A straight answer about Paul please

[hedrick]

That depends on who we ask. If we ask this little lass from from the Ivy Leagues, then the answer is no, Christians weren't persecuted all that much during the 1st century. [Two minute video] I guess we'll have to consider how much of the history she indeed "got right"...

As far as I can tell, her factual statements are correct, but they're buried in enough ideology that you might get the wrong impression.

My impression from Church histories is that Christian persecution was real, but spotty. Christians were in a difficult legal situation, because they wouldn't sacrifice to Roman gods. But most of the time Romans didn't go around trying to document who sacrificed. There were specific areas, and times, when they did. There were a couple of brief periods when Rome as a whole did seriously try to wipe out Christianity. But most of the time it was rather like Christians in some Muslim-majority countries today, where a hostile neighbor can sometimes convince a court, or a mob, that the Christian committed blasphemy.

The Romans were more concerned about order than religion. They did not encourage people to denounce their neighbors, because it would lead to conflict, which they didn't want. You can see this in Trajan's response to Pliny. Pliny wrote a letter describing his procedure, which was not to seek out Christians, but to deal with accusations. Trajan wrote back:

"You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age."

Paul's case was early. He was a Jew. Jews had a special exemption to the requirement for sacrifice. So his treatment wouldn't have been the same as later treatment of Christians, where this exemption didn't apply. He was also a Roman citizen.