1. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 16.165 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 16.165. And I give order that the testimonial which they have given me, on account of my regard to that piety which I exercise toward all mankind, and out of regard to Caius Marcus Censorinus, together with the present decree, be proposed in that most eminent place which hath been consecrated to me by the community of Asia at Ancyra. And if any one transgress any part of what is above decreed, he shall be severely punished.” This was inscribed upon a pillar in the temple of Caesar. |
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2. New Testament, 1 Thessalonians, 1.1, 2.16, 4.3, 4.6, 5.1-5.10 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2.16. forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost. 4.3. For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality 4.6. that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. 5.1. But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. 5.2. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 5.3. For when they are saying, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregt woman; and they will in no way escape. 5.4. But you, brothers, aren't in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. 5.5. You are all sons of light, and sons of the day. We don't belong to the night, nor to darkness 5.6. so then let's not sleep, as the rest do, but let's watch and be sober. 5.7. For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken are drunken in the night. 5.8. But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 5.9. For God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ 5.10. who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. |
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3. New Testament, Matthew, 23.34 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 23.34. Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; |
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4. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 8 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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5. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.117 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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6. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.117 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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7. Tertullian, To Scapula, 3 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 3. However, as we have already remarked, it cannot but distress us that no state shall bear unpunished the guilt of shedding Christian blood; as you see, indeed, in what took place during the presidency of Hilarian, for when there had been some agitation about places of sepulture for our dead, and the cry arose, No are - no burial-grounds for the Christians, it came that their own are, their threshing-floors, were a-wanting, for they gathered in no harvests. As to the rains of the bygone year, it is abundantly plain of what they were intended to remind men - of the deluge, no doubt, which in ancient times overtook human unbelief and wickedness; and as to the fires which lately hung all night over the walls of Carthage, they who saw them know what they threatened; and what the preceding thunders pealed, they who were hardened by them can tell. All these things are signs of God's impending wrath, which we must needs publish and proclaim in every possible way; and in the meanwhile we must pray it may be only local. Sure are they to experience it one day in its universal and final form, who interpret otherwise these samples of it. That sun, too, in the metropolis of Utica, with light all but extinguished, was a portent which could not have occurred from an ordinary eclipse, situated as the lord of day was in his height and house. You have the astrologers, consult them about it. We can point you also to the deaths of some provincial rulers, who in their last hours had painful memories of their sin in persecuting the followers of Christ. Vigellius Saturninus, who first here used the sword against us, lost his eyesight. Claudius Lucius Herminianus in Cappadocia, enraged that his wife had become a Christian, had treated the Christians with great cruelty: well, left alone in his palace, suffering under a contagious malady, he boiled out in living worms, and was heard exclaiming, Let nobody know of it, lest the Christians rejoice, and Christian wives take encouragement. Afterwards he came to see his error in having tempted so many from their steadfastness by the tortures he inflicted, and died almost a Christian himself. In that doom which overtook Byzantium, C cilius Capella could not help crying out, Christians, rejoice! Yes, and the persecutors who seem to themselves to have acted with impunity shall not escape the day of judgment. For you we sincerely wish it may prove to have been a warning only, that, immediately after you had condemned Mavilus of Adrumetum to the wild beasts, you were overtaken by those troubles, and that even now for the same reason you are called to a blood-reckoning. But do not forget the future. |
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8. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 4.9.1-4.9.3, 9.7.3, 9.7.8-9.7.9 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 4.9.1. To Minucius Fundanus. I have received an epistle, written to me by Serennius Granianus, a most illustrious man, whom you have succeeded. It does not seem right to me that the matter should be passed by without examination, lest the men be harassed and opportunity be given to the informers for practicing villainy. 4.9.2. If, therefore, the inhabitants of the province can clearly sustain this petition against the Christians so as to give answer in a court of law, let them pursue this course alone, but let them not have resort to men's petitions and outcries. For it is far more proper, if any one wishes to make an accusation, that you should examine into it. 4.9.3. If any one therefore accuses them and shows that they are doing anything contrary to the laws, do you pass judgment according to the heinousness of the crime. But, by Hercules! If any one bring an accusation through mere calumny, decide in regard to his criminality, and see to it that you inflict punishment.Such are the contents of Hadrian's rescript. 9.7.3. Now at length the feeble power of the human mind has become able to shake off and to scatter every dark mist of error, which before this besieged the senses of men, who were more miserable than impious, and enveloped them in dark and destructive ignorance; and to perceive that it is governed and established by the beneficent providence of the immortal gods. 9.7.8. For who can be found so ignorant or so devoid of all understanding as not to perceive that it is due to the kindly care of the gods that the earth does not refuse the seed sown in it, nor disappoint the hope of the husbandmen with vain expectation; that impious war is not inevitably fixed upon earth, and wasted bodies dragged down to death under the influence of a corrupted atmosphere; that the sea is not swollen and raised on high by blasts of intemperate winds; that unexpected hurricanes do not burst forth and stir up the destructive tempest; moreover, that the earth, the nourisher and mother of all, is not shaken from its lowest depths with a terrible tremor, and that the mountains upon it do not sink into the opening chasms. No one is ignorant that all these, and evils still worse than these, have oftentimes happened hitherto. 9.7.9. And all these misfortunes have taken place on account of the destructive error of the empty vanity of those impious men, when it prevailed in their souls, and, we may almost say, weighed down the whole world with shame. |
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9. Lactantius, Deaths of The Persecutors, 34 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
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10. Theodosius Ii Emperor of Rome, Theodosian Code, 9.16.6 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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11. Epigraphy, Ogis, 569, 458
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