What year did Nero persecute the Christians?

Answer 1

A:In later centuries, many legends grew up around the persecution that Nero inflicted on the Christians, although several scholars have pointedly noted that no early Christian source makes that claim. Even Acts of the Apostles is very approving of the Roman authorities, although the author must have known of any persecution if such had really happened. What we do know for certain is that Nero blamed the Christians of Rome for the Great Fire, probably unfairly. Other sources say that he inflicted terrible punishments on the Roman Christians, and this could be true although some of the stories seem inconsistent with the available evidence. The numbers are uncertain but could be in the low hundreds. The consensus of scholars is that, apart from this incident, Nero ignored the Christians.

Answer 2

Lawrence S. Cunningham (A Brief History of Saints) says tradition has it that there were ten periods of persecution, but that may be pious fiction. The third century Church Father, Origen does not give us an exact figure for the number of martyrdoms,but states that up to his time there were not many Christians who had been martyred and they could easily be counted.

Nevertheless there were those who sought and even provoked martyrdom. In this circumstance, one should wonder whether to feel any sympathy or admiration for these martyrs, and what significance there is in the number who died.

In his work Ad Scapulam, Tertullian describes how, around 185 CE, all the Christians of a town in Asia presented themselves to the Proconsul Arrius Antoninus and demanded the privilege of martyrdom. The proconsul told them that if they wished to die, they could hang themselves or throw themselves from the precipices.

When the early Church Father, Ignatius was taken prisoner by the Roman authorities, he expected and eagerly desired to die as a martyr. His surviving letters refer to a 'lust for death' and enumerate in grusesome detail the tortures he expected to suffer. He apparently asked the Christians in Rome to do nothing to save him.

The fourth-century Circumcellions eagerly embraced martyrdom. When they were not attacking their coreligionists, they sought out and attended pagan rites in order to denounce them, hoping to provoke the Romans to make them martyrs.

So, the number is not as high as is commonly supposed, and could have been even lower if the early Christians did not seek and encourage their own martyrdom.

Answer 3

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Answer 4

Around the year AD 64

Answer 5

Nero punished the Christians in 64 AD.

Answer 6

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