The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God Book 1)

by N.T. Wright

We now have an initial series of fixed historical points, largely owed to non-Christian report, all involving non-Christian action: 30 Jesus’ crucifixion 49 Claudius’ expulsion of Jews from Rome because of Christian disturbances 49–51 Paul in Corinth; some time later, in Ephesus 62 Killing of James in Jerusalem 64 Nero’s persecution after the fire of Rome 70 Fall of Jerusalem c.90 Domitian’s investigation of Jesus’ relatives c.110–14 Pliny’s persecutions in Bithynia c.110–17 Ignatius’ letters and martyrdom 155/6 Martyrdom of Polycarp These events form a chain stretching across a century in which, time after time, the Roman authorities found the Christians (as they found the Jews) a social and political threat or nuisance, and took action against them. The Christians, meanwhile, do not seem to have taken refuge in the defence that they were merely a private club for the advancement of personal piety. They continued to proclaim their allegiance to a Christ who was a ‘king’ in a sense which precluded allegiance to Caesar, even if his kingdom was not to be conceived on the model of Caesar’s. This strange belief, so Jewish and yet so non-Jewish (since it led the Christians to defend no city, adhere to no Mosaic code, circumcise no male children) was, as we shall see, a central characteristic of the whole movement, and as such a vital key to its character.