112 AD - Pliny’s Dilemma: Judging Christians

Description: In 112 AD, Roman governor Pliny the Younger faced a troubling problem in the province of Bithynia. Christians—people he had never personally encountered before—were being anonymously accused of illegal behavior. Unsure of how to proceed, he did something extraordinary: he wrote directly to Emperor Trajan. What followed was the earliest surviving Roman government correspondence explicitly about Christians. In his letter, Pliny describes interrogating suspected believers, giving them multiple chances to renounce their faith, and executing those who refused. He was baffled by the stubbornness of their devotion and confused by their harmless worship habits—meeting early to sing hymns, swearing not to steal or lie, and sharing food. But what disturbed him most was their refusal to curse Christ. This episode explores the content of Pliny’s letter, Trajan’s response, and what it reveals about early Christian identity, government policy, and the cost of confession. Pliny’s Dilemma isn’t just a Roman legal case—it’s a snapshot of a world where following Jesus could get you killed, and where even your enemies admitted… you were different. Today, it challenges modern believers to reflect: what would we say under pressure? And what would our accusers say about us? Transcript

He had never seen people like this before.

Roman governor Pliny the Younger had interrogated rebels, fraudsters, political dissidents—but these weren’t criminals. They weren’t violent. They weren’t even rude. Yet they stood before him in chains, calmly confessing a name he couldn’t understand.

“I am a Christian,” they said. And they said it again. And again. No hesitation. No bribes. No fear.

It was 112 AD in the northern province of Bithynia, and Pliny was stuck.

He wasn’t sure what the crime was. He just knew that Christianity was spreading—and that it wasn’t Roman. So he gave them three chances. He ordered incense to the gods. He demanded they curse their Christ.

And they wouldn’t.

So he executed them.

Then he did something almost no governor ever dared—he wrote the emperor for advice.

Pliny’s letter to Trajan has survived. It’s the oldest known Roman government record dealing with Christians. It’s not Christian propaganda. It’s not hearsay. It’s an honest, perplexed report from a Roman trying to make sense of believers who wouldn’t bend.

And the emperor’s reply? It shaped Roman policy toward Christians for the next hundred years.

This wasn’t just legal bureaucracy. It was the Roman Empire coming face-to-face with a new kind of people.

People who refused to die like Romans—because they had already died to themselves.

From the That’s Jesus Channel, welcome to COACH—where we trace Church Origins and Church History. I’m Bob Baulch.

On Mondays, we stay between 0 and 500 AD.

Today, we journey to the year 112. Christianity was spreading quietly through Roman provinces, unnoticed by many—but not for long. In the remote northern region of Bithynia, a Roman official named Pliny the Younger faced an unusual legal problem: people were being anonymously accused of being Christians. He had never dealt with them before. He didn’t understand their beliefs. But he had authority—and now, he had a dilemma.

This wasn’t a full-scale persecution. There were no mobs or emperors issuing decrees. Just one governor, one region, and one question:

What do we do with Christians?

So Pliny followed Roman procedure. He interrogated. He tortured. He executed. But what he discovered confused him more than it clarified.

These weren’t revolutionaries. They weren’t even politically disruptive. They just worshipped differently. And they wouldn’t deny their faith.

Pliny’s letter to Emperor Trajan is one of the most important early records we have—because it wasn’t written by a theologian or a bishop. It was written by a Roman trying to understand w