| What's surprising about this is that if you look closely, these characters are praying, but they're not burning. The Book of Daniel says that they were able to walk unscathed among the flames and emerge entirely unharmed. Their God had saved them. But, for Christians, this had another layer of meaning. The Christian God would not only save Christians from persecution, he would also save them from death itself. Christianity offered eternal life. And this belief in eternity had huge appeal in this pagan city. For your average Roman, life expectancy was only 29 and daily life was hard. For the poor, the slaves, the pagan Romans at the bottom of the pile, this Christian idea of a new life after death offered hope amidst the grind of unrelenting poverty. The Roman gods may help you conquer an empire, but they didn't offer immortality. It was a masterstroke. Rome's leaders might be worshipping its pantheon of pagan gods but some of its people were starting to look elsewhere. |
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