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As will be explored in depth on another occasion, the great, first-century CE Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the 90s CE, makes no mention of any Christians, although centuries later Christians deftly inserted into his work a pair of fabricated references that purported to mention Jesus. Consequently, if we can surmise that Christianity had not yet surfaced during Josephus’ own lifetime, another, crucial primary document–the 112 CE correspondence conducted between Roman Emperor Trajan and one of his provincial governors, Pliny the Younger–serves as the first authentic evidence of the existence of the Christian sect. And since these specific Trajan/Pliny letters indicates that Christianity had already been an ongoing enterprise, Mark’s gospel must have been published sometime during this brief window of opportunity.
Although subsequent Christian lore related stories of early Believers having been devoured by wild animals in the Roman arena at the behest of the deranged Emperor Nero back during the 60s CE, five decades later Trojan and Pliny exhibit no institutional memory of the alleged Roman persecution of the Christians. As the story goes, Nero had blamed the Christians for the 64 CE Great Fire that had engulfed parts of Rome as a means of deflecting blame for Nero’s own lackluster relief efforts to alleviate the suffering of the city’s populace. Josephus himself, who had visited Rome personally during this period, never referenced Nero’s supposed efforts to blame the Christians. And Governor Pliny the Younger’s own uncle (Pliny the Elder) had been in Rome at this time and had been an on-spot witness to the city’s reconstruction – again without apparently passing along to his nephew any first-hand tidbits about the Christians. (And as will explored elsewhere, Josephus’ own father Matthias had similarly been in an excellent position to have passed along first-hand knowledge concerning Jesus and the early Church, if they had actually existed in the early-to-mid first century CE.) In passing, Pliny the Elder, one of ancient Rome’s most-celebrated intellectuals, perished in 79 CE during the Mount-Vesuvius volcanic eruption.
Roman ignorance of this baffling new sect is surely striking since the Romans had maintained the most sophisticated intelligence gathering network in the ancient world along with an extensive bureaucratic record-keeping system. In addition, for the ancient world, a surprisingly high number of people could read and write–at least at a basic level. Then too, we have copies of other Trajan/Pliny letters from this period that underscore the Roman Emperor’s great attention to minute administrative details. Besides, from personal experience, both Trajan and Pliny had extensive knowledge of the Holy Land. Aside from serving as a high-ranking counselor to several Roman emperors, Pliny the Younger had traveled widely throughout the empire, including a residence in Syria–a supposed hotbed of early Christian missionary activity. Then too Trajan’s father had been singled out by Josephus for his exemplary military service in Vespasian’s army that had subdued the Jewish Rebellion of 66-73 CE. Later (73-74 CE) Trajan’s father had served as Governor of Syria–again a place allegedly teeming with Christians. And speaking of knowledge transmission between generations as per Matthias/Josephus and Uncle/Nephew Pliny, since Emperor Trajan’s father had fought with distinction during the 66 CE Jewish War he would surely have encountered Christians–again if any such congregants had existed at that time.
At any rate, from the 112 CE Trajan/Pliny correspondence, we glean several, additional interesting facts about the first Christians. There must have been two distinct Christian sects in existence at a very early date. The first, which might be dubbed “Mainstream Christianity,” laid the groundwork for what soon became the familiar, historic Catholic church. The second, known as the Marcionites, appeared as an immediate counter to the original group and was established as the result of a deliberate, multi-faceted campaign launched by the Jews to discredit the new faith that had been peddling many blatantly anti-Jewish themes, such as the Jews having “killed Christ.” And reading the Trajan/Pliny exchange, one can gather that the ill-informed Roman authorities had seriously confused these two, rival Christian sects.
The Mainstream branch had instituted an extremely un-Jewish mealtime ritual– the Eucharist–where celebrants consumed bread and wine that represented the body and blood of Christ–as per the Last Supper. The unwarranted rumors of cannibalism must have spread. For as Pliny reported to his emperor, after investigating Christian dining habits, the governor concluded that the “food,…was of no special character and quite harmless,…” Then too, in order to ascertain more information about Christian practices, Pliny interrogated (employing torture) “two women, who were called deaconesses” but found nothing either alarming nor offensive. To the intense disgust of Mainstream Christians, the rival Marcionites did, in fact, encourage women to play a conspicuous role in church worship services, unlike the Mainstream group that discouraged significant female participation. In addition, Pliny had been willing to pardon Christians who had genuinely recanted. But some congregants chose instead to die for their faith.
However, it fell to the Marcionites to embrace martyrdom while the Mainstream sect lagged well behind in this regard and only later (and perhaps reluctantly) embraced the idea of a heroic Christian death. For although Jesus Christ himself had purportedly died a martyr’s death by crucifixion courtesy of the unwitting Romans–an unfortunate event supposedly arranged courtesy of Jewish connivance–nothing in Acts (the supposed chronicle of the Church in the aftermath of Jesus’ passing) suggest wholesale Roman persecutions. In fact, in Acts the Romans are invariably portrayed as sympathetic to the new sect–often protecting the Christians from Jewish wrath. Instead, as the Trajan/Pliny correspondence suggests, it had been the Marcionites who had been the first to challenge the Roman imperial authorities and, as such, had first actively welcomed martyrdom. Consequently, the “trials of Christians” alluded to by Pliny must have involved primarily the Marcionite congregants with Mainstream Christians incidentally ensnared in the Roman dragnet.
Finally, under duress some interrogated individuals had initially “said that they were Christians and afterwards denied it, declaring that they had been but were so no longer, some of them having recanted many years before, and more than one so long as twenty years back.” This extracted confession cannot have been correct. For no evidence exists that would place the existence of any Christian sect back to the early 90s CE. In addition, neither Trajan nor Pliny mentioned in their correspondence that Christianity had been a renegade offshoot of Judaism–itself a troublesome sect of which these Roman authorities had been well acquainted. For since the days of Julius Caesar, Roman authorities had recognized Judaism as a legitimate faith and had granted the sect an exemption, whereby the strict-monotheist Jews had agreed to pray for the health and well being of the emperor without having to worship him as a quasi-deity. However, nothing in the 112 CE Trajan/Pliny exchange mentioned that Christians should enjoy a protected, legal status stemming from any association with Judaism. After an investigation, Pliny’s description of Christianity as “nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition” indicates no association with Judaism–a sect of which the Romans had excellent, first-hand experience. Noting from their limited perspective that the examined Christians had “worshiped {Christ} as a God” would automatically have served to place the curious new sect outside the well-known, strictly Jewish monotheist orbit.
God” would automatically have served to place the curious new sect outside the well-known, strictly Jewish monotheist orbit.
Besides, the normally suspicious Romans had passed laws against what would be deemed “unlawful assembly” out of fear that large-group events might reflect budding conspiracies directed against Roman rule. In Pliny’s letter, the governor mentioned “my edict by which, in accordance with your {Emperor Trajan’s} instructions, I had forbidden political associations.” However, with their long history of massive gatherings in Jerusalem to celebrate the traditional Passover holiday, the Jews were largely exempt. Had the Romans viewed Christianity as a Jewish product protected under the Jewish umbrella, the new sect would have likely been granted an exemption from excessive Roman scrutiny. Pliny even expressed ignorance regarding the “trials” to which the Christians had been subjected of late: “I have never before participated in trials of Christians, so I do not know what offenses are to be punished or investigated, or to what extent.”