Nero's Persecution of Christians

After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, Emperor Nero blames Christians and launches a brutal persecution. Believers are tortured, burned as human torches, and thrown to wild beasts. Tradition holds that both Peter and Paul are martyred during this period.

The first systematic Roman persecution of Christians. The church learns to endure suffering and persecution becomes a catalyst for growth.

Key Verses

Background

On the night of July 18–19, 64 AD, a fire broke out near the Circus Maximus in Rome and burned for six days, destroying or damaging ten of the city's fourteen districts. The fire's suspicious origin — and rumors that Emperor Nero had watched it burn while singing — created a political crisis for the emperor. Whether or not Nero actually started the fire, he needed someone to blame. Christians in Rome, already viewed with suspicion as practitioners of a foreign superstition who refused the traditional gods and were rumored to engage in scandalous rites, provided a convenient scapegoat. The historian Tacitus, who was no friend of Christians, nevertheless records that the persecution was savage enough to arouse public sympathy even for people generally detested.

The Event

Nero's persecution was the first systematic imperial violence against Christians as such. Those who confessed were arrested first; on their information, enormous numbers were condemned. The executions were devised as public spectacle: some believers were covered in animal skins and torn apart by dogs in Nero's gardens; others were crucified; still others were dipped in pitch, set alight, and used as human torches to illuminate the emperor's night games. The persecution does not appear to have extended systematically beyond Rome, but its psychological impact on the entire church was enormous. Both Peter and Paul, tradition consistently holds, were martyred during this period — Peter by inverted crucifixion, Paul by beheading as a Roman citizen.

Theological Significance

Nero's persecution marks a decisive turning point in the relationship between the Roman Empire and the Christian movement. Before 64 AD, Christians had often benefited from their association with Judaism, a legally recognized religion. After Nero, they were a distinct and persecuted group in Roman consciousness. The blood of martyrs — as Tertullian would later write — became the seed of the church: persecution accelerated the spread of the Gospel as believers scattered and as the faithful deaths of Christians proved the authenticity of their testimony. Theologically, the persecution forced the church to develop a theology of martyrdom, drawing on the pattern of Christ himself who suffered unjustly and rose victorious, assuring his followers that faithfulness unto death would be crowned with life.