Pliny the Younger was a Roman governor who wrote to Emperor Trajan around AD 111–113 asking how Christians should be treated. His surviving correspondence describes Christians gathering regularly, singing hymns to Christ, refusing to worship the Roman gods and remaining committed to their faith. It is one of the earliest surviving non-Christian Roman accounts of the Christian movement.
PLINY THE YOUNGER ON CHRISTIANS
AN IMPORTANT ROMAN WITNESS TO EARLY CHRISTIANITY
By Simon Brown
When examining the historical evidence for Christianity, we should not look only at the New Testament. There are also important writings from Roman historians, governors and officials who were not Christians.
One particularly valuable example comes from Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor who wrote to the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the second century.
Around AD 111–113, while serving as governor of Bithynia-Pontus in what is now Turkey, Pliny encountered Christians and wrote to Emperor Trajan asking how he should deal with them.
What makes this evidence so interesting is that Pliny was not writing Scripture, preaching Christianity, or attempting to prove that Christianity was true.
He was a Roman official describing a real problem confronting his administration.
Yet his letter provides remarkable independent evidence concerning the existence, beliefs and rapid growth of the early Christian movement.
WHO WAS PLINY THE YOUNGER?
Pliny the Younger, whose full Roman name was Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, was a Roman lawyer, author, magistrate and provincial governor.
He arrived in Bithynia-Pontus around AD 111 as the representative of Emperor Trajan. Pliny had considerable legal experience, but apparently had never personally conducted an investigation of Christians before. This uncertainty was one reason he wrote to Trajan asking how such cases should be handled.
His correspondence with Trajan survives in Book 10 of Pliny's Letters, with the discussion of Christians appearing in Letter 96, followed by Trajan's reply.
This is extremely important historical evidence because we are reading the correspondence of a Roman governor and a Roman emperor discussing Christians as an existing group within the Empire.
WHAT DID PLINY DISCOVER ABOUT THE CHRISTIANS?
.png "Pliny the Younger on Christians – A Pagan Witness to Early Christianity")
Pliny explained that when people were accused of being Christians, he questioned them.
Those who admitted being Christians were questioned repeatedly and threatened with punishment.
According to Pliny, those who persisted in identifying themselves as Christians could be executed. Roman citizens were instead sent to Rome.
Think about the significance of this.
By the beginning of the second century, Christianity was not merely an obscure story preserved inside Christian writings.
Roman authorities were actually arresting, questioning and punishing people who identified themselves as Christians.
THEY WOULD NOT CURSE CHRIST
One of the most striking details in Pliny's letter concerns the test he used to determine whether someone really was a Christian.
Those who denied being Christians were required to:
pray to the Roman gods,
offer incense and wine before images of the emperor and the gods,
and
CURSE CHRIST.
Pliny observed that genuine Christians could not be compelled to do this.
That is an extraordinary piece of historical evidence.
These people were prepared to face severe consequences rather than renounce Christ.
Of course, willingness to suffer does not by itself prove that someone's beliefs are true. People can sincerely die for beliefs that are mistaken.
But it does prove something historically important:
These Christians genuinely believed what they professed.
Christianity was not merely a later medieval invention.
By the early second century, people throughout parts of the Roman Empire were identifying themselves as followers of Christ and some were willing to face death rather than deny Him.
THEY SANG HYMNS TO CHRIST
.png "Pliny the Younger on Christians – A Pagan Witness to Early Christianity")
Pliny provides another remarkable description.
According to information obtained during his investigation, Christians regularly met together before daylight on a fixed day and sang a hymn to Christ.
Pliny described them as singing to Christ “as to a god.” He also reported that they bound themselves to ethical behaviour—not to steal, commit fraud or adultery—and afterward shared ordinary food together.
This provides valuable evidence concerning what Christians were doing only decades after the New Testament period.
They gathered regularly.
They sang to Christ.
They made moral commitments.
They shared meals.
And they remained devoted to their faith despite the possibility of punishment.
PLINY EVEN TORTURED TWO CHRISTIAN WOMEN
Pliny wanted to discover what was really happening within this movement.
He therefore interrogated two female slaves who were described as deaconesses.
According to the account, they were tortured during the investigation—a brutal but historically attested feature of Roman interrogation of slaves.
Yet Pliny reported discovering nothing beyond what he regarded dismissively as an excessive or depraved “superstition.”
This is important.
Pliny was hardly sympathetic toward Christianity.
He wasn't trying to defend Christians.
Nevertheless, his investigation independently confirms that an organized Christian community existed and that women as well as men participated in it.
CHRISTIANITY HAD SPREAD RAPIDLY
Perhaps one of the most remarkable parts of Pliny's testimony concerns just how widespread Christianity had become.
Pliny complained that this Christian movement involved people of different ages and social ranks.
Even more significantly, Christianity had spread beyond the cities.
It had reached the villages and countryside as well.
This was approximately eighty years after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Something remarkable had happened.
A movement that began with Jesus and His disciples in Judea had spread hundreds of miles across the Roman world.
And now a Roman governor was asking the emperor what he was supposed to do about it.
EMPEROR TRAJAN RESPONDS
Trajan's response is equally fascinating.
He instructed Pliny not to actively hunt Christians down.
However, when someone was formally accused and proved to be a Christian, punishment could follow.
Those who denied being Christians and demonstrated this by worshipping the Roman gods could be pardoned.
Trajan also instructed Pliny not to accept anonymous accusations.
This correspondence therefore gives us a remarkable glimpse into the complicated legal position of Christians within the Roman Empire at this time.
There was not yet a universal empire-wide programme systematically hunting down every Christian.
Nevertheless, openly maintaining one's Christian identity after accusation could have deadly consequences.
WHAT DOES PLINY ACTUALLY PROVE?
We should be careful not to claim more from an ancient source than it actually tells us.
Pliny does not provide an eyewitness account of Jesus.
He was writing approximately eighty years after Jesus' crucifixion.
Nor does Pliny independently describe Jesus' miracles, crucifixion or resurrection.
But what his testimony does establish historically is extremely important.
By approximately AD 112:
Christianity unquestionably existed.
It had spread significantly through parts of the Roman Empire.
Christians regularly gathered together.
They sang hymns to Christ.
They followed a recognizable moral code.
They refused to worship the Roman gods.
Genuine Christians refused to curse Christ.
Some were prepared to die rather than renounce their faith.
The letter is regarded as one of the earliest surviving pagan descriptions of Christians and provides important evidence for both their beliefs and their treatment by Roman authorities.
THIS EVIDENCE COMES FROM OUTSIDE THE NEW TESTAMENT
This is precisely what makes Pliny's testimony valuable when investigating the historical foundations of Christianity.
We are not reading Matthew.
We are not reading Mark.
We are not reading Luke.
We are not reading John.
We are not reading Paul.
WE ARE READING A ROMAN GOVERNOR WRITING TO A ROMAN EMPEROR ABOUT CHRISTIANS.
Pliny joins other important Roman writers—including Tacitus and Suetonius—whose writings provide external evidence concerning early Christianity and the historical world in which it developed.
No single ancient document proves every claim of Christianity.
But when the New Testament is placed alongside Roman, Jewish and archaeological evidence, we gain an increasingly detailed historical picture of the world in which Christianity began.
And Pliny the Younger's letter is an important piece of that historical evidence.
THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT WAS REAL.
THE CHRISTIANS WERE REAL.
THEIR DEVOTION TO CHRIST WAS REAL.
And by the beginning of the second century, their movement had become significant enough that a Roman governor was writing directly to the Emperor of Rome asking what should be done about them.
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
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