The Church In The Roman Empire Before A.D. 170

The Church in the Roman Empire Before A.D. 170 is William M. Ramsay’s archaeological and historical reconstruction of early Christianity from Paul’s missionary work in Asia Minor through the church’s changing relationship with Roman government during the first and second centuries. The book is divided into two large movements. The first follows Paul’s journeys and the Acts narrative in the geography, roads, cities, and provincial organization of Asia Minor. The second traces Roman policy toward Christians from Nero through the Flavian emperors, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, using Roman sources and early Christian writings to explain persecution, legal procedure, and the development of the church.

Acts forms the principal biblical framework for the first half. Ramsay studies the localities of Paul and Barnabas’s first journey, including Pamphylia, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and tests the narrative against the geography and political divisions of the region. Acts 13–14 therefore receives sustained historical treatment. He then follows the second and third journeys, paying attention to routes, provincial terminology, travel conditions, and the way Luke describes movement through Asia Minor. A major chapter on Paul at Ephesus examines Acts 19, Demetrius, the temple and cult of Artemis, civic officials, silver shrines, and the historical character of Luke’s account.

Galatians receives a separate substantial study because Ramsay uses Paul’s letter in reconstructing the identity of the Galatian churches. He develops the debate between the North Galatian and South Galatian theories and connects the letter with the congregations founded during the first missionary journey. The relationship between Acts and Galatians is therefore an important part of his reconstruction of Paul’s movements and early church geography.

The second half shifts from missionary travel to church-state relations. Ramsay studies Pliny’s report to Trajan and Trajan’s rescript in order to explain Roman legal procedure toward Christians. He then examines Nero’s action against Christians, the development of the charge attached to the Christian name, the Flavian policy under Vespasian and Domitian, and the political character of imperial persecution. Rather than treating persecution as an undifferentiated phenomenon, he traces changes in policy and asks when Christianity became subject to official punishment simply for being Christianity.

Early Christian writings become historical evidence for this period. First Peter receives substantial treatment in relation to official persecution and the dating of the epistle. Revelation is examined as evidence for the conflict between church and empire during the Flavian period, including the suffering of the churches and the opposition between Christian allegiance and imperial power. Ramsay also considers 1 John, Hebrews, Clement, and Ignatius as witnesses to the changing life and organization of the church.

The later chapters continue through Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius and examine the causes and extent of persecution. The Acts of Paul and Thecla receives a long historical and geographical analysis, including Iconium, Antioch, local traditions, and the development of the Thecla narrative. Ramsay then considers the church from approximately A.D. 120 to 170, followed by studies of Glycerius the deacon and the miracle tradition at Khonai.

The book addresses readers asking how accurately Acts describes Asia Minor, where Paul’s Galatian churches were located, what the Ephesian riot reveals about Roman civic life, why the Roman state persecuted Christians, how persecution changed from Nero to Trajan and the Antonines, and what early Christian writings reveal about the church before A.D. 170. Its strongest search value lies in Acts, Paul’s missions in Asia Minor, early church history in the Roman Empire, and the legal and political history of Roman persecution.