Early Christian Views on Criticism of Christianity
Early Christians expected criticism, false charges, and public mockery, and they told believers to stay faithful anyway. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian each answer attacks on the faith in different ways. Bible passages like Matthew 5:11 and 1 Peter 4:14 also say believers should not be ashamed when they are reproached for Christ.
138 early-church witnesses · 259 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about criticism of Christianity?
Early Christian writers say Christians were often criticized, accused, and slandered, but they also say those attacks did not overturn the faith. Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian all answer charges ranging from false crimes to public mockery, and they say Christians should stay loyal to Christ anyway. The evidence is broad on outside criticism and false accusation, and it is also broad on the Christian reply that believers should not be ashamed.
It is thinner on one single, detailed theory of criticism, because the writings address many different kinds of attacks: legal charges, mockery, false reports, and heretical slander. Bible passages like Luke 23:2, Matthew 5:11, and 1 Peter 4:14 fit this same pattern of accusation and faithful endurance. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians expected Christians to be mocked, falsely accused, and even prosecuted.
- Justin Martyr and Athenagoras defend Christians against public slander and false crime stories.
- Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian treat criticism as something believers must answer without leaving Christ.
- Bible passages like Luke 23:2 and 1 Peter 4:14 connect criticism of Jesus and his followers.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians expect criticism and false accusations against them?
Several sources say Christians were reproached, slandered, or accused of crimes, and they treated those charges as false or unfair. The Bible cards reinforce this with direct Bible passages about reproach, false accusation, and suffering for Christ’s name.
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Tertullian, Apology Direct teaching
...have answered well enough the charges of the many crimes on which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have fully presented our case. We have shown how we can prove that what we say is true, from the trustworthiness and antiquity of our sacred writings, and also from the confession of the powers of spiritual wickedness themselves. Who will dare to refute us, not with skill in words, but, as we have made our demonstration, on the basis of reality? But while the truth we hold is made clear to all, unbelief meanwhile, even at the very time when it is convinced of the worth of Christianity, now well known both for its benefits and from the intercourse of life, takes up the idea that it is not really something divine, but rather a kind of philosophy. "These are the very things," it says, "that the philosophers advise and profess: innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, and chastity." Why then are we not allowed the same freedom and immunity for our teachings that they have, when we are compared with them in what we teach? Or why are they not also forced to the same acts, by refusing which our lives are put in danger, if they are so much like us? For who forces a phil
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
... Jews were a better reply than any answer to the false testimony, or any formal defense against the accusations. And I do not know, my pious Ambrosius, why you wanted me to write a reply to the false charges that Celsus brought against the Christians, and to his accusations against the faith of the Churches in his treatise. It is as if the facts themselves did not provide a clear refutation, and the doctrine a better answer than any writing, since it both overturns the false statements and leaves the accusations with no credibility or force. Now, about our Lord's silence when false witness was given against Him, it is enough for the present to quote the words of Matthew, since the testimony of Mark says the same thing. And the words of Matthew are these: "And the high priest and the council sought false witness against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none, although many false witnesses came forward. At last two false witnesses came and said, 'This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to build it up.' And the high priest stood up and said to Him, 'Do You answer nothing to what these men witness against You?' But Jesus remained silent." And t
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
For certainly in writing against Christians, the very essence of whose faith is God, and the promises made by Christ to the righteous, and His warnings of punishment awaiting the wicked, he must see that, if a Christian were brought to renounce Christianity by his arguments against it, it is beyond doubt that, along with his Christian faith, he would cast off the very doctrine from which he says that no Christian and no man should ever swerve.
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1 Peter 4:14 Supporting witness
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
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1 Peter 4:16 Supporting witness
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
How did early Christians answer people who criticized Christianity?
These sources say Christians answered critics by pointing to the truth of their sacred writings, the public reality of their way of life, and the authority of Scripture. Some writers explicitly say they would not defend the faith with mere words, but with evidence and a life that matched their confession.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
But if the accusation relates merely to our name — and it is undeniable, that up to the present time the stories told about us rest on nothing better than the common undiscriminating popular talk, nor has any Christian been convicted of crime — it will devolve on you, illustrious and benevolent and most learned sovereigns, to remove by law this despiteful treatment, so that, as throughout the world both individuals and cities partake of your beneficence, we also may feel grateful to you, exulting that we are no longer the victims of false accusation.
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
But they have further also made up stories against us of impious feasts and forbidden intercourse between the sexes, both that they may appear to themselves to have rational grounds of hatred, and because they think either by fear to lead us away from our way of life, or to render the rulers harsh and inexorable by the magnitude of the charges they bring.
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Direct teaching
Chapter 28. Argument: Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against the Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This Time Have Been Proved by Nobody.
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
These calumnies have long exercised, although unreasonably, an influence over the minds of very many, leading those who are aliens to the Gospel to believe that Christians are men of such a character;
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Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness
They were quite unaware of anything of the kind being imputed to Christians, or they would certainly have looked into it for themselves, and searched the matter out.
Did early Christians see some criticism as coming from heretics or false teaching?
A number of sources say objections to Christianity often came from heretics, false teachers, or factions within the Christian name. These writers insist that such criticism should not be treated as a fair objection to the true faith itself.
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
... these arguments are sound, why should we not defend, in the same way, the existence of heresies in Christianity? And about these, Paul seems to me to speak in a very striking way when he says, "For there must be heresies among you, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you." For just as that man is approved in medicine who, because of his experience in the various medical heresies, and his honest examination of most of them, has chosen the better system, and just as the great proficient in philosophy is he who, after becoming acquainted by experience with the different views, has given his adhesion to the best, so I would say that the wisest Christian was he who had carefully studied the heresies of both Judaism and Christianity. But he who finds fault with Christianity because of its heresies would also find fault with the teaching of Socrates, from whose school many others with conflicting views have come. Indeed, the opinions of Plato might also be charged with error, because Aristotle separated from his school and founded a new one, on which subject we have remarked in the previous book. But it seems to me that Celsus became acquainted with certain heresies
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
Next, he reproaches us for the existence of heresies in Christianity, as if this were a reason to accuse it. He says that when Christians greatly increased in number, they were divided and split into factions, with each person wanting to have his own party. He also says that, because they were separated by their numbers, they refute one another, while still having, so to speak, one name in common, if indeed they still keep it. And he says this is the only thing they are still ashamed to give up, while other matters are decided in different ways by the various sects. In reply to this, we say that different kinds of heresies have never arisen from any matter unless the principle involved was important and beneficial to human life. For the science of medicine is useful and necessary to the human race, and there are many disputes in it about the way bodies should be cured. For this reason, many heresies are admittedly found in the science of medicine among the Greeks, and also, I suppose, among those barbarous nations that claim to practice medicine. Again, philosophy professes truth, and promises knowledge of existing things for the guidance of life. It tries to teach what is benefici
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
...ht forward as witness that this is how the true faith stands. But because heretics, always fighting against the truth, are used to dragging out the controversy against pure tradition and the Catholic faith, because they take offense at Christ, and because Scripture also declares that He is God, and we also believe this, we must rightly contend that Christ is also God, so that every heretical slander may be removed from our faith. Yet we must do this in such a way that it does not fight against the truth of Scripture, nor against our faith, by which Scripture declares that God is one, and by which we also hold and believe this. For both those who say that Jesus Christ Himself is God the Father, and those who want Him to be only a man, have gathered the sources and reasons for their error and perversity from there. When they saw that it was written that God is one, they thought they could hold that opinion only by supposing that either Christ must be believed to be only man, or else truly God the Father. And they were used to joining their clever arguments together in such a way as to try to defend their own error. And so those who say that Jesus Christ is the Father argue like th
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Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
...ht forward as witness that this is how the true faith stands. But because heretics, always fighting against the truth, are used to dragging out the controversy against pure tradition and the Catholic faith, while taking offense at Christ, and because the Scriptures also declare Him to be God, and we also believe this, we must rightly contend that Christ is also God, so that every heretical slander may be removed from our faith. Yet we must do this in such a way that it does not go against the truth of Scripture, or against our faith, which declares and believes from Scripture that there is one God. For both those who say that Jesus Christ Himself is God the Father, and those who want Him to be only a man, have drawn from there the sources and reasons for their error and perversity. When they saw that it was written that God is one, they thought they could hold their opinion only by supposing that either Christ was only a man, or else that He was truly God the Father. And they used to join together their clever arguments in such a way as to try to defend their own error. So those who say that Jesus Christ is the Father argue like this: If God is one, and Christ is God, then Chris
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Cyprian, Seventh Council of Carthage Supporting witness
...ey make Christians? Or where does the Lord's statement lead when He says, 'He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters,' Matthew 12:30? From this it is clear that the Holy Spirit cannot descend on strange children and on the offspring of Antichrist by the laying on of hands alone, since it is plain that heretics do not have baptism."
Common Questions
Did early Christians think criticism of Christianity was normal?
Yes. Writers like Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian speak as if criticism, false charges, and mockery were common.
How did early Christians respond to criticism?
They answered it with defense of the faith, refused to be ashamed, and kept confessing Christ.
Source Index for Criticism of Christianity
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 259 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 121
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Book 79 1:43