We have learned not to return blow for blow, nor to go to law with those who plunder and rob us. Instead, even to those who strike us on one side of the face, we offer the other side also. (2.129)
Here, Athenagorus attests to the Christians’ abstention from the Roman court system. According to Athenagorus, Christians take neither believer nor unbeliever to court for crimes committed against them. In likewise, they do not retaliate violently to violence.
Labels: Early Christians, Nonviolence, Pacifism
1 Comments:
Athenagoras is also quoting or paraphrasing Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Thus, he shows how widely the early Christians memorized the Sermon and, far from reserving it for a future "Kingdom age" (which they knew to already be here), they applied to their own lives. Until after Constantine, the Sermon on the Mount was the most widely quoted part of the NT.
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