JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

and the Semitic.... The demand for union with the Empire, raised after the death of Herod,
had proceeded from the Jews themselves.... We cannot lay all the blame on the Romans; their
rule secured the peace of the World.... But we mourn for Greece, and we may be permitted to
mourn for Judea. Nor must we cast a stone at this small and fiery nation, with its obstinate
will to live....
141. “In spite of the Roman occupation, the Jewish theocracy found means for
tyrannical action. The high priests seized upon the tithes due to the [lesser] priests.... There
were fights in the streets; and the Roman Government looked on passively, not wishing to
meddle with religious matters. They were Agrippa’s affair [Acts 25:13 to 26:27], since the
appointment of the high priests had been left to him.... He had built a tower, from the height
of which the inner court of the temple could be scanned.
142. “The priests regarded this as a profanation, and built a high wall shutting off both
the palace and the barracks of the Roman guard. Agrippa and Festus wished to demolish it
but, thanks to the support of the Empress Poppaea, who was a Jewess..., the priests gained
permission from Nero that the wall should remain....
143. “At Rome, the preaching of Christianity had begun in the reign of Claudius.... It
stirred up incessant quarrels among the Jews, which led to the disturbance of public order.
The Emperor had them all expelled from the city [Acts 18:2]. Suetonius [The Twelve
Caesars 5:10,17,21,25] ascribes these scenes of disorder - to ‘Christ’....
144. “The Christians were confounded with the Jews. The distinction [between
Christians and Judaists in the eyes of Rome], first began to be made under Nero. ‘They put to
the torture,’ says Suetonius [ ib. 6:16,18,24], “the ‘Christians’ - a sort of men holding a new
and noxious superstition’....
145. “It seems as though the Christians must have been safe in their obscurity from the
Emperor’s notice - if it had not been directed to them by some special influence. Gibbon
appears to believe that the beautiful Poppaea, the mistress and wife of Nero, and a Jewish
comedian [Aliturius] who had won his master’s favour, prevented the persecution from
spreading to all Jews at Rome - by concentrating it on a dissenting sect in very evil odour with
genuine Israelites.” Cf. Acts 12:1-2 & 13:44-50 & 17:5-7 & 18:2 & 19:8f & 19:33f & 21:27f
& 22:19f & 23:10-14 & 24:27 & 25:2f & 28:17-29 and First Thessalonians 2:14-16 and
Revelation 2:9 & 3:9.
146. “Renan goes farther, and thinks that the persecution directed against the
Christians may have been excited by the intrigues of the Jews. He bases his opinion upon
a...passage in Clemens Romanus.... As Renan has demonstrated by a wealth of evidence, the
Apocalypse was a direct outcome of this persecution....
147. “In Judea, the temper of the nation had long given warning of approaching revolt.
It broke out at length when Gessius Florus was appointed Procurator through the influence of
his wife who was a friend of Poppaea’s. His vexatious measures and rapacity wore out the
patience of the Jews. On this point, Tacitus is at one with Josephus.”
- 26 -