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Christian Apologists and “the Fall of the Angels”: An Attack on Roman Imperial Power?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

Justin, a philosopher converted to Christianity, addresses these words to the Roman senate as he protests a recent case of arbitrary arrest and execution of Christians. Although outraged by the verdict, he cannot fault the judge, Urbicus, praetorian prefect of Rome, and personal friend of the imperial family. Justin knows that Urbicus only followed orders in pronouncing the mandatory death sentence against those convicted of atheism as evinced by their refusal to worship the gods or to sacrifice to the divine genius of the emperor. Instead Justin invokes the story of Genesis 6—the story of the fall of the angels—to indict the whole system of imperial power, and to attack the divine pantheon that supports it as a false government, a form of demonic tyranny.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 78 , Issue 3-4 , October 1985 , pp. 301 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1985

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References

1 On the relationship between these, see Hammond, Mason, The Antonine Monarchy (Rome: American Academy, 1959) 211Google Scholar; Fergus Millar, “The Imperial Cult and the Persecutions,” and Bowersock, G. W., “Greek Intellectuals and the Imperial Cult in the Second Century A. D.,” both in Willem, den Boer, ed., Le Culte des Souverains dans l'empire romain (Geneva: Vandoevres, 1973) 147–75 and 179–211.Google Scholar

2 For an excellent and illuminating discussion of Justin and the other apologists, see Wey, Heinrich, Die Funktionen der bösen Geisten bei den griechischen Apologeten des zweiten Jahrhunderts nach Christus (Wintermur: Keller, 1957) 3–32 (on Justin).Google Scholar

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5 Cf. Tertullian Apol. 4.

6 For discussion, see n. 8.

7 See, e.g., MacMullen, Ramsay, Enemies of the Roman Order (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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10 Beaujeu, Religion, 73.

11 Ibid., 202.

12 Ibid., 325.

13 Ibid., 327.

14 MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order, 19, 36.

15 For discussion, see Beaujeu, Religion, 242–46.

16 Clement of Alexandria Prot. logos 2, 33; Tatian Or. Graec. 8, 16–17.

17 Suetonius, The Caesars, Tiberius, 44.

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25 Price's critique (ibid.) could well be applied to the much-debated—and equally anachronistic—question of whether Paul in Romans 13:5 refers to human or divine authorities. I believe he has both in mind simultaneously, since he sees them as wholly interconnected. For a review of the discussion, and a recent, typically one-sided analysis, see Carr, Wesley, Angels and Principalities: The Background, Meaning, and Development of the Pauline Phrase HAI ARCHAI KAI HAI EXOUSIAI (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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27 See Frend's, W. H. C. masterful treatment of this practice and the whole subject of persecution, in Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (New York: New York University Press, 1967) 5.Google Scholar

28 Tatian Or. Graec. 16.

29 A. D. Nock, “Religious Developments from the Close of the Republic to the Death of Nero,” CAH 489 n. 2; cited by Bowersock, “Greek Intellectuals,” 189.

30 See, e.g., Lutz, Cora E., Musonius Rufus: The Roman Socrates (YCS 10; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947) 1–147Google Scholar; Veyne, P., “La famille et l'amour sous le Haut-Empire romain,” Annales 33 (1978) 35–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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33 Hammond notes in The Antonine Monarchy, 211.

34 Lewis, Naphtali, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) 207.Google Scholar

35 De Ste. Croix, Class Struggle, 435.

36 Ibid., 439.

37 See, e.g., Tertullian Apol. 10; Minucius Felix Oct. 29.

38 De Ste. Croix, Class Struggle, 368.