Before Jerusalem Fell

290 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
The Suitability of the Evidence
for the Neronic Argument
As has been shown, the very historicity of a Domitianic persecution
of Christianity has been brought into question. Such cannot be
the case with the persecution under Nero. Although many scholars
argue that the Neronic persecution was confined to Rome and its
environs, the indisputable fact remains: Nero cruelly persecuted Christianity,
taking even the lives of its foremost leaders, Peter and Paul.
The evidence for the Neronic persecution is overwhelming and is
documentable from heathen, as well as Christian, sources. Let us
survey a portion of the evidence from the original sources and then
return to consider the si~ificance of the data.
Th Doczmwntary Evidence for a Nemnic Persecutwn
The earliest evidence for Nero’s persecuting wrath upon the
Christians is found in Clement’s epistle to the Corinthians (designated
1 Clement). Previously we saw that there is good reason to
believe that 1 Clement was written in the late 60s. Even if the later
date for the composition of Clement be accepted, however, the evidence
still is early, being about A.D. 95-97. What is more, the
evidence is fi-om one who lived in Rome and who knew many of those
who were slain by Nero.
In 1 Clement 5 reference is made to the persecution of the
apostles, then in section 6 Clement tells us that “unto these men were
gathered a vast m.ultituak of the elect, who through many indignities
and tortures, being the victims of jealousy, set a brave example
among ourselves. ” 1 Clement 7 is given as an exhortation to those
who remained of the Roman congregation, that they, too, should
“conform to the glorious and venerable rule which bath been handed
down to us.”
Tertullian – who was a Iawyer25 and who wrote in Latin, the
legal language of the Roman Empire – challenges men to search the
archives of Rome for the proof that Nero persecuted the Church. In
his Scorpion’s Sting he writes: “And if a heretic wishes his confidence
to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire will speak,
25. Eusebius calls him “a man accurately acquainted with the Roman laws.” He also
speaks of him as “particularly distinguished among the eminent men of Rome” (Ecc&ustid
Ht.rlov 2:2:4)