Behind | Epitaphs from Roman Tombs

Paul’s proclamation from 1 Corinthians 15:55 is a stirring example of the early Christian attitude toward death. In this passage he is quoting the prophet Hosea:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 ESV

This attitude would have differed from prevailing Roman attitudes toward death. Read the following inscriptions from ancient non-Christian Roman tombstones, provided below, and contrast their attitude and philosophy with what we hear from Paul.

The Christian hope of victory in Jesus Christ was a startling departure from common Roman sentiments about what it meant to be mortal. Historians have noted that the last of the three epitaphs above, “I was not, I was, I am not, I don’t care,” was so common in ancient Rome that it often appears abbreviated on tombstones in its Latin initials, “NFFNSNC.”

In contrast, the Church became known for the kind of defiance we see in the 1 Corinthians passage. The early Christian Justin Martyr captured this attitude with his famous taunt to his persecutors—“You can kill us, but you can’t hurt us.” As we’ve seen from the funerary inscriptions above, that view would have been as arresting in its own time as it is today. 

Tombstones quoted from: J. P. Toner, Popular Culture in Ancient Rome, 2009, p. 43; Pheme Perkins, First Corinthians, 2012, p. 172.