Active hostility to a group, other than military action, or mob
violence against an individual (as Acts 7: 57–8). The Jews
suffered persecution when Antiochus Epiphanes (175–164 BCE)
attempted to absorb them into his Hellenistic culture and
condemned to death (1 Macc. 1: 41–61) those who refused to cease
practising the rite of circumcision and the food regulations. In
the NT persecutions are both prophesied (Matt. 5: 10–12) and
described, but they come more from Jewish antagonism than
official Roman policy, or at any rate according to the reports
in the Acts. It is clear from 1 Pet. 4: 16 that Christian faith
could lead to suffering, but it is not certain that this verse
implies that being a Christian was itself an indictable offence.
There was, however, a persecution against Christians by Nero
after the fire in Rome of 64 CE; and correspondence between the
governor in Bithynia, Pliny the Younger, in 110 CE and the
emperor Trajan suggests a formal state policy to get rid of
uncompromising Christians; the simi