Pliny the Younger, the Christians and the Jews

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus - better known to history as Pliny the Younger - is one of the most controversial of the voices of classical antiquity that have come down to us through the mists of time. Like his uncle Pliny the Elder; Pliny the Younger has largely been neglected by anti-Semites because his references to jews are small in number and are only oblique in so far as Pliny never refers to jews directly but rather refers to Christians who must necessarily have included a great number of jews at this time in Rome. (1)

This might upset those who believe that Christianity is a purely European religion, but we must understand and accept that the evidence is against such a fanciful interpretation of early Christian ethnology.(2)

If we understand and accept this - as opposed to resorting to verbal gesticulation to try to drive the evidence back into a dark cave because it contradicts a favourite myth - then we have to conclude that Pliny’s comments on the Christians are largely directed against Christianity as a jewish sect and not as a separate religion per se (as then there was little real distinction between the two groups other than one thought the Messiah had turned up while the others argued he hadn’t).

Thus to Pliny the Christians would have been a sub-sect of Judaism and like the humorous attacks on Christianity by other pagan writers - such as Celsus - the prevailing view of jews that Pliny must have held would have been one of a dangerous and subversive cult that held laughable religious sentiments in which light Celsus also regarded them. (3)

There is some controversy over Pliny’s statements concerning the Christians in that they maybe later Christian interpolations as has been argued by for and against by different scholars. However we shall lay this aside as inconclusive as both cases are reasonable and although this author believes that the statements of Pliny are likely later Christian interpolations: we will assume for the sack of argument that they are completely genuine.

Pliny’s only references to the jews through the medium of commenting on the Christians may be found in the tenth book of his letters (sometimes called the ‘Letters to Trajan’). Pliny begins by noting that he himself had not at that point been present at - i.e., participated in - trials of Christians and hence is unsure of the exact details of the crimes committed by the Christians.

However Pliny’s description of the issue does indicate that Christianity was regarded as a political offence as he states:

‘And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offences, or only the offences associated with the name are to be punished.’ (4)

This indicates to us that Christianity - and by association the jews - was regarded by Pliny as a subversive group who stood at odds with what it meant to be Roman and who were actively engaged in undermining the Roman state in much the same way as a criminal who breaks the law seeks - implicitly or explicitly - to undermine the state by undermining the rule of law.

In Rome, of course, to undermine the Imperial cult by not sacrificing to the Emperor’s image - which Pliny later makes explicit reference to - was tantamount to disputing the power of the Emperor himself: this seems to be much of the substance behind the political crimes of Christians.

Although it may be conjectured that the belief that ‘every man was created equal before the sight of God’ - which formed part of Christian belief then as now - was regarded as an explicit attempt to topple those in power in much the same way as Marxism later attempted to rally the ‘international working class’ to create a new state not unlike that explicitly formulated by many later Christian thinkers such as Sir Thomas More in his ‘Utopia’.

In essence then Pliny is informing us that the Christians - and by extension the jews - were a politically subversive group who the Roman authorities - rightly or wrongly - viewed as engaging in an active conspiracy to destroy Rome itself by their vulgar and absurd claims.

We can easily see how such a viewpoint could be formed in so far as if one believes that an omnipotent single deity created the world and rules the universe and more importantly that this deity demands that you actively oppose any and all other Gods and Goddesses then it can only be the case that the followers of this deity will - at any given time, seek to subvert a situation unfavourable to their objectives derived from their beliefs.

It is a testament to how subversive and potentially dangerous Christianity - and the jews - were thought of by Pliny that he asserts that if someone professes to be a Christian and will not recant then the death penalty is called for (which Trajan then endorses). (5) As to leave such subversive individuals alive is to invite the potential downfall of the state and Pliny - as the representative of the Emperor Trajan - could not reasonably allow this without either neglecting his duty or committing treason himself.

We may particularly note Pliny’s implicit urging of Trajan to take action:

‘For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and cure it.’ (6)

What is also noteworthy is that Pliny implies that the Christians took many; or certainly a significant proportion, of their converts from amongst slaves and the lower classes of society i.e. those with a vested interest in believing themselves to be superior to the existing order and/or with little else to lose.

When we add into this the manifest and logical Roman fear of slave revolts within Rome itself, which the memory of Spartacus must have done much to heighten, then it is not hard to see why jews professing Christianity to the lower strata of Roman society must have seemed so potentially dangerous and subversive.

We may however credit Pliny with some scepticism regarding the validity of a jewish-organised Christian conspiracy against the Roman empire as he seems - after torturing two slave girls who were Christian Deaconesses - to have been convinced that the only thing Christians were generally guilty of was an inherent gullibility that was - and is now - generally credited by those in power to the ‘other half’ of the population often referred to as the ‘masses’.

That said Pliny regards it was quite possible - and even probable - that the ‘masses’ will be cured of their belief in Christianity and that a spiritual revival in Roman religion will take place. He also optimistically asserts that the people are already coming back to the temples and making their sacrifices.

Pliny was of course incorrect in his assessment, but we cannot ignore the fact that Pliny regarded the jews of antiquity - through the medium of their preaching Christianity to the nadir of Roman society - as political and religious subversives and proposed harsh measures for dealing with them.

We can only sound a note of regret that Pliny’s implicit advice to Trajan was not more widely heeded and even completely discarded in time.

References

(1) For example see Harry Leon, 1960, ‘The Jews of Ancient Rome’, 1st Edition, The Jewish Publication Society of America: Philadelphia.

(2) It should be understood that I am not suggesting that Christianity is not the most likely candidate for the official religion of a racialist state, but that in its early forms: those who believed in, defended and propagated it were largely jews and their Semitic kin. In this we can point to the fact that Stoicism had a similar lineage in that it first originated and was propagated by Semites and then taken over (and appropriately modified) to become a religion of the West.

(3) Celsus, Trans: R. Joseph Hoffmann, 1987, ‘On the True Doctrine: A Discourse against the Christians’, 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York

(4) Plin. (Y) Tra. 96

(5) Plin. (Y) Tra. 97

(6) Plin. (Y) Tra. 96