In July of 64 AD, a fire broke out in Rome and burned for six days. It destroyed ten of the fourteen districts of the city. Nero, who was at Antium when the fire began, returned to Rome and organized relief efforts. But rumours spread that he had ordered the fire himself. To deflect suspicion, he blamed the Christians.
Tacitus records what happened next. The Christians were torn by dogs, nailed to crosses, and burned as torches in the imperial gardens to light the night. Nero opened his own gardens for the spectacle and drove around in a chariot, dressed as a charioteer, while the Christians died.
Peter and Paul
Among the dead were Peter and Paul. 1 Clement, written from Rome to Corinth around 96 AD, records that they were martyred “in our own generation.” Paul was beheaded, as a Roman citizen. Peter, tradition says, was crucified.
The deaths of the two chief apostles within a few years of each other, in the capital of the empire, under the same emperor, are among the most important facts of the first century. They are documented in multiple independent sources, including 1 Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Eusebius. They mark the end of the apostolic age.
The Jewish War and the Fall of Jerusalem
In 70 AD, the Roman army under Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. The Jewish revolt that had begun in 66 AD ended with the city in ruins and the Temple burned. For Christians, the destruction confirmed what Jesus had predicted: that the age of the Temple was over. For the church, it meant that the centre of gravity shifted decisively to the Gentile world.
The destruction of the Temple also marked the definitive separation of Christianity from Judaism. The two traditions had been growing apart for decades. After 70 AD, the separation was complete.
Ignatius of Antioch
Around 108 AD, Ignatius of Antioch, the bishop of the city where the disciples were first called Christians, was arrested and sent to Rome to be executed. On the way, he wrote seven letters to churches — Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, and to Polycarp. In the letter to the Romans, he begs them not to intervene:
Ignatius on his impending death
“I am writing to all the churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God’s sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beseech you, do not do me an unseasonable kindness. Suffer me to be eaten by the beasts, through whom I can reach God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread of Christ.”
Ignatius, Romans 4–5
Polycarp
And then, in the city of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, in the year 155 — or perhaps 166 — an old man named Polycarp was arrested. He had been a disciple of the apostle John. He was the bishop of Smyrna. He was eighty-six years old.
The proconsul gave him a choice. Sacrifice to the genius of Caesar, and go free. Say three words — Caesar is Lord — and live. Polycarp refused.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
“Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9
The Martyrdom of Polycarp is the earliest reliable account of a Christian martyrdom after the apostolic age. Its date is debated between 155 and 166 AD, but the core of the narrative is accepted by historians as authentic.
They threatened him with wild beasts. He did not flinch. They threatened him with fire. He told them that the fire that burns for an hour will be quenched, but that the fire of judgment to come is eternal. The crowd called for a lion, but the games were over. They gathered wood and built the pyre.
And when the fire was lit, the writer of the Martyrdom of Polycarp records that his face was filled with grace and confidence, and that the smell of the smoke was like the smell of bread baking or of gold refined in a furnace.
The proconsul gives him a choice. Sacrifice to the genius of Caesar, and go free. Say three words — Caesar is Lord — and live.
Polycarp refuses.
The proconsul presses him. “Swear, and I will release you. Revile Christ.”
Polycarp answers: “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Why This Waypoint Matters
The chain that began in the upper room ended at a stake in Asia Minor. The same confidence that filled the eleven when they first saw the risen Christ filled an eighty-six-year-old man as he died. The story does not end because the men who told it died. It ends because the men who told it would not stop telling it.
