100 Reasons to Believe New Testament History
48. No Mention of Persecution of Christians Under Nero AD 64
Secular history records that a great fire broke out in Rome in the summer of A.D. 64. To squash the rumours that he was responsible, the emperor Nero propagated the rumour that the Christians were to blame. The second century historian Tacitus recorded that Nero inflicted the most horrific tortures on Christians for public amusement A. The lack of any mention of this powerful anti-Christian movement is strange in a document like Acts, which critics suppose was written in the second century. Again, a reasonable explanation for this silence concerning the Neronian persecution is that the book was completed before such persecution began. In fact, the book of Acts betrays no knowledge whatever that relations between the Christians and Rome had deteriorated, a situation datable to the mid first century A.D.
48. No Mention of Persecution of Christians Under Nero AD 64 - Notes and References
A. “Hence to suppress the rumour, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontus Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.” Cornelius Tacitus, Annals XV, 44
“Rome’s ashes were still smoldering when rumours swept the city that the emperor had himself set the fire, then watched it while strumming his lyre and singing of the destruction of ancient Troy. In fact Nero had been at Antium, about thirty five miles away, when the fire broke out, and upon his return be promptly placed the blame on Christians, who had by them appeared in Rome in considerable numbers. Although they were no threat whatever to Nero’s regime, they did make convenient scapegoats. Terrible persecutions followed the fire, and one at least one occasion Christians were tarred, staked, and torched to provide illumination in the emperor’s garden.” Time Life Books, Timeframe 400 BC – AD 200, “Empires Ascendant”,1987, p. 84