8th February

You will be my witnesses

Jesus says: "Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." John 15, 20

Since the beginning of Church history in heathen Rome they were slandered and pursued like ennemies of public wealth. The Lord gave courageous Christians the possibility to raise their voice to show the falseness of the accusations and to establish the truth of Christianity.

The first litigants were presented to the emperor Adrian by Aristide, a Roman Christian and by Quadratus, a bishop around 125. Quadratus defended the Gospel against all the slanders of his opponents and he remembered the Lord's miracles. It seems that the emperor took this into consideration because he wrote to the consul of Asia to forbid to ill-treate Christians unless they had broken the laws.

A few years later, around 140, Justin presented a long speech for the defense to the emperor "Antonin le Pieux", to his son and to the roman senate. He starts by calling the justice of the emperor. He says: "Our job is to make known our deeds and our thoughts; your job, imposed by the reason, is to instruct the cause and to act as a good judge: without this, what will your excuse be in front of God's law court?" Then Justin explains Christian doctrines and quotes several passages from the Scripture, in particular, a big part of the Lord's sermon on the mount.