In the Beginning was the Blog

I’m not a Filthy Christian

I had to give back the early church history book I was neglecting as we have moved interstate. As you may know, this blog is also severly neglected. More on that later. I’ll quickly note here some other chapters I covered.

In a climate where it was becoming more and more life threatening to be a Christian, it was no wonder that people didn’t want to be mistaken for one. One or the chapters I read covered some cases of mistaken identity where Jews were confused with Christians and how this may have motivated a stronger split between Judaism and Christianity.

Also as laws against Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, there was confusion about how to punish this crime: execution? Make them sacrifice to the Roman gods and recant their faith? Jail? Or just a simple flogging. Various letters between head office and the outposts were looked at in this chapter.

Finally, a chapter looked at a place of sanctuary for Christians which was ironically in the emperor’s staff. Apparently Christians were often well educated so were useful as public servants and the world of the emperors palace was fairly isolated from the public so could afford to bend the rules a bit. The only downside was an occasional purge of Christians from the staff.

So here ends my blogging on McKechnie’s book. I’ll post again on my future plans for this blog.