In the first place, we must consider the immense difficulties of founding such a religion as Christianity. Our familiarity with the subject prevents us from fully realising this, so perhaps an analogy will help to make it clear. Suppose, then, that missionaries now appeared in the cities of Europe, in London and Edinburgh, for example, and preached that an obscure peasant, who had been put to death somewhere in Persia as a malefactor, had risen from the dead, and was the God of heaven and earth. What chance would they have of making a single convert? Yet the first preaching of Christianity at Rome or Athens must have been very similar to this, only far more dangerous. Indeed, it is hard to over-estimate the difficulties of founding a religion, the principal doctrine of which,—and one that the Christians so boldly proclaimed,—was that of a crucified Saviour.[445]
[445] 1 Cor. 1. 23.
And all this took place among civilised nations, and in a literary, one might almost say a rationalistic, age; when the old pagan religions were being abandoned, because men could no longer believe in them. What, then, must have been the difficulty of introducing a new religion, which was (apparently) more absurd than any of them, and which worshipped One Who had been crucified? Christianity had, of course, many other difficulties to contend with especially in regard to its absolute claims; for it was a religion which could stand no rival, and its success meant the destruction of every heathen altar. But these sink into insignificance, compared with the great difficulty of the Cross.
(2.) Its marvellous success.
Yet, in spite of every difficulty, Christianity prevailed. The new religion spread with great rapidity. This we learn not only from Christian writers, who might be thought to exaggerate; but from impartial men such as Suetonius and Tacitus. The former says that in the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54) the Jews in Rome, stirred up by one Chrestus (i.e., Christian Jews), were so numerous that the Emperor thought it expedient to banish them; and the latter that at the time of the great fire (A.D. 64) large numbers of Christians were discovered at Rome. While some years later Pliny, one of the Roman governors in Asia Minor, complained to the Emperor Trajan that the Christians were so numerous that the temples had long been deserted, though at the time he wrote (A.D. 112) they were being frequented again. He also bears witness to the exemplary lives of the Christians, their steadfastness in their religion, and the divine worship they paid to Christ. And as the religion did not originate in either Rome or Asia Minor, Christians were presumably as numerous elsewhere.
Nor can it be said that they were only to be found among the poor and ignorant. For Pliny himself admits that they included men of every rank in life; and the undisputed Epistles of St. Paul, such as that to the Romans (about A.D. 55), show that he thought his readers well educated, and quite able to follow a difficult argument. Moreover, according to the Acts, the people were by no means willing to accept Christianity without inquiry; and St. Paul was obliged in consequence to have long discussions on the subject. This was especially the case at Ephesus, where he reasoned daily in one of the schools, for about two years,[446] which does not look as if his followers were only among the poor and ignorant. While elsewhere we have the names of some eminent converts.
[446] Acts 19. 9-10; 17. 17.
Among these may be mentioned Erastus the treasurer of the city at Corinth; and Crispus, the ruler of the Synagogue there; Dionysius, the Areopagite at Athens; Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch; Apollos, a learned Jew of Alexandria, who had made a special study of the Scriptures; and Theophilus, a man of high rank (as is shown by the title Most excellent), none of whom are likely to have accepted the religion of the Crucified, without very strong evidence.[447] And recent discoveries in the catacombs have made it probable that a distinguished Roman lady, Pomponia Græcina (wife of the General Aulus Plautius) who Tacitus says was accused in A.D. 57 of having adopted a foreign superstition, was also a Christian.[448]
[447] Rom. 16. 23; Acts 18. 8; 17. 34; 13. 1; 18. 24; 1. 1; comp. 23. 26; 24. 3.
[448] J. Orr, Hist. and Lit. of early Church, 1913, p. 43. Tacitus, Annals, Bk. xiii., ch. 32.