The Emperor Nero never killed a single Christian. No amount of Hollywood propaganda can change this.
To demonstrate Nero's innocence of this charge of killing Christians, we need to look at the historical sources for the lives of some of the earlier Roman Emperors. So here's what the historians Tacitus and Suetonius had to say about the Emperors Claudius and Nero.
Suetonius says (Life of Claudius 25:3) that the emperor Claudius "expelled from Rome the Jews because, at the instigation of Chrestus, they were perpetually making trouble" (Claudius Judaeos impulsore chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit).
But Chrestus (a common name) is not a reference to Christians in ancient Rome (despite what some books say). The reign of Claudius (41-54 AD) is too early for Christians in Rome for a start. And the word chresto is more likely the ablative form of chrestes "usurer". This leads to a far more likely alternative translation: "Claudius banished from Rome the Jews, who were practicing usury and by that continually created unrest". The Bible confirms that Jews, not Christians were expelled by Claudius:
Acts 18:2: Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome.
There is a very similar mention of chrestianos 'Chrestians' in Tacitus 'Annals' (Book XV.44), the one and only source supposedly referring to Nero's persecution of "Christians":
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestians by the populace. (Chrestus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus)".ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Chrestianos appellabat. (auctor nominis eius Chrestus Tibero imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat).
These Chrestianos "usurers" of Nero's time are clearly the same as the "usurers"' expelled by Claudius years earlier. Medieval copyists added the explanatory sentence (bracketed above) to try to "explain" who these chrestianos were; such explanatory sentences are not usual in Tacitus and the sentence was absent in pre-Medieval versions. At a later stage, in the 15th century Chrestianos was re-copied as Christianos, starting the myth of Nero persecuting Christians. By the way I believe there is no way on God's earth that Christians (bearers of the holy gospels and Divine Truth) could be a "class hated for their abominations".
The text further states that Nero executed these "usurers" because they were responsible for burning down a large section of Rome while trying to perpetrate an insurance scam (a frequent practice of the period). Shades of Silverstein and 9/11, perhaps... Nero may have "fiddled while Rome burnt" but neither he nor Christians did the burning.
Act 25:11 For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.
To demonstrate Nero's innocence of this charge of killing Christians, we need to look at the historical sources for the lives of some of the earlier Roman Emperors. So here's what the historians Tacitus and Suetonius had to say about the Emperors Claudius and Nero.
Suetonius says (Life of Claudius 25:3) that the emperor Claudius "expelled from Rome the Jews because, at the instigation of Chrestus, they were perpetually making trouble" (Claudius Judaeos impulsore chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit).
But Chrestus (a common name) is not a reference to Christians in ancient Rome (despite what some books say). The reign of Claudius (41-54 AD) is too early for Christians in Rome for a start. And the word chresto is more likely the ablative form of chrestes "usurer". This leads to a far more likely alternative translation: "Claudius banished from Rome the Jews, who were practicing usury and by that continually created unrest". The Bible confirms that Jews, not Christians were expelled by Claudius:
Acts 18:2: Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome.
There is a very similar mention of chrestianos 'Chrestians' in Tacitus 'Annals' (Book XV.44), the one and only source supposedly referring to Nero's persecution of "Christians":
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestians by the populace. (Chrestus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus)".ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Chrestianos appellabat. (auctor nominis eius Chrestus Tibero imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat).
These Chrestianos "usurers" of Nero's time are clearly the same as the "usurers"' expelled by Claudius years earlier. Medieval copyists added the explanatory sentence (bracketed above) to try to "explain" who these chrestianos were; such explanatory sentences are not usual in Tacitus and the sentence was absent in pre-Medieval versions. At a later stage, in the 15th century Chrestianos was re-copied as Christianos, starting the myth of Nero persecuting Christians. By the way I believe there is no way on God's earth that Christians (bearers of the holy gospels and Divine Truth) could be a "class hated for their abominations".
The text further states that Nero executed these "usurers" because they were responsible for burning down a large section of Rome while trying to perpetrate an insurance scam (a frequent practice of the period). Shades of Silverstein and 9/11, perhaps... Nero may have "fiddled while Rome burnt" but neither he nor Christians did the burning.
Act 25:11 For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.