Early Church on Killing: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on War, Abortion, and Capital Punishment, The
Ronald J. Sider
Number of quotes: 39
Book ID: 347 Page: 13
Section: 3A2
We cannot simply assume that the early Christians accurately understood Jesus’s teaching. But it seems plausible to suppose that Christians much closer to the time of Jesus, who lived in a (pre-Constantinian) sociopolitical setting more similar to that of Jesus than Christians living after the reign of Constantine, would be more likely to understand Jesus’s teaching on loving enemies than those who lived centuries later.
Quote ID: 7988
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 347 Page: 15
Section: 4B
Killing was widespread and acceptable in the world where the early Christian lived. Roman culture of course accepted and glorified killing by the Roman army. Capital punishment via the sword and crucifixion was also the norm. In addition, Greco-Roman culture in the first three centuries justified and accepted widespread abortion, infanticide, and suicide. And one of the most popular “sports” events of the time was the gladiatorial contests, where trained gladiators fought to the death, cheered on by thousands of spectators.
Quote ID: 7989
Time Periods: 123
Book ID: 347 Page: 21
Section: 4B
Second Clement….
In the manuscripts, it [JC: Second Clement] appears immediately after First Cement and probably dates from the first part of the second century.
….
13. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us repent immediately…For when they hear from us that God says, “It is no credit to you if you love those who love you, but it is a credit to you if you love your enemies and those who hate you,” when they hear these things, they marvel at such extraordinary goodness. But when they see that we not only do not love those who hate us but do not even love those who love us, they scornfully laugh at us, and the Name is blasphemed.{5}
Quote ID: 7990
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 24
Section: 3A2
First Apology. 16Justin Martyr
For we ought not to strive; neither has He desired us to be imitators of wicked people, but He has exhorted us to lead all people by patience and gentleness, from shame and the love of evil. And this indeed is proved in the case of many who once were of your way of thinking, but have changed their violent and tyrannical disposition.
Quote ID: 7991
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 25/26
Section: 3A2
Dialogue with TryphoPastor John’s note: by Justin Martyr
….
96. And in addition to all this we pray for you (Jews and pagans who oppose Christians), that Christ may have mercy upon you. For He taught us to pray for our enemies also, saying, “Love your enemies; be kind and merciful, as you heavenly Father is” [cf. Luke 6:35-36]. {13}
Quote ID: 7993
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 29/30
Section: 3A2
Proof of the Apostolic PreachingPastor John’s note: by Irenaeus
….
96. Therefore also we have no need of the law as pedagogue….For no more shall the law say:…thou shalt not kill, to him who has put away from himself all anger and enmity….Nor an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, to him who counts no man his enemy, but all his neighbors, and therefore cannot even put forth his hand to revenge. {21}
Quote ID: 7994
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 31
Section: 3A2
A Plea for the ChristiansAthenagoras (d.c. 185?)
For we have learned, not only not to return blow for blow, nor to go to the law with those who plunder and rob us, but to those who smite us on one side of the face to offer the other side also, and to those who take away our coat to give likewise our cloak. {22}
Quote ID: 7996
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 43
Section: 3A4C
[Tertullian] Chapter 11 of The Crown is especially relevant to this debate and shows that Tertullian’s opposition to Christians in the military went well beyond the issue of idolatry.
Quote ID: 8001
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 45
Section: 3A2
Tertullian, Apology. 31Learn from them [our sacred books] that a large benevolence is enjoined upon us, even so far as to pray to God for our enemies, and to beseech blessings on our persecutors.
Quote ID: 8002
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 45
Section: 3A2
Tertullian, Apology. 37If we are enjoined, then, to love our enemies, whom have we to hate? If injured, we are forbidden to retaliate, lest we become as bad ourselves, who can suffer injury at our hands?
Quote ID: 8003
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 48/49
Section: 3A2
Tertullian, On Patience. 10….
10. How many misfortunes has impatience of this kind been accustomed to run into! How often has it repented of its revenge! How often has its vehemence been found worse than the causes which led to it!—inasmuch as nothing undertaken with impatience can be effected without violence: nothing done with violence fails either to stumble, or else to fall altogether. {62}
Quote ID: 8004
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 49
Section: 3A1
Tertullian, On IdolatryIn earlier chapters, Tertullian discussed a wide variety of contexts that a Christian must avoid to escape idolatry. In chapter 17, he asks whether a Christian could exercise the “dignity and power” of a government official. After all, Old Testament figures served idolatrous kings without falling into idolatry. Tertullian answers by enumerating a long list of things (including imprisoning, torturing, or sitting in judgment on someone’s life—and thus by implication participating in capital punishment) that such a person must avoid. The last sentence of the chapter shows that Tertullian doubts it is possible to be a magistrate and avoid these things.
Quote ID: 8005
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 51
Section: 3A4C
Tertullian, On Idolatry. 19.But how will a Christian man war, nay, how will he serve even in peace, without a sword, which the Lord has taken away? For albeit soldiers had come unto John, and had received the formula of their rule; albeit, likewise, a centurion had believed; still the Lord afterward, in disarming Peter, unbelted every soldier.
Quote ID: 8007
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 68
Section: 2D3B,3A4C
Origen:[PJ: He does speak of the necessity of war in this world, but never explicitly says that believers should engage in it.]
But several circumstances make it highly doubtful that Origen thought Christians should ever fight wars. In almost every instance where he speaks positively about wars, he explicitly refers to non-Christians (2.30; 4.9; 7.26). In no place does he say Christians should fight wars. Origen frequently refers to an earlier time (“economy” or “constitution”) when wars were fought and contrasts that to the present time when Jesus’s followers are peaceful and love their enemies (2.30; 4.9; 5.33; 7.26). Finally, he frequently says Christians love their enemies, do not take vengeance, and do not go to war (2.30; 3.8; 5.33; 7.26; 8.35; 8.73). He even declares that if all the Romans become Christians, they “will not war at all” (8.70)[PJ: and "we do not fight under [the emperor]" (8.73)]. Christ forbade the killing of anyone (3.7).
Quote ID: 8008
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 347 Page: 101/102
Section: 3A2
Arnobius of Sicca Against the Pagans. 1.63.Do you then see that if [Christ] had determined that none should do Him violence, He should have striven to the utmost to repel His enemies, even by directing his Power against them? Could not He, then, who had restored their sight to the blind, make His enemies blind if it were necessary?
Quote ID: 8009
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 101/102
Section: 3A4C
Arnobius of Sicca Against the Pagans. 2.1.Did He ever, in claiming for Himself power as king, fill the whole world with bands of the fiercest soldiers; and of nations at peace from the beginning, did He destroy and put an end to some, and compel others to submit to His yoke and serve Him?
Quote ID: 8010
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 102/106
Section: 3A2A,3A4C
Lactantius, Divine Institutes. 5.9.For they call impious those who are certainly pious and who keep away from human blood.
Pastor John’s note: Inquisitors would not themselves spill blood.
Quote ID: 8011
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 108
Section: 3A2,3A4C
Lactantius, Divine Institutes. 5.18.A person who has the knowledge of good and evil abstains from committing an injury, even to his own damage, which an animal without reason is unable to do.... Now by these things it appears that he is the wisest person who prefers to perish rather than to commit an injury, that he may preserve that sense of duty by which he is distinguished from the dumb creation….
Quote ID: 8012
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 109
Section: 3A2,3A4C
Lactantius, Divine Institutes. 6.6.For how can a person be just who injures, who hates, who despoils, who puts to death? And they who strive to be serviceable to their country do all these things: for they are ignorant of what this being serviceable is, who think nothing useful, nothing advantageous, but that which can be held by the hand….
Whoever, then, has gained for his country these goods—as they themselves call them—that is, who by the overthrow of cities and the destruction of nations has filled the treasury with money, has taken lands and enriched his countrymen—he is extolled with praises to heaven: in him there is said to be the greatest and perfect virtue. And this is the error not only of the people who are ignorant, but also of philosophers.{167}
Quote ID: 8013
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 110
Section: 3A2,3A4C
Lactantius, Divine Institutes. 6.20.For when God forbids us to kill, He not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but He warns us against the commission of those things which are esteemed lawful among people. Thus it will be neither lawful for a just man to engage in military service, since his military service is justice itself, nor to accuse anyone of a capital charge, because it makes no difference whether you put a person to death by word, or rather by the sword, since it is the act of putting to death itself which is prohibited.
Quote ID: 8014
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 111/112
Section: 2E6
On the Death of the Persecutors….
10. Diocletian, as being of a timorous disposition, was a searcher into futurity, and during his abode in the East he began to slay victims, that from their livers he might obtain a prognostic of events; and while he sacrificed, some attendants of his, who were Christians, stood by and they put the immortal sign on their foreheads. At this the demons were chased away and the holy rites interrupted.
….
Then Diocletian, in furious passion, ordered not only all who were assisting at the holy ceremonies, but also all who resided within the palace, to sacrifice, and, in case of their refusal, to be scourged. And further, by letters to the commanding officers, he enjoined that all soldiers should be forced to the like impiety, under pain of being dismissed from the service.{172}
Quote ID: 8015
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 115
Section: 3A2,3A4C
Lactantius, Epitome of the Divine Institutes. 64.It is an old precept not to kill, which ought not to be taken ... as though we are commanded to abstain only from homicide, which is punished even by public laws. But by the intervention of this command, it will not be permitted us to apply peril of death by word, nor to put to death or expose an infant, nor to condemn one’s self by a voluntary death.
Quote ID: 8017
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 129/130/131
Section: 2E6
The Infancy Gospel of ThomasPastor John notes: John’s note: Crass Mythology
By the end of the fourth century, it was known in Cyprus, Egypt, and Italy. The numerous translations suggest, according to Hennecke-Schneemelcher (Apocrypha, 1:392) that it “enjoyed a wide popularity.”
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Ha!
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3:2. Seeing what had happened, Jesus said to him: “Your fruit (shall be) without root and your shoot dried up like a branch carried out by a strong wind.”
3. And immediately that child withered.
4:1 While he was going from there with his father Joseph, someone running bumped into his shoulder. And Jesus said to him: “Cursed be your ruling faculty.” And immediately he died.
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13:1 And Joseph seeing his way of thinking and sensible mind was unwilling for him to be unacquainted with letters. And he handed him over to another teacher. And the teacher, writing for him the alphabet, would say: “Say, alpha.”
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2. But the boy said: “First you say to me what is the beta and I will tell you what is the alpha.” And the teacher became irritated and hit him. And Jesus cursed him and the teacher fell and died.{2}
Quote ID: 8023
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 347 Page: 131
Section: 3A1
Paul of Samosata was bishop of Antioch from about AD 261 to 268. Our primary source is Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 7.29-30), who says that Paul had a bodyguard, preferred to be called a ducenarius, and was deposed as a heretic. A ducenarius was a highly paid official in a Roman province who would likely have had a bodyguard. Paul may have held this government position, but since Eusebius is the primary source for this information, we cannot know.
Quote ID: 8024
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 347 Page: 137
Section: 3A4C
In approximately AD 173, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor from 161-80, and his troops experienced a “miraculous” victory over a vastly larger army of German invaders near the Danube River. {1} Much about the incident is uncertain. But credible Christian and Roman sources tell of an unexpected rainstorm and thunderstorm that saved the exhausted, thirst-stricken, vastly outnumbered Roman army. We have even discovered a column erected in Rome sometime after AD 176 that depicts the miraculous weather. An unexpected victory, aided by astonishing weather, must have occurred.Whereas the Roman sources attribute the miracle to pagan gods, almost all Christian writers say the miracle was the result of the prayers of Christian soldiers in the emperor’s army. Two of these Christian sources (Tertullian and Apollinarius) are dated within twenty-five years of the event.
Quote ID: 8025
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 142
Section: 3A4C
Dio’s Roman HistoryCassius Dio Cocceianus was born about AD 160 into a prominent family in Bithynia (part of present-day Turkey). He came to Rome about 180, occupied several important positions, and became a friend of the emperor. From approximately 200-222, he worked on his most famous publication, Roman History. Since he was in Rome for some years less than a decade after the famous rainstorm, his report merits careful attention.
Interestingly, Dio attributes the “miraculous” rain to an Egyptian magician and the god Mercury and says nothing about Christian prayers or Christian soldiers.
Quote ID: 8026
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 143/144
Section: 3A4C
Historia AugustaThis set of biographies of the emperors comes from the hands of six different authors. Some may have been written as early as 293 and others as late as 324. The biography of Marcus Antoninus has only one sentence on the famous rain, which this author attributes to the prayers of Marcus (Magie, Historiae Augustae, 1:xi).
24. By his prayers he summoned a thunderbolt from heaven against a war-engine of the enemy, and successfully besought rain for his men when they were suffering from thirst. {9}= (Magie, Historiae Augustae, 1:193).
Quote ID: 8027
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 144
Section: 3A4C
Emperor Marcus Aurelius’s ColumnThe final evidence about this rainstorm is a column of the emperor erected soon after AD 176.{10} One scene depicts rain flowing from the hands of the god Jupiter Pluvius. Two scenes before this, there is a depiction of a lightning bolt destroying an enemy siege tower. The emperor is shown on bended knee praying and the column credits the lightning bolt to his prayer (Helgeland, “Roman Army,” 769).
Quote ID: 8028
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 149/150
Section: 2D3B,3A4C
Epitaphs of Christian soldiersInscriptions on the tombstones of Christian soldiers provide solid evidence of Christians in the Roman army. But the number of such epitaphs that are clearly pre-Constantinian and clearly indicate that the soldier was a Christian is very small.
Epitaph of Marcus Julius Eugenius [PJ: dictated before his death]
"...when a command had meanwhile gone forth in the time of Maximinus [PJ: Maxaminus Daia - 313] that Christians should offer sacrifice and not quit the service, having endured very many tortures under Diogenes governor (of Pisidia) and having contrived to quit the service, maintaining the faith of the Christians; and having spent a short time in the city of the Laodiceans; and having been made bishop by the will of Almighty God; and having administered the episcopate for 25 full years with great distinction; and having rebuilt from its foundations the entire church and all the adornment around it, consisting of stoai and tetrastoa and paintings and mosaics and fountain and outer gateway; and having furnished it with all construction in masonry and, in a word, with everything; and being about to leave the life of this world; I made for myself a plinth and sarcophagus on which I caused the above to be engraved, for the distinction of the church and of my family."
Quote ID: 8029
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 347 Page: 151
Section: 3A4C
Military MartyrsFrom a number of different sources, it is clear that the number of Christians in the Roman army increased significantly in the latter half of the third century. Since pagan worship, especially sacrifice to the emperor, was an important part of army life, it is not entirely clear how these Christian soldiers managed their dual loyalties. Perhaps Tertullian’s comment (On Idolatry 19) that the rank and file soldier did not need to sacrifice helps to explain the situation.
Quote ID: 8030
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 347 Page: 163
Section: 3A4C
Bainton says; “The age of persecution down to the time of Constantine was the age of pacifism to the degree that during this period, no Christian author to our knowledge approved of Christian participation in battle.”{2} Bainton and Cadoux clearly acknowledge that beginning in the later second century, there were at least a few Christians who served in the Roman army and that their numbers increased in the third century. Although sources do not allow an accurate assessment of the number of Christian soldiers, they probably represented a reasonably small number.
Quote ID: 8031
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 347 Page: 167
Section: 3A2A,3A4C
In his treatise On Idolatry, Tertullian asks whether a Christian can be a government official. He responds by listing a large number of activities, including pagan sacrifices, which such a person must avoid. One of these includes “sitting in judgment on anyone’s life” [PJ: Idolatry 17] – that is, a Christian dare not participate in ordering capital punishment. Two chapters later, Tertullian asks whether a Christian can serve in the military even at a low rank, where “there is no necessity for taking part in pagan sacrifices or capital punishment.”[PJ: Idolatry 19] Tertullian clearly means to say that a Christian dare not participate in either pagan worship or capital punishment.
Quote ID: 8032
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 347 Page: 167
Section: 3A2A,3A4C
In his response to Celsus, Origen distinguishes sharply between the “constitution” given to the Jews by Moses and that given to Christians by Christ. Under Moses’s law, the Jews could kill enemies and use capital punishment. But Christ’s gospel is different: Christians cannot “slay their enemies or condemn to be burned or stoned.” [PJ:Against Celsus, 7:26] Christians must not use capital punishment.
Quote ID: 8033
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 347 Page: 168
Section: 3A2A
The extant pre-Constantinian Christian comments on capital punishment that clearly refer to what Christians should or should not do, all say that Christians must not participate in capital punishment; it involves killing a person and Christians do not do that.
Quote ID: 8034
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 347 Page: 168
Section: 3A2A
Nine different Christian writers in sixteen different treatises say that killing is wrong.[PJ: Athenagoras, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Origen, Cyprian, Archelaus, Arnobius, Lactantius, and The Apostolic Tradition] No extant Christian writing before Constantine argues that there is any circumstance under which a Christian may kill.
Quote ID: 8035
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 347 Page: 185
Section: 3A4C
Alongside the teachings of the pre-Constantinian Christian authors, we must place the evidence of Christians in the army. Here our evidence is very spotty; we cannot arrive at anything like a precise number. But from at least AD 173, we have clear evidence that at least a few Christians served in the Roman army.
Quote ID: 8037
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 347 Page: 190
Section: 3A2A,3A4C
Up until the time of Constantine, there is not a single Christian writer known to us who says that it is legitimate for Christians to kill or join the military.
Quote ID: 8038
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 347 Page: 193
Section: 3A4C
There is an obvious disconnect between the unanimous teaching of all extant Christian writers who state that killing is wrong, and the clear evidence that more and more Christians were in the army. Lactantius pens one of the most explicit, sweeping rejections of any type of killing by Christians, and he writes it in the first decade of the fourth century when the evidence is quite clear that substantial numbers of Christians are fighting in military battles. How to understand this disconnect is unclear.
Quote ID: 8039
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 347 Page: 194/195
Section: 3A2A,3A4C
What we can say with confidence is that every extant Christian statement on killing and war up until the time of Constantine says Christians must not kill, even in war. That a growing number of Christians, especially in the late third and early fourth centuries, acted contrary to that teaching is also clear. Whether in doing so they were following other Christian teachers and leaders who justified their conduct, we cannot say with certainty. But we have absolutely no evidence to support the suggestion that such teachers ever existed until the time of Constantine. Any claim that they did is sheer speculation.
Quote ID: 8040
Time Periods: ?
End of quotes