While many accounts of early Christianity see the early Church as a pacifist movement, closely following Jesus’ non-retaliatory teaching, this chapter argues that there is a more ambiguous relationship to violence in the first three centuries of the Christian movement, including military service. Aside from the violent rhetoric in the eschatological parables of Jesus, Christians appropriated the violence of the Hebrew Bible to shape negative views of outsiders, which in turn prepared the way from actualised violence in the post-Constantine era.

Introduction

Until quite recent times, it could be held with confidence that the one thing people knew, or at least thought they knew, about the early Christians was that they were persecuted. Children would gather round pictures of Christians in the arena about to be eaten by lions, and Sunday-school teachers would encourage them to admire the bravery of the martyrs. Films such as Quo Vadis? (1951) and The Robe (1953) reinforced the popular view that from the outset, Christians were both hated and hunted by the Romans, and lived in constant fear of being sentenced to death in the arena. From the early persecutions of Paul (1 Cor 15:9–10; Gal 1:13–14; Phil 3:6; cf. Acts 9:1) to the pogrom in Nero's Rome (Tacitus, Ann. 15.44), Christians experienced what they perceived to be persecution. Indeed, in their writings, they presented themselves as a suffering community, facing intolerance and misunderstanding from Jew and Gentile alike, to the extent that in Acts the Jewish community in Rome is made to declare of early Christianity, “we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect” (Acts 28:22).

However, while this sketch may still represent popular views of early Christianity, historians generally recognise that while members of the early church undoubtedly did face some harassment, there was no empire-wide policy against Christianity until well into the third century, and even then, these were short lived. Where Christians experienced persecution, it tended to be localised, sporadic, and random, and resulted from pockets of prejudice rather than any official imperial interest in the church.

If we see those who take at face value the deuteropauline claim that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12) as representing a “maximalist” view of persecution, then, in direct contrast, what might be termed a “minimalist” account is gaining popularity among scholars.

On the night of Tuesday, 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty-one year old political science student at the University of Wyoming, met two other men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, in the Fireside Bar in Laramie, Wyoming. After offering him a ride in their car, they robbed Shepard, drove him to the outskirts of town, and tied him to a fence. There, McKinney brutally beat him with a .357 Magnum around the head as Henderson watched. They left him, still tied to the fence, bleeding profusely in freezing temperatures. He was found by chance some eighteen hours later by a passing cyclist, who at first mistook him for a scarecrow. Shepard sustained massive injuries including a crushed skull, and was rushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. However, his injuries were too severe to treat, and he never regained consciousness. In the early hours of Monday, 12 October 1998, seven weeks short of his twenty-second birthday, Matthew Shepard died.

The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard was one of well over 1000 reported attacks on gay men that year, and one of around 30 murders.

There are several areas of pelvis/acetabulum that candidates need to be familiar with and other areas that are within a subspecialty interest.

Acetabular/pelvic radiology is usually discussed at the beginning of a viva and should be slickly and quickly answered so as to move on and to get onto the main testing area of the viva.

A basic appreciation of the various surgical approaches to fix an acetabular fracture is reasonable, but it is unlikely candidates will need to know this in great detail. Management of the open-book pelvis and the resuscitation around this is an A-list topic.

Introduction

Suffering and persecution forms an almost ubiquitous backdrop to most of the documents that make up the New Testament. In the first extant piece of Christian writing, the epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul suggests persecution is an ever-present danger. He claims that his converts “received the word in much affliction (ἐν θƛίψϵι ποƛƛῆ; 1:6)” and received at the hands of their fellow townsfolk the same kind of persecution believers in Judea suffered from the Jews (2:14). This theme continues throughout the New Testament. As Jesus had suffered, so true Christians are called to imitate his example, embracing death where necessary (cf. Mark 8:34-38). From Paul onwards, suffering was regarded not as an unfortunate necessity, but as a mark of true discipleship. Martyrdom quickly became the ultimate act of “following the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4). Christians reflecting on these experiences promoted themselves, as Judith Perkins has demonstrated, as a community of sufferers. Their worship of an executed criminal, their novel rites, and their scorning of state, city, and familial gods made Christians so unpopular that Luke could have one of his characters write of Christianity, “We know that everywhere it is spoken against” (Acts 28:22).

While William Bramley-Moore asserted in his introduction to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs that “the history of Christian martyrdom is, in fact, the history of Christianity itself”, it is now generally recognized there was little in the way of official persecution of the Christians before the mid-third century. Christian populations did undoubtedly experience hostility and some violence, but prior to Decius there was no state-wide action taken against Christians. Instead, anti-Christian actions tended to be local and sporadic. Even so, themes of persecution, suffering, and martyrdom are prominent in the writings produced by early Christians.

In their martyr accounts, Christians promoted those who endured suffering and death as heroes. The martyrs were examples of piety from whose example other Christians could learn how to be true followers. As we will see, Christians promoted the martyr as an example of a noble athlete or combatant who provided an example of courage, endurance, and bravery.