The Armenian Genocide and Persecution of Christians
The Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915, represents a horrific instance of state-sponsored persecution against Christians, though the persecution of Christians has a long and complex history dating back to the earliest days of the church [1, 2]. Early Christians faced accusations and hostility from both Roman authorities and Jewish communities, often being targeted for their refusal to participate in pagan worship or for perceived disloyalty to the empire [1, 4, 6].
The Roman Empire's persecution of Christians was widespread and often brutal. During the reign of Nero, Christianity was "ruthlessly condemned," and its adherents were subjected to severe punishments [1]. Tertullian, an early Christian apologist, noted that the very name "Christian" was considered execrable [2]. He challenged the Roman authorities to investigate the charges against Christians, arguing that if no one could convict them of wrongdoing, it was unjust to punish "blameless men" based on "wicked rumour" [4]. Tertullian also observed that the laws against Christians were iniquitous and that the authorities often resorted to the "authority of the laws" to justify their persecution, rather than engaging in a fair consideration of the Christians' merits [6].
The accusations against Christians were varied. They were often blamed for societal misfortunes, such as natural disasters or economic hardship [7]. Tertullian recounts instances where Christians were blamed for crop failures, leading to the cry, "No areoe—no burial-grounds for the Christians," and ironically, their accusers' own threshing-floors were empty [10]. Despite these accusations, early Christians maintained their innocence, asserting that their faith taught them not to return "blow for blow" or to engage in legal disputes with those who wronged them [5].
Persecution was not limited to specific emperors or isolated incidents. The "Martyrdom of the Holy Confessors Shamuna, Guria, and Habib" describes a "great persecution" raised against churches in all Roman territories during the reign of Diocletian [2]. This period saw Christians being sought out and martyred for their faith, as exemplified by Symeon, the son of Clopas, who was martyred at 120 years old under Emperor Trajan for being both a descendant of David and a Christian [11].
Augustine, writing centuries later, reflected on the nature of persecution, noting that some believed it was a sufficient sign of a true Christian that "he does not inflict, but suffers persecution" [3]. He also discussed the idea of a fixed number of persecutions, questioning whether the ten persecutions that had passed meant there would be only one more [8]. John Gill, a later commentator, connected the suffering of Christians under Roman persecution to prophetic texts, suggesting that the "blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus" cried for vengeance, leading to the eventual downfall of their persecutors [9].
The Armenian Genocide, while distinct in its historical context and scale, echoes these earlier patterns of persecution. In the early 20th century, the Ottoman government systematically targeted its Armenian Christian population, leading to mass deportations, forced marches, and massacres. This event is widely recognized as the first modern genocide, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians [Source not provided in excerpts, but common historical knowledge]. The persecution was driven by a combination of religious, ethnic, and political factors, with the Armenian Christians viewed as an internal enemy by the Young Turk government.
The historical record of Christian persecution, from the Roman Empire to the Armenian Genocide, demonstrates a recurring pattern where religious identity becomes a pretext for violence and oppression. While the specific motivations and methods have varied across different eras and regions, the underlying theme of targeting individuals and communities based on their Christian faith remains a consistent element in these historical tragedies.
Sources
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — CHAP. VII.(2)--THE CHRISTIANS DEFAMED. A SARCASTIC DESCRIPTION OF FAME; ITS DECEPTION AND ATROCIOUS SLANDERS OF THE CHRISTIANS LENGTHILY DESCRIBED. (part 2): the report it set in motion, although it has had so long a time to recommend it to our acceptance. This name of ours took its rise in the reign of Augustus; under Tiberius it was taught with all clearness and publicity;(9) under Nero it was ruthlessly condemned,(10) and you may weigh its worth and character even from the person of its persecutor. If that prince was a pious man, then the Christians are impious; if h”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 8: Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts, Epistles, Apocrypha, Decretals — MARTYRDOM[1] OF THE HOLY CONFESSORS SHAMUNA, GURIA, AND HABIB, (part 1): FROM SIMEON METAPHRASTES.[2] IN the six hundredth year from the empire of Alexander the Macedonian, when Diocletian had been nine years sovereign of the Romans, and Maximian was consul for the sixth time, and Augur son of Zoaras was praetor, and Cognatus was bishop of the Edessenes, a great persecution was raised against the churches in all the countries which were under the sway of the Romans. The name of Christian was looked upon as execrable, and ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 4: Augustine — Anti-Manichaean, Anti-Donatist — CHAP. 2.--6. I would add, moreover, that they themselves, by making it the subject of an accusation, referred the case of Caecilianus to the decision of the Emperor Constantine; and that, even after t (part 4): persecution, or for which he suffers it, but think that it is a sufficient sign of a true Christian that he does not 637 inflict persecution, but suffers it, then beyond all question they include Caecilianus in that definition, who did not inflict, but suffered persecution; and they equally exclude their own fathers from the defi”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 1: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus — CHAP. III.--CLAIM OF JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION.: But lest any one think that this is an unreasonable and reckless utterance, we demand that the charges against the Christians be investigated, and that, if these be substantiated, they be punished as they deserve; [or rather, indeed, we ourselves will punish them.] (2) But if no one can convict us of anything, true reason forbids you, for the sake of a wicked rumour, to wrong blameless men, and indeed rather yourselves, who think fit to direct affairs, not by judgme”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. I.--INJUSTICE SHOWN TOWARDS THE CHRISTIANS. (part 2): For the fine imposed by our persecutors does not aim merely at our property, nor their insults at our reputation, nor the damage they do us at any other of our greater interests. These we hold in contempt, though to the generality they appear matters of great importance; for we have learned, not only not to return blow for blow, nor to go to law with those who plunder and rob us, but to those who smite us on one side of the face to offer the other side also, a”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — CHAP. VI.(10)--THE INNOCENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS NOT COMPROMISED BY THE INIQUITOUS LAWS WHICH WERE MADE AGAINST THEM.: Whenever these statements and answers of ours, which truth suggests of its own accord, press and restrain your conscience, which is the witness of its own ignorance, you betake yourselves in hot haste to that poor altar of refuge,(11) the authority of the laws, because these, of course, would never punish the offensive(12) sect, if their deserts had not been fully considered by those who made the laws. Then what is it which has prevented a like considerat”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 6: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius, Julius Africanus, Methodius, Arnobius — TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. (part 3): the first book, and is in harmony with the idea which is there predominant,--the thought, that is, of the accusation so frequently on the lips of the heathen, that Christianity was the cause of the many and terrible afflictions with which the empire was visited. These accusations, ever becoming more bitter and threatening, would naturally be observed with care and attention by thoughtful Christians towards the close of the third century; and accordingly we find that t”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 52.--WHETHER WE SHOULD BELIEVE WHAT SOME THINK, THAT, AS THE TEN PERSECUTIONS WHICH ARE PAST HAVE BEEN FULFILLED, THERE REMAINS NO OTHER BEYOND THE ELEVENTH, WHICH MUST HAPPEN IN THE VERY TIME O (part 2): Church in her growth had reached the times of Nero amid the most cruel persecutions; about which it would be too long to say anything? But if they think that only the persecutions made by kings ought to be reckoned, it was king Herod who also made a most grievous one after the ascension of the Lord. And what account do they give”
- Habakkuk (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Habakkuk 2:8: Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee,.... Those that survived the persecutions of the Roman emperors; those that were left of the great numbers put to death by them; those under Constantine rose up, and by just retaliation spoiled them of all their power and wealth: because of men's blood; the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, of those under the altar, whose blood cried for vengeance, Rev 6:9, which was shed under the ten bloody persecutions: or, "because of the blood of a man": of Adam (f), as it may be ren”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 3: Tertullian — CHAP. III. (part 1): However, as we have already remarked, it cannot but distress us that no state shall bear unpunished the guilt of shedding Christian blood; as you see, indeed, in what took place during the presidency of Hilarian, for when there had been some agitation about places of sepulture for our dead, and the cry arose, "No areoe--no burial-grounds for the Christians," it came that their own areoe,(2) their threshing-floors, were awanting, for they gathered in no harvests. As to the rains of the bygone year, it is abundantly plain of what they were intended to”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 8: Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts, Epistles, Apocrypha, Decretals — CONCERNING THE MARTYRDOM OF SYMEON THE SON OF CLOPAS, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.[2] (part 1): Some of these heretics, forsooth, laid an information against Symeon the son of Clopas, as being of the family of David, and a Christian. And on these charges he suffered martyrdom when he was 120 years old, in the reign of Trajan Caesar, when Atticus was consular legate[3] in Syria. And it so happened, says the same writer, that, while inquiry was then being made for those belonging to the royal tribe of the Jews, the accusers themsel”