Early Christian Views on Gambling and Dice
Early Christian writers plainly opposed dice playing and gambling for gain. Clement of Alexandria calls dice playing forbidden, Cyprian links gambling with vice, and the Apostolic Constitutions says clergy who do it should be removed. Bible passages used here warn against covetousness and foolish gain, while some passages on casting lots are neutral or practical rather than anti-gambling.
138 early-church witnesses · 237 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about gambling and Games of Chance?
Early Christian writers strongly rejected dice playing, gambling for gain, and the world of public games. Clement of Alexandria says dice playing must be forbidden, Cyprian warns against being “prodigal with gambling,” and the Apostolic Constitutions says clergy who indulge in dice should be removed.
The Bible passages tied to this topic lean more toward warnings against covetousness, fraud, and worldly excess than against gambling by name, while Proverbs and Acts show that casting lots is not always treated as sinful. Some nearby cards are about pagan games, lots, or fortune-telling rather than gambling itself, so the overall picture is clear on gambling as greed-filled pastime but mixed and indirect on games of chance in every form.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Clement of Alexandria says dice playing must be forbidden.
- Cyprian treats gambling as a vice tied to greed.
- The Apostolic Constitutions says clergy who indulge in dice should be removed from office.
- Bible passages warn against covetousness, but casting lots is not always sinful.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians forbid dice-playing and gambling?
Clement of Alexandria directly says dice-playing must be forbidden and links it to pursuing profit through gambling. The Apostolic Constitutions also treat dice as a disqualifying practice for clergy unless it is stopped.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching
Dice playing must be forbidden, and so must the pursuit of profit, especially by gambling with dice, which many eagerly practice. Luxury, in its wastefulness, invents such things for idle people. For the cause is idleness, and a love for trivial pleasures apart from the truth. For otherwise, it is not possible to get pleasure without harm. And each person's choice of a way of life matches his disposition.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
Let a bishop, presbyter, or deacon who indulges in dice or drinking stop those practices, or let him be removed from office.
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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
... any shame in your sin, and you are wicked, as if wickedness itself pleased you, you who are seen clearly and openly by all other men should also look at yourself. For either you are swollen with pride, or greedy with avarice, or cruel with anger, or prodigal with gambling, or flushed with intemperance, or envious with jealousy, or unchaste with lust, or violent with cruelty. And do you wonder that God's anger increases in punishing the human race, when the sin that is punished is increasing every day? You complain that the enemy rises up, as if, even if an enemy were lacking, there could be peace for you even among the very togas of peace. You complain that the enemy rises up, as if, even though outward arms and dangers from barbarians were held back, the weapons of attack at home, from the false accusations and wrongs of powerful citizens, would not be more fierce and more harshly used within. You complain of barrenness and famine, as if drought made a greater famine than rapacity, as if the fierceness of want did not increase more terribly from seizing the increase of the year's produce and heaping up its price. You complain that heaven is shut from showers, although in the s
More related quotations from this section 9 shown
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
The game of dice is to be prohibited, and the pursuit of gain, especially by dicing, which many keenly follow.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
42. Let a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon who indulges himself in dice or drinking, either leave off those practices, or let him be deprived.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
For covetousness is a root of all evils, which some desiring, have made shipwreck from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Timothy 6:7-10
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
What else is found in the Circus games except foolishness, emptiness, and madness? People's souls are swept away into wild excitement, with as much force as the chariot races themselves are driven there. So those who come to watch the show become even more of a show themselves, when they begin to shout, lose control with excitement, and jump up from their seats. Therefore, all shows ought to be avoided. This is not only so that no vice may take root in our hearts, which ought to be calm and peaceful, but also so that the regular enjoyment of any pleasure may not soften and capture us, and turn us away from God and from good works. For the celebration of the games is a festival in honor of the gods, since they were established because of their birthdays or the dedication of new temples. At first, the hunts, which are called shows, were held in honor of Saturnus, and the stage games in honor of Liber, but the Circus games in honor of Neptune. Little by little, however, the same honor began to be given to the other gods also, and separate games were dedicated to their names, as Sisinnius Capito teaches in his book on the games. Therefore, if anyone is present at the shows where people
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
What else does the practice of the Circensian games contain but levity, vanity, and madness?
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
...he stars, he understood from the harmony of things and times themselves that they were not moved by chance, yet he decided that they were voluntary, as though they could not move with such order and arrangement unless they had within themselves an understanding that knew its own duty. Oh, how hard truth is for those who do not know it. How easy it is for those who do know it. If, he says, the motions of the stars are not by chance, then nothing remains except that they are voluntary. No, in truth, just as it is plain that they are not by chance, so it is also clear that they are not voluntary. Why then do they keep such regularity in completing their courses? Without doubt, God, the maker of the universe, arranged and ordered them in this way, so that they might run their courses in heaven with a divine and wonderful order, to bring about the changes of the seasons one after another. Was Archimedes of Sicily able to make a likeness and representation of the universe in hollow bronze? In it he arranged the sun and moon in such a way that they made, as it were, daily motions that were unequal and like the revolutions of the heavens. And when that sphere turned, it showed not only
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
whether profligates, gamesters, and pimps squander your money, or you bestow it on piety and God;
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
... Atinius, a common man, and ordered him to tell the consuls and the senate that, in the last circus games, a public dancer had displeased him. This was because a man named Antonius Maximus had harshly whipped a slave under the furca in the middle of the circus and had led him away to punishment. Because of this, the games, he said, ought to be held again. And when Atinius neglected this command, it is said that on that same day he lost his son and was himself struck with a severe illness. Then, when he again saw the same figure asking whether he had suffered enough punishment for neglecting the command, he was carried on a litter to the consuls. After he explained the whole matter in the senate, he recovered his bodily strength and returned home on foot. That dream also was no less remarkable, to which Augustus Caesar is said to have owed his safety. For during the civil war with Brutus, when he was suffering from a severe illness and had decided to stay out of battle, the image of Minerva appeared to his physician Artorius and advised him that Caesar should not remain in the camp because of his physical weakness. Therefore he was carried on a litter to the army, and on that sam
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
Those games, therefore, are celebrated with all wantonness, as is suitable to the memory of a harlot.
Why did early Christians connect gambling with greed and love of money?
The sources connect gambling with avarice, covetousness, and making profit by dishonest or empty means. Cyprian, Clement, and the Bible texts used alongside them frame this as a moral danger, not harmless entertainment.
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Jonah 1:7 Direct teaching
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
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Proverbs 16:33 Direct teaching
The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.
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1 Chronicles 26:13 Direct teaching
And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers, for every gate.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
...ll. It was received as a whole garment and kept as an unharmed and undivided robe by those who cast lots for Christ's clothing, though they should rather have put on Christ. Holy Scripture says, "But about the coat, because it was not sewn, but woven from the top throughout, they said to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots to decide whose it shall be.'" John 19:23-24. That coat carried a unity that came down from the top, that is, from heaven and from the Father. It was not to be torn at all by the one who received and possessed it, but we receive its wholeness complete and solid, without division. He cannot possess the garment of Christ who parts and divides the Church of Christ. Again, when after Solomon's death his kingdom and people were divided, Abijah the prophet met Jeroboam the king in the field and divided his garment into twelve pieces, saying, "Take ten pieces, for thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give ten sceptres to you; and two sceptres shall be for him for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen to place my name there.'" 1 Kings 11:31. As the twelve tribes of Isr
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
...irit of the high priesthood, he may have power to remit sins according to Your commandment, to give lots according to Your command, to loose every bond according to the power You have given to the apostles, and to be pleasing to You, in meekness and a pure heart, offering a sweet-smelling savor through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. With Him, to You be glory, power, and honor, along with the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
...haunt temples. They stir the inner parts of sacrificed animals, direct the flight of birds, control lots, and give oracles wrapped in false answers. These things are not from God. But when they are commanded in the name of the true God, they are forced to confess, and they are driven out of possessed bodies. So they quickly flee from the neighborhood of Christians, and they stir up hatred against them in the minds of the Gentiles, who begin to hate Christians before they know them.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
... their prophets, stir the inner organs used for divination, direct the flight of birds, control the casting of lots, and give power to oracles. They are always mixing falsehood with truth, because they are both deceived and deceivers. They trouble people's lives and disturb their sleep. These spirits also creep into their bodies, secretly terrify their minds, twist their limbs, damage their health, and stir up diseases in order to force them to worship them. Then, after they have been fed with the smoke of altars and the heaps of sacrificed cattle, they loosen what they had bound, and so seem to have brought about a cure. The only relief from them comes when their own harm stops. They have no other desire than to call people away from God and turn them from understanding the true religion to superstition toward themselves. And since they themselves are under punishment, they want to find companions in punishment for themselves, making others share in their guilt through their deception. However, when we command them by the true God, they immediately give way and confess, and they are forced to go out from the possessed bodies. At our voice, and by the working of hidden majesty,
More related quotations from this section 2 shown
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness
...through another prophet, He says, "They pierced My hands and My feet, and for My clothing they cast lots." David, the king and prophet who spoke these words, did not suffer these things himself, but Jesus Christ did, stretching out His hands, being crucified by the Jews who spoke against Him and denied that He was the Christ. Just as the prophet said, they tormented Him, set Him on the judgment seat, and said, "Judge us." The phrase "They pierced my hands and my feet" refers to the nails of the cross that were driven into His hands and feet. After He was crucified, they cast lots for His clothing, dividing it among themselves. You can verify these events from the Acts of Pontius Pilate. We'll also quote the prophetic words of another prophet, Zephaniah, who foretold that He would sit on the foal of a donkey and enter Jerusalem. The words are these: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey."
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Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness
and those who crucified Him parted His garments among themselves, each casting lots for what he chose to have, and receiving according to the decision of the lot.
Common Questions
Did early Christians think gambling was wrong?
Yes. Clement of Alexandria forbids dice playing, Cyprian treats gambling as a vice, and the Apostolic Constitutions says church leaders who indulge in dice should be removed.
Did early Christians ever use casting lots?
Yes. Some Bible passages use casting lots in a neutral way, so the issue was not every use of lots, but gambling and greedy play for gain.
Source Index for Gambling and Games of Chance
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 237 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 138
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 99
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.