There are two traditions about the death of Peter. One, during 64 when Nero was using Christians as party torches, the other around 67 AD, a year before the death of Nero.
Every time I try to chase down support for the 64 date, I end up with nothing.
Consider http://carrington-arts.com/cliff/Nero.htm which reviews about 24 writers and none of them mention Nero’s fire of 64, much less Christians and never anything about Peter and Paul during that time.
The detail of the fire and related persecution is found in Tacitus 15:44:
[15.44] Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing was to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the Sibylline books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first, in the Capitol, then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women. But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.
My read from this is that this 64 persecution of Christians was brief and arbitrary and then stopped. Yet in 2 Timothy 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:13-15 both Paul and Peter gave the impression that they are in jail, awaiting some sort of trial. This seems much different than the situation described by the historian Tacitus in 64 AD.
Thus for now, I think the death of Peter and Paul are best seen as 67 and not 64, and thus the dates of 2 Tim and 1, 2 Peter should be around 66 and 67 and not earlier.#GreekBible#KoineGreek#BibleHistory#1Peter#New Testament Greek
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