Pliny the Younger (A.D. 61-113), a
magistrate in ancient Rome, was a great writer of letters. In the year 79, he
and his mother were living in the town of Misenum at the villa of his uncle,
Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79), who oversaw the Roman fleet in the Bay of Naples.
On August 24 of that year, the two of them looked across the bay toward the
strange umbrella-like cloud that had sprouted over one of the mountains in the
distance. The elder Pliny decided it was his duty to investigate and prepared
to set sail towards the disturbance. He asked the younger Pliny if he’d like to
go along with him. Pliny the Younger, pleading the need to continue with his
studies, refused.
Sometimes a split-second decision is
the difference between life and death. Thanks to his decision to remain behind,
Pliny the Younger’s vivid account of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the
destruction of Pompeii survived, providing scientists and historians with
valuable data.
This same Pliny the Younger also
provided Christian historians with valuable data, thanks to a letter written
decades later in the year A.D. 112 when, while serving as governor of
Bithynia-Pontus, he wrote to the Emperor Trajan asking advice about the
interrogation of Christians. In his eyes, they practiced a strange faith that
was both subversive and godless.
That’s right. Followers of Jesus
were considered atheists because they did not believe in the gods that others
in the ancient world honored. Who then, did they believe in? According to
Pliny, after torturing two female deacons who were also slaves, and
interviewing former Christians who had renounced their faith under threat from
the Roman authorities, Pliny concluded that Christians indeed belonged to a
“depraved, excessive superstition.” In their favor, he admitted that they bound
themselves to an oath to not commit crimes. But they did not honor the gods of
the empire.
Most interesting to us living
centuries later, was his report to th
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