Early Christian Beliefs About Persia

Daniel 10:1 Direct teaching

In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. And the word was true, and it was a great conflict. And he understood the word and had understanding of the vision.

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

Empire was formerly held by both Assyrians and Medes and Persians;

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

whom the Magi, when they had seen, adored, and offered their gifts [to Him], as I have already stated, and prostrated themselves to the eternal King, departed by another way, not now returning by the way of the Assyrians.

Nehemiah 1:2 Supporting witness

Thus said Cyrus king of the Persians, The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has given me a charge to build him a house in Jerusalem that is in Judea.

Ezra 7:4 Supporting witness

And they finished these things by the commandment of the Lord God of Israel; and with the consent of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia,

Acts 2:9 Supporting witness

Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...rise to supreme power because of merit, but are changed by chance. In earlier times, the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians held empire. We also know that the Greeks and Egyptians had dominion. So, in the changing turns of power, the season of empire has come to the Romans also, as it did to the others. But if you go back to its beginning, you must blush. A people was gathered together from immoral men and criminals, and by founding an asylum, freedom from punishment for crimes made their numbers great. And so that their king himself might surpass the others in crime, Romulus became a brother-killer. In order to promote marriage, he began that matter of concord through acts of conflict. They stole, used violence, and deceived in order to increase the population of the state. Their marriage rested on broken laws of hospitality and cruel wars with their fathers-in-law. The consulship, moreover, is the highest rank among Roman honors, yet we see that the consulship began just as the kingdom did. Brutus put his sons to death, so that the praise of his rank might grow through approval of his wickedness. Therefore, the Roman kingdom did not grow from the sacred rites of religion, nor from

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

...rry with one mind to accept the same faith. The deeds done in India, among the Seres, Persians, and Medes; in Arabia, Egypt, Asia, and Syria; among the Galatians, Parthians, and Phrygians; in Achaia, Macedonia, and Epirus; in all the islands and provinces on which the rising and setting sun shines; and finally in Rome itself, the mistress of the world—these deeds can be listed and counted. There, although men are occupied with the practices introduced by King Numa and the superstitious observances of ancient times, they have nevertheless hurried to give up the way of life of their fathers and join themselves to Christian truth. For they had seen the chariot of Simon Magus and his fiery car shattered by the mouth of Peter, and disappear when Christ was named. They had seen him, I say, trusting in false gods and abandoned by them in their terror, driven headlong down by his own weight, lying on the ground with his legs broken. Then, after he had been carried to Brunda, worn out with grief and shame, he again threw himself down from the roof of a very high house. But you neither know these things nor have wished to know them, nor have you ever considered that they were of the great

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

...s of Heaven always receive the just reward for their evil deeds. After he was taken prisoner by the Persians, he lost not only the power that he had used without restraint, but also the freedom of which he had robbed others. He spent the rest of his days in the lowest condition of slavery. For Sapores, the king of the Persians, who had taken him prisoner, whenever he wished to get into his carriage or mount a horse, ordered the Roman to bend down and offer his back. Then, placing his foot on Valerian’s shoulders, he said with a mocking smile, "This is true, and not what the Romans paint on boards or plaster." Valerian lived for a long time under the well-deserved insults of his conqueror. So the Roman name remained for a long time a mockery and a laughingstock among the barbarians. And this too was added to the severity of his punishment: although he had an emperor for his son, he found no one to avenge his captivity and his most degrading and slavish condition. Indeed, he was never even asked to be returned. Later, after he had ended this shameful life in such great dishonor, he was flayed, and his skin, stripped from his flesh, was dyed with vermilion and placed in the temple

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

...oughts to oppressing the empire that he had made his way into. It is the custom and practice of the Persians for the people to give themselves as slaves to their kings, and for the kings to treat their people like slaves. From the time of his victories over the Persians, this wicked man was not ashamed to praise that system without ceasing, and he decided to set it up in the Roman lands. Because he could not do this by a direct law, he acted, in imitation of the Persian kings, in such a way as to rob people of their freedom. First of all, he stripped of rank those whom he meant to punish. Then he put not only lower magistrates to torture, but also the leading men in cities, and persons of the highest rank. And he did this even in matters of little importance, and in civil cases. Crucifixion was the punishment kept ready for capital cases, and chains for lesser crimes. Women of honorable position were dragged into workhouses. And when any man was to be whipped, four posts were fixed in the ground, and he was tied to them in a way unknown even in the punishment of slaves. What shall I say about his room for amusement, and his favorite entertainments? He kept bears, very much like

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

Narseus, king of the Persians, emulating the example set him by his grandfather Sapores, assembled a great army, and aimed at becoming master of the eastern provinces of the Roman empire.

Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness

And still, long before the Romans, by the ordering of God, the Assyrians held dominion, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks also, and the Egyptians, although they had not any Pontiffs, nor Arvales, nor Salii, nor Vestals, nor Augurs, nor chickens shut up in a coop, by whose feeding or abstinence the highest concerns of the state were to be governed.

Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died Supporting witness

It is the manner and practice of the Persians for the people to yield themselves slaves to their kings, and for the kings to treat their people as slaves.

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

For the deeds can be reckoned up and numbered which have been done in India, among the Seres, Persians, and Medes;

Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background

Events in Persia: on the Incarnation of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ

Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background

And this happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Background

But when the king of Persia learned this fact, he prepared to inflict condign punishment upon him.

Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background

Christ first of all became known from Persia.

Jeremiah 25:25 Background

And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

Genesis 14:1 Background

And it came to pass in the reign of Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, that Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations,

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Background

If the gods willed that the Alemanni and the Persians should be overcome because Christians dwelt among their tribes, how did they grant victory to the Romans when Christians dwelt among their peoples also?

Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background

...s point, many learned men have believed that Africanus's account of events said to have happened in Persia at Christ's birth is a fragment of that famous work which Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian author of the third century after Christ, wrote on the history of the world in chronological order up to the reign of Macrinus. He presented it in five books to Alexander, the son of Mammaea, in order to obtain the restoration of his native town, Emmaus. With the same hope that, as I see, stirred Lambecius and his summarizer Nesselius, I also set myself most eagerly to examine the manuscripts in our Electoral Library. But, as the common proverb says, I found coals instead of treasure. This narrative, far from being something that should be credited to a writer praised by the common judgment of antiquity, contains nothing worthy of the talent of Africanus the chronographer. Therefore, since the ancients unanimously testify that he was a man of complete learning and very sharp judgment, while the author of the Cesti, which also bears the name of Africanus, has long been marked by critics as either childishly gullible or amazingly inclined to superstitious fantasies, I can easily agr

Peter of Alexandria, The Genuine Acts of Peter Background

For from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and those who after him reigned over Babylon, until the time of the Persian expedition against the Assyrians, and the empire of Alexander, and the war which was stirred up by the Romans against the Jews, Jerusalem was six times overthrown by its enemies.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Background

And as these things have come trader my own cognizance, it was needful that I should also make the fact known to you, that search is being made for this fellow even to the present day by the king of Persia.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Supporting witness

For the Persians arising in these times, devastated every land, and made many men subject to them, and slew them.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Background

20. To fight with the prince of Persia. For from the day you humbled yourself before the Lord your God, your prayer was heard, and I was sent to fight with the prince of Persia. For there was a plan not to let the people go. Therefore, so that your prayer might be answered quickly, I stood up against him.

Hippolytus, Exegetical Fragments Background

... he says to him, "Do you know why I have come to you? Now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia. But I will show you what is written in the Scripture of truth. There is no one who stands with me in these matters except Michael your prince, and I left him there. For from the day you set your heart to humble yourself before the Lord your God, your prayer was heard, and I was sent to fight with the prince of Persia. For a certain plan had been made not to send the people away. Therefore, so that your prayer might be granted quickly, I resisted him and left Michael there."

Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist Background

the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians and Medes;

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

and this is proved to have happened. For the Magi, who were held in bondage for the commission of all evil deeds through the power of that demon, by coming to worship Christ, shows that they have revolted from that dominion which held them captive;

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

“Now this king Herod, at the time when the Magi came to him from Arabia, and said they knew from a star which appeared in the heavens that a King had been born in your country, and that they had come to worship Him, learned from the elders of your people that it was thus written regarding Bethlehem in the prophet: ‘And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art by no means least among the princes of Judah;

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Supporting witness

For at the time of His birth, Magi who came from Arabia worshipped Him, coming first to Herod, who then was sovereign in your land, and whom the Scripture calls king of Assyria on account of his ungodly and sinful character.

Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Background

...ple, with this inscription on it: "To Jove the Sun, the mighty God, the King of Jesus, the power of Persia dedicated this."

Origen, Against Celsus Background

The Persians therefore may call the whole circle of heaven Jupiter;

Origen, Against Celsus Background

for he states that the Persians also were of the same opinion, quoting Herodotus as his authority.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Background

... clear. For just as a bull is sacrificed to Luna because it too has horns, as she does, and just as Persia seeks to appease Hyperion, who is surrounded with rays, with a horse, so that a slow victim may not be offered to the swift god, so also in this case no more suitable victim could be found than one that resembled the one to whom it was offered.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Background

...ed to him from boyhood, by whose will and direction his life was guided. The skill and power of the Magi also consist entirely in the influence of these beings. When the Magi call on them, they deceive men's sight with false appearances, so that people do not see the things that really exist and think they see things that do not exist. These defiled and abandoned spirits, as I say, wander over the whole earth and find comfort for their own ruin in the destruction of men. Therefore they fill every place with snares, deceits, frauds, and errors. They attach themselves to individuals, and they take over whole houses from door to door. They take for themselves the name of genii, for this is the Latin word they use to translate demons. People dedicate these spirits in their houses, pour out daily wine offerings to them, and worship these clever demons as gods of the earth and as those who turn away the evils that they themselves cause and bring on people. And since these spirits have no bodily substance and cannot be grasped, they slip themselves into the bodies of men. Working secretly in their inner parts, they ruin health, bring on diseases more quickly, terrify souls with dreams,

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Background

...e restored without hindrance, as if to their father's abode. Nor should you be deceived by what the Magi claim: that they have intercessory prayers, and that, won over by these, some powers make the way easy for those who are striving to climb up to heaven. Nor by what Etruria holds out in the Acherontic books: that souls become divine and are freed from the law of death if the blood of certain animals is offered to certain deities. These are empty delusions, and they stir up vain desires. None but Almighty God can preserve souls. Nor is there anyone besides who can give them length of days, and also grant them a spirit that will never die, except Him who alone is immortal and everlasting, and restricted by no limit of time. For since all the gods, whether those who are real or those who are only said to be so from hearsay and conjecture, are immortal and everlasting by His goodwill and free gift, how can it be that others are able to give what they themselves have, when they have it as the gift of another, bestowed by a greater power? Let Etruria sacrifice whatever victims it may. Let the wise deny themselves all the pleasures of life. Let the Magi soften and soothe all lesser

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Background

Did this form a prejudice against us, that between the Assyrians and Bactrians, under the leadership of Ninus and Zoroaster of old, a struggle was maintained not only by the sword and by physical power, but also by magicians, and by the mysterious learning of the Chaldeans?