We will not ask you to punish our accusers. Their present wickedness is sufficient punishment. (1.165).
We who formerly murdered one another now refrain from making war even upon our enemies. (1.176)
We used to be filled with war, mutual slaughter, and every kind of wickedness. However, now all of us have, throughout the whole earth, changed our warlike weapons. We have changed our swords into plowshares, and our spears into farming implements. (1.254)
Now, around AD160 the context of early Christian pacifism is beginning to change. It is not just retaliation/vengeance and armed resistance that the Christians are renouncing. It is participation in warfare for the state. Moreover, according to Justin, the renunciation of the weapons of war by Christians is ubiquitous, “throughout the whole earth.” Justin sees the church age as the fulfillment of the Isaianic prophecy to which he alludes.
Labels: Early Christians, Nonviolence, Pacifism
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