177 AD 64 mentions the Fire in Rome. The writer of that article, Dr. Barbara Thiering, made some very interesting arguments for the authenticity of these letters between Paul and Seneca, which must be objectively evaluated, since almost all modern scholars consider these letters to be spurious. However, even if spurious, they might still contain tidbits of truth which were preserved by the third or fourth century writer who created them. Their supposed third century origin alone makes them valuable for study. It at least tells us what the third century Christians believed about these things. Here are a few excerpts from Thiering’s article: The belief that Christianity came to Rome only through the lowest social classes, not working its way up until the time of Constantine, has been responsible for overlooking one of the most vital historical documents of all. The correspondence between Paul and the famous Stoic philosopher Seneca was preserved in the early church, accepted as genuine by the scholarly church fathers Jerome and Augustine, but categorically rejected as spurious by modern critics. Ernst Bickel believed that it originated in the 3rd century: “This correspondence presents a mythical expression of the historical process of fusion which came about in Italy...of Christianity on the one hand and, on the other, the ancient culture of the rhetoricians.” Seneca, in Jerome’s words, was “the teacher of Nero and the most influential man of that time.” The letters, some of them with exact dates expressed in terms of the consuls actually in office, sound natural, without any defensiveness such as would be expected if they were forgeries. They are written in just the way an open-minded intellectual of the period would write if he had taken an interest in a new religion from a foreign source being presented as another philosophy. If, as the pesher of Acts indicates, Paul was a member of the court of Agrippa II , then he was of sufficient social standing to meet and converse with the eminent philosopher. The later letters show that Seneca was protecting Paul and the Christians from the venom of Nero in the period leading up to the great fire of 64 AD. This accords with the fact that Seneca, who had been tutor of the young Nero, had lost the favour of the capricious emperor, who ordered him to commit suicide, an order he had to obey with the courage of a Stoic in 65 AD. The letters begin at the outset of Nero’s reign at the end of 54 AD. ...[The last letter of Seneca to Paul is dated] AD 64, in which Seneca begins: “Can you possibly think that I am not distressed and grieved that capital punishment is still visited upon you innocent persons? As also that all the people are convinced of your cruelty and criminal malignity, believing that all evil in the city is owing to you”. [Barbara Thiering, “The Correspondence between Paul and Seneca,” June 2005] Found here on 12/16/2014 http://www.peshertechnique.infinitesoulutions.com/The_Other_Gospels/Paul_and_ Seneca.html The Early Christian Writings website has an introductory article about it at the following weblink: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/paulseneca.html Full online text of the correspondence can be found at: http://wesley.nnu.edu/index.php?id=2220 The print version of it can be found in The Apocryphal New Testament by M. R. James, translator and editor. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. First edition 1924. Reprinted numerous times. Aug 64 – Was Josephus involved in the plot to kill Christians?
Josephus was still in Rome at the time of the great fire (July 64) and during the persecution of Christians afterwards, yet he does not say a word about either of those two events. Later Christian writers have suggested that the Jews in Rome convinced Nero to blame the fire on
