What was the reason behind the persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire Around the 2nd century?

Question

I just dont understand why the Christians were persecuted,
And what religion were the persecuters ( The Romans) when this was happening?

Answers much appreicated. Thank you

Thank you guys so much for all your quick answers it helps alot. I wish i could pick more than 1 best answers.

Answer 1

It is believed that the Roman people initiated the persecution of the Christians in the early Roman Empire because they were very superstitious. Roman religion was based largely on sacrifices and superstitious cult activities. They believed that participation in these activities would bring good luck and favor of the gods, but by not participating in these cult acts would adversely affect the Roman people in the way of divine intervention and punishment. Because the Christians refused to worship or sacrifice, they were persecuted by the Roman people. They believed that the Christians were the responsible for natural disasters. The Christians openly defied the Roman gods; Christians became the ultimate scapegoats.

Answer 2

The Romans thought the Christians were a revolutionary group. Christians didn't worship their gods and goddesses of idols and Jesus Christ made an impression on Pilot and Herod. These two evil rulers heard of Jesus' miracles, but to please the High Priest Caiaphas and to pacify the evil Pharisees (Temple Priests) Christians were persecuted. The Pharisees disliked the rural people who did not rigidly observe the law and traditions. Jesus was pretty well indifferent to their law and traditions. The Herodian Jews and the Zealots were Jews at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Herodians had influence and standing and the Zealots were determined to resist Rome at any cost. The ministry of Jesus was largely to the common people who were rejected by both Pharisee and Essene and Sadducee.
Christians were not liked by their own people whether Jew or Gentile or Roman.

Answer 3

Because they followed the *true as such,* *the good as such,* and *justice as such* - as embodied in Jesus Christ|


There ethic was to do good to others, to help others in need, and to always act with integrity, and to render everyone their due|

This was diametrically opposed to the pagan Roman ethic of the time in which all politics was cutthroat gain the advantage on the other, deception to get your own way, and material gain at the expense of others|

Such a Christian ethic was a reproach to the false and evil ethic of the Romans| That is why why were violently persecuted|


They were also persecuted for insisting that there is only one way that necessarily excludes others (adhering to the rational principle of non-contradiction), rather than buy into a *tolerance* which held that all beliefs were equally valid| The Roman authorities had no problem with Christianity - since it was simply one of many religions in the empire - as long as they did not insist on any pre-eminence or superiority of it over other systems| Of course Christians were put to the test on this to see if they would sacrifice to other gods, under pain of torture or death| That was the tolerant "justice" of the Romans of that time|




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Answer 4

One of the reasons could have been that Christians were Jewish, and Gentile Christians belonged to a Jewish sect.

Possibly the worst years in Jewish history were from about 60-70 AD when between 25-33% of them were wiped out of existence. This is a lower percentage than European Jews during 1941-1945, but the Roman period represented a higher percentage world-wide.

There were between 7-8 million Jews in the Roman Empire and some few hundreds of thousands in Iran and India--10 million total at the most worldwide.

In 70 AD, at least 2 million died in Jerusalem alone. Between 60-70 AD, thousands died in Romes advance through Galilee and Judea. Josephus reports that in the years of the Roman war against the Jews, Jewish neighborhoods all over the world were experiencing anti-Semitism. He gives actual numbers for those killed in Antioch, Damascus, Ceaserea, Alexandria, Cyrene, Rome, and Tarsus, all of them in thousands or tens of thousands.

(The anti-Semitism in Ceaserea was likely the cause of the war with events in the late 50s.)

Violence between Jews and Romans continued until the Bar Kochba rebellion in the early 2nd century.

It's unclear to me how many non-Jewish, non-Christian people knew the difference between Christians and Jews at that time.

Answer 5

christians were persecuted because they challenged traditional beliefs (and then they persecuted everyone for having their own beliefs, hypocrites) and those beliefs would lessen the power of the emperor. Also, the main system of rome was slavery and sport, which the christians were against. They would undermine the entire system. Third, the christians were openly gathering support for rebellion, which eventually lead to the fall of rome.
The romans were polytheists, they believed in jupiter, venus, pluto, neptune, and many more of the greek style gods.

Answer 6

If you want my credentials, I am a third year ancient history major going for masters student.

At that time (The 2nd to 4th centuries which were the times of the 5 bad emporers and the fall of Rome) Christianity was just another of the thousands of cult-religions in Rome, having as much credit as we put into scientology today. However, Christianity became a problem because it defied secular power (the Ceasar) and encouraged people to follow Jesus, not the Ceasar, making them an easy scapegoat. After the great fire of Rome, Nero (The current Emporer) had much civic pressure on him to find out why the fire started. Nero immediately blamed the Christians and had hundreds of days of games, sacrificing them as traitors to Rome. It's easy to hate someone, it unites people, and in Rome, they had chosen Christianity.

Answer 7

The Romans had established pagan state religions so Christians were unpopular because of that but generally they were regarded as subversives who were seeking to set their God above the divine Emperor so they were persecuted above all just for being potential trouble makers.

Answer 8

During the reign of Domitian (late 1st Century) the Roman Empire demanded the worship of the emperor. Since the Christians refused that and since they were growing as they were, the government decided to try to put them down.

It obviously didn't work.
.

Answer 9

The Roman Emperor had declared himself a god, and that meant he demanded worship from his subjects. Since Christians refuse to worship Pagan gods, they were breaking the law. People who break laws suffer consequences. We call it persecution today, but anti-abortion extremists do the same today, and get jailed for it, too.

Answer 10

they have been placed to death for being christians, this transformation into at that ingredient of actual christianity, considering that 325AD pretend christianity replace into born, worldly doctrine of common paganism. from that date till now the words of the e book have been sealed because of the fact the israelites had to pass contained in the direction of the prophecies of captivity and stop from their historical past, whilst they're called from the 4 corners of the earth will carry returned the actual christianity returned, and could coach the actual doctrine of jesus in spirit and actuality.