Steve Campbell, Author of Historical Accuracy

I am working on the second edition of Historical Accuracy.

On Christian Origins by Paul George is a book of interest to me. In it, Paul George has made some statements about Nero and the burning of Rome.

Why the story is untrue

1
The Nero story is not mentioned by any of the early church fathers.

2
The Christian author Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325), who became an advisor to Constantine, carefully detailed the wrongs committed by tyrannical rulers against the Christians. But he says nothing at all about a fire under Nero. Instead, he connects Nero’s attack on the Christians, and the killings of Peter and Paul, with the fact that people were abandoning traditional cult.

3
Nero is not mentioned as a persecutor of Christians in the Epistle of Barnabas. This letter written after the temple was destroyed in the year 70 describes the current Roman emperor as the “worker of evil.” 760 Nero died in 68.

4
Clement, bishop of Rome, writing about 97 761 mentions recent “sudden and successive calamitous events,” and despite naming Peter and Paul, and some women as “the most recent spiritual heroes [literally: those who have been athletes]” (5ff) makes no reference to Nero or any martyrs under Nero.

5
There is no mention by Justin Martyr. There is no mention by Irenaeus despite discussing the subject of persecution. (Book 2.30) Origen mentions Nero
and persecution, but never recalls any persecution under Nero.

6
Tertullian in the early third century is the exception and appears to allude to Tacitus when he says, “We read the lives of the Caesars: At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith.” 762 However, we should note that elsewhere Tertullian describes the historian as “most loquacious in falsehood.”

7
The incident is not mentioned by Josephus. On the contrary we note that the Jewish historian defends the character of Nero. …

there have been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to him, and the great ill-will which they bare him, have so impudently raved against him with their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned.

8
Pliny the Younger, a contemporary and friend of Tacitus, in 111 has heard of Christians, but knows nothing of their beliefs or practices.

If the story of Tacitus were true, Christianity as a sect would have been widely known. Shaw argues, Pliny was about as highly educated a member of the Roman élite of the time as one could be. He certainly knew about his Roman past. If persons known as Christians had been responsible for setting the fire that almost destroyed the metropolis of the Empire—or who, at the very least, were firmly believed to have been the culprits—and had been punished for this act of monumental criminality, that Pliny knew nothing about these matters or about Christians is simply not credible.

9. The Epistle to the Hebrews (written about the year 90) says “In your [the believers’] struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:4)