WE SHOULD STOP TAKING IT FOR GRANTED THAT CHRISTIANS INNOCENT OF ATTACKS AGAINST IMPERIAL RESIDENCES

Tacitus the historian wrote that the emperor used Christians as scapegoats for grave crimes and mass murders. What about later?

Men acting on the orders of Galerius set fire to the Nicomedia palace and caused extensive damage and loss of life. We are told in tradition that this was blamed on Christians and “the very name of Christian grew odious all because of that arson attack.” It was stated that the Christians were collaborating with eunuchs, that is courtiers, to murder the emperors and for that reason two emperors had escaped barely with their lives when their residences were set alight.

To this what can we say? It was never proven that the Christians were innocent. There were plenty of subversive and secretive groups to blame. And the uselessness of the would-be assassins does point to ordinary people, perhaps Christians. And no sect had scriptures demonising and cursing the Roman Emperor. Read the Book of Revelation.

Some wonder if the Jews or some of them expected two messiahs. One idea was the Bar-Enash the Son of Man who magically removes evil from the world. The Messiah ben David was another version which was expected to be more militant. Jesus claimed to be both and that the apocalypse was nigh. Those concepts would invigorate some to carry out such violence in Rome.

While the Bible predicts that the world will perish by fire this does not rule out people not just God being the cause of this incineration.   The Christians may have hoped to start the apocalypse.  They could tell themselves it was going to happen anyway so there was no sin in it.