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JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

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148. This Historians’ History of World (VI:184f & 323f) on the History of the Early<br />

Roman Empire, also further states: “Brought up in a corrupt court, in the midst of his mother’s<br />

guilty intrigues, Nero soon saw himself surrounded by flatterers apt at eulogising all his follies<br />

and excusing all his crimes.... He [Emperor Nero] carried off Poppaea Sabina from her<br />

husband Otho. Poppaea’s ambition found an obstacle in [Nero’s wife] Octavia, and one even<br />

stronger in [Nero’s mother] Agrippina....<br />

149. “We may...presume to imagine some probable cause which could direct the<br />

cruelty of Nero against the Christians of Rome, whose obscurity as well as innocence should<br />

have shielded them from his indignation and even from his notice. <strong>The</strong> Jews, who were<br />

numerous in the capital and oppressed in their own country, were a much fitter object for the<br />

suspicions of the Emperor and of the people. Not did it seem unlikely that a vanquished<br />

nation who already discovered their abhorrence of the Roman yoke might have recourse to the<br />

most atrocious means of gratifying their implacable revenge.<br />

150. “But the Jews possessed very powerful advocates in the palace, and even in the<br />

heart of the tyrant - his wife and mistress the beautiful Poppaea, and a favourite player of the<br />

race of Abraham [Aliturius] who had already employed their intercession on behalf of the<br />

obnoxious people. In their room, it was necessary to offer some other victims. And it might<br />

easily be suggested that although the genuine followers of Moses [viz. the Judaists] were<br />

innocent of the fire of Rome - there had arisen among them a new and pernicious sect of<br />

Galilaeans which was capable of the most horrid crimes.<br />

151. “Under the appellation of ‘Galilaeans’ two distinctions of men were confounded,<br />

the most opposite to each other in their manners and principles - the [Christian] disciples who<br />

had embraced the faith of Jesus of Nazareth [in Galilee, cf. Isaiah 9:1-7 and Luke 2:4 & 2:39],<br />

and the zealots who had followed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite [cf. Acts 5:37]. <strong>The</strong><br />

former were the friends, the latter were the enemies - of humankind. And the only<br />

resemblance between them, consisted in the same inflexible constancy which in the defence of<br />

their cause rendered them insensible of death and tortures.<br />

152. “<strong>The</strong> followers of Judas [the false-messiah of Galilee mentioned in Acts 5:37],<br />

who impelled their countrymen into rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem.<br />

Whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated name of Christians, diffused themselves<br />

over the Roman Empire. How natural was it for Tacitus, in the time of Hadrian, to<br />

appropriate to the Christians the guilt and the sufferings which he might with far greater truth<br />

and justice have attributed to a sect [viz. that of Judas the Galilaean] whose odious memory<br />

was almost extinguished!....<br />

153. “Thus the massacre of the year 64.... In the opinion of the Pagans, there remained<br />

a stain on the Christians. <strong>The</strong>ir name came out of the darkness.... It remained linked with a<br />

great public disaster - and perhaps with a terrible crime, in which authority [viz. the Nero and<br />

his Judaistic Empress Poppaea Sabina] had pretended to trace their influence!”<br />

154. Thus, Pagan Romans and Anti-Christian Judaists stood together against the<br />

Christians. “Pilate and Herod were made friends together.... Before, they were at enmity<br />

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