs or who withdrew from religious practices, such as
the Epicureans, were suspected of subversion. Individual
philosophers who challenged social mores or popular religious
tenets were sometimes put to death (Socrates and Zeno) or
exiled (Dio of Prusa, Epictetus, Seneca) as “enemies of the
Roman order.”Early Christian Vulnerabilities
• In its first centuries of its existence, Christianity was particularly
vulnerable to attack from both Jews and Gentiles. It was
sociologically underdetermined and ideologically oppositional.
o As an intentional community, the Christian cult drew from both
Jews and Greeks but had no secure place in the world. It did not
meet in established temples or synagogues but in households.