64-70 AD: Tumultuous times

1
64-70 AD Tumultuous times

• Though Christians endured persecution from the
  Jews in earlier decades, by the middle 60s the
  source of their persecution had shifted to the
  Romans
• Tacitus (55-117 AD) wrote of the Christians in
  Rome under Nero

• And perishing they were additionally made into
  sports they were killed by dogs by having the
  hides of beasts attached to them, or they were
  nailed to crosses or set aflame, andthey were
  used as nighttime lamps.

2
64-70 AD Tumultuous times

• The Zealot (Acts 113) Sacarii (Acts 2138)
  groups in Israel reached a peak of anti-Roman
  fervor, so that by about 66 AD outright
  rebellion against the Romans had begun

• By 70 AD, the Romans had crushed the rebellion,
  totally demolishing the Temple in Jerusalem

3
What do we know?

• We know what happened to Judas (Matthew 273-10)
  to James, the brother of John (Acts 121,2)
• In John 2118b-19a our Lord says of Peters
  death

• but when you grow old, you will stretch out
  your hands and someone else will gird you, and
  bring you where you do not wish to go." 19 Now
  this He said, signifying by what kind of death he
  would glorify God.

4
Once we get outside of the New Testament
documents, the level of reliability goes down

• While we have some information about each of the
  apostles from outside the New Testament, the
  sources are of varying reliability, sometimes
  sketchy, at times in conflict

Opening verses of Philippians
5
Peter

• While some scholars dispute that Peter ever went
  to Rome, the written account that we have says
  that he was crucified there, upside down, under
  Emperor Nero

6
Paul

• Paul is thought by many scholars to have gone to
  Spain (Romans 1522-29), but the extrabiblical
  accounts have his life ending in Rome, beheaded
  about the same time as Peter

Where tradition says Paul spent his last hours
7
Andrew

• Traditions have Andrew traveling to spread the
  gospel to Scythia, Asia Minor, finally to
  Greece where he is reported to have been crucified

Scythia
8
Thomas, the doubter

• Thomas doubts did come to an end, he is
  reported to have preached the Gospel taught in
  the area east of Syria to India, his life ending
  in the Madras area of India

9
Philip

• Tradition tells us that Philip was instrumental
  in the salvation of the wife of the Roman
  proconsul in Heirapolis, who retaliated by having
  him cruelly put to death

10
Matthew

• Matthew, author of the gospel by his name,
  also called Levi, is said to have preached the
  gospel in Parthia to have been killed with
  wooden stakes in Ethiopia

11
Bartholomew

• Bartholomew is credited
  with spreading the gospel in India, Armenia,
  Arabia Ethiopia
• Accounts of his death vary,
  Armenia being one of the locations

12
James, the son of Alpheus

• James - one of a few in the New
  Testament went to Syria,
  is reported by Josephus to have been both
  stoned clubbed to death

13
Simon the Zealot

• Simon, noted in Scripture for his part in the
  Zealots, is said to have been killed in Parthia
  for refusing to sacrifice to the Parthians sun
  god

14
Matthias

• Matthias is not mentioned either before or after
  his selection in Acts 1, but is said to have gone
  with Andrew also with Matthew to Ethiopia, but
  burned to death

15
John

• The apostle John, as far as we know, is the only
  apostle to have died a natural death, but even
  that seems to have been by
  a miracle he reportedly survived
  boiling in oil

• Tradition says that he cared for Jesus mother
  Mary, who is last mentioned in the New Testament
  in Acts 1

Theater at Ephesus
16
John

• John is said to have spent his last years in
  Ephesus, except for a time of exile on the
  island of Patmos under the reign of Emperor
  Domitian