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Samaritans and the Jews had led to bloodshed at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The news which reached Claudius was probably exaggerated, and he became
apprehensive lest the Jews living in Rome might be led on to some act of treason. He
therefore issued a decree that all the Jews should be expelled. This is probably the
expulsion referred to by Suetonius, Claud. 25:
"Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma exhulit."
"The Jews, who were constantly making disturbances, Chrestus being the mover, be
banished from Rome."
Chrestianus is found in Tertull. Ahol c 3, and Chrestum in Lactant. Instit. 4: 7,
which would suggest that Chrestus here means "Christ". As we have seen, the expulsion
was overruled to bring about the association of Paul with Aquila and Priscilla.
Claudius abolished the laws of impiety, and forbade his subjects to offer him sacrifice
or any other form of worship. It was during the thirteen years of his reign, that the
Christian faith had time to spread.
We have rather exceeded the space we intended for an article of this series, and we
will therefore leave the narrative here, trusting that the historical points dealt with will be
of service to all students of the New Testament who read these pages.
#5.
Nero, the Monster. (II Tim. 4: 17).
pp. 85 - 87
On the death of Messalina, the infamous wife of Claudius, Pallas, one of his freedmen,
strenuously advocated the claims of Agrippina. Agrippina was the younger sister of
Caligula, the widow of Domitus Ahenobarbus and mother of Nero. She became the wife
of her uncle Claudius, and persuaded him to pass over his son Britannicus in favour of
her own son Nero. When this was accomplished, she poisoned Claudius and set Nero
upon the throne. She was finally murdered by the very son for whom she had committed
so much evil. Such was the beginning of Nero's reign; and it was before this monster of
cruelty and vanity that Paul had to stand his trial. Nero's parents were conspicuously vile
even in their day. His father Ahenobarbus declared that with himself as father and
Agrippina as mother "a monster only could be born". And a monster he became.
Four years after his adoption by Claudius, Nero succeeded to the throne.
"At the commencement of his reign his conduct excited great hopes in the Romans;
he appeared just, liberal, affable, polished, complaisant, and king; but this was a mask
which hid the most depraved mind that ever disgraced a human being."
Among the tutors of the young Nero was one of high repute, the philosopher Seneca.
There are letters extant that purport to have been written by Paul and Seneca to each