1 There were the δειλοὶ and ἄπιστοι, ¢.g., of Apoc. xxi. 8. Cowardice was par- ticularly dangerous on account of its infectious nature. For the bad example of the
opportunity of recantation was offered, some denied any recent con- nexion with Christianity, telling the proconsul that they had been (some twenty years ago, 7.¢., ο. 93 Α.Ρ., the period of the Apocalypse), but no longer were, Christians. Some also had no objection to offer incense before the image of the emperor or to curse publicly the name of Christ. This was the criterion applied to the suspect,! and it was largely due to the propagation of such resolute ideas as are expounded in the Apocalypse that Christians were kept loyal to their faith, and that, without a tear in their eye or a sword in their hand, they were able eventually to change the face of the world by enforc- ing the recognition of their claims at the hands of the empire. Like the conventicles of the Scottish Covenanters, the primitive Christian churches were accused of immoraiity and sedition, but, unlike them, they succeeded by passive resistance pure and simple. The Apocalypse is a call to arms, but the arms are only patience and loyalty to conviction.?
It is unnecessary to assume that any widespread persecution under Domitian, or indeed any “persecution” in the later and technical sense of the term, was before the prophet’s mind, in order to account for the language and spirit of the Apocalypse. John himself had only been banished or imprisoned, like some of his friends (ii. 10, Clem. Rom. ix. and cf. oni. 9). But from the position of matters he already argued the worst. The few cases of repres- sive interference and of martyrdom in Asia Minor (and elsewhere)
δειλοὶ spies, cf. Joseph. Antiq., iii. 15, 1. Ep. Lugd. describes ten renegades ‘‘ who occasioned us much grief and immeasurable sorrow and impaired the ready zeal of those who had not yet been arrested”. ‘‘Some remained ἔξω (cf. Apoc. xxi. 8, xxii. 15), of μηδὲ ἴχνος πώποτε πίστεως, μηδὲ αἴσθησιν ἐνδύματος νυμφικοῦ, μηδὲ ἔννοιαν φόβου θεοῦ oxdvres” (cf. Apoc. xi. 18).
1 Pliny’s idea of repentance was that Christians should give up their faith. He thought that a number would be willing to recant if they got the opportunity, and Trajan confirmed his suggestion by ordering that whoever denies himself to be a Christian and makes that plain by his actions, {.ε., by worshipping our gods, shall gain forgiveness. Contrast Apoc. ix. 20, xvi.g f. At Vienne and Lyons the Roman citizens in the church were beheaded (cf. Apoc. xx. 4, and the cases of John the Baptist and James, Ac. xii. 1). The rest were thrown to the wild beasts or tortured to death in other ways. It must always be remembered that paprus, in its sombre sense, did not necessarily imply that a Christian had suffered the death-penalty (f- Tert. de Fuga 12, Eus. Η. Ε. v. 18, etc.).
2 Cf. xiii. το, xiv. 12. In spite of the Cameronian touch of xiii. 17, this is the normal temper of the book; it is a Christian expression of the passivity shown already by the Quietists in Judaism, but the controlling motive is the spirit of Jesus as recorded in his own saying (Matt. xxii. 21) and in the reply of his relatives to Domitian (Eus. Η. Ε., ii. 32): ‘‘ His kingdom is not of this world or of this earth, but heavenly and angelic, to arrive at the consummation of this age”.